Which box design do you like best?

[3Dchris]

Hi All! I'm new to the forums and this is my first post!

Just wondering what Genesis box style people like best? This is for the games, not the console. I personally like the original style with the black background and the grey grid lines. I'm not a big fan of the red and grey stripes that were used later on in production. I think they should have kept the original design throughout the entire lineup of games. It would be nice to see all the box designs like this as it would show some consistency and would look nice on my shelf!!

Any thoughts?

[GeckoYamori]

I don't get why Sega of America decided to go red. This carried on over to the Dreamcast swirl. I mean, the logo is still blue, so it kind of creates inconsistencies.

[3Dchris]

I forgot to mention the other box style!! It's the red binding with the darker red stripes. It has large text on the front thast says "GENESIS". It looks like this:

http://poplegacy.planets.gamespy.com/images/PoP1/BoxArt/SegaGenesis.jpg:roll:

[Boopop]

Megadrive boxes ownz0rz your genesis drivel :P

[3Dchris]

are you talking about the newer megadrive boxes or the old classic style? If you can, put up a pic so I can see how much i'm being ownd!

[Elusive]

I don't get why Sega of America decided to go red. This carried on over to the Dreamcast swirl. I mean, the logo is still blue, so it kind of creates inconsistencies.

I think orange is the Japanese 'luck' colour, so it's a Japanese import. That's also why the console's LED is orange too.

Sadly some German company has used an orange swirl for years, so Sega of Europe used a blue swirl. It's a tasteful replacement - perhaps the next best thing, making it SEGA-blue - but the power LED stayed orange for some reason.

As for box art - I like Japanese boxes, as they're all (or mostly) wraparound, professional art covering all the available space. I also like the later-revision Mega Drive boxes, with the blue sidebar. Why on earth did SoA go red & cardboard? Red is for Nintendo!

The grid design looks 'retro-futuristic', and I like that too - sadly, you also get the not-so-good Western art, wasting a lot of space.

They're all pretty cool, in different ways :)

[Drixxel]

There's a thread much like this one somewhere.. I shall hunt it down like the prized gallbladder of the rarest elk.

http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread.php?t=619

The classic black boxes with isometric grid are tops in my opinion. The occasionally pug ugly American artwork just adds to the charm! Of the black style, I'd say the original was the best.. the less dense grid with the bit of overhang at the bottom of the coverart for the game's logo.

[3Dchris]

Didn't realize that there was another thread. I'm new to the forums. I wholly agree with the old school style box design. I JUST got in Thunder Force II from eBay and DAMN does it look nice :cool: I'm all about the old school "future look" with the pin stripes. I don't really mind the art at all. I kinda like most of it. Anime style art is good in its own right, but not all the time ;)

[Zebbe]

I like both the black old design and the later blue Mega Drive design. But they should have had one of them only, now that both are there I need to divide my collection shelf into one blue and one black section.

And yes, the red cardboard Genesis boxes are the ugliest.

[Genesis Knight]

Technically I like the blue Mega Drive best, but since I'm a Genesis owner I'd have to pick the red barbershop style over the grid. Those boring grey lines are not space age enough for my VISUALSHOCK Genesis!

[Raijin Z]

I really don't care, as long as they're in the plastic cases, and still have their eyes attached.

Actually, looking at my wall... I prefer the original black insert design.

[Obviously]

I always thought the red striped spine was awesome when I was a kid. Made the games look more dangerous or something.

[Joe Redifer]

Cardboard means cheap. As I've said before, I figured Sega was ready to go bankrupt when they switched over to cardboard. Why else would they purposely send out a message saying "Look how cheap and cheesey we've become!" I'm surprised the cartridges themselves weren't made out of cardboard. I really wish Melf would have asked Kilanske about this move.

[Raijin Z]

Apparently you don't remember the griping about plastic packaging being chucked into landfills. Sega was catching flack because every other company that produced cartridges was packing them in biodegradeable material.

So Sega put all their games in paperboard boxes, and instead of using foam in the system packaging, used pulp forms.

[16-bit]

I liked the original black grid style the best, the red ones wheren't bad, but I like the other ones better.

[Genesis Knight]

Apparently you don't remember the griping about plastic packaging being chucked into landfills.

Which wouldn't have been a problem but for all the boneheads who tossed their boxes and manuals after they got the games. Morons...

[Mr Smith]

Which wouldn't have been a problem but for all the boneheads who tossed their boxes and manuals after they got the games. Morons...

I can't believe there were people out there who were stupid enough to do that.

The original black is the best box design. I never liked the Genesis red, so it's a good job I'm English.

[David J.]

I like the black with the gray/silver grid.

I hope to get boxes for my loose games that have those color boxes. Well, it's not a concern, but it looks cool. I dunno...

[TidalTempest]

I liked the original grid on black design of the boxes better than the lame blue with light blue dots that came out for the Mega Drive from 1993 onwards. And don't get me started about the cheap-arse cardboard cases... I think the red stripe on the Genesis cases is much more striking and stands out, even if it's just as lame from as design point-of-view.

The original silver and black stylized MEGA DRIVE logo was awesome. Then Sega went and gave us the lame-arse text-only logo. Gee, how attractive....not.

