Best Position to Pack PS2 Games in Boxes?

[Lawfer]

Position 1:



Position 2:



Your thoughts/opinions? Suggestions on other (better) positions to store them?

I have been storing my games using position 1 for years, but I am kinda wary that it might damage them due to the weight and it won't be good for the covers?

[ChuChu Flamingo]

Position 2 is best. With position 1 the weight of all the cases will eventually leave indentations on your inserts due to plastic holes in the case. Additionally, the manual is not supported in position one. Ideally I would store them vertical like on a bookshelf.

[bigbadboaz]

2 seems the logical choice. Do you want the weight (particularly if you are stacking boxes) to fall on the front/back covers of the games, where they will compress, or to be partially supported by the top-to-bottom structure of the cases stacked vertically? Think about the games stuck at the very bottom, in particular.

[Lawfer]

Position 2 is best. With position 1 the weight of all the cases will eventually leave indentations on your inserts due to plastic holes in the case.

Thanks, damn you're right, this is particulary bad for PS4 and PS3 games (after 2013) because the foil paper used for cover is of thinner quality than PS2 and PS3 games (pre-2014).

Ideally I would store them vertical like on a bookshelf.

Any reasons why this would be better than position 2?

2 seems the logical choice. Do you want the weight (particularly if you are stacking boxes) to fall on the front/back covers of the games, where they will compress, or to be partially supported by the top-to-bottom structure of the cases stacked vertically? Think about the games stuck at the very bottom, in particular.

Thanks, though I don't really stack boxes on top of each others, but I see your point, i'll rearrange everything.

What about PS1 games though?

[ChuChu Flamingo]

I would think the manual would be better suited standing up then on its side with the edges. It probably doesn't matter.

[HydrogLox]

NIST Special Publication 500-252 Information Technology: Care and Handling of CDs and DVDs — A Guide for Librarians and Archivists - page 22:

The disc should be stored in its case and placed vertically, like a book, on a shelf. Long-term horizontal storage, particularly in a heated environment, can cause the disc to become permanently bowed. While the data may still be intact, the disc may not operate properly in the drive or permit the laser to follow the track.

[Lawfer]

NIST Special Publication 500-252 Information Technology: Care and Handling of CDs and DVDs — A Guide for Librarians and Archivists - page 22:

The disc should be stored in its case and placed vertically, like a book, on a shelf. Long-term horizontal storage, particularly in a heated environment, can cause the disc to become permanently bowed. While the data may still be intact, the disc may not operate properly in the drive or permit the laser to follow the track.

Woah, wth? What do they mean "horizontal storage"? Like in my pictures on position 1 or position 2?

[Lord of Pirates]

NIST Special Publication 500-252 Information Technology: Care and Handling of CDs and DVDs — A Guide for Librarians and Archivists - page 22:

The disc should be stored in its case and placed vertically, like a book, on a shelf. Long-term horizontal storage, particularly in a heated environment, can cause the disc to become permanently bowed. While the data may still be intact, the disc may not operate properly in the drive or permit the laser to follow the track.

Woah, wth? What do they mean "horizontal storage"? Like in my pictures on position 1 or position 2?

Like position 1. Position 2 should be fine as long as you don't stack another row on top of it. It's possible manuals might eventually fall with P2 though. Upright is best if possible.

[Galdelico]

I've read it too, in the past, but I still wonder what's the critical point for that to actually happen... I mean, we've used (and I still use) CD/DVD towers for decades - those where you place your games horizontally - and we've never encountered a single issue.

Thinking about it, the only 2 cases I stumbled across so far in my entire gaming life, were two games (a PSP UMD and an XBOX360 DVD, both bought new and kept like so, that all of a sudden just stopped working) I've always stored on shelves, vertically. ^^;

[bigbadboaz]

I mean, we've used (and I still use) CD/DVD towers for decades - those where you place your games horizontally - and we've never encountered a single issue.

I would assume they're talking about stacking them horizontally on top of each other, where the weight of the cases above could have an effect. Those towers support each case individually, basically suspending them in the air. I don't think that situation is what they were warning against. Stacking them flat on top of each other in a box - getting back to the thread's origin - yes.

[Ikaruga11]

Position 2.

There's nothing wrong with Position 1 though if the cases are like GameCube, Wii or DS.

[Joelepain]

I would assume they're talking about stacking them horizontally on top of each other, where the weight of the cases above could have an effect

No I think they are refering to the boxes where the disk only rests on its center and the rest of the disk is floating in the air (so most regular cd/dvd/games boxes actually).
If these kind of boxes are put horizontally, with time and heat the disk inside can bend due to gravity and can become unreadable.
That's the same reason why it's not recommended to let a cd in the cd player of car parked under the sun. Inside the player the cd is only held by its center and it can get really hot inside the car.

Of course I think they're only talking about preserving the disks and not the boxes.