I’ve often seen Sol-Deace sell for $60 and up so when I saw this sticker riddled copy for $33 plus $7 for shipping I thought I’d take a chance. It was my hope that I could remove the stickers without damaging the cart label or the manual. And if all went well I’d end up with a very good copy of a somewhat hard to find game.
Sticker Problem
Four of them…
My tools consisted of a blow dryer, WD-40, paper towels and lots of patients.
I know this isn’t news to anyone but the theory behind the blow dryer was to heat up the rental store sticker residue/glue so that when I pealed the label off it wouldn’t take any of the Genesis label with it in the process. Did it work? It really did. I was very pleased. I applied the blow dryer for about 3 minutes and shielded the Genesis label with a piece of paper as best I could. And when it came time to peel the rental store sticker away I pulled at it very slowly.
The power of the Revlon 1875 IONIC CERAMIC
No damage to the cart label.
Turns out the center sticker was the hardest to get off. It was very thick and I had a hard time getting any of the corners turned up so that I could pull at it. But in the end all three rental stickers on the cartridge came off perfectly.
There was some residue left behind but that’s where the WD-40 came in. I sprayed a small amount of WD-40 on a paper towel and gently rubbed the residue away. This also worked perfectly and now you’d never know how fanatical Michigan Video Inc. was with their game rentals!
I was also concerned with the manual which also had a small sticker on it. The paper manual is much softer than the cart label and I thought it would be much easier to tear it by accident. Again I used the same system of blow drying then slowly peeling away. Slowly really felt like the key here. If I felt like the label I was trying to remove wasn’t moving I would apply more heat and try again.
Left over residue.
WD-40 did a brilliant job!
Was it all worth it? Well, it wasn’t until I took my final picture of the game (below) that I realized the cover might be very slightly sun faded. What you’re seeing in the picture below looks more pronounced than it does it real life. So I’m not sure what to think. I’m very happy with the sticker removal but I hate sun fade… so very much.
Sol-Deace
Sol-Deace Gameplay by the Sega Dude
Here’s the real surprise… I played the first two levels of Sol-Deace and it’s not that good. It’s OK but something like Thunder Force III is soooo much better.
The graphics in Sol-Deace are kind of plain and while there are lots of large sprites and large bosses it felt kind of flat.
Despite all my fussing I still like having this game in the collection. And I’m very happy with the restoration!
Retro Megabit 
Nice addition! I remember seeing a few copies of this for $15 new many years back when the Genesis was fading away but it wasn’t being bought by me because of the Sega CD version (Sol-Feace) not being so hot. While the cart version loses the Redbook audio and animated intro, I found out later that it has a longer ending and changes the main story a little bit. Still, it’s not exactly Wolfteam’s finest hour (that flicker gets annoying in some stages). I wish I’d have cleaned the place that had them out, as it’s gone up in value since. And yeah, your sticker removal went supremely well.
Aha. I dug up a review you can check out: http://www.sega-16.com/2011/04/sol-deace/
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Hey geelw!
I am happy that I was able to fix it up pretty well and it looks like I saved about $20 from the typical price tag. Even though that’s not super exciting it’s not nothing. And it was fun sorting out the stickers.
I go to Sega-16.com a lot. I love the reviews there! Seems like the reviewer had the same impression that I did. But I think I might have scored it a wee bit lower despite the fact that it still is a good game.
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