Video Game Storage 4: Portable Organizers
I thought I was done with Video Game Storage Part 3, but I was wrong. Only recently did it occur to me that I completely overlooked one of my absolute favorite organizing sets: Portable! When I check a thrift store I often check the backpacks and purses or handbags, as the thrift store employees aren’t always too bright, to see if they’ve slipped in a small video game storage bag.
Even though I have no immediate use for them I still love to pick them up. I find it hard to pass up a good deal on one, even if I already have 10 of them. A while back I even did an article with some tips on how to clean them, which doesn’t always work, but usually makes them look a lot better than they did in the thrift store.
Sega Game Gear Carrying Case
This is one of my favorite carrying cases, this case holds the Sega Game Gear, rechargeable battery pack, the DC power adapter, the official screen magnifier and up to 12 games, and whatever else you can toss into the cracks. On the front and the back there are pockets to store paper work or whatever cables or doodads you want to toss in there. My main complaint with this bag is finding one with the insert still intact; I personally own 3 of these bags and only 1 had an insert that I could keep and use. You may remember that I did an article where I repurposed one of these bags to hold my Sega Saturn and its component parts. A very useful bag, just have a little imagination if the insert is trashed.
Nintendo Game Boy Shaped Carry Case
I found this sitting in a flea market for $1, and later that day two very generous guys let me take the matching Game Boy Color they had found while shopping at the outlet store. I’ve always wanted to collect the large, Game Boy shaped, hard plastic cases, but these are becoming harder and harder to find, in any condition! The layout inside this one is a removeable tray with room for some Game Boy/GBC games in two slots at the top, misc. room for batteries, cables or a few additional games in the middle and the Game Boy Color fits snuggly within a cradle above that. I wish I could find more of these, just to have them for each color Game Boy Color I own.
Nylon Game Boy Carry Bags with Plastic Insert
I find these almost everywhere I go and they come in 2 outward variations, although I can’t find the insert variation no matter how hard I try. One states that it is for the Nintendo Game Boy and uses the older logo, while the other says Game Boy Color, which makes it unmistakably for the Game Boy Color. The problem being that no matter what I can’t find one that fits the original DMG, even though I’ve seen a few (literally 2 or 3) online that prove they were manufactured. The inside of these are the exact same tray as the Game Boy shaped cases above, but these are simply black to match the padded nylon bag. The back of the bag has a zip up pocket for manuals or whatever else you want to slide in there, but the strap sewn to either side really gets on my nerves, as I don’t find it useful nor can it be removed. A couple of the ones I’ve found have chipped or cracked inserts, but they still remain sturdy, coupled with the excellently padded bag these are my favorite carry cases for the Game Boy Color.
Personally Modified Version of Above
As I mentioned in the last sentence above some of the inserts were chipped or cracked, so I took one of the worst off and modified it for my own needs. I originally attempted to make it fit a DMG Game Boy, which doesn’t fit well enough for me to feel comfortable zipping it shut. I later discovered that my Game Genie for Game Boy fits almost perfectly, or at least well enough to take up residence within. So now this case will hold my Game Boy Game Genie, the games and cables.
Padded Nylon Carry Bags
Made of the same material as the carrying cases above, these bags are padded nylon that come in a few variations as well. There is the Game Boy Color logo, old Game Boy logo and I have a yellow and purple Pikachu version, but there are many other versions as well. This time there is no hard plastic insert to dictate what goes inside, simply a pocket on the side that will allow for the DMG, Game Boy Pocket/Light or the Game Boy Color, making these bags much more versatile. There is another pocket at the top that will allow for a few game cartridges (4 in hard cases, maybe 6 loose), with another pocket on the back for manuals, cables, extra batteries, etc. I find these quite often, all but the Pokemon themed ones, and I find them very useful, although they don’t hold enough games.
Non-padded Nylon Carry Bags
These are bags that I own but I do not use, as they’re not padded. I know, I know! The Game Boy is rugged and can take a few falls, trust me I tested its tolerance many times when I was younger. The material these bags are made of is a little softer than that of the padded bags, without any padding. Maybe these are canvas (?), I’m not a fabric/material guy so I couldn’t tell you what this material is, honestly. I do know that I wanted to add them to my collection even if I don’t use them. They’re constructed the exact same as the padded nylon bags, but again these don’t have any padding in them.
