To the untrained eye (aka the uninterested) this update to my collection is not so significant. But I can see the difference and I had a lot of fun doing it. I had a bunch of Neo Geo AES games pilling up (they’re sooo Huge!) and I wanted to make room for them… Yes, the Sega Dude collects Neo Geo AES and they’ve even managed to worm their way into TheSegaCollection site. I’m not sure what I think about that but the world is not black and white and I am trying hard to come to terms with it.
As I started my collection house cleaning I realized (remembered) that diving in and messing with your collection every now and again is a great way to rejuvenate interest in it. I got to see how many games were is awesome condition and a refresher on the few that I wish were a bit better. But best of all it didn’t take long to remember how much I love seeing a shelf that is absolutely bursting with games. In order to get all of my Japanese Sega Mega Drive games into three shelves (from 3.5 shelves) I really had to utilize every square inch of space. But drawing on my insane Tetris skills I managed what you see below and I was still able to face some of my favorite/cool games to make it look all pretty.
*Hey, did you see? That’s Panorama Cotton down there! 🙂
Look at all of those Sega Master System games. One third of my SMS games where previously on the other book shelf. I’m glad I found room to reintegrate them. Seeing them together really does offer up a lot more impact. Despite having poorer quality artwork, less colour and less over-all polish they really do look great. The Style of the drawings and the white grid backdrop really do mark their era. And they really do look at home with the Mega Drive games yet at the same time they stand out as something special on their own. Speaking of the white grid backdrop my Japanese Mega Drive fooled me. I didn’t realize it wasn’t my boxed Sega Master System until after I had taken my pictures. I don’t have a lot of room for the boxes so I’ll figure out what to do with them later.
Genesis does what Nintendon’t!… because the Super Nintendo wasn’t around for about two years after the Genesis came out. You wont find the SegaDude bashing the SNES. I loved it then and I love it now. But the Genesis is what I had back when video gaming really took hold of me. I had my Master System and I love it and when the Genesis was released I dove in and it never even occurred to me that there might be something else. I love seeing all these kick-butt Genesis games in the next three images below. I feel really lucky that I started collecting so long ago. There a lot of titles there that I just wouldn’t buy if I had to consider today’s prices.
You’ll also notice some cool bead art on a few of the shelves. The Phantasy Star crew and Dark Force were made for me by Nintendo Joe and Sonic, Opa Opa, mini Opa Opa and SEGA were made for me by StopXwhispering. Thank you! to both of you. You did great work and I really do enjoy having them mixed in with the collection.
*Hey, did you see? That’s Musha down there! 🙂
What’s this now? In those two images above… Let me tell you. That’s a little taste of awesome. When the Neo Geo AES first came out I saw two games for it; Nam-1975 and Magician Lord… and they blew my mind. They were literally perfect arcade ports. The Neo Geo AES was offering the arcade in your home with no corners cut. And after hearing the retail price my young brain had no choice but to pretend it didn’t exist.
I know already my Neo Geo AES collection wont get much further than it is now. The games are so expensive that I just wont be able to keep up. I’ve decided that I want to have a few nice pieces in my collection from something that was entirely unattainable back in the day. And even though I got my Neo Geo X before my AES I still love having the real deal. These fat and massive cartridges rock; there is so much meat to them! And most of the games are really fun to play.
I also started a mini collection for the Neo Geo Pocket. It’s a cool handheld and I feel like it’s often over looked. You can get a boxed NGP for about $50 plus shipping so it’s not too hard to get the hardware and loose games are cheap enough. *By the way; don’t believe the negative hype about the Neo Geo X. It’s a good system and a great way to get some of the best Neo Geo games in a much more affordable way. Since my Neo Geo AES and Neo Geo Pocket collection are pretty new to me I know exactly how much I’ve spend so far… but I’m not yet ready to share that number 😛 That should tell you something about the AES.
Look at that last shelf. Isn’t it cute? That’s my baby TurboGrafx-16 collection. The TG-16 is another Rock’in system from back in the day. Ever since my friend EvilKalman gave me a free TG-16 with the add-on CD unit I’ve started picking up a few games here and there. I’m tempted to pick up a PC-Engine but I’m thinking I need to stay focused and I’m getting close to deciding what systems I really want. The TG-16 CD unit is region free so I have been able to get a few cheap PC-Engine CD games that run just fine on my unit. I also tried out burned CDs and they also work. I’m thinking that copying a CD back in 1990 was so expensive that NES felt they didn’t need any protection.
