Forums

Hi All

Just wondering if you can still get empty sg1000 / sc3000 cartridge cases? Say 50 to 100 cases.

Has anyone ever looked into getting some made? I've spoken to some coleco developers and it sounds pretty expensive to get a proper injection mold made - in the order of a couple grand.

Has anyone ever experimented with molding their own at home using hobby tools?

I'm not very hopeful, but I'm happy to be pleasantly surprised :)

Cheers

I think these days there's a decent chance you could get them made on a 3D printer, although probably not cheaply. Else just cheap, common original cartridges would be the only source.

Another option could be Laserdisc subtitle cartridges, I don't know how easy to obtain or how much they go for though.

http://www.smspower.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=69897

Thanks. Interesting idea looking for those subtitle carts. I wonder how widespread they were?

I think Maxim is right though. I suspect the most cost-effective option for small amounts would be to contact a Japanese eBay distributor or trawl Yahoo Japan auctions looking for bulk lots of carts that noone wants. Unfortunately just buying carts off existing eBay listings probably means a minimum price of around $8-$12USD or so per cart once shipping to NZ is included which is a bit steep for hobby stuff.

I sent an email to a local 3D prototype firm yesterday just to see what sort of cost structure we are talking about and if the process is appropriate for something like a cart case in terms of durability and strength.

Cheers

Hi All

I did a bit of research. 3D printing is very cool and you can do some amazing things with it. Just search for 3D printing on YouTube and you'll find all sorts of neat projects.

There are some great services available like http://www.ponoko.com and http://www.shapeways.com where you can upload a .STL mesh object and have it printed using a range of different materials and colors then get it couriered out to you. There are a variety of free CAD programs available that can do this, and the learning curve isn't too bad.

Unfortunately the price is too expensive for mass production of cart shells. Black ABS plastic is around $2 USD per cubic centimeter. That sounds cheap until you realize that a cart shell requires around 50 cubic centimeters of plastic (ie. around $100USD)

I'm just waiting to hear a cost estimate from the local 3D prototype place. The only way this will work is if they are willing to do it somewhere near cost price. He sounded interested in the project, so I might get lucky :)

However 3D printing prices have reduced a lot over the past few years, so this approach will become increasingly viable. You can now buy your own consumer grade printer like the Up 3D Mini which is about $1000 USD. There are cheaper 3D printers available, but this looks like a good plug and play package with reasonable build quality.

http://store.3dprintingsystems.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=62&a...

If you had your own 3D printer, then the materials cost wouldn't be too bad. One of those Up 3D Minis would probably print out half a case shell in about 2 hours depending on quality settings. A 700g roll of ABS filament is about $60 USD. I *guess* that would do about 20 cases.

So very cool, and the technology looks like it is capable of making a durable cart shell. But likely too expensive unless you have access to a 3D printer and can just pay the raw materials cost.

Another possible technique is resin casting. A friend of mine suggested I watch this video which gives a good overview of the process.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joexdltgj-k

Looks like fun, and I might try it one day. But it also looks way too fiddly to produce any volume of cases, and I doubt you could get all the thin bits of the cart case mould filled consistently without significant air pockets unless you had a pressure injection system or a long feeder tube into the mold to use gravity to force the resin into the mould.

Cheers

Hi All

I just thought you all might be interested in progress on developing cart cases for the Sega SC-3000.

To cut a long story short, high quality 3D printing was too expensive, and getting an injection mold made was too expensive, so I made my own mold. That also turned out to be reasonably expensive to develop, but I had heaps of fun and I can now make very nice copies of an original Sega SC-3000 case in blue or black, complete with a nice little SC-3000 Survivors logo on the back (I 3D printed that via Shapeways and glued it to the back of my master case before taking the mold). I'll get your one in the post shortly, Bock :)

The quality is excellent as I used a high grade mold material and high grade casting materials. They are labour intensive to make though (each one needs about 45 minutes in the mold plus about 10-15 mins prep time / cleanup, and the materials cost per case is a bit higher than I'd like. Still, they are perfect for the multicarts.

If you're interested you can check out the full details, photos, and all the videos I took while developing the mold. It is a pretty useful how-to if you want to try making your own mold :)

Cheers,

The Great Sega SC-3000 / SG-1000 Cartridge Case Project

http://www.sc3000-multicart.com/sc3000-cart-case.htm

case_front_blue_black_smaller.jpg (169.53 KB)

Blue and Black cases for the SC-3000 multicarts

case_rear_blue_smaller.jpg (154.96 KB)

Rear of cases showing 3D printed SC-3000 Survivors logo

very neat !

Wow! I was wondering how to do this too. Nice to see that it is possible.

Author	Message
honestbob Joined: 03 Oct 2011 Posts: 83 Location: New Zealand	Are empty sg1000 cases available? Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2012 10:11 am
	Hi All Just wondering if you can still get empty sg1000 / sc3000 cartridge cases? Say 50 to 100 cases. Has anyone ever looked into getting some made? I've spoken to some coleco developers and it sounds pretty expensive to get a proper injection mold made - in the order of a couple grand. Has anyone ever experimented with molding their own at home using hobby tools? I'm not very hopeful, but I'm happy to be pleasantly surprised :) Cheers

Maxim Site Admin Joined: 19 Oct 1999 Posts: 8980 Location: London	Posted: Wed Jul 04, 2012 8:55 pm
	I think these days there's a decent chance you could get them made on a 3D printer, although probably not cheaply. Else just cheap, common original cartridges would be the only source.

