The GBA DS Cover Project (discussion & links)

[quote name='Snowcone'][quote name='StealthySeal']damnit... i really need to figure out how to print these :( mine always come out too big... or too small.... or cut off or something else terrible![/quote]

Print them from Photoshop or Gimp if you don't have it and they come out just fine. You will need paper larger than 8.5x11[/quote]

I need to get some more paper. The paper I have is 8.5x11. I printed a few and they came out too small. I used Photoshop.
 
[quote name='Tricky'][quote name='Snowcone'][quote name='StealthySeal']damnit... i really need to figure out how to print these :( mine always come out too big... or too small.... or cut off or something else terrible![/quote]

Print them from Photoshop or Gimp if you don't have it and they come out just fine. You will need paper larger than 8.5x11[/quote]

I need to get some more paper. The paper I have is 8.5x11. I printed a few and they came out too small. I used Photoshop.[/quote]

I believe they will get scaled down to fit the media if your paper is not long enough.
 
What paper would be optimal for this? It's been said that you need paper thats longer than 8.5 x 11, but do they make photo/glossy paper longer than 8.5 x 11? Should you even use photo/glossy paper?

(I would link to an optimal paper on the frontpage Snowcone, or put it in the printing FAQ)
 
I am working on a full blown printing FAQ. I am testing different types of paper to see what gives me the best results first hand.
 
Hey there, been following this great thread and have proceeded to print out and prepare several DS boxes. Thanks for everybodys hard work!

Regarding printing out on 8 1/2 x 11", this is how I did it:

I'm using your typical HP photo paper, standard size. Using Photoshop, you can ALMOST get the entire image on there. However, the printer (using a standard HP inkjet, a Deskjet 895) would hiccup near the end and cut off a portion. I remedied this by using a bit of creative engineering:

I taped a piece of paper on the back of the photo paper to lengthen the 8 1/2 x 11" to legal size. Now my printer has something to grab to feed the photo paper all the way through. Now I can print all of the image. The only shortfall is I get an occasional streak where the printer starts to grab the filler paper, resulting in an okay and passable print, but noticable nontheless.

Of the 10 cases I made I have two that I may want to revist later, and try again. Still, they look great.

Hope that helps!

Oh, and I would really like a cover for Car Battler Joe and Phantasy Star Collection. I have both boxes, but I have no access to a scanner!

Keep up the great work!
 
I would like to further suggest that your particular style of printer will definitely have an impact on how these things print. For example, many photo printers (such as my R300) allow you to "print to edge" or do "borderless prints." If your printer has these options, play around with them in your preferences menu; that's how I've been doing it.

And yes, Photoshop/Gimp is definitely the best way to go!
 
[quote name='Kin Korn Karn']Hey there, been following this great thread and have proceeded to print out and prepare several DS boxes. Thanks for everybodys hard work!

Regarding printing out on 8 1/2 x 11", this is how I did it:

I'm using your typical HP photo paper, standard size. Using Photoshop, you can ALMOST get the entire image on there. However, the printer (using a standard HP inkjet, a Deskjet 895) would hiccup near the end and cut off a portion. I remedied this by using a bit of creative engineering:

I taped a piece of paper on the back of the photo paper to lengthen the 8 1/2 x 11" to legal size. Now my printer has something to grab to feed the photo paper all the way through. Now I can print all of the image. The only shortfall is I get an occasional streak where the printer starts to grab the filler paper, resulting in an okay and passable print, but noticable nontheless.

Of the 10 cases I made I have two that I may want to revist later, and try again. Still, they look great.

Hope that helps!

Oh, and I would really like a cover for Car Battler Joe and Phantasy Star Collection. I have both boxes, but I have no access to a scanner!

Keep up the great work![/quote]

Your forum handle is probably the greatest one I have seen in a long long time. Long live Star Man and and the Flying Cross Chop aka The Flying Hotdog.
 
[quote name='Snowcone']

Your forum handle is probably the greatest one I have seen in a long long time. Long live Star Man and and the Flying Cross Chop aka The Flying Hotdog.[/quote]

Heh, thanks. I get that alot, especially at my regular board and at gamefaqs. A winner is me!
 
So, here are my finished cases:

DSGBA1.jpg
 
[quote name='Kin Korn Karn']I wonder if someone would be able to use these for Car Battler Joe?

Front and back.[/quote]

That is gonna press it and we would need the spine to it as well.
 
First, let me say that I really like these forums, and kudos to all of you and your hard work! I'll try to scan some of my game boxes sometime soon to help out.

Because I don't have Photoshop on my computer, I decided to use the free picture program IrfanView (www.irfanview.com). I managed to print the cover to Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga on one 8.5" x 11" page, no problem. However, the cover was a tad small compared to Kin Korn Karn's picture of the same cover. I'll detail the settings I used in a moment, but essentially, the cover was pretty much the right hight, meeting the top and bottom edge of the plastic case cover. The left and right sides seemed short, as they didn't meet the edge of the two tab slots on the edge of the case. I used a paper cutting tool of my wife's to make sure I trimmed everything down to the bare edge, so I'm sure I didn't cut more paper than I had to.

