Retro Gaming collections - A Completed Classic Sega Collection

Every once in a while we come across an utterly amazing find, this week was no exception, but this time, the find came to us..

A chap called Russell dropped us a tweet this week stating that he had just completed his collection of retro gaming items and attached a photo. This photo showed a room utterly full of Sega console games.

We had plenty of questions and Russell wanted to provide answers!

Tell us a bit about how you started collecting? 

R: I used to have a small collection (c. 40 games) in the mid 90's but in 1996 I was burgled and the scum bags took my Mega Drive (must have been worth about £50 back then, they must have been desperate!). Back then I was more focused on PS1 so I never replaced it and used the insurance money to buy more PS1 stuff. In 2006 I was at a boot fair and I picked up a console and a couple of games and it all came flooding back. I started collecting from then, starting out on the Mega Drive.

Is it all Sega? 

R: Yes all Sega, I only collect for what I owned as a kid and I never owned any other makes of console (apart from PS1). I used to play on my next door neighbours Master System a lot and asked for one for Christmas 1990 (I was ten). I still remember opening my present on Christmas Day and instantly thinking "This is not a Master System", it was a Mega Drive, I did not even know one of those existed!! I was ecstatic.

Russell, Tell us – How many games do you own? 

R: There are 1160 games, all boxed with the manuals / inserts etc. I only collect PAL so Europe and Australian games. The picture with them out on the floor was an exercise my insurance company made me do. I had to get every one down and photograph them, took about 2 days, tons of fun.

You have a wife, how does she feel about this collection? 

R: When I first started out collecting it really used to wind her up, she saw it as a massive waste of money (rich coming from someone who has enough designer handbags to make Naomi Campbell jealous). However now retro gaming is incredibly popular and the prices of the games are going through the roof, now she is suddenly interested, enough even to help me photograph all the games for insurance purposes.

What’s the most you have paid for a game (and what was it?) 

R: I just picked up the three rare 32x games, namely Darxide, Primal Rage and T-Mek. They cost me just over £1,000 each. 

What was the hardest game to get hold of? 

R: Without a shadow of a doubt "Lakers vs. Celtics and the NBA Playoffs" on the Sega Mega Drive.The game had appeared on collection tick lists for nearly 20 years but nobody had ever seen one. It was rumoured that whoever put the list together originally had mistakenly included a Genesis title and the mistake had been copied into all the others. However about a year ago a collector on retrocollect.com posted up a picture of his copy.

If I am truthful it was quite annoying, I thought I had a complete collection but now I had to find this unbelievably rare game. I offered that seller an arm and a leg for his copy but he turned me down (I would have done the same). About three months ago though I was alerted to a bulk auction on eBay which had this game in it, I sent the seller a message and he agreed to sell me that one game. 

What is your proudest purchase?

R: I have the only developmental copy of a game called "Bill's Tomato Game" for the Mega Drive, it was being developed by Psygnosis in 1993 but due to the buyout of that company by Sony and their focus on the PS1 it was never released.

Okay, your house is on fire.. you have time to dash in and grab a handful of games. What do you grab and why? 

R: They are all fully insured and most are readily available, so not the end of the world. The only ones I would get would be the ones which the insurance company would not be able to replace: - Lakers vs. Celtics (Mega Drive), Blue Box World Championship Soccer 2 (Mega Drive), Bills Tomato Game (Mega Drive), Smurfs 2 (Master System) and the 3 32x games which I spoke about earlier.

Where do you go from here, Nintendo, Dreamcast?  

R: Game over for me on the collecting front, my office is full and I like to have the games on display. If I was to start something else I would either have to put them in storage or move one of the kids into my office and steal their bedroom (apparently I am not allowed to do this). Part of me wants to go for original NES, my wife was quite poor growing up and she only had a NES with 2 games (you would think only having 2 games she would be good at them but she is not) I would like to buy them all but the difficulty of finding them complete worries me financially.

What consoles do you own? 

MCD, Saturn, PS3, WII (kids) and a MAME Machine. My 32x is currently broken.

What is your favourite game to play?

R: I am a massive SF2 fan, it is all I did as a kid. My brother had trophies for sporting achievements, I had them for SF2. I love to play that on any format. 

What is the toughest game in your collection? 

R: Chakan and Probotector on the MD are pretty tricky. As a kid I found Phantasy Star III Generations of Doom to be the hardest. It was the only game me and my brother owned, but had never completed. Due to lack of internet or any guide we just found ourselves going round and round in circles.

What about doubles, how many do you have? 

R: There are no doubles. However after photographing them all a couple are not in perfect condition so I am going to re-buy these, so I will have around 15 soon.

Russell is new to Twitter and we think he deserves a following, so please go and add him:http://www.twitter.com/mrwistles

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