Best looking cartridge?

[ave]

I do agree. That is one of the coolest licensed game cartridges. It seems like it has held up well too. I'd seen them many times before and it is always striking.

Yeah, the longer I look at it the more I like it :P It's also a cool thing to show around when people don't know about games and I want to make them see why I'm fascinated by them. Or in other words, if you must show stuff from your collection to a girl, show her this cartridge. :p

It's also nice that unlike some gold carts or Neo Geo, this one is really cheap. $2 can get you a loose one.

[AleffCorrea]

Show Salamander -- make girls go crazy lol

I also love the simplicity of those HuCards...

[Yakumo]

Personally I think the Super Famicom and N64 carts look very dull.

Here's a few pictures I took today of Hard Off's junk game corner to help you guys decide.

Mega Drive - Nice and colourful. Big images.


N64 - They maybe tough but look so dull.


SFC - I like them more than N64 but they're still a little dull. Miles better than the shit blocks that the US have though.


Famicom - Oh, the colours, just look at all the lovely colours!!


Famicom - Not only colours but also many shapes. to be fair though, the Mega Drive also had 4 different shapes from the shit EA carts (Same as the western ones), Taito with round corners and the cool block type from Sunsoft.


Yakumo

[johnace]

@Yakumo, how much do lose famicom carts sell for there? I'm thinking of starting a collection......maybe you could be my broker xD

[Yakumo]

it all depends upon what you want. Real crap stuff is about 100 yen. Good stuff will still be in the thousands.

[AleffCorrea]

I just hate famicom carts right now, I never had any knowlegde or interest on these carts, and I have less interest now seeing those pictures. What the hell, they look like pirate carts with those varying shapes and bright orange/pink colors... why not have a standard cartrigde, without all those color/shape variants?

[graciano1337]

oh man... LOVE those MegaDrive carts...

[Calpis]

Mega Drive, primarily for their big labels with consistently good style. They also have the nicest boxes/cases. The downsides are that smooth ABS may have hairline scratches/swirling defects and they generally can't be opened without damaging the label. MD carts have a pretty nice insertion thump. Genesis have the advantage of being super easy to open, but they don't have that cool shape or nice labels.

Famicom are a close second also due to their great label artwork and I do enjoy the case variety. Their main downside is that they're very hard to open without damaging the plastic. Some of the shapes I'm not crazy about either like Konami carts.

HuCards are a neat gimmick, but the connector is horrible, I don't like the black textured part that covers the ROM, and they get MASSIVE insertion wear. TG-16 art is also horrific. They should have went with vertically-loading mini-cartridges like the PCE clones support. Maybe then we'd have seen 3rd party carts and more/better HuCard titles later into the system's life. The CD really killed the HuCard.

I don't really get the AES cart love, I like their shape but they feel really cheap for how much they cost; the labels are small and poorly printed and the plastic has this thin spots making it seem especially fragile, plus there are bits that are prone to break off, and are very easy to damage when opening, not only the plastic but the label too. And they rattle even without broken plastic pieces inside. The only props I can give are to the PCB goldfingers on particularly the early carts, they are very long and beautifully shiny-gold plated and make a very satisfying insertion sound. They're also pretty good against scratches, but the plastic cases are not.

SFC carts, meh. I agree they look better than SNES carts (though I might be the only person here who likes the US SNES design) and have pretty good artwork (largely just the stylized game titles...), but no wraparound label in 1990 is just dumb. The plastic is also prone to yellowing and other weird discolorations. The upside is that they're pretty easy to open and difficult to scratch.

[ave]

@Yakumo, how much do lose famicom carts sell for there? I'm thinking of starting a collection......maybe you could be my broker xD

Don't buy loose carts, at least I wouldn't. Famicom games usually came with bonuses such as posters/cards, lovely instructions (at least the games 1987+), beautiful box-arts and other stuff. I think you really miss out on the experience if you go for loose carts because of the price only! :)

But if yes, then buy giant bundles on Yahoo. Gems often go by undiscovered so you can make a lot more good deals on loose carts by buying those bundles than if you have someone buy them separately.

[Rogue]

For me the N64 Game Paks are the cutest.

The Saturn cartridges are cute, too. They are a bit delicate. Looks like they evolved from the 32X cartridges.

I like the Game Boy Color ones too.

Anything older is ugly.

The japanese SNES cartridges are the ugliest. I don't know how you guys look at those and think about "looks"...

[la-li-lu-le-lo]

It seems like people are focusing a lot on what cartridges look like from the side. What about how they look from the front and back?





By the way, this cart is basically mint. It's also different to see a cart on the internet and to actually hold it in your hands. I don't think SFC carts are my favorite, mainly because I only own one. But they're damn pretty. I like Genesis and 32X carts for nostalgic reasons.

[fasman]

1 Famicom , even though we only ever got famiclone cartridges, the early ones looked identical to the originals.

2 Game Boy Cartridges

3 Mega Drive Carts (Pal)

Edit: Baring in mind I never had a large enough collection to actually need to display the games.

[DarthCloud]

Same thing for some SFC or N64 games. Cartridge size is for being future proof. Check game like Yoshi's Island on SFC/SNES or RE2 on N64. The cartridge is full.

I took apart an American SNES cart the other day (Donkey Kong Country) and found that the board itself only took up about 1/3rd of the case. The rest is just plastic. It could have easily fit in a Genesis case.

[anime4ever]

I like any cart that has an actual end label so that I can easly store them on my shelf and see what the hell they are.

[johnace]

I've always liked Atari lynx carts but my all time favourite has to be snes pal carts just because they hold the fondest memory's, I also vaguely remember having a game system when I was about 5 (1987ish) and I had a game that was on a triangle cart.....can't remember the system though :(

[ZooSteel]

Another vote for Hu Cards.

They just seemed so revolutionary due to their sublime size. They also fit in CD jewel-style cases which made for easy storage. And perhaps the coolest thing of all: the card would work in both the console and portable system. Something that I don't believe has ever been done before or since.

The box art on the other hand...

[la-li-lu-le-lo]

And perhaps the coolest thing of all: the card would work in both the console and portable system. Something that I don't believe has ever been done before or since.

Erm... Sega Nomad?

[ZooSteel]

Ahem... indeed, forgot about that.

[Yamato]

Sega Cards for the Master System. With their lovely, yet extremely crappy art.
Also, Codemasters carts for Megadrive (with built-in multitap) and Master System ones.

[SuperGrafx]

I personally love the look and size of the PC Engine / TG16 Hucards.
Runner up are the Atari 2600 carts. Simple and appealing.