I compared the actual cover details in a zoomed picture on my monitor with the printed page, and everything looks proper and the correct ratios. Perhaps one of you can check my settings in IrfanView and see if we can find a happy medium, eh? :D

Here are the steps I used to print out my cover on one sheet:

1) Download IrfanView from IrfanView. It's a very small download, and is a neat little program in its own right. Install the program and feel free to leave the file associations blank during the installation.

2) After installing the IrfanView, start the program and open up your picture from the File menu. Click on File again, then click on Print.

3) I left the setting for Print Size at "Original Size" ("Best Fit To Page" ended up giving me a slightly smaller print), but I made sure to select Landscape for the paper orientation. Click on Printer Setup, check to see that Landscape is also selected in the following popup window (it should be automatic), and then check to see if the paper size is correct (8.5" x 11").

4) Click on Properties if you want to change the print quality, otherwise, click on OK. After that, click on Print.

I still got good results, so I guess I can't complain. Still, I want the maximum area covered inside the case if possible. The only other detail I can think of is that the Print popup said "Resulting image size on paper: 26.5 x 11.6cm; 10.4 x 4.6 inches". Does that seem like the proper size for the resulting printout? Did everyone's cover reach most of the way around their cases?

Thanks in advance for everyone's help. Keep up the good work!
 
[quote name='NeoGutsman']
3) I left the setting for Print Size at "Original Size" ("Best Fit To Page" ended up giving me a slightly smaller print),[/quote]

I think that is your problem, perhaps. I tried that setting (Photoshop, but I'm sure it produces the same result no matter the program) and it fit nicely on the standard sheet, but it was indeed just a touch smaller than the desired size.

IMO, print limitations are a product of the printer and/or paper, and not so much the program you are using to print from. It's different for everybody, but I got past my limitations only by tricking my printer into thinking it had legal sized photopaper. Perhaps you may want to give that a shot?
 
I think you're right. I thought IrfanView would be a good solution, but yeah, there are issues with scaling as with all the other attempts with 8.5" x 11" paper listed in this topic thread.

I'm going to grab some legal paper from work today and see if the picture prints slightly larger. Thanks for the insight!
 
A new forumer on my site did up a nice template for GBA Videos. I got the spine logo and template uploaded to the resources area.

gbavideopokemonvol1_thumb.jpg
 
Any chance someone is working on Ultimate Brain Games or Ultimate Card Games? They're the only ones that I'm missing to be able to do my whole collection...
 
[quote name='n8littlefield']Any chance someone is working on Ultimate Brain Games or Ultimate Card Games? They're the only ones that I'm missing to be able to do my whole collection...[/quote]

Not that I know of. There is a case request thread on my forums. If you are interested you can mail me your boxes so I can scan them in and get them built.
 
Would anyone be willing to print / cut some of these up for me ( 20 to be exact ) ? I lack a good printer. I could pay you for your time and effort or if you see something in my tradelist. Anyone interested Pm.
 
Post a list of the covers you need. I am sure someone would be able to do it. I may be able to do it for you after hours at work. I will think about it.
 
[quote name='Snowcone']Post a list of the covers you need. I am sure someone would be able to do it. I may be able to do it for you after hours at work. I will think about it.[/quote]

Alright, here's the list:

Advance wars 2
Castlevania COM
Castlevania AOS
Castlevania HOD
Contra
FF: Dawn of souls
Golden Sun
Golden Sun 2
Guilty Gear
Lunar Legends
Mario and Luigi SS
Metal Slug
Metroid Hunters
Omnimusha Tactics
Pinball of the Dead
Sword of Mana
Tactics ogre
Zelda: Minish cap
Lost Vikings
Virtua Tennis
 
Why limit this just to Gameboy Advance cartridges?

warioquadrilogyinside1ff.gif



Took less than five minutes with an exacto type knife once I decided on how to go about it. What's also cool is that by just taking out the bottom part of the GBA slot you're able to store Boktai and Boktai 2: Solar Boy Django almost perfectly.

Even with the knife, I was able to do this without damaging the slip cover/outside of the case at all beyond a rough edge on the back here or there that seems unavoidable at the moment. I'm going to try to streamline the process as time goes on to get a neater cut overall so that the cartridge fits in more snugly.


If there's interest I'll do scans of each phase of cutting it with instructions.

So now Pokemon Pinball, Gator Pinball, and Perfect Dark are the only major games left out of this?

warioquadrilogyspine9gr.jpg


I'm such a dork.
 
You have to remove the bottom of the GBA slot, and then take out the upper clips fo the DS cartridge slot as well as the raised "containment area."

You remove a little less than half of it and the GB/GBC cartridge will fit in just fine. Except you also have to either shave off the raised area in the middle of the DS cartridge containment area or alternately (like I did) you can basically cut a rectangular whole in the DS case after clearing out the clips.

You can not bother with those extra steps, but then the cartridge will be raised up towards the center of the DS case and won't really fit as well.

