Keith Courage game box...

Sparky · 03/21/2014, 07:21 AM

Hey guys, had a little time this week and here is where I am with the box for Keithy. I kept it simple like Bonks adventure so it blends in with the library, I think I may include a set of 4 stickers with it ( imagine that

)

Hope you guys are ok with it, if not I can change it up as I could customize it more but I don't think it's needed.
Hugs.

Oh, you think I should use the full title "Keith courage in alpha zones" on the spine and back?
See any goofs let me know.

Pricing:

I am looking into getting 50 to 100 professionally printed
Your looking about $6 to $10 a box and about $2 to ship.

They will be scored and die cut out on a 12 pt card, no folding and i will be adding my own glue/2sided tape.
Assembly will be done by the buyer (which is super easy to do and cheaper to ship flat)

let me know your thoughts on the prices as its cheaper in the end to do 100 but that is a hell of a lot of boxes i think, 50 seems good and i will be able to move.

If this goes well how about a professional reprint of the MC Box

esadajr · 03/21/2014, 07:36 AM

you sir never cease to amaze us. I think you should put the whole title on the back but kepp it short on the spine.

syphic · 03/21/2014, 08:28 AM

It looks great! Awesome work!

NecroPhile · 03/21/2014, 09:24 AM

Looks nice, Sparks! I'd expect it to have the dotted black border and Turbob seal of approval on the front, though, like most all early titles.

Sparky · 03/21/2014, 09:59 AM

Ya, good call NecroPhile on da seal.
Some boxes had the border but others did not like Bonks, i am easy i will see how it looks.

Thanks for the kind works but this stuff is pretty easy to put together, just following a template my friends

NecroPhile · 03/21/2014, 10:17 AM

I'm not trying to twist your arm (this version looks quite nice), but all launch titles had the black border and only one title (Sidearms) was borderless in the first year.

Either way - box sex!

LostFlunky · 03/21/2014, 10:31 AM

Quote from: guest on 03/21/2014, 10:17 AMI'm not trying to twist your arm (this version looks quite nice), but all launch titles had the black border and only one title (Sidearms) was borderless in the first year.

Either way - box sex!

I am at work (so I can't check), but didn't the early releases have a thinner, taller font on the spine as well?

LostFlunky · 03/21/2014, 10:33 AM

Quote from: guest on 03/21/2014, 07:21 AMHey guys, had a little time this week and here is where I am with the box for Keithy. I kept it simple like Bonks adventure so it blends in with the library, I think I may include a set of 4 stickers with it ( imagine that )

Hope you guys are ok with it, if not I can change it up as I could customize it more but I don't think it's needed.
Hugs.

Oh, you think I should use the full title "Keith courage in alpha zones" on the spine and back?
See any goofs let me know.

Nice work!

1 vote for "Keith Courage in the Alpha Zones" on the back. The name is just too hokey not to showcase it whenever you can...

Sparky · 03/21/2014, 02:21 PM

thanks Lost Monkey for the feed back and NecroPhile am i understanding you or am i new? as Bonks was an early release and it did not have a border... looky...

csgx1 · 03/21/2014, 02:48 PM

Very nice, awesome work!

I think Bonk's Adventure was release in 1990, which is a little after the first year release. I believe games like Legendary Axe, China Warrior, Dungeon Explorer, Military Madness were released in 1989.

Also, you might be able to fit the full title "Keith Courage in Alpha Zones" easier if the green is taken out from the sides and back like the earlier released games.

CrackTiger · 03/21/2014, 04:02 PM

Quote from: guest on 03/21/2014, 02:21 PMthanks Lost Monkey for the feed back and NecroPhile am i understanding you or am i new? as Bonks was an early release and it did not have a border... looky...

Bonk was released a long time after launch, as we experienced it bitd, and the transition to the new style of boxes was very noticeable.

That new style is the Turbo equivalent to the Genesis' red box makeover.

esteban · 03/21/2014, 04:34 PM

Quote from: guest on 03/21/2014, 07:21 AMHey guys, had a little time this week and here is where I am with the box for Keithy. I kept it simple like Bonks adventure so it blends in with the library, I think I may include a set of 4 stickers with it ( imagine that )

Hope you guys are ok with it, if not I can change it up as I could customize it more but I don't think it's needed.
Hugs.

Oh, you think I should use the full title "Keith courage in alpha zones" on the spine and back?
See any goofs let me know.

Gorgeous!

Two cents: I like the thought of an authentic box design (a la Legendary Axe), but the design posted above is still gorgeous.

Sparky · 03/21/2014, 04:46 PM

thanks guys <<blush>> i guess i am new

MotherGunner · 03/21/2014, 07:49 PM

Sign me up!

