My new inserts for my Sega CD Lunar games

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AkagisWhiteComet
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My new inserts for my Sega CD Lunar games

Post by AkagisWhiteComet »

I recently did some touching up of my Sega CD copies of Lunar Silver Star and Lunar Eternal Blue and thought I would share some of the pics.

This is actually something I've had on the back burner for a VERY long time. Unfortunately, unlike all the other Lunar games I have (which is every one of them released in the U.S.), I did not purchase my Sega CD copies new. Silver Star I bought at a video rental place back in 1994 that was going out of business for $5!! :mrgreen: Complete case and instructions, barely used game - a real good deal. I unfortunately was not as lucky with Eternal Blue. When I finally acquired Eternal Blue in 1997, it was only the CD - and I had to pay $62 for it!! :cry:

As there are considerable differences between the Sega CD artwork of the games compared to their more recent remakes, I had always wondered how nice it would be if my old Sega CD Lunar games carried artwork that was similar to the newer games. A while back, I ran across these awesome box arts by an author by the name of 'darkwickus' and right away thought they would look great on a real case instead of on a computer screen.

http://www.vgboxart.com/view/28336/luna ... replies=10

http://www.vgboxart.com/view/28788/luna ... ?replies=9

So some time has gone by and I recently bought a new house and was unpacking a lot of my old games and came across the two Sega CD Lunars. I finally figured it was time for them to receive the remodel.

As mentioned, my Eternal Blue game didn't have any case whatsoever, so anything at this point would be an improvement. While my Silver Star game really didn't need it, at some point back in the late 90's the cover of the instruction booklet got a piece tore off. Honestly I have no clue how it happened and it's irritated me ever since. :evil:

Fortunately, I work for this really neat job at the federal government where I work with audio and visual records, so I get access to photo prints and photo grade paper and prints. I figured I'd use the resources a bit and take a few attempts at transferring this artwork to the real thing.

Here's my Eternal Blue:

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Here's my Silver Star:

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I first measured the Silver Star's back insert and instruction book to get some rough estimates on how big the print needed to be. I then cropped and adjusted the images accordingly until I got them where I wanted it.

There were a few challenges with this. As most of you likely know, these old large case inserts were perforated along the sides so they would fold into the case. This is done to lower costs, as when you assemble the cases a worker would just fold the edges and slide it in without worrying about damaging the insert.

Image showing perforation on the original insert. A bit hard to see.

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The machine. Epson 2200 photo printer with eight ink cartridges and photo paper.

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I did 'quick prints' with these, so they're not of the best quality, but this run was just to see if this setup would actually work.

First a test page on regular paper on a 'regular' color printer to test the size. A bit of trimming was needed, but it was in the general vicinity of where it needed to be.

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Then I printed it on the photo paper. Side by side with the original.

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In the case.

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Next came the back.

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Here's where the tricky part came in. Obviously this photo paper doesn't have any sort of way to bend it, and if you've ever bent a photo you know that there can be all kinds of crinkles that appear along the bend. You also can't separate the sides from the back because there's no way the inserts would stay, as shown in the image below.

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I decided to try and bend the insert using my large photo paper cutter as the fulcrum. I bent it color side first, then using that flipped it over and CAREFULLY bent it the other way to get the bend needed so it would sit in the case.

Like so.

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Back shot. Again this isn't the best quality, and was just to see if this would actually work. So far all the inserts stay in place.

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Now Eternal Blue

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And the back.

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When I got home I got to admire my work a bit better. You can see the Eternal Blue insert didn't print out all that great.

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With the other Lunar games...

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And with some of my more favorite Working Design games.

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I hope you enjoyed. I'm very pleased with the way they look and will eventually get them printed in a higher quality format on high gloss paper.
Last edited by AkagisWhiteComet on Thu Feb 27, 2014 12:51 am, edited 1 time in total.

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exigence
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Re: My new inserts for my Sega CD Lunar games

Post by exigence »

The artwork for TSS looks awesome, its at least equal or better than the original art, I wish i had a empty sega cd case, then i would burn a copy of TSS and use that artwork. The cover for EB is kinda bland in comparison but it sure beats no cover at all.

Do you plan on updating any more of your game covers, I'd be interested in seeing that.
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AkagisWhiteComet
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Re: My new inserts for my Sega CD Lunar games

Post by AkagisWhiteComet »

I do agree with the rather bland Eternal Blue artwork - as said though it's a heck of a lot better than a no-label jewel case. I might eventually try making my own inserts to change it a bit.

I haven't thought about doing any of the other games at the moment. The same author of these inserts also did some very nice inserts for other Sega CD games including a really good Sonic CD insert. It's too bad that game became a coaster a long time ago...

I actually didn't mention it originally, but one of the problems I ran into was locating an original case like these that wasn't actually broken. I have around a dozen Sega CD games and beside Silver Star I only had maybe one case that was suitable that wasn't broken. And I surely wasn't going to tear into my Saturn Working Designs cases.

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Vyse of Arcadia
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Re: My new inserts for my Sega CD Lunar games

Post by Vyse of Arcadia »

Very nice! Although, I have to agree, the front cover of EB looks pretty bland.

There's a reason gargantuan CD cases went out of style. I can only wonder what everyone was thinking in the first place. Still, I bet you could get some on ebay. If nothing else, you could by a cheap Sega CD or Saturn game that happens to come with the case.
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Alunissage
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Re: My new inserts for my Sega CD Lunar games

Post by Alunissage »

Our tax dollars at work! :lol:

I have to quibble with the TSS art: the character designs changed a bit for the remakes, so the art used isn't accurate. Luna's skirt isn't so visible in the picture on the front (which is actually the art for the Japanese PlayStation box), but the diffrerences in Alex's capelet are pretty visible on the back.

For that reason, and because I have so many copies of those SSS collages, I like the EB cover better. ^_^ I would also suggest that you adjust the colors of the blue stripes when you reprint it on higher-quality paper, since the stripes in the WD liners are almost solids.

The talk of cases reminds me that I was meaning to replace the case for at least one of my copies of TSS. It was the first one I got, I think, and the front doesn't fit with the back. Looking at it I, realized it wasn't that the pieces were broken, it's that the "hinge" parts of the front and back are actually different sizes, with the top coming from a different case. I did end up with some extra SegaCD games I don't care about in fairly pristine cases, but didn't think to switch them out until maybe a year ago when a friend of mine suggested it.

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