tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-68927861149327690232024-03-17T03:53:09.259+09:00FamicomblogAn old Japanese video game console sits in my living room and I write things about it here.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger337125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892786114932769023.post-34349432953850945662021-07-26T10:23:00.004+09:002021-07-26T10:26:30.472+09:00I turned my wife's car into a Bullet Bill<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zkB0g5GXimo/YP4Kb0lWsyI/AAAAAAAANog/Y1HVb_zxMukdQM2x0xqi45MuWs0WQyIfACLcBGAsYHQ/s5306/DSC_0889%2B%25282%2529.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3537" data-original-width="5306" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zkB0g5GXimo/YP4Kb0lWsyI/AAAAAAAANog/Y1HVb_zxMukdQM2x0xqi45MuWs0WQyIfACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h426/DSC_0889%2B%25282%2529.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>I discovered a neat DIY Mario related crafts idea the other day. All you need is two magnet sheets (the type you use to write messages on fridge doors), a pair of scissors, a dry erase marker and a spouse who owns a black 2017 Toyota Sienta that they are willing to let you mess around with.<p></p><p>Fortunately this past Saturday my son and I found ourselves with a bit of free time and all of those things on hand, so we decided to turn my wife's car into a Bullet Bill. In this post, I'll show you what we did.</p><p>But first, some background. Recently I've been stopping at 100 Yen shops on the way home from work a lot looking for crafts ideas for the kids. They sell those Perler beads that you melt together with an iron and we've made quite a lot of things out of those, like this Lakitu that hangs from our car port:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-MMtkkT3vWfc/YP4MSo3UzfI/AAAAAAAANo0/f3uZ7mlz-K0glhhGnfh9G2Vcct6h346rwCLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1366" height="640" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-MMtkkT3vWfc/YP4MSo3UzfI/AAAAAAAANo0/f3uZ7mlz-K0glhhGnfh9G2Vcct6h346rwCLcBGAsYHQ/w427-h640/image.png" width="427" /></a></div>While I was hanging that up I noticed that a black 2017 Toyota Sienta kind of looks like a Bullet Bill. That thought stuck with me for a few days. <p></p><p>Then when I was at the 100 Yen shop last week looking for ideas I found these magnetic sheets and had the idea that I could cut them up to look like the mouth and eyes of Bullet Bill. So I bought some.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2B-gzIVUNA8/YP4KbVxYYjI/AAAAAAAANoc/B2oE1PZjYYYwCfxNwnssi5OnBCoNnaCzQCLcBGAsYHQ/s6000/DSC_0886.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6000" data-original-width="4000" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2B-gzIVUNA8/YP4KbVxYYjI/AAAAAAAANoc/B2oE1PZjYYYwCfxNwnssi5OnBCoNnaCzQCLcBGAsYHQ/w426-h640/DSC_0886.JPG" width="426" /></a></div>My son and I set up a little work station on our picnic table on Saturday and cut everything to order. <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u9ZmakZ2lCQ/YP4KamHxLCI/AAAAAAAANoY/xQddyrORF084vTNF7EQn25arKK8A0Mo2ACLcBGAsYHQ/s6000/DSC_0885.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u9ZmakZ2lCQ/YP4KamHxLCI/AAAAAAAANoY/xQddyrORF084vTNF7EQn25arKK8A0Mo2ACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h426/DSC_0885.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>Then we slapped it onto the car!<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ivlefpUvRcw/YP4KarTy_0I/AAAAAAAANoU/sTJuY3zMQLUJ_NBB_x6s0YNkvs9uphWMACLcBGAsYHQ/s6000/DSC_0879.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ivlefpUvRcw/YP4KarTy_0I/AAAAAAAANoU/sTJuY3zMQLUJ_NBB_x6s0YNkvs9uphWMACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h426/DSC_0879.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>The ideal location for these really would have been the panel directly below the headlights, but unfortunately we discovered that is made of plastic and the magnets don't stick to it. So we had to put it on the side behind the lights. It still looks pretty cool I think. <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-95z5eN1eTUk/YP4KaolUk5I/AAAAAAAANoQ/KnwEiIOUy7MsrBiFM-51e7zlFiB5HkZewCLcBGAsYHQ/s6000/DSC_0878.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-95z5eN1eTUk/YP4KaolUk5I/AAAAAAAANoQ/KnwEiIOUy7MsrBiFM-51e7zlFiB5HkZewCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h426/DSC_0878.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>My wife was a pretty good sport about it. Since these are just magnetic sheets you can just take them off whenever you want, but she went shopping with them still on and told me they made it a lot easier to spot the car in the parking lot, which was an unexpected bonus. <p></p><p>So anyway, if you've got a kind of boring looking car that you want to make look a bit more bad-ass, I highly recommend doing this to it. </p><p>I should add a couple of precautions though - you have to make sure the magnets are on a completely flat surface to prevent the risk of them getting blown off while driving. Also the ones we use aren't designed to get wet, so these are a sunny-day only type of thing. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892786114932769023.post-90556840561930049512021-05-13T10:12:00.008+09:002021-05-13T10:17:00.651+09:00Will Retro Game Collecting Kill Retro Gaming? <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hjuWf_Wo9BA/UT7RaidOHBI/AAAAAAAAIK4/6VRCsPLzkRA9XyO8o1cZI4gxomlLQ8h0gCPcBGAYYCw/s2048/P1130080.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hjuWf_Wo9BA/UT7RaidOHBI/AAAAAAAAIK4/6VRCsPLzkRA9XyO8o1cZI4gxomlLQ8h0gCPcBGAYYCw/w640-h480/P1130080.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal">I noticed something alarming the other day which is
a problem I think a lot of retro gamers are having these days.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I can’t play with a lot of my retro gaming stuff anymore.
Its just become too damn valuable.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This is a weird problem that most people would probably like
to have, but its still a problem worth having a talk about because I think it will eventually completely destroy retro gaming as a hobby. In fact, I think it is inevitable. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It occurred to me when my 6 year old son discovered some of
my rarer Famicom games the other day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
found myself telling him that we couldn’t play with them because they were so
rare.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Which made me feel stupid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did I really just tell a kid he couldn’t play
video games because we have to keep them in a box and make sure nobody ever
touches them so they don’t get any damage?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Yup, that was me, I did that. What have I become?<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Well, a collector I guess. Which is not the same as a retro gamer. </p><p class="MsoNormal">The hobby of "retro gaming" that I entered back when I bought my first Famicom in 2008 consisted solely of playing old video games on their original hardware. This isn't the only way to define it of course but its how I've always approached it. I love the “real” experience that involves
untangling a ton of cords, blowing on carts to try to make them work, having a
game freeze mid-way through because you accidentally bumped the console and all
that stuff. </p><p class="MsoNormal">Now being a retro gamer also entails a certain amount of retro game collecting in the sense that a gamer needs to accumulate games to play which is basically what collecting is. Back in 2008 the two activities went hand in hand. But recently a huge gap has been opening between them since they aren't exactly the same and they operate by different rules. While playing games necessitates collecting them, the opposite is not true - you don't need to play games if you collect them. Collecting by itself, which lots of people are doing now, is all about hunting, discovering, cataloguing, preserving, displaying and just plain owning things. It’s a very different set
of activities. And these activities are starting to conflict with each other in ways they didn't before. To illustrate how this is happening, I'd like to introduce a concept I call the "Gimmick! Trap."</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>The Gimmick! Trap</b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The game Gimmick! for the Famicom provides a good example of
the problem I’m worried about and its longer term implications for retro gaming
as a hobby distinct from retro game collecting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Basically the problem is that nobody can play an original copy of this
damn game anymore.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Y2m7yEq3ifM/YJxzXOKVO6I/AAAAAAAANfQ/eArbTEJ5ldQAlsYHgvtz6a1YjOMcZoEjQCLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="328" data-original-width="400" height="524" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Y2m7yEq3ifM/YJxzXOKVO6I/AAAAAAAANfQ/eArbTEJ5ldQAlsYHgvtz6a1YjOMcZoEjQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h524/image.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />Ten years ago I was lucky enough to stumble along a nice <a href="https://famicomblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/new-famicom-carts-gimmick.html" target="_blank">CIB copy of Gimmick! for just 100 Yen</a> (about one dollar)! And you know what I did
with it? I took it home and played it
with my wife.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Now even back then Gimmick! was a fairly valuable game, but
it wasn’t bonkers insane valuable. I later purchased a second copy for a friend
which I only paid 3900 Yen for (about 40 dollars) which came out of the glass
showcase in Fukuoka’s Mandarake (kind of which I had kept that one).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That was just a loose copy but still, the
price was still in the ballpark of what a new game costs anyway, so just
busting out my copy and playing it on the Famicom didn’t really entail any major
downside.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Today though?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>CIB
copies of Gimmick! now routinely sell for over a thousand dollars each.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A thousand dollar asset to your average
person (like me) is a big deal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is
just no way I can justify ever playing that game again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A simple<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>and commonplace incident like one of my kids spilling juice on it and
ruining the label would reduce my wealth by hundreds
of dollars.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I can’t take that risk.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Now you might be shaking your head and saying
“Seriously?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You lucked out and bought a
game that is now worth 1,000 times more than you paid for it and you are
complaining?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>STFU!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And you’d be right, which is why I want to
make clear that I am not complaining about this (hooray, my copy of Gimmick! is
valuable!) but rather using it to illustrate the fact that this shift has
occurred with an increasing number of games.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For those of us who view retro gaming as a hobby that involves playing
original games on original systems, we’ve basically had to scratch Gimmick! off
our list of games that we can ever play that way (well, except for particularly wealthy ones who can afford to
take the loss if their kids have a juice related mishap in its presence, but they are in the minority).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Another side-issue with the Gimmick! trap is that it is
going to affect different parts of the retro gaming hobby with differing levels
of severity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example, most Famicom <i>carts
</i>are still plentiful and can be had cheaply for anyone wanting to play them (thank god!), but the same cannot be said of most Famicom <i>accessories</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The console has a lot of really interesting
controllers and oddball items that were only sold in small quantities and
tracking these down to play with them was once one of the funner aspects of
being a Famicom guy like myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://famicomblog.blogspot.com/2020/08/top-riders.html" target="_blank">My inflatable Top Rider motorcycle</a> is a good example of these:</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-5gLK81Cpico/YJx0Vtc1duI/AAAAAAAANfY/FASqTxLNzt0Kfdq1asvznv63ctkBZMewACLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="999" data-original-width="666" height="640" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-5gLK81Cpico/YJx0Vtc1duI/AAAAAAAANfY/FASqTxLNzt0Kfdq1asvznv63ctkBZMewACLcBGAsYHQ/w427-h640/image.png" width="427" /></a></div><br />I have an old one which works well but has
some wear on it (and I didn’t pay much for it) so I felt OK in giving it to my
kids to play with last year. Those things are
crazy hard to find though and in decent condition they now sell for hundreds of
dollars each. My kids may very well be
the last children to ever play with one because nobody in their right mind is
going to plunk down 500$ on an inflatable motorcycle for their kids to play
with. The other great inflatable
controller for the Famicom – the Exciting Boxing inflatable boxer which you can
punch – which I unfortunately don’t have now sells for<a href="https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/h552314715" target="_blank"> thousands of dollars each</a> and my kids (and I) will probably never get the chance to play with
one. So the range of stuff out there
available to be played as opposed to just collected is really getting quite
slim in terms of accessories. <p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>How Much of a Problem is this?</b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Its important to note that the Gimmick! trap has only
befallen a few titles and isn’t generally representative of what is happening
with the majority of games which, for the most part, remain
available at prices reasonable enough that you don’t have to worry about
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Part of this is because high money
collectors have seriously narrowed their focus to only either rare games or
<a href="https://famicomblog.blogspot.com/2021/04/air-raid-has-some-thoughts-on-660000.html" target="_blank">minty NIB games while ignoring everything else</a>. So while gem mint NIB copies of
Super Mario Bros. for the Famicom now routinely sell for thousands of dollars
on Yahoo Auctions (which is crazy BTW), this hysteria hasn’t had any real
effect on the price of loose copies of the exact same game which are about as
cheap and easy to find now as they were a few years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So right now collecting isn’t posing a
serious existential threat to retro gaming, but is more nibbling on the edges
at it (with the exception of things like accessories like noted above).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">That said, I have a nagging concern that this trend is going
to get worse as time goes by and eventually retro gaming as I know it is going
to be completely swamped by it.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Part of this isn’t really collecting’s fault but rather the
simple fact that there are a finite number of old video game carts out there
and by its nature the hobby of retro gaming involves putting physical stress on
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Video game carts were made to last
and most can certainly take a beating, but on a timescale of decades all those
pins won’t last forever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> And for other media which weren't built to last like that (Game and Watches with their screen rot, whatever it is that does discs in after a few decades, etc) the problem is probably going to be way worse.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Retro game collecting doesn’t pose that same problem –
collectors just buy these things to have them and are content for them to sit
on a shelf, which is obviously way better for the carts in terms of long term
survivability.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">At the moment with most games retro gamers and retro game
collectors aren’t really chasing the same thing (with most games at least)
since collectors only go after the stuff in nice condition, while gamers can be
satisfied with going after the stuff that can still be played even if it
doesn’t look too pretty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So they, with a
few exceptions (like Gimmick!), can mutually co-exist in peace and harmony
without one's respective approach to their shared interest in retro games interfering
with the other’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Over the long term though, the supply of playable copies of
games out there is inevitably going to go down as we retro gamers “use them up”
so to speak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This isn’t going to happen
overnight and its going to be way more of an issue with games that only sold 200,000 copies compared to games that sold 10,000,000, but so long as we keep
playing them its going to happen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Meanwhile
if retro game collecting continues to develop and expand as a hobby (which
current trends suggest will happen) then more and more of the remaining stock
of old games is going to be getting locked up in people’s collections.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And at some point, the frictions between
retro gamers and retro game collectors which are only playing out in isolated
areas now are probably going to expand as the two groups start finding that there
is more overlap between them in terms of what they are looking for.<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LvUH2Mt3QI4/YJx2YWqgayI/AAAAAAAANfg/Y1MZDDtNUKIjoZ5tKGH2u8jKHJ5UYAb9gCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/famicom%2Brockman.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LvUH2Mt3QI4/YJx2YWqgayI/AAAAAAAANfg/Y1MZDDtNUKIjoZ5tKGH2u8jKHJ5UYAb9gCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h426/famicom%2Brockman.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal">Take Rockman for the Famicom as an example of a game that
might be on the verge of falling into this category. This is a game that is very popular for its
play value among retro gamers AND very sought after by retro game collectors
because it is so iconic. Until now
though it hasn’t really fallen into the Gimmick! trap because there are a lot
more copies of it out there, enough to satisfy the demand of both groups
without driving the price completely through the roof.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But at the same time, it has been slowly inching its way to
falling into that trap for a while now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Its more common than Gimmick! but a lot harder to find than similarly
iconic titles like SMB (or the other Rockman games for that matter).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have a loose copy of it that I still
consider playable, but I’m also aware that its getting close to that price
point where I might have to say “Damn, I can’t justify playing this
anymore”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If retro gaming loses a major
centerpiece like Rockman then this issue is probably going to be way more
noticeable than it is now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The more such
games we lose, the closer we come to a tipping point where people realize that
if they want to play the best retro games out there they’ll have to do so on
modern hardware without using the original games.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">When that happens, retro gaming as we know it will be
