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.
Did the title give anything away? I didn’t give up on this Pulseman that I walked away from a few weeks ago when I first found it at a recent Oshawa Game Swap. The seller and I were not able to strike a deal on this $400 CAD (~$315 USD) game. But more recently something did happen. Check out my newest addition to my Japanese Sega Mega Drive collection.
Not only does the cover-art look great but the whole thing is in pristine condition. I’ve had some time to play Pulseman and I was happy to see that the graphics are really very good. The controls are tight and responsive and Pulseman is able to perform a good variety of moves. I’m looking forward to more time with it.
Below is my gameplay footage of the Level 1. Plus the game intro.
Pulseman is one of a bunch of Sega Mega Drive / Genesis games that are region locked to their home region and Pulseman will not natively play in my North American NTSC Sega Genesis. Fortunately I have a very cool product called the Super Key. It acts as a pass-through cartridge and allows you to set any region you need to meet the requirements of whatever game you’re trying to play.
I originally picked-up this Super Key in a bundle with Sailor Moon for the Japanese Sega Mega Drive. And I’m really glad I did as they are not easy to find.
So what does it take to get a game with a price tag of $400? …without actually laying out any cash? It takes some serious trading.
After leaving Pulseman behind at the Game Swap I took a long hard look at my collection. And rounded up some games that I felt I could do without. For years I’ve been on the fence about collecting for the Sega Saturn. Sure I want it all but for me it’s not possible. I sent an email to the same seller from the Oshawa Game Swap and I offered up my entire Sega Saturn collection of four games among a few other titles from different systems.
Fortunately one of my Saturn games was Albert Odyssey which seems to have some value these days. Dark Savior is moderately valuable and Daytona USA and Hang-On GP are $10-$20 games. Some time ago I bought doubles of Beggar Prince and Water Margin with the intention of saving them for trading down the road. And despite not feeling overly successful at trading retro games for other retro games it really did work out this time. It took six games to score my Pulseman.
But that’s not to say Pulseman didn’t cost me anything. In total I spent about $270 CAD (~$212 USD) on these six gamest that I traded away. However, this is money that had long since left me and it feels good to transform these games into something I really want. Sure, maybe I could have sold Albert Odyssey myself and put that money in the bank but that is no where near as fun.
This store that Nintendo Joe and I visited for our big day of trading is called 7 Star Games. Located at 145 Kingston Rd E, Ajax, ON L1S 7J4. It’s bursting with retro games and very much worth the visit. This sellers other location is called P-Market Games at 127 N Front St. Belleville, ON.
Pulseman is a very exciting addition to my collection; especially considering how hard it is to obtain. Below are what I call my Heavy Hitters. These are good Japanese Sega Mega Drive games that regularly come with really expensive price tags. Often listed on ebay from about $500-$1,000 CAD (~$394 -$790 USD) when complete. I haven’t used ebay in close to a year and with prices like these I’m really not interested in going back. I’ll just have continue to wait for moments like this when I can make something manageable happen.
Honestly, I feel really lucky to have these gems.
My remaining ultimate Japanese Sega Mega Drive wish list consists of:
In addition to bringing the games I knew I needed to trade for Pulseman I brought a few extra just in case. And of these extras the store owner was interested in giving me $95 credit for a pink Nintendo DS lite with power cable, a complete Sega Genesis Alien 3 and a loose SNES Knights of the Round. I took the credit and found the following games.
I’ve heard lots of good things about Zombies Ate My Neighbors and even Nintendo Joe has been recommending it to me. So minus $60 from my credit and I took it.
The other game I selected was Instruments of Chaos starring Yong Indiana Jones for $20. Both are in great shape and complete with hanging tabs (which is important to me).
I still had $15 credit left but any additional worth while choice would have left me needing to hand over some cash as well. Since I wasn’t in the mood to spend I gave my remaining credit to Nintendo Joe. Who also scored himself a game priced at $400 CAD (~$315 USD) during this same visit and a whole lot more. For any NES fans out there Nintendo Joe now has a lot of heavy hitters of his own to show off, not to mention what he had to do to get them. Click here for all his details.
For a long time now I’ve been selling many of my old video games in an effort to establish a focus on the gaming platforms that I really want to collect for and to reduce the amount of stuff in my basement.
