Famicomblog

The Oyama Collection

2012-02-23T18:35:00.006+09:00

Behold! The Oyama Famicom Collection!

What is the Oyama Famicom collection? It is Goonies, Super Star Force, Ninja Kun, King Kong 2, Clu Clu Land and Yie Ar Kung Fu.

D-uh.

Oh, wait I see. You mean why are those games together called the Oyama Collection? Because of this:
Well, maybe I should rewind a bit here.

I went to Omocha Souko today and they had just tossed these games into their junk bin with prices of 100-300 yen each on them. I just picked them up, paid for them and didn`t really think much about them until I took them out of their plastic baggies. It was then that I noticed that each of them had the same name - Oyama (大山) - written on the back.
I thought that was quite interesting. I get Famicom carts with kids` names written on them all the time, but this was the first time I had ever gotten a whole group of them from the same kid`s collection.

At this point in the Famicom`s lifespan enough time has passed that most of the childhood collections of kids like this have already been dispersed throughout the secondary market. Some have been sold and resold countless times by now.

Not these ones though. These came directly from the kid (or perhaps a relative of the kid, whose first name is Shinji according to the backs of Yie ar Kung Fu and King Kong 2). Probably somebody was clearing out an old room, maybe getting ready for a move or something, and they just dragged everything they didn`t want to Omocha Souko where they were probably paid 20 yen for the lot and that was that.

Anyway, I think that is something special. Individually these are all fairly common games that you can find pretty cheap at most retro game shops, but taken together the group is more than the sum of its individual parts. I think I will try to keep the Oyama collection intact rather than breaking it up. In fact, I feel almost duty-bound to do so.

Cheers to you, Shinji Oyama. Your Famicom collection will be maintained for the ages....

Listening to Wall of Voodoo and Writing About the Sega Mark III

2012-02-16T09:19:00.005+09:00

I was just sitting here listening to Wall of Voodoo`s Mexican Radio and it moved me to devote a few minutes to the old blog. Something about that song, its very conducive to writing about early 80s video games. That line about wishing one was in Tijuana eating barbequed iguana, that is exactly how I feel when....well, just about all the time actually.
So anyway, guess what I got! Without looking at any of the pictures or reading the title of this post. Go ahead, just guess! Yes, a Sega Mark III!
I`ve wanted one of these for a while. I already have the adaptor that lets you play Mark III games on the Mega Drive but I felt that was cheating. If you are going to play old school video games then there is really no excuse for not doing it in style with the original console.

Well, not having the console is, I suppose, a decent excuse. At any rate, I no longer have to worry about that sort of thing.

It came in a lovely box:
With everything in there (even the manual, which I didn`t get in this shot):
The Mark III is very similar in style and shape to the SG-1000 II, though they aren`t compatible with each other. I do however like the way they look stacked one on top of the other:
A chance encounter at an out of town conference that led to an evening of wining, dining, karaoke and ultimately an ill advised night in a hotel room that they would both regret on waking the next morning:
Innocence lost, they lay casually on the futon pondering an exit strategy. For their love was never meant to be.

`If only we were compatible....` He says, a puff of cigarette smoke emanating from his cartridge slot.

`We just weren`t made for each other.` She says in a voice of resignation, turning away on her side.

OK, enough of that. These posts are getting too avant garde for a video game blog. Lets just end by saying that I do like this new console of mine.

Some Thoughts on Retro Games Over a Burger and a Comic Book

2012-02-09T21:19:00.009+09:00

There is a cool little restaurant near my place that sells burgers. Burger places in Japan (not counting fast food places) are a hard commodity to come by so I was happy when this place opened up last year. It is locally owned by a guy who bought an old abandoned building, tossed some paint onto it and filled it with an eclectic mix of used furniture. I love the place.

Among the odds and ends they have are a few American comics from the late 80s. Like burger places, these are also a rare commodity in Japan. To a guy like me who absolutely loved comics in the late 80s, they are a massive source of sentimental curiousity.

So as I had my lunch there the other day, I picked a copy of Detective comics from maybe 1989 or 1990 off the shelf and flipped through it.

One of the things I noticed while perusing its pages is the heavy reliance of 1980s comics on video game adverts. The back cover of this one had an ad for Double Dragon 2 for the NES on it:
An ad for the Atari 7800 in it:
And about three or four other full page ads for mostly Taito games like Sky Shark and Operation Wolf scattered here and there.

The best part though in terms of what they reveal about gaming culture at the time was what was in the back, the little classified ads.

This one here really caught my eye:
Lets have a look at what this says here...

Looking for something to do?

Oh you know I am.

Play a computer game through the mail.

Well now just you hold the boat there, fella. What if I don`t have a computer?

You don`t need a computer and it costs very little to play.

Perfect! I`m sold!

Try two turns free.

How much will subsequent turns cost? How many turns does this have? What kind of computer game is it? Wait....what is the point of playing a computer game without a computer?

Its a crime!

OK, this is getting very surreal.

We want you to try this play by mail game for free!

Alright, fine. What do I have to do?

Write SEND FREE GAME on a card or letter and send to....

Wait, shouldn`t I also be putting my address down on there?

No strings attached - send no money!

OK then. No money, no address, just write SEND FREE GAME on a card or letter and send it to you. Got it.

..................................................................................................................................

Sometimes I do forget how much life sucked before the internet.

Anyway, there was also an ad from Play it Again for used games:
If they were in their 9th year then that means they must have started in about 1980 or 81. They were way ahead of the game there.

And with my burger finished I put that copy of Detective Comics back on the shelf, paid my bill and walked out the door into the cold and windy February afternoon that awaited me.

Nintendo in the 60s, Man, the 60s! Ultra Machine!

2012-02-07T10:44:00.014+09:00

As I have stated on here numerous times, I like to go to a store called Omocha Souko on a regular basis in order to hunt for retro video games. I go so frequently that I now have an awkward time answering the question "what is your hobby?" If I were to answer honestly I would say "I go to a store called Omocha Souko 3 or 4 times a week to look through their junk bins for old video game stuff that I collect and then write about on my blog. That is my hobby."

As this answer provides too much detail on too obscure an area of interest, I usually just say "hiking" instead.

At any rate, what I don't write about too much on here is the fact that Omocha Souko is not just a video game store, it is also a big used-stuff store. The name "Omocha Souko" actually means "toy warehouse" in Japanese. About half of the first floor is, in fact, taken up by toys.
Usually I bypass this area and head straight to the second floor for the video games, but on occasion I will browse the toy section before heading up there. Yesterday I did just that and it was a good thing I did, for on one shelf they had just put this baby out:
The Nintendo Ultra Machine!!!

This thing is so awesome I don't know where to begin. Until about a year ago information on old Nintendo toys like this was hard to come by, but now thanks to Erik's excellent Before Mario blog the entire world now has a wonderful archive of information about these things which I will now blatantly rip off by quoting a few facts that he put up there.

Released in 1967 this toy was designed by none other than the late Gunpei Yokoi, perhaps better known to video game history as the creator of the Game and Watch and Game Boys!

OK, enough of the ripping off (but do check out Before Mario if you haven't already, its really a great blog). Lets look at what I got.

Opening up the box the first thing we have is:
A totally awesome Ultra Machine flyer! The reverse of this has the instructions on how to set up the machine. Note in the lower left corner there is an ad for replacement balls (100 yen per box). This is actually quite cool though and probably worth what I paid for the thing (2000 yen) itself. I might frame it someday as a piece of pop art.

Under that we have:
YES! Everything is complete!! Even the balls are all still there!

This made me quite excited as about a year ago I actually purchased another later version of this same toy that was released in the late 1970s:
The Ultra Machine DX. It is very similar to the original Ultra Machine, but as you can see from this photo the box on it was almost destroyed. It was also missing the balls and had a crack on the blue plastic part. It was only 800 yen though so I was quite satisfied with it at the time.

My new Ultra Machine though is not only complete but in pristine condition.
I love that blue Nintendo bat:
The bat that came with the later Ultra Machine DX is gray, nowhere near as sexy.

The box is pretty cool too:
Anyway, I just love this thing. It was quite the bargain too for only 2000 yen. An Ebay search just turned up one with a BIN price of 300$. That is on the high side, but still, what a bargain.

