Hello DrRotule, and thanks a lot for your time !
Can you introduce yourself ?
I’m a 33 year old man, I was born in Seine Maritime (France), and now I live in Lille. I’m working in a research institut, and I have a little boy. I also have Sega Master System games at home.
Since when have you started your video games collection ?
I feared that question. I’ve never started a video games collection, I just never stopped buying Master System games even after owning new generation consoles. In the 90’s, I bought around two master system games each year. The period I bought most of my games was between 2005 et 2009.
Why the Sega Master System ?
It was my first console and I lived amazing experiences with it. I spent hours and hours in malls watching Master System games I couldn’t afford. I was just standing, watching closely to the pictures on the back of the boxes. Trying a fullset on another system would make no sense to me, even if I like to get good games on other consoles from time to time.
What is your definition of a Full Set ?
For me, it would be getting every variations of every games. But you have to collect like you like, everyone should have his own definition of a full set.
How much time did you spend collecting all your stuff ?
I got my first Master System game in 1988 and my european full set in 2008, so let’s say 20 years. European master System Full Set is the simplest to achieve.
Can you tell more about it ? How many games are there in the european fullset ? How many exclusives ?
In Europe you can find 278 games. But sometimes the same game can have different packaging, in some cases you can find 3/4 different versions of the same title. It makes thing a little more difficult. There are exclusives mostly in Japan, Brazil, United States and South Korea. To count them you’ll have to make your definition of exclusives. For example the game « Hokuto no Ken » (from the japanese comics), was ditributed outside Japan under the title « Black Belt ». The games are almost identical. Only the difficulty and the sprite of the main character change. Hard to know if it’s an exclusive or not !
The same thing happened several times with Brazilian games. It’s hard to annonce an accurate number of exclusives, all I can say is that ther’s a dozen of japanese exclusive, a dozen of brazilian exclusives and a little less than a dozen of US exclusives. We are lucky that the Master System has been quite popular in Europe, we are very well deserved in terms of number of games. More Sega Master System games were distributed in Europe than in the US or in Japan.
Do you have some brazilian exclusives in mind ?
I won’t list them all because it will be boring. You have to know that some brazilian exclusives are just remake of european games. For example, the « Monica » license is an adaptation of « Wonderboy ». There are also the « Sapo Xule », they are based on Asterix, Kung Fu kid, … There are also brasilian exclusives which are Game Gear conversion like « Dynamite Headdy ». And at last there are 100% exclusives games like the famous « Street Fighter 2 ».
In Australia you can also find some special packaging known as double pack, that’s specific stuff for collectors.
(For those who want to know more here are the list of exclusives by country, just open the spoiler)
| Voulez vous en savoir plus ? | Voir |
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Can you tell us about the different variations of a same game ?
There are series like “Kixx” and “Classic” where the insert has a different design. There can also be localised version for a specific country(usually with the booklet in a specific language). Finally,there are small variations for games that has been distributed before 89, where the word SEGA is sometimes written with “copyright R”.
Which games are the hardest to find ?
Speaking of the european fullset I would say that “Masters of Combat”, “Buggy Run” and “Smurfs 2” (les Schtroumpfs : Autour du Monde), are the hardest to find.
What is your favorite piece ?
I don’t have a favorite piece, I’m proud of my whole collection.
Are you concerned about the price drop that touches vintage video games ?
Regardgin the master system prices are still okay, the fact that the games came in a plastic box helps a lot, they are in better shape than nintendo games and less wanted too.
Once you have finished your fullset, have you consider selling everything ?
Not really, but I must confess that my collection takes a lot of space and since the born of my child it’s quite an issue.
Are you still searching for master system games?
As I collect every variations my quest is endless. I think I’ll be dead before I can grab them all. And that’s weird but I don’t like the idea of being close to the end of my collection.
What are your goals in term of collection ?
Keep going in the worldwide cross universe master system full set.
Do you play video games a lot ? on which consoles ?
Not a lot, since few month I think I play around 1 hour a week. I play master system of course and PS Vita. Few years ago I played a lot more, but that’s life.
Thanks a lot for your answers.
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Here are the pictures of the European Seaga MAster System full set, and many more, thanks DrRotule!
European Full Set :
Australian “4 Pak All Action” :
Brazilian games :
European Cards :
Portuguese Games :
Japanese Games :