Miscellaneous Nylon Carry Bags
The one on the left doesn’t really seem to offer much space for anything other than 6 or so Game Boy cartridges, but it may hold a Game Boy Color system, I haven’t checked. The one on the right does hold a Game Boy Color system and was something that I had seen online and wanted pretty badly, until I got my hands on one. The idea is to protect the GBC and allow the user to play it while it remains in the protective storage, this isn’t exactly ideal and quickly become apparent that its much easier to take the thing out of the case and just use the case for storage.
Game System Padded Carry Case
This is a generic case that is much like the nylon padded carry cases, except this one fits the original Game Boy and quite a few other accessories. While running mine through the washer the torque twisted the foam on the top, leaving it in a huge wet mass. As it dried I could somewhat get it back into place, but it will never be the exact same again. Regardless the hard plastic seems a little more brittle than the official nylon carry cases and the material and padding are substantially thinner as well. Admittedly I staged the open image below to show how things would fit in, if I weren’t using it to store my misfit Game Boy Advance accessories.
Game Boy Carry Case
I believe these to be the officially licensed versions of the above, albeit much worse. I picked up a pair of these throughout my hunting and used to store my Game Boy inside one, with a handful of batteries, games and some manuals. I started to notice that when I would pull it back out everything inside was covered in a black dust, even if the top was zipped shut. The inside liner was covered in a black fur that seemed to be coming loose and the other didn’t have the fur, so I switched everything over to that one, when I kept noticing the same problem! It didn’t take long to realize the foam from the top was pouring down onto the contents within (see last pic below). Needless to say I can’t use them, but they are Game Boy storage, so I guess I should at least give them an honorable mention.
Game Boy Fanny Pack (Bum bag to our friends across the pond)
One of my very first storage solutions was the black and neon pink fanny pack my mom bought me with my original Game Boy, all those years ago. I believe I also had it up until I sold the whole lot of Game Boy stuff. Even though its fashionable side has long since been shot dead I really wish I still had my original or could find another in decent condition.
Play it Loud Packaging Case
Right up until I sold my black Play it Loud Game Boy, years ago, I remember keeping the clear plastic case that it came in right from the factory. I thought it was genius as it allowed for tons of extra batteries, plenty of cartridge and cable storage and the system was intended to fit in from the start! I wish I had kept that Game Boy, hell I even wish I could just find another one of those cases somewhere.
Retro Rechargeables
Like many vintage gaming fans, my first portable system was the Nintendo Game Boy. What I didn’t realize at the time was just how power hungry the little thing was, like a portable video game dictator. As the frequency of “Mom (or Dad), I need batteries for my Game Boy!” reached a fevered pitch, my mother bought me a rechargeable battery pack, which took forever to charge and only last as long as it took for me to get to a level boss.
As an adult I try not to pass them up when (more like if) I find them in a thrift store; I often say I would rather loathe owning something than regret not owning it when presented with the chance, if its cheap enough that is. In a previous article I showed off the SGRL system that I picked up simply based on its similar shape to the Game Boy Color battery cover, which turned out well in my favor. Shortly after I found another, this time just the battery pack and along the way I’ve found a handful of other retro rechargeables. For the most part many of them won’t hold a charge, as I assume the batteries have long since lost their ability to do so, but just having them around as relics of bygone technology and little piece of video gaming lore is something I find thoroughly enjoyable!
Nintendo Game Boy Rechargeable Battery Pack
I never had one of these when I originally had my Game Boy, mine was Doc’s brand and fit into the battery compartment from what I recall, but this is quite the nifty little battery pack. This was the official deal, licensed by Nintendo and sold off to all the kids who wanted power on the go. The cable has quite a bit of length on it and the pack itself has a clip, so the user can clip it into their belt and walk around aimlessly (perhaps into traffic), all while keeping their eyes on that Game Boy game. This didn’t require any strange power supplies either, it was a fairly standard direct DC cable used by most smaller home stereos at the time. Just plug it up and wait 8 hours, play until the battery runs out and do it all over again, what joy! Sadly due to the size of the plug this will only work on the original DMG Game Boys.
