Starting Over Collecting for the Sega Genesis: A Beginners Guide 

I never get tired of videos like this. Love sharing enthusiasm for the cheap, good games.

People treat the Genesis sports games like they're trash carts. But 16 bit was a golden era for sports games before the push for realism took the fun out of the genre.

The Genesis is my favorite retro system!

I appreciate this video. The Genesis was my favorite console growing up. Major grail for me to build back my Sega collection. Starting with the model 1 console along side with Sonic 2 🙏🏾🤙🏾🔥

I was thinking about you going back to Sega it’s been a while you’re the Sega Legend along with Sega Lord X let’s start over with all of Sega from the Master System Genesis Game Gear CD 32X Saturn and Dreamcast about time you updated these videos from many years ago I appreciate you

Solid list, John! The Genesis was the arcade experience of my teens. Along with the NES, it's probably my most cherished system.

I have a sharp hd 1080p tv set. With it, the Genesis come truly alive with just the composite video. I wonder what it could look like with hdmi cable. But still, very impressed and hope to find another flat screen with composite videos in/out when this one will not work anymore.

When I wanted to start collecting MegaDrive games again and replace all those I had as a kid but didn’t anymore I had a wish list. But I soon realised most of my wish list way too expensive so I went bargain hunting and have found a whole bunch of games for $20-$50 that are all great fun to play. Im probably close to 50 games now including about 10 loose carts.

Ugh that’s a tough one, starting over a collection. I’d for sure have to have Ren and Stimpy: Stimpys invention, Gunstar Heroes, Aladdin, Truxton, NHL 95…..definitely some more I could think of lol. Great vid my friend, you had some solid picks!

The Megadrive/Genesis is a fantastic system to collect for. Some really good titles in multiple genres with more complexity than 8-bit system games. Me being me, I of course have collected all the shoot em ups :) But I also have quite a few games in other genres that I really enjoy playing. There are still titles I am after if I encounter them. Some decent homebrews have been brought out as well, I ended up getting the physical copies of the Darius: Extra Version and Ultracore games.

Great list for starting out. I bought my first Genesis about a year ago, so I have been on this path. I have quite a few sports games, but have found other fun titles like Vectorman. I agree with the earlier comment about the Disney games. Aladdin and The Lion King are inexpensive. You’ll get your money’s worth out of the challenge as well. Fighting games like Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter II are pretty cheap and a fun time.

Great list for the beginner. Super!

Thanks John very good and informative video

My childhood console Megadrive in the UK but I bought a Japanese import and removed the casing and removed the cartridge locking arm so i could play all cartridges from Japan USA and Europe without buying an adaptor I wonder how many others did that Mr Hancock best wishes Mark from across the pond

Thanks so much John!!

I'm not a completist by any stretch of the imagination. Recently I decided I do want a complete set of Sonic games for my Genesis. Most of my collection are the games that speak to me and I enjoy. Recently I also decided to add 1 of each type of sports games. I picked up my first ever copy of Madden this week. NHL'94, FIFA, and PGA are on the horizon. I think my total target is maybe 100 carts for the Genesis. Maybe.

Need a World Series Baseball

The original hardware is also bullet proof, they were made really well👍🏻😎🍺

Buy the games you have fond memories of. Good idea to stop there for a while and see if you really want/need anything else. Still want a sega cd bad but cant justify cost.

You guys got a better version of the 6 pak cart. In Europe Golden Axe and Super Hang On were swapped for Super Monaco GP and World Cup Football. Another good deal is a 4 in one cart (Classic Collection) which has Flicky, Altered Beast, Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle and Gunstar Heroes. It is a fraction of the price of Gunstar Heroes on its own.

I lost my collection and sold my collection and 8 years ago o started collecting Mega Drive games again and I’ve got over 100 games.

Even though the Genesis is not my favorite console, it has a lot of good shmups and my Mega Everdrive has gotten plenty of use.

Many Sega Genesis titles are accessible from collections. Sega made great titles for their system and many of them. Konami has Castlevania and Contra titles available digitally. Minis were also a great way to get many of these classics. As far as cartridges and physical copies go it’s gotten way pricey. Some really good 3rd party titles are becoming more difficult to find and are selling at insane prices. Sometimes I go for the Japanese versions of games. Sometimes they are cheaper and the better version of the game.

On Mortal kombat 2 I can make the game freeze up when I do the fatality with the hat cutting the opponent in half.