At first it was very easy and I was able to sell lots of games. Then as my inventory was slowly reduced and I was left with the more common stuff and sales started to slow down.
What do you do then when selling at Retro Video Gaming Conventions and on-line classified are no longer the bounty they use to be?
Well, you go to a professional of course.
It might sound simple enough but what has transpired here was not my doing. Thanks to my brilliant and amazingly thoughtful wife something wonderful has happened.
While trying to hunt down the perfect Christmas gift for the Sega Dude my wife reached out to the owner of a local retro video game store called GameSwap.
And against all odds she found a complete, very good condition, hard to find spaceship shooter that I did not have. Let me tell you that is no small feat considering that my Japanese Sega Mega Drive collection includes about 250 games.
The game she found is a Japanese Sega Mega Drive exclusive called Verytex.
When I found out the price for Verytex was $120 CAD I immediately sent my wife out to buy me a much more expensive gift for Christmas that looks something like this 🙂
**Feel free to comment on how wonderful she is!**
I then grabbed a banker box full of Xbox original and PS2 games and headed off to GameSwap.
Only once before have I ever spent $120 on a single Sega Mega Drive game and that was for Panorama Cotton. Even my copy of Eliminate Down cost me less! And I once spent $100 on a bootleg copy of Tetris. Before those titles, $60 CAD would have been a very expensive Sega game for me to purchase and that did not happen often.
In short I didn’t want to pay hard cash for this game; despite how much I wanted it. I let the store owner pluck out the games that interested him the most and he showed me how he valued them. There is no mystery or randomness to his calculations. I always feel good about how open and honest he is (this was not my first time dealing with GameSwap). And as if by fate the games he selected came to a store credit value of $120. Keep in mind this $120 credit came from about half a banker box of games. To some it might feel odd to trade so many for just one game.
Minus what looks like two Wii games and a few jewel cases; below are the games I brought in to trade with.
This is what it took to win my prize.
My logic goes something like this; I have tried to sell the above games for a very long time, I no longer play or collect for Xbox original and PS2, I have too much stuff and the value of almost all of those games is very low.
And just like that Verytex was a done deal!
Then I asked him to reconsider the remaining games that he didn’t want. Keep in mind that he didn’t want them but in the end he was willing trade the remaining games for a loose copy of Joe & Mac for the SNES and Adventure Island for the NES. Both games were priced at $30 each.
Joe & Mac for SNES and Adventure Island for NES.
I spent no actual cash, got some great games that I actually want and supported a local Retro Video Game store (and a good guy). It was a very good day.
Meanwhile… when I was off at GameSwap my wife was rediscovering another Christmas gift that she hunted down but forgot to give me. So when I came home I was handed a very small but beautifully wrapped gift. The very second the festive wrapping paper touched my hand I knew right away there was a Sega Genesis cartridge inside. Oh yes, the Sega Dude is that good. But what game could it be?
Gunstar Heroes!
Check out that price!
When I go hunting for awesome Sega Genesis games at thrift stores I find games like NHL Hockey ’94, Wheel of Fortune and Crystal’s Pony Tale. When the wife goes she’s finds Gunstar Heroes! It’s an action run and gun platformer with some of the best graphics and animation that has ever been produced for the Sega Genesis.
Yeah sure, I’ve already got it complete in the box for both the Sega Genesis and Japanese Sega Mega Drive (no big deal) but for $1.99 I too would have bought it in a heart beat!
I later learned that the master mind behind the above Gunstar Heroes was actually Nintendo Joe who was very diligently following my wife’s orders to find something ‘awesome’. Yes, she’s the boss of a lot of different people and not just her husband 😛
Thank you Asawa! You’re the best wife I’ve ever had!
And thank you Nintendo Joe! You’re best Retro Video Gaming buddy I’ve ever had! …even despite the fact that you refuse to get a SONY SP4.
I don’t know what to say. The unthinkable has happened. Of ALL the licensed Sega Genesis and Mega Drive games out there I found the one single game that use to hold the #1 position on my ‘Fantasy Wish List’. The ‘Fantasy Wish List’ being a list of games that I would love to have but would never ever be able to afford. And this one particular title was the most unattainable of all.
…entirely unattainable.
