I didn't kill two birds with one stone because I find that cruel...

...but I did get two toughies at once for the Sega Mega Drive, and they are Bodycount and The Punisher, thanks to a very friendly seller that sold them for a decent price. These games are kinda hard to find but not impossible, especially Bodycount, but as you know resellers are a serious plague on ebay and prices are sky-rocket high. I wanted the two, and the two I got now. I'm happy because they are now part of my collection, both in mint condition and they were saved from the hands of resellers or fake collectors and they were not sold to international buyers. Yeah, because all the good games and rare stuff are being taken out of this country and retrogaming is slowly dying over here...

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Mega Dri... wait, what??

Ecoplay, previously called Ecofilmes, is one of the biggest Portuguese distributors since the Sega ages. They are responsible for a number of barbarities in the Portuguese market, including high prices, used copies being sold as new (because they open all copies), the IGAC stamp, the Master System Tec Toy Purple releases and even the Mega Drive games with european covers and Genesis cartridges inside...

And to end with all the story, we have a "bootleg" console that rumours say it's actually licensed by Sega, called the Mega Game II, which was exclusively released in Portugal. It seems to be the case, because the console is actually made in Japan, it has a patent number and the best thing about it it's the fact that it's region free and it can run any type of game. That is certainly cool. It was a low cost version of the Mega Drive that hit the market when Mega Drive was almost done for. It's kinda tough to find at the moment, even though I still know a couple of stores that had a few brand new ones for sale. Unfortunately the condition of the boxes was pretty messy and the owner of the store is a stupid old guy who doesn't know how to keep his word so I had an argument with him once and never entered that crappy store again.



I was only able to buy this console very recently, and unfortunately is missing its instructions manual, but the outer box is in a  fairly good condition and so is the console. The price was very good too so I couldn't miss the deal because I didn't have the console yet and I really wanted it.

But there's also a little extra I found at a boot sale and seems to be ever rarer than the console itself  a boxed control pad. I have never found one before and I didn't even know it existed. The box is in average condition with general wear and tear but it was cheap and considering how tough it is to find one of these nowadays, there was no way I would let it go.

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And since we are talking about rare games...

... I will also talk about another nightmarish game it took me years to find for a decent price. Several years ago I would be able to buy this game for a certain high price and I wasn't really willing to pay that much for it. But now? That price is now twice as much on almost every auction and that's unacceptable. Soon I figured I had to get this game once the opportunity showed up and that's what I did. This game is not THAT RARE, in fact is far more common than a few others I've recently bought. But its price is insane and just keeps rising...

I'm talking about Mega Man The Wily Wars for the Mega Drive, another pain of a game to get. I was expecting to find it one day at a second hand store or in an auction site besides ebay. But the thing is... this damn game never ever appeared! Even after several years searching. So yeah it's another title that was a pain to find. I finally got it. Another one to scratch off the list...

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Say hi to the THREE new members of the family!

I am still missing some of the main consoles. but in the last few months I was able to get some of those I was missing.

First of all, the Mega CD II. I really don't like Mega CD to be honest, but it still has some pretty good games. Not many, but those few are really worth the system alone. Snatcher should probably be the number 1 title for that console in my opinion.

Seccondly, the Mega Drive I. I already had a few models of Mega Drive II but I was never able to find the first console in good condition and for a good price. I finally found it, and I am very glad that I bought it!

And finally, probably the rarest and most important of them all... Something I did not even know it existed until last year and I never expected to find it so soon: a PAL version of the NES Top Loader. I am so glad that I was able to get such a console in my collection. I did not expect to find one so soon, really!

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The newly released Mega Drive games

I have to say... when I preordered Pier Solar, I never expected that a few guys could pull out such an amazing masterpiece.

THIS GAME IS AWESOME.

All said. Everything about this game is good: the graphics are very impressive for a 16bit game made by fans, the soundtrack is amazing and the improving soundtrack CD that allows you to get a better sound quality while playing thanks to the Mega CD... to me that is something totally out of this world. The package this comes with is so beautiful and professionally done that it totally made me drool. I still did not play the game. I can hardly wait to play it, but after watching an unboxing video of this beauty I wasn't able to open my package. Instead, I peordered the reprint edition and I promised myself I will unbox my Sega Mega Drive 2 (oh wait, it's already unboxed!) and I will deffinitely play it as soon as I get it! And honestly, I can hardly wait.

Besides Pier Solar, there's also another game I recently ordered from Super Fighter Team: The Legend of Wukong. Some time ago I also bought Beggar Prince from them. When I realized this game had artwork to manual, cover and cartridge, I rushed to get one of the 1st/2nd print versions and was able to get it off ebay for about £30. I know these games are not really new, instead they are adapted versions of games that never came out of certain countries in asia. But still, it makes me quite happy!