dead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Are We All Going to become Collectors?</b></p><p class="MsoNormal">Are we all going to become game collectors? Well, its not our only option. Some will decide to collect. Some will decide to play retro games on modern systems. Some will take up bird watching as a hobby. I have no idea what everyone is going to do. But the hobby that surrounds the vintage game carts (and systems and accessories) themselves is inevitably going to morph from one being centred on "retro gaming" as I define it, to one centred almost entirely on "collecting". Its already happening now and there really isn't anything we can do to stop it. The real question is when are we going to look up and notice that this trend which is playing out in very slow motion will have so totally transformed the hobby? I'm guessing we have at least a couple of more good decades of playable Famicom games being available at cheap enough prices that retro gaming is still viable as a casual hobby. But this is just a guess, we might be lucky and push it out well beyond that. If anything its impressive that we've managed to keep retro gaming using cart based systems up this long - I'm amazed that my kids have a bunch of carts which are about 35 years old and can still be played without any problems. I mean, that would have been the equivalent of kids playing with toys from the late 1940s in 1983 when the Famicom came out, which I don't think happened very often. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892786114932769023.post-53087877862728313352021-05-07T11:30:00.007+09:002021-05-07T14:44:38.328+09:00The Coolest Vintage Mario Thing Nobody Knows About<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2IqUkrQcQ6s/YJSshd6hvaI/AAAAAAAANe8/WKna2im0PnUgBOg81hwGcewuNfGmL8PeACLcBGAsYHQ/s2033/IMG_20210507_0006.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1957" data-original-width="2033" height="616" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2IqUkrQcQ6s/YJSshd6hvaI/AAAAAAAANe8/WKna2im0PnUgBOg81hwGcewuNfGmL8PeACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h616/IMG_20210507_0006.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p>One of the cooler and also (for some reason) least known Mario "things" out there is a set of round Menko cards that were released in Japan in 1985 and feature artwork inspired by the first Super Mario Bros. game.</p><p>As you can tell from some of my <a href="http://famicomblog.blogspot.com/2021/04/famicom-menko-are-amazing.html" target="_blank">recent posts</a> I've become interested in tracking down and collecting all of the Famicom related menko which came out in the 1980s. Menko are kind of like a cross between <a href="http://baseballcardsinjapan.blogspot.com/search/label/Menko" target="_blank">baseball cards </a>and pogs and have a long history in Japan as kid's toys. In the same way that American trading card makers like Topps cashed in on the video game craze in 1980s North America by producing sets of cards featuring Donkey Kong, Pac Man and other big name video game characters, in Japan a company called Amada produced Menko featuring a lot of Famicom related ones.</p><p>Unlike those Topps sets in the US which are well catalogued however nobody has ever sat down and done the same for Amada's vintage video game menko, in English or Japanese, so I've decided to try to do that here on this blog since this information deserves to be out there somewhere! I'm not sure why so little info exists about them on the internet. In comparison to American cards from the 1980s these ones are pretty hard to find, which is probably a big contributing factor. </p><p>With this post I'll do the Mario set and tell you everything I have been able to find out about it.</p><p><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fRj4sEclVbQ/YJSdEkzUtAI/AAAAAAAANec/eH2zYEDcz0A6CUBvdeag70DKrovCHwjGwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/super%2Bmario%2Bbros%2Bmenko.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1385" data-original-width="2048" height="432" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fRj4sEclVbQ/YJSdEkzUtAI/AAAAAAAANec/eH2zYEDcz0A6CUBvdeag70DKrovCHwjGwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h432/super%2Bmario%2Bbros%2Bmenko.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><p><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2gfNi5hMJcA/YJSdEFYaQrI/AAAAAAAANeY/qMddqo8AxMQ02fgw-tZvSrtsqnRBnwQhACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/super%2Bmario%2Bbros%2Bcards.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1488" data-original-width="2048" height="464" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2gfNi5hMJcA/YJSdEFYaQrI/AAAAAAAANeY/qMddqo8AxMQ02fgw-tZvSrtsqnRBnwQhACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h464/super%2Bmario%2Bbros%2Bcards.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><p>First, the above two pictures show all the cards in the "base" set that I've been able to identify, 35 different designs in total. The cards measure roughly 4.5cm in diameter. Since 35 is an odd number I'm pretty sure I do not have all of them since most menko sets are usually produced in even numbers owing to the manufacturing process. I'm not sure but I wouldn't be surprised if there are 40 in total and I'm missing 5.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DLihonZWORE/YJShXTCTNBI/AAAAAAAANes/1WiX7j4X0jgeXk-ZhHcQCgHTyIlFs7KkACLcBGAsYHQ/s564/IMG_20210507_0005.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="564" data-original-width="560" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DLihonZWORE/YJShXTCTNBI/AAAAAAAANes/1WiX7j4X0jgeXk-ZhHcQCgHTyIlFs7KkACLcBGAsYHQ/w636-h640/IMG_20210507_0005.jpg" width="636" /></a></div>The picture for each is different, but they al have some common elements. "Super Mario Bros." is written in bold lettering somewhere on the card, and there is a 1985 Nintendo copyright line on the bottom.<p></p><p>Each card design also has a unique number, which you can see above Mario's hat in the above example. These were part of a game, basically kids could take two cards at random and whichever one had the higher number would win.</p><p>On the left side of the above card are two circles next to Mario's foot. These are also games. The upper one with a hand is for a rock-scissors-paper game (again, take two random cards and play them against each other, this one would win in a battle against one with a rock on it, or lose to one with scissors on it). The lower one has the kanji <span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;"> 庄 in it, which is a similar game called </span><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;">Kitsuneken that works the same way. There are three potential characters, one for fox, one for village headman and one for hunter (fox beats village headman, village headman beats hunter, hunter beats fox. This one is a village headman one). </span></p><p><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PCZHhBii5EA/YJSdD1fBIhI/AAAAAAAANeQ/Z7p2okTV944OP9xR09y1dTcEmwPoFQrGACLcBGAsYHQ/s1104/IMG_20210507_0003.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="536" data-original-width="1104" height="310" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PCZHhBii5EA/YJSdD1fBIhI/AAAAAAAANeQ/Z7p2okTV944OP9xR09y1dTcEmwPoFQrGACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h310/IMG_20210507_0003.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><p><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;">The backs of these menko are blank. Of the 35 I have only the two above have anything on the back. These are winner menko!</span></p><p><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;">These menko would have been sold in packs in small candy and toy stores back in the day. </span><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;"> I've never seen an original box of packs of these, but with other stuff Amada produced they would usually come 40 to a box, Among those 40, 3 would contain a winner card like these which would entitle the kid who pulled it to redeem it for a prize from the store owner. When kids gave them to store owners the store owner would scribble something on the back to indicate that it had been redeemed, then give the card back to the kid. These two look like they were redeemed at different stores owing to the different scribbles on the back.</span></p><p><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;">What prize would the kids get? Bigger menko!</span></p><p><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;">Amada made "parrallel" versions of at least some of the cards which were the same as the base set only bigger. I've been able to identify 6 different sized versions of these cards in the photo below (the one on the lower left is a standard sized card)<br /></span><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DlhlH13ayeA/YJSdEOUYX0I/AAAAAAAANeU/P0fF1lgu4iwbek57OieDTWwEduzhiGYEwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/IMG_20210507_0004.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1117" data-original-width="2048" height="350" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DlhlH13ayeA/YJSdEOUYX0I/AAAAAAAANeU/P0fF1lgu4iwbek57OieDTWwEduzhiGYEwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h350/IMG_20210507_0004.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">There might also be a seventh mega sized one out there but I am not sure. I wrote about <a href="http://famicomblog.blogspot.com/2021/04/mega-sized-super-mario-bros-2-menko.html" target="_blank">this one</a> a few weeks ago, it features Mario but I don't think it is from the same set since it is from Super Mario Bros. 2 and features a 1986 copyright line. Its existence though at least suggests that there might be similar mega sized version of these out there, but maybe not.</div><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ouhmQTUkfU0/YJSk9ygTZ_I/AAAAAAAANe0/77nJEDudUbgMIiH8v0McoUb5u6LgEbboACLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="480" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ouhmQTUkfU0/YJSk9ygTZ_I/AAAAAAAANe0/77nJEDudUbgMIiH8v0McoUb5u6LgEbboACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/image.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />These cards are pretty cool in part because of the artwork, which really reflects how early these were released in the life span of Mario the character. Mario himself looks very similar to the "standard" way of portraying Mario, but the other characters look quite different. Princess Peach and Bowser on these two cards are good examples:<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-47k_UShAslA/YJStdOEn7oI/AAAAAAAANfE/NcROtytf6DEJtPyCMdAlUrtTAwwL_U8dgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1125/Princess%2BPeach%2BBowser%2BCard.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="601" data-original-width="1125" height="342" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-47k_UShAslA/YJStdOEn7oI/AAAAAAAANfE/NcROtytf6DEJtPyCMdAlUrtTAwwL_U8dgCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h342/Princess%2BPeach%2BBowser%2BCard.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>They really look nothing like how they are portrayed today (or even how they were portrayed just a few years after these were produced). This likely reflects the fact that while a standard portrayal of Mario had been decided on back then, the details of the appearance of the less prominent characters were still up in the air and so the illustrators were a lot more free to use their imagination in rendering them.<div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, that is what I know so far about the 1985 Super Mario Bros. Menko set by Amada. Its a pretty cool set with some awesome artwork on it and I think it deserves to be a bit better known than it is now, hence this post!</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892786114932769023.post-65559494409337868562021-04-26T12:45:00.004+09:002021-04-28T16:38:16.218+09:00Air Raid has some thoughts on the $660,000 copy of Super Mario Bros for the NES<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xHSDsRNqZ4o/YIYR_uG8dLI/AAAAAAAANVQ/EEAr5AK8lfcoIs8HZHDvU2znENoyl1x4gCLcBGAsYHQ/s438/super%2Bmario%2Bbros%2Bnintendo%2Bnes%2Brecord.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="438" data-original-width="307" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xHSDsRNqZ4o/YIYR_uG8dLI/AAAAAAAANVQ/EEAr5AK8lfcoIs8HZHDvU2znENoyl1x4gCLcBGAsYHQ/w448-h640/super%2Bmario%2Bbros%2Bnintendo%2Bnes%2Brecord.jpg" width="448" /></a></div><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p>To put the recent <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/03/business/super-mario-bros-auction-record-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">$660,000 sale of a copy of Super Mario Bros.</a> for the NES in context, I'd like to ask if anybody remembers how a decade ago there was a similar buzz about the<a href="http://famicomblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/atari-2600-air-raid-and-relative-value.html" target="_blank"> below copy of Air Raid </a>for the Atari 2600? It made headline news for selling for $31,600 which seemed like such an insane price for a video game back then (ah 2010 was such an innocent year).<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yQ02gGAOFP8/YIYR_pivakI/AAAAAAAANVM/G-5ZleLcDnYhGD1kxT80BFR8DOxiYYxjACLcBGAsYHQ/s600/Air%2BRaid%2BAtari%2B2600.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="388" data-original-width="600" height="414" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yQ02gGAOFP8/YIYR_pivakI/AAAAAAAANVM/G-5ZleLcDnYhGD1kxT80BFR8DOxiYYxjACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h414/Air%2BRaid%2BAtari%2B2600.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><p>It seems quaint compared to today. But to me the interesting thing is that since that sale and a couple of sales of loose copies in the two years after, Air Raid has completely disappeared from our retro game collecting conscience. The<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Raid_(1982_video_game)" target="_blank"> game's Wikipedia entry </a>doesn't have any information more recent than 2012 and my Google search for it doesn't turn up any news more recent than that either. Its been relegated to basically footnote status in articles here and there about rare games in general, rather than ever being the focus of any interest itself. </p><p>For a game that briefly looked like it was about to become the all time holy grail of retro game collectors (or at least was a serious contender, alongside a handful of other rarities), its been a pretty big come down. Probably that has been made all the more irritating by the fact that it, a game that there are only 14 known copies of in existence, has been completely overshadowed by a game that sold like 40 million copies and is one of the easiest in the collecting world to lay your hands on. </p><p>The downfall of Air Raid (or at least its displacement, its still obviously a valuable game) and its usurpation by SMB raises a few questions that we might have a discussion about since they strike right at the heart of the retro game collecting hobby. Lets review a few of these, in no particular order.</p><p><b>How much does the cultural relevance of a game matter?</b></p><p>One thing that divides these two games more than anything is that not just gamers but almost everybody today knows who Mario is. He is one of the most recognized pop culture figures in the world. Air Raid on the other hand is known by almost nobody, even within the gaming community. It only sold 14 copies so its fame is ironically entirely based on its complete lack of fame during its initial release. </p><p>This represents a hidden struggle within the retro game collecting community though - are the "holy grails" of our hobby going to be determined by what we collectors want to go after (rare and unusual stuff like Air Raid), or what society as a whole finds most familiar (stuff like SMB)? </p><p>If you look at other collecting hobbies, its kind of hard to figure out where the value of SMB is coming from since it does not square well with how those hobbies have defined their holy grails. </p><p>This baseball card here for example is a T 206 Honus Wagner, long considered that hobby's holy grail. There are only about 60 copies of it known and they sell for millions.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-3W_3ERw4dXA/YIYXCFxE1II/AAAAAAAANVY/SUXgmiiNq-ET6QhfJFizDGcpHzJ7-4AjACLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="392" data-original-width="220" height="640" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-3W_3ERw4dXA/YIYXCFxE1II/AAAAAAAANVY/SUXgmiiNq-ET6QhfJFizDGcpHzJ7-4AjACLcBGAsYHQ/w360-h640/image.png" width="360" /></a></div><br />If you aren't a baseball card collector though you probably have no idea what this card is or who Honus Wagner is. He is a hall of fame baseball player who was a star in the early 20th century, but he is definitely not a household name. This card is the baseball card collecting world's version of Air Raid, it became valuable solely because collectors knew it was very hard to find and its part of a set that a lot of them like, so the price went through the roof. But its not something that had any pop culture significance beyond the hobby. <p></p><p>With stamp and coin collecting too its the same story - if I posted pictures of the world's most valuable stamps and coins here you would have no idea what they were (well, unless you are a die hard stamp or coin collector). The holy grails are entirely defined by people in those hobbies and not by the cultural relevance or recognizability of the items themselves.</p><p>One collecting hobby which partially bucks this trend though is comic books. The holy grail of that hobby is:</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-1Gg_jIdIPZg/YIYZDeAqvMI/AAAAAAAANVg/UsN9kz5QvCEyiJoQEJKVA-KHCKHNVGD6QCLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="347" data-original-width="250" height="640" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-1Gg_jIdIPZg/YIYZDeAqvMI/AAAAAAAANVg/UsN9kz5QvCEyiJoQEJKVA-KHCKHNVGD6QCLcBGAsYHQ/w461-h640/image.png" width="461" /></a></div><br />Action Comics #1, the first ever comic to feature Superman. If you aren't a comic collector you might not know the details of this specific comic, but you likely recognize Superman and know why he is famous. The value of this comic (which is insanely expensive, there are only about 100 copies of it in existence) is probably driven both by the fact that it is highly sought after by collectors AND because Superman is such a famous pop culture icon with the general public. <div><br /></div><div>So, retro game collecting has taken an odd turn away from a rare obscurity that hardcore collectors go after (Air Raid) towards an extremely famous but common game that everyone knows (SMB). This turn seems to be without precedent in other collecting hobbies (or at least the ones I'm familiar with).<br /><p></p><p><b>How much do Systems Matter?</b></p><p>This is something unique to our hobby and doesn't have exact parallels in other collecting hobbies. The video games we collect were tied to consoles on which they could be played. These had limited lifespans and thus limited opportunities to have an impact on all of us.</p><p>Atari was of course the biggest console maker of all in the late 70s and early 80s and had a massive impact on the early development of the industry and the popular understanding of home gaming. But it lost most of that significance with the 1983 video game crash, hanging on for a few years mostly as an "also ran" in the console wars of the third generation of consoles onward before fading mostly into oblivion. Today its basically just a name and logo that gets slapped on Flashbacks and other products by companies that have nothing to do with the original Atari (Wanna stay at an Atari hotel? <a href="https://www.licenseglobal.com/video-games/atari-icicb-group-expand-hotel-partnership" target="_blank">Somebody just bought the right to slap the name on those</a> because of course they did). </p><p>In other words, it is no longer significant and over time memories of its heyday are fading. Nobody under 40 today remembers a world in which an Atari was a must-have item for kids. This probably precludes any game from that console like Air Raid, no matter how rare, from every aspiring to be the holy grail of the broader retro game collecting hobby.