More of my Old-School Nintendo Finds from the 60s and 70s:
-Mandarake Finds: Kousenjuu SP Gun and Old School Star Wars Stuff
-Flea Market Finds: Nintendo Batting Practice with Koichi Tabuchi and Sadaharu Oh
-Nintendo Color TV Game 15
-Mega Bargain of the Day: Kousenjuu SP Electro Safari

Famicom History: Toy Catalogs and Over the Hill Consoles

2012-02-05T11:23:00.013+09:00

I was browsing the Japanese web yesterday and stuｍｂled across the above fragment of a toy catalog (on Livedoor) from the early 1990s. I have no idea what store it is from since the name is cut out, though they did have 300 locations nationwide so it must have been a big one.

What caught my eye was not the toy robots that you immediately notice, but what was in the upper right hand corner of the ad:
A Famicom!

Only 9,800 yen, 33% off as the ad notes (the release price was 14, 800 yen if memory serves). This catalog (or flyer more likely) seems to have been printed relatively late in the Famicom`s life - notice the ad for the Mega Drive right next to it for 40 percent off, meaning it must have been a few years into that console`s lifespan as well.

Right below that we have some Famicom games ("ROM cassettes") for quite cheap prices:
Lord of King for only 980 yen, Child`s Quest for only 680 yen and Moero Pro Yakyuu or Marusa no Onna for 780. On the far right it looks like Final Fantasy is also listed for two thousand and something yen, but half of it is cut off. Family Stadium 91 is quite expensive at 3780 yen so it must have been a new release at that time. Guess that would probably date this to 1991.

I love finding this sort of stuff. When I go to old book stores I always have a look at magazines from the 80s just to see if they have any Famicom ads (they almost never do unfortunately).

What I like in particular about this one is that it is a piece of Famicom history not from its peak in the mid to late 80s, but from the early 1990s when its glory days were behind it and it was no longer the sought after toy it had been just a few years prior. It is the inevitable fate of all consoles: to make the undignified transition from must-have Christmas item one year to department store clearance item the next. The store probably had a big pile of them by the door, with bins full of discount games next to them.

In 1991 I was in high school in Canada and I can remember Zellers doing something similar with the old Atari consoles. They had a pile of them for $49.99 and huge bins of software all priced at $4.99 each. I didn`t get one but can remember being tempted. I guess my Japanese contemporaries were doing the same with these old Famicoms.

Related Posts:
-Famicom History: When Dragon Quest III Went on Sale
-Famicom History: Japanese Game Slang 101
-Famicom History

Slow News Day: Professional Baseball Player Likes Famicom

2012-02-05T10:17:00.007+09:00

I was browsing the excellent Japanese Famicom news blog Famicom no neta yesterday and I came across a link to the blog of Rakuten Eagles player Ryo Hijirisawa. It contained an entry with the above photo of Eagle`s outfielder Masato Nakamura playing a handheld gaming device.

Look closely though and you`ll notice what is sticking out of that gaming device - a Famicom cart! I`ve examined the photo with a team of experts (me and my dog) and we were not able to identify the game just by looking at the cart. Anybody out there have any idea what game he was playing when this candid photo was taken? Maybe Dragon Quest? But...not quite.

Do have a look at Famicom no neta if you get a chance and can read Japanese (or know how to use Google translate), there are some interesting Famicom news pieces there.

The Famicom 3D System - Bought it. Tried it. Liked it.

2012-02-04T14:28:00.006+09:00

The Famicom 3D System. Bought it. 2500 yen. Bargain.

If you don`t know what the Famicom 3D System is you should check out the great write up about it over on Famicom World. Basically its a set of glasses that allow you to enjoy the Famicom completely in 3D!!!! If.... you have one of the grand total of seven games that were ever made for it. For the 1200 or so others (including FDS ones), it is useless.

Fortunately I do have one of the games that it was made for, stored prominently on my favorite Famicom game shelf:
Highway Star!

I got the thing CIB, which was nice. Its a cute little box:
I love opening stuff like this up:
The glasses were in pristine condition, still with their protective film stuck on:
On they go:
I gave them a try. Surprisingly they work quite well on Highway Star. It actually produces a very convincing 3D effect. Its a shame they weren`t a popular item back in the day, it would have been quite cool to play other games in 3D like that. I have Cosmic Epsilon, which is also for use with these. I`ll have to dig that one out and give it a try sometime.

Related Posts:
-Famicom Robot Presents: The Famicom Stuff Collection
-Famicom Light Gun and Wild Gunman: Yipee Kay Ay M### F####

Collector Rage: Missing Out on a Bargain

2012-02-03T09:54:00.004+09:00

Captain Kirk's rage at being outsmarted by Khan on the Genesis planet in Star Trek II is I think the image that best captures the mood one has when beaten to a bargain by somebody else.

This happened to me the other day at Omocha Souko. It was the most frustrating shopping experience I have ever had. By way of background, I usually stop by that place 2-3 times a week on my way home. I visit that frequently because they get Famicom and other retro game stuff in there quite often. When they do they sometimes put it in their junk bins or at the very least put a cheap price on it. The good stuff of course doesn't last, so if you want to get the cream of the crop you have to visit regularly like I do.

I walked into the store that day and started my usual stroll towards the back of the store where they keep their Famicom section. On my way I noticed a man on his way to the cashier with a basket full to the brim with stuff. As we passed each other I glanced at what he had and my eyes almost popped out of my head. The basket was full of Famicom games - really good ones. He had CIB copies of games like City Connection, Pac Man, Spartan X, Goonies and a whole lot of other ones I couldn't see underneath. These games are relatively easy to find loose but can be quite expensive to find CIB like that and all were ones that I wanted.

I knew immediately that this meant they had just gotten a bunch of Famicom games in that they had dumped out for sale because they didn't have those games the last time I visited. I ran to the back of the store to the Famicom section and I found:

Nothing!

That guy had just beaten me to it. He must have cleared out every single new Famicom game they had just gotten in. I didn't see the price on them, but given that he had grabbed them all immediately after they had been put out, they must have been cheap.

It was the most agonizing moment in my retro game collecting life. If only I had gotten there 10 minutes earlier! Did I really need to spend that time reading the article about Demi Moore's 9-11 call that morning? No! Why, man? Why? Oh the agony!

The funny thing is that if I had arrived after that guy had left, I wouldn't have felt disappointed at all. I would have gone in, seen they had nothing new, and walked right out and been on my way, none the wiser. But knowing what I had missed out on? Argh!

Fami-Khannnnnn!!!!!!

Lord of King Named in Mitchell Report as Famicom Steroids Scandal Widens

2012-01-30T18:23:00.013+09:00

NEW YORK - Former Senator George J. Mitchell released a blistering report Monday that tied 23 former Famicom and NES action/adventure game characters, including the Lord of King, to the use of illegal performance enhancing drugs. The report relied upon a mix of informant testimony and documentary evidence to provide a richly detailed portrait of what Mr. Mitchell described as "the genre's steroids era."

The Lord of King, pictured above, was the most prominent name on a list that also included Lance "Scorpion" Bean of Contra, Soda Popinski from Mike Tyson's Punchout, and a number of henchmen from the Double Dragon series.

The report directly contradicts the claims made by the Lord of King in testimony before the Senate Subcommittee looking into allegations of doping among action/adventure lead characters in 2008 when he declared: "Let me be clear. I have never taken steroids or HGH. Never."

The Lord of King, best known for his role as the lead character in the 1988 Jaleco release that bears his name, was unavailable for comment Tuesday morning as a small army of reporters descended on his Malibu residence. He did however issue a comment through his Twitter account, stating:

"I never took HGH or steroids. And I did not lie to Congress. I look forward to challenging the allegations contained in the report in a court of law and I hope my fans and the retro gaming community will keep an open mind until trial. I appreciate all the support I have been getting. Peace, Out."

Ralf Jones Vindicated

The allegations contained in the report seem to validate claims made by former Ikari Warrior Ralf Jones in his controversial 2006 tell all book "Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant Roids, Smash Hits and How Video Games Got BIG". In the book, Jones claimed that he and Lord of King injected each other with steroids in the locker room while the two were training together for the Nintendo World Championships in 1991, an allegation that Lord of King has vehemently denied.

"I've been saying this for years" Jones, who has been out of the video game world for seven years now, was quoted as saying by a Rolling Stone Reporter. "These twenty three guys named in the report are just the tip of the iceberg, I would guess that about eighty percent of them are juiced. I mean, just look at them. You don't get arms that are wider than your chest naturally."

