Retro Megabit

Sega Mega Drive / Genesis Reproductions

Posted by Sega Dude on May 5, 2015

Posted in: Community, Genesis (North America), Mega Drive (Japanese), Translation. Tagged: bootleg, genesis, mega drive, monster world iv, reproduction, sega, Serega, tetris, wonder boy. 13 Comments

For many years I’ve avoided reproductions. The only reason being is that I would really prefer the original. But as time passes some games get hard or impossible to afford. Tetris for the Japanese Mega Drive is a great example of this. It’s rare because Sega had to destroy the copies they produced when they discovered that they didn’t have a valid license to produce Tetris on a home console. It is rumored around the Internet that a few of these copies survived (1o? 20?) and got out into the wild. The only time I have ever seen one for sale was on ebay with a a BIN (Buy it Now) price of $1,000,000.00 USD. That’s beyond ridiculous. So for a long time I thought I’d have to make due with the “original bootleg” copy that was released when the Genesis was current.

But thanks to Serega I’ve gotten my hands on a reproduction that is near perfect.

While browsing to see what else Serega had to offer I quickly realized another giant benefit of reproductions. English translations.
There are many excellent Mega Drive games that never left Japan and where exclusively in Japanese. Now, some of these games have been translated by very talented fans. My thanks to all of you involved!

In addition to Tetris I also purchased Monster World IV. Even thought it feels like the amount of language used in Monster World IV is minimal there’s still enough to get you stuck if you can’t read it. Even in English I got stuck a few times!

Below are my new copies of Monster World IV and Tetris. The quality of these reproductions is outstanding.

Monster World IV in English:

Reproduction of Sega’s short lived Tetris:

They were not cheap with Monster World IV costing $70 USD and Tetris $60 USD. But because they are complete with Game, Case and Manual I decided to go for it. Honestly I believe I have an idea of the work involved in producing these and I cannot imagine someone doing this for much less.

As for the build quality? It’s excellent. I believe everything must have been cut by machine. The cover art sleeve, cartridge label and manual are perfect with straight sharp clean edges. When comparing the materials used for these reproductions to originals it is very hard to find differences. There are some subtleties but nothing worth fussing over.

The Original Monster World IV and the Genesis Reproduction:

Both looking very different in design but both are very well done:

Above is the official Japanese Monster World IV next to the reproduction. The Reproduction is meant to look like how it might have as a Genesis release. Both are very different but I would say equal in quality and professional design.

The original bootleg and the new:

The original is good the repro is awesome:

And above is the original Tetris bootleg next to the reproduction. Sure, technically a reproduction is the same as a bootleg but I have no issue with it. I don’t mind if you’re of a different opinion and I’d be happy to hear your thoughts on the topic.

Have I played them yet? I sure have!

First up is Monster World IV. Wow, what a great game. Of all the Wonder Boy games in the series that this game belongs to Monster World IV is most similar to Wonder Boy in Monster World. The graphics and gameplay are amazing.

Below is a video of my second time playing Monster World IV. The first time I got stuck early on when I could not find some quest item that was required to get me into the very first dungeon. I didn’t want to post a video of me failing what is pretty much the introduction of the game…
So…. This is my first ‘official’ hour with the game. You’ll find no mastery here 🙂 Just me learning where to go and how to fight. Don’t watch the whole thing. That would be cruel. But if you feel like jumping to the very end you’ll see me trying to use a lava geyser as platform to jump to the next area. I don’t know what I was thinking… I’m still not sure how to get to that next platform! I’m guessing a skillful double jump is required.

Next up is Tetris. If you know the game there will be no surprises here. It’s a classic game that will always be fun and the Mega Drive version is a good one. While playing I was happy to notice that I’m still as good now I was 20 years ago! It would appear that age has not yet hindered my video gaming prowess :D. *Please forget the part above about me failing the introduction of Monster World IV.

My final thoughts on these reproduction by Serega is that even though I don’t have a reproduction that I can compare to an identical original I do believe that with careful inspection someone would be able to tell the original apart from the reproduction. That being said I’m also going to say that I think Serega has done a fantastic job and if you want a beautiful copy of a ridiculously expensive original or play a game that was never before in English this is your answer.

