On July 6th 2017 Paul Murdoch announced on Facebook that he had accomplished his mission to collect every UK SEGA Megadrive game released for the top ranking 90's console. Not only that, but he also houses a full UK Master System set too! We got to ask him a few questions about his recent journey which he was more than happy to answer...
How did you first get into collecting for the Sega Megadrive?
I first starting collecting in early 2014, i never had a Megadrive as a child so i only got to play one at my friends house. I only knew of the most common games like streets or rage, sonic etc so i started buying ones i wanted to try.
At what point did you decide you wanted to go for the full set?
I've always been a gamer never thought of collecting seriously at the time, wasn't till i had around 50 Megadrive games that i started to build up some knowledge on the Megadrive and thought about what an achievement it would be to have every pal game released in the UK I also realised that by collecting games complete with manual and original artwork meant it was regarded as a better achievement as its a lot easier to find games without manuals.
When i started i wasn't aware of eBay sold listings so didn't really know what the "going rate" was on games, took a few months and from help i established that if i was to achieve this goal i wanted to buy games cheaper than eBay and in bundles where possible to save on cost per game, this also helped in trying to achieve a full uk set well below eBay cost and made the challenge that little more harder but in a good way.
How long has it taken to achieve the goal?
3 and a half years from purchasing my first Megadrive game which was back in early 2014
Was there ever a point you thought it couldn't be accomplished?
Yes quite a few times, its more like hitting a wall that you feel cant be broken down.
When you reach the half way point (around 260 games) you have either still got a lot of the rarer games to get or you've got the rarer ones first and have the common ones left. I unfortunately still had a lot of rarer games left and i was finding it difficult to find them complete and in very good condition i was still picking up the low end sports games and for a period lost the buzz as i wasn't bringing in any good quality games , but i got lucky and found 2 collectors who where selling up and was giving the opportunity to buy most of the rare games in a large bundle thus saving quite a lot of money.
Were there any games you struggled to locate?
For anyone considering collecting a Megadrive UK set there is only 2 games that will prevent you from having a 100% complete with original manual and original sleeve.
The first is the infamous "Lakers vs Celtics", there is quite a bit documented on this game and quite recently much more information was discovered. For many years only 12 people had a complete copy of this game, recently on eBay another appeared and it was pretty much brand new never played. It was from a former EA employee and he confirmed that due to copyright issues less than 200 games were released and wasn't given an official release, its likely that there is less than 100 still complete in existence the question now is do you consider it to be part of the set due to its sheer rarity? perhaps it shares the same sort of collecting level as the Nintendo world championship nes cart. Its unlikely i will ever get a complete pal one and at the moment i just have the pal cart.
Secondly is world championship soccer 2, not many will know but this has a similar story to the Lakers background i.e copyrights and very few being released, but what makes this different is there was a "brown bag classic" version released and its very common and easy to get hold of. The manual and cart is exactly the same as the original but its the outer sleeve which makes the original so rare and expensive if you find one it will easily command near £1000 to the right collector. For collecting purposes the "brown bag classic" version is what myself and many others will have.
Whats considered your personal best purchase/bargain for the console?
I always consider buying any game cheaper than eBay a bargain.
I live in a small area so being able to get anything locally from someones attic for a bargain is pretty rare for me but many friends have given me games for free so have always appreciated that and those have been my best purchases as they were once part of my friends childhood and now they sit proudly in my collection
Whats your most treasured item in the collection?
My FIFA Megadrive 2 console variant, it wasn't released in the UK and mine is dutch i think. Am a big FIFA fan so having something that's rare to UK shores and shares that FIFA connection makes it my treasured Megadrive item.
How did you go about sourcing games? (Is it possible to complete the set via eBay alone? or was there any special help you got/needed along the way?)
Its possible to get every Megadrive game complete with manual on eBay, the 2 games i mentioned above would be a once in a lifetime opportunity to get but its doable. I find buying games from Europe either France or Germany on eBay as a great option, many games cheaper than what UK eBay sellers will charge you but always check the exchange rate and also be aware of postage costs.
