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GamesHow to Tell a Genuinely Rare Retro Game From a Merely Expensive One"Rare" is the most abused word in a game listing. Here's how to tell genuine scarcity from a common game wearing an expensive word — before you pay the premium.
segaWhy Every Unserviced Game Gear Is on Borrowed TimeThe listing says "tested — powers on." The photo shows Sonic frozen on the title screen, and the description never once mentions sound. Experienced Game Gear collectors read that silence the same way: the capacitors are going, and the seller either doesn't know or doesn't want to say. Sega's 1990 handheld is a strange collectable. It's essentially a Master System you can hold — a Z80 heart pushing a 4,096-colour palette onto a backlit 3.2-inch screen while the Game Boy made do with four shades
nintendoThe N64 Condition Checklist Every Collector Should RunGrip the analogue stick and rotate it slowly before you look at anything else. If it wobbles in its socket like a loose tooth, sits low, or crawls back to centre like it's exhausted, you've just learned more about that console's life than any listing photo will tell you. The N64 stick is the most honest condition report in retro gaming — which is why it's step one on this checklist. Why the stick test comes before everything else The original N64 controller stick rides on plastic gears inside