</p><p>Nintendo on the other hand has continuity. It became the dominant console maker in the 1980s and while it hasn't won the console war in each subsequent generation, it has never failed to be considered one of the top three makers. That continuity gives the NES a huge advantage since the characters and even the games themselves are constantly being kept in the eye of current gamers on new platforms like the Switch. So it makes sense that the holy grail of the retro game collecting hobby would be a Nintendo one rather than an Atari (or Colecovision or whatever) game. </p><p><br /></p><p><b>How do we define rarity?</b></p><p>SMB for the NES is obviously not a rare game, as pretty much every game collector has been quick to point out every time a story about a copy of it selling for insane $$$ has appeared. Its value lies entirely on the basis that the specific $660,000 copy is the highest graded sealed hangtab version of the game in existence. So its a "one of a kind copy of a 40 million of a kind game". If this seems arbitrary its because it is (note that you need to use four adjectives to describe it in a way that defines its value - its the "highest graded sealed hangtab" version). I have a copy of SMB that my three year old daughter accidentally dropped in our toilet (don't ask). It is the only copy of SMB that has ever been dropped in my toilet known to exist! And I have established countermeasures to ensure that no further copies of SMB will ever be dropped into my toilet again! Guaranteed population one of one! Give me $660,000 for it please!</p><p>See? Its so easy to turn a common thing into a rare thing depending on how one defines its rarity.</p><p>The fact that our hobby's new holy grail has its rarity defined like this makes our hobby weird. In all the above examples from other hobbies, the holy grail was valuable not just because it was the "highest graded version" of a common thing, but because the thing itself was really rare. </p><p>This fact can still be explained with reference to those hobbies though. This concept of "highest graded version of a common thing being valuable" comes from them after all. The crucial difference is that it developed decades after those hobbies emerged and had already defined what their holy grails were. </p><p>Retro game collecting in contrast is relatively new and is still going through this process of establishing what constitutes its holy grail in the shadow of current trends in those hobbies, which have now established themselves in ours. So, shit, we're now stuck with something as uninspiring as an unbroken layer of plastic wrapping being the main thing that defines our holy grail. </p><p><b>Should we be concerned about the millionaires?</b></p><p>Another difference related to the timing of our hobby's development is that the global economy today is a lot more dominated by a rentier class of millionaire ass holes than it was when the baseball card and comic book collecting hobbies were taking off in the 70s and 80s. These people view collectibles as an asset class and a good place to park their money. So entrepreneurs are busily at work creating narratives about various games like SMB which fit the expectations of those millionaires. This leads to nauseatingly awful prose like that found in <a href="https://www.ha.com/heritage-auctions-press-releases-and-news/super-mario-bros.-sells-for-660-000-at-heritage-auctions-smashing-world-record.s?releaseId=4135" target="_blank">this passage that grossed $660,000 for Heritage Auctions</a>, which successfully convinced some millionaires that shrink wrap is the most important thing in the history of video games. </p><p>I mean, yeah hey I got no problem with Heritage Auctions doing what they gotta do to shake that money tree, more power to them. But I'm not sure the rest of the hobby should follow that rabbit down the hole because it really makes no sense except when viewed as an effort to attribute value to a relatively mundane thing and convince millionaires that this is something they should care about. Crucially they have to convince not just ONE millionaire, but several of them since they need a few to bid against each other. And....yup, it wasn't that hard to do actually. This should really be a good rule of thumb for anyone buying video games (or anything really) in the hope they will one day be worth something. If the thing has the potential to be described to a bunch of millionaires in a way that will make them want to compete with each other for it, its probably a good buy. I'm still working on a convincing storyline for my toilet copy of SMB that I hope will fund my retirement. </p><p>Its not all about the shrink wrap though, its also about the cultural significance. The millionaires are really looking to invest in "Expensive Mario Stuff" and so the hobby has spit this out as an offering to them. Every cultural icon has to have something valuable they can collect associated with it. Mario posed a problem since most of his best known games were such smash hits that they aren't rare. So they've settled on this contrived rarity to satiate that demand.</p><p><b>To Conclude</b></p><p>These are just a few of my thoughts about the big sale of SMB and a comparison with Air Raid, which I noticed nobody was really talking about so I thought I would add this to the online conversation. I'm not really convinced that copy of SMB is destined to be our hobby's holy grail forever. On the one hand it now has a "first mover" advantage since it grabbed headlines with that insane sale. On the other hand, you could have said the same for Air Raid a decade ago and its basically fallen to the wayside in our conversation since then. To me, the distinguishing features of this copy of SMB are just way too thin to allow it to maintain that position. With the holy grails of other hobbies, one look at the item tells any collector what it is without having to rely on a bunch of detailed explanation to distinguish it from millions of things that look exactly the same (Its the highest graded copy of the version with the hangtab which still has its shrink wrap intact.......yawn). </p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892786114932769023.post-5245100815813071272021-04-22T10:02:00.004+09:002021-04-22T10:02:48.100+09:00Lot Lot Silver Member Stickers are Now Insanely Expensive<p> <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DTsw1kxgrKY/YIDGUGrlAoI/AAAAAAAANUo/kDWaMhJLZH8_SwCR89T9Ik61RX5vMIEjwCLcBGAsYHQ/s482/famicom%2Blot%2Blot%2Bsilver%2Bmembers%2Bsticker%2Bexed%2Bexes.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="482" data-original-width="481" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DTsw1kxgrKY/YIDGUGrlAoI/AAAAAAAANUo/kDWaMhJLZH8_SwCR89T9Ik61RX5vMIEjwCLcBGAsYHQ/w638-h640/famicom%2Blot%2Blot%2Bsilver%2Bmembers%2Bsticker%2Bexed%2Bexes.png" width="638" /></a><br />A really interesting and very rare <a href="https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/k545128891" target="_blank">thing </a>sold on Yahoo Auctions a couple of days ago. A copy of Lot Lot without the game!</p><p>But this was more notable for the sticker it contained: A Lot Lot Silver Members Sticker.</p><p><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-awqXCk3jqdE/YIDGUHRUqzI/AAAAAAAANUk/wbtYB65h_IcfRdYcUsLuRgMMe5yyIsM9wCLcBGAsYHQ/s480/%25E3%2583%25A4%25E3%2583%2595%25E3%2582%25AA%25E3%2582%25AF%2521%2B-%2B%25E3%2583%25AD%25E3%2583%2583%25E3%2583%2588%25E3%2583%25AD%25E3%2583%2583%25E3%2583%2588%2B%25E6%259C%25AA%25E4%25BD%25BF%25E7%2594%25A8%25E3%2582%25B7%25E3%2583%25AB%25E3%2583%2590%25E3%2583%25BC%25E3%2582%25B9%25E3%2583%2586%25E3%2583%2583%25E3%2582%25AB%25E3%2583%25BC%2B%25E9%259D%259E%25E5%25A3%25B2%25E5%2593%2581%2Band%2B8%2Bmore%2Bpages%2B-%2BWork%2B-%2BMicrosoft%25E2%2580%258B%2BEdge%2B4_22_2021%2B9_39_37%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="476" data-original-width="480" height="634" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-awqXCk3jqdE/YIDGUHRUqzI/AAAAAAAANUk/wbtYB65h_IcfRdYcUsLuRgMMe5yyIsM9wCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h634/%25E3%2583%25A4%25E3%2583%2595%25E3%2582%25AA%25E3%2582%25AF%2521%2B-%2B%25E3%2583%25AD%25E3%2583%2583%25E3%2583%2588%25E3%2583%25AD%25E3%2583%2583%25E3%2583%2588%2B%25E6%259C%25AA%25E4%25BD%25BF%25E7%2594%25A8%25E3%2582%25B7%25E3%2583%25AB%25E3%2583%2590%25E3%2583%25BC%25E3%2582%25B9%25E3%2583%2586%25E3%2583%2583%25E3%2582%25AB%25E3%2583%25BC%2B%25E9%259D%259E%25E5%25A3%25B2%25E5%2593%2581%2Band%2B8%2Bmore%2Bpages%2B-%2BWork%2B-%2BMicrosoft%25E2%2580%258B%2BEdge%2B4_22_2021%2B9_39_37%2BAM.png" width="640" /></a></p><p>Back in the day Tokuma Soft had a little contest with both this game and Exed Exes. If you finished the game with a certain score a password would flash on the screen. If you wrote that password onto a postcard and sent it to them they would send you one of the above members stickers. Oroti at Famicom no Neta wrote a <a href="https://famicoms.net/blog-entry-3036.html" target="_blank">really great post </a>about this a couple of years ago, which has a treasure trove of contemporary promotional literature related to it:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RqZffxCNK0M/YIDION0XotI/AAAAAAAANVA/R8qu0m5eFOMcVcpDdokhBIgpplzdU8Z9gCLcBGAsYHQ/s688/Lot%2BLot%2Bcontexst.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="570" data-original-width="688" height="530" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RqZffxCNK0M/YIDION0XotI/AAAAAAAANVA/R8qu0m5eFOMcVcpDdokhBIgpplzdU8Z9gCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h530/Lot%2BLot%2Bcontexst.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YKigKTK-r1k/YIDH9eEfvAI/AAAAAAAANU4/57VSCXKGhXI4LUICLq0P0EUq-fzyDCWdQCLcBGAsYHQ/s562/lot%2Blot%2Bfamicom%2Bcontest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="562" height="458" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YKigKTK-r1k/YIDH9eEfvAI/AAAAAAAANU4/57VSCXKGhXI4LUICLq0P0EUq-fzyDCWdQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h458/lot%2Blot%2Bfamicom%2Bcontest.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>Basically there were several ranks of member stickers you could receive depending on your score, and the number of these they would give out were limited in the following way.</p><p>Silver members (500,000 points) - 2,000 stickers</p><p>Gold members (2,000,000 points) - 500 stickers</p><p>Plantinum members (5,000,000 points) - 200 stickers</p><p>Royal Members - 10 stickers, with two divisions for 9,000,000 points and 10,000,000 points</p><p>So these are pretty rare, but the silver sticker ones are significantly more common than the others. </p><p>What makes the auction so interesting therefore is that while the silver stickers are common, its really rare to find them in their original condition, with the envelope and everything, like that. Most of them today are to be found stuck on the carts.</p><p>So when I saw that appear on Yahoo Auctions I started following it, wondering if I might be able to snag it on the cheap. </p><p>Uh....nope!</p><p><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rQh7AXxAwlc/YIDGUBaDzAI/AAAAAAAANUg/6m8AslLYrNcUHm5wL8TObkEQVhOuRuhuQCLcBGAsYHQ/s270/yahoo%2Bauctions%2Bprice.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="270" height="434" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rQh7AXxAwlc/YIDGUBaDzAI/AAAAAAAANUg/6m8AslLYrNcUHm5wL8TObkEQVhOuRuhuQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h434/yahoo%2Bauctions%2Bprice.png" width="640" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p>It ended for 251,000 Yen, about 2,500$ US. Yikes, and that is the price for the easiest to find of these stickers! I can't imagine what a platinum or royal one would sell for!</p><p>I regret that I did not add one of these to my collection a few years ago when I had the chance. I actually remember passing on an Exed Exes Silver Members Sticker for about 15,000 Yen a few years ago because I didn't think it was worth it. D-oh!! </p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892786114932769023.post-41076361261283317282021-04-21T12:20:00.004+09:002021-04-21T16:29:17.234+09:00Famicom Games and Inter-Generational Justice<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LBEOSmpNup8/YH-LYLO-6DI/AAAAAAAANUI/iHsoYw9nCoAg9JCgFwFUsvgFV_afGlgygCLcBGAsYHQ/s6000/DSC_0139.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6000" data-original-width="4000" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LBEOSmpNup8/YH-LYLO-6DI/AAAAAAAANUI/iHsoYw9nCoAg9JCgFwFUsvgFV_afGlgygCLcBGAsYHQ/w426-h640/DSC_0139.JPG" width="426" /></a></div>My kids have built up a pretty decent sized collection of Famicom games over the course of the past year. I mean, just look at all these suckers:<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5JxVPQR8ZZE/YH-LrcFMKII/AAAAAAAANUY/fXsjPjQbC2U_155aSkq18FGL1W1N8QRMQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1894/DSC_0142%2B%25282%2529.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1894" data-original-width="1263" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5JxVPQR8ZZE/YH-LrcFMKII/AAAAAAAANUY/fXsjPjQbC2U_155aSkq18FGL1W1N8QRMQCLcBGAsYHQ/w426-h640/DSC_0142%2B%25282%2529.JPG" width="426" /></a></div><p></p><p>And they also have a little pile of Super Famicom games too.</p><p>This got me thinking about my own NES collection when I was a kid. My parents gave me an NES Action Set for Christmas when I was 13. It was great and my late sister and I spent an insane amount of time playing it for about a 3-4 years period.</p><p>During the entirety of that period I was able to accumulate a collection of.....(drum roll)</p><p>Six games.</p><p>That was it. NES games didn't grow on trees, they cost like 30-40 bucks each. In 1980s dollars at that. Six games was actually a decent collection back then, I don't think any of my friends had more than ten games either. </p><p>Theoretically there may have existed the odd rich kid out there whose parents could shower them with video games at will regardless of the cost, but I never knew any of them. They must have existed though.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">My kids today have the functional equivalent of one of those hypothetical rich 1980s dads who can shower them with Nintendo games without having to worry about the cost. Not because he's rich (I ain't) but because these Famicom games on average cost me about 200-300 Yen each, about what a bag of chips costs. So they've got this massive collection that would have been accessible to only the children of the wealthy elite of 1980s, Bubble era, Japan. I quite like this, it makes me feel like a big shot. I can actually give my kids a Famicom game for a relatively minor accomplishment in the same way my parents might have given me a quarter for the same 35 years ago. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>You might envy them for that, but I also worry that this might be the ONLY type of advantage their generation has over mine. The ravages of climate change, pandemics, exploding economic inequality, erosion of democratic norms, whatever the hell AI is going to do to all of us, and all the other bad stuff sweeping the planet is all going to be crap that they'll have to deal with as adults. To a certain extent its also crap I have to deal with as an adult, but it'll likely be way worse for their generation. Its a pretty lousy deal if all you get in exchange for that is Famicom games aplenty as children and I wish I could give them something more, but for now it'll have to do.<p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892786114932769023.post-49976647133195971852021-04-20T09:40:00.010+09:002021-04-20T10:11:06.282+09:00100 Yen Shop Famicoms: Beginner's Guide<p> <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KAPg--fXb9M/YH4eydK-mnI/AAAAAAAANTA/k0np4kNLVIoLbDPZ1M35n3E3eLkquW_xACLcBGAsYHQ/s4900/DSC_0167%2B%25282%2529.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3266" data-original-width="4900" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KAPg--fXb9M/YH4eydK-mnI/AAAAAAAANTA/k0np4kNLVIoLbDPZ1M35n3E3eLkquW_xACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h426/DSC_0167%2B%25282%2529.JPG" width="640" /></a><br /><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">I was on Twitter the other day when I saw <a href="https://twitter.com/RuiReiChannel/status/1380488165924904964" target="_blank">this post</a> by RuiReiChannel, had written about building a DIY Famicom out of Petit Blocks, which are these super cheap block sets you can buy at Daiso, Japan's biggest 100 Yen store chain (100 Yen = about $1). These are a big thing for Twitter users in Japan I discovered after going through the #プチブロック (petit block) hashtag rabbit hole on there.</span></div><p></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-k5Fyk_BCve8/YH4gLNrgGrI/AAAAAAAANTc/ti96hQ7Qn7MOuBkYjUpHhzpsW3xGaYDfQCLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="447" data-original-width="484" height="591" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-k5Fyk_BCve8/YH4gLNrgGrI/AAAAAAAANTc/ti96hQ7Qn7MOuBkYjUpHhzpsW3xGaYDfQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h591/image.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p><p>I thought it looked pretty cool so I took up the challenge.</p><p>First step, stop at a 100 Yen shop and peruse their selection of Petit Blocks. The one in our area it turns out has a lot of them:</p><p><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yyOISANdhmI/YH4e4aHim8I/AAAAAAAANTI/APDKx6RW1_8bW2sw6-46QB3o-JYLVjjuACLcBGAsYHQ/s1280/IMG_1981.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yyOISANdhmI/YH4e4aHim8I/AAAAAAAANTI/APDKx6RW1_8bW2sw6-46QB3o-JYLVjjuACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_1981.JPG" width="640" /></a></p><p>Its pretty impressive that these only cost 100 Yen each. They are basically rip offs of Nanoblocks, which are an almost identical toy line but sell for about 8 or 9 times that. I have to say that the quality of the Petit Blocks is a bit lesser, but not 8 or 9 times less and for making Famicoms from scratch they do nicely. </p><p>Unfortunately they didn't have the exact set that he used, which might have been sold out, so I just grabbed a couple that looked like they had lots of red and white pieces to see what I could cobble together. One was a race car, the other a birthday cake.</p><p><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Sopg_7GHmvw/YH4eyR8Kg8I/AAAAAAAANS8/sLxNAlZDL-0Vh2q0ECcp3ZSRF6Scomi8QCLcBGAsYHQ/s2173/DSC_0155.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1448" data-original-width="2173" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Sopg_7GHmvw/YH4eyR8Kg8I/AAAAAAAANS8/sLxNAlZDL-0Vh2q0ECcp3ZSRF6Scomi8QCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h426/DSC_0155.JPG" width="640" /></a></p><p>So I cracked it open and after about half an hour of fiddling around, voila!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j5B4pjUGVIA/YH4iO89q7xI/AAAAAAAANTs/tpZH_L2nz6YAKDFgnRy6MW1Jt4j2hh8mQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2918/DSC_0163.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1945" data-original-width="2918" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j5B4pjUGVIA/YH4iO89q7xI/AAAAAAAANTs/tpZH_L2nz6YAKDFgnRy6MW1Jt4j2hh8mQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h426/DSC_0163.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>Its not perfect, I had to improvise a bit since the pieces and colors I had available were somewhat limited, but I think its basically recognizable as a Famicom. <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nUQpuZzdxF0/YH4h4xy-sPI/AAAAAAAANTk/4U6GGEMxz-UVH8QyoVIp2PUAUgR2SMpOwCLcBGAsYHQ/s4377/DSC_0168%2B%25282%2529.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2919" data-original-width="4377" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nUQpuZzdxF0/YH4h4xy-sPI/AAAAAAAANTk/4U6GGEMxz-UVH8QyoVIp2PUAUgR2SMpOwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h426/DSC_0168%2B%25282%2529.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>I think this is going to be Version 1, and I'll try to build a second model at larger scale to get a more detail in. I might try buying some grey sets to build an AV Famicom too so I could give it to my kids (who have no idea what the red and white original Famicom looks like, but LOVE their AV Famicom). Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892786114932769023.post-72358625348441251352021-04-19T10:08:00.002+09:002021-04-19T10:08:22.621+09:00Mega Sized Super Mario Bros. 2 Menko<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kjiUJkiG0Bw/YHzWtHFWRSI/AAAAAAAANS0/XzEhwDOsvCMxsoTIvHMqqUvdYItJRcc9QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1054/IMG_1979.