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?