Every Cartridge Has a Journey

Most people take for granted how their game cartridges reached their final destination. About ten years ago I came across Olympic Gold: Barcelona '92 for the Sega Mega Drive. On the surface there isn't much to think about. It's a Sega Game, it's about the Olympics, therefore a sports game, and that's pretty much it. The point being I found this at a thrift store in the United States, where our Sega console, as you well know, was the Genesis. How did a PAL game come to rest in a thrift store in the US? I don't know, but I would love to find out.

I've been known to purchase Japanese games for the Famicom and Super Famicom, as well as import Famiclone style multicarts, but I still own those, as they are part of my collection. I assume if this came from a collection I would have found more games, and maybe even the Mega Drive console itself. None of which were present. There are a myriad of perfectly reasonable explanations as to why this cartridge was where it was when I found it. I'm mostly interested in its backstory.

Clearly someone purchased this game in, or around, 1992 with an interest in the Olympic games. They must have given it at least one play before deciding to never play it again. After that, perhaps the owner moved to the US and their belonging were cut down to a more manageable amount for whatever reason. I honestly don't know, and at this point it's really just me guessing. Although not much to anyone else, I think this cartridge is a unique piece in my collection. While everything else says Sega Genesis, this is the only one that says Mega Drive. At least currently.