Records Called Into Question

The revelations contained in the report have also provided more fodder for those who claim the steroids era in video games that began in the late 1980s has tarnished the much revered video game record books.

"I mean, back in the late 70s or early 80s high scores on the most popular games like Space Invaders would barely break the 100,000 barrier" commented Dr. Paul Winterhoffer, professor of American History at UCLA "then these guys in games like Contra came along in the late 80s and suddenly they are clearing that many points in the first stage alone. I mean, come on, you didn't have to be a genius to know that something was going on."

A number of bloggers and video game writers have suggested that all records tainted by the steroids era should have an asterisk placed next to them in the Twin Galaxies record listing. Though the records remain as they are, this movement has gotten support in recent months from noted anti-steroids crusader Snake from Metal Gear.

"I played the game the way it was supposed to be" Snake said in an interview broadcast Tuesday on a Minneapolis area radio show "I mean, I never put any of that stuff into me. Never. I knew other guys were doing it. It'd be like this rookie would go from barely being able to lift a rifle to having a neck the size of a frigging basketball overnight. And suddenly he'd be ripping people's heads off - literally - left, right and center. I didn't play that way though. I can sleep at night knowing my records are clean. Those guys who didn't, well they don' t deserve to have those records if you ask me."

In the meantime the release of the Mitchell Report has led to greater calls for performance enhancing drug testing amongst game characters, a move that the character's union has steadfastly opposed in the past.

Blue Steel: The Double Dragon - Derek Zoolander Connection

2012-01-29T10:36:00.005+09:00

Above: The guy from Double Dragon III The Rosetta Stone as he appears on the game`s label.

Now look at:
Derek Zoolander flashing his patented Blue Steel look.

Uncanny.

Also:
And:
That Hansel is so hot right now.

Conclusion: Double Dragon III is intended as an allegorical representation of the rough and tumble real world of male models. Not the kind of thing you see in public, but the actual gritty parts - the walk offs in abandoned Members Only warehouses, the assassination of Micronesian dudes, the orgies with Finnish dwarves and Maori tribesmen and, last but by no means least: breakdance fighting.

Class dismissed.

More Famicom Stuff: Super Mario Bros Stage Figures

2012-01-26T10:00:00.006+09:00

Another day another post about some Famicom stuff I recently acquired.

I found a set of these the other day at Mandarake. Super Mario Bros stage figures they are called. The pictures speak for themselves, basically they are just little scenes from various levels of Super Mario Bros.
The figures, via the wonders of magnetic technology, can be repositioned wherever you want them. I`d like to say that this significantly enhances their appeal, but it doesn`t. Moving a maximum of two figures around on a 10cm by 10cm piece of plastic is an activity that gets old real quick. Unless, you know, you are into that sort of thing.

To each his own.

I do like these though. Generally I don`t like faux retro stuff, but these ones I like. They capture the 8-bit look quite well and remind me a lot of the Pepsi bottle caps with Mario figures that I have.

I have five of them, which is a good number as there are five rows on my favorite Famicom cart shelf so they fit rather well atop that:
Hammer time. I`m sorry, its the wittiest thing I could think of to say about this one:
I do like the boxes they came in too. They are a pretty faithful recreation of the Super Mario Bros Famicom box:
Their best feature though is their portability. As they are pocket sized you can take them with you wherever you go for hours of entertainment moving the two plastic figures around on that 10 by 10 board (again - assuming you are into that sort of thing).

At the train station:
At the bus stop:
Whilst shopping for bananas:
Or picking up a six pack:
Its the perfect gift for the modern woman on the go. Or for the modern man on the go for that matter. Again, assuming they are into that sort of thing.

Related Posts:
-Super Mario Bros Bottle Caps

Famicom Fright Night: A Most Hideous Freak of Nature!

2012-01-25T09:31:00.009+09:00

Yes, readers, you may well cower in fear. For I am about to unveil the most hideous freak of nature human eyes have ever been exposed to.

BEHOLD:
Just a dirty old Famicom console you say? Well then, let me show you a little something else:
Agggghh! Evil!! Spawned in the pit of ultimate darkness by the nefarious Sir Simon Milligan and his manservant Hecubus! A Famicom with both a square button and a round button controller!

Well, OK. Not that evil. Just kind of.....interesting I guess.

I found this in the junk bin yesterday at Omocha Souko. I was quite psyched when I saw the two player controller and thought `Oh great, a square button Famicom! Those things are really hard to find and.....GASP!`

The glass of sherry I had been sipping while strolling the aisles slipped through my fingers at that moment and smashed into a thousand pieces on the floor below, splattering droplets of the fortified wine on my shoes and a partial boxed set of Full House DVDs (seasons 1, 2 and 4) that had the misfortune of being displayed nearby.

It was the other controller, which had round buttons, that startled me so.

It also made me curious - was this a round button Famicom that somebody had added a square button controller to or the other way around? As there was only one way to find out, I bought it.
There are a few clues on the outside that suggested it was a square button Famicom. It didn`t have the `FF` mark on the front nameplate. Then I had a look underneath:
Yup, a smooth bottom, just like a square button Famicom.

These weren`t really proof though as some of the early round button Famicoms also sported these features. I had to open it up to check out the revision number:
Somewhere on there it had the number 3 printed, which meant that this was in fact originally a square button Famicom that at some point had its 1 player controller replaced with a round one.

I`m curious about what the story is behind this. Did somebody break their 1 player controller, send it in to Nintendo and then get it back like this? I was always under the impression that Nintendo had recalled the square button Famicoms and replaced both controllers on them rather than just one.

Or, did somebody do this on their own - cannibalize an extra round button Famicom`s controller and use it to replace the broken one? This seems more likely.

Anyway, it is now another Famicom on my pile of Famicoms. I`ll have to clean it at some point as it really is filthy. And filthiness is after all the root of all.....evil.

A Whole Lot of Baseball Games

2012-01-24T09:18:00.003+09:00

A few days ago when I walked into Omocha Souko I found that somebody had re-arranged the Famicom carts in one section of their rack so that the cart facing out on each peg was Jaleco`s Moero Pro Yakyu baseball game.

I thought that was kind of amusing and made for an interesting photo opportunity. It isn`t often that you see so many copies of the same game in one place.
Moero Pro Yakyu (released as Bases Loaded on the NES) has got to be the most common Famicom game out there. They are just everywhere. The first Family Stadium is about the only other game I can think of that is anywhere near as easy to find.

This fact acts as sort of a double edged tribute. On the one hand it indicates just how popular this game was back in 1987. They must have sold millions of copies of it for there to be this many still in existence 25 years later. Interestingly Family Stadium, the other most common Famicom cart, was also released in 1987, so that was quite a good year for Famicom baseball games.

On the other hand though it also indicates how poorly that popularity has held up over time. As with most sports games, I don`t think anybody has ever walked into a store specifically looking to buy a copy of Moero Pro Yakyu in years.

This also provides a little way of demonstrating how silly the pricing of games at Omocha Souko is. These are all the same game in basically the same condition, but the prices are all over the place. This one is selling for 100 yen (about $1.25), which is the cheapest price they normally put on any games (and it will be a hard sell even at that):
While this copy here they are asking 500 yen for (about $6):
The others all fit in somewhere between those two prices.

Anyway, I just thought that was interesting.

Related Posts
-Is it Possible to Stalk a Retro Game Store?
-Anatomy of a Japanese Video Game Store`s Retro Section

Little Family Computer Memo

2012-01-23T11:22:00.006+09:00

I found something at Mandarake yesterday that I couldn`t resist plunking down a few hundred yen for. A teeny weeny Famicom, complete with a teeny weeny Ice Climber cart.
It isn`t even as big as a Famicom cart:
It is not, of course, a functional mini version of the Famicom. It is actually a memo pad holder:I love the fact that the memo paper has pictures of the Famicom on it:
The level of detail on something so small is quite impressive. It looks just like a real Famicom:The only thing missing is the controller wires, but otherwise its all there. Even the writing telling you where the expansion port cover is:
These were released in 2004. I have seen pictures of them on the internet from time to time but this is the first time I`ve ever actually found one. They came in five different versions: Ice Climber, Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros., Zelda and Dr. Mario. They only had the Ice Climber one available, which is cool as I probably would have gone for that one anyway.