Sega Genesis Box Protectors and SNES BitBoxes

Posted by Sega Dude on April 11, 2015

Posted in: Collection New Additions, Genesis (North America), Restoration. Tagged: 32x, bitbox, box protectors, genesis, NES, nintendo, sega, snes, stoneagegamer. 8 Comments

This is something I never thought I’d appreciate.
Because Sega Master System and Sega Genesis games (for the most part) come in rugged hard plastic cases (clam shells) I’ve never felt the need to protect the games in my collection. I always felt very lucky next to NES and SNES collectors who have to deal with cardboard cases. So often over the years NES and SNES boxes been beaten to a pulp or often just tossed into the trash.

Sega collectors are not entirely immune to this problem. Nearing the end of the Genesis Sega starting using cardboard cases. And just like Nintendo games it’s often hard to find good condition versions of these particular Genesis titles.

I recently purchased a few Genesis and Dreamcast games from a fellow collector on the neo-geo.com forums. When I received these games they were in clear plastic box protectors. These games actually had their original hard clam shell cases so I took out the game and used the clear protective cases for a few of my cardboard Genesis games.

What I didn’t expect how much nicer the cardboard games looked in the clear plastic boxes. They were given a shine that made them look more similar the games in the hard plastic cases. None of my cardboard cased games are in perfect shape but in these box protectors they look great. So I went online and bought ten more.

They ship flattened and padded with tissue.

One empty and one with a game.

These box protectors even come with clear circular sticker to place on the top and bottom flaps to seal the case closed. They are not needed. I spend so much time removing stickers from cases and games I don’t want to start adding them back. These cases have no trouble staying closed without these stickers.

With shipping and after the exchange from USD these ten boxes cost me $21.20 CAD. $2.12 each is not super cheap for what they are but considering I wont need many it’s certainly cheap enough and I’ll continue to do this for any cardboard cased games that I might pick-up down the road.

A few games decked out in these new boxes.

All of my newly boxed Cardboard games.

On the other spectrum of cheap are BitBoxes.

Right now I have a handful of NES and SNES cartridges in the collection. Almost all are loose carts stacked up on top of each other. Compared to my Sega games they really don’t look very nice. My good buddy Nintendo Joe also wants his collection of Nintendo games to look pretty on their shelves and his solution is to use Universal Game Cases. I was very close to doing the same but for a long while I’ve have been aware of an alternate option called BitBoxes (from stoneagegamer.com).

What held me back is the price. They are not cheap. I decided to try out a few and I bought five BitBoxes; complete with cover art. After shipping and the exchange rate they ended up costing me $12 CAD each. I suppose I’m somewhat acclimatized to the cost because of the $15 Shockboxes that I have been buying for my Neo Geo MVS games but the price is still really affecting how many I’m willing to buy at one time.

BitBoxes for some of my favorite SNES games.

Looking neat and orderly!

These BitBoxes are much lager than I thought they would be. Not near as big as ShockBoxes but definitely much larger than original SNES cardboard boxes.Each BitBox can hold one game and a manual. And they feel very durable.

It’s frustrating… why do they have to look so good?! I’m sure I’ll be getting more as time goes on. My one small saving grace is that my NES and SNES collection will never be as big as my Sega collection. I’m pretty sure about that… some what sure. Maybe? We’ll see.

Waterloo Video Game Swap (VGCC) March 2015 Conclusion!

Posted by Sega Dude on April 5, 2015

Posted in: Community, Games, Mega Drive (Japanese), Sega Master System. Tagged: dungeon lords, genesis, master system, nintendo joe, sega, segadude, snes, waterloo game swap. 2 Comments

So I went and have returned from VGCC’s Waterloo Video Game Swap. And something strange happened…

I went home with more money than I came with. And against all odds I did not buy a single game.

Below you can see Nintendo Joe (left) looking like someone who has been standing all day and Flavio to the right.
Flavio and I with our combined Sega Master System (SMS) and Japanese Mega Drive games dominated the Sega presence at this event. If you divide the table in half all those SMS games on the right half are Flavio’s. All the Sega stuff to the left is mine. Flavio’s commanding lead in inventory made him the day’s top earner of the three of us. Flavio said he made just about $1,000 in the five hours we were there. He also had two large boxes of NES games for sale which were very popular.

Nintendo Joe and Flavio!

For myself, I was selling a lot of cheap and often complete Sega Master System games and I thought more would sell. People in Canada seem to be very Nintendo crazy 🙂 But I did sell some; including SMS, Mega Drive, Genesis, ColecoVision and maybe one or two PS2 and xbox original games.
Since Nintendo Joe picked us up and did all the driving Flavio and I split the cost of the table and gas. After my expenses I went home with an extra $260. It’s not amazing but it’s OK.