Phase · 03/21/2014, 08:37 PM

Looks nice, if you are going to stick with this box style a couple of things I noticed (but nothing big)
-Keith Courage is listed as being in the purple action genre in the Turbo Gear flier,
-The spine text seems a little large imo, I know it varies for different titles but many of the early full size picture box covers the spine text was a bit smaller, Im thinking maybe the bonk spine font size would be better but hard for me to tell from just pics.

To expand on what the others are saying about the old box I think because it was an orange label early title it would get the old style box with the turbo font and the framed front pic.
check out royvegas photobuckets
http://s667.photobucket.com/user/royvegas/library/Turbografx%20Games%20Reference?sort=6&page=1

I know its a weird cover for color but maybe make it look more saturated, to me it looks slightly faded.
(lol I've been working with this cover lately for my 8dp getting the title to print a good orange is hard let alone neon orange must need a special printer for that color.. your orange looks pretty good though)

Mathius · 03/21/2014, 09:05 PM

Gotta love teh Sparky! Gut-punchingly awesome!

LostFlunky · 03/21/2014, 09:24 PM

Quote from: Phase on 03/21/2014, 08:37 PM...
I know its a weird cover for color but maybe make it look more saturated, to me it looks slightly faded.
(lol I've been working with this cover lately for my 8dp getting the title to print a good orange is hard let alone neon orange must need a special printer for that color.. your orange looks pretty good though)

Yeah, I remember using that manual as a "test" for scanning TG16 manuals and was surprised at how it comes out looking like a comic book scan.

roflmao · 03/21/2014, 09:52 PM

Looks great Sparky!

Sparky · 03/21/2014, 09:56 PM

Quote from: Phase on 03/21/2014, 08:37 PMLooks nice, if you are going to stick with this box style a couple of things I noticed (but nothing big)
-Keith Courage is listed as being in the purple action genre in the Turbo Gear flier,
-The spine text seems a little large imo, I know it varies for different titles but many of the early full size picture box covers the spine text was a bit smaller, Im thinking maybe the bonk spine font size would be better but hard for me to tell from just pics.

To expand on what the others are saying about the old box I think because it was an orange label early title it would get the old style box with the turbo font and the framed front pic.
check out royvegas photobuckets
http://s667.photobucket.com/user/royvegas/library/Turbografx%20Games%20Reference?sort=6&page=1

I know its a weird cover for color but maybe make it look more saturated, to me it looks slightly faded.
(lol I've been working with this cover lately for my 8dp getting the title to print a good orange is hard let alone neon orange must need a special printer for that color.. your orange looks pretty good though)

Purple? Really?.. Any links to this?.. But ya it is an action game so you could be right

Also on colours I got things match up damn nice.. Been making spine labels for years so trust me I nailed it ( that's just a pict) or at least as close as you can before a special colour. Get it closer then mine and I will eat a set of my stickers

FiftyQuid · 03/21/2014, 10:26 PM

Holy shit! You did it! I think it looks great! I'd leave it as Keith Courage on the spine. Alpha Zones on the front and back.

I will definitely be picking one of these up. I can't wait to put it together, slide a copy into the box and send it out to get VGA graded.

Truthfully I will get one and it will go into a box protector to up the coolness factor!

Psycho Punch · 03/21/2014, 10:33 PM

Isn't Keith the launch title? Early titles don't have the "16-Bit Graphics" text, only the genre. Plus the dotted bg as mentioned by others.

Still, pretty neat!

HailingTheThings · 03/21/2014, 10:47 PM

Holy effing shite! That is the bessst! Will definitely for sure take one of those amazingnessesss off your hands when they're all ready status. Would be a great display piece.

Also.

Yeah! *thumbs up*

Phase · 03/21/2014, 11:55 PM

I agree KC would probably fit best under adventure. When I made my cover project KC cover I just went with action because I saw the flier. Many games are in the wrong genre imo I could list many examples that I found working on covers. For instance Bomberman is under strategy and Bomberman '93 is under action. I'm guessing because Action sounds more exciting. Tricky Kick which I consider a puzzle game should probably go under strategy like the original bomberman but they just made up their own genre "family" a pink color. Alien and Devils crush are action but later Time Cruise is under another made up genre "pinball" which is blue with white text - which I think looks odd. Games are all different though so I guess its pretty hard to fit them into genres perfectly. I'm going to try and fit all my covers under the original 8 listed on the flier and also simulation which I think was also official but only included 2 games that I know of.

Your right it is most likely the quality of the picture.
I have been going for a brand new look for my 8dp covers, so mine are pretty vibrant and I may be use to higher saturation as well.

Regarding KCs neon orange title my scan made it pinkish so I just overlaid a basic orange color over it assuming its the closest thing to neon orange.