Power Pak Color by Performance
This one requires a standard Game Boy Pocket/Color (or even GBA) power adapter, so recharging it shouldn’t be too difficult as long as you have one of those lying around. Despite being bulky and uncomfortable while in use, the Power Pak color has 2 unique features that make me wish it were totally useful. Firstly the Power Pak Color has a charge viewing window at the bottom (much like the Energizer batteries in the 90s with the little charge meter on the side), often times it doesn’t work or the button gets stuck, but only after a short charge it fills up completely and all too quickly goes dead, rendering this feature pretty useless. Secondly, and what I find most excitingly, is a clever little storage space on the back for the Game Boy Color’s real battery cover, which would have nowhere else to go if it wasn’t for this little space. Due to its size and shape this will only work on the Game Boy Color.
SGRL Battery Pack and Charging Dock
I thought long and hard about adding this to the list and figured I may as well go ahead, even though I’ve already gone over it briefly. The SGRL is by far the most comfortable rechargeable battery pack I currently own for the Game Boy Color, sadly neither of them will hold a charge. The product gives no hint whatsoever as to what its for, other than the shape in both the charging dock and the battery pack itself. The charging dock uses the same power adapter as the Game Boy Pocket/Color, but there is not other way to charge the battery pack without the dock, sadly. This too is shapes strictly for the Game Boy Color and will not work on any other system.
Sega Game Gear Battery Pack
This one came bundled (I mean Goodwill packing taped) together with a Sega Game Gear I picked up a few years ago. Since I find the Game Gear a bit of a handful anyway, I didn’t really need to use the battery pack and stashed it away thinking I would never need it. As time went by the curiosity of whether or not the thing even worked set it, so I pulled it out and gave it a good charge. This pack uses the same power adapter as the Genesis 2 (MK-2103), so I just plugged it up and left it to charge. After a few hours I checked if there was any progress at all and no, there wasn’t any life coming out of this thing at all. If the unit worked I assume it may very well power the Genesis 2 or 3, since it has the same end as the MK-2103, which would be a little silly but fun nonetheless!
There are many other rechargeable systems created for vintage gaming portables that I don’t currently own, but if I manage to find a new one I’ll be sure to give it a quick review. I’ve passed up many along the way because I know they either won’t work or won’t hold a charge, like the ones I currently have, but I’ve regretted passing them up later down the road.
An easy way to test if the circuits in a retro rechargeable are working properly is to plug the battery in, as if to recharge it, and attach it to the system, then turn the system on. This should work as a simple pass-thru and power the system, but this only shows that the circuit is working properly and does not give any indication of whether or not the battery will hold a charge. Remember that these batteries often required 8 hours or more to charge fully and even as a brand new product (citing the Nintendo manual for the officially licensed battery pack) the battery will slowly discharge whether in use or not.
With advancements in modern technology its much easier to grab a handful of modern rechargeable AA or AAA batteries and just go to town until you’re fingers go numb, then charge them up over night. But I still find it fascinating to look back and see where that technology has come from. It was a long struggle to get where we are, and someday we will look back at today’s technology and scoff just the same, but just remember it was once brand new.
Game Boy Screen Magnifiers
After my last article I decided to pull out all of my screen magnifiers and give them a run through, to see if they were truly as horrible as I remember them being. Now I’m not knocking their ability to magnify the screen, I’m actually complaining about their wildly varying and not so useful attempts to light up the Game Boy screen. No matter how well they do magnify the screen, they simply can’t add enough light, or do it in a proper manner, to make the screen look good in the dark.
To start this off right I will state at this point every single one of the four magnifiers I currently own have had to be repaired. The two Performance brand magnifiers were easy fixes as they used extremely cheap wires that snapped, but left me enough wire to do a quick resolder. The Light Boy, however is quite well built, inside and out, but the manner in which they used to transfer power needed a good steel wool rub down. The High Frequency for the Game Boy Color needs a complete rewiring, as it suffers from the same problem as the Performance brand, yet they didn’t give me enough wire to just strip and resolder.
