Review: Long Box Jewel Cases for SegaCD/Saturn/PS1 from VGC Online

This one came out of left field, I think, for a lot of retro game collectors. Nobody had really set out to cover selling long box replacements before. Or if they had, maybe they had realized that putting forward that much of your own money without a Kickstarter was a massive undertaking. We had heard of LimitedRunGames talk about creating some, but I myself am still uncertain to when those are going to see the light of day. And maybe when they do, they’ll be more expensive, or they’ll be only for their own game releases and not for sale. In the meantime, we have a solution for you to read about. Let’s discover together these long box jewel replacements from VGC Online!

Unboxing and Walkthrough Video:

Pros:

As you may have seen in my video just now, this product has tons of great attributes to it. I’m going to try and not gush about it and really lay down what’s great about these cases. Now, what you may have noticed is right off the bat how well these are packaged. They come in a box that has space enough for extra packaging. So you’ll see that there is bubble wrap as soon as you open up the box. Inside of the bubble wrap is all ten of the cases.

Each one of those cases is individually wrapped inside of a thin layer of plastic. I don’t know what type of plastic it is, it doesn’t seem like cellophane, but I could be wrong. But the sole purpose of the wrap is to keep the individual boxes from rubbing against each other. This rubbing would otherwise yield micro scratches and then you’d be back to square one. Obviously, these are from an Amazon storefront, so you should be able to have it resolved. The main point I’m making is that you shouldn’t have shipping problems and all of the boxes will arrive in one piece.

Once you have them in your hands, it’s an otherworldly experience. These things feel like once you got home your copy of Wild Woody and took the packaging off and felt the plastic for the first time. While recording the video for the unboxing, I had to hold back my astonishment to stay on point. But nevertheless, I wouldn’t shut up about these to my girlfriend after I was done recording. I suddenly had this need to go out and find more games from my youth and save them by breathing new life into them.

Now when I say that I loved the feel of them, I don’t just mean holding a fresh one in my hands. I mean everything down to the texture of the grey disc tray piece was accurate. Feeling the ridges of the outside of the grey plastic piece (the spine) just felt incredibly accurate. And of course, the feeling of the clear plastic when it’s never been scratched or dusty is a feeling not many have felt.

I love how precise these boxes are in terms of proportions as well. The fact that I could slide in a manual from 20 something years ago and it just works is incredible. I did have my reservations about the back piece though. It’s always scary to separate those two back pieces. But what’s more is that I was uncertain if the back sheet was going to fit properly into the box. Was the sheet going to be too small and just fall to the bottom a bit? Was it not going to be wide enough?

I really didn’t know what would happen and was almost afraid of recording my results in fear that you would all hear my disappointment. But this box truly came through and everything fit like a charm! So hopefully you heard my happiness shine through in the video. I also like the fact that these are so accurate and modular that you can swap in your old gray piece from the original box.

And lastly, with regards to how they look on a shelf next to your other games… Don’t worry, they look damn splendid. In fact, once you have them put together, you should feel a lot more comfortable playing said games. My friends are always hesitant to take out a long box jewel case game because they feared hurting the box any further. But the fact that you’re an adult with these boxes is in your favor.

They’re brand new and you won’t put them through what children and teens of the ’90s put them through. They would get stuff spilt on them, stacked in piles, tossed around a bedroom, put in moving boxes with other heavy items, got cigarette burns on them, or just literally stepped on them if they were underneath dirty clothes (guilty as charged). No, you’ll take care of these and use them gently and put them back on the shelf properly.

Cons:

There are some downsides to this product. But don’t worry, we’ll get through them quickly as there aren’t very many of them. The first one may be the biggest issue of them all for some of our readers. The quantity of these is a bit of a concerning factor, I know. A lot of you out there don’t need to buy ten at a time. Or maybe cannot afford to buy ten at a time. This fact alone may keep you from buying any of these boxes in the first place. Especially if you aren’t someone who buys expensive Sega CD games and you just have your originals and want to spruce them up. I hear you and maybe in the future, there will be less than ten to a set.

Also, there is no Compact Disc logo inside on the gray disc tray. The fact that it omits them it probably a legal issue. The Compact Disc logo is presumably something that is trademarked and would require time, paperwork, and money to include in these boxes. And if that is the case, including it without permission would be breaking the law. I’m guessing that doing it the right way either would’ve delayed the release of them or at the very least made them more expensive. I’m just spitballing here, but I gather that I’m pretty close to the actual reason. The good thing is, as I mentioned above, is that they are modular. You can gladly snap your older gray disc tray into these newer jewel cases.

If you have a lot of long boxes that need to be replaced, this could become a pricey endeavor. However, if you have the money, just know that the time it takes to transfer stuff may be long. The process can be very daunting. I was white knuckling the entire swapping experience. These cases are so new and tight they’re terrifying to disassemble.

They’re snapped together so perfectly that you feel that if you pull too hard or too fast, you’re going to snap or crack something. I just recommend being slow and gentle and don’t have distracting sounds or lights around. I know it sounds crazy, but having a quiet room helps you hear if you’re putting stress on the plastic. And having an even lighting source helps you see what you’re doing. The plastic could reflect other random lights, thus stopping you from keeping an eye on the hinge. #STRESSFUL

Overall Thoughts:

First off, I need to clarify something. I may have said in the video that these products were $40 for 10 of them. To be clear, VGC Online does sell 10 packs for $40, but it’s to sell his original run products that were slightly different from the ones in the review. They had some minor issues, and if you’re okay with that, that’s great. I didn’t get those for review, so I can’t speak on them. But on Amazon, they have one star less than the one that I reviewed. The ones that I reviewed are actually 10 for $60. It is obviously a true bummer for some people that you can’t purchase less than 10 at a time, I know. So if you want less than 10, maybe find out if a friend or fellow local game collector may just want to go halfsies with you.

Other than that, yes, these things are fantastic and warrant a purchase from you. I do think that maybe the cost should come down to the 10 for $40 after they clear out all of the old ones. Or maybe even 10 for $50. However, if you’ve already spent a ton of money on these games in the first place, reboxing them with these long boxes may be worth it. They look great, they feel original, they snap together properly too. I couldn’t really find much reason not to get these. Additionally, there’s something fun about taking your old, grimy boxes and swapping them out with these new ones. It’s especially great that you no longer have to buy an old sports title and give the box to your Panzer Dragoon Saga.

But given that you’re spending this much money to breathe new life into your collection, I might make another suggestion. This goes mainly for those people who only collect games and do not play them. After getting these boxes, you should consider getting yourself some of the clear plastic protectors from here. We’ve reviewed the protectors from VideoGameBoxProtectors before and they’re great. The bottom line is that you’ve spent money to make this stuff back to its original glory, why not take it a little bit further? After time even these will not be new anymore and will scuff and get dirty. You should really think about improving them in the present and then protecting that investment for the future.

If you’d like to buy one of the newer revisions, click here.

If you’re just wanting to save money and are okay with some lesser quality with the older revision, click here.

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