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="791" data-original-width="1054" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kjiUJkiG0Bw/YHzWtHFWRSI/AAAAAAAANS0/XzEhwDOsvCMxsoTIvHMqqUvdYItJRcc9QCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/IMG_1979.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>This is another recent pick up - a Super Mario Bros 2 menko that is about the size of my head! <p></p><p>This is from the Famicom Disk System's Super Mario Bros 2, NOT the American Super Mario Bros 2 (which as we all know is Super Mario USA here, or Doki Doki Panic). </p><p>This was released in 1986 by Amada and is considerably larger than their other <a href="https://famicomblog.blogspot.com/2021/04/famicom-menko-are-amazing.html" target="_blank">Famicom menko cards</a>. From my general knowledge of how menko were distributed back in the day, these big ones weren't sold but rather were prizes given out to kids who bought the little ones and hit a winner ("atari") card which they could redeem for them. These would not have been practical as menko due to their size, so they were probably intended for decoration or just plain collecting. </p><p>This definitely belongs on a wall in my house somewhere, I think I might get it framed.</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892786114932769023.post-23051866683367703552021-04-15T10:13:00.009+09:002021-04-19T09:32:25.427+09:00A Big Box of Famicom Puzzle Boxes<p> <br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l_6UUCo6d_k/YHeJ7saGBqI/AAAAAAAANQk/RYO5cl-YGek00l6vYuZPo_5SYynlI6QDQCLcBGAsYHQ/s5293/Amada%2BFamicom%2BPuzzles.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2629" data-original-width="5293" height="318" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l_6UUCo6d_k/YHeJ7saGBqI/AAAAAAAANQk/RYO5cl-YGek00l6vYuZPo_5SYynlI6QDQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h318/Amada%2BFamicom%2BPuzzles.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>Agh, I'm so excited about these! Amada Famicom Puzzles!<p></p><p>I decided to pull the trigger on a big ticket item that was up for sale on Yahoo Auctions a few days ago. This beautiful box arrived in the mail from the seller yesterday:</p><p><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eXPf3LYxmoo/YHeJ7pEYQII/AAAAAAAANQg/aobK-xOKMhEVzXpZpa7wufercZ41MgE7QCLcBGAsYHQ/s3825/Amada%2BFamicom%2Bpuzzles%2Bsuper%2Bmario%2Bbox.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2550" data-original-width="3825" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eXPf3LYxmoo/YHeJ7pEYQII/AAAAAAAANQg/aobK-xOKMhEVzXpZpa7wufercZ41MgE7QCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h426/Amada%2BFamicom%2Bpuzzles%2Bsuper%2Bmario%2Bbox.JPG" width="640" /></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qXlI64Wgduo/YHeJ9C7BcGI/AAAAAAAANQs/rooscoqXDAMWKsyRfERLRMlnxfjQmuK3wCLcBGAsYHQ/s3929/family%2Bcomputer%2Bnintendo%2Bpuzzle.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2161" data-original-width="3929" height="352" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qXlI64Wgduo/YHeJ9C7BcGI/AAAAAAAANQs/rooscoqXDAMWKsyRfERLRMlnxfjQmuK3wCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h352/family%2Bcomputer%2Bnintendo%2Bpuzzle.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jxcwkdGvKjo/YHeJ7iRCEzI/AAAAAAAANQc/hM_wdL-DdMcSwkN1THQknCqR2BNiTd4ZwCLcBGAsYHQ/s4585/famicom%2Bjigsaw%2Bpuzzle%2B.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3056" data-original-width="4585" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jxcwkdGvKjo/YHeJ7iRCEzI/AAAAAAAANQc/hM_wdL-DdMcSwkN1THQknCqR2BNiTd4ZwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h426/famicom%2Bjigsaw%2Bpuzzle%2B.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><p></p><p>Open it up and you find three more boxes, with jigsaw puzzles for Super Mario Bros, Pooyan and City Connection:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-agEVu63mlIA/YHeLsArqQHI/AAAAAAAANRU/fjP-_H9V-YQmsdjY7I9OwCLGdoqvV0EUQCLcBGAsYHQ/s4790/DSC_0370.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3193" data-original-width="4790" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-agEVu63mlIA/YHeLsArqQHI/AAAAAAAANRU/fjP-_H9V-YQmsdjY7I9OwCLGdoqvV0EUQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h426/DSC_0370.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><p>Picking them up, they are so beautiful:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rh3dcxnZW24/YHeJ8iwlTTI/AAAAAAAANQo/MBKYp0C8J_80p1FMRpJKdvkhvkMu_9tHgCLcBGAsYHQ/s3505/famicom%2Bpuzzles%2Bsuper%2Bmario%2Bbrothers.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3505" data-original-width="2961" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rh3dcxnZW24/YHeJ8iwlTTI/AAAAAAAANQo/MBKYp0C8J_80p1FMRpJKdvkhvkMu_9tHgCLcBGAsYHQ/w540-h640/famicom%2Bpuzzles%2Bsuper%2Bmario%2Bbrothers.jpg" width="540" /></a></div><p></p><p>And under them you find 40 more boxes, each containing a random puzzle of a Famicom game inside:</p><p><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eZ-VJVW3k1w/YHeJ9BAmdbI/AAAAAAAANQ0/BkZIIqo6GEEpxqQ9z4uNNg1Y8OWVtt8FwCLcBGAsYHQ/s5131/nintendo%2Bfamicom%2Bsuper%2Bmario%2Bbros%2Bpuzzle.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3420" data-original-width="5131" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eZ-VJVW3k1w/YHeJ9BAmdbI/AAAAAAAANQ0/BkZIIqo6GEEpxqQ9z4uNNg1Y8OWVtt8FwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h426/nintendo%2Bfamicom%2Bsuper%2Bmario%2Bbros%2Bpuzzle.JPG" width="640" /></a></p><p>The outside of each box looks the same. It has Super Mario Bros artwork on the front, City Connection on the back:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sQXTe2syngI/YHeM16JhHKI/AAAAAAAANRk/Bjrn99Yp6iMlGO9LC4HTlP4L2qf_F_25wCLcBGAsYHQ/s2612/DSC_0376%2B%25282%2529.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1742" data-original-width="2612" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sQXTe2syngI/YHeM16JhHKI/AAAAAAAANRk/Bjrn99Yp6iMlGO9LC4HTlP4L2qf_F_25wCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h426/DSC_0376%2B%25282%2529.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>They are so cute to hold, slightly smaller than a Famicom cart.</p><p><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_VHTb-0SLlw/YHeJ9EMMb6I/AAAAAAAANQ4/tMWvk2Z7TQMlDaEDAeI30CVSFyM0uIQxwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2914/super%2Bmario%2Bbros%2Bjigsaw%2Bpuzzle.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1942" data-original-width="2914" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_VHTb-0SLlw/YHeJ9EMMb6I/AAAAAAAANQ4/tMWvk2Z7TQMlDaEDAeI30CVSFyM0uIQxwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h426/super%2Bmario%2Bbros%2Bjigsaw%2Bpuzzle.JPG" width="640" /></a></p><p>Despite the cover art being the same on all of them, they don't all just contain Super Mario Bros and City Connection puzzles. Rather the puzzles are a random assortment of games from the Famicom's early releases. I haven't opened any of mine to see what is inside, but I've found a few online like these which give a representative sample. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p87dfOO173M/YHeOFDkeb3I/AAAAAAAANRs/_cGNg-bpx5ckVC6sFYdaB83uJtFXL2rbgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1123/fca.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1123" data-original-width="678" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-p87dfOO173M/YHeOFDkeb3I/AAAAAAAANRs/_cGNg-bpx5ckVC6sFYdaB83uJtFXL2rbgCLcBGAsYHQ/w386-h640/fca.jpg" width="386" /></a></div>I think all of those games came out in 1985 or earlier so I would date these to around then. I've also <a href="http://blog.livedoor.jp/divajoanne/archives/1034768937.html" target="_blank">seen puzzles of 10 Yard Fight</a>, and Route 16 and Sky Destroyer are also featured on the big box so there are probably puzzles of them out there too. I'm not sure how many exist in total, no checklist is known to exist of them.<div><br /></div><div>You might ask why there are three bigger boxes containing larger puzzles and 40 boxes containing smaller puzzles. The three bigger ones weren't sold in stores, they were prizes. Kids would buy the little ones (which cost 50 Yen each) and out of the forty in the box, three were "winner" puzzles, which contained something on the inside which the kid could redeem for one of the three prize puzzles.</div><div><br /></div><div>The box I have is complete, in the same shape as it would have been when distributed to toy stores. This allows me to know exactly which of the three were the winner puzzles, since they came packaged in a plastic bag to allow the store owner to know which was which so they could randomize them. The three in the upper left hand corner of my box are still in the bag, so they must be the winners!<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G4ivWobb2Ko/YHePpDCXTnI/AAAAAAAANR0/WTuVxIYnJ689sTNIcDYrfEGld2zsdNzYACLcBGAsYHQ/s1771/DSC_0374%2B%25282%2529.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1181" data-original-width="1771" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G4ivWobb2Ko/YHePpDCXTnI/AAAAAAAANR0/WTuVxIYnJ689sTNIcDYrfEGld2zsdNzYACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h426/DSC_0374%2B%25282%2529.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div>These things, particularly whole unopened boxes of them, are pretty rare so I was super psyched to be able to pick it up at a reasonable price. What is a reasonable price? Well, its way more than I would have paid for something like this 10 or even 5 years ago. But that is ancient history (sadly). There is just<a href="https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/o308148892" target="_blank"> one other of these available for sale </a>anywhere in the world right now and this is the starting bid:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nfBVXGMty9g/YHeRKCMOV6I/AAAAAAAANR8/gh4AMq3Q2qkhkPWX3dI8xkw07GewaCUbACLcBGAsYHQ/s1353/%25E3%2583%25A4%25E3%2583%2595%25E3%2582%25AA%25E3%2582%25AF%2521%2B-%2B%25E3%2583%2595%25E3%2582%25A1%25E3%2583%259F%25E3%2582%25B3%25E3%2583%25B3%2B%25E3%2583%2595%25E3%2582%25A1%25E3%2583%259F%25E3%2583%25AA%25E3%2583%25BC%25E3%2582%25B3%25E3%2583%25B3%25E3%2583%2594%25E3%2583%25A5%25E3%2583%25BC%25E3%2582%25BF%25E3%2583%25BC%2B%25E6%25AD%25A3%25E8%25A6%258F%25E3%2583%25A9%25E3%2582%25A4...%2Band%2B11%2Bmore%2Bpages%2B-%2BWork%2B-%2BMicrosoft%25E2%2580%258B%2BEdge%2B4_15_2021%2B10_02_13%2BAM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="733" data-original-width="1353" height="346" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nfBVXGMty9g/YHeRKCMOV6I/AAAAAAAANR8/gh4AMq3Q2qkhkPWX3dI8xkw07GewaCUbACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h346/%25E3%2583%25A4%25E3%2583%2595%25E3%2582%25AA%25E3%2582%25AF%2521%2B-%2B%25E3%2583%2595%25E3%2582%25A1%25E3%2583%259F%25E3%2582%25B3%25E3%2583%25B3%2B%25E3%2583%2595%25E3%2582%25A1%25E3%2583%259F%25E3%2583%25AA%25E3%2583%25BC%25E3%2582%25B3%25E3%2583%25B3%25E3%2583%2594%25E3%2583%25A5%25E3%2583%25BC%25E3%2582%25BF%25E3%2583%25BC%2B%25E6%25AD%25A3%25E8%25A6%258F%25E3%2583%25A9%25E3%2582%25A4...%2Band%2B11%2Bmore%2Bpages%2B-%2BWork%2B-%2BMicrosoft%25E2%2580%258B%2BEdge%2B4_15_2021%2B10_02_13%2BAM.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div>That is 450,000 Yen, about $4500 US. I did not pay anywhere near that much for mine (as proof of that I offer as evidence the fact that my wife has not killed me), and I doubt that anyone is going to buy it at that price. But with the absolute insanity of vintage game related prices over the past year, you never know. These things are ridiculously hard to find and pretty cool, so I wouldn't be too surprised if some tech millionaire with money to burn dropped it on something like that. </div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, I'm glad I secured one for my collection. As with my previous posts about Famicom Menko and Famicom Milk Caps, there aren't any checklists of these puzzles out there and very little information exists about them, so I'm kind of having fun delving into this end of the hobby where I can shed some light on these things. These aren't the only <a href="https://famicomblog.blogspot.com/2020/09/famicom-jigsaw-puzzles-are-awesome.html" target="_blank">Famicom puzzles Amada released</a>, so another side project for me will be to try to put together a catalogue of all of them out there. </div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><u>UPDATE!</u></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">After writing the above post I just found this <a href="https://twitter.com/hirohiro_aaa/status/1282617364370960385" target="_blank">tweet</a> from last year which contains still images from a TV show on Fuji TV (which I think might have been Game Center CX? Not sure) that did a feature about these puzzles. It answers some of the questions I wasn't sure on.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-H3LhE25OxYo/YHea7u5HC8I/AAAAAAAANSQ/teJDBY226Ls6_2VHgrv8t1u4UFv1Zdq2QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1729/Famicom%2Bpuzzle%2Blineup%2B2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1004" data-original-width="1729" height="372" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-H3LhE25OxYo/YHea7u5HC8I/AAAAAAAANSQ/teJDBY226Ls6_2VHgrv8t1u4UFv1Zdq2QCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h372/Famicom%2Bpuzzle%2Blineup%2B2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6h1RIC3ewx8/YHea666l1yI/AAAAAAAANSE/U9saXkGW6Wkpy6h7_4Lm-w-yPF1_UUrpgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1741/Famicom%2BPuzzle%2Blineup%2B3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="979" data-original-width="1741" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6h1RIC3ewx8/YHea666l1yI/AAAAAAAANSE/U9saXkGW6Wkpy6h7_4Lm-w-yPF1_UUrpgCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h360/Famicom%2BPuzzle%2Blineup%2B3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--RbC8GUHYLo/YHea6_6b1EI/AAAAAAAANSM/nBbThXZGxxY466ppe6wJNIu2NDDIOMaqwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1741/Famicom%2BPuzzle%2Blineup%2B4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="979" data-original-width="1741" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--RbC8GUHYLo/YHea6_6b1EI/AAAAAAAANSM/nBbThXZGxxY466ppe6wJNIu2NDDIOMaqwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h360/Famicom%2BPuzzle%2Blineup%2B4.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hbu5h5OHmjI/YHea69thHvI/AAAAAAAANSI/oNblWI8bAMosPgL8RbsO6td8ZOaL9qJegCLcBGAsYHQ/s1753/Famicom%2BPuzzle%2Blineup.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="985" data-original-width="1753" height="360" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hbu5h5OHmjI/YHea69thHvI/AAAAAAAANSI/oNblWI8bAMosPgL8RbsO6td8ZOaL9qJegCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h360/Famicom%2BPuzzle%2Blineup.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">From these we learn a few interesting things about these types of puzzles.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">1. The puzzles were issued in 1985 in two types. One (the one I have) was distributed in little boxes containing 20 piece puzzles which sold for 50 Yen each. The other (which I don't have) were sold in little envelopes containing 12 pieces which sold for 20 Yen each.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">2. Most importantly, the last image there shows all the games that were featured on the puzzles (at least the bigger 20 piece puzzles), so we can create a checklist! Almost at least, some of them are hard to make out due to glare. This however is a tentative checklist, if anyone can identify the two I couldn't (which might be two from among Championship Lode Runner, Mach Rider, Bomberman or Binary Land, but I can't tell from the picture), please let me know!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Super Arabian</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Star Force</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Wrecking Crew</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Super Mario Bros</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Lode Runner</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">City Connection</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">(Not sure)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Challenger</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Sky Destroyer</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Formation Z</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Duck Hunt</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Elevator Action</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Devil World</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Balloon Fight</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">10 Yard Fight</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">(Not sure)</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Clu Clu Land</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Zippy Race</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Route 16</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Chack n Pop</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Exerion</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Field Combat</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Ninja Kun</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Hyper Sports</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Astro Robo Sasa</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Road Fighter</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Ice Climber</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Hyper Olympics</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Nuts & Milk</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Space Invaders</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Geimos</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Yie Ar Kung Fu</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Urban Champion</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Baseball<br />Front Line</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><p></p></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892786114932769023.post-18427176049763760382021-04-12T11:32:00.006+09:002021-04-12T11:49:05.910+09:00The Mysterious and Lovely Famicom Milk Caps<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LxSxGx3-pKk/YHOpQsNIrGI/AAAAAAAANQM/BwWvbSnEcCAMu3heuIhy6ju4EyiqQQaHwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1188/Famicom%2Bmilk%2Bcaps%2Bnintendo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1084" data-original-width="1188" height="584" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LxSxGx3-pKk/YHOpQsNIrGI/AAAAAAAANQM/BwWvbSnEcCAMu3heuIhy6ju4EyiqQQaHwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h584/Famicom%2Bmilk%2Bcaps%2Bnintendo.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>One of the cooler and rarer Famicom things out there to collect are these guys: Famicom milk caps. <p></p><p>These things are awesome, yet very little seems to be known about them. They were distributed with bottles of milk for Japanese kids back in the 1980s, you could pry them out of the top of the bottles like this:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9q9_gBfSZSE/YHOsOIUD21I/AAAAAAAANQU/F1ti9S82rvYByyEAf7YmaR_3c-qVcqmvQCLcBGAsYHQ/s500/milk%2Bcap.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9q9_gBfSZSE/YHOsOIUD21I/AAAAAAAANQU/F1ti9S82rvYByyEAf7YmaR_3c-qVcqmvQCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h640/milk%2Bcap.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>They feature characters from well known Famicom games from the mid-1980s. The artwork on them is quite striking because it is unique and doesn't just mimic the art on the cart labels or anything. <div><br /></div><div>I don't know which milk company released these, which is the mystery I'm interested in solving. There are a LOT of milk companies in Japan. The little text that wraps around the edge of them doesn't provide any clues, it is just nutritional information about the milk. The big kanji characters on most of them just say "Milk", except for the Takeshi's Castle one which says "Takeshi's Castle". </div><div><br /></div><div>In case you need help matching the milk caps in the above photo to the Famicom games they are:</div><div><br /></div><div>Ninja JaJa Maru Kun</div><div>Takeshi's Castle</div><div>Binary Land</div><div>Ganbare Goemon</div><div>Super Chinese</div><div>Bomberman</div><div>Makai Mura</div><div>Super Mario Bros.