Behold! The Oyama Famicom Collection!What is the Oyama Famicom collection? It is Goonies, Super Star Force, Ninja Kun, King Kong 2, Clu Clu Land and Yie Ar Kung Fu.
D-uh.
Oh, wait I see. You mean why are those games together called the Oyama Collection? Because of this:
Well, maybe I should rewind a bit here.I went to Omocha Souko today and they had just tossed these games into their junk bin with prices of 100-300 yen each on them. I just picked them up, paid for them and didn`t really think much about them until I took them out of their plastic baggies. It was then that I noticed that each of them had the same name - Oyama (大山) - written on the back.
I thought that was quite interesting. I get Famicom carts with kids` names written on them all the time, but this was the first time I had ever gotten a whole group of them from the same kid`s collection.At this point in the Famicom`s lifespan enough time has passed that most of the childhood collections of kids like this have already been dispersed throughout the secondary market. Some have been sold and resold countless times by now.
Not these ones though. These came directly from the kid (or perhaps a relative of the kid, whose first name is Shinji according to the backs of Yie ar Kung Fu and King Kong 2). Probably somebody was clearing out an old room, maybe getting ready for a move or something, and they just dragged everything they didn`t want to Omocha Souko where they were probably paid 20 yen for the lot and that was that.
Anyway, I think that is something special. Individually these are all fairly common games that you can find pretty cheap at most retro game shops, but taken together the group is more than the sum of its individual parts. I think I will try to keep the Oyama collection intact rather than breaking it up. In fact, I feel almost duty-bound to do so.
Cheers to you, Shinji Oyama. Your Famicom collection will be maintained for the ages....
That's an interesting story... I can't say I've ever come across a situation like that before!
ReplyDeleteHaha, wonderfully written! I was so interested to find out what this super exclusive Oyama Collection was!
ReplyDeleteNow imagine the following: Shinji Oyama was a poor boy who lived with his grandparents since his parents had mysteriously disappeared 6 years ago. Being extremely poor, he only got to buy one single famicom game each year. His collection of six games was all he had, his pride and joy. He fought in Yie Ar, he dreamt of New York with King Kong.
Until one night a thief came in, stole his six games, and sold them to Omocha Souko.
Feel bad about yourself yet? :)
Skyrunner - thanks, I haven`t either!
ReplyDeleteMarkD - thank you! That story does indeed make me feel a bit bad. I prefer to think that the now grown-up Shinji and his wife got into a fight after she found out he was cheating on her with her best friend. In a fit of rage while he was at work she rounded up all of his possessions, put them in the back of their mini van and drove them to Omocha Souko where she just said `Here, take them. Burn them for all I care, damn cheating ass.....`
The next day, they were mine.
I like to see it as that, perhaps, the family had a bunch of stuff in a storage locker over the years. Finally, the family decided to clean it out/move it/get rid of it etc. when they found these games inside. Thinking that Shinji is all grown up and working as a salaryman in Tokyo, and they were in storage for 25 years, it'd be fine to bring them to Omocha Souko and sell them.
ReplyDeleteOf course, one day when Shinji comes home to Kyuushu he asks his mom:
"Hey mom, do you know where my Famicom games are? I'd love to try them out again."
His mom would reply:
"Oh, I sold them. I figured you didn't need them anymore..."
And then, upset that his mom had sold his beloved games he'd reply:
"OKAAAAAASAAAAAAN! STOP TOUCHING MY STUFF."
I like your version best, Nate.
ReplyDeleteActually that reminds me of what my mom did to my childhood Lego collection a few years back. I had a huge box of the stuff, most of the sets from the early 80s. I went looking for it in their basement one day and couldn`t find it. I asked and she said she had given it all away years earlier. Probably that stuff would be worth a fair bit of $$$ these days.
Moms, gotta love `em.
My mom did something similar but I wasn't even out of the house yet. I was probably a freshman in high school and content playing my PS2, I hadn't really gotten into retro gaming yet, so I hadn't touched my SNES in ages.
ReplyDeleteOne day, my mom tells me that she sold some of my SNES games. Now, my mom played video games herself, so she was smart enough not to get rid of Super Mario World, Super Mario All-Stars, Donkey Kong Countrys, etc. but she still sold some of my favorites like Star Fox, Hit The Ice, Stunt Race FX, and the Roadrunner game (which was impossible).
Hey Sean, I think some of your luck finally rubbed off on me! The other day, the copy of Martin the Warrior I ordered off of Amazon for $0.99 was autographed by the book's author, then the next day I caught a shiny Karroblast while playing Pokemon White, and now today I found a $50 bill after it blew past me in the wind while I was waiting for my ride home after school! I'm starting to feel like Gladstone Gander...
ReplyDeleteFantastic!
ReplyDeleteNow what are you going to spend that 50$ on I wonder....:)
Just came across your blog, and i'm reading lots of old posts. Gotta love Japan gaming shops!
ReplyDeleteHaha, I love this kind of stuff. In a similar kind of bent, I absolutely adore finding games that still have rental stickers on them; gives the games kind of a "Where's George" style kind of character. Whenever I get a game up here in Seattle that came from a rental in say, Virginia, it's always fun to imagine the story of how it ended up so many miles away.
ReplyDeleteI'm still anxiously awaiting you to update your for sale list, especially if any of the Irem games with the LED on them end up for sale.
Johnny - Thanks for the comment and for reading!
ReplyDeleteKevin - Ah the rental stickers. In Japan the practice never took off so Famicom games never have rental stickers on them, though some do have used game shop stickers on the back. I remember renting NES games back in the day though. Good memories.
I just updated me sales list a few days ago actually. I have Zippy Race and Spelunker 2, which both have the LED lights on them.
Nice find :) I actually know some of those games! Clu Clu Land and Star Force are both great, I think Ninja Kun was one of your recommendations for my Exploring the NES feature, and I'm in the middle of a review of Yie Ar at the moment (although not the Famicom one). It's strange to get so many games from one collection though. Will you keep them together accordingly? :P
ReplyDeleteNinja Kun is quite a good one I think, but Ninja JaJa Maru Kun (in the same series) is a bit better. I like Yie Ar Kung Fu too. I`ll try to keep these together since it is kind of an interesting set to have.
ReplyDelete