I have a few KC manuals and all of them vary a little, check out the cliff, meteor, keiths red on his armor and the title orange.

If your interested I could post or pm you my latest 8dp KC cover for fun if you want to see how my color and scan turned out. (I don't want to derail the topic though)

Sorry for the rant I like discussing this stuff

Edit: I edited this post heavily because it was a big mess lol

CrackTiger · 03/22/2014, 01:08 PM

Quote from: Phase on 03/21/2014, 11:55 PM
I agree KC would probably fit best under adventure. When I made my cover project KC cover I just went with action because I saw the flier. Many games are in the wrong genre imo I could list many examples that I found working on covers. For instance Bomberman is under strategy and Bomberman '93 is under action. I'm guessing because Action sounds more exciting. Tricky Kick which I consider a puzzle game should probably go under strategy like the original bomberman but they just made up their own genre "family" a pink color. Alien and Devils crush are action but later Time Cruise is under another made up genre "pinball" which is blue with white text - which I think looks odd. Games are all different though so I guess its pretty hard to fit them into genres perfectly. I'm going to try and fit all my covers under the original 8 listed on the flier and also simulation which I think was also official but only included 2 games that I know of.

Your right it is most likely the quality of the picture.
I have been going for a brand new look for my 8dp covers, so mine are pretty vibrant and I may be use to higher saturation as well.

Regarding KCs neon orange title my scan made it pinkish so I just overlaid a basic orange color over it assuming its the closest thing to neon orange.

I have a few KC manuals and all of them vary a little, check out the cliff, meteor, keiths red on his armor and the title orange.

If your interested I could post or pm you my latest 8dp KC cover for fun if you want to see how my color and scan turned out. (I don't want to derail the topic though)

Sorry for the rant I like discussing this stuff

Edit: I edited this post heavily because it was a big mess lol

That's just some random categorization someone threw together for that flyer. I can't see the whole page, but Ninja Spirit and Vigilante stand out as a different colors than they actually shipped with.

It's been discussed many times over the years and although a number of similar genre titles seem to fall within the same colors, NEC Tech/TTi were sloppy and inconsistent and there is no perfect color scheme. You get a feel overall of which broad genres they had in mind with each color and that flyer sorta confirms them. But they were so inept at understanding their own games that they broke their own system.

It makes sense that shooters would have their own group and that the ones which are arcade ports would land in Shooter instead of Arcade. But then why is Galaga '90 under Arcade? Why aren't Bravoman, Pac Land and Ninja Spirit under Arcade if Shooters are the only exception? If they aren't the only exception, then why isn't Final Lap Twin under Racing, especially since it was such an empty genre at that point? Why bother having a Racing color at all?

Keith Courage could be green or purple (or other colors), depending on which games from those color groups you match it up to.

I'd pick the one of those two colors which looks best with the cover art.

Sparky · 03/22/2014, 08:05 PM

Quote from: Phase on 03/21/2014, 11:55 PMYour right it is most likely the quality of the picture.
I have been going for a brand new look for my 8dp covers, so mine are pretty vibrant and I may be use to higher saturation as well.

Ya so are mine, I spent a lot of time and effort getting a product people would be happy with, especially asking people for money for them. Anyway don't mean to sound pissy, your just really passionate about this stuff but so am I, your covers are cool but I see design decisions I would have not done but whatever, we are just offering a cool service to people that are big fans like we are, we are not perfect.

Blacktiger.. Thanks for saying that as I prefer the green, so I will leave it as it is. Still going to modify it.
Thanks for the feedback guys, I will post a revised box next week.

Hugs

Phase · 03/22/2014, 09:20 PM

Yeah great post Black Tiger I didn't notice the errors with Ninja Spirit and Vigilante. I'm thinking that arcade as a genre was a bad choice and just added to the confusion. But like you said there is no perfect way to put games in genres. Especially when they could have use a few more categories. Still, its too bad they were not used more accurately.

Now that I'm in doubt of the flier I may change my 8dp KC to adventure

, but I could do both as it is only one click away ...we'll see.

Yeah its great to be able to talk to someone doing similar projects

My 8dp is still not released and I'm open to any feedback. The DVD hucard is the only one that's locked in at this point.
I will PM you an 8dp cover and if you get time I'd love to hear an ideas or feedback.

TheClash603 · 03/23/2014, 01:26 PM

I like the back and forth and a lot of the genre stuff is interesting...

...but the real question is when do I get to order the box!?

xcrement5x · 03/23/2014, 03:44 PM

Very cool Sparky! I keep on putting off picking up labels and stuff from you but this may finally get me off my butt!

tg16manaic · 03/23/2014, 04:35 PM

I love this. Sparky u are amazing, i loved the magical chase box u made too, absolutely brilliant. I think u should use the actual title "keith courage in alpha zones" on the spine. After all thats the accurate title of the game. Keith Courage only on the spine would be an error IMHO. And maybe purple would look better instead of green, but green looks ok too. If purple was used in the catalog then i'd stick to purple. Anyways, great job sparky, thanks for doing this, this is really cool.

