Universal (game) cartridge holder

thingiverse

By chance I stumbled upon some Nintendo GameBoys that needed repair. The usual issues were present - missing lines on the LCD, battery spills and missing parts... But I managed to revive them all, so I got to keep two. Win! This naturally led me to Tetris via the link-cable, Super Mario Land, Zelda - Link's Awakening,... Well, down the rabbit-hole of retro gaming I went once more. Next up was my wife's SEGA GameGear which had leaking capacitors everywhere. So I replaced all of them (never knew electrolyte could smell that bad when desoldering). In the end, I successfully brought it back from the dead too. In the end some games were bought and soon I wanted to have a nice display for the cartridges. There are many cartridge holders available on Thingiverse: * https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:614849 * https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1377869 * https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3155892 * https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:993806 * really - many more... But somehow, none of them met my requirements: * too big or too small (Rammstein anyone?) * needed too much material where it wasn't necessary for support * cartridges couldn't be put at an angle * usable with or without protective hulls (most people seem to throw the hulls away for some reason...) * same design for GameBoy and GameGear (and potentially other things) So I dug out OpenSCAD once more and got to work. Also, this sounded like a perfect match for the Thingiverse Customizer (https://www.thingiverse.com/customizer), as I know I couldn't cater to everyone's needs. The result is the thing I share with you here - and it's basically a mixture of the best-of I found on Thingiverse: * number of cartridges to hold can be defined * presentation angle of the cartridges can be set * by changing the set of properties almost any cartridge can be defined (I give examples for GameBoy cartridges with/without protective hulls, same for the GameGear) * reduce the amount of material needed by removing non-critical parts * can be adjusted for almost any type of cartridge (most likely also CD/DVD cases, NES games - virtually anything cubic) To make the most of this design, check the *Open in Customizer* button on the right. I tried to describe the parameters as well as I could. If something is lacking, let me know in the comments. Note: I haven't found out how (or if it's even possible) to use presets for parameters, so you have to type them in yourself. The most important three items are: * cartridge width in mm * cartridge depth in mm * number of cartridges to hold For simple cartridges, it usually enough to modify only these three. Play around with the other parameters to see what you can do. Here are some general hints: * Some cartridge types (e.g. the GameGear ones) have a bulge at the top, so they need more distance in between them - adjust the **Separator Width** accordingly. * Bigger cartridges may require more support from the holder. Raise the **Holder Height** if needed. * If the last cartridge eats away your back wall, increase the **Outer Wall Width**. * Not all cartridges and holders are created equal - be sure to measure at least three pieces in order to come up with a good starting point for width and depth. * Due to material shrinking, also add maybe 0.5 mm to your measurements to have a normal, but not too tight fit of the cartridge in the holder. * If you don't want the material to be removed between the holder tabs, set the **Cutout Ratio** to zero. Here are some parameters I used with respect to the defaults (copied straight from the OpenSCAD source): *Nintendo Game Boy - cartridge with protective hull* * cartridge_width = 65.0; * cartridge_depth = 13.5; *Nintendo Game Boy - cartridge only* * cartridge_width = 57.5; * cartridge_depth = 8.0; *SEGA Game Gear - cartridge with protective hull* * cartridge_width = 78.5; * cartridge_depth = 15.5; * holder_height = 20.0; * outer_wall_width = 4; *SEGA Game Gear - cartridge only* * cartridge_width = 67.5; * cartridge_depth = 8.5; * separator_width = 3.0; I also added 5-cartridge STL exports for a quick reference so: Happy organizing!