Until today when I purchased a complete and Excellent condition Eliminate Down for the Japanese Sega Mega Drive.
Even now looking at it actually in my collection I can hardly believe it!
I remember writing a blog a while ago stating that “I think the Sega Collection Might have Peaked…“. I’m glad (and surprised) that I was wrong. I’m pretty sure the collection has now actually peaked. Until I some how end up with a complete copy of the official yet unlicensed copy of Tetris for the Japanese Sega Mega Drive (but that’s just crazy talk) my collection has now ‘peaked’ as high as it ever will.
So if by chance the image below is still off screen and you haven’t seen it, hold on for just a moment. Before you scroll down get the tune ‘We Own It‘ from Fast and Furious 6 in your head. Got it? Crank the mental volume way UP! AWwwwwww Yeeaaahhhhh….. OK, I’m done. You can scroll down now.
Eliminate Down for the Japanese Sega Mega Drive.
Eliminate Down Gameplay by the Sega Dude.
One of the most exciting things about getting to add Eliminate Down to the collection is that it’s a good game. So far it has been really good. If feels great, sounds fantastic, looks awesome and it’s packed full of bosses and mini-bosses. Which helps keep the action intense and fresh. I’ve had a lot of fun playing it!
So… What did Eliminate Down cost me? I bought it in a bundle with a Japanese Mega Drive model 2 and 9 other games. So it’s hard to say exactly what this one game cost me. I’ll break it down at the end of this post.
Of these ten games I already had seven of them but I didn’t care because I had target fixation on Eliminate Down. But for now, on to the other two games that I’m adding to the collection.
At first I thought I already had Heavy Unit but after digging through the whole Mega Drive collection I realized I didn’t. The condition is Excellent, it’s complete and I’m really glad to have it.
Heavy Unit
Heavy Unit Gameplay by the Sega Dude.
Heavy Unit isn’t actually that good. It’s not terrible but playing this Space Ship Shooter right after playing Eliminate Down really highlighted it’s flaws. The graphics are OK and the levels do have some good variety but the game feels a bit flat and unpolished. And it’s one of those games that can really be punishing but not in a good way. If you die and lose your power-ups you’re in big trouble. When this happened to me I found the ship to be so slow that I couldn’t really react in time to anything. And I haven’t noticed any use for changing between ship mode and robot mode; which seems to happen when collecting a particular power-up. I checked ebay to get a sense of it’s cost and I found it listed for $40 USD. It’s really not worth this much. But the cover art really does rock.
The first few minutes of playing James Bond 007 the Duel I thought the game was really good. By the time I was able to beat level one I decided that is was just OK. The only thing that knocked down my first impression is the fact that the controls are a bit stiff. It’s pretty hard to get Bond to shoot at an angle or crouch as fast as you need him to. It felt a bit like Rolling Thunder and even used the same cover mechanics (ducking into a door way) but it wasn’t very useful in this game. The cheapest price I found on ebay for this game was $70 USD for the Japanese version. That is way too much if you only care about playing. Just like Heavy Unit James Bond 007 the Duel should be a $20 game.
James Bond 007 The Duel
James Bond Gameplay by the Sega Dude.
Bond is now in the collection! The condition is Good. You can’t see it in the picture but the edge of the cart label is peeling off a bit on the back side. Otherwise I would have given it a rating of Very Good.
…or Excellent if it was any Bond other than Timothy Dalton.
Here are the other 7 games that came with this lot (Found locally on Kijiji):
The Other Games Purchased with Eliminate Down.
The good news is all but one game can be played without needing to know Japanese. They’re also really good games. Two are actually bootlegs; Insector X and a 5-in-1 cart. The 5-in-1 cart is pretty cool. It contains Sonic 2, Jewel Master, Thunder Force III, Same Same Same and Master of Weapon. Once you power on the system you’ll get Sonic 2 by default. Pressing reset will cycle through the games.
So, what did Eliminate Down cost me?
I’m going to sell the doubles and take that money away from my cost of this bundle.
I spent $300 CND on a complete working Japanese model 2 Sega Mega Drive, ten games and one Honey Bee adapter. The adapter allows you to plug a Mega Drive cartridges into a Genesis. This will spare you from having to carve/shave the cartridge slot on a Genesis and make it physically wider. This Honey Bee adapter will not make region locked games play on the wrong system but since most games don’t have region locking it’s still very nice to have.