Below are two more pictures of the collection. One showing the whole thing in one shot and the other showing my tucked away Nintendo Collection. Nintendo Joe is helping me print up some covers for Universal cases for NES and SNES games so I can make them look nice when on display.
Tucked Away Nintendo Goodness.
I really do want to make the whole wall where my collection sites a bit nicer looking. The furniture and games look good but the white wall in the back is a bit stark. The consoles could be setup a bit neater and I need to find a proper home for the TurboGrafx-16 and the Neo Geo AES. It’s time for some growth! …but I’m not quite sure how to approach it yet. So for now phase one is complete; pack’em in there!
Nice work,sir. You’re HIRED! LOL! Now get a bus down here and get to work! Just kidding, of course. I never wanted an AES until I saw some games in an arcade MANY moons ago. But it was always so expensive and those games? Yikes. I’m happy I got my NEO GEO X even though it’s not flawless and I’ve played a few collections on other consoles that do a good job at introducing me to other games in the library.
As for the TG-16, it’s an awesome system once you start seeing the cooler titles and get a few Japanese games in there to play. There are a ton of cool games in every genre (and yeah, a lot of RPGs, but most require language skills to fully enjoy) and the shooters are solid (with only a few duds). The nicest thing about those older CD games on this system (and others from the Sega CD to the PlayStation up to the Dreamcast): REDBOOK AUDIO!
Pop one of those games into a CD player, skip the first track (it’s game data and may kill your speakers!), and if you see a track listing come up, it’s got music and maybe voice acting to listen to. I did a silly column on redbook discs a while back, but I need to did up that link and send it your way.
LikeLike
Thanks! I think the only essential element for displaying a collection is having enough room.
I’m glad to hear you also like your Neo Geo X. I wish it got fair criticism instead of getting slammed by a few vocal people. I would love to see more volumes comes out (many more!).
And I can’t wait to find more time to play the TG-16. I know already that is rocks. I just wish I could find an affordable System 3.0 HuCard card so I could play Super CD games.
I use to pop data CDs into audio CD players just to see what I might find 🙂
LikeLike
Beautiful collection you’ve got here *whistle with admiration*
LikeLike
Thank you Pierre! I do really like it too. And I have to say I love your Metroid avatar!
LikeLike
This looks amazing! Great job! 😀 I wish I had the space to display mines as nicely, but they’re just crammed into the shelf and I don’t even have enough room to put more in! >_< Too many games ;D Then again, I might just sort out some of the lesser good ones (like the RPG's ;D hahaha) and pile them somewhere else, then I might be able to get a few shelves that looks nearly as good as yours (but yours will always rock!, those pristine conditions and awesome additions like Musha etc) *wow*
and btw, cool! I had no idea you could pop the CD games into a CD player?!?! gotta check it out ;D is it also possible to rip the audio tracks??
*OMFG THE POSSIBILITIES OF AWESOME TUNES IN MY SPEAKERS!!!*
*i want neo geo aes too* >_<
LikeLike
Thanks! Not all of my games are pristine. But they are all good. Condition matters but you can’t get too hung up on it. When I look at your collection everything looks really good too.
Yeah, I think most old games on CD used regular audio tracks for music and even sound effects. So I bet you’d be able to rip the tunes off them without trouble 🙂 But like geelw said the first track is always the data and you have to skip it when using and an audio CD player.
I know you… someday you’ll end up with a Neo Geo AES! 😀
LikeLike
Well I’m good at cleaning my games so they look fresh ;D but I have a lot of crappy manuals and broken plastics as well.. but I’m happy as long as I can play, and the games in my collection are meant to be played, I always invite people over to try out awesome games 😀
That is awesome! I will get right to that tomorrow 😀
indeed, just tonight I bought a VECTREX 😀 totally impulsive.. it was almost 700 USD..
but it had ALL THE GAMES and accessories 😀 *yay*
LikeLike
That’s the way to do it! Get the games to play them. That should be priority one. Good call! 🙂
Yeah, cleaning games and cases can make a huge difference. It’s well worth the time.
