Shadowbox Project

Telekill

Sega Game Gear Enthusiast
Joined
Jul 27, 2018
Location
Beginings of Dystopian Hell
Currently playing
FF7 Rebirth (PS5), Helldivers 2 (PS5), God of War: R (PS5)
Hello all!

Over the course of the last year and a half, I've been creating a "Wall of Fame" of sorts. I decided that I would get a complete copy of one of my favorite games from each favorite series and then frame it in a custom built shadowbox. Each box has the complete copy of a game from the series, a timeline showing each release from the series, a scene from the game, and a push button speaker that cycles through songs from the series. Each box has taken me 30-50 hours with each becoming more technical.

My rule that I've tried to keep with is one series per entire generation. I count Dreamcast as being between generations and of course, Shenmue is my favorite Dreamcast game.

I've completed the following (pictures at the bottom of the post):
- Ninja Turtles - NES
- Jurassic Park - Genesis
- Resident Evil - PS1
- Uncharted - PS3

Tomb Raider Anniversary (PS2) is in progress representing the entire series. This was kind of a break from the main theme for me as it's the remake of the first game, but I felt that I had more enjoyment with Tomb Raider as a whole than anything else that was a new IP during the PS2 days. So I cheated a bit to make Tomb Raider work here.

My final planned shadowbox for quite some time will be Shenmue on Dreamcast.

I'm having to rebuy a Dreamcast copy of the first Shenmue which is easy enough, but now I'm stuck with what scene to use from the first game. Should it be Ryo's backyard? The dojo? How about the shopping district? Or the forklift races? Maybe one of the battles? There's a mass amount of potential but then you have to consider what would look good as a shadowbox. I'm really interested to see what you guy's thoughts are. Take a look below to see the ones that are completed as an idea of what to expect.

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RE Shadowbox.jpg
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I'm not into the whole collecting thing, but getting creative like this is fucking top, and they all look great.

Regarding which scene to use, if you've settled on the original, you can't go wrong with Bunkado Antiques. Specifically the scene where he shows Oishi-san the Phoenix Mirror. The music that plays during this scene is brilliant too, and for me encapsulates the idea that the first game is merely the start of a much larger, mysterious journey that Ryo is about to embark upon. There's always the cherry tree, 70-man battle, and Double Blow scene to look at too (though that last one must come with the yellow sky)

If going with Shenmue II though, Guilin has a few scenes that'd work. The Shenmue Tree, obviously. The cave, that magical-looking scene near the water where all the fireflies are buzzing about. Guang Martial Arts School might look decent too.

I guess it all depends on two things though: What do you reckon says "Shenmue" more than any, and what would you love to see every time you glance at it?

I genuinely can't wait to see the results. Out of all fan projects and tributes I've seen over the years, this is the one I'm looking forward to seeing most. Please post more images (and videos) if the entire set once you've finished em.
 
Definitely quite a few scenes to choose from. As I'm working on the Tomb Raider shadowbox currently, it'll probably be a month or two before I have updates on this. I'll keep you guys updated though.
 
I didn't know what a shadowbox was but they look great. For Shenmue it'd either have to be Ryo's backyard or the docks, in my opinion.
 
As an update, you'll notice that I try to have something interesting beneath the full copy of the games in these shadowboxes that has something to do with the specific game or series. For Shenmue, it was quite easy. My original plan was to simply print off high quality copies of the Phoenix and Dragon mirrors and cut them out and paste them. Then it occurred to me that I have this preorder mirror from Gamestop when I preordered. It's the perfect size... but I would need a second as this will be sealed.

Happy to say I just obtained a second for an affordable price. I will keep you guys updated as I have them.

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As an update, I've managed to secure a copy of the original U.S. Dreamcast release of the first game. It's in near mint condition according to the photos and description and I got it for a fair price. I also received my mirror mentioned above and it's in perfect condition. I'm really looking forward to putting this together. I'll be starting my replay of the first two games to find a great scene some time next month.
 
I'm looking forward to seeing what you'll put together for this, it's such an interesting idea!
 
I got my original copy of the first game for Dreamcast in the mail and it's basically mint condition with only a couple scuffs on the case. That's incredible condition for a 20+ year old game. Not even a scratch on any of the four discs and both manuals have remained in great condition. The copy immediately went into a box protector after being inspected and that's where it'll remain as it's placed into the shadowbox for display.
 
Alright guys. This update is probably the only video update you'll get until it's completed as it was necessary to show which songs I've selected to include in the project. Let me know if you like the songs I picked or which ones you would have chosen given the 4 song limitation. Enjoy the video update.

