For a while I thought it must be too late to get into the Sega CD. I believed most worthwhile games were likely rare and expensive by now. Of course, like all retro consoles every system has some genuinely rare games but over the past few months I’ve learned that Sega CD games are not as uncommon as I thought.
At last months Game X 2.0 Game Swap I managed trade for three somewhat pricier games and I purchased another four with very friendly price tags.
I traded eighteen complete Gameboy Advance games (Click for List) for the first three Sega CD games pictured below, (Flink, Heart of the Alien and BC Racers) plus $50 CAD (~$38 USD).
*This has been my third time working out a trade with Peter from P Market Games.
After this trade my GBA collection is now whittled down my bare essentials and I’ll be keeping what’s left. I’ll post my GBA collection another time.
The remaining four games I found from a guy at the Swap who was down sizing his personal collection and was kind enough to pass along some really nice deals. The total came to $77 CAD (~$60 USD) for all four:
Ecco the Dolphin $30 CAD (~$23 USD)
Battlecorps $20 CAD (~$15 USD)
Pitfall $8 CAD (~$6 USD)
Brutal Paws $15 CAD (~$12 USD)
I paid an extra $4 because he let me swap a cracked case for a nicer one; which was generous of him.
Unfortunately it’s very common to find broken Sega CD cases.
It felt awesome coming home with seven Sega CD games to add to the collection. I was excepting just two as I had semi-arranged the GBA trade ahead of time.
I was also selling at this game swap thanks to a friend who shared his table with me. I actually sold more than I bought and I ended up being in the black; which was a crazy twist that I was not expecting.
The highlights of these new additions are Heart of the Alien, Flink and Ecco the Dolphin.
What I didn’t realize until the sellers pointed it out to me was that two of these Sega CD games were factory sealed; Ecco the Dolphin and BC Racers.
I can’t be certain that it’s true and they’re not just re-shrink wrapped but just in case I decided to record the unwrapping. If these were actually factory sealed games it would be cool to capture how they were originally packaged and what they originally came with.
Edit: More recently I picked up a factory sealed Road Rash for the Sega CD. Found it for $50 CAD (~$38 USD) from my local classifieds. I’ve added it to the ‘breaking the seal’ video below.
Did you notice that after unwrapping Ecco the Dolphin that there was no foam brick in the case? To me, that’s a possible indicator that maybe this game might not have been factory sealed. Although, I have heard that not all Sega CD games came with a foam brick.
I posed this question at sega-16.com and I got some mixed replies. It will be very hard to make a determination unless we start seeing more ‘Breaking the Seal’ videos for Sega CD games. The good news is that it doesn’t really matter. It’s just something fun to explore.
You know what else is fun? Having a kick-ass Sega CD collection. Sure, I don’t have the Holly Grail’s like Keio Flying Squadron or Space Adventure but I do have a good bunch of worth while games.
I’ve been able to steer clear of Full Motion Video (FMV) games because they don’t really appeal to me. In fact, the same seller who sold me the bundle of four games had a complete set of Sega CD 32X games for sale at a super friendly price. I was very temped but I passed them up. I don’t want to end up chasing a full set.
Instead I’ve made a list of the games I’d like to find some day. The ones marked with * being the eight I’m most interested in.
01) Dungeon Explorer*
02) Earthworm Jim*
03) Flashback*
04) Hook
05) Keio Flying Squadron*
06) Lords of Thunder*
07) Mickey Mania
08) Mortal Kombat
09) Prince of Persia
10) Road Blaster / Road Avenger*
11) Road Rash
12) Shinning Force CD*
13) Space Adventure*
14) Time Gal*
*As of the end of 2019 the above crossed out games have now been added to my collection.
Yes, I know I said I want to stay away from FMV games and there are some in my wish list. But in my eyes many of the animated FMV games really seem to translate into better games than the ones with live actors. I feel games like Road Avenger and Time Gal belong along side titles like Dragon Slayer and Space Ace and should be sub-classified as either FMV-Animated or FMV-LiveAction.
Did you know that about four years ago I passed up a complete Keio Flying Squadron for $200 CAD (~$152 USD)?
Has Keio gone up in price? I can’t look. You look for me; pricecharting.com.
Argh… I’m sure we all have a story like that.
Any Sega CD gamers out there? What are some of your favorite Sega CD Games?
Nice haul. I didn’t realize Flink had shot up so much in price. That Ecco looks like a re-wrap to me based on that photo. I think the seam on the side was a giveaway. Also, some (most?) NA SCD games had hang tabs on the back for showcase displays. The tags could be removed carefully from the wrapper, but you’d generally see some glue residue afterward.