Another issue that these magnifiers suffer from is quite visible in the High Frequency below, scratches! Over the years these things gather scratches as if it were dust, but for the most part they don’t bother me as much as scratches on the Game Boy (or in this case Game Boy Color) screen itself. The High Frequency magnifier does a good enough job, but as I stated above it still needs repaired, so I can’t critique its lighting system. But I will say that it only requires two AAA batteries, making it light and comfortable to use with the Game Boy Color.
Next up is the cheapest of my two Performance brand magnifiers and even after repairs this thing doesn’t work right. This poor thing screams super cheap, starting with the way they branded their name on the front and finishing with the junk wires and switch inside. Again the screen magnifier does well but the LEDS are fairly dim, when they decide to actually work. Powered by two AA batteries, which are often hard to insert or remove, this one balances well on the Game Boy.
Now this one has been mine since its purchase; I remember opening it on Christmas morning with my Game Boy and quickly shoving it aside. The lens of this one is noticeably bigger than all the rest and the LEDs give off a decent amount of light. Again, powered by two AA batteries this one also balances quite well, my favorite of them all.
And finally we reach the officially licensed Light Boy, from Vic Tokai. This one was a bit of a pain to get working, but it didn’t require any soldering as this unit doesn’t even have wires. “But how does it work without wires? SORCERY!!”. No, the real answer is that they used a clever series of copper strips connected in such a way that it made an electrical circuit. The issue there is that over time the copper strips had oxidized and turned green, but the real issue was popping this thing open when it was secured from the inside like a Famicom cartridge!
After painstakingly popping the unit open and giving all the key points a good steel wool scrubbing, I slapped in the batteries and it came to life. The magnifier, again, works as to be expected and the LEDs aren’t very bright, but my main issue is with the H.R. Giger’s Alien look to the unit. Unlike the other 3 magnifiers this one has the batteries (again two AA) hanging off the back of the Game Boy, throwing the balance of the whole system off. Its only a minor complaint while actually playing, but if you need to sit the Game Boy down it never looks comfortable.
So there you have it, my quick review of the screen magnifiers I own. All of them do a good job of magnifying the screen, but none of them do an adequate job of lighting the screen, atleast not to my liking. If you need a screen magnifier I would suggest any you can find, with minimal scratches of course. If you’re in need of a decent way to light your screen while also using a screen magnifier you may want to track down a NUBY Game Light Plus, or modify your Game Boy with a backlight kit.
NUBY Game Light for Nintendo Game Boy
For the past 6 months or so I’ve had a neat little peripheral sitting in a drawer that I wanted to use so bad, but due to the state of corrosion on the battery contacts I packed it away and never really bothered with it. The overall condition wasn’t bad so when I saw it at the outlet store I tossed it in my bag anyway; whats the harm in buying a vintage gaming peripheral even if it may never work again? That peripheral is the NUBY Game Light, a neat little device that slides on to your original DMG-001 and lights up the screen so you can play in the dark.
When I originally found it I popped it open to make sure there were no batteries left inside, if I’m paying by weight I’m not paying for old, corroded batteries too! The corrosion didn’t alarm me until I got home, to have a deeper look inside the unit itself to see exactly what was going on and to map out how to fix it. All of the contacts were covered in a thick blue and rust colored layer of corrosion, so I reluctantly just packed it away in favor of doing something easier.
Oh boy, thats not going to be an easy fix, or is it?
I put the NUBY on one of my DMGs that doesn’t have a screen protector, hoping that the Game Light would keep anything that would do the screen harm far enough away. So every time I opened up that drawer to grab my working Game Boy, there it was, staring me in the face, almost begging for help. After a while of seeing it, and wondering what it did exactlty, I decided I would take on the challenge to clean the contacts, but how?
I did some research online as to what would remove corrosion from battery contacts, the most popular result was to use vinegar but I didn’t have any handy. After a quick rethink I went to the old standard way of cleaning and polishing small metal parts, STEEL WOOL! The steel wool polished up the contacts on the door quite well, which turned out to be brass, but the contacts deep inside the Game Light were a bit harder to reach.