BKK Joined: 01 May 2011 Posts: 74	Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2012 5:56 pm
BKK Joined: 01 May 2011 Posts: 74	Another option could be Laserdisc subtitle cartridges, I don't know how easy to obtain or how much they go for though. http://www.smspower.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=69897

honestbob Joined: 03 Oct 2011 Posts: 83 Location: New Zealand	Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2012 6:25 pm
	Thanks. Interesting idea looking for those subtitle carts. I wonder how widespread they were? I think Maxim is right though. I suspect the most cost-effective option for small amounts would be to contact a Japanese eBay distributor or trawl Yahoo Japan auctions looking for bulk lots of carts that noone wants. Unfortunately just buying carts off existing eBay listings probably means a minimum price of around $8-$12USD or so per cart once shipping to NZ is included which is a bit steep for hobby stuff. I sent an email to a local 3D prototype firm yesterday just to see what sort of cost structure we are talking about and if the process is appropriate for something like a cart case in terms of durability and strength. Cheers

honestbob Joined: 03 Oct 2011 Posts: 83 Location: New Zealand	3D Printing very cool, but expensive Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 8:59 pm
	Hi All I did a bit of research. 3D printing is very cool and you can do some amazing things with it. Just search for 3D printing on YouTube and you'll find all sorts of neat projects. There are some great services available like http://www.ponoko.com and http://www.shapeways.com where you can upload a .STL mesh object and have it printed using a range of different materials and colors then get it couriered out to you. There are a variety of free CAD programs available that can do this, and the learning curve isn't too bad. Unfortunately the price is too expensive for mass production of cart shells. Black ABS plastic is around $2 USD per cubic centimeter. That sounds cheap until you realize that a cart shell requires around 50 cubic centimeters of plastic (ie. around $100USD) I'm just waiting to hear a cost estimate from the local 3D prototype place. The only way this will work is if they are willing to do it somewhere near cost price. He sounded interested in the project, so I might get lucky :) However 3D printing prices have reduced a lot over the past few years, so this approach will become increasingly viable. You can now buy your own consumer grade printer like the Up 3D Mini which is about $1000 USD. There are cheaper 3D printers available, but this looks like a good plug and play package with reasonable build quality. http://store.3dprintingsystems.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=62&a... If you had your own 3D printer, then the materials cost wouldn't be too bad. One of those Up 3D Minis would probably print out half a case shell in about 2 hours depending on quality settings. A 700g roll of ABS filament is about $60 USD. I guess that would do about 20 cases. So very cool, and the technology looks like it is capable of making a durable cart shell. But likely too expensive unless you have access to a 3D printer and can just pay the raw materials cost. Another possible technique is resin casting. A friend of mine suggested I watch this video which gives a good overview of the process. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joexdltgj-k Looks like fun, and I might try it one day. But it also looks way too fiddly to produce any volume of cases, and I doubt you could get all the thin bits of the cart case mould filled consistently without significant air pockets unless you had a pressure injection system or a long feeder tube into the mold to use gravity to force the resin into the mould. Cheers

honestbob Joined: 03 Oct 2011 Posts: 83 Location: New Zealand	Update: The Great Cart Case Project Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2012 12:35 pm
	Hi All I just thought you all might be interested in progress on developing cart cases for the Sega SC-3000. To cut a long story short, high quality 3D printing was too expensive, and getting an injection mold made was too expensive, so I made my own mold. That also turned out to be reasonably expensive to develop, but I had heaps of fun and I can now make very nice copies of an original Sega SC-3000 case in blue or black, complete with a nice little SC-3000 Survivors logo on the back (I 3D printed that via Shapeways and glued it to the back of my master case before taking the mold). I'll get your one in the post shortly, Bock :) The quality is excellent as I used a high grade mold material and high grade casting materials. They are labour intensive to make though (each one needs about 45 minutes in the mold plus about 10-15 mins prep time / cleanup, and the materials cost per case is a bit higher than I'd like. Still, they are perfect for the multicarts. If you're interested you can check out the full details, photos, and all the videos I took while developing the mold. It is a pretty useful how-to if you want to try making your own mold :) Cheers, The Great Sega SC-3000 / SG-1000 Cartridge Case Project http://www.sc3000-multicart.com/sc3000-cart-case.htm case_front_blue_black_smaller.jpg (169.53 KB) Blue and Black cases for the SC-3000 multicarts case_rear_blue_smaller.jpg (154.96 KB) Rear of cases showing 3D printed SC-3000 Survivors logo

TmEE Joined: 31 Oct 2007 Posts: 458 Location: Estonia, Rapla city	Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2012 6:14 pm
	very neat !

dragonfeet Joined: 08 Oct 2012 Posts: 30 Location: Colmar PA, United States	Cool! Posted: Fri Dec 14, 2012 10:46 pm
	Wow! I was wondering how to do this too. Nice to see that it is possible.

Forums

View topic - Are empty sg1000 cases available?