Busy Busy!

I don’t know Nintendo Joe’s final tally but I’m sure he’ll be posting it soon at MyNintendoDimension. As you can see from the image above this small venue was packed. Which is why we all did so well. People were having a very hard time just walking around!

Even though I didn’t buy anything that does not mean I went home empty handed! Thanks to Nintendo Joe I came home with three Super Nintendo games and Dungeon Lords for the PC. Haven’t heard of Dungeon Lords?! If you’re OK with old games that look old but are still awesome check out Dungeon Lords. I’m sure Nintendo Joe only gave it up because he’s all Mac now and does not have a PC. …but I still love him anyways.

Courtesy of Nintendo Joe. For my Nintendo Corner!

Two of these SNES games are ports of SNK Neo Geo games which added a lot more interest for me with my new found Neo Geo collecting. Nintendo Joe could have easily sold these for $10 each but instead he sent them my way. Thank you! *Update: After becoming more particular about what I collect I ended up giving these back to Nintendo Joe.

Speaking of new games; just before the show I picked up some Master System games from Flavio. He gave me a great deal on a stack of games. It really pays off having friends into the same stuff you are.

For this Game Swap I decided to try something out. Something to get the SegaDude out there! And ingrain myself deep into pop-culture!!
In most of my games I stuck in a business card that I made up using the artwork made for me by EvilKalman. I also scattered these cards on the table top so people could just grab one if they wanted to. The idea was to see if I could find anyone who might want to check out what I have going on here 😀

SegaDude Business Cards!

Before I left for the Game Swap there were 96 of you wonderful people subscribed to my blog. And now a week after handing out my cards at a jam-packed video game venue?!… there are still 96. A quick calculation tells me that is a net gain of zero (0). I bought 250 cards (still have most of them) for $70. Well, whatever, I still think they are cool and I believe Nintendo Joe is a wee bit jealous so they are worth every penny. 😀

When we drove home the car felt just as packed as when we went there. Of maybe ten boxes of stuff 8 were coming home again. I’m done with my doubles and I want them gone! So I start putting them on Kijiji (Classifieds) and that same day I was able to sell my boxed SONY PSP for $80 and the next morning I had sold all of my remaining 66 Japanese Sega Mega Drive games. I was willing to sell them individually but I also offered the entire lot of games for $280. And poof! they were gone. Someone just getting back into the Sega Genesis bought them all. I got rid of them and he got all those games for less than $4.25 each. That’s a win-win in my book.

Don’t forget about Dungeon Lords. It’s an excellent open world action RPG. It’s also good and hard!

Steel Case Dungeon Lords. DRM free!

Dungeon Lords Gameplay

Waterloo Video Game Swap (VGCC) March 2015 Prelude

Posted by Sega Dude on March 21, 2015

Posted in: Community. Tagged: vgcc, video game collector community, waterloo video game swap. 4 Comments

I believe this will be the fourth time Nintendo Joe and I will be trekking over to the neighboring city of Waterloo for the Waterloo Video Game Swap this coming March 29th. And it will be the third time we’ve rented a table (for $40) in order to peddle our wares.

I am more experienced at selling now and I have done a better job labeling my stuff this time and I think I’ve priced my games very low. However, I am a bit concerned that there may not be much interest in Japanese Mega Drive games; which I have a lot of.

The first time we went I did manage to sell a fair amount of games but it really did feel like a lot of inventory also came back home. I’m not really a seller/vendor I just have a lot of doubles that have built up from over these many years of collecting. I think I started collecting in 1999! Sega games were cheap back then!! 😀

This time around no game is selling for more than $20 and many are priced at $5 and $10. Some will sell, I’m sure of it. Hopefully lots will sell!

Lots to sell! How much will be coming back home?

Here’s my previous post showing what I brought with me on our first visit to the Waterloo Video Game Swap.

So far I’ve priced all of the Sega Master System, Sega Mega Drive, Sega Genesis and Xbox Original games. I only just now found that box of PS2 games (bottom left)… it’s like retro video games multiply in the closet if left too long.

That black bag is an official Xbox original carrying case with an excellent condition Xbox original console in perfect working order complete with two joysticks and all cables. I’m not sure yet what to list if for.

