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GO SEGA 60th Anniversary and the Sega Dude

Posted by Sega Dude on November 25, 2020
Posted in: Collection New Additions, Community, SEGA. Tagged: , , , , . 2 Comments

I don’t recall how I found out but I stumbled upon an invitation from SEGA to write a message from me to SEGA commemorating SEGA’s 60th anniversary.

The invitation went something like this:

“Please submit a message in commemoration of SEGA’s 60th anniversary!
The message you send will be displayed on this site.
You can also send a picture together with the message.” – SEGA

https://60th.sega.com/en/message/send/

It felt like something fun to do. And who doesn’t love celebrating SEGA?!

Below you can see me the ‘Sega Dude’ in all my glory and my somewhat uninspired yet sincere message to SEGA.

https://60th.sega.com/message/81/

According to Google Translate さん means Mr.

I am being too hopeful that SEGA has officially coined me Mr. SEGA Dude?

https://60th.sega.com/en/message/send/

When I wrote my message I didn’t know what to expect from the gift which was described as “chalk bag engraved with SEGA’s 60th anniversary key message, “GO SEGA”&”SONIC”‘.

To me a chalk bag is something that holds powered chalk used to coat your hands for weight lifting or rock climbing.

Turns out the chalk bag is a purse for a few small essentials. I tried cramming some Mega Drive carts into the pouch but it is not ideal.

 
 
 
 
 
 

What I also didn’t realize is that there would be only 60 of these hand made Chalk Bag given away to fans.

Here are the Marketing photos:

With my chalk bag SEGA also included the following letter.

What stood out as interesting to me is SEGA is asking that I never sell or trade this gift.


So I managed to stumbled into a very unique Sega Collectible.

Thank you SEGA! Here’s hoping for another amazing 60 Years!

Pick-Ups – CIB NES, Kirby’s Adventure and More…

Posted by Sega Dude on September 13, 2020
Posted in: Games, NES, Nintendo. Tagged: , , , , , . 3 Comments


I made some recent sales on my local classified as I downsize my loose cart collection of Nintendo NES and SNES games. I then took that money straight to Retro Game Bros. in the hopes of finding some nice complete Super Nintendo or NES games.

I’ve decided that I want to chase complete games rather than loose cartridges and because that means spending more money I’ve decided that I’m OK having less games in the collection.

Of course I would love all my complete games to be like new and in super mint condition but I know that’s not realistic. Complete and mint games are hard to find and will be very expensive. And with the somewhat recent trend of ‘Graded’ games prices seem to have no upper limit.

So I’m truly content with having games that show some wear love.

But this does not mean I’m left scraping the bottom of the barrel. Below is my new Complete in Box (CIB) Kirby’s Adventure. Right away you’ll be able to see where it’s aged but all in this is a very good copy of the game.

Thanks to the Video Game documentary series called High Score I’ve learned that our beloved Bald and Pink Kriby was named and imaged (in a fashion) after the attorney John Kirby who successfully saved Nintendo from Universal Studios in a dispute over Donkey Kong and his similarity to King Kong. Thank you John!

In order to help judge retro video game value I’ve been using two web site: www.pricecharting.com and gamevaluenow.com.

I’ve started to notice a trend where these two site don’t always show a similar value for some games and most times when this happens GameValueNow will show a higher value. Sometimes the spread between the two values can be significant. So I’ll often take an average between the two to give myself something to work with.

In the case of Kirby’s Adventure there is a small different of $10 CAD between the two sites; giving the game an average CIB value of $75 CAD (~$57 USD). RetroGameBros. asking price was $80 CAD. But that is not what I paid. Without even asking they were slashing prices left right and centre for me. They’re good like that 🙂

Their sticker price for the four games I purchased were as follows:

Kiryb’s Adventure $80 CAD (~$60 USD)
Final Fantasy $80 CAD (~$60 USD)
Double Dragon II $50 (~$38 USD)
Gauntlet $25 (~$19 USD)

For a total of $235 CAD (~$178 US) and I paid $200 CAD (~$152 USD).

Also consider that Final Fantasy’s averaged online value is about $130 CAD (~$99 USD). With Double Dragon II at about $68 CAD (~$52 USD) and Gauntlet at $33 CAD (~$25 USD).

Next up is the first ever Final Fantasy. A game that the developers Square thought would be their last before going bankrupt. But instead it sold extremely well and we’re still getting Final Fantasy games 20 years later.

Thanks to the box cover I can see that I am missing the Game World and Dungeon map as well as the Monster Chart. I’ll have to keep an eye out for those.

Should I have gone for a near mint graded Final Fantasy for a cool $1,500 CAD (~$1,140 USD)? Hells no!

I wasn’t intending on adding Double Dragon to the collection but after seeing the price and how nice the condition is I decided to go for it.