This way gravity holds the cartridge in place pretty much perfectly on the raised areas (the large raised area on the left and the embossment in the center) and the GBA slot slides keep it secure.
 
[quote name='moe11888']Thats a nice GB Color logo Neo Rasa. Did you make that yourself?[/quote]

What I did was take the GBA spine logo some awesome person on I think Snackbar-Games contributed, got rid of the "ADANCE," then just typed out "COLOR" and sized it as best I could. If you look online you can get a Gamecube font that's basically the GBA logo font when capitalized.

If you go to http://www.snackbar-games.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8045 I started a thread about this and someone made a GBC logo that's in color. The word color on it is scanned off of an actual GBC and then brightened.

I was definitely going to use that on anything I printed but it's kind of hard to decide. :D
 
I really like that color GBC logo from my forums. I am want to have you do a step by step faq for storing GB and GBC games so we can expand this a lil bit.
 
Hi there. I started printing out these cases and they look very nice. Except...

I use the "taping-two-piece-of-paper-together" trick, and I think I've got it down to a science. Only problem is that the right edge of the cover suffers from degradation (namely an odd white line and some "slippage")....

Anyone else encountering this problem or a similar one?
 
Do you have a 2nd printer you can try? I would expect it is either the printer or the paper that is taped to the back is slipping. Just my guess.
 
I bought some 11x17 inch photo paper at Office Depot. I cut the paper to 8.5 x17. I set my printer to 8.5x14. I cut them out and they fit perfectly. I tried taping two pages together like one of the forumers said, but I could not get it to work right.
 
uploading Rock and Roll Racing right now. anyone have a scan of phantasy star collection? thats the last one I need :)

[EDIT] Ok I'm getting some sort of an error? it's in .jpg format is there something else I'm missing?[/EDIT]
 
hey can someone give me a quick rundown of how to print one from snackbar i clicked on the high res image link should i print it from there? Also what type of paper should i use? glossy pic paper? thanx for any help
 
[quote name='cag1000']hey can someone give me a quick rundown of how to print one from snackbar i clicked on the high res image link should i print it from there? Also what type of paper should i use? glossy pic paper? thanx for any help[/quote]

Do not print it from IE. IE ignores dpi and will print it at a retarded size. Use Photoshop, Gimp, or even MS Photo Editor and people have had varying results with different types of paper. I suggest you check out the Printing Guide here as well as a few of the other printing threads here and here.
 
[quote name='punqsux']quick question, why are these not just in pdf format to solve all printing problems?[/quote]

1. I am not so sure that would solve all printing problems
2. Very few people have access to the tools to create these and even less have access to tools to create PDFs
 
[quote name='Snowcone'][quote name='punqsux']quick question, why are these not just in pdf format to solve all printing problems?[/quote]

1. I am not so sure that would solve all printing problems
2. Very few people have access to the tools to create these and even less have access to tools to create PDFs[/quote]

3. Not to be a dick, but if these people can't figure out how to print these covers correctly as regular .jpg files, i doubt that throwing .pdf 's into the mix would make it any easier on them....
 
I just uploaded Bubble Bobble.

Also, I have a new idea - I'm gonna try to get on it this week. Remember those old GB/GBC small clear cart cases? They only came with the original GB games before the big N got cheap and started leaving them out. Well, now they are available online at the Nintendo store (i was ordering yet another round of GBA/DS cases when I saw them), so I ordered 10 of them. I'm gonna try to make 'covers' for these cases with a format similar to a CD jewel case - with a front cover and then a 'tray' card for the back/spine.

Y'see, i really don't want to go to all the trouble of cutting down those slots in the DS cases, and also - I really have fond memories of those pocket-sized cases. Hell, it might look like shit, but i just gotta try...only problems i see are: 1)no room for the manual (i don't mind that one), and also 2) finding box scans for these might be a bit harder - but at lease there won't be a s much detail to worry about.

I'll try to post a couple first-attempts at this in the next day or two, and see how they work...
 
[quote name='organicow']I just uploaded Bubble Bobble.

Also, I have a new idea - I'm gonna try to get on it this week. Remember those old GB/GBC small clear cart cases? They only came with the original GB games before the big N got cheap and started leaving them out. Well, now they are available online at the Nintendo store (i was ordering yet another round of GBA/DS cases when I saw them), so I ordered 10 of them. I'm gonna try to make 'covers' for these cases with a format similar to a CD jewel case - with a front cover and then a 'tray' card for the back/spine.

Y'see, i really don't want to go to all the trouble of cutting down those slots in the DS cases, and also - I really have fond memories of those pocket-sized cases. Hell, it might look like shit, but i just gotta try...only problems i see are: 1)no room for the manual (i don't mind that one), and also 2) finding box scans for these might be a bit harder - but at lease there won't be a s much detail to worry about.

I'll try to post a couple first-attempts at this in the next day or two, and see how they work...[/quote]

could you post a link to what youre talking about? it sounds intresting but ive got no clue what you mean
 
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