All these many years I have really taken for granted that my Sega Genesis and Sega Mega Drive games come with solid plastic cases. These cases (a.k.a. clam shells or or snap-cases) not only protected the games from damage but they also make them look great. NES and SNES games with their original cardboard boxes are often heavily damaged or just missing entirely. When we were kids and when these games were new we just didn’t care enough to preserve them.
Today there are options; some of which I explored previously with case protectors and bitboxes.

More recently I was really happy to find second-hand ‘Shockboxes’ (snap-cases) for my growing number of Neo Geo MVS cartridges.

Previously when I have purchased new Shockbox cases from Southtown-Homebrew each case with cover art ended up costing me about $15 CAD after the exchange rate and shipping costs from the USA. Admittedly they are expensive which is why I can’t buy as many as I’d like as often as I’d like too. So I was excited to find a bunch of them from a fellow collector. After buying these 18 used cases and having a local print shop print and cut the cover art I’m at about $10 per case. It’s a good chunk of change but still noticeably gentler on the wallet.

Beautifully Massive!

Genesis/Mega Drive next to Neo Geo MVS

Did I say there were big? ‘Cause they’re really big. Above you can see both an open and closed Shockbox to get an idea of how they open. They are very similar to Walt Disney VHS tape cases.
For fun I included ESWAT for the Japanese Sega Mega Drive so you can really see the difference between a true arcade video game cart and a typical home system cart. You’ll also see custom Mini Marquees for NAM-1975 and Samurai Shodown V that I made not too long ago.

Cover Art Inserts

Above is a giant pile of beautiful and freshly printed cover inserts for my newly aquired Southtown-Homebrew Big Bear Shockboxes. There are more here than I currently have Shockboxes for but I do have another 8 Shockboxes en route! Also purchased from another collector.

Shockboxes

And here is the finished product. I am glad I had the print shop trim the cover art inserts. I tried cutting two myself and I could get the job done but it was never perfect. It’s also a fair bit of work sliding these inserts into the cases. They are a very tight fit and it takes some time and patience to maneuver them right into the bottom and into the corners.

When I’m ready to buy more I will go back to southtown-homebrew.com. I’ve purchased many Shockboxes and inserts from them in the past and they always do a great job. If you’re in the USA and spending USD then shopping at southtown-homebrew.com is a no brainer. They offer awesome products paired up with excellent service. It’s really hard to find Shockboxes used and locally so I am very glad that southtown-homebrew.com constantly has stock.

The Sega Dude Highly recommends Southtown 😀

Shockboxes from southtown-homebrew.com
Neo Geo MVS Inserts from southtown-homebrew.com