 
I started the Photoshop process with the timeline. In comparison to the other boxes I've done, this one looks kinda jacked... lol.

Let me know what you think. I know I omitted the Xbox S2 release but that's because of my optimism that the series will continue and hopefully finish... as seen by the watermark spot to place the boxart of the 4th, should it release.

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Looks good so far. I do like the inclusion of Online & City (as well as the dashed lines) as it helps hammer home that long period of waiting, uncertainty, and weird maybes that we had.

If you're American though, I would suggest - if I may - going with the Xbox version of Shenmue II and even switching one of the latter releases to the PC banner boxart. Simply for the variety that it offers, plus going with the Xbox release (again if you're US-based) keeps it "true". I dunno why, but I always found mixing the PAL and NSTC banners a little jarring. Maybe even put a "Now Loading..." for IV.

But I'm not the one who's gonna see it every day, so 🤷‍♂️
 
My first copy of Shenmue was an NTSC US one and my first copy of Shenmue II was PAL so I like the current design :p Maybe the Best Buy steelbook would be nice for Shenmue III? Don't have one myself but always thought it was the best cover for III. Then again you'd miss out on the PS4 banner which would make the (multi)generational leap less obvious.
 
Looks good so far. I do like the inclusion of Online & City (as well as the dashed lines) as it helps hammer home that long period of waiting, uncertainty, and weird maybes that we had.

If you're American though, I would suggest - if I may - going with the Xbox version of Shenmue II and even switching one of the latter releases to the PC banner boxart. Simply for the variety that it offers, plus going with the Xbox release (again if you're US-based) keeps it "true". I dunno why, but I always found mixing the PAL and NSTC banners a little jarring. Maybe even put a "Now Loading..." for IV.

But I'm not the one who's gonna see it every day, so 🤷‍♂️
The boxarts represented in the time line are my history with the series. I initially got to play the second via a pirated copy for Dreamcast that a friend burned for me. It was the PAL version. Had I ended up playing Shenmue 2 on Xbox first, that would have been displayed instead of the PAL Dreamcast version. A method to the madness so to speak.

I do like the "now loading" idea though and may implement it. Thank you.
 
My first copy of Shenmue was an NTSC US one and my first copy of Shenmue II was PAL so I like the current design :p Maybe the Best Buy steelbook would be nice for Shenmue III? Don't have one myself but always thought it was the best cover for III. Then again you'd miss out on the PS4 banner which would make the (multi)generational leap less obvious.
I agree the steelbook is the best design but I stayed with the original PS4 boxart due to the banner. I may switch it though. Plenty of time.
 
As an update, I've finally chosen a scene. I count the first two games as one which opened up significant options. I decided to go with a street scene from the 2nd game as it was more colorful and vibrant than the first game's street scenes. You spend much of the game going around to these street vendors asking questions so it works well as representing a portion of the game.

I also have added the purple Dragon and Phoenix designs from the passport surrounding the mirrors that will go under the complete copy of the game. Just below the mirrors, I'm wanting to add in some of the various characters that Ryo speaks with. I'm considering how to implement that now. The purple background will be behind the characters.

As all of the shadowboxes have, I've drawn up (in an app called 8bit Painter) an 8bit Dreamcast to go on the timeline to represent the system(s) the series started on or I have good memories with playing the series on (PS2 Tomb Raider). I also decided to make an 8bit VMU as I simply love the idea and execution of the VMU and that Shenmue had a mini game to use on it. I've added them here.

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I continue work on deciding how to layer the scene. I'll share my final design once finished and continue to update through the build.
 
Alright, I have nearly finished my design for the Shenmue box. I'm still in the process of "chopping up" the scene into layers that I'll be cutting out for the 3D effect. I initially had more characters in the hexagons below but it got to be too busy. I narrowed it down to some of my favorite characters from the series. I also have a little bit more cleanup to do around the phoenix mirror before printing. Lastly, the gray square in the lower left area is where the speaker will be. I may raise it up slightly.

Does anyone have a good photo of the steelbook case for the third straight on in good lighting? I've been finding it difficult to find a quality image of it.

Let me know what you think.

ShenmueShadowboxPreliminary.jpg
 
It has been an insane month. Happy to say that I've had some time to work on this though. I've almost completed the build work on the section that has the mirrors and speaker.

I found that oddly, the foam inserts holding the mirrors were not the same dimension depth-wise. I had to make up for that with layers of card stock to even the two out. Right now it's about 4 layers of foam board with a 5th being necessary to have the battery pack fit properly.

The mirrors are now being held in place with double sided tape to hopefully keep them in place when vertical for essentially the rest of time. If they fall out, I'll have to glue them in place. Trying to avoid that though.

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