Well that explains a lot!
The poor man’s ingenuity kicked in! I grabbed a pair of needle-nose pliers and grasped a small chunk of steel wool in the end. After giving all four of the inner contacts a good rubbing, or as good as I could get, they turned out ok.
Not perfect, but it will do.
After all the contacts were cleaned I checked inside to see which way the batteries went, when the sheer excess of the NUBY Game Light hit me. This thing takes four AA batteries, thats the exact same required to power the DMG-001! Four AA batteries to power 2 LEDs compared to the same to power everything needed to have a complete handheld gaming experience in your hands, it didn’t make sense. But these were the 90s, when technology wasn’t as sharp as it is now, so I will let it slide.
Four AA batteries in the same hole at the same time? No comment!
After popping in the thirsty beast’s battery requirements I slide it on to my Game Boy and flipped the switch, success! The LEDs are very bright and since they are in direct contact with the screen, as opposed to the LEDs in a magnifying unit that are so far away from the screen they barely do any good, the NUBY Game Light actually brightens up the screen pretty well. I was pleasantly surprised with the results to say the least.
2 ridges coincide with channels on the front and top of the DMG shell, holding it firmly in place.
With advances in modern technology, and the modification community, many people are using custom backlight/frontlight kits for their old DMG Game Boys. Admittedly I would love to have a backlit DMG, but I don’t want to modify any of my Game Boys, perhaps I’m too much of a purist in that sense. Over the years I’ve owned many of those hokey magnifier units that only slightly brighten the screen, but thats never been good enough. With the NUBY Game Light I can see much better, although its far from perfect, especially with its battery requirements, but it does a lot better than any alternative I’ve tried.
Shine on you crazy Game Boy!
Whats that?
Shopping at the Goodwill Outlet store I have to contend with a lot of resellers, who ignorantly hope to strike it rich with the vintage games I go there to find. Yesterday I happened to find something that made me realize one of the most vital tactics a hunter can use is their ability to know what you’re looking for, no matter how hard that may be sometimes. Not everything is branded, for one reason or another, and you sometimes take visual cues as to what the item is for, but yesterday I had very little to go on and I had to make a call that turned out quite good in my favor.
To some the item shown above may look like nothing at all, while others may get it right away. Perhaps most of you are like myself and are currently scratching your heads telling yourself how this looks familiar, but you just can’t place the shape, or what it has to do with vintage gaming at all. Well I will remedy any and all curiosity, below.
What only says SGRL is actually a Nintendo Game Boy Color rechargeable battery pack. Even on the power supply for the charging base there is nothing at all written about what this item does or what it is for. I did however use the voltage to spur on my hopes that it was what it turned out to be.
If you saw this item sitting alone in a thrift store would you have picked it up on a whim? This item was just one of many things I’ve picked up, hoping it was what my brain thought it was. However, this item was the most cryptic item I’ve ever had to decipher!
Vintage Gaming Cleaning Kits
In the days when cartridges ruled the world it seemed as if anyone and everyone put out a cleaning kit to keep your systems in working order. Which was a big selling point made all too easy by the NES and its, more often than not, ability to put on a light show rather than play a game. If there is one thing I believe about retro gaming, it has to be the fact that if you keep your systems and games clean they will last longer and give you much better functional results.
Although I now know the true cause of these glitches, I was still taken in by the cleaning kits propaganda when I was younger. They made promises to keep the blinking NES, or just a black screen on other systems, away forever! Almost every cartridge based video game system had some form of cleaning kit, and although most of the time it worked for just a short while, the fact that it worked at all made them feel like essential hardware.
My first cleaning kit was a Doc’s Fix-a-system, which had what I still feel is a genius idea in the clip on NES cleaner. You simply took any NES game cartridge, clipped the contraption to the front of it and you proceeded to stab the living daylights out of your NES. Doing so cleared unwanted dirt and gave way to a few more minutes of uninterrupted gameplay.
I still love this idea, it still works great!