CrackTiger · 03/23/2014, 06:13 PM

Quote from: guest on 03/22/2014, 08:05 PM
Quote from: Phase on 03/21/2014, 11:55 PMYour right it is most likely the quality of the picture.
I have been going for a brand new look for my 8dp covers, so mine are pretty vibrant and I may be use to higher saturation as well.
Ya so are mine, I spent a lot of time and effort getting a product people would be happy with, especially asking people for money for them. Anyway don't mean to sound pissy, your just really passionate about this stuff but so am I, your covers are cool but I see design decisions I would have not done but whatever, we are just offering a cool service to people that are big fans like we are, we are not perfect.

Blacktiger.. Thanks for saying that as I prefer the green, so I will leave it as it is. Still going to modify it.
Thanks for the feedback guys, I will post a revised box next week.

Hugs

The way that look at it, Keith Courage plays the same as Valis II/III and Legendary Axe I/II, which are all green.

But I also like the contrast the green stripe provides compared to purple.

DragonmasterDan · 03/23/2014, 07:52 PM

BTW fantastic job on this Sparky, it looks great.

Retrocool · 03/24/2014, 12:46 PM

WOW, I am super impressed.. ... >O..O<

JoshTurboTrollX · 03/24/2014, 03:45 PM

Put me down for one today!!!

Love 'em, great work sparkster!

mrhaboobi · 03/24/2014, 03:54 PM

Fing awesome sparky!!! bravo.. encore..

as an aside.... you'll never get the colour ( yes with a U the correct way to spell color ) right as everyone will want something different, so make a collectors edition bundle, 1 box for each colour .,.. how awesome would it be to see like 5 keith courage boxes on a shelf each one a different colour.. you'll have variant collectors up in arms ;)...

NecroPhile · 03/24/2014, 04:10 PM

green + purple + saturation (x10000) = problem solved

You're welcome. No charge.

DesmondThe3rd · 03/24/2014, 05:47 PM

This looks awesome Sparky. Are you going to be at the Vgcc Swap Meet in April, if so I wanna buy one if you can make it for the show?

Nec.Game.head · 03/26/2014, 08:57 PM

Holy smokes, that sir is a perfect looking Keith Courage box !! Great work Sparky !!!

Sparky · 03/29/2014, 09:33 PM

Quote from: DesmondThe3rd on 03/24/2014, 05:47 PMThis looks awesome Sparky. Are you going to be at the Vgcc Swap Meet in April, if so I wanna buy one if you can make it for the show?

Vgcc? Nah I don't support that meet, never have.
the Cgcc meet is more down to earth on prices and the people are real so that's where I will be.

Sorry rough week at work, I will have some revisions soon.

glazball · 03/30/2014, 08:59 AM

I'm not a box collector but I still think you've done an awesome job Sparky.

Like others have suggested, for maximum appearance of authenticity, you should frame the picture in black on the front of the box like all of the launch titles have. And use the skinny font on the sides with the full name: Keith Courage in Alpha Zones.

Great work!

BlueBMW · 03/30/2014, 01:11 PM

Odd duck? Yes

Phase · 03/30/2014, 10:47 PM

lol null have you been drinking again tonight? that was necros joke pic

NecroPhile · 03/31/2014, 12:16 PM

Nulliderp

Sparky · 03/31/2014, 05:20 PM

ok guys... i have 2 options for ya (still tweaking things but the flavour is there, not perfect yet)...

PS: i think i should change the "Adventure game" copy to the thin font as well

Thanks for all the feedback guys, i appreciate it and comments are always welcome.

Null and NecroPhile get the gradated version

hugs!!!

NecroPhile · 03/31/2014, 05:51 PM

Both make my pants tight, but the first one gets my vote.

HailingTheThings · 03/31/2014, 10:13 PM

The one with teh border seems to be a thing, even though its nice to see the art bigger.

bob · 03/31/2014, 11:51 PM

The top one looks best, but i agree with whoever said to lose the "16 bit graphics".
Doesnt fit the times. Just Adventure like legendary axe.

FiftyQuid · 04/01/2014, 12:09 AM

Top one gets my vote. It's awesome.

Mathius · 04/01/2014, 12:13 AM

I am having a hard time deciding. The 2nd one may be winning.

Phase · 04/01/2014, 12:48 AM

+1 on can't decide, both look great but if I had to choose probably the older style #1

LostFlunky · 04/01/2014, 07:33 AM

Very nice! I am partial to the earlier style for this title...