Would you believe you can find sealed copies of Zoop for the Sega Genesis for just $17?

Something people won't tell you about collecting old games is how much they stink. Ebay is a grabbag of odors, and I've smelled it all, from the urine-rich stench of Goodwill games to the gritty, hard texture of cigarettes soaked into the pages of ratty old manuals. I have a box of CIB PlayStation Underground discs that I transferred to CD sleeves because the cardboard cases absorbed something best described as "haunting." Zoop also has a malodorous quality, a mustiness which tells you immediately that someone's been harboring a box full of unopened copies for nearly 30 years, sitting on them while waiting for the Zoop train to roll in. Perhaps that's why unopened Zoops are so cheap. Imagine inheriting unsold backstock of this game and carrying it around for years, a literal burden and a figurative curse... Well, I'm always happy to house unwanted games, even if it smells like someone Zooped in here.

I actually have two copies of Zoop. The first I developed a sort of sentimental attachment with, and I couldn't bring myself to open it and rob my life of some little piece of purity. It's now in a protective case and placed as a display piece on the top rung of my retro shelf. However, I always intend to play the games I collect, and at $17 a copy, buying a second Zoop was no big deal. The Genesis aftermarket is in such a state that most sealed games run a couple hundred at minimum, but this is the Zoop market, and I'm buying and trading on it all day.

Peeling back the shrink wrap on a new Genesis game is a special feeling, one that I immortalized by recording my first ever unboxing video. Please consider subscribing and donating to my Patreon, every little bit helps, i've been having to see a doctor a lot after filming that, he said he's never seen a gut biome like mine and he's gotta do all kinds of tests and it's getting really expensive

As for Zoop itself, it's pretty straight-forward. The player is represented by an arrow confined to a grid and needs to match colors to clear rows of encroaching pieces. Clear a set number of "zoops" and you move on to the next stage. Zoop's simplistic nature makes it easy to pick up and play, but it never finds the same cathartic rhythm as games like Tetris, partially due to it's squishy, "zoupy" controls. To be fair, the lack of firmness may be due to the soft nature of the Genesis' D-pad. Maybe this is the worst console to play it on, actually. Bad fucking news for any nitwit who bought two copies of Zoop.

I do actually like this game's aesthetics, it's about as 90s as you can get with its sharp color contrasts and use of simple yet striking geometric shapes. Even the font treatment is playful in a way that's very evocative of the era. Sure, it looks as simple as it plays, but I've actually grown to like my display copy as a sort of artistic statement, and it's enough of an eye-catch to serve as a great conversation starter.

"Why do you own a copy of Zoop?"

"I made a list of every game I owned, and someone jokingly said I didn't have one."

"Kind of an over-commitment to a bit, don't you think?"

"Yeah."

"... It really stinks in here."

"Yeah..."