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is far from a complete list, I only have a small fraction of the ones out there. Which brings me to the second part of the mystery: what does a complete set of these look like? I've seen the odd group of these pop up here and there, but I don't know of anyone who has a complete set of them nor do I know of any checklist that exists. These things are quite rare - most of them were thrown out decades ago so only a few seem to have survived which makes them difficult to find. </div><div><br /></div><div>There are a few up for sale on Yahoo Auctions right now and I can see some for Wild Gunman, Dig Dug and Pac Land which I don't have, as well as some different versions of Super Mario Bros, Makai Mura and Ganbare Goemon which have different pictures from mine. </div><div><br /></div><div>If I stick with this long enough, maybe someday I'll be able to track them all down and be the first to create a full checklist of them!</div><div><br /></div><div>For now though I'm happy to introduce them to the English language Famicom collecting world, another thing to chase like the <a href="https://famicomblog.blogspot.com/2021/04/famicom-menko-are-amazing.html" target="_blank">menko I discussed in my previous post</a>. Japanese collectors are already aware of these and prices seem to have gone up quite a bit (along with everything Famicom related) recently, they are listed for about 10$ each on Yahoo Auctions right now. </div><div><p><br /></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892786114932769023.post-50854622060307736122021-04-09T10:30:00.005+09:002021-04-09T13:24:08.314+09:00Famicom Menko are Amazing<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Z6iMZVjeoGo/YG-pcqCkQjI/AAAAAAAANPI/NHqXJbnoNGwOInyHK2XLCm-U0y6ZSKPgwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/famicom%2Bmenko%2Bcards.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1464" data-original-width="2048" height="458" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Z6iMZVjeoGo/YG-pcqCkQjI/AAAAAAAANPI/NHqXJbnoNGwOInyHK2XLCm-U0y6ZSKPgwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h458/famicom%2Bmenko%2Bcards.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>I picked these up the other day, a big pile of Famicom menko. They are spectacular.<p></p><p>Menko are cards that Japanese kids use to play a game that mainly involves throwing them at other menko on the ground. It is very similar to pogs, though menko have a much longer history in Japan.</p><p>There are a few different kinds of Famicom menko out there which were sold in the 1980s, all of them I think produced by a company called Amada which made a lot of Famicom related ephemera. About 3 years ago I wrote a post about snagging some <a href="https://famicomblog.blogspot.com/2018/07/famicom-menko-are-so-cool.html" target="_blank">rectangular shaped Famicom Menko</a>. The ones I got this week are round and come from a different set, but likely from the same maker.</p><p>I have to say, I like these round ones WAY better than the rectangular ones. One problem with the rectangular ones is that most of the pictures on them are just screen shots from the games which, while kind of cool, also means some of the cards are pretty dull to look at (not all, but probably like half).</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sgk-lNRvbps/YG-sJpUMs2I/AAAAAAAANPQ/9BeGGg3-10ofwPgUdguYYhbW82P9RyO0QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/famicom%2Bmenko.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sgk-lNRvbps/YG-sJpUMs2I/AAAAAAAANPQ/9BeGGg3-10ofwPgUdguYYhbW82P9RyO0QCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/famicom%2Bmenko.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>With the circular ones though all the pictures are extremely colorful, eye catching compositions which incorporate the game's box artwork. Which is AMAZING! Put them in a pile like the ones I have in the top picture on this post and they just blow you away. </p><p>Another cool thing about these is that they were likely issued fairly early in the Famicom's life (all the games were released in 1985 or earlier so probably in that year) so it features some of the most iconic titles out there - Donkey Kong, Mario Bros. Ice Climber, Balloon Fight and so on. Most of the games are Nintendo's own releases, but there are also games from Konami (Antarctic Adventure, Yie Ar Kung Fu), Taito (Elevator Action, Chack n Pop), Jaleco (Ninja Kun, Exerion, Formation Z) and Hudson Soft (Nuts & Milk, Star Force, Lode Runner, Raid on Bungling Bay). </p><p>So anyway, if you are looking for some more Famicom hidden treasures out there, I recommend putting the round menko on your list. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892786114932769023.post-34390580801661759542021-04-01T10:51:00.002+09:002021-04-01T10:51:19.102+09:00Famicom Galaga CIB Completes my Namcot collection<p> <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GmtNpSfeeHU/YGUkQ4ZpsYI/AAAAAAAANI0/D0h6wrmQk2cHsCeUhXc0FgYlJUqtOfySgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/famicom%2Bnamcot%2Bgames.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GmtNpSfeeHU/YGUkQ4ZpsYI/AAAAAAAANI0/D0h6wrmQk2cHsCeUhXc0FgYlJUqtOfySgCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/famicom%2Bnamcot%2Bgames.JPG" width="640" /></a></p>I haven't been posting much recently, mainly due to just being busy. I did hit a milestone in my Famicom collection that I thought was worth mentioning though. <div><br /></div><div>7 years ago I did a <a href="https://famicomblog.blogspot.com/2014/03/collecting-goal-for-2014-finish-my-cib.html" target="_blank">post </a>detailing my attempt to put together a complete CIB collection of the 18 little Namcot Famicom games. At the time I was just three short of finishing it - Burger Time, Valkrye no Bouken and Galaga. </div><div><br /></div><div><p>I was able to score Burger Time and Valkrye a few years ago, leaving me just missing Galaga to complete the set. But I got distracted and totally forgot about it for years. Then the other day my son was playing Galaga (I do have a loose copy of it, its a favorite) and it kind of jogged my memory: "Oh yeah, sitting in a box in a closet somewhere I have all the Namcot games CIB except Galaga. I should do something about that."</p><p>So I got on Yahoo Auctions and looked for CIB copies of Galaga and HOLY CRAP! I haven't perused Yahoo Auctions for games in over a year and damn, prices have gone through the roof. I guess this is another one of those weird side effects of the Pandemic, everyone is buying video games so prices have soared. </p><p>Anyway, the best price I could find on a dodgy, beat up CIB copy was about 20$, but I decided to instead go for a nice shiny copy (not new, but close to it), which cost me about 50$. I think it was worth it, voila:<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qLOQuBb6l8Q/YGUjvsta21I/AAAAAAAANIs/kDZm59gNc0w7pkVm0FOqQMwG-n2EUpBKACLcBGAsYHQ/s3746/Famicom%2BGalaga.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2809" data-original-width="3746" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qLOQuBb6l8Q/YGUjvsta21I/AAAAAAAANIs/kDZm59gNc0w7pkVm0FOqQMwG-n2EUpBKACLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h480/Famicom%2BGalaga.JPG" width="640" /></a></p><p>The collection is complete!</p><p>Well, kind of. My copy of Battle City does not have the manual, and the box is in pretty lousy shape so I might upgrade that one at some point (unfortunately that will be expensive). Druaga and Super Chinese are also a bit iffy and might also get replaced with nicer copies. I really wish I had done this 5 years ago when doing so would have probably cost about 1/4 what it will today, but oh well!</p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892786114932769023.post-88335458912151933242020-12-07T11:17:00.000+09:002020-12-07T11:17:02.508+09:00Retro Game Advent Calender<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ctrtHAUfWT8/X82OeWYrJQI/AAAAAAAAMr8/g2IP5ottklscdtJxy3f1kx4YMLhrk4U0gCLcBGAsYHQ/s6000/DSC_0039.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6000" data-original-width="4000" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ctrtHAUfWT8/X82OeWYrJQI/AAAAAAAAMr8/g2IP5ottklscdtJxy3f1kx4YMLhrk4U0gCLcBGAsYHQ/w424-h640/DSC_0039.JPG" width="424" /></a></div>I had this idea last night that I played around with after the kids had gone to bed.<p></p><p>We have this big advent calendar that my mom made for us after my son was born. It hangs on the wall in our living room and has little candies in it. I was absent mindedly staring at it when it occurred to me that most of the pockets would be the right size to hold Famicom carts. So I took the candies out and put my son's Famicom carts in.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GbI9kmjtyKI/X82OeZde6QI/AAAAAAAAMr4/mM-RCPXWOVgkJ2L0VgcYax1f_gFcwmwXwCLcBGAsYHQ/s6000/DSC_0037.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6000" data-original-width="4000" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GbI9kmjtyKI/X82OeZde6QI/AAAAAAAAMr4/mM-RCPXWOVgkJ2L0VgcYax1f_gFcwmwXwCLcBGAsYHQ/w424-h640/DSC_0037.JPG" width="424" /></a></div>Yup, they fit.<p></p><p>This was just a test run and I have no plans on ever doing anything like this, but I thought this would be a pretty cool thing for a retro gamer to do. Especially if you are like a retro gaming couple who live together without kids this'd be an awesome way to do advent calendars - playing a game each day throughout December. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lOyS47JB8PE/X82OgNuI7zI/AAAAAAAAMsU/EnC7zKYDn0MFFrNXBZ1SdN0nTm_USOFwQCLcBGAsYHQ/s6000/DSC_0043.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6000" data-original-width="4000" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lOyS47JB8PE/X82OgNuI7zI/AAAAAAAAMsU/EnC7zKYDn0MFFrNXBZ1SdN0nTm_USOFwQCLcBGAsYHQ/w424-h640/DSC_0043.JPG" width="424" /></a></div><p></p><p>I'm not in that category of person, so this advent calendar was retro-gamified for demonstration purposes only, and currently has reverted to holding just candy. But I thought I'd put the idea out there in case it hasn't already been floating out on the internet since like 2007 or something and I just didn't notice!</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892786114932769023.post-6352407595012227192020-12-02T12:08:00.002+09:002020-12-02T12:08:12.045+09:00The End is Near: Planning for our first, and last, Retro Game Christmas<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-57arBr5WxaQ/X0MlkkkOpMI/AAAAAAAAL-k/NkViysfWvXMx97NM7eN5R1IVY8wmXMA_ACPcBGAYYCw/s6000/DSC_0003.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6000" data-original-width="4000" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-57arBr5WxaQ/X0MlkkkOpMI/AAAAAAAAL-k/NkViysfWvXMx97NM7eN5R1IVY8wmXMA_ACPcBGAYYCw/w424-h640/DSC_0003.JPG" width="424" /></a></div>As I've documented in a <a href="https://famicomblog.blogspot.com/2020/08/the-famicom-games-rides-again.html" target="_blank">few posts this year</a>, 2020 has been the year of the Famicom in my house. I gave my AV Famicom to my son back in April and we've played it together almost every day since. I've gradually increased his game library with little presents here and there for good behavior and he has about 30 now. That only represents less than 5% of my own collection, but its a pretty impressive collection for a 6 year old.<p></p><p>I feel very bad though because I am about to do something terrible to his Famicom interest that I've spent the better part of this year nurturing.</p><p> I'm going to kill it. </p><p>For Christmas this year I'm going to give him a Super Famicom, along with a few games (Super Mario World, Super Mario Collection, Mario Kart, Yoshi's Island and Donkey Kong Country). </p><p>I've been putting off the day I would give him a newer console (albeit one that is itself 30 years old!) for months now because I know that once I do it'll be the only thing he wants to play and the Famicom will fall to the wayside, never again to be the centre of his attention like it is now.</p><p>But the writing is on the wall and I've dragged this out about as far as I can. He is very aware of the fact that newer consoles exist and has been bugging me for months to get one where the images don't look like "Lego" (his way of describing 8 bit graphics). </p><p> So the Super Famicom, with its 16 bit graphics, is going to be his. Likely its reign will also be short lived. He is going to start Elementary School soon and peer pressure there will undoubtedly result in him wanting a Nintendo Switch (or some other contemporary gaming system) by Christmas of 2021. </p><p>So Christmas of 2020 provides the only window of opportunity for me to make retro games a significant highlight of his gifts - and for them to be happily received by him. A Super Famicom, or any other retro console, is not likely to be well received as a Christmas present a year from now. So I've got to jump at the chance, even though it sadly means killing off his Famicom interest.</p><p>Being a retro gamer dad is complicated work. And I'm not even getting into the minefield of planning his little sister's presents in this post, which is an even bigger issue.</p><p>The Super Famicom won't be his only present, he's also getting a boatload of Mario Lego sets and a few other things, all of which are related to the Famicom (because that is what he wants!) Its a huge difference from Christmas of 2019 which was dominated by dinosaur related presents. I've felt pretty bad for the past few months as his interest in dinosaurs (which was INTENSE for a couple years there) was completely displaced by his interest in Mario stuff. I miss reading dinosaur books and playing with toy dinosaurs with him. But I've also really enjoyed playing the Famicom with him this year and so feel a little sad that it'll be coming to an end soon.</p><p>On the plus side though, I've given him a year of exposure to the Famicom during a very formative period of his life and I think 40 or 50 years from now he'll probably look back on these days with fondness and have an intense nostalgic connection to a little console that is 30 years older than he is!</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892786114932769023.post-41652764585859110232020-09-08T11:12:00.004+09:002020-09-08T11:16:41.115+09:00Famicom Jigsaw Puzzles are Awesome<p> <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t-hwl0N6il0/X1bk-XGnAyI/AAAAAAAAMD0/62TwWbekkBYbvGEUGwiwnUP0LJvV9chXgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2732/Famicom%2Bpuzzles%2B.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1821" data-original-width="2732" height="413" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t-hwl0N6il0/X1bk-XGnAyI/AAAAAAAAMD0/62TwWbekkBYbvGEUGwiwnUP0LJvV9chXgCLcBGAsYHQ/w625-h413/Famicom%2Bpuzzles%2B.jpg" width="625" /></a></p>I picked up these on Yahoo Auctions recently: four Famicom jigsaw puzzles!<p></p><p>I already had a <a href="http://famicomblog.blogspot.com/2014/12/more-famicom-rarities-amada-puzzles-and.html" target="_blank">couple of Famicom game jigsaw puzzles</a> featuring Star Force and Yie Ar Kung Fu which I picked up a few years ago and look like this:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xoO1Or9Ln6I/X1bmITnTtKI/AAAAAAAAMEQ/zkR1B6sGKRMLbAv_Y9_2q8yMB7Xv09zJACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Famicom%2Bpuzzle%2BStar%2BForce.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1005" data-original-width="1600" height="391" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xoO1Or9Ln6I/X1bmITnTtKI/AAAAAAAAMEQ/zkR1B6sGKRMLbAv_Y9_2q8yMB7Xv09zJACLcBGAsYHQ/w625-h391/Famicom%2Bpuzzle%2BStar%2BForce.JPG" width="625" /></a></div><br /><p>Those ones were produced by Amada, a company which put out a lot of Famicom related odds and ends back in the 80s. The ones I got this week on the other hand were put out by a different company called Toyo. In addition to featuring different games and coming in differently designed boxes the big difference between the two is size. The Amada ones are small puzzles with only a dozen pieces, while the Toyo ones are bigger and contain 60 pieces each.</p><p><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cXraTfK8LeY/X1bk-f1E0PI/AAAAAAAAMDw/SLGoykk5bGcZFMxfa-sTgAXam5_yB2wiACLcBGAsYHQ/s3189/famicom%2Bpuzzles%2B3.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2453" data-original-width="3189" height="478" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cXraTfK8LeY/X1bk-f1E0PI/AAAAAAAAMDw/SLGoykk5bGcZFMxfa-sTgAXam5_yB2wiACLcBGAsYHQ/w625-h478/famicom%2Bpuzzles%2B3.jpg" width="625" /></a></p><p>As the photo at the top of the post indicated the four I got were Balloon Fight, Donkey Kong Jr, Front Line and Exerion. These games were put out by three different makers (Nintendo, Taito and Jaleco) whose company logos are on the front. The Amada ones (at least the ones I have) featured games by Hudson Soft and Konami. </p><p>The back of each box has a checklist of the six different puzzles. In addition to the four I have they also made Wrecking Crew and Hyper Sports. I'll have to find those at some point so I can complete the set!</p><p>The back also tells us that these cost 100 Yen each back in 1985, which was a pretty good deal (I paid way more than that for them in 2020!)</p><p><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GGg4Zn-Qpsw/X1bk-VY0kdI/AAAAAAAAMD4/qttQ1bCOv-0DQ2igBasSIYj47DwyiwBrwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2789/famicom%2Bpuzzles%2B4.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2349" data-original-width="2789" height="526" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GGg4Zn-Qpsw/X1bk-VY0kdI/AAAAAAAAMD4/qttQ1bCOv-0DQ2igBasSIYj47DwyiwBrwCLcBGAsYHQ/w625-h526/famicom%2Bpuzzles%2B4.jpg" width="625" /></a></p><p>The sides of the boxes say "Pocket Jigsaw Puzzle" in bold lettering:</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wjCUkM6rwMs/X1bk_px-myI/AAAAAAAAMEA/ZCVh3gDCF3s3sKh1gH4iopii2z172hcOACLcBGAsYHQ/s2945/famicom%2Bpuzzles%2B6.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2385" data-original-width="2945" height="503" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wjCUkM6rwMs/X1bk_px-myI/AAAAAAAAMEA/ZCVh3gDCF3s3sKh1gH4iopii2z172hcOACLcBGAsYHQ/w625-h503/famicom%2Bpuzzles%2B6.jpg" width="625" /></a></div>The top edge of the boxes tell you which game is depicted:<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fnbZ3QIxbqI/X1bk_LvzJNI/AAAAAAAAMD8/EluRexlPog88STs6H2yx4-Al3p-4eX8HACLcBGAsYHQ/s2873/famicom%2Bpuzzles%2B5.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1914" data-original-width="2873" height="414" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fnbZ3QIxbqI/X1bk_LvzJNI/AAAAAAAAMD8/EluRexlPog88STs6H2yx4-Al3p-4eX8HACLcBGAsYHQ/w625-h414/famicom%2Bpuzzles%2B5.jpg" width="625" /></a></div>These are pretty awesome. They are all still sealed in their original bags inside the boxes, I think these are "dead stock" that were store leftovers. I haven't broken them out to put them together because I bought them more for the box art than the puzzles themselves!<p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892786114932769023.post-71436428449061694552020-09-03T11:50:00.003+09:002020-09-07T13:12:47.074+09:00Revelations: Famicom's Sexiest Game Probably isn't Very Sexy<p> <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GK_b9kO9Nmw/X1BWTOSEVOI/AAAAAAAAMBU/2QdFII4qpJcZi4rHgVNGJhfW1BT-SPOMQCLcBGAsYHQ/s452/%25E3%2583%25A4%25E3%2583%2595%25E3%2582%25AA%25E3%2582%25AF%2521%2B-%2B%25E5%25B8%258C%25E5%25B0%2591%2BFDS%2B%25E3%2583%2595%25E3%2582%25A1%25E3%2583%259F%25E3%2582%25B3%25E3%2583%25B3%2B%25E3%2583%2587%25E3%2582%25A3%25E3%2582%25B9%25E3%2582%25AF%25E3%2582%25B7%25E3%2582%25B9%25E3%2583%2586%25E3%2583%25A0%2B%25E3%2582%25BB%25E3%2582%25AF%25E3%2582%25B7%25E3%2583%25BC...%2Band%2B11%2Bmore%2Bpages%2B-%2BProfile%2B1%2B-%2BMicrosoft%25E2%2580%258B%2BEdge%2B9_3_2020%2B11_32_37%2BAM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="452" data-original-width="326" height="883" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GK_b9kO9Nmw/X1BWTOSEVOI/AAAAAAAAMBU/2QdFII4qpJcZi4rHgVNGJhfW1BT-SPOMQCLcBGAsYHQ/w635-h883/%25E3%2583%25A4%25E3%2583%2595%25E3%2582%25AA%25E3%2582%25AF%2521%2B-%2B%25E5%25B8%258C%25E5%25B0%2591%2BFDS%2B%25E3%2583%2595%25E3%2582%25A1%25E3%2583%259F%25E3%2582%25B3%25E3%2583%25B3%2B%25E3%2583%2587%25E3%2582%25A3%25E3%2582%25B9%25E3%2582%25AF%25E3%2582%25B7%25E3%2582%25B9%25E3%2583%2586%25E3%2583%25A0%2B%25E3%2582%25BB%25E3%2582%25AF%25E3%2582%25B7%25E3%2583%25BC...