And again, that’s the way to do it!! Get a new system that comes with EVERYTHING! Wow, you don’t mess around. I bet something as old as the VEXTREX is hard to find stuff for it. So you did really well snagging everything in one go. I’m really looking forward to that post!
LikeLike
Ancient article I wrote on redbook audio in games, ACTIVATE:
http://www.digitpress.com/archives/didyouknow_listening.htm
It’s SO easy to get lost in a pile of game discs listening to tunes and making lists all day. I had a nice long list of something like 200-250 games that had redbook audio on them, but it got eaten in a hard drive crash some years back and I have yet to get back around to redoing it. There are a lot of audio surprises on many games, that’s for sure…
LikeLike
That’s awesome! ^_^
harddrive crashes SUCK! >___<
It’s unfortunate you don’t still have that list
Anyway I'm gonna start with my PC Engine Super CD ROM library 😀
LikeLike
I think the Super CD ROM Library would be a great place to start!
LikeLike
Great collection!! Looks really nice, SEGA is under appreciated as a whole IMO!
Wicked game room man, looks really nice! I like how you’ve put one shelf each on each side of the TV, I’m going to do that too when I get to it, I need more space for my collectibles, boxes and handheld games.
Thanks for an awesome post!
LikeLike
Thanks martianoddity!
All of that furniture came from Ikea. The first bookshelf cost $200 and for the second the price had dropped to $175. They’re solid wood and sooo much nicer than press-board. They are called HEMNES:
http://www.ikea.com/ca/en/catalog/products/80245640/
Isn’t space always the problem?! So many awesome retro games to collection 🙂
LikeLike
Space truly is a problem!
Yeah, I’ve seen those bookshelves at Ikea, they’re of really good quality. And they look very nice!
LikeLike
Good job in the rearrangement. It looks really awesome now! There is however one thing that is bugging me… why are the Wonderboy 1,2, & 3 going chronologically right to left. Every OCD person (myself included) knows it should be organized LEFT TO RIGHT!!! Aside from that I think your collection rocks!
LikeLike
Well, if it isn’t Nintendo Joe… Hello.
I’ve been collecting Japanese video games for so long that maybe the culture is seeping into me 🙂 Japan is awesome so I’m good with that.
Really, I wanted Wonderboy 1 to be seen. I have such good memories of that game and I love the crappy artwork of the early Master System cases too. It’s very retro and holds a lot of nostalgia for me.
If nothing else I’m consistent. The Alex Kidd games just above Wonderboy are also right to left.
It’s cool hearing what people notice about the collection!! Thanks 😀
LikeLike
Nice collection! Very versatile and pretty. I did not only see Panorama Cotton and MUSHA, but a Pier Solar copy as well, wow 😉 . Where did you catch Earthworm Jim? I want one too. I voted Sega only on the poll. Less is more! Take care!
Den 19 maj 2014 05:06 skrev “The Sega Collection” : > > SegaDude posted: “To the untrained eye (aka the uninterested) this update to my collection is not so significant. But I can see the difference and I had a lot of fun doing it. I had a bunch of Neo Geo AES games pilling up (they’re sooo Huge!) and I wanted to make room for ” >
LikeLike
Hi cjzebastian!
Yeah, I have Pier Solar as well. I actually have the Japanese Mega Drive Posterity Edition and the reprint. I love it! 🙂
Do you mean the Earthworm Jim figure? I got him at a local comic book store. He was $20 plus tax. He’s not that old so you might be able to still buy him. He’s really well done.
Only Sega? OK, lets see of more people offer up their opinions.
LikeLike
I say cover Sega stuff, as you ARE The Sega Dude, BUT also write about other stuff you like because games like Volgarr the Viking and your Neo Geo games wouldn’t get the coverage they need. All of your collection, Sega or not is worth a look to readers, so share anything you feel we need to know about.
LikeLike
Thanks for the feedback geelw! I was thinking that most people who like retro Sega games also have lots of love for many other retro systems too.
LikeLike