This time our good buddy and comic book artist EvilKalman cannot join us because he’s busy writing and drawing the re-invented Captain Canuck! Instead Flavio (who doesn’t even need an online nickname to sound cool) will be tagging along.
Flavio will actually be big competition for me! He’ll have tons of Sega Master System games for sale in addition to NES and others. I’m not really worried about his massive inventory because I know it will be a fun day regardless.

This promotional video does a good job showing what the event will be like. Nothing fancy but there will be colossal amounts of Retro Goodness:

I’ll post again when the deed is done and we’ll see what happens!

Have a Peak at Watermelon’s Project Y WIP Video

Posted by Sega Dude on March 4, 2015

Posted in: Genesis (North America), Mega Drive (EURO), Mega Drive (Japanese). Tagged: project y, video, watermelon, wip. 7 Comments

After being teased with some very pretty Project Y screen shots we can all now enjoy a teaser video for Project Y.

This work in progress (WIP) video gives us a very good idea of what Project Y will be like. And even though this is very early footage it is looking fantastic.

One of the first thoughts that struck me while watching was that instantly Project Y feels like it has it’s own identity. I did not feel like I was watching just another retro Beat’em-Up. Of course there are many similar elements from the genre but there is a lot that looks unique.

There are several game mechanics that really stood out in this short clip. Of course you can interact with the baddies in this game. You’re going to be punching, kicking and tossing them all over the place; but you can also interact with the other playable characters. Right at the end we see Alex grab Tug from behind and start to push him off-screen (don’t quote me on those character names).
I also noticed Tug using a fire extinguisher to spray and freeze an enemy in his tracks.
Each of the playable characters seem to be able to get some kind of power-up. I’m sure earning and saving these for key moments will help add extra strategy to the game.

And it looks like the baddies can dish it out too. I’m not sure how it happened but I saw a dude electrocute Alex. What was cool is that another baddie got caught in the cross-fire and also got zapped along with Alex. I can’t help but feel that this kind of thing will make multiple play-throughs unique experiences with such variables in the mix.
Speaking of unique, did you notice the butt-slap taunt at about 30 seconds into the video?
Very cheeky!!

I personally feel the graphics look amazing! The environments feel ‘meaty’. They are full of stuff and the character sprites are very large for a Genesis/Mega Drive game. Making it look more like an arcade game from the 90’s rather than a 16-bit home game.

The music is down right intense. I love the pace and mood that it slaps on top of the visuals. Music is an important part of my gaming experience and Project Y has gotten some serious treatment in this department.

Here’s the official Project Y forum:
http://www.magicalgamefactory.com/en/boards/projecty-about_8/

Thank you Watermelon! I think I speak for many of us when I say we would love to see more WIP videos of Project Y.

Neo Geo MVS Label Restoration for 11 New Games

Posted by Sega Dude on February 22, 2015

Posted in: Collection New Additions, MVS, Restoration, SNK Neo Geo. Tagged: labels, mvs, neo geo, neo-geo.com, shadowkn55, shockbox, southtown homebrew. 14 Comments

For a good long while now I’ve found a very nice distraction in playing and collection games for the Neo Geo MVS.

**Disclamer** I hope you’re immune to ‘drawn-out’ and boring… because I’m about to get real wordy.

For anyone not familiar with the Neo Geo there are two primary flavors of the original hardware.
Neo Geo MVS stands for Neo Geo Multi Video System (MVS). This is the version found in the arcades (throughout the 90’s mostly) in a classic 225lbs upright cabinet. Many Neo Geo arcade cabinets could support more than one game at a time. Either 2, 4 or 6. Allowing a player to select one of the installed cartridges(games) to play. There is also a version of Neo Geo arcade cabinet that can hold only one game at a time which was instead called Neo Geo System.

My Big Red: Neo Geo MVS 4-Slot Arcade Cabinet

Shortly after the release of the Neo Geo MVS came the Neo Geo AES; which stands for Advanced Entertainment System. This version is the in the form of a classic video game console that plugs into your home television. The hardware and games are identical. The AES will play the exact same games with the same performance as the arcade MVS systems.

This was my Neo Geo AES before I sold it. I still miss it!

However the cartridges for the MVS and the AES are different sizes and are not interchangeable. If you have a Neo Geo MVS you need to buy MVS cartridges and if you have the Neo Geo AES you need to buy AES home cartridges (there are adapters but I wont get into that today).

