The Sega Mega Drive is one of the cheapest retro consoles to get into, due to its widespread availability in this country. You’ll often find them at Car Boot Sales and on Ebay from between £15 and £25 for a basic setup. I’d personally recommend buying a Mega Drive I rather than the Mega Drive II, as the aerial lead and Power Supply are much easier to replace should there be a problem. Also, the Mega Drive 1 has a headphone socket and can also use the same Scart lead used on a Neo Geo AES machine.

Recommended Mega Drive Hardware

  • The Mega Drive itself
  • A power supply. (bear in mind that the Mega Drive I and II have different power supplies – the Mega Drive power supply has a yellow tip
  • An aerial lead (or ideally, a Scart lead if you can find one
  • Two controllers, as there are plenty of excellent two-player games. If you’re a sports game fan, get an EA 4-Way play and you can play four-players on their later sports games. If you get the Sega Multi Tap (or some of the third-party versions), you can play four-player Bomberman

Avoid the Sega Menacer (Light Gun) as there were only a few gun games released for the Mega Drive and this one is too bulky to be practical. The Konami Justifier light gun, although not wireless like the Menacer, is a much better choice if you simply must have a gun for your Mega Drive.

Personal Game Recommendations

RPG – Shining Force 1 & 2. Shining in the Darkness. Landstalker
Platformer – Sonic 2. Gunstar Heroes. James Pond III
Others – Dragon’s Fury (Pinball). Dune II (Real-time Strategy). Side Pocket (Pool)

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