For now, I think I have all the latest releases fr the Sega Mega Drive Console: Pier Solar, Legend of Wukong and the two main versions of Beggar Prince! It's awesome that after such a long time people are still producing games for such an old and amazing console!

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Back to the days when Disney Games were amazing...

If you collect older Sega games chances are you must have heard about this before. It's no big deal, but now the most Mega Drive and Master System dedicated collectors usually search for this particular box set. I never searched for this too much but I eventually came across for a good price and decided to pick it up.

This is the Disney collection double pack that comes with two games inside a plastic case. It was supposed to come with two Disney games for Mega Drive, Master System or possibly Game Gear (not sure about this last one because the boxes don't fit so well). The pack I found still had the original paper insert but only came with one disney game. I took the picture rom the back of the box because, well, it looks better.

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I told you I would not resist for much longer...

...and I kept my "promise". I just could not really stand that one of my recent favourite consoles (probably due to its scarcity) was the only one without its original box. I've spent a couple of years trying to get the box alone but then I figured I'd do better if I'd just get another one complete as the box alone is nearly impossible to find.

Even though it was not the best moment to spend more money for me, I just couldn't resist, so I picked it.

Yes, I am talking about the beautiful Sega Multi-Mega Console. Finally, The only unboxed console I've had is no longer unboxed :). I did act like a 6 years old receiving his xmas gift when this came but I don't even care about that.

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Happy Birthday to me!

Yep. It's my 26th birthday within less than one hour. I took the day off. To celebrate my birthday, I bought myself a couple of gifts that I have been searching for a very long time. The most important one is right bellow:

The Sega Mega Drive Limited Edition Boxset of a great popular game back in the days: Ecco. It took me a long long time to get this box. It was quite expensive, but after so long without being able to find it, I took my chances and decided to buy it.

On a side note, I kinda feel sad for one thing... Ebay is no longer what it used to be. I am buying less stuff from there right now... Sellers are asking too much for items that were once MUCH cheaper, and buyers are paying ridiculous amounts of money for things that are not worth so much. But it seems that this new reality in the scenario of videogame collecting came to stay... I guess I have to be ready to pay more that I was used to in the past. The real bargains still exist somewhere out there, but they're far more scarce now. Another special thingy will be added soon and I hope new ones become available as well...

There are a few other items I have that ended for an expensive price, but they were, so t say, "affordable". Right now I think that only my zelda boxsets overtake this ecco edition. I'm quite proud of it though, but it was not easy at all for me to buy this thing. Money is an issue, ya know. Wish it wasn't but the lottery doesn't want anything with me. But still, I feel happy for being able to get these games with some sacrifices that only I understand and value. I'll keep sweating till the last drop to keep up collecting.

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And since we're talking about rare accessories...

... here's another one, in a mint condition: the Sega Master System Converter II for the Mega Drive console. It does exactly what its name suggests: in allows you to play Sega Master System game cartridges in a Mega Drive console. I guess this is what we can call the first retrocompatibility feature that a console ever had - I might be wrong, until otherwise proven. Shame on you Sony, with so many great PS2 games still around you should not have removed that feature...

While the first version of the converter exists in quite a few numbers and it's fairly common, this second edition seems to be very scarce, specially in this condition. As a matter of fact, I'm pretty glad that I bought it. Works with both Mega Drive I and II consoles because it has a small piece that allows to controll the height of the adapter for each console. It just fits each one perfectly.

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Cables? What's that for?

The two items bellow are incredibly hard to find, yet quite impressive pieces of technology that only the most recent consoles are using regularly. Wireless controllers have been there in the market for quite a while. Using their age's techology, SEGA released infra-red controllers for its own consoles. These were pretty expensive back then, and that's probably the main reason why they become so rare. I fetl pretty interested in Saturn's wireless controllers after I first heard they existed. When I finally had the chance to pick a complete set, I did not think twice. As for Mega Drive controllers, these took me quite a while to get as well but with a lucky shot I got them as well.

Even the oldest 8bit console has its own piece of advanced technology. Yes that's right, the Sega Master System console had its own infra-red controllers. While not being produced by Sega, this licensed infra-red controller was produced by WKK. A similar controller exists for the Sega Mega Drive as well, but now that I have the original ones there's no need to search too hard for the WKK version. If I have the chance to get one, I'll get it, but I'll not search exhaustively like I did with the other two packs. This SMS controller only exists in individual packs on a single controller. So I did buy a second controller and that way I have two of each :)

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