There is only 1 way really to get it done cheaper than eBay and that's to join the retro gaming Facebook groups, at least 10 main groups that are UK based will allow you to buy them cheaper but more importantly buying from trusted sellers and collectors. I've had great advice from 2 people in particular who had both full UK sets but so many people on the Facebook groups know there stuff and are friendly and helpful in any questions you need to ask.
What would you class as your favorite MD game?
Teenage mutant ninja turtles hyper stone heist
It has everything that i love in a typical great Sega game of the 90's, great side scrolling action game with multiple characters and 2 player availability plus its turtles and everyone loves the original turtles if your a 90's kid.
There is many great common titles like streets of rage, golden axe, road rash etc that you always tend to pick and play but its also has some great uncommon games that most might not know like hell fire, alien storm, gunstar heroes, phantasy star series etc
Have you seen much of a price increase/decrease in certain titles since you first purchased them? Or are there any titles you feel you've had to pay over the odds for due to over popularity?
Mega games 6 vol 3, was once a £80 plus value game last couple years but has now halved in value.
Vast majority of the rarer/expensive titles that are in the £100-400 price range haven't changed in value only the condition dictates the value or how desperate some one wants it. Your now finding the traders/resellers are finding it hard to grab the expensive titles cheaply to sell on for vast profit as most collectors now have them so your seeing the games that were £20 maybe 3 years ago now driving up in value to near double as the traders are latching more onto them an example this would be truxton.
Being a full set collector there surely games you've had to purchase that you usually wouldn't consider buying, but are there any titles you actually wish you didn't own?
Sadly there is many sports games for the Megadrive probably near 100 in total, with the vast majority being american type sports games like basketball, ice hockey, american football etc most of these aren't something i would play. I do like to play the ice hockey games i.e NHL and the FIFA games are great fun with most remembering you can run away from the referee when he try's to book you.
I also contemplated collecting the full pal Megadrive set which meant buying the Australian exclusives as they are also pal region but the expense and quality of game play put me off so glad not to follow that route. I liked the thought of owning the mini sets within the uk set, these are the "brown bag classics" "EA classics" and finally "kixx releases", currently i have them all apart from 1 brown bag classic.
Do/have you played all the games?
I have a system where i try to play the games in alphabetical order, this helps me pull away from playing the same games over and over but more importantly i get to play games i wouldn't normally play like some of the sports. I would normally play around 10-15 games in a gaming sitting, if i find one am enjoying or feel the need to try and complete i would cast spend more time on it.
How did it feel when you made the final purchase?
Delighted as well as sad as I knew the Megadrive dream was over
As the popularity of homebrew grows will you consider purchasing new games made for the system? Or do you draw the line at the original official release list?
I have a couple homebrew games purely for the gaming factor but will always stick to the original list for any platform
Married? Children? What are your immediate family views on collecting in general?
I've been blessed with 2 young daughters who aren't that interested in playing video games but they do enjoy coming into the games room when I allow them and they enjoy playing with the Pokémon and Nintendo figures or "toys" which they call it. Like most wife's with husbands with collections mine has no interest in gaming and sees it as a waste of time but she knows the value of it.
As the proud owner of a full MS and MD set, What comes next?
I always wanted the full uk Megadrive and uk master system game set but wanted to collect a Nintendo game set as well, I decided that N64 was something that was relatively small i.e a 240ish uk game set which meant less space needed and it was still achievable to get complete games in very good condition and prices for the rare games where similar to megadrive. The catalogue of games for the N64 caught my eye and so many I want to play so that's going to be my 3rd and last uk game set to collect. I have a growing Pokémon collection as I was and still am a massive fan, I currently plan to collect all the games and consoles that are Pokémon related from game boy to ds. Probably around half way there on the Pokémon collection, my last collection is the super Nintendo console variants. I just enjoy the awesome artwork on the boxes and felt Nintendo had the better artwork over Sega when it came to the 16bit console war, just like the games I only collect uk releases and there was officially 15 snes console variants released so only need 1 more to complete that set.
Note: Paul has followed the UK Sega Megadrive release list as displayed on the RetroCollect database. This lists 534 unique UK games which is confirmed to be 100
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