I’m going to be very conservative about the value of what I bought here. I think the cheapest price you might ever get a complete and working Mega Drive (or Genesis) would $30 and if each game other than Eliminate Down is valued at $20 and the Honey Bee adapter is about $10 then I paid $220 CDN for everything not counting Eliminate Down. Leaving the cost of Eliminate Down at an affordable $80 Canadian. I’ll admit that $80 is still a lot of money to be spending on a 25 year old game but I’m reasonably sure I am a through-and-through fanatical Mega Drive collector so how the heck could I pass this up?
I also want to thank my stunningly Beautiful wife for not once questioning the amount of money I threw down on these games! There wasn’t even so much as a “are you sure you really need it?”. I got nothing but unbridled acceptance. Which is normally the case and I feel it’s worth mentioning.
Below is the Japanese Mega Drive Model 2 that came with the lot. It’s in very nice shape. The only flaw is slight discoloration to both the power switch and the reset button. It’s complete with the hook-ups and an extra identical joystick.
Japanese Sega Mega Drive Model 2
I didn’t realize that the Japanese joysticks were much smaller than the Genesis controllers (of the same type). I don’t have a preference between the two. They’re both a good comfortable size.
This is not the first time I’ve done some trading with StopXWhispering over at Retro-Video-Gaming. And I’ve learned to get pretty excited about it.
Want to see first hand one of the subtle differences between a guy gamer and a girl gamer?
I, The SegaDude, put some games into a box and shipped them to StopXWhispering (I was actually a bite late doing this).
Once we figured out what we were going to trade StopXWhispering had shipped her package of games the very next day. And it was packed full of games as well as genuine bonafide enthusiasm!
Not only did I get the amazing games that I was expecting but I also got a very nice hand written letter and tons of cool extras… including Sega bags! That’s right, Sega bags. How cool is that?!
I don’t know what to do with them yet but they are awesome. I feel like StopXWhispering traveled into the past when Sega was king and snagged the bags. However, I suspect they might have come from her recent trip to Japan.
It has arrived!
What’s this?
As soon as I saw the box I knew who it came from 🙂 And upon opening it I discovered a lot of fun extras!
Sega Bags!!
Packed full of Goodness!
Check out those Sega bags! Japan truly is the video gaming Mecca of the world. And look at the wealth of games spilling out of this package!
It will take me a long time to make gameplay footage for all 12 games so I’m going to post without the videos to show off my new loot. And I’m going to have to follow-up with StopXWhispering to make sure she’s just as happy with the games I have sent her.
Back to the Future II
Back to the Future III
I believe there were only two Back to the Future games for the Sega Master System and now I have them both! They are both complete and in Excellent shape!
Bank Panic
Battle Outrun
In the late 90’s I had the chance to trade for Bank Panic but for some reason I didn’t believe the guy who told me he had it. We were emailing and there were no pictures and because I hadn’t heard of it before and I didn’t think it was real. I’m normally very trusting and I don’t recall why I hesitated, but I did. Now, well over a decade later StopXWhispering has corrected my mistake!
Before the package arrived I had actually forgotten that Battle Out Run was coming and I bought it at a local game shop a few weeks before. Doh!
But both are complete and in amazing shape so I’ll be able to trade or sell one of them. But not before taking the perfect condition case to upgrade another game of mine. It all works out 🙂
Cool Spot
Dynamite Duke
You remember Cool Spot, right? The red spot from your 7-Up bottle. Who knew he’d make for a cool little platformer. Complete and in amazing shape!
This is my third copy of Dynamite Duke! I have it for the Genesis and Japanese Mega Drive and now for the Master System too. If I ever find a fourth version I’ll take it too. Complete and in amazing condition!
Klax
Space Gun
Klax is a fun puzzle game that I’ve played a fair bit on the Genesis. I’m happy to have the Master System version too. Complete and in awesome condition!
Take a look at Space Gun. What a great cover! You can play it with the joystick and or Light Phaser and it’s pretty good. Not amazing but fun enough. The pace is a bit slow but this is a very cool Light Gun game. I took it for a test run and got to level 5. Turns out my Light Phaser is broken. I had to use the joystick mode. I can’t help but think it would be a lot more fun with the gun. It’s complete and in amazing condition!