The box is pretty cool too actually, very similar to the old Famicom box:
I only have 30 pages of that Family Computer paper and I doubt I`ll be able to find anymore, so I will use it sparingly.

Related Posts
-Famicom Cushions and Other Crap...Merchandise. I Mean Merchandise.
-Amada Famicom Mini Cards: The Coolest Famicom Thing You Never Knew Existed

Famicom Box Art Battle: Twin Bee vs. Ice Climber

2012-01-22T11:37:00.004+09:00

I have to say that Twin Bee and Ice Climber are two of my favorite Famicom game boxes.

The designs that Nintendo and Konami used on these early box arts are almost identical, which is a fact I find kind of interesting. They are of the same size, the artwork takes up almost the same amount of space and is in the same position on the front of the box, and the name of the game and the company name are also located in the same position.

The only real difference is that Konami made theirs orange while Nintendo made theirs gray. I`m not sure if this was due to a lack of originality on Konami`s part or just coincidence. It really seems like they just took the Nintendo design as a model for their game boxes and somebody in management said `OK, just be sure to write Konami on it and make it......oh what the hell, orange.`

I`m not sure which of these I like better. Twin Bee benefits from the strong contrast between the orange border and the blue sky in the artwork. One of the things (in fact the only thing) I remember from my high school art class is that the combination of orange and blue are supposed to be the most eye-catching mix of colors. That is why so many advertisements feature that color scheme. So Twin Bee has that going for it.

On the other hand, even though gray is generally a pretty boring color, it does seem to work quite well on the Ice Climber box. It is almost completely unnoticable when you look at it. All the viewer`s attention is focused on the artwork itself, which accentuates that most important of features. Whereas the orange of the Twin Bee box distracts, the gray of the Ice Climber box just fades into the background. We are thus left to evaluate it based mainly on the artwork itself, which I rather like. I`m not too sure why....I think it is the polar bear with the shades.

Sega Mega Drive Adaptor and the Ridiculousness of 80s Sega Stuff

2012-01-21T18:53:00.009+09:00

I fished another thing out of the Omocha Souko junk bin the other day: the Sega Mega Drive Adaptor: AKA yet another peripheral to add on to my already monstrously bloated Mega Drive confabobulatorionation.That, my friend, be a whole lot of Mega Drive. And I ain`t even put the adaptor on it yet.

I think this latest acquisition of mine provides a rather decent (and, for only 300 yen, cheap) way of illustrating the complexity of playing games on Sega Consoles from the 1980s.

To begin with it perfectly illustrates Sega`s Mega Drive-era policy of making you buy what amounts to almost an entirely new console to attach to the Mega Drive every time they introduced some new feature. In the adaptor`s case that new feature was backwards compatability with the Mega Drive`s predecessor, the Sega Mark III (AKA the Master System).

Note the complexity. If I want to play a Mark III game, I have to take the 32X attachment off. If I want to play a 32X game I have to take the Adaptor off. If I`m feeling really frisky and just want to, you know, play a regular Mega Drive game, then I have to either take the adaptor off or leave the 32X on. Everybody got that? Good.

In addition to that, for me personally at least, it also illustrates Sega`s rather silly pre-Mega Drive policy of just making you buy new consoles all the time period, at least in Japan. First they released the SG 1000 (photo courtesy of Wikipedia because I don`t have one of these):
Then they released the SG-1000 II, which I do have and I do love it so:
Then (finally) came the Mark III:
I think all of these were released over the course of a long weekend in the summer of 1983, though I`ll have to double check that.

Anyway, since my SG 1000 II cannot play carts released for the Mark III, my acquisition of the adaptor means that I can finally play the one Mark III game that I possess, baseball:
After only about 3 hours of fumbling around, PRESTO! My Mega Drive was conveniently switched from ready-to-play-32X games mode to ready-to-play-Mark III games mode:
I have to admit that I really like this adaptor. I think it looks rather sleek:
I also like the fact that the Mark III carts stick WAY out of it. No wait, I hate that fact. It means that I have to take them out every time I want to put the thing back on its shelf because the whole contraption with the CD, Mega Drive, adaptor and Mark III cart is almost waist-high.

At least it looks neat though. Yet another piece of weird 80s video game history from Japan.

Mandarake Finds: Kousenjuu SP Gun and Old Japanese Star Wars Stuff

2012-01-14T17:38:00.011+09:00

I had a nice stop in at Mandarake this afternoon, replete with purchases. Nothing makes for a nicer day than finding a few bargains. The best part was the Kousenjuu SP Light Gun, complete in its original box!
This is a light gun made by Nintendo in 1970 as the package shows:
About a year ago I found a Kousenjuu SP Electro Safari , which is basically a big target for these light guns:
You just aim the gun at the little light detector on the leopard and if you hit it, the leopard spins around. I never had a gun to test it out with though so I was psyched to find this.

Actually, I still don`t have one. This one doesn`t work, which is kind of too bad. On the other hand though I got it quite cheap and really just wanted it to look at rather than to use so I think it was a cool purchase.

Open the box up and here you go:
It even came with some pretty ancient looking Toshiba batteries.

Anyway, I love the box art:
And check out the pearl handles, John Wayne style:
It is actually quite similar to the original Famicom Light Gun:Not quite the same though, they definetely used different molds for them.

I picked up a couple of other cool, albeit non-gaming related, things while there. First, this thing, which is awesome:
A partial set of Japanese 1977 Yamakatsu / Topps Star Wars cards. I LOVE original old school Star Wars stuff like this, and I especially love finding Japanese old school Star Wars stuff. This is a little booklet and inside are a bunch of envelopes, each containing one card. A couple have been removed but most are still in there. You can`t see what cards are in the envelopes so I`m not sure which ones I got. These things are insanely rare to find still unopened like this so I`m going to keep it as is for the time being.
I also picked up a copy of the Japanese version of Starlog from 1983. The Return of the Jedi preview issue, complete with a back cover poster ad for the upcoming release:
All in all a great day. Check out Erik`s post here on Before Mario for a bit more info on this old Nintendo light gun. His is in a bit better condition than mine and probably works too!

Related Posts:
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- Nintendo Color TV Game 15
- Mega Bargain of the Day Kousenjuu SP Electro Safari

Only in Japan: Naming Your Video Game After Jesus

2012-01-13T11:10:00.005+09:00

Jesus Kyoufu Biomonster is probably one of the better known Famicom-only releases whose fame is solely attributable to its name.

It is a text heavy RPG, which means that I don`t like it as a game, though it does have cool theme music. The Box art is cool too:
I like this game for a couple of reasons, neither of which relate to its gameplay. First it demonstrates the fact that naming your game after a famous celebrity like Jesus won`t necessarily make it a great game. This follows a trend established in Major League Baseball by the pioneering outfielder Jesus Alou:
Despite the killer first name and fantastic mutton chops, his .280 career batting average and lack of power prevented him from ever being a serious Hall of Fame candidate. If there was a hall of fame for Famicom games, I think the Jesus Biomonster game would likewise fall short.

Actually Alou`s first name uses the Spanish pronounciation and has a little accent above the `u`, which Topps was apparently unable to put on the above baseball card, but the Famicom game is pronounced in the English way as made clear by the kana below it (Gee-zaz).

The other thing I like about it is the clash of cultures it represents. A lot of stuff gets made in Japan that just wouldn`t go down at all well in North America or Europe. If you were to include the name Jesus in an American video game it would only be in something like`Bible Adventures` for the NES:
This game has so many strikes against it I just don`t know where to begin. No wait, I do know where to begin:

Strike 1: Its an educational game.

Strike 2: Its a Christian educational game.

Strike 3: Its a Christian educational game that is a `poorly coded piece of crap`.

I think Rod and Todd Flanders would have been the only kids in the world who would have been pleased to unwrap a Christmas present containing this game. For everyone else giving this as a present would really have constituted a mild form of child abuse.

Jesus on the Famicom though? No, he is totally badass:
Educational games are for sissies. This Jesus means business. Even though its still a crap RPG, I give them credit for that.

Atari 2600 Air Raid and the Relative Value of Collector`s Holy Grails

2012-01-06T10:41:00.013+09:00

A couple of months ago I was browsing Ebay for Atari 2600 stuff. I was interested in buying a console (very hard to find in Japan) as it is one of those iconic classics that I have wanted to add to my collection for a long time.