I decided to switch from collecting AES game to MVS games because MVS carts are so much cheaper. They’re still not cheap but with very few exceptions MVS carts are a good magnitude cheaper than AES carts.
And you can bring the price down a little bit more if you’re willing to purchase nasty beat up carts; which are sometimes referred to as ‘gamer condition’ carts.

And that is exactly what I do. Check out the image below… NASSSTTTYYY!!

Bonafide Gamer Condition MVS Carts!

The games work perfectly but the plastics are scratched, marked and dirty. And the labels are in worse shape. Some you can’t even read anymore and Art of Fighting Path of the Warrior is actually labeled incorrectly as World Heroes (Top left). But saving anywhere from $20-$40 USD (or more) per game I feel is worth it.

As I continued to collect Neo Geo games I discovered shadowkn55 over on the neo-geo.com forums who sells beautiful reproduction labels for $1 USD each. Not only are these labels brand new but they look just like the original MVS labels. The quality is perfect.

shadowkn55 reproduction labels.

Now I have a way to restore these carts into reasonably good condition.

But I do have a few reservations. After spending some time on the neo-geo.com forums I’ve learned that a lot of people really want to keep these carts stock and not change them in any way. I understand this point of view and I feel it has merit. The three games in the middle (The Last Blade, KOF96 and KOF2003) have labels that are not terrible. They’re not good but they’re mostly whole and I can still read them easily.
Should they have been replaced or should I have left them alone?

As it turns out I did feel it was better to replace them. And I think they are looking very nice. But this is something I keep in mind when I buy new labels. I want to be sure the cart really needs a replacement. Because I would prefer to have an original label if possible.

It took a lot of effort to remove most of the old labels. I must have spent 10 minutes scratching at each one with my thumb nail. Once the paper was mostly gone I found that rubbing a little bit of WD-40 where the label was did a great job at removing the left over residue.

Replacement Reproduction labels by shadowkn55.

Close up of New Labels.

**As it turns out the King of the Fighters 2003 is actually a bootleg version and not authentic. Thanks to a fellow gamer who commented below about this. I’ve since sold this boot for $25 and I got myself an authentic version to replace it.**

I think they look great and I’m very happy I did this. For this selection of games only one had a serial number on the cart. And I saved that challenge for last.
You can see that The King of the Fighters 2003 (Top Center) had a small yellow sticker on the original label with it’s serial number. Normally serial numbers are a part of the label just like the title but SNK was very inconsistent and you’ll see them doing many different things with their carts.
This time it worked out very well for me. I was able to use a blow drier to heat and cleanly remove the yellow serial number sticker and apply it to the reproduction label. This allowed me to preserve the serial number instead of losing it. *I wish I had thought of using the blow dryer sooner on every label and not just this serial number sticker. **And it’s a bootleg… ah, wasted effort!**

Not all Neo Geo MVS carts had a serial number but if they do it will only ever appear on the cart label and the original cardboard box that it came in.
Click here for an example of a complete MVS kit with matching serial numbers on both the cart label and on the box label.
SNK also used many different colored carts for their games. Not only will you find color changes from title to title but it’s probable that a single title can be found in several different colors. The same is true for cart labels. Most often they are black and white but sometimes you’ll see colored labels and other variations.

Since I was completely removing the old labels I took the time to open the cartridge, remove the two PCBs (Printed Circuit Board) and I completely washed the plastic cart with soap and water. Before applying the new label this would be my only chance to give the cart a very thorough cleaning. Most of them really needed it. Twenty years worth of dust and grime really shows! This cleaning didn’t help the existing scuffs and scratches that are very common on gamer condition cartridges but the cleaning was still very worth while.

Check out these excellent after market storage boxes called Shockboxes.

Now that I have applied these perfect and very authentic looking reproduction labels to each of the carts it’s time to hide this fine work inside some beautiful looking storage boxes called Shockboxes; sold by Southtown Homebrew. You can buy these snapcases in various colors (I always choose black) and you can also purchase a Neo Geo MVS cover sleeve/insert to go with the case.

These Shockboxes are a dream come true for collectors like myself. They give a way to display Neo Geo MVS games and make them look really good. The downside is they are not cheap. Each Shockbox with an insert has cost me about $15 CAD each after shipping. I still need about 20 more but I’ll just have to wait until I can afford them. The current strength of the US dollar to the Canadian really isn’t helping my cause at all!

I sometimes surprise myself at how busy I can keep with my video game collection by doing stuff like this; let alone the time spent playing them. There is a lot of unexpected diversity to this hobby.