If you’re a Japanese Sega Mega Drive collector you might be looking at these two game pick-ups below and thinking ZOMG!! These are not quite ‘holy grail‘ additions but they do rank pretty high.
These are very hard games to get and in the case of Gley Lancer it’s also a really awesome shooter.
So, what’s all this “almost spectacular” talk?
Well… You see, they’re each sorta missing something.
The actual game…
I came across a fellow gamer on the neo-geo.com forums who had been amassing game manuals and cover art with the intention of at some point completing them. I’m amusing that he completed some through out his time collecting but more recently he decided to sell off the ones that never got re-united with a matching cartridge.
So, what does the Sega Dude think a couple of authentic and very pricey Japanese Mega Drive games are worth that are missing the actual game?
I paid $50 USD for the above empty Slap Fight and $60 USD for the above empty Gley Lancer (plus $20 USD shipping total for both). Yes I know, those prices sound like common prices for complete Mega Drive games. But these two games are truly hard to obtain. I am particularly excited about Gley Lancer which I have wanted for a very long time (and technically I still don’t have). Hunting down some loose carts will be so much easier than trying to find a reasonable price on complete versions.
And as for the cartridge hunt; I’ve already managed to track one down at a price I was willing to pay.
I found the listing above and I made an offer of $80 USD which was accepted. So a loose cart of Slap Fight cost me $87 USD (~$103 CAD).
So if I include shipping, the case, cover art and manual which cost me $60, plus the $87 cart I’m sitting at $147 USD for a complete good condition and authentic Slap Fight. Wow, that is a lot of money for Sega Mega Drive game! And it’s a new record for me on most money spent on a single Mega Drive game. The previous record belonged to my Panorama Cotton at $120 USD ($120 CAD at the time). With the exchange rate as it is now Slap Fight cost me about $190 CAD all in.
This Slap Fight is not in perfect shape but it’s good or maybe even in very good condition. The manual has a curve running down from top to bottom and the there is also a very fine crease running the entire length on the top edge of the cart label. Despite this I’m really happy with this addition. Specially considering how much money it would have cost if I tried the ebay route for a complete copy. While I was working out the purchase of the case and the cartridge I did a search on ebay for complete listings of Slap Fight. Check out what sellers believe this game is worth:
So the cheapest option at the time was about $530 CAD (~$410 USD). Making my now complete Slap Fight with all it’s imperfections $340 CAD cheaper than ebay’s cheapest complete listings. Assuming that each Slap Fight listing above is in Mint condition I still, far and away, prefer my Slap Fight with it’s massively lower price tag.
Regarding the gameplay for Slap Fight. It’s not that great. It suffers from being plain and repetitive. The original Slap Fight was an arcade game from 1986 and I believe it was very highly regarded at the time. It has a pedigree and will be more of a trophy for the collection than something I’ll want to play.
Gley Lancer is a similarly priced game:
That Australian listing for $437 is the lowest I’ve seen Gley Lancer on ebay in a long time. However, it’s still just too expensive. And before I bought my empty Gley Lancer for $60 USD I did offer the Australian ebay seller $220 CAD for their complete copy but it was rejected. I wasn’t surprised and I can’t fault them for wanting more. Other peoples stuff is theirs to do with as they like.
So, the hunt continues for a loose good condition Gley Lancer cartridge for the Japanese Sega Mega Drive!
On a side note. Does anyone remember my previous post titled To eBay or Not to eBay? Well, I managed to go about 6 months before signing up again for a new eBay account. What got me to come back to ebay? 8bitdo Bluetooth NES30 joysticks for $25 each with free shipping. In this case eBay offered the best price I could find for this particular item. I’ll write more later on the NES30, SNES30 and their corresponding Retro Receivers. But the short answer is you should run out and buy one right away 🙂
No no… don’t hold back. Please let me know how crazy you think I am!
Retro Megabit 