Unfortunately it is also a really really heavy classic console, so the cost of shipping one across the Pacific made me drop the idea. My time spent searching wasn`t entirely wasted, however, as coincidentally at that time someone had put up a copy of Air Raid for auction.

The Ebay listing was quite interesting. The seller (see here) noted:

Based on research I have conducted, this is only the 14th known copy of Air Raid by Menavision. I bought this game new in Texas in 83 or 84. It has been boxed up and following me around the country for decades...

The game, which was cart only, ended up selling for $3,575. It seems to have been completely legit, including his assertion that there are only 14 known copies of the game in existence.

Air Raid is one of the holy grails of retro video game collecting. Along with Stadium Events for the NES and a couple of others it is probably the most valuable retro game out there. If you want to have a complete set of Atari 2600 games, and a lot of people do, you need this game. This has made the lone known CIB copy of it the most valuable Atari game out there, selling for $31,600 in 2010. The only game that has sold for more as far as I can tell was a sealed copy of NES Stadium Events which sold for $41,300.

Now I really hate it when people talk about video games primarily as an investment. I don`t view them as such myself. They are fun games to be played and enjoyed for what they are.

At the same time though, as a collector, this sort of thing does intrigue me. While I hate the way money can infect a hobby and strip it of its fun, I also like the fact that these holy grails are floating around out there with people chasing after them and putting a high price on them. Given their prominence, historical importance and rarity some of these things actually do deserve to be worth something.

Unfortunately (or fortunately perhaps) the Famicom doesn`t have any holy grails. Well, it has some of course but they don`t really count in the same way that Air Raid does. There are gold versions of some games (Punchout, Hot Scramble, Rockman 4) and special giveaways for contests (Recca Summer Carnival 92), but I don`t count those as part of the regular set. Those are more the type of contrived rarity that is way less interesting than actual rarity caused by things like, as in Air Raid`s case, the game being massively unpopular.

Anyway, what interests me most about that Air Raid game, and particularly the complete copy that sold for $31, 600, isn`t how much it sold for but how little.

$31,600 might sound like a lot, but when you compare it with what the holy grails in other collecting hobbies it is almost like they were giving it away. Supply and demand being the main determinants of the value of a collectible I thought it might be interesting here to look at the prices of those other holy grails and their relative scarcity (supply) and popular appeal (demand). Lets start with comics.

Comic books

The holy grail of comic book collecting is probably Action Comics number 1, which features the first appearance of Superman:
There are estimated to be about 100 of these in existence, so it is quite rare though there are fewer copies of Air Raid. It is also an icon, given Superman`s place in 20th century pop culture. This gives it a big edge over Air Raid, which is basically a game nobody has ever heard of whose only fame is attributable to the console it was made for. Still though, the difference in price is startling. The best known copy of this sold a couple of months ago for $2.16 million.

Baseball Cards

This is the 1909 T-206 Honus Wagner. The T-206 is a very popular set of Tobacco cards among collectors, but this card is extremely rare due to the fact that Wagner (for reasons that are disputed) refused permission for them to use his likeness. This forced the American Tobacco Company to remove the card from distribution, but somewhere between 60 and 200 copies of it made it into the market and are now far and away the most valuable sports card in existence.

In comparison to Air Raid, there are more copies of this card out there so Air Raid wins in terms of supply. In terms of demand Honus Wagner was one of the best players of his generation, though that was about 100 years ago and were it not for this card most people who aren`t baseball fans would have no idea who he was. So it isn`t anywhere near as significant in cultural terms as Action Comics 1. At any rate, the best copy of this card out there sold for $2.8 million in 2007, which is about 90 times more than what the most expensive copy of Air Raid fetched.

Stamps

The above is an envelope with two stamps from Mauritius which were produced in 1847. These stamps are extremely rare as only 500 of each were ever produced. This envelope (called the Bordeaux cover) is a one of a kind item of particular note because it has both of them on it. It sold for $4 million in 1993 the last time it changed hands and is probably the most valuable stamp related item in the world.

As a one of a kind item it is basically equal in scarcity to the complete in box copy of Air Raid. In terms of its appeal - stamps from Mauritius? An obscure British colony in the middle of the Indian Ocean? Outside of stamp collectors I think it is safe to say that this is of no interest to anyone so I give Air Raid a win on that count.

Conclusion

I could probably draw on examples from other collector`s hobbies but I think you get the drift. Holy grails in other hobbies, even ones that are not as rare as Air Raid, all sell for millions of dollars. The video game collector`s holy grail only sells for $31, 600. If you think about it, this doesn`t really make much sense. In terms of popular appeal, video games easily rank up there with comic books and probably beat baseball cards (only popular to baseball fans) and stamps (almost nobody under 40 collects those). The only reason I can think for the relatively low value of Air Raid is that the video game collecting market is much newer than the market for those other things and most people who would buy them are probably in their 20s or 30s. That is an age bracket which doesn`t have anywhere near as much spending power as the baby boomers who drove up the prices of comics and baseball cards in the 1980s. Twenty years from now though when the first generation who played Atari as kids are in their 50s and 60s and are the CEOs of major companies with craploads of disposable income this thing will probably be selling for obscene amounts too.

Related Posts:
- Opinion: On the Economics of Retro Game Collecting

80s Nostalgia and the Appeal of Retro Gaming

2012-01-05T09:55:00.011+09:00

One of those existential questions that plague retro video gamers is the degree to which nostialgic memories of their childhood may be clouding their judgment on the merits of retro gaming. Pretty much every retro game forum out there probably has at least a couple of threads devoted to this topic and it is always rearing its head in arguments between fans of modern and classic games.

Its a tough question to answer. A lot of people seem reluctant to admit that nostalgia plays a huge role in their attraction and insist on enumerating a long list of objective reasons why retro games are better than current generation ones. I know I do this all the time. On the one hand there really are a lot of objective reasons to like retro games better than modern ones. On the other though it is hard to deny that nostalgia plays a big part. In my case I would go so far as to say it is the main reason I prefer retro games and in particular retro games from the 80s.
I really notice the effects of this in my reluctance to fully embrace consoles made after the late 80s. The PC Engine and Mega Drive are about my cut off point. While I can enjoy consoles made after those ones and really love my N64 and Super Famicom, they just don`t elicit the same response in me that earlier consoles do. This is clearly visible in the content of this blog. Note the excitement when I bought my Intellivision or Epoch Cassette Vision, two consoles that I didn`t even have any games for but which happen to have been produced in the early 80s. Contrast that with the fact that every time I go into my local game shop I pass by stacks of Sega Saturns, a console I do not own, that are selling for dirt cheap along with tons of software for them. These just don`t interest me anywhere near as much as the consoles that existed in the 80s did and I attribute this fact almost 100% to the fact that its only the stuff that was around when I was a kid that moves my heart.
For me, retro gaming pretty much ends at about 1990 when I started high school. Of course I also like consoles made after that, but for me the 80s are where it is at. When I play my Famicom I am transported back in time to a world of colorful Swiss Swatches:
Members Only Jackets (that green one there is mine, god how I miss it. Note also the calculator watch on my wrist, the tube socks on the guy behind me and....dam, everything in this photo is good):
Star Wars Toys:
G.I. Joes:
Gobots:
And of course Natalie from the Facts of Life:
So there you go. To all you modern gaming fans out there I concede the point: I like retro games mainly for nostalgia.

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Only in Japan: Hi no Tori Gaou no Bouken

2012-01-04T09:49:00.005+09:00

Hi no Tori is without a doubt one of my favorite Famicom games. I really don`t understand why it was never ported to the NES as it is one of the best platformers ever made for the system.

This is one of the games that I acquired early in my Famicom collecting days about 3 years ago. My wife had it when she was a kid and I bought it on her recommendation (back then I hadn`t devoted myself to acquiring every Famicom cart ever made and would only but the good ones).

There is a pretty good write up on the game at Strategy Wiki, so I won`t repeat too much of what is already out there.

Well, OK maybe I`ll repeat a bit of what is already out there. It is a side scrolling platformer based on a comic by Osamu Tezuka. You control Gaou, the hero of the game, as he progresses through multiple levels doing all the typical 8-bit side scrolling platformer type stuff (shooting enemies, jumping over stuff, etc). There are some unique actions that set this one apart though. Gaou can, for example, shoot (throw?) stone blocks. He can use these to build staircases, which are sometimes necessary to climb over gaping bits of scenery that are too big to jump across or what have you.