I have a working Genesis that a friend gave me but when I went on EB to look for games the carts were $60+ for a single one. That was a while ago so maybe the prices came down.

It's gotten hard to find Sega Genesis games in the wild. They were quite plentiful in 2008, but these days, not so much! Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits tends to be fairly cheap, and you get six fairly well represented arcade classics. Not as good as the emulated versions on PSOne and Saturn, but for Genesis? Not bad! There are certainly worse ways to play Sinistar.

Bow down to the mighty Sega Genesis

I don't really understand the term over collecting. Does that mean you get the same games but in different packaging or as a compilation. If so, I don't understand why you would want the same game twice, or even more. Like, and please don't get me wrong, I love everything you do John, just do not understand why, as you have shown in the past when you have shown your collections off, you have multiple copies of the same game, just because of a very slight variant in the packaging. But I guess this is what over collecting is? OK, this is from someone who had had about 10 original copies of games in 53 years! But anyway, fascinating topic John. Looking forward to the next one as I hope this is going to be an ongoing series.

Get Model 2 with audio mod instead. Sounds and looks better.

Well there’s definitely a Sega tax when you get to the Sega Cd and Saturn!

The Mega Retron HD isn’t perfect replacement for original. Can’t handle some of the graphical effects in Vector man or Ranger X and this does impact gameplay

my recoomends against of all mostly. first getting only cartridge games orgnally and box with art on ali express bootleg ones. bcouse those bootles box with art look even better than orginal then you put cartridges on that box. with that you can select japanise box art if you want. for exmaple jewel master game get amazing japanise art instead of boring west art. after burnet 2 like that. unfortunetly top 3 game now very expensive even cartridge alone. sonic 3 and knucles . ultmaite mortal kombat 3. rocket knight 2 sparkster top 3 game of system. only cheap games movie games like jurassic park terminator etc. many people say avoid movie games but jurassic park games on mega drive one of best games. instead of shootemps like many people said to gey ı recommend games like after burner 2 super hangon galaxy force 2 etc. those games better than side or vertical scrolling shootemps. ı also dont recommend rgps games. instead of those get adventure games like ecco 1 and 2 .castle of illiosion. another world. prince of persia. light crusader. jewel master exile etc those games better than top down looking rpg. way better graphics and sounds. also dont fool mega drive only 2d system there are good 3d games like f 15 strike eagle . starcrusier. lost world . toy story. sonic 3d blast many 3d games look like to ps1 saturn game.

Vectorman was great but didn't like Vectorman 2.

Totally over collecting completely. Stopped in 2017. The prices are absolutsly ridiculous and emulation is so good and cheap now that I can just play my super console and have every library for every console I want.

Seeing this vid, I started thinking. How difficult it would be to start collecting in this day and age. As I continued to watch, you reminded me that's there's still great games out in the wild that are available and affordable. At the stage I'm at with my collection, I couldn't personally imagine starting again. Then I think, how much fun it would be to do so. At this point in life, it would be a grind but very rewarding. I look forward to seeing more collectors starting out and finding some amazing games, not jaded by nostalgia, as I'm sure you know, difficult to ignore. Great topic and vid as always John ☝️🙌✨️

The Six Pack cart is a crazy good value after all these years, worth ten times its usual going price. Worth it just for Sonic and Streets of Rage alone. Wish I'd started serious collecting for the Genesis much sooner. My best friend had one when we were kids, but I had the NES and SNES then (early '90s). I didn't start getting into Genesis until I was nearly 30, though, when my mother-in-law was about to get rid of her sons' old Model 1 in a garage sale. I rescued it, and now nearly 20 years later, Genesis/Mega Drive makes up the second biggest slice of my collection with over 100 carts (NES is still my primary, ~240 carts). Absolutely love the Genesis, and I might be in the minority, but that original 3-button controller is probably my favorite controller design of all time. Might be worth noting how awesome the Genesis' selection of new after-market games is, too, so tons of NEW games to check out and always more coming from devs all over the world.

As a collector, this is a Great video for people just getting into the hobby, because the Genesis is one of the most affordable and widely available consoles to collect for. Many CIB games that are reasonably priced for people to fill their shelves with boxed games without breaking the bank. Great Video.