I guess this means I’ll be hunting for Double Dragon 1 and 3 as well.

Gauntlet is another iconic video game and also not a game I was planning on buying for that price it was hard to say no.

The outer box shows the most wear of all four of these games but it’s nice to see that inner sleeve looking so new. This is very different from the standard dust cover sleeves that most NES games came with making Tengen’s Gauntlet a bit unique.

Speaking of cartridge dust covers. The three I received with these games look like aftermarket non-Nintendo sleeves. But it won’t be long before I can swap them out. My buddy Nintendo Joe has a pile of authentic Nintendo dust covers that he’ll be giving to me.

Nintendo Joe is getting very close to having a complete NES game library. Check him out on Instagram.

Pick-Ups – Dune Battle for Arrakis and No Escape

Posted by Sega Dude on August 26, 2020
Posted in: Games, Genesis (North America), SEGA. Tagged: , , , , . 4 Comments

Over the years I’ve occasionally seen Dune: Battle for Arrakis being sold for about $50 CAD (~$38 USD). I had always passed it up because the condition of the ones I’ve encountered didn’t live up to the asking price.

More recently I’ve noticed that Dune has been creeping up in price. GameValueNow lists a complete copy averages for about $118 CAD (~$90 USD) while Dune on PriceCharting comes in slightly less at $110 CAD (~$84 USD).

So when I saw Dune: Battle for Arrakis on my local classified for $75 CAD (~$57 USD) I felt it was time. Or risk this game climbing out of reach.

My new Dune for the Sega Genesis is complete and in excellent condition. Maybe there is some very mild sun-fade on the cover? It’s hard to be sure. I’ve looked online and every photo I see of the physical case also look a bit subdued and they do not have a deep red on the Genesis banner. Does anyone out there have a copy with a cover as vibrant as the game manual?

I use to play Dune on the PC a lot back in the day and it’s a really great Real Time Strategy (RTS) game. Very similar to Command & Conquer. Yes, the game is a little bit awkward using the Sega Genesis gamepad vs. a mouse and keyboard but I was surprised at how well it does work. The game is a real treat and very addictive!

Next up is No Escape for the Sega Genesis. Whatever money I may have saved on Dune I certainly lost on No Escape.

I don’t know what happened but for some reason I just forgot to look up what No Escape typically sells for. The average between Pricecharting and GameValueNow put No Escape at $36 CAD (~$27 USD) and I paid $80 CAD (~$60 USD).

I think I managed to distract myself because No Escape is a game I didn’t know existed. I’d never seen or heard of it before. So I was bit over excited to check out something new. It would have helped a lot if the game was any good. It is not. The controls are slow, clunky and cumbersome. No Escape offers no help on how to do the things you need to do. The manual does go into a lot of detail but it doesn’t make up for poor design. No Escape will likely just sit on the shelf for a very long time.

If you ever see a complete No Escape for $20 CAD go for it if you like to collect. Otherwise I feel it’s not worth the money or the effort.

OK, some good and some bad and the Genesis Collection grows a little bit.

Pick-Ups – Japanese Phantasy Star II Hint Guides

Posted by Sega Dude on August 25, 2020
Posted in: Mega Drive (Japanese), SEGA. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 2 Comments

So this is pretty cool. Not very useful but cool.

Any 8-bit and 16-bit Phantasy Star fan knows that Phantasy Star II on the Sega Genesis came with a very hefty hint guide. And while the Japanese Mega Drive version of Phantasy Star II didn’t come with a hint guide they were available for purchase. I’ve known about them for a very long time but I never had good access to hunt them down.

Thanks to Japantiquity on Instagram (and FaceBook) I managed to get my hands on these two guides for a fair price.

How Japantiquity works is you get access to someone with easy access to the Japanese market. Request what you’re looking for and a small premium will be applied and it’s yours.

The two Phantasy Star II hint guides pictured below cost me $20 USD each.

Phantasy Star II pictured with two hint guides.
Set of two.

They appear to be a set of two. The book with Nei on the cover I believe is Part I. And because Dark Force is shown at the end of the book with Rolf on the cover I believe it’s Part II.

Maybe there are some Japanese readers out there who can set me straight.

Your journey begins!
Nei First, heart breaking.
Are those space faring boats?
Dark Force!

The second book with Rolf even has a small walk through for the first Phantasy Star at the end of the book.

If you look close at the photo below with the dungeon map and with Dark Force pictured you can see a hidden door is marked! As a kid I was stuck here for so long. I had no idea there was a hidden door. You had to turn and face what appeared to be a wall before it would reveal itself.

Mini Phantasy Star 1 guide.
The last dugeon of the first epic adventure.
Adverts for some early Mega Drive releases.
More hint guides.

