Famicom Cart Storage: The perfect DIY Solution

[senseiman]

I've long had troubles trying to figure out how to store my Famicom carts in a way that satisfied 4 requirements:

1) that  made for easy cart identification (hard due to the lack of labels on the sides of most carts);

2) that made it easy to access each cart (hard to do when they are stacked up and you have to move some carts to get to others);

3) that displayed the carts in an attractive way (cheap looking plastic CD racks do a poor job of this)

4) that was cheap

Finally I found the answer: Dish drying racks!

For pictures, instructions and story see here:

http://famicomblog.blogspot.com/2010/11/famicom-cart-storage-my-long-nightmare.html 

[NintendoKing]

A cassette tape holder and a labeling gun (to add top labels.) !

[jpx72]

Hmm inovative I like the nice living room touch of it when it hangs on the wall! I usually visit junk stores and buy a Compact-Cassette holder of any sort (there are unlimited variations) to store my famicarts, these old recording tapes were original in size to famicom cartridges.

[MS-DOS4]

I'll be honest with you, it looks really flimsy. In one of the pictures, a wood peg already broke off, and those glued on sticks won't last. If I'd ever pursue a better way to store my famicarts other than on my shelf, I'd go with Gremlin's plan. Your idea is nice anyway!

[botulismo]

I've been using cassette tape holders, but the problem with using them is that they're not a very "expandable" storage system. They're also unfortunately getting less common so you have to order them or search at the Goodwill. I like senseiman's system, but unfortunately it would never work, as I'm a bit of an oaf. 

[senseiman]

You guys are right, cassette tape holders are a definite option.  My main beef with them is that, as gremlin notes, you have to put labels on the carts in order to identify them.  I like to keep my carts "pure", I think they look better that way.  

MS-DOS4 - Good eye with spotting the missing peg.  That didn't actually break off, it was like that when I bought it (I only noticed it missing after getting it home).  One of the risks of shopping at the 100 yen shop:)  Actually, that one is also a bit crooked and I'll probably just go buy a new one to replace it.

The glued on sticks should last, though.  They aren't lode-bearing or anything so basically they just have to sit there.  "flimsy" is, after all, a relative term.  I wouldn't trust them to take a beating, but their main purpose is to sort of  "guide" the cart as you put it on the shelf, which they should be able to handle.  Well, time will tell anyway!

[manuel]

That looks great!
But if you want to store all 1100 games this way you need a damn big wall. 

[L___E___T]

Firstly, nice Hokusai prints!

Can you post the exact rack you used?  Drying racks like those are hard to find in England, we have larger ones as a rule in all sorts of ugly looking plastic.

I wouldn't want to have to make my own shelves...


....

Aaaand then I actually read the blog...

[senseiman]

@ Manuel - Thanks!  Doing the math, each of these can hold 7 carts, so I'll need about 140 or so to fit all 1100 carts.  I am indeed going to need a big wall!

@ L_E_T - Thanks, I like woodblock prints.  There is a picture in the post of the one I used, do you want the specifics? I did a quick look online and couldn't find the exact one I used.  But I'll be going back to the 100 yen shop to buy some more and I'll save the package they came in so I can see the product name, etc.

[linkzpikachu]

A cassette tape holder and a labeling gun (to add top labels.) !

this the best way to store, as for labelling  i guess if you want. the storage also helps with genesis/megadrive and 2600 carts 

[senseiman]

I found some slightly different dish racks that hold 8 Famicom carts each.  I think they do a slightly better job than the above ones.  Set them up in the kitchen next to our spare Famicom:

http://famicomblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/famicom-storage-mark-ii-kitchen-tv.html

[NintendoKing]

I bought a ($5) wicker box, and a ($2.99) Tape cassette holder rack, then ripped the shelves out and shaved them down then hot glued then into the wicker box then hot glued black foam and spray paint the box's inside black.

It works perfectly to store my 26 favorite Famicom games, the others will go on a shelf.

[UglyJoe]

So after seeing way too many commercials for "closet hanging storage solutions" for storing sweaters to shoes and whatever else you can cram into a plastic sleeve, it finally dawned on me that maybe these things would work well for storing Famicom games as well.  I poked around Amazon and eBay looking for a suitable solution and eventually came across "hanging jewelry storage".  After looking over a dozen or so options and figuring out pocket sizes, I settled for one being sold on eBay as "80 Pockets Jewelry Hanging Storage Organizer Bag".  Search for it using ALL CAPS for full effect.

Anyway, I won it about a month ago and it finally arrived.  It's got 40 pockets on each side.  I'm not sure you'd be able to fill both sides completely, as the pockets along the edges tend to get rather tight with a game on both sides.  I'm worried that the hanger-hook bit might cheap out on me, but I've had it hanging up on my closet door for a few hours now holding up 45 games, so my confidence in it is rising.

I think it looks pretty great.  The carts will overlap each other if you use up every row, but you can still see three quarters of each cart.  Getting games into and out of the slots is very easy, especially if you have carts in the adjacent pockets.  Famista '91 fits nicely as well, although any carts taller than that (if any exist?) will have a problem fitting in.  FDS cases also fit beautifully, but I'd rather not risk having those come crashing down with 45 brutish carts.

Overall, I'd say it was $11 well spent.

[tappybot]

Nice solutions guys!

Ugly Joe, that's especially unique.  It's a fun thought to imagine a browsing through a huge collection all organized like this, and it'd still be really convenient!

[senseiman]

Nice set ups, UglyJoe and Uninvited Gremlin.  I have one of those pocket things (small one with 6 pockets) for putting keys, etc in, but I never thought of using one for Famicom storage!

I have updated my shelving a bit since the original post here.  The shelves have stood up great for the three months or so since I put them up, so I bought more and filled in the spaces between the columns (they hold 95 carts now):