%2Band%2B11%2Bmore%2Bpages%2B-%2BProfile%2B1%2B-%2BMicrosoft%25E2%2580%258B%2BEdge%2B9_3_2020%2B11_32_37%2BAM.png" width="635" /></a></p>I was browsing Yahoo Auctions earlier when I stumbled across an <a href="https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/k460164324" target="_blank">auction</a> for a CIB Famicom Disk System game called Sexy Invaders which I had never heard of. Actually it seems most of the world has never heard of it either, except for this <a href="https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/famicomds/116964-sexy-invaders/faqs/71988" target="_blank">brief FAQ on Game FAQs</a> there isn't really much out there about it. <p></p><p>Its kind of weird to see cover art like that on a Famicom game. It may come as a shock, but this may not even have been licensed by Nintendo (gasp).It came out in 1990 and was released by a company called Super Pig.</p><p><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-93q8hNMSB18/X1BWTAtqsaI/AAAAAAAAMBY/dacG_4f6-6MR_YRfamYe7xx99WhR6IMCQCLcBGAsYHQ/s464/%25E3%2583%25A4%25E3%2583%2595%25E3%2582%25AA%25E3%2582%25AF%2521%2B-%2B%25E5%25B8%258C%25E5%25B0%2591%2BFDS%2B%25E3%2583%2595%25E3%2582%25A1%25E3%2583%259F%25E3%2582%25B3%25E3%2583%25B3%2B%25E3%2583%2587%25E3%2582%25A3%25E3%2582%25B9%25E3%2582%25AF%25E3%2582%25B7%25E3%2582%25B9%25E3%2583%2586%25E3%2583%25A0%2B%25E3%2582%25BB%25E3%2582%25AF%25E3%2582%25B7%25E3%2583%25BC...%2Band%2B11%2Bmore%2Bpages%2B-%2BProfile%2B1%2B-%2BMicrosoft%25E2%2580%258B%2BEdge%2B9_3_2020%2B11_32_45%2BAM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="464" data-original-width="337" height="723" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-93q8hNMSB18/X1BWTAtqsaI/AAAAAAAAMBY/dacG_4f6-6MR_YRfamYe7xx99WhR6IMCQCLcBGAsYHQ/w526-h723/%25E3%2583%25A4%25E3%2583%2595%25E3%2582%25AA%25E3%2582%25AF%2521%2B-%2B%25E5%25B8%258C%25E5%25B0%2591%2BFDS%2B%25E3%2583%2595%25E3%2582%25A1%25E3%2583%259F%25E3%2582%25B3%25E3%2583%25B3%2B%25E3%2583%2587%25E3%2582%25A3%25E3%2582%25B9%25E3%2582%25AF%25E3%2582%25B7%25E3%2582%25B9%25E3%2583%2586%25E3%2583%25A0%2B%25E3%2582%25BB%25E3%2582%25AF%25E3%2582%25B7%25E3%2583%25BC...%2Band%2B11%2Bmore%2Bpages%2B-%2BProfile%2B1%2B-%2BMicrosoft%25E2%2580%258B%2BEdge%2B9_3_2020%2B11_32_45%2BAM.png" width="526" /></a></p><p>Reading through the FAQ it seems that despite the title and provocative cover art, this game has nothing to do with sex. Its basically just a Space Invaders clone. I guess for marketing purposes they decided the best way to sell that was to spice up the name.</p><p><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Im8LqXvrJQc/X1BWTF7XzkI/AAAAAAAAMBc/KYp7XPDU5acw1jTtX-vSjOD7gHBQuu6jQCLcBGAsYHQ/s355/%25E3%2583%25A4%25E3%2583%2595%25E3%2582%25AA%25E3%2582%25AF%2521%2B-%2B%25E5%25B8%258C%25E5%25B0%2591%2BFDS%2B%25E3%2583%2595%25E3%2582%25A1%25E3%2583%259F%25E3%2582%25B3%25E3%2583%25B3%2B%25E3%2583%2587%25E3%2582%25A3%25E3%2582%25B9%25E3%2582%25AF%25E3%2582%25B7%25E3%2582%25B9%25E3%2583%2586%25E3%2583%25A0%2B%25E3%2582%25BB%25E3%2582%25AF%25E3%2582%25B7%25E3%2583%25BC...%2Band%2B11%2Bmore%2Bpages%2B-%2BProfile%2B1%2B-%2BMicrosoft%25E2%2580%258B%2BEdge%2B9_3_2020%2B11_32_52%2BAM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="355" data-original-width="339" height="553" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Im8LqXvrJQc/X1BWTF7XzkI/AAAAAAAAMBc/KYp7XPDU5acw1jTtX-vSjOD7gHBQuu6jQCLcBGAsYHQ/w526-h553/%25E3%2583%25A4%25E3%2583%2595%25E3%2582%25AA%25E3%2582%25AF%2521%2B-%2B%25E5%25B8%258C%25E5%25B0%2591%2BFDS%2B%25E3%2583%2595%25E3%2582%25A1%25E3%2583%259F%25E3%2582%25B3%25E3%2583%25B3%2B%25E3%2583%2587%25E3%2582%25A3%25E3%2582%25B9%25E3%2582%25AF%25E3%2582%25B7%25E3%2582%25B9%25E3%2583%2586%25E3%2583%25A0%2B%25E3%2582%25BB%25E3%2582%25AF%25E3%2582%25B7%25E3%2583%25BC...%2Band%2B11%2Bmore%2Bpages%2B-%2BProfile%2B1%2B-%2BMicrosoft%25E2%2580%258B%2BEdge%2B9_3_2020%2B11_32_52%2BAM.png" width="526" /></a></p><p>That doesn't seem to have worked though since I don't think many copies of this game exist, I've never seen it before. Ironically that makes it one of the harder to find Famicom games out there and thus the focus of a lot of attention among Famicom collectors. Out of more than 33,000 Famicom items up for auction right now, this one is near the top on Yahoo Auctions "most paid attention to" listing, and is the number one Disk System game. Its currently got a bid of 3433 Yen with 3 days left, I'm curious how much it will go for. I'm not a disk system guy, or a sexy guy, so I'll pass, but thought it was kind of interesting nonetheless. </p><p><br /></p><p>Postscript: The auction for this ended at 30,501 Yen, about 300$ US!</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892786114932769023.post-89311830412785096592020-08-28T10:55:00.010+09:002020-08-28T11:10:01.654+09:00Top Riders!<p> <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I8lABKVCWOo/X0hdwwvEO_I/AAAAAAAAMAA/mVqIanjmnT0kVTYifIWFcZnOaUoRhelxwCLcBGAsYHQ/s6000/DSC_0015.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6000" data-original-width="4000" height="1000" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I8lABKVCWOo/X0hdwwvEO_I/AAAAAAAAMAA/mVqIanjmnT0kVTYifIWFcZnOaUoRhelxwCLcBGAsYHQ/w666-h1000/DSC_0015.JPG" width="666" /></a></p><br /><p></p><p>I recently decided to do something I'd been waiting six years to do: break out my Top Rider inflatable motorcycle controller!</p><p>Back in 2014 I remember buying a big lot of miscellaneous Famicom stuff off of Yahoo Auctions and discovering this in it. I had never seen one before so I blew it up and gave it a go, as documented on <a href="http://famicomblog.blogspot.com/2014/07/getting-used-to-top-rider-motorcycle.html">this post here</a>. If you read that post you'll notice my main take away was "Nice accessory but way too small for a grown man with bad knees". This is an actual photo I took of myself on it that day which accurately reflects how awkward it is for a grown up:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GWPucXHcBmc/X0hkl5xQ_KI/AAAAAAAAMAM/rCJVhMYg-6Mej0AmXir4svZHaK91YfLzQCLcBGAsYHQ/s661/Homer.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="661" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GWPucXHcBmc/X0hkl5xQ_KI/AAAAAAAAMAM/rCJVhMYg-6Mej0AmXir4svZHaK91YfLzQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Homer.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p>I planned on selling it but my wife was pregnant at the time and we had just found out the baby was going to be a boy. She said to me "Why don't you keep it? Maybe our son will like it!" </p><p>This convinced me. I didn't mention it in the post, but looking back at the comments on it I said something a bit prophetic:</p><p>" <span face="" style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;">I think this would be great for little kids. Actually we are going to be adding a little boy to our family in a couple of months and the main reason I think I`ll hang onto this is to see if he wants to play it in about 5 years!"</span></p><p>So instead of throwing it on my sales thread over at Famicom World I decided to keep it. I put it in a box where it had remained for over six years since I made that post. </p><p>And in keeping with the summer of 2020 being the summer of Famciom at my house I decided now was the time to see if little kids still like this thing.</p><p>Introducing this toy to kids is a bit of an art, but its not hard. We were sitting in the living room watching Paw Patrol and I looked at my son and daughter and had the following conversation:</p><p>"Do you like motorcycles?"</p><p>(interest piqued) "Yes."</p><p>(increased tone of voice) "Do you want to go for a motorcycle ride?"</p><p>(getting more excited) "Yes." </p><p>(peak tone) "In the LIVING ROOM????"</p><p>(going nuts) "YES!!!!!!"</p><p>(back to normal tone) "Kay, uh....give me a minute." (leaves room).</p><p>I remember blowing it up with my own lungs back in 2014 and that nearly killing me, but now our house is equipped with an electric air pump (for our kiddie pool) so that made things a lot easier.</p><p>While I did that, the kids got their bike helmets, which I thought was a nice touch of added realism.</p><p>The game, I must say, works much better with little kids on it than middle aged men. First my son took the wheel and my daughter got on the back seat, then they later reversed. He is pretty good at it, the controls are simple and he got the hang of it right away (except for the high/low gear thing). It still functions quite well as a controller. My daughter is a bit young and more or less oblivious to the game play, but she really loves taking the handles and jumping up and down on it. She needs someone to hold it for her because her legs aren't long enough to reach the ground yet (kind of the reverse of the problem I had with it). So usually when she rides, I set it on the floor in front of my chair and wedge the back between my legs so it doesn't fall over, then let her go to town with it (usually not even bothering to plug it in or anything). </p><p>I'm kind of amazed at the quality of this thing actually. Its more than 30 years old and yet despite having survived all of that (it was already well worn when I got it), it has stood up well to the absolute brutal beating that my kids have dished out on it over the past few days - mainly consisting of the aforementioned being jumped up and down on. They built this sucker to last!</p><p>I'm kind of sad that one big change that has happened since 2014 is that the price of these things have gone through the roof. I don't think I paid much for mine (its used and didn't come with the box or manual), but I was in Super Potato the other day and saw one with a price tag in the $500 or so range (can't remember the exact amount). At that price, nobody in their right mind would buy one for their kids to destroy, which makes me wonder if my kids might be giving the Top Rider its last hurrah. </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892786114932769023.post-77198766314491106052020-08-24T12:40:00.013+09:002020-08-24T14:39:48.203+09:00The Famicom Rides Again <p> <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-57arBr5WxaQ/X0MlkkkOpMI/AAAAAAAAL-Q/9KnNrNLX1JoTheby2dHKtyQLljWFaoAIwCLcBGAsYHQ/s6000/DSC_0003.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="6000" data-original-width="4000" height="1000" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-57arBr5WxaQ/X0MlkkkOpMI/AAAAAAAAL-Q/9KnNrNLX1JoTheby2dHKtyQLljWFaoAIwCLcBGAsYHQ/w666-h1000/DSC_0003.JPG" width="666" /></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">These are some happy Famicom games inside a happy Famicom. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">They have an interesting story which began back in the 80s. A mom and dad bought them for children who had seen them on the shelf in the toy section of their local department store. Ice Climber came first, SMB 3 a couple years later. The kids loved them and played for hours. They had pride of place in the family home, the Famicom nestled beneath the big TV in the living room. The kids would invite their friends over to play and Famicom parties would follow.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Famicom games love being the centre of kids' attention. This happy state continued for a few years.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Then something horrible happened. The kids grew older. They no longer loved Ice Climber and SMB 3. Neighborhood kids no longer came by to play together. They stopped playing games altogether as they became teenagers. The Famicom lost its prized position beneath the living room TV, replaced by a VCR. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The Famicom and the games went into a box, which went into a closet to collect dust.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Years passed. The kids became adults and left home. The parents, now older, cleared out the junk that their kids had left behind, including the Famicom and games which they disposed of at a big recycling shop. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">They passed around the second hand market in limbo for a while, getting mixed in with other games similarly discarded by other families. Eventually a man in his 30s who was collecting Famicom games bought them and brought them to his home.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">But this wasn't a reprieve. They gathered dust in a box on his shelf for several years. The man had too many games and too little time to spend playing most of them. The games remained sad and lonely, reflecting on the good old days when they were the centre of childhood attention.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">One day the man and his wife had a baby boy. They loved him very much. Three years after that, they had a baby girl. They loved her very much too. They made a happy family.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">But the Famicom games continued to collect dust in a box. The man had even less time for them now that he was a father.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Then a couple of years later, a deadly pandemic swept the globe, terrifying people and forcing them to stay home. The man's little boy and little girl couldn't go to school, couldn't play with other children, or even go to the playground. This made them sad.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The man, wanting to make his kids happy, thought of what he could do. He remembered the dusty box with the Famicom games in them. He brought it down from the closet, blew the dust off and carried it down to the living room.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The boy and girl became excited. What did their father have for them?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">"I think you'll like this!" he told them as he cleared a spot under their living room TV to put the Famicom.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The kids jumped around in excitement.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The man turned the TV on, blew on the connectors for Ice Climber, put it in the slot and flipped the red switch.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Nothing happened of course. You can't just toss a Famicom cart that hasn't been played in decades in and expect it to work the first time. But after a few tries the man found the exact right position for the cart in the slot and the game worked.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The kids were by now almost literally bouncing themselves off of walls in excitement. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">"This is a Famicom" the man said to the boy "lets play".</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">And with that, the story of the Famicom and the games had come full circle. Today they again sit under a living room TV, and are the most beloved plaything of little kids once more. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>The End.</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>Postscript</b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As I mentioned <a href="http://famicomblog.blogspot.com/2020/04/putting-family-in-family-computer.html">back in April</a>, I pulled my Famicom and a few games out of the closet and gave them to my kids (mainly my son since he's old enough) to play with while they were stuck indoors with a lot of time on their hands. That was four months ago and the Famicom has basically spent the summer of 2020 as the Most Amazing Thing Ever in my house, which I think is really neat. Its probably been a while since a Famicom has been so loved, so I wanted to do a post about that.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I've given my kids about 20 carts including a lot of the classics (all the Mario games, Donkey Kong, Adventure Island, Ice Climber, Galaxian, Pac Man, etc) and my son especially loves them. My daughter likes SMB USA because it is pink.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The neat thing about giving kids a game system with colorful carts is that the carts themselves become toys. We keep them to a 1 hour limit of game time per day, and always make sure they play with one of us (usually me) so that the Famicom is a socializing activity rather than an isolating one. The games don't just sit there when they aren't being played though, they become cogs in the larger Lego and other block related toy ecosystem that exists in our home. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">My son loves to construct levels in an imaginary game with them. This one is a water world, inspired by the ones in SMB and SMB 3:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ojmlOtQLuNs/X0Mlsmka63I/AAAAAAAAL-Y/sVrDk95vqBYSq-W9rmDgj6uoZmG1z3EdQCLcBGAsYHQ/s5031/DSC_0006.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3354" data-original-width="5031" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ojmlOtQLuNs/X0Mlsmka63I/AAAAAAAAL-Y/sVrDk95vqBYSq-W9rmDgj6uoZmG1z3EdQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/DSC_0006.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><p>He also likes to use them to construct streets that he can race cars on:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Q4VhVnYZNkI/X0Mlsl0vCZI/AAAAAAAAL-c/nOHNOkLhyfo7bMwfHe6rpt1DgwH4MoOhACLcBGAsYHQ/s4720/DSC_0008.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4720" data-original-width="3147" height="800" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Q4VhVnYZNkI/X0Mlsl0vCZI/AAAAAAAAL-c/nOHNOkLhyfo7bMwfHe6rpt1DgwH4MoOhACLcBGAsYHQ/w534-h800/DSC_0008.jpg" width="534" /></a></div>This here is a Famicom cart maze he built for Lego mini figs to go through:<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5BKn3syWfwk/X0MlsfnCnjI/AAAAAAAAL-U/kPoYZhPe4pIKhX34yG_RIhAoRIlRS89fgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2415/DSC_0020.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1609" data-original-width="2415" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5BKn3syWfwk/X0MlsfnCnjI/AAAAAAAAL-U/kPoYZhPe4pIKhX34yG_RIhAoRIlRS89fgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/DSC_0020.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Its been really fun watching all of this unfold, and even participating in it, over the summer. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I'm not sure how long it will last. The big difference between kids in the 80s and my kids is that my kids live in a world in which like 5 subsequent generations of increasingly powerful video game systems exist, so at some point they'll probably jump ship from the Famicom to one of those. I of course own many other systems, but have been deliberately avoiding bringing them out because I know once they get a taste of a Super Famicom (let alone a Switch) the poor Famicom will go back to collecting dust. At some point I'll let that dam break, but for now I'm very happy to see these Famicom games getting so much attention.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I'm also kind of happy that my son at least will grow up having some really nostalgic memories of how playing the Famicom with his dad got him through what would otherwise have been a kind of depressing summer during the pandemic in which he was kept away from his favorite places!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892786114932769023.post-46168497941214023772020-05-22T11:20:00.001+09:002020-05-22T15:43:36.684+09:00Extremely Valuable Used Ice Cream Wrappers and a 1986 Famicom Contest I Never Knew About<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CFRT3rxqifg/Xscxzly2vcI/AAAAAAAALq4/VtvwCPdaU90S8F2XaYFcGYOMt03hjmoWgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Super%2BMario%2BBrothers%2Bice%2BCream.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="295" data-original-width="475" height="396" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CFRT3rxqifg/Xscxzly2vcI/AAAAAAAALq4/VtvwCPdaU90S8F2XaYFcGYOMt03hjmoWgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Super%2BMario%2BBrothers%2Bice%2BCream.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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There was a very interesting thing that sold the other day on Yahoo Auctions: <a href="https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/d442840687" target="_blank">Super Mario Brothers Ice Cream Bar Wrappers</a>. Without the ice cream.<br />
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According to the listing these were originally sold in 1986 and were produced by Yuki Jirushi, a famous Japanese maker of dairy products. There are two of them, which originally had peach flavored ice cream bars in them. Actually I'm not sure if they were ice cream or maybe more like a popsicle, the product is called "Famicom Ice" which could go either way.<br />