Check out that last image above. Looks like lots of Sega Mega Drive games got hint books. This might be a new rabbit hole to tumble down.

I’ve also been collecting the Sega Ages 2500 games released for the Playstation 2 and Japantiquity managed to get me Fits of the North Star for $25 USD. It’s actually been many years since I’ve bought a game from the Sega Ages 2500 collection. Some are excellent and some are terrible. It’s a real mixed bag.

Below is my Sega Ages 2500 collection so far. I’d love to find the (good) Space Harrier and Monster World Complete Collection someday. But I’m really happy to have the Phantasy Star I and II remakes as well as the Phantasy Star Complete Collection. Those are by far the highlights of this series.

Of course I had to pay for shipping which cost me $20 USD by boat and took about 2 months to reach me. I’m OK with that. I’m much happier saving on shipping and waiting.

All in, this was a good Japanese Sega fix!

Pick-Ups – Boxed Japanese Sega Mega Drive

Posted by Sega Dude on June 12, 2020
Posted in: Hardware, Mega Drive (Japanese), SEGA. Tagged: , , , . 3 Comments


Just too beautify to pass up!

For a long time now it’s been a rare occurrence to find Japanese Mega Drive stuff out in the wild. So when I found this boxed Mega Drive console it was a genuine surprise. I wasn’t planning on buying what would be my third Mega Drive but after holding it for just a few minutes there was already an unbreakable bond. I offer Retro Quest $40 CAD (~$30 USD) and they were willing. It’s missing the power brick and video cable but I’ll find them eventually.

The condition is not perfect but it’s pretty good and it’s hard to argue with the price. If you’re local to Toronto (GTA) be sure to visit Retro Quest. I have purchased a lot of great retro gaming stuff from them over the years. It’s a great store with great people!

Initially I thought this was going to be an easy pass because in 2014 I purchased a really great condition Mega Drive (pictured below) at the VGCC Game Swap for $65 CAD (~$47 USD). However, since these two Mega Drives have different packaging they both feel like good additions to the collection.

Japanese Mega Drive
Asian Region Packaging
Box Opened
Mega Drive Close Up

Below is my loose Model 2 Mega Drive that cost me about $30 CAD (~$22 USD) in the same year (2014) as the model 2 above. Even though they’re not pictured I do have power and video cables for this Model 2; just no box.

Mega Drive Model 2

Believe it or not I purchased this model 2 Mega Drive in a bundle that included the very elusive game Eliminate Down. Click here for those details. The short answer is I scored Eliminate Down for about $80 CAD in 2014 (~$70 USD).

Pick-Ups – Tanglewood OST and Post Card Set

Posted by Sega Dude on June 5, 2020
Posted in: Collection New Additions, Genesis (North America), Hardware, Mega Drive (EURO), Mega Drive (Japanese), SEGA. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 8 Comments


OK, this is something real special. How often do you get a chance to own a video game sound track on cartridge? Not often… not often at all. Almost never actually.

Have a look at the Tanglewood OST with its beautiful red (orange?) cartridge for play on your original Sega Genesis and Sega Mega Drive. This is a sight you won’t see often!

In addition to the OST cartridge you might have noticed a set of 10 Tanglewood themed Post Cards.

Normally you’d only get one random Tanglewood Post Card in every physical copy of Tanglewood the game from Matt Phillips’ Tanglewood Kickstarter campaign. The full set of ten was only available to those who purchased the collectors edition. A true gem that I could not afford at the time.

So how did I end up with a full Post Card set?

Courtesy of a very close friend who reached out to the creator Matt Phillips of Big Evil Corporation and asked if he could buy a set for me.

Not only was Matt willing but he went one step further and included a free OST cartridge as well. When I received this packaged I was truly beside myself. I like very niche things. Things that are incredibly hard for family and friends to deduce. And my buddy nailed it… in a very big way.

Thank you RamboRy!

How good is this 16-bit video game sound track by freezedream?
Oh, it’s good. It’s very good.

The very first track is the Tanglewood theme and it sets a serene and calming mood. Conjuring images of the fairy tale ending you’ll want to earn for our fury friends; Nymn and Echo.

If I had to choose, I’d say my favourite songs would be tracks #20 (So long) and #21 (Deadwood). Not only are they incredible songs in their own right but they play at a very pivotal storytelling moment in the game and they are major contributors to a very emotional moment of loss and enduring.

Below is a recording I captured of the entire OST playing from my original model 1 Sega Genesis. Have a listen!

Unfortunately the Tanglewood cartridge OST is sold out at the time this post was published.
But a digital version is available over at freezedream.bandcamp.

Haven’t heard of Tanglewood? Read my spoiler free review here: Tanglewood 16-bit Perfection.

And have a peak at my Tanglewood longplay:

Honestly, if you’re a retro gamer you need to get your hands on Tanglewood.