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Hey geelw!
That price tag on Flink is in CAD so $150 would be about $114 USD. With pricecharting.com listing it CIB for $130 USD. But yeah, I’m sure once upon a time it was $50 🙂
Did you see my video unwrapping of Ecco? You’ll see it in much better detail. It did have a hanging tab but those can easily be added. Who knows?…
Did you ever have a Sega CD? You must have, you’ve had everything! What games did you enjoy most?
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Oh, I indeed do still have some SCD/MCD games here: https://fanboydestroy.com/2012/07/07/gallery-us-sega-cdsega-saturn-library/ and here: https://fanboydestroy.com/2011/12/06/gallery-mega-cd-library/
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Wow! You really do! In fact you have a nicer Sega CD collection than I do. Very cool. I’m a little bit jealous of that Shinning Force CD and Lords of Thunder.
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Nice haul! Btw, you can get a Japanese Mega CD copy of Keio Flying Squadron for a fraction of the price a US copy goes for. Using an Everdrive you can boot the region free BIOS to work with your North American Sega CD console. I’ve picked up many import titles over the years thanks to this. IMO the Sega CD dosen’t have as many quality games that the PC Engine CD had, but there is still plenty of fun to be had.
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I do have a few Japanese Mega CD games; Popful Mail, Aleste and Sol-Feace. I’m now trying to sell two of them. So I’m kind of on the fence about getting imports for the Sega CD. However, Keio Flying Squadron would be a great exception. But at about $200 I’m on the fence again 😛
I do have a TG-16 CD but I can’t play Super-CD games so that removes a lot of titles for me. I’m also partial to HuCard games just cause they’re pretty amazing. The PC Engine rocks and I’d love to have it but I’m trying to stick with the current consoles that I have now. Winning the lotto would solve this problem.
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I’d say get a US Turbo Duo with (the System 3.0 version) and a PC-Engine Core system. This will let you play every US and most import games (import HuCards you’d run on the PC-E). I gather you don’t want to play import RPGs thanks to the language barrier, so you probably won’t need one of those expensive card adapters. On the other hand, you may want to go that way if you want to run Arcade Card CD games. Decisions, decisions!
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That would be a good plan for sure. I wish that US system 3.0 HuCard wasn’t so rare.
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Try to find the US Duo with the 3.0 update installed, as it’s likely easier to find than the card itself. Also, did you hear Limited Run Games is producing Sega CD/Saturn/PS1 longboxes? Keep an eye on their page or sign up for their newsletter, as the cases will be made of better quality plastic and are likely going to be a super hot item when they’re released.
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I heard of someone making replacement longboxes and I have saw a video of early production but I had no idea it was Limited Run Games. That’s surprising. But it’s also great news. I am on their mailing list. And thank you for putting this on my radar!
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I love the US Sega CD boxes! They’re all blue and matching, like the Mega Drive carts we got here 🙂 Our Mega CDs didn’t seem to have any common cover style
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Hey Heidi!
You know, at first I didn’t like them at all. Partly because they are often broken and hard to replace. But now that I have a bunch of them they do look pretty good together.
Genesis cartridge cases started with back grid boxes and later changed to red striped cases and there are a lot of exceptions to these two styles which does hurt the over all look and uniformity of a Genesis collection.
I totally understand your appreciate for games that are nice an uniform.
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Heidi, do you have a Sega CD/ Mega CD? Have any favorite games for the system?
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Nice video and collection! It was interesting to see the lack of a foam brick. I love the system. My personal favourites are Snatcher (I got it signed by Hideo Kojima when he visited Stockholm – I got the game for maybe $70 about 10 years ago long before it started to get pricey), Sonic CD, Popful Mail, Dungeon Explorer, Lunar 2, Earthworm Jim, Shining Force CD and Final Fight CD.
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Yeah, I thought it was strange that Ecco didn’t have a foam brick. Some people have said early releases sometimes came like this.
I feel very lucky to have my own Snatcher. It was a fun trading for that game.
It looks like Earthworm Jim has become a bit expensive too. Not Snatcher expensive but still a few hundred bucks.
I recently bought Dungeon Explorer (haven’t received it yet). It looks like a fun Gauntlet style game. And I’d love to find Shinning Force CD someday!
So far, Popful Mail is still my fav Sega CD game.
Do you still have your Sega CD collection?
Is Snatcher ever worth a 2nd play-through?
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My Sega CD collection will follow me to the grave!
Snatcher is so great so it is definitely worth a second playthrough. Especially if you played without a Justifier gun the first time.
Also check out the fan translated spiritual successor, Policenauts on Saturn/PlayStation. It’s equally amazing!
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