[Seldane]

I like the later European design (blue). Here's an example of that:

http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/2269/181bzx2.jpg

[108 Stars]

I think all of the designs are okay, but I do prefer the black boxes after all.
The metallic Mega Drive logo looked better than the US Genesis-logo too.
But the name Genesis sounds better to me thn Genesis.

[Seldane]

But the name Genesis sounds better to me thn Genesis.

:?: :p

Joking aside, I prefer the name Mega Drive, although I think both names are pretty weird, and not very good either.

[Genesisdoes]

the name "mega drive" sounds to similar to Super Nintendo. I like genesis but maybe thats because im from america.

[Nazza]

I like Mega Drive better, partly because of bias and partly because whenever Genesis is mentioned on a non-gaming forum I think of the band.

[Mr Smith]

Surely all of this topic is clouded by bias?
Americans perfer the term Genesis and the red box colour while us Europeans like the words Mega Drive and the blue colours. Obviously this doesn't apply to those who like the original black.

[Elusive]

Surely all of this topic is clouded by bias?
Americans perfer the term Genesis and the red box colour while us Europeans like the words Mega Drive and the blue colours. Obviously this doesn't apply to those who like the original black.

Who said we have to agree on the best? All people have done so far is explain why they prefer box style x over y. Come on, I don't think we're at the point we can get fanboyistic about flipping box art styles. :D

[Mr Smith]

Who said we have to agree on the best? All people have done so far is explain why they prefer box style x over y. Come on, I don't think we're at the point we can get fanboyistic about flipping box art styles. :D

I never said we had to agree, what I'm saying is there seems to be a bias towards whichever design was grown up with. I'm not complaining, just observing.

[David J.]

I like the black box the best.

[ThunderForce]

I found the black box to be very disorganize (don't ask).

I perfer the Japanese boxes because they look so nice that you can hang them on a wall!.

[Keranu]

I prefer the original like 3Dchris; black with grey grid lines. Has anyone ever noticed that the games for Master System by Activision (well at least Cyborg Hunter) also uses the black background with grey gridlines, like the original Genesis boxes? Do you think Sega noticed that and thought it would be cool to use for their Genesis boxes or was it just a coincidence by taking the normal grid design of Master System boxes and changing their color? I assume it's just a coincidence, but it's interesting.

[Joe Redifer]

Cyborg Hunter and Bomber Raid have cool boxes. I think it probably is a coincidence, though.

One thing I definitely do NOT like about PAL SMS and Mega Drive games is the instruction manual. They are horizontal (bleh), which makes them a tad awkward and contain about 1,000 different languages. I bet the box needs to be thicker than the US and Japanese game boxes just to accomodate the manuals. The back of the box also contains many languages, each shortened to the most simple paragraph possible due to lack of space. Everyone should just speak English or Japanese. Preferably English. I don't recall giving my permission for the world to have more languages than that.

[Nazza]

The languages on the back of the box taught me half the German I know. :P

The original black box design is cool, but I always liked the blue Mega Drive on the side of the box with the dots.

[Elusive]

Cyborg Hunter and Bomber Raid have cool boxes. I think it probably is a coincidence, though.

One thing I definitely do NOT like about PAL SMS and Mega Drive games is the instruction manual. They are horizontal (bleh), which makes them a tad awkward and contain about 1,000 different languages. I bet the box needs to be thicker than the US and Japanese game boxes just to accomodate the manuals. The back of the box also contains many languages, each shortened to the most simple paragraph possible due to lack of space. Everyone should just speak English or Japanese. Preferably English. I don't recall giving my permission for the world to have more languages than that.

If we all spoke Esperanto the world would be a happier place.

I think the only time PAL areas got different physical box designs than the US was the Mega-CD (double CD cases - a couple like Chuck rock and Ecco 1 got the US box), the Saturn (early DVD cases, great cardboard & plastic design) and the Dreamcast (double CD cases again, so you can have a CD in the top tray and the thick manual and a second CD in the bottom tray).

[Black_Tiger]

I dislike the red and cardboard boxes and like the original style cases. I prefer the earlier japanese Megadrive cases with as little system branding as possible. I also love the jp MD's little symbols for features, like genre, back-up, etc.

[Seldane]

Everyone should just speak English or Japanese. Preferably English. I don't recall giving my permission for the world to have more languages than that.

Why do you allow Japanese? If any language should be banned it should be Japanese. Unnecessarily complicated and makes games unplayable. Ban Japanese today! :ban:

[Joe Redifer]

OK sounds good to me.

[HBK]

I like X-Men's personally. The NHL series were good as well.

[Daria]

I like the box style that renovation used. Standard clamshell cases, but their artwork wraped entirely around the box. Each game looks unique, but they still look great displayed together.

[16-bit]

I can't believe there were people out there who were stupid enough to do that.

The original black is the best box design. I never liked the Genesis red, so it's a good job I'm English.
Yeah, I liked the Stripes for the MegaDrive better than the Red Stripe for the Genesis.

[3Dchris]

Its too bad that Sega decided to go with the cardboard box designs in the early CD days. My copies of Blackhole Assault and Wonder Dog are looking a little tattered :( It's also too bad that they decided to go with HUGE cases for north america! Damn, they are big!