True Canadian Rarities

[INTVGene]

Well, we all know that there are some differences in rarity between the States and
Canada. Generally, it's just harder and harder to find things here. There are definitely some things that I never see, especially in the wild here. I am
talking about the Hamilton-Toronto location.

Things I have never seen in the wild:
Sega Nomad
Turbo-Duo
Vectrex

Things I have seen
once or twice:
Turbo Grafx 16 system
Atari 5200 system
Atari 7800 system

And, these are just the systems alone. Even the recent stuff is
getting hard to find. I still see some Saturns, but not even that many anymore. Anyone else want to comment on the rarity of things in Canada?

[ghsqb]

You know thats very true, conversely there are some items that are very rare in the US that are more
common here.
One that comes to mind is Bumper Bash.
I believe its R9 $90+ in the DP guide, (I'm at work I don't have it in front of me) and I have
two copies of that games, and most Candian Collectors I know have it.
It would be interesting to see what everyone else has found difficult to come by up
here.

[Mr-E_MaN]

In my area I have never seen a lot of the systems I hear people talking about. I have
never seen any older systems besides the Atari 2600. I have not seen alot of Sega products, I only see the Genesis Version 2 3 times and the SMS once. I have
see a N64, Gameboy, and PSX once but they were priced too high.

Gamewise I see Genesis, SNES, NES mostly but sometimes I see Atari, SMS stuff.

[CongoBongo]

The 5200 is definitely a Canadian rare. The 7800 was apparently available directly from Atari
Canada. I've found 3 and bought 2 Nomads! Not bad I think. There is a Nomad sitting in a game store at Yonge and Eglinton that you could probably make an
offer on if so inclined Anything "Turbo" seems to be very hard to find.

On the other hand, I've found that coleco and Intelly games are almost
more prevelant on the thrift scene then atari. The CV seems to have been very popular here. You also find that because we got SMS international releases,
it's easier to find some titles here than in the US.

[ghsqb]

Well on the
other side of the coin, a peculiarity in Canada is that some SMS games that are credited as European releases by the DP guide, are readily available in
Canada.

One example is Golfamania.

I know SniperCCJVQ has a copy, as does Charlesaway from DP.
Anyone else have this title or any others not
in the DP "North American" Guide?

[ghsqb]

Add American Football to that as well.

[sniperCCJVQ]

I already found Ace of Aces in the wild.

[maxlords]

Wish I had more to say here, but I haven't been in Canada long enough to really know. However, I have found a lot of rare PSX games in the wild, as well
as a 5200 or two and a few other great things. No TG16 stuff at all except for hardware though. Minimal 3D0 too, which is too bad. I see Jaguar
occasionally, but not much. I know a Turboexpress got found in the wild in London recently...but I didn't find it *sob* I do see a good bit of Saturn
stuff though, hardware and software, as well as rarer Sega CD stuff too.

In Oregon, I found wild stuff....2 Nomads, a CDX, top loader NES....stuff
like that...all the time.

[eldunko]

That's odd, i've seen and picked
up a number of TG-16 around here, but absolutely never any games! One of the previous owners was generous to give his TG to the thrift with a Keith Courage
card in the deck, but that's all i've ever seen. Same goes for PS's, i have one for atleast 4 decks...

Well on the other side of
the coin, a peculiarity in Canada is that some SMS games that are credited as European releases by the DP guide, are readily available in Canada.

I second that. I have copies of both double hawk and american baseball which according to that list aren't american releases...
Does that mean that Canada is a european country? It might have something to do with Irwin toy... just a guess

[Charlesaway]

ghsqp:
I also have dynamite dux with a canadian bar code on it.

eldunko: I believe I have a couple of explanations as to why we may have gotten the
european releases. One of them has to do with the language issue, in that the euro games already had bilingual manuals (or tri/quad/etc.) satisfying the
requirements of the canadian market.

The other explanation is that the master system seemed to have more popularity here than in the US. I recall it
getting better advertising in the sears catalogs in the mid 80's than the nintendo did. I vividly remember seeing after burner and the 3d glasses featured
specifically. It looked cool.

To everyone: I don't think the Turbo Grafx is all that rare in Canada. maybe not so common, but not rare. I've
picked them up for 3 bucks with no connectors, and I see at least a few a year in the thrift stores.

I have never seen an atari 5200 or 7800, or a
turbo duo anywhere.