I still haven`t actually finished the game yet, my wife is better at it than I am. I bought a boxed copy (pictured above) of it recently for 500 yen, which was a really good bargain. It still has the original department store price tag on it for 4770 yen. I love it when game stuff still has original tags on it. This one was purchased at the Daimaru Department store, which is located downtown. I was there just a couple of weeks ago doing some Christmas shopping:
This is what it looked like for Christmas 2011. I wonder what it looked like for Christmas 1987 when this game may have been originally purchased. The building it is currently in looks like it was built since then, so I`m guessing it looked completely different back then.

Anyway, that tangent in this blog post, complete with its tengential photograph, was brought to you by Famicomblog`s new sponsor, the Daimaru Department store. Daimaru: in Japanese the name just means `big circle`.

Related Posts:
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The Famicom Game Collection at the New Year

2011-12-29T10:37:00.005+09:00

Another year is at an end. I thought this might be a good time to do a little review of the state of my Famicom game collection.

At the moment I have a little over 700 different Famicom carts, roughly 2/3 of the total. I say `roughly` because unfortunately I lost my checklist a few months ago and since then have had to basically guess which ones I need when making purchases. At some point I`ll have to create a new one.

Anyway, that means that my progress was pretty slow this year as I already had over 600 different carts at the end of 2010. That is to be expected though, the more carts you have the harder it gets to find the ones that you still need.

My Famicom collection at the moment is scattered throughout my apartment in a variety of nooks and crannies. Basically anywhere I could put them. My favorite games I keep on my little custom built Famicom cart shelf, which is still decorated for Christmas:
Other games that I like but which didn`t quite make the cut for the shelf go in this box:
Or in this little side table:
Or here in this little space on the other side of the sofa:
Or just in front of the TV:
I also have a big pile on a shelf in the spare room. I used to store the entire collection there but since we got the dog I`ve only been able to use a little corner of it, right next to the Slave 1 there:
These are games that I basically don`t play anymore. There are a few good ones in there, but its way too much of a pain to find them. I keep the colorful ones facing out as I think it makes the room look a little brighter.

Rounding out the collection is this box, where I keep the overflow from the overflow from the overflow:
Oh and of course my ever expanding Complete in Box Famicom collection, which is getting quite big. I really wish I had a way to display these, that is another thing that will have to await our moving into a bigger place someday:
In addition to all of that I have my doubles. I`ve actually sold quite a few of them over the past few months, but the pile is still impressive:
And that is about it for my Famicom collection!

This will in all likelihood be my last post here for 2011. I hope you all have a nice New Year!

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Tsutaya: Worst Retro Video Game Section Ever

2011-12-28T16:58:00.003+09:00

Another place I stopped at during my Christmas shopping last week was the Tsutaya downtown. Tsutaya is a major nationwide chain that started out primarily as a rental video/game/CD place, but now a lot of their locations also sell a variety of items, from used books to retro video games.

Just to provide a little autobiographical digression here I actually purchased a PlayStation 2 at a Tsutaya way back in 2001 when they were still relatively new and expensive. What can I say? I was young, irresponsible and had a steady job that paid a decent income (oh how I do miss those days). That was the only time in my life that I have actually purchased a video game console in the prime of its life, every other one I either received as a present as a child (Commodore Vic-20, NES) or have purchased as a retro console in the past couple of years (Famicom, Mega Drive.....well, everything in this blog basically).

About a year after that I actually had a rather serious bicycle accident in front of a Tsutaya that I had just returned a movie to and ended up with a broken elbow (very painful thing to break, BTW).

Er....why am I providing you with all this minutia? Oh yes, what I wanted to say was simply that until very recently despite having a lengthy history with Tsutaya I had never realized that they also sold retro games. This is because most of them including the ones I had frequented in the past didn`t. Somebody on Famicom World mentioned that their Tsutaya sold retro video games a couple months ago though and this got me interested. So I decided to start checking out all the Tsutaya in town whenever I happened to be passing by just in case.

So far the only one that has had any is the one downtown. It is quite a posh place, even the escalators are very bright and sparkly:
The retro game section is on the top floor. This is it:
The contrast with the rest of the store could not be starker. The interior is very modern and tasteful. They have nice bookshevles in the bookstore floor with a little coffee shop. The modern video game section looks fantastic with loads of fancy displays. The retro game section is.....

A steel basket with a bunch of Famicom and Super Famicom carts thrown into it.
Not only is the presentation subpar, the selection is absolutely awful. Every Famicom cart they had was either sports, pachinko or Mahjong except for one copy of Tetris, which had a really messed up label. The Super Famicom games were exactly the same: not a good one in the pile.

The only upside is that they charge a flat 100 yen each, which is reasonable. Anybody else out there live near a Tsutaya with a retro video game section? I`m curious if they all suck as bad as this one.

Famicom Crap I Came Across but did not buy while Christmas Shopping!

2011-12-27T10:28:00.002+09:00

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas. We had a great one here with lots of presents and merriment had by all.

Unlike last year I did not actually get any video game stuff this year. While doing my Christmas shopping at shops like the Loft, Village Vanguard and InCube, however, I did come across some kind of interesting Famicom themed stuff. I didn`t actually buy any of it, but I had my camera with me so I took a few photos and thought I`d put them up in a post here.

The first was the FC Mobile, which I found in Village Vanguard:
Basically its a mobile device that plays Famicom carts. It looks cool on the box, but I`m always reluctant to buy these knock off type things as quality is always a big question. Also it doesn`t have rechargable batteries so you have to use the old fashioned ones. At 3,980 yen (about 50$) the price was also a bit high, given that you can buy an original CIB Famicom for about that much, even less.

They also had a Super Famicom/ Famicom Famiclone called the Game Combo:
The price tag is a bit difficult to read in the photo but I think it was about 6000 yen (75$). Already having a Super Famicom and a Famicom I have no need for this, but I could almost see it being worthwhile for someone who doesn`t, assuming that it is of decent quality (which is always a question mark with these Famiclones).

This thing also caught my eye and I have no idea what it is:
It is SKMT by a company called Lanstrum. It caught my eye because the design of the box is an obvious nod to the early Famicom game boxes. This carries over to the back:
It seems to be a CD, but I`m not sure if it is a music CD or PC game software or what. I thought it was interesting too that the character on the front cover art is wearing a Power Glove and carrying a weapon that looks like the Super Scope for the SFC.

Anyway, the only thing I would have considered actually purchasing was this:
Its a cell phone case shaped like a Famicom controller. My cell phone is a flip one so I don`t think I could use this, but I thought it was kind of cool and if I ever did get a cell phone case then this would be it.

At another store, InCube, these things caught my eye:
They are Dragon Quest puzzles. The boxes are almost identical to the Famicom boxes for these games, right down to their size:
630 yen each (about 8$). I`m not a Dragon Quest fan nor am I a fan of game related merchandise unless it is some really old, obscure thing. Still, I thought these looked kind of nice.

Phil and Mr. Floppers Very Merry Christmas Special Part 2

2011-12-25T22:33:00.010+09:00

Continued from Part 1.

Phil and Mr. Floppers: A Very Merry Christmas Special

2011-12-23T17:01:00.009+09:00

Sunday, December 25 2011, 7:00AM.

To be continued....

I am Idiot Hear Me Roar

2011-12-18T10:59:00.011+09:00

I just did a Google image search for the word `idiot` and of all the amusing things I found, I think the above best captures the essence of my stupidity.

Let me share with you here a tale of incredible incompetence in the field of diagnosing the problem with a retro console that seems to be broken. Like me you will laugh, you will cry, you will shake your head at the folly of human endeavour.

The story begins in April when my wife gave me an original 1977 Nintendo Color TV Game 15 Complete in its box. It was a thing of beauty and I spent a whole afternoon hooking it up to my TV. Unfortunately when I finally got it to flash something on the screen, this is what I got:Notice, please, that there is something missing on screen in this pong game. There is a paddle on the right side, but the one on the left is nowhere to be seen.

My first reaction was to look at the console, which has a ton of buttons and switches on it:
No matter what combination of pushing and switching I attempted, however, nothing produced the desired result. That left side pong racket just would not appear.