Spiderman
The Flash
I haven’t had a chance to try these two out yet. But based on the covers alone I will love adding them to the collection. The condition on these two is not as pristine as the others above but they are still complete and in great shape. Very exciting stuff.
The Flintstones
Tom and Jerry the Movie
I have the Tectoy version of the Flintstones in OK shape but now I have the PAL version in better shape and complete. The condition is not amazing but it’s certainly good enough.
Tom and Jerry is another cool looking game that I haven’t yet had a chance to try out. It’s complete and in amazing condition!
I’m actually a little over whelmed with these titles and their condition. I’m really pleased. But it doesn’t stop here. StopXWhispering also got me two Sega Mark III games for my collection.
Sega Mark III Games
The condition is not perfect but for very old cardboard cases they are in great shape! It’s been a very long time since I’ve added to my Sega Mark III collection and I’m now up to 40 boxed games!
When I was cleaning up I discovered something that I had over looked and almost threw out.
Bead Art!
Check out the little black bird side-kick for Psycho Fox. He’s very well done! And I’ve placed him with some of my other Bead Art. Maybe he should be on one of the Master System Shelves but he nicely completed the symmetry on the Genesis shelves. The Sonic and Opa Opa were also made by and given to me by StopXWhispering. Thank you!
Don’t know the little bird? Have a look here.
Psycho Fox Side-Kick!
Sooo… wow. Very fun. It’s much better trading then just buying all the time. I really enjoyed this. Thank you StopXWhispering! Lets do it again sometime 🙂
**Update** STOPXWHISPERING has posted the games I sent her for this trade. Check out the flip side here.
This is the second time I’ve been to the Video Game Collector Community (VGCC) Game Swap. The first time myself and Nintendo Joe rented a table and we sold some of our extra games and systems. You can read about those VGCC highlights here. This time around we just went as pure (and giddy) shoppers.
Nintendo Joe and I brought a box and backpack each full of stuff to trade. I always prefer trading vs. spending my hard earned money but trading can be hard to pull off. Specially when you’re The SegaDude. I’ve started to realize that this event is very NES and SNES heavy. That’s not a bad thing but the selection of Sega Master System and Sega Genesis games was much less by comparison.
We were at the event for about five hours and it’s wasn’t until closer the end that I scored most of these new and glorious Sega additions.
First up is a very exciting find for me. Ever since I discovered Mystical Fighter for the Japanese Mega Drive (called Maou Renjishi) I have always wanted the Genesis version. And it’s not often you’ll come across it. Even better I was able to trade for it! I traded a boxed copy of Phantasy Star for the Sega Mark III (no map) for the Mystical Fighter shown below. With this same vendor I also traded Steel Empire for the Genesis for a boxed NEO GEO Pocket puzzle game called Crush Roller.
My new Mystical Fighter is complete and in Excellent Condition. I love it.
Mystical Fighter
Mystical Fighter Gameplay by the Sega Dude
Mystical Fighter is an isometric (Golden Axe style) fighting game and it’s a good game. Not amazing but good. Games like Golden Axe and Streets of Rage have it beat on every count but it’s still a worth while entry. And even though the game will recycle a lot of sprites and send identical but different colored enemies at you the graphics are still good and there is still enough variety in the character designs.
Occasionally I would pick-up and throw an enemy and I was never quite sure how I did it. But it still helped make the combat feel more interesting despite being pretty simplistic. The level design although a little plain still looks good enough and in some stages the environment can be used to hurl enemies off cliffs into some unknown abyss! Of course the same can happen to you but I liked seeing this. It reminded me a lot of Golden Axe where I use the environment to my advantage a lot. I also tried to take advantage of this in the video clip above but you can see it sometimes got the best of me.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms III
ROTTK3 Gameplay by the Sega Dude
I have a bunch of Japanese strategy/Sim games that I knew I could never play because of the language barrier. So I was curious to try out Romance of the Three Kingdoms III in English. I started the game and I knew right away that I was in way over my head. It is very complex.