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They cost 50 Yen back in the day, but now two empty wrappers sell for:<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9e8ny7wgRCI/XscxziGxT2I/AAAAAAAALq8/8ptSC4R6Bmw2mPaM13MkDUJuOvjPcPWKQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Super%2BMario%2BBrothers%2Bsnack.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="178" data-original-width="267" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9e8ny7wgRCI/XscxziGxT2I/AAAAAAAALq8/8ptSC4R6Bmw2mPaM13MkDUJuOvjPcPWKQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Super%2BMario%2BBrothers%2Bsnack.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Wow, that is about 90$ US! Kudos to whoever had the foresight in 1986 to eat two ice cream bars, look at the empty wrappers and think "Hey, these might be worth something 34 years from now, instead of throwing them in the trash, I'll hold on to them!"<br />
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I've never seen these before and its kind of interesting to know that this product existed. I am curious if they only came in Super Mario Bros wrappers, or with other game art.<br />
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NacqtPagnWw/Xsc0rFoCkBI/AAAAAAAALrY/6zwKhpAOWU8gMwl7yxop-KI9Zru2I-y6ACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Microsoft%2BEdge%2B5_22_2020%2B11_07_01%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="339" data-original-width="626" height="346" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NacqtPagnWw/Xsc0rFoCkBI/AAAAAAAALrY/6zwKhpAOWU8gMwl7yxop-KI9Zru2I-y6ACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Microsoft%2BEdge%2B5_22_2020%2B11_07_01%2BAM.png" width="640" /></a><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />
One really interesting thing is that the blue starburst in the side panel says that there is a game contest associated with these in which you could win either a Nintendo game cartridge or a Joyball controller. The text along the top says that the contest would last for 6 months, with 1,000 prize winners per month (for a maximum of 6,000 total).<br />
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YOb3FezAs2w/Xsc0qC4xyfI/AAAAAAAALrU/j6CU3xyYZao2enPNlZwPLGUEpCLHdWF6gCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Microsoft%2BEdge%2B5_22_2020%2B11_06_52%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="254" data-original-width="468" height="346" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YOb3FezAs2w/Xsc0qC4xyfI/AAAAAAAALrU/j6CU3xyYZao2enPNlZwPLGUEpCLHdWF6gCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Microsoft%2BEdge%2B5_22_2020%2B11_06_52%2BAM.png" width="640" /></a><b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike><br />
The back panel above gives you a list of the games that you could win. These included Super Mario Bros., Mach Rider, F1 Race, Ice Climber, Baseball, Soccer, Tennis, Golf and Spartan X. <br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hGpqy0x8nrc/Xsc0qEoGooI/AAAAAAAALrQ/OmMs0_D5-AU-QEc_RKyHOf1i0cYu78klgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Microsoft%2BEdge%2B5_21_2020%2B12_06_15%2BPM%2B%25282%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="256" data-original-width="473" height="346" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hGpqy0x8nrc/Xsc0qEoGooI/AAAAAAAALrQ/OmMs0_D5-AU-QEc_RKyHOf1i0cYu78klgCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Microsoft%2BEdge%2B5_21_2020%2B12_06_15%2BPM%2B%25282%2529.png" width="640" /></a></div>
There is a little mushroom logo you can see, you had to cut that off and send it in to the company to enter the contest. <br />
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Anyway, that is kind of interesting stuff, isn't it? When I first saw the auction with a 100 Yen start bid I threw a bid in just on a lark to see if I could win it for 100 Yen. I was blown away when I saw how high it actually went for (needless to say I didn't win). These might be the only copies of these still in existence though so I can see how to a hard core Famicom collector they would be seen as a must have item.<br />
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Edited to add:<br />
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Adori 12 on Famicom World showed me a commercial of these very things. Very cool and worth a watch!<br />
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<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/b7mFUhgm0AI/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/b7mFUhgm0AI?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892786114932769023.post-9220254209534587932020-05-20T12:00:00.002+09:002020-05-20T12:30:20.597+09:00Super Mario Kart Race: Suburban Japan Edition<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UfHtBDf6W7s/XsScvLWx13I/AAAAAAAALqg/ON4aTK8zXiMx6n009FhIMFFOR4a3IpevwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Super%2BMario%2BKart%2BRace%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1477" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UfHtBDf6W7s/XsScvLWx13I/AAAAAAAALqg/ON4aTK8zXiMx6n009FhIMFFOR4a3IpevwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Super%2BMario%2BKart%2BRace%2B2.jpg" width="590" /></a><br />
My kids are really getting into Mario stuff since I introduced them to the Famicom a couple weeks ago. The characters have gone from zero to the top of their "childhood fascination" list at break neck speed, displacing Pokemons who were briefly at the top of that list until the beginning of this month.<br />
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So I've started to do something I haven't done in years: look for <a href="https://famicomblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/super-mario-brothers-bottle-cap.html" target="_blank">Mario related toys</a>. Only not for me, but as gifts for them. <br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uG6vQ0Vor9w/XsSX1peAEJI/AAAAAAAALqI/cPd9A1BF_NcVtyM0BCEKUMoR8yjqAlVBACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Super%2BMario%2BKart%2Brace%2B3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uG6vQ0Vor9w/XsSX1peAEJI/AAAAAAAALqI/cPd9A1BF_NcVtyM0BCEKUMoR8yjqAlVBACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Super%2BMario%2BKart%2Brace%2B3.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
I stumbled across a cheap (800 Yen) bag full of used pull back cars featuring Super Mario Kart characters at a Hard Off the other day which I thought would be the perfect thing, since they both like toy cars too. <span style="background-color: white; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">(</span><i style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">Side Note: our state of emergency was lifted, so shops are open again. Japan has gotten off very lightly with Covid 19 so far</i><span style="background-color: white; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">) </span><br />
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These were originally released back in 2008 in connection with Mario Kart Wii. On a side note, its kind of weird but that means they are about as old as this blog is, so stuff that would have been "new" when I started this thing have now moved into "retro" territory. I've come full circle!<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pD74_VS3Lxk/XsSXzIP-_OI/AAAAAAAALpo/S1iayer3AtcA7q5_rzAtbv7JDFokuhipQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Super%2BMario%2BKart%2BRace%2B4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="583" data-original-width="1600" height="232" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pD74_VS3Lxk/XsSXzIP-_OI/AAAAAAAALpo/S1iayer3AtcA7q5_rzAtbv7JDFokuhipQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Super%2BMario%2BKart%2BRace%2B4.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
There are actually Karts from two sets in here, both from 2008 and both produced by a company called "Nihon Auto Omocha" (Japan Auto Toys). The ones that have a kind of hot rod or racing car shape (like Wario, Donkey Kong, Mario and the Princess) are from one called "Wild Star" which you can see pictures of <a href="https://www.inside-games.jp/article/2010/02/07/40300.html" target="_blank">here,</a> while the ones shaped like Karts are from this set <a href="https://www.inside-games.jp/article/2010/05/23/42178.html" target="_blank">here</a>. According to the articles I've read these were not sold in stores but rather given out as prizes (I didn't play Wii back then so I wasn't paying attention to this sort of stuff). I don't quite have either set complete, though I have at least one of each character. Oddly, neither set included a Luigi for some reason. <br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OYBNgpLThYc/XsSXzSw_N7I/AAAAAAAALpw/Hn6nXPMd7O8rkVTYG9ngcSF_ccB-iWjlwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Super%2BMario%2BKart%2BRace%2B5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OYBNgpLThYc/XsSXzSw_N7I/AAAAAAAALpw/Hn6nXPMd7O8rkVTYG9ngcSF_ccB-iWjlwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Super%2BMario%2BKart%2BRace%2B5.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
Anyway, I like these a lot and hope my kids will too. Before giving them to them I thought I'd take them for a little race through suburban Japan and take some picture of them to share with the kids too. Hence this post. <br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z5f8mm-wM4Q/XsSX0A66FiI/AAAAAAAALp0/pLi0mcC38DM-c59fWlVH07BnpOxUVIM_gCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Super%2BMario%2BKart%2BRace%2B6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z5f8mm-wM4Q/XsSX0A66FiI/AAAAAAAALp0/pLi0mcC38DM-c59fWlVH07BnpOxUVIM_gCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Super%2BMario%2BKart%2BRace%2B6.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
They are kind of photogenic.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LWv0fs5sTco/XsSX0cjtlCI/AAAAAAAALp4/hdHBS7RuZzgOjMJp5a9zQefyQ7H0Rm8uQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Super%2BMario%2BKart%2BRace%2B7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LWv0fs5sTco/XsSX0cjtlCI/AAAAAAAALp4/hdHBS7RuZzgOjMJp5a9zQefyQ7H0Rm8uQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Super%2BMario%2BKart%2BRace%2B7.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
I had a tendency to put Yoshi in the lead in most of these since he is my son's favorite. The kids have never played any version of Mario Kart (they only have the Famicom and SMB and SMB USA so far) but he has seen the character around and, since he is a dinosaur and my son loves dinosaurs, he is the best. <br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dljgdqzWrqE/XsSX0ljCKrI/AAAAAAAALp8/OED1jtp4-2YWIL8rrWF0LoBQu-Vp2GwQQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Super%2BMario%2BKart%2BRace%2B8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dljgdqzWrqE/XsSX0ljCKrI/AAAAAAAALp8/OED1jtp4-2YWIL8rrWF0LoBQu-Vp2GwQQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Super%2BMario%2BKart%2BRace%2B8.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
I quite like the hot rod style ones, Wario and Donkey Kong are my personal favorites.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WdQFDavGZsc/XsSX06nH8XI/AAAAAAAALqA/nNVy9phFKoI0MSf-92PNIuZwVs6XoWpKQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Super%2BMario%2BKart%2BRace%2B9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WdQFDavGZsc/XsSX06nH8XI/AAAAAAAALqA/nNVy9phFKoI0MSf-92PNIuZwVs6XoWpKQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Super%2BMario%2BKart%2BRace%2B9.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
This truck (which was parked when I took these pictures!) kind of reminded me of one of the ones from the highway level of Mario Kart 64.<br />
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I think the kids will have fun with these. I won't give them to them all at once, but rather one at a time as presents for various good behavior. If they like them I'll have to chase down the ones I am missing from each set!<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892786114932769023.post-70281814100350378722020-05-12T10:50:00.001+09:002020-05-12T10:50:42.870+09:00Lego Mario and Ice Climber<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I was playing Lego with my kids on a rainy day over the weekend when I decided to try out an idea I had been toying with for a while: making Super Mario Brothers characters out of Lego blocks.<br />
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I wasn't sure how it would go, but its surprisingly easy to do if you have a massive pile of Lego bricks lying around. I just did a Google search for some 8 Bit Mario pixel art grids and then went to town recreating them in Lego.<br />
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I went with 2x2 Lego Bricks = 1 Pixel as a scale for Mario, the first one I did. The bricks aren't quite square so it gives him a slightly chubbier appearance than normal, but its close enough. The Cheep Cheep and Goomba I did the same for. <br />
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Ice Climber was the last of the three and you'll notice he looks a bit taller and skinnier than the Mario ones. That is because I went with 1x2 bricks = 1 pixel for him, mainly because I was running out of bricks by that point.<br />
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My son went crazy for these things, which made me really happy. Super Mario Bros and Ice Climber are his two favorite Famicom games. He's been carrying them around everywhere with him, which gives me that "I did a good dad thing" feeling, which I really like. I also made a Yoshi for him, which was his favorite, but by the time I took these pictures it had been broken and put back together so many times it no longer really looks like Yoshi so I decided not to put him in the picture. Of these Mario is the least sturdy, his arms, nose and legs get knocked off real easily but unlike Yoshi its pretty easy to put him back together so he has survived nonetheless. Cheep Cheep originally had a more elaborate tail, which is long gone but the remaining bits are sturdy! <br />
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The one thing that sucks about Lego though is that pink bricks are hard to come by. I wanted to make a princess one for my daughter (who is absolutely mad for all things pink these days) but didn't have any pink bricks to make that happen. D-oh!<br />
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Anyway, if you've got a combination of Kids at home + they like Mario or other video game characters + a ton of lego bricks handy, this is a pretty good project to keep them happy.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892786114932769023.post-68198903510142192152020-04-20T14:22:00.001+09:002020-04-20T14:24:16.933+09:00Putting the Family in Family Computer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Hope you all are doing OK out there. I’m doing fine.<br />
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We are under a kind of light lockdown here in Japan now. No school and I’m mostly working at home, and glad to still be working!<br />
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On a lighter note, the greatest Famicom related thing that has happened to me since i got my first one almost 12 years ago occurred over the weekend. I introduced another little human being to my Famicom.<br />
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Its hard to believe but the <a href="http://famicomblog.blogspot.com/2014/11/been-busy-month.html" target="_blank">little baby boy that I wrote about on here back in 2014</a> is now a wonderful little kid who'll be starting elementary school before too long! He's even got an awesome little sister now too. <br />
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I have only sparingly had time to play games since he arrived and had held off on introducing him to video games. But with the lockdown and everyone home with little to do, and him being old enough to handle it, I decided to bring my Famicom down to the living room and hook it up to the TV for him (and for the whole family really, but mostly him). It helped that it was a rainy weekend and we couldn't even play in the yard.<br />
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I brought a few games down that I thought he would like. SMB, Ice Climber, Donkey Kong, Son Son, Galaxian, Antarctic Adventure and a few others. And I just plugged it in and said "Lets play!"<br />
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And my son got about as excited as he gets on Christmas morning, it was great.<br />
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We played SMB a lot, my wife (a Famicom fan from her own childhood and my partner in Famicom gaming until parenthood made both of us, but especially her too busy) showed him the basics.<br />
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We played all afternoon. It is really fun watching a little kid play the Famicom for the first time. They move their entire body along with the controller. So while playing Galaxian whenever he moves his ship to the left, he runs over to the left side of the room. Then when he moves his ship right, he runs over to the right. I had forgotten that such behaviour once seemed natural as a child. It was so great to be reminded.<br />
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Son Son was my favorite, since its got a cooperative 2 player mode and we could play together at the same time.<br />
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At the end, he said the Famicom is now his favorite thing in the world. Which was great, but also concerned me that I had accidentally rendered all of his other toys obsolete. We noticed he was rubbing his eyes a lot that night, they got dried out from playing too long, another thing that I had forgotten happens to kids. So we've instituted strict limitations on playing time after that.<br />
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One thing that I liked about it was that the Famicom is 37 years old, but he doesn't know that. For perspective, this is the equivalent of giving a kid in the early 80s a World War 2 era toy. Weird. Anyway, he doesn't care whether or not its old, he just knows it is fun, and his excitement is genuine and so great to behold.<br />
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I don't know how long it will last, but I hope to keep it going. I haven't told him that I have like 800 more games for it (they are mostly in boxes stored in a closet right now). Or that I have like 7 or 8 other consoles with hundreds of more games for them too. For the time being the handful of games that I brought out are officially "The only ones we have" as far as he is going to know. And maybe I'll pretend to bring a new one home from work every once in a while and ask if he wants to play it with me.<br />
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Then maybe a year from now I'll pretend that they released a new version called the "Super Famicom" and pretend to bring that one home with a copy of SMB World, and hook it up and start again.<br />
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Anyway, this was kind of a fun distraction which I thought worthy of a blog post in the middle of this stupid pandemic. I needed a pick-me-up, and this brought me one!<br />
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Stay safe and hope you are all doing OK. <br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892786114932769023.post-55557322038803552362019-12-18T16:49:00.001+09:002020-04-21T14:28:33.051+09:00Famicomblog 10th Anniversary<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Holy crap, I just realized that last week was the 10th anniversary of my first ever post on here! Time flies when you get old!<br />
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I haven't really been keeping up with the blog so much lately. By which I mean the last five years or so. I've become a father twice over during that time period and I haven't even touched a retro video game in two years. Not because I don't like them, I love them now as always, but parenting (and full time job-ing) is busy work. I like to flip through the old posts from the heyday of this blog about 7 or 8 years ago and reminisce about what having free time to play games and blog about them was like:)<br />