After that cleaning kit was lost or broken, I’m sure, I purchased a Player’s Edge NES cleaning kit. This one was a stand alone unit with a handle, and everything you needed fit conveniently inside the unit itself. Again you just took the unit and stabbed the living daylights out of your NES and you were good to play for a little while longer.
Years of use on this thing, does it show?
That would be the last cleaning kit I bought for nearly 14 years, until one day at a Salvation Army store I found a Player’s Edge cleaning kit for the SNES. Later, at another Salvation Army, I found an incomplete Doc’s 2000 kit, which brought back a flood of memories of the good old days. Sadly the NES clip was broken, but I decided to take what was left of it and turn it into a cleaning kit inside of an old Gyromite cartridge I had laying around. (Original article: Here)
Same system, only one fits perfectly into the NES so I can shut the lid.
It seems nowadays I go through thrift stores and find cleaning kits for almost every system, and if they’re at a reasonable price I’ll pick them up. Just this year I’ve accrued quite a few system cleaning kits, and although I may not use them I still pick them up when I can.
My current collection of boxed cleaning kits.
As an adult, I know the best way to keep my systems running is to clean both the games and the systems. But it seems a good Q-tip with rubbing alcohol thoroughly rubbed through a game keeps all my systems running well. Admittedly I have had some hiccups with my Sega Genesis, N64 and SNES, but nothing a good game cleaning hasn’t remedied, so far!
Back in the day cleaning kits were pushed in our faces, and as time went on they faded away. I still get nostalgic for cleaning kits and make room for them in my collection. Though they serve no practical purpose to me, as I’ve learned far better ways to keep my systems running, they still connect me to a time when video games were problematic, but so much fun.
Sam’s Scores 11
Personally I feel as though Sam’s Scores has hit a crossroad. I want to continue bringing you cool finds, yet I rarely hunt anywhere other than the Goodwill outlet store. Although I do find a lot of cool stuff there, I feel a bit strange marking prices as per pound. I’ll do my best to keep the series going, but hunting anywhere other than the Goodwill Outlet store usually leaves me empty handed. Please bear with me in my continuation with the series and please let me know what you think. Enjoy!
4) N64 Gameshark
I was out at a normal Goodwill store when a glistening N64 Gameshark caught my eye. I picked it up and checked the price, it was oddly cheap so I decided to buy it. After doing some research online, promptly after walking out of the store, I learned that version 3.3 Gamesharks, which this one is, commonly brick and become unusable. I hoped that wasn’t the case and indeed, it wasn’t! The Gameshark worked flawlessly, until I bricked it myself changing the keycode. No worries, apparently this can easily be resolved by plugging in the correct game that corresponds to the keycode I changed it to. At least I hope! Either way it was cheap enough to keep even if its shot.
3) Nintendo Gameboy
I’ve been collecting for a few years now and I’ve never run across an original Gameboy that I wanted to buy. They were all trashed beyond repair and overpriced! After finding tons of stuff at the Goodwill Outlet, I decided I could hold out, in hopes of finding one there. I prevailed in doing just that, although the system was extremely dirty, missing the battery cover and the contrast adjustment is broken. I still feel that it was worth holding out to find one, because it cleaned up really nice!
2) Nintendo Gameboy
No, this isn’t an error, this is yet another Gameboy that I happened to find in a flea market. If you examine the pics closely, you’ll notice some discoloration in the screen protector for this one, as if it were super glued back into place. It was cheap enough that I figured I could use the guts and battery cover to repair my other one, if needed. This one however worked perfectly, with the exception of missing columns which is common for these original Gameboys, after time. Now I feel as though I can repair both Gameboys and have 2 for way cheaper than any of the ones I had seen before.
1) Nintendo Gameboy Pocket
Another Gameboy, but this one fits in my pocket! Yes, the Gameboy Pocket! I already own the silver one without a power LED, so when I saw this one I needed to own it as well. I’ll be honest, this and the previous Gameboy came together in a bag, so for half the price I’ve seen them bashed up in thrift stores or flea markets, I now have 2 decent Gameboys. This one works perfectly, but having a GBA SP and the Gamecube Gameboy Player, I’ll probably pick those over pulling this thing out.