For what I did next I can turn to the blog post that I made here on that very day:

¨This puzzled me greatly. For about an hour after getting the thing hooked up, no matter what I did I could not get the paddle on the left (1player) to show up. I made my way onto the internet and after much surfing to no avail eventually stumbled onto this Youtube video. The guy is just showing the insides of his Color TV Game 15 and while doing so he notes that if you unplug one of the controllers (you have to physically open the casing up to do that) the corresponding paddle disappears. "Great" I thought. Probably the controller is just unplugged inside the thing and all I have to do is plug it back in and we'll be ready to go. Nope. I took everything apart. Both controllers were plugged in. I noticed that when I switched them though, the number 1 controller did not work at all. The ingrates at Omocha Souko had sold me a Color TV Game 15 with a broken controller! D-oh!¨

Yup. I did everything I could think to do, even pulling the entire thing apart, but to no avail.

And I left it at that. For eight long months I had no functioning Nintendo Color TV Game 15 on which to play pong. All I could do was stare longingly at it, imagining the fun all the other families with functioning pong machines were having while I sat there, feeling empty.

Then a few days ago, as I reported only yesterday on here, I found another Color TV Game 15 at Omocha Souko for a cheap price! I bought it immediately, intent on scavenging one of the controllers from it.

I tested the second one out too and, very interestingly, found that it also seemed to have a broken controller as when I turned it on, the exact same thing happened. Only one pong paddle appeared on screen. Like the awesome genius that I am, I concluded:

¨I`m not too sure what the deal is but this can`t have been mere coincidence, they must have had some sort of defect in the controllers.¨

Anyway, long story short, I switched the controllers around and got one of the consoles working perfectly. My wife and I played it that night and had a great time. I was so happy.

Then last night we decided to play it again. I turned it on and was immediately devastated by what I saw on the screen:
NOOOOO!!!! The left controller broke after only one day`s use!! The left paddle was gone! Our lovely pong gaming career was at an end until I could find another of these hard-to-find 34 year old consoles in a junk bin somewhere!

I then collapsed in a heap of tears at my wife`s feet, curled up in the foetal position and started to suck my thumb.

My wife, however, kept her composure. She picked up the controller:
And within about 5 seconds she had miraculously fixed it! Both pong paddles were on the screen! And she didn`t even use any tools or anything!

I was absolutely shocked. Looking at her in amazement I asked: `How did you do that?`

Looking at me with an expression of incredulity and speaking in the same voice you would use to teach a three year old how to properly fill in a coloring book, she put two fingers on the controller like this:
And said `You tuuuuuuurrn it, Sean. Tuuuuuurn it. Do-you-understand? Turn?`

I nodded to indicate comprehension, mimicking a turning motion with my fingers.

`YES! Turn! Thats it! Good boy, Sean!

My stupidity has never been so brilliantly exposed. Eight months of searching for a cheap junk console for parts. Several hours worth of work on taking apart two consoles and switching a bunch of wires. Hours of research on the internet. A trip to the hardware store to buy a new screwdriver.

When all I needed to do was turn the #@%*ing knob.

It turns out that when you turn the knob on the controller all the way, the paddles just disappear off the edges of the screen. When you turn them back, they return. For some reason I had never thought to try turning the knob on the controller.

I am an idiot.
Even this person would probably have figured it out in less than eight months.

On the plus side, I am an idiot who actually owns two fully functional Color TV Game 15s instead of one as I had previously thought.

But an idiot nonetheless.

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- Is it Possible to Stalk a Retro Game Store?
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Double Color TV Game 15 Trouble

2011-12-17T14:33:00.005+09:00

In April my wife picked up the 1977 Nintendo Color TV Game 15 for me. I love this sort of simple, early video game stuff. Unfortunately when I plugged it in I discovered that one of the controllers was broken so we haven`t been able to play the thing.

Until two days ago that is. I was back in Omocha Souko and they had just tossed another Color TV Game 15 out for sale. Unfortunately it wasn`t in their 300 yen junk pile, but they only wanted 1,000 yen for it (about 12 bucks). It was missing the battery cover, hadn`t been tested and didn`t come with the AC adaptor but as I only wanted it for one of the controllers I decided what the hell and bought it.

After getting it home I plugged it in using the AC adaptor on my other one and discovered that this one too also had a broken controller. I`m not too sure what the deal is but this can`t have been mere coincidence, they must have had some sort of defect in the controllers.

Fortunately however it did have one working controller so after opening them both up and effecting the old switcheroo, I ended up with one fully functional Color TV Game 15 and one completely useless one.
We gave it a go for the first time last night. It works great. Basically you get 15 games that are pong, but are labelled tennis, volleyball, ice hockey and ping pong. There are different versions of each of these, but every game involves hitting a ball from one side of the screen to the other and that is it. Simplicity perfected. I love it so.

Related Posts:
- Nintendo Color TV Game 15

How Soon is Now? Waiting to Forget a Video Game

2011-12-14T10:54:00.003+09:00

My blogging activities have been severely curtailed this month by a combination of being insanely busy in my non-blogging life and the fact that I haven`t found any incredible bargains recently to write about.

So I thought I`d revive the blog by writing about another generic video game topic: the amount of time it takes to forget a video game.

This is something I`ve always known about but it really came into focus for me a few days ago. About three years ago I bought a copy of Yume Penguin Monogatari for the Famicom. Its a great game that I will probably devote a post specifically to sometime in the near future. After buying it my wife and I got kind of hooked and played it almost everyday for a couple of months until we finally got to the final stage and beat the `boss`, completing the story that the game told (no spoilers).

After that we completely stopped playing the game, but during those two months we became absolute masters of it. We learned where all the dangerous areas on each level were, how to time jumps in certain locations correctly, where you needed to run to get the most power ups and so on and so on.

When I gave the game a try for the first time in years a couple of days ago though I completely sucked. I couldn`t even complete the first stage. Everything that I had learned about the game in that two month period was completely gone from my memory. It was like I had never played the game before in my life.

This is one of those things that I actually really like about video games - the fact that you can forget how to play them. It is the one thing that can prevent you from ever getting completely bored with a retro video game collection.

My playing tends to go in cycles. I`ll play a favorite game everyday for a few days until I get tired of it. Then it goes into a box or onto a shelf and I forget about it for a year or two and move onto other things. Then at some point I rediscover it and its almost as good as having just brought home a newly purchased game that I had never played before. Almost.

This applies not just with games but with entire consoles. The only console that I own which I play on a regular basis is my Famicom. The rest (I think I have 8 or 9 others) I kind of rotate. Just looking at the amount of dust that has accumulated on my Nintendo 64 tells me that it is due for some use soon:
Its been at least six months since I`ve given Goldeneye, Mario Kart 64, Rogue Squadron or Smash Bros. a go. I kind of feel a Nintendo 64 mood starting to take me over. Yup, enough time has passed - time to rotate the old girl back into the starting lineup.

I`m not sure what the ideal amount of time is to forget a game. It probably depends a lot on which game it is. Some games with incredibly simple mechanics like Space Invaders aren`t very good for this sort of thing because you tend to remember how to play them pretty quickly even after years. It also probably depends a lot on how old you are. I noticed that when I played Super Mario Bros. for the first time in almost 20 years I remembered how to play it almost perfectly the first try. I attribute this to the fact that I was a kid when I first mastered it and my young brain had a `how to play SMB` path permanently imprinted in it. My older 30 something brain seems to no longer have the ability to do that so, ironically, I can get a lot more play out of a game that I never played as a kid than one that I did. Ain`t getting old wonderful?

Book Off: Price Gouging Happens in Japanese Game Shops too!

2011-12-04T10:36:00.006+09:00

If you are a regular reader of this blog then you might have an unrealistic image of Japan as a Mecca of cheap retro game shops. This is because I tend to over-report my fantastic bargain finds and under-report the amount of stuff that I find which is ridiculously over-priced. In this post I`ll try to bring a bit of balance to that situation by demonstrating the ridiculously over priced side of the Japanese retro game market.

I was in a Book Off downtown yesterday. Book Off is a very large chain of used book stores with hundreds of locations across Japan. Some of them also have retro game sections, including the one that I happened to be in yesterday:
Book Offs are very hit and miss with retro games. In my experience (I have been to a couple dozen of them), the statistics break down like this:

60% of Book Offs have no retro games at all.

20% of Book Offs have some retro games and their prices are quite good.

