Phantasy Star MD

[Mr-Monday]

Hi

Most people know that Phantasy Star 2 - 4 were released on the Megadrive/Genesis. But apparently the original Mark III/Master System Phantasy Star was also released on the Genesis in a limited 'special edition' release. It is exactly the same as the Master System version except it's in a Megadrive cart and you don't need a Power Base convertor to play.

A pic and some more info can be found here:-

http://www.genesiscollective.com/ShowPage.php?GameLink=1001

According to that link, only 1000 copies were made. Does this make it the rarest comercial Genesis game?

[FrankLee]

I dont think the original Phantasy Star came out for the sega genesis and i looked at the Digitpress rarity list and its not on the sega genesis list so i dont know...

[maxlords]

I dont think the original Phantasy Star came out for the sega genesis and i looked at the Digitpress rarity list and its not on the sega genesis list so i dont know...

It didn't come out for Genesis. As he said, it came out for Mega Drive in Japan only, and it had a print run of 1000 copies. However, as for it being the rarest Mega Drive game....I don't think so. Seems that the MD Phantasy Star has been pirated in Taiwan or Korea or something, cause you can get them fairly cheap (like $50-60) from there I'm told. And I guess they're identical to the original....so that would kinda ruin the value a bit I'd imagine.

Stuff like Vampire Killer (Castlevania: Bloodlines), Alien Soldier Jp, Rockman Megaworld, Slap Fight, Panorama Cotton, Eliminate Down, and The Ooze are just as rare in Japan.

[FrankLee]

opps sorry my bad... :-D

[Li Wang]

I've never put much stock into the "1000 copies" story. It's way too easy to find for the numbers to be that low. No official source for that number has ever shown up.

I've never heard the story of some copies being pirated, but if piraters ever bother making indistinguishable copies of any official release I'll eat my Famicom. Not to mention it would be a really odd title to be worth the financial bother to them.....

[anagrama]

I remember reading that there was an original print run of 1000, but that it was reissued later on.
I don't know how true that is, or whether there's any difference between the two.

[rbudrick]

I actually have a mint copy of this. There's no way the 1000 number can be accurate. I see them on ebay twice a month. Maybe 5 or 10 thousand, but not 1.

Now, I've mentioned it before, but if anyone can find me the extremely rare pirated version of Phantasy Star 4 for the Famicom, I will gladly fork over some HUGE $. It is a Chinese pirate, and the title is Wai Xing Zhan Shi, which roughly translates to Alien Soldier.

Someone must be willing to sell me this...PLEASE? :-(

-Rob

[Ed Oscuro]

It's not cool to collect (encourage) pirates. :/

[rbudrick]

It's not cool to discourage another's collecting habits.




But seriously, folks (da-dum ching!)

Besides, the game is VERY different from PSIV....very simplified, sceneries changed, game is in Chinese, stuff moved around, dungeons changed. If someone didn't tell ya, it's doubtful you'd even know it was a pirate of PS IV. Besides, for all I know, it was licensed and Sega didn't tell anyone (kinda like when Atari was pirating carts...see the DP guide)...there's a full pre-title screen with the company's name on it that did the conversion...looks very professional. Famicom was much more popular in China than the Genesis/mega drive....so it could be. Famicom clones were used as PCs and such there.

It's basically one of those so-called "original" pirates like Super Mario World for Famicom, or Somari, or Street Fighter II.

-Rob

[Ed Oscuro]

Well, I suppose it's in the past. It sounds interesting and by no means do I want to wipe out what is a part of the gaming record...it's just that the word Pirate gets me seeing blood :O