I still own my original genesis model 2 console from when I was a kid in the 90s, I also have the 6-pak game and sonic and knuckles, plus I have sonic 2 and 3 and other games in the box already. Spot goes to hollywood is a pretty good hidden gem that is fun to play and I got that in box still.

Don’t forget also there so many new great games like XenoCrisis , Tangle Wood , Tanzer , Demons of Asterborg , AsterBro , and so many more I even heard Yuzo maker of Streets of Rage has demo shooter game that he might release which looks incredible and I definitely back it like all the new release MD/GEN games I cant believe growing up with the Md/Gen til now love the console to death

We moved several years back and I did not have the room to haul my collection from Michigan to Arizona. Once we got settled in, I started browsing marketplace & craigslist and eventually found cheap 20 inch CRT and a Sega Genesis. The most important thing I got next was a Mega Everdrive x7 flash cart! I was floored when I figured out it not only plays Genesis games but Master System too!! I have discovered so many great games thanks to John and other retro RU-vidrs. I have since added flash carts for my NES, Atari 2600 and SNES systems. I do also collect physical carts when I can afford them but flash carts have been a game changer for me. Thanks for another great video John. :)

Another opyion is just to buy someone's collection or a big lot of games that someone is moving at at once.

I appreciate that, despite your incredibly comprehensive and valuable game collection, you make a point of telling the audience to basically play the games in any way that's available to them. That clearly comes from a true passion and love for the medium. Keep doing what you do, great content as usual.

This had a lot of helpful information. Thanks. ✌🏼

Other than the ones mentioned, Zombies ate my neighbours, Aladdin, the Jungle book, Micro machines, Speedball 2.

Aladdin & Joe Montana Football are two FANTASTIC budget friendly games every SEGA GENESIS beginner should definitely pickup.

Tecmo SuperBowl cant be beat

Are there any good budget friendly shmups for a starting collector?

I didn't have a ton of games as a kid but i did have vector man, nba jam, nhl 94, and desert strike. My pops didn't play games but he loved desert strike.

Great video Keep it up John!

my first 10 to get would be: castle of illusion, dragons fury, nhlpa hockey 93, flashback, speedball 2, streets of rage, phantasy star 2, jungle strike, alien storm, ghouls n ghosts :)

Great Video John. I do have one thing that would need to be added when it comes to the controllers. From what I have seen all the newer third party contoloores ( Retro-Bit, 8bit DO ECT) have and issue with MK1 and sonic 1 the "C" and "Z" button are heavly delayed in those games. so be carefull.

Mortal kombat

Why does Eternal Champions doesn't play well with the aftermarket controller?. I consider you to be an expert.

I was going to recommend Landstalker and Rambo III but I looked at the prices and they’re both in the $20-30 range. If that’s still considered affordable I still recommend them, though. Landstalker in particular is a really good game for those who enjoy Zelda style games. It’s a favorite of mine on the system. It’s also available in the newer Genesis collections on modern systems. It’s worth buying that collection if you want to experience some of the best Genesis games for fairly cheap.

Hello John I'm Brazilian, and a great Sega Genesis enthusiast, Mega Drive here. I'm a collector, I have almost all the Sega Genesis models released. For me, Mega Drive is the best console. I have a lot of consoles, from Atari to the recent ones, but Sega Genesis is at heart...😂. Big hug!!

Not even the IMMORTAL, "can go wrong with the GENESIS" In definition that is the BEGINNING 🙏☯️🧘‍♂️ of something GOOD 🇺🇸🦅

I hadn't looked at Genesis game prices on eBay in while, so I went ahead and did quick searches for "Shining Force," "Shadowrun," "Phantasy Star 2," and "MUSHA," and it looks like prices are still way up there - at least for complete in box. I agree with John that if you were starting a collection now, I would get whatever original or aftermarket hardware option you want, get a multicart of some sort, and then continue to wait for prices on the good stuff to come down. It might take years, but I do think it will happen eventually.

I have the original model 1 and also a MegaRetron HD. I just use the Retron. A couple of games have slightly shimmery backgrounds, but overall the output is good over HDMI on a 24 inch 1080p monitor. I run it through a scanline generator which works really well and the scanlines can be adjusted to your liking. It's a nice effect. I also have a Mega drive mini which I do like, but for whatever reason I don't use it much. I own a little over 40 cartridges, with about half being cartridge only. I don't tend to buy stuff that is also on the mini so I don't really have a collection that's all that representative of the mainstream Mega Drive games. If you actually want to play games, going for cartridge only can in a lot of cases save you a fortune. Also buying carts listed as untested is also pretty safe. I have yet to buy one that hasn't worked.

