A lost traffic safety game for the SEGA Master System has been recovered by SMS Power!, a game community dedicated to preserving 8-bit SEGA games.
Titled Game de Check! Koutsuu Anzen (ゲームでチェック！交通安全 — literally "Let's check with a game! Traffic Safety"), this rare SEGA Master System cartridge was released in 1987. It was never intended for sale to the public and thus there were very few actual copies floating around in the world.
A 2009 Yahoo! auction in Japan sold one of these cartridges to a private collector for an undisclosed sum; the auction was originally seeking approximately $33,000 according to the forum post detailing the find. The initial asking price might seem a bit nuts, but research done by SukaSega estimates that there were only ever 200–300 copies ever produced.
A more recent auction popped up with the same cartridge (and some other goodies) asking for the same price. The auction failed and the seller changed it to a standard auction with a starting bid of ¥1. SMS Power! managed to secure the winning bid and got the contents shipped to France with the help of the NPO Game Preservation Society.
Since then, the SEGA enthusiasts have dumped the ROM and translated the game — and now you can play this 33-year-old oddity for yourself.
How Can You Play the Traffic Safety Game?
If you'd like to play this strange game, there's good news — SMS Power! has made a ROM available. You can grab it via their translations database, although you're going to need to also use an emulator (and that might require an IPS patching tool).
Goodness knows how many weird games like this have been lost over the years. This recent find just goes to show that tenacious game enthusiasts can track down even the most obscure games and preserve them in all of their weirdness for future generations.
What do you think of this strange traffic safety game? What's the weirdest video game you've ever played? Let us know in the comments below!