There are tons of tasks you can perform and in my very short time playing it I never really understood anything. I just did the best I could to make different things happen for the sake of the above gameplay video. Even still, there isn’t much to show off. It could be a great game but I’d have to spend a lot more time with it to find out. I suspect that for those who like this style game it was great in its day. But I bet it hasn’t aged well.
Next up is Earnest Evans! Check out that cover! Looks like it might be a cool Indiana Jones brawler. So far so good. Power up the game and you get a brief but decent looking into. Then the game starts and that’s were it falls down… flat… on it’s face. The Rag Doll Earnest character is ugly and the added complexity of getting him to crouch or go prone feels completely unnecessary. Even the animation of his whip attack is ugly. This combined with plain graphics and uninspired enemies leaves us with a really weak game.
Earnest Evans
Earnest Evans Gameplay by the Sega Dude
Caliber 50 is actually the first game of these four that I tried out when I got them home. While playing it I was sure it was going to be the worst of the bunch. Unfortunately it’s not good and despite this it’s still better than Romance of the Three Kingdoms III and Earnest Evans.
Caliber 50
Caliber 50 Gameplay by the Sega Dude
Any game (and there are a few) that require you to turn your character clockwise or counter clockwise by holding down the A button and then the C button for the opposite direction is going to feel awkward right from the start. It takes a good while to get use to this and if the game itself is a bit flat it’s really hard to justify the effort.
Sometimes it was dificult to get my guy to face the right direction, he felt too slow to really be able to dodge all of the incoming fire and sometime I didn’t even know where on the map I was suppose to go.
Forgotten Worlds has the same control scheme but it’s just so nice looking and fun that I never felt put out when trying to deal with controlling my character. Although Forgotten Worlds is too easy to beat.
But despite all my complaints about three of my four new additions they do look pretty and I’ll enjoy putting them on the shelf with the others 🙂
Another tiny incentive for me regarding these new additions is when I first started this blog I had almost exactly the same number of Japanese Mega Drives games as Genesis games. But over the years the Mega Drive count took a big lead. Mostly because they were cheaper and easier to find. Even though they shipped all the way from Japan! So now, slowly, I’ll see if I can bring the count closer together and restore balance to the force and all that jazz.
Before this post I had 160 Genesis games to 194 Japanese Mega Drive games. And now that’s 164 Genesis games to 194 Japanese Mega Drive games. YAY!
Just 30 more Genesis games to go! That’s about 18% more Genesis titles required to catch up to my Japanese Mega Drive count! And knowing me I’ll find some Mega drive games that I wont be able to pass up along the way before I get my next 34 Genesis titles.
Nice New Genesis Additions for the Collection
Earnest Evan (Excellent Condition), Romance of the Three Kingdoms III (Excellent Condition) and Caliber 50 (Good Condition) cost me $55 together. At just over $18 each I’m very happy with them… even though I don’t like them. That makes sense, right?
Below is what I feel was the best find of the day. A complete boxed Japanese Sega Mega Drive. Which is in excellent condition!
Japanese Mega Drive
Asian Region Packaging
I’ve always wanted a Japanese Mega Drive but because of shipping it was always just too expensive. Specially considering the fact that I have many Sega Genesis consoles kicking around.
Box Opened
Mega Drive Close Up
When I bought this Mega Drive I was sure it was the Japanese version. It had to be, right?
Later I went online to double check and I found the video below from Ian. So I realized that my packaging is definitely what was used for the Asian markets but not Japan. I kept watching and I started to realize that despite the Asian market packaging everything else about this Mega Drive console was exactly to specification of the original Japanese model.
My beautiful Mega Drive is Model # HAA-2510, it has writing on the left and right side of the power LED, the word Trigger is written above the A B C buttons and the button letters are Red not black and the system has the cartridge lock that engages when you power on the system. This Mega Drive also plays with no slow downs on my NTSC Television. I tested it with Sonic 1 and 2. So it’s not PAL and it is running at 60 Hz.
To be honest I’m not 100% why this model is more sought after. I don’t know why an Asian market Mega Drive that runs at 60 Hz wouldn’t be just as good. I’ve read a few comments that people believe the audio is better on the HAA-2510 but I don’t know any details.
This Mega Drive cost me $65 with no shipping or anything else to deal with so I feel like it was a great deal. I’m really happy with it.
Retro Megabit 