I have the Sega Genesis model 2. Yeah i know it's not the best as model 1. But at least i have one. Even though it has the jail bar's which i hate. But again i am glad i even have the system. Of course i hope to get more games for it. And later I'll get the model 1. I wish i could make videos of me buying consoles on eBay, DK oldies, and others. That claim that they refurbished consoles but they don't. So i clean them and sell them or give away free to people i know or give away at the free store. It's just my saying " God bless you with this free gift from me. But remember if you follow him there is greater gift then this!"

I really like this starting guide as I gave been curious as well. 😃

I'm curious, how many megs is that 6-pak game collection?

there is a MisteR fpga clone in development right now that is looking to be just under 100$(usd). i think emulation is about to get a lot better with the discovery of recompiling 64 games to pc. and with fpga boards getting cheaper by the day there is almost no reason to use older hardware other than to flex

I grabbed a Mega Retron HD last year. I'm really enjoying it, but I don't think I've been able to find a comprehensive compatibility list. Does anyone know if there is one?

My model 1 was listed as not working and just had a reset button problem, works perfect now. I only collect games that I want to play, but its hard to resist getting them all.

If you're collecting cart only, if you can find any, the racks for holding cassette tape jewel cases, or even the drawers perfectly fit Sega Genesis Cartridges.

More Sega Genesis Videos

General chaos is a pretty good game.

The Immortal One!!!!!

All good picks. I also recommend Streets of Rage 2 and Ghouls and Ghosts. Two of my favorites. Thanks for the video, John!

Aladdin is amazing.

Genesis hardware is pretty cheap to get but alot games have become very expensive. I would suggest collecting for Xbox original instead. Majority of the games are still inexpensive and can be modded if you choose that route as well.

For anyone starting out in the UK, there were three Mega Games cartridges which each had three desirable games, and they're alot cheaper than getting them individually. Also, there was a Classics Collection cartridge, with four games, (one of which is Gunstar Heroes) which is also great value to get!

One of my favourite ways to start or re-start a collection, specifically if it's something from my childhood, is to try and repurchase the games I had at the time. We never had a massive Genesis collection growing up, but that would mean I'm rebuying Sonic 1-3, Spinball, NFL Quarterback Club, and Sub-Terrania

Love this video! Thanks for the advice.

This is me and thanks for the info and tips

I have always thought that the Nintendo tax you referred to, is somewhat driven by the simple fact that the games came in flimsy cardboard boxes as opposed to the well made Sega clamshells, so many NES, SNES, and N64 games are in heavily damaged boxes which is a driving factor for people in this hobby like myself who only buy boxed games. Just my opinion. I'm a Sega kid so maybe I'm biased, but I think the quality of the boxes fueled the Nintendo tax, not necessarily the quality of the games themselves. It's harder to find Nintendo from that era boxed in great condition, but Sega is readily available CIB, because of the quality of clamshell.

Great starting guide! No question, the Sega Genesis is still amazing and it’s a fantastic retro system to revisit. For affordable starting games, I would add: NBA Live 95, Evander Holyfield Boxing or Greatest Heavyweights, Tommy Lasorda Baseball or Sportstalk Baseball, Joe Montana Football 93, and Road Rash 1 or 2. There are others of course, but that’s a pretty solid start. Genesis games are very durable and easy to clean up. And then I’d recommend getting a couple of six button controllers, which are still very good and pretty cheap (like $20 for new ones, in the style of the 6 button layout pad). I still have my Genesis hooked up - great library of games and it’s been pretty cheap growing my library of (mostly) loose carts.

The only consoles that’s worth collecting for are the Xbox series X PS5 PS4 xbox one Xbox 360 only the PS3 that gives trophies 🏆

Save your space and money, IMHO. The Sega Mega Drive or Genesis Classics on modern hardware are a great way to see if you want to go that route. Hardware, the Genesis Mini and Genesis Mini 2 are outstanding if you add the Retrobit 6button controllers. You can also soft mod them with more games. Original hardware, some of the parts on the mainboards, cartridge slots may no longer work. Always plug your hardware into a surge protector or UPS. There are also cartridges that have a ton of games built in you can use on old and third party Genesis hardware. Nice summary!

He's on fire 🔥