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Mind you, my oldest is now five years old and getting to that age where I'm thinking I might introduce him to the Famicom, which might give me something to write about on here again! Or not. The weird thing about becoming a parent is that you start thinking like your parents used to when you were a kid. I'm wrestling with all sorts of angst about whether I even want my kid playing video games. Of course the ones I had when I was a kid are great, but what if this is some gateway to him getting his face glued to a screen 24/7 like all them other young folk are? <br />
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I feel so old!<br />
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Anyway, hi everybody who is still out there! Hope you have a merry Christmas and happy new year.<br />
<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892786114932769023.post-1263596037803510942019-05-10T13:24:00.003+09:002019-05-10T14:24:15.052+09:00Horrible Things are Happening in Nagoya's Osu <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I made a pilgrimage out to the Osu neighborhood in Nagoya, which I've highlighted on this blog before. It is Nagoya's version of Akihabara in Tokyo or Den Den Town in Osaka - full of electronics, toys, cosplay, manga and other shops including of course retro games.<br />
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I fell in love with the place on my first visit almost 7 years ago, but yesterday I fell out of love with it. Terrible things are happening there. The worst of them here:<br />
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Mandarake! This used to be the best place in Osu to buy retro games. It never quite matched the shops I visited in my Fukuoka days (during the golden age of cheap Japanese retro game hunting that lasted until about 2012), but I picked up quite a few things there over the years. They had a cool basket of Famicom carts:<br />
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<a href="https://famicomblog.blogspot.com/2014/05/retro-game-shopping-in-nagoya-part-2.html" target="_blank"> And back in 2014 </a>this is what their glass showcase had - loose copies of Gimmick for 12,000 Yen (about 120$) each! I wish I had bought those! And in the back you can see the hyper rare Bridgestone and Yasuda Seimei carts.<br />
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They also had beautiful CIB stuff!<br />
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Basically until <a href="https://famicomblog.blogspot.com/2014/12/famicom-shopping-news-super-potato-just.html" target="_blank">Super Potato opened up 5 years ago</a>, Mandarake was the best place to look for rare and valuable Famicom games in Nagoya (the centre of the Chubu metropolitain area with about 9 million people, this is a big city). <br />
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So imagine my dissapointment when I visited yesterday and discovered - Mandarake was still there but their retro games weren't! They had completely removed their retro game section! All the Famicom carts from the best store in town gone! They had expanded their manga section to take over the space formally taken up by retro games (the showcases in the above photos now have vintage comics in them) and they now only stock current generation video games. <br />
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This is a huge blow to the Famicom collecting community and I'm not sure if this is limited to the Nagoya Mandarake or if they have stopped stocking retro games at their other locations (if any readers know, please comment!) I especially fear for my beloved Mandarake in Fukuoka, which I still visit once a year or so when I'm down there and have such fond memories of!<br />
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So I had walked into that Mandarake yesterday with a wad of cash that I hoped to spend on some Famicom games for my collection, and devastated by what I discovered I walked out the door, rounded the corner and went straight into the loving arms of Nagoya's Super Potato which is almost next door. Fortunately they still have retro games (it is basically what they exist for after all) but I was very disappointed by what I found there too. <br />
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A Famicom collector never goes into a Super Potato expecting to find bargains, prices there have always been on the high side for Japan. But you go there for the amazing stuff that you can only find in Super Potato - the hyper rarities and other stuff. Their showcases are almost like museums.<br />
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Or at least they used to be. I was shocked by how picked over their high end stuff was. I had noted this in <a href="https://famicomblog.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-most-expensive-famicom-games-at.html" target="_blank">a post I did after a visit a year ago</a>, but its gotten worse since then with a lot of the higher end stuff I noted in that post having sold and not been replaced by anything of similar stature. Where Super Potato showcases once had stuff like <a href="https://famicomblog.blogspot.com/2013/08/kansai-retro-game-shops-3-super-potato.html" target="_blank">Gold Binary Lands (200 known copies in existence) or Rockman 4s (8 copies)</a>, they are now full of a lot more mid-level stuff like CIB copies of Contra or Rockman which, while great, aren't particularly rare or exciting to see. They didn't even have any copies of Gimmick! or Punch Out Gold.<br />
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This is kind of weird. On the one hand, rare video games are flying off the shelf at Super Potato so fast they can't re-stock them. On the other, for some reason Mandarake (which had way better prices on retro games) has thrown in the towel on them. The end result though is that Osu just isn't anywhere near as good a place to hunt for retro games as it was even as recently as a year ago. Which is really disappointing!<br />
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So if you are thinking of coming to Nagoya for some retro game hunting, be forewarned that the pickings continue to get worse and worse!<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6892786114932769023.post-28735007447246671792019-05-08T11:25:00.002+09:002019-05-09T10:41:18.960+09:00Fake Famicom Games? The Curious Case of Gradius Archimendes.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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One of the more popular holy grails out there for Famicom collectors is the Archimendes version of Gradius. It was released in 1985 as part of a promotion by Otsuka Corporation which sold a cup ramen called Archimendes ("men" is the Japanese word for noodle so its a sort of word play, I see it accidentally written "Archimedes" in English a lot). Here is an absolutely fabulous 1980s commercial for the cup ramen (which doesn't relate to the game at all but is worth watching because holy 80s is that ever 80s)!<br />
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Customers who bought the Archimendes cup ramen could enter a contest to win one of 4,000 copies of the Archimendes Gradius Famicom game, which was not available in stores.<br />
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On the outside the cart and box is just a regular Gradius game with a distinctive triangular Archimendes sticker on the upper corner of the front. The manual is the same too, though the Archimendes version also came with a special insert that had a serial number on the front, so each of the 4,000 copies was individually numbered.<br />
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The game play is basically the same as Gradius, the only difference (which is kind of awesome) is that the power ups in the Archimendes version are shaped like Archimendes cup ramens.<br />
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The game is massively popular among Japanese Famicom collectors (less so it seems with foreign collectors, I was surprised at how little has been written about it on the internet in English when doing background research for this post). It is among the most expensive Famicom games out there, I've seen loose copies<a href="https://famicomblog.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-most-expensive-famicom-games-at.html" target="_blank"> for sale in the 50-60,000 Yen range</a> at Super Potato, and complete copies with the serial numbered inserts are more in the "If you have to ask, you can't afford it" price range.<br />
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I've wanted one for a long time and have scoured Yahoo Auctions listings for a decent copy at a decent price for years, but thus far it continues to elude me. What this experience has done for me though is to question the legitimacy of a lot of the copies of the game I see in those auctions. I'm pretty sure that half of them that I see are fake.<br />
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Fake Famicom games are actually pretty rare. Since video game collecting has taken off as a hobby companies in China have been cranking out <a href="https://www.mattsgameexchange.com/fake-nintendo-games/" target="_blank">fakes of expensive NES titles</a> which I see on Ebay all the time, but I hadn't been aware of any similar Famicom ones. Of course there are boatloads of pirated Famicom carts out there, but here I'm talking about ones that are designed to look like the real thing and rip off people who think they are buying a real version of an expensive game. I'm pretty sure the same producers making NES fakes are now making fake Archimendes games.<br />
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My suspicions - and at this point they are just that, I don't have a fake game in my hands right now to prove it - are based on two things I've observed.<br />
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First is the fact that of all the expensive Famicom games out there, Archimendes is probably the easiest to fake (except maybe the gold versions of Rockman and Binary Land which can of course just be painted that way). Regular Gradius carts and boxes are extremely easy and cheap to find and to make a physically convincing fake all you need to do is print a couple of stickers and you are done. So you can avoid going to the expense and time of trying to produce the cart and box, which is the most difficult part.<br />
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The fact that the game play is different from the regular Gradius adds a twist, but its actually also easily overcome since they've been making boards for pirated games for decades now all they have to do is make some for that and slip them into a Gradius cart and boom - you've got a convincing fake that could only be detected by someone actually opening the cart up and looking at the insides, something most owners would be reluctant to do with such an expensive game.<br />
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A good point of comparison in this regard would be the Punch Out! Gold cart, which is also a Famicom collecting holy grail. Producing a fake of that would be way harder since the regular version of that game is in a completely different cart with a completely different label. I'm sure a dedicated faker could with enough time and money produce a fake Punch Out cart, but it would be way more difficult. Getting the cart to look right, with the right plastic, the exact right color, the exact right texture and then doing the same with the labels is not only time consuming but also opens you up to leaving tell tale signs of the cart being fake with everything you have to reproduce just right. Having the legit carts already made for you, as with Gradius, reduces your workload and odds of detection by 95%. Punch Out! Gold is also complicated by the fact that it has an unusual cart shape, which most other Famicom carts didn't use.<br />
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Second is the fact that Gradius Archimendes seems to show up in Yahoo Auctions listings way more often than any other similarly rare and expensive (but harder to fake) game. Most of them with the same level of rarity aren't usually available on Yahoo Auctions at any given time and only pop up every once in a while. But Gradius Archimendes is almost always available, and often both CIB and in very nice condition, which is extremely unusual (with most other rarities its way more common to just find them loose rather than CIB and with a bit of wear).<br />
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Again a comparison with the hard-to-fake Punch Out! Gold cart is useful. 10,000 copies of that cart were distributed back in the day as a prize, so there are more than twice as many of that game in existence as there are for Archimendes. You would thus expect it to be about twice as easy to find. But it isn't. I've been watching both for years and usually Archimendes is as easy or easier to find on Yahoo Auctions. Right now there are two copies of both games listed, but both of the Archimendes ones are CIB, while only one of the Punch Out! Gold carts comes with the box (but no manual, the other is completely loose). This could be coincidence, but actually its pretty much always like that, despite being rarer its much more common to find complete copies of Gradius Archimendes than complete copies of Punch Out! Gold on Yahoo Auctions, which makes no sense. Since the beginning of this year there have been <a href="https://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/closedsearch/closedsearch?auccat=&tab_ex=commerce&ei=utf-8&aq=-1&oq=&sc_i=&exflg=&p=%E3%82%A2%E3%83%AB%E3%82%AD%E3%83%A1%E3%83%B3%E3%83%87%E3%82%B9&x=28&y=27" target="_blank">11 recorded sales of Archimendes</a> on Yahoo Auctions, 8 of them being CIB, and <a href="https://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/closedsearch/closedsearch?auccat=&tab_ex=commerce&ei=utf-8&aq=-1&oq=&sc_i=&exflg=&p=%E3%83%91%E3%83%B3%E3%83%81%E3%82%A2%E3%82%A6%E3%83%88%E3%80%80%E3%82%B4%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB%E3%83%89&x=29&y=24" target="_blank">10 of Punch Out! Gold</a> , only 4 of which were CIB, so Archimendes has been slightly more available loose and much more available CIB despite there being 6,000 less copies of it out there.<br />
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Lets take a look at those two copies of Archimendes available now, because they both raise eyebrows. <a href="https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/g345907059" target="_blank">This one here</a> ends in a few days and bidding is already over 50,000 Yen. I find it quite suspicious:<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-62AwGDWv6d4/XNIxZRXjbaI/AAAAAAAAKk0/GH1lRBwDEYgBmKFe0zcmi68H_s_eK4UYgCLcBGAs/s1600/Screenshot%2B%252813%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="745" data-original-width="1600" height="185" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-62AwGDWv6d4/XNIxZRXjbaI/AAAAAAAAKk0/GH1lRBwDEYgBmKFe0zcmi68H_s_eK4UYgCLcBGAs/s400/Screenshot%2B%252813%2529.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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It is complete and the cart is in perfect condition. OK, you might say, that in and of itself isn't suspicous since there are probably at least a few copies of this game which have survived in mint condition. But there is a red flag to be found in the insert containing the serial number (this is in the lower right of the four things in the photo, I put a larger close up of the photo from this listing at the top of this post). It looks legit except for one thing: no serial number! The serial number is supposed to be stamped on the bottom of the yellow portion, Super Potato put a photo of one they had on their Twitter feed a couple of years ago and <a href="https://twitter.com/s_potato_nagoya/status/895859186323513348" target="_blank">you can see the serial number stamped on it here</a>. The missing serial number isn't conclusive evidence that it is a fake, I've seen it suggested on Japanese sites that ones without the serial numbers may have been given out to employees as gifts, but comments like that are always very speculative and nobody ever cites a source for that rumor. At best I would say it is possible that this is legit, but the lack of a serial number (and also the lack of close up photos) would make me very reluctant to bid on this one.<br />
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The other auction is this<a href="https://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/k383366441" target="_blank"> one here</a>. Like the above one this one is in perfect condition - the cart, box and stickers all look brand new. So having two copies of an extremely rare game that are both in perfect con<span style="font-family: inherit;">dition available at the same time is itself suspicious. This one doesn't have the serial numbered insert at all, which is a huge red flag to me - if all the easily faked stuff survived in perfect condition, why didn't the serial num</span>bered one? The fact that putting a serial number on it could reveal it as a fake (since a legit copy with the same serial number might exist) makes me think that is the reason why this one and the above one either don't have the insert, or have one without a serial number stamped on it.<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bhyP5diThw0/XNIxZcGZ6wI/AAAAAAAAKk4/DAzfN9eplbkQ0TQZ22IeIXbeQWu3aTtPQCLcBGAs/s1600/Screenshot%2B%252814%2529.png" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="754" data-original-width="1600" height="187" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-bhyP5diThw0/XNIxZcGZ6wI/AAAAAAAAKk4/DAzfN9eplbkQ0TQZ22IeIXbeQWu3aTtPQCLcBGAs/s400/Screenshot%2B%252814%2529.png" width="400" /></a></div>
The other suspicious thing is that this seller only has 46 feedbacks and yet with such a short history of sales has already been called out for selling fake games! The buyer in that case had purchased a copy of Magical Poppun, a very rare game for the Super Famicom, within the past six months and left the following feedback:<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 13.26px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">本日、ゲームショップで見て頂いた所、模造品だと言われました。こちらの確認不足でもあるので、返品等の対応はいたしませんが、「悪い」の評価に変更させていただきます</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 13.26px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-size: 13.26px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Today I took the game to a game store to have them take a look and was told that it was a reproduction. The seller refused to provide a refund, saying I had not checked adequately, so I am leaving a negative feedback."</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "メイリオ" , "hiragino kaku gothic pro" , "ms pgothic" , "ms ui gothic" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span><span style="background-color: white;"></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><br />
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In the polite world of Japanese feedback that is a very stinging rebuke.</div>
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So the long and the short of it is that I do not have a lot of confidence that either of these copies of Archimendes is the real deal (though again I stress this opinion is expressed without the actual games in hand), and the same can be said for many of the other copies of the game I've seen up for auction on Yahoo over the past couple of years. This is one of the main reasons I've been reluctant to pick of a copy of this game for my collection. And my advice to anyone out there looking for one is to exercise extreme caution and be on the lookout, there be fakes here!<br />
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Postscript: Another Famicom game that I think raises the same suspicions, and which there are documented fakes of, is the Recca Summer Carnival 92 cart. It also shows up on Yahoo Auctions a lot, often in mint condition and, being housed in a standard black cart that there are millions of out there, isn't too hard to fake (though a bit harder, since the box is unique and it requires a label, which is where you can usually spot the fakes).</div>
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