Restoring Old Retro Game Boxes -GB/GBA Repair 

Great work! Do you have a recommendation/video for cleaning this type of box or vintage (70’s-80’s) boxes?

I have a gold Nintendo Zelda with the original box and shrink wrap but the wrap was sliced when my dad opened the box. It's still in excellent condition.

So glad to hear this, I use this method every time a box is less than 8/10. Not only does it make them look nicer but they feel more robust in the end as well. Cheers!

Hope it works out for you!

@@FantasticQuack I usually buy box only gba games (never CIB), it's way cheaper rather than buying CIB gba games, it's tough to find boxes on ebay in such good condition nowdays. But I gotta say the prices for box only gameboy games have skyrocketed it's crazy, even for NES, SNES, and N64. No wonder collectors quit collecting.

​@@sunnypatel4660 It's a tough time to collect for sure, but it can still be affordable if you put in effort buying/reselling. I made a video on that exact topic if you want to check it out. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-G4grR7y5e2w.html

Glad it helped!

I do this method on almost every boxed game I pick up even if the creases are minor, it just makes it look so much better and feels more robust in the end. I've never had it not work and never looked back since.

Thanks for watching! This won't apply to 3DS as those games have plastic cases..

Thanks for the kind words!

You're welcome, glad you enjoyed the vid!

It was smooshed like this when I bought it so not sure :/

Thanks!

I did it on kingdom hearts for GBA which has the shiny-finish-type box and had no problems. Wishing you the best with yours, cheers!

I only ever use a cloth/paper towel lightly dampened with rubbing alcohol to clean the box surface. emphasis on "lightly" as too much alcohol and/or pressure can remove color from the box. Never heard of using furniture polish so can't comment on the risks/benefit of that. I wouldn't recommend using paint for touch up, get a nice set of permanent markers in various colors instead-- it will blend better with the surface finish of the box.

I would think not because the biggest benefit after softening the paper fibers comes from high pressure + time. If i had a press I'd use that instead of the dumbells. Any hard crease is a permanent defect, but you can improve the appearance drastically, and robustness to a small degree, with this method. Thanks for watching, cheers!

Any damage to the plastic film on DVD, DS, etc. boxes is generally permanent. I've tried using plastic polish to buff out scratches but it doesn't seem to work well, presumably because the plastic is too soft (might be worth a 2nd try at some point). If the film is warped or stretched that is more or less permanent as well. There might be some type of heating/pressing process that could be figured out, but seems unrealistic to achieve a good result given the plastic film is attached to the box at both ends.

@@FantasticQuack Thanks for the answer. A pity cases cannot be restored more or less easily, but well, at least cleaning things up, and "ironing" cover sheets is leaving games in a nicer state.

Thanks I hope it works out!

Hi! How did this process turn out with pokemon silver? I have one myself and I was nervous to do this process on that game specifically because of the shiny gloss finish on the box

About time, right? :)

Best of luck!

Thanks for watching!

It's hard to say and I've only ever done it by feel. It sounds like you may have been set too high on temp or just held it too long. The main purpose of the ironing step is to get the box wet and hot from the steam. So if it feels fairly damp on both sides you should be good to stop ironing. The bulk of the flattening comes from being weighted under the books as the cardboard dries.

Never seen this problem before. Could be an issue related to the switch that tells the system the lid is closed. I would take the top shell off and get a look at that.

@@FantasticQuack thank you I’ll try it out!

I think it's woven cotton. Flour sack towel should work as well. Just needs to be thin with little surface texture.

I know I'm late to this, but I think you will get the same result with a regular cotton t-shirt as well. I have used this same trick before to iron shirts with wrinkled print logos on them that you don't want to damage. 👍🏼

:)

Not in my experience. I've done this 10+ times at this point with SNES and N64 boxes as well as GBA

Absolutely

You might be surprised..

Heck yeah! I've done this around 5 - 10 more times since making this video on GBA, NES, and N64 games. I'm always shocked and super satisfied by how well it works. I thought about doing a video for each unique box type but felt like it would just be redundant content.

Nice work!

Hello and thanks!