20% of Book Offs have some retro games and their prices are mind blowingly unreasonable.

This particular Book Off falls into the latter category. It has some of the worst prices on games I have ever seen. I had my camera on me so I photographed some of the most egregious Famicom examples.

First, Mahjong:
Yup, 950 yen (about 12$ US). That is about the most common cart for the Famicom that is out there. I`ve seen it for as little as 10 yen at other shops and outside of this example I`ve never seen one priced over 300 yen.

Then, Baseball:
950 yen again. This cart is worth about 100.

Tennis:
950 yen. For a sports title that you can`t give away.

Devil World and Soccer:
1550 yen (about 20$) for Devil World and 950 yen for Soccer. Devil World at least is a good game, but the average price for that one elsewhere is about 500 yen and, of course, you can find cheaper copies if you know where to look. As for soccer, I paid 10 yen for my copy of that one.

Interestingly, not all of the games were ridiculously over-priced here. Terra Cresta, for example:
250 yen is actually a good price for that one. Go figure.

I suspect that this is another example of a store that hires people with no knowledge of retro games who just put random prices on stuff. It is about the only way these prices can be explained.

I should end by noting that if you ever visit Japan for the purpose of retro game shopping, Book Offs can actually sometimes turn up incredible bargains. The problem is that the vast majority of them do not. So if you are walking down the street and happen to see a Book Off, then by all means I recommend popping in to see what they have because you might get lucky. Don`t go out of your way trying to find them though, in all likelihood it will be a waste of time!

Famicom Robot Presents: The Famicom Stuff Collection

2011-12-03T11:08:00.005+09:00

The Famicom has a lot of stuff to go with it. Most of this stuff I seem to have, except for the 3D glasses, tape deck and a few other things. Still, I got most of it.

In this guest post the Famicom Robot, Phil, offers his thoughts on some of the highlights of my Famicom stuff collection.

1. The Hori Controller
Phil: Yeah, this is cool I guess. I mean, its like a regular Famicom controller right? With these swtiches for the rapid multi fire or whatever. I don`t have fingers so that helps me out a bit, its hard to repeatedly hit that fire button for me. Yeah OK, I give it a thumbs up.

2. Power Glove
Phil: What the hell am I supposed to do with this thing?

3. Famicom Light Gun
Phil: Now THIS I like. Yes. YES! You talkin` to me?

4. Family Basic
Phil: Its not very ergonomically sound. I really have to bend over to tap away at that keyboard. Not good for my back at all. No sireee. I do not like this. Not at all.

5. Famicom Karaoke Studio
Phil: Only you......can make this world seem right... O-o-only you.....can make the darkness bright....

6. Some Capcom Controller With Lots of Buttons that I Never Use
Phil:.........

7. Famicom RF Switch Booster:
Phil: Don`t know what it is but I like it. Its like a little Phil-sized Famicom.

Other Famicom Stuff: The Strategy Guides

2011-11-30T10:34:00.005+09:00

One side project in my collection that I have been slowly working on over the past few years has been the Famicom strategy guides.

Strategy guides are a big thing in Japan. Actually, I`m not sure if they are a big thing in North America and elsewhere. Are they? I never noticed them back in Canada, but then again I never looked for them either.

Anyway, pretty much every video game store of any size in Japan will probably have a section devoted solely to video game strategy guides. For the Famicom collector these sections are almost always a letdown. At most of the stores I frequent, they have hundreds of strategy guides for Playstation, Sega Saturn and even Super Famicom games, but I often look through shelf after shelf of these guidebooks and don`t find a single Famicom guide. This applies not just to game stores, but also to regular used book stores which I also search from time to time for Famicom strategy guides and almost always come away empty handed.

In the three years I have collected for the Famicom I have been able to amass more than seven hundred Famicom games. In contrast my Famicom strategy guide collection has a grand total of:
Nine!

The only place in town that has a decent selection of Famicom strategy guides is Mandarake, and they are pretty much all expensive (generally 1500 -4000 yen), so I have only ever bought one of them there (1942, which was quite cheap).

I suspect that the reason for their scarcity is that strategy guides only really took off during the Super Famicom era and that relatively few were produced and sold during the Famicom`s day. Either that or people threw their guidebooks out once they had finished with the games.

Anyway, I really like these books. They generally have quite colorful covers and all of the pages in them are fully colored as well, like this one for Super Mario Bros.:
I like the back of that one, it cost 390 yen back in 1985:
There were a number of different publishers that released these, so they come in a wide variety of styles. The Super Mario Bros. guide was published by Family Computer Magazine. I love the font they use to write their name:
I never use these as actual guide books. Most of the games just don`t need them and any games that do probably aren`t ones I`m interested in playing anyway. I just like them for what they are - colorful stuff.

The biggest I have is Hoshi no Kirby, at 127 pages:
While the shortest is for 1942, at 32:
I quite like the cover of the Ice Hockey one:
And the Doraemon one has an interesting ad for more strategy game guides on the inside cover including Adventure Island and Meikyuukumikyoku. The two at the bottom are volumes 1 and 2 of the Takahashi Meijin Story, which also sounds interesting:
I`m hoping to score a few more of these, but I have no plans of trying to collect one for every Famicom game ever made. I`m not even sure how many games had these made for them, though it seems likely that a lot did.

1991 Hong Kong Famicom Commercial

2011-11-25T10:24:00.003+09:00

Somebody just uploaded an original 1991 Famicom commercial from Hong Kong on YouTube.

I`ve never actually seen a Hong Kong Famicom in person, but now that I have seen one in this grainy twenty year old ad I absolutely must have one for my collection! From the commercial it seems to look the same as the Japanese Famicom except that it says `Hong Kong Version` on the front. The box also looks different (and awesome).

The second half of the commercial features the Famicom Disk System, which also looks more or less the same as the Japanese version only with a distinct box.

I`m going to have to get over to Hong Kong one of these days, I think there are some cheap flights from here......

Cheap Ebay Thrills: 1982 Topps Donkey Kong Sticker Cards

2011-11-24T09:28:00.012+09:00

I kind of like ephemera - the things that society produces which are intended to be used and discarded rather than preserved. Stickers fall neatly into that category.

I was browsing Ebay a few weeks back and found a listing for a complete set of 1982 topps Donkey Kong stickers for 6$. That was cheap enough for me to take a chance that they would be at least interesting enough to do a blog post about. They arrived a few days ago and I decided that they were, in fact, blog post worthy.

I was really into stickers back in the early 80s. My parents gave me an old album and I would stick any stickers I got into it. I fished that old album out of their basement a couple years ago and sat down for a look at it. It was the first time I had done so in about twenty years. There were a lot of Star Wars stickers, some hockey stickers, Gremlins stickers, Jackson 5 stickers and a whole bunch of other random ones, including one from the dentist reminding me to floss. Great stuff.
I never had any of these Donkey Kong stickers, but they do look a lot like the type of stickers that I remember collecting in the early 80s. Almost all of them have some sort of catch phrase, like “I`m Ape over Donkey Kong“ or “Donkey Kong is Better than Homework“. They don`t really display any wit to them, though they embody that safe display of mild attitude that I remember finding very amusing and comforting as a kid.

These all have black backgrounds, which gives the set a very distinctive look. I think it works quite well as it mimics the black background of the game itself. You can arrange the backs of the cards to make two puzzles, one a scene of Donkey Kong throwing flaming barrels at Mario:
And the other a scene of the title character playing the game from inside the screen, which I think I like the best of the two:
They look pretty good side by side like this:
Another intersting thing about these is how they portray Mario. He is referred to by his pre-Mario name as Jump Man and looks almost nothing like the way he would eventually be portrayed in artwork after Super Mario Bros. made him a star:
I`d really like to put some of these stickers on things, but the collector in me refrains from doing so as if I did, I would no longer have the complete set. I really hate my collector side sometimes. I might spend another 6$ to get a second set that I can just mess around with.

Related Posts:
- Amada Famicom Mini Cards: The Coolest Famicom Thing You Never Knew Existed

Opening a 30 Cart Famicom Pack

2011-11-22T19:06:00.005+09:00

I found the above at Omocha Souko the other day. It is a big package of thirty Famicom carts wrapped in plastic that they were charging 2.000 yen for. That works out to only 66 yen (about 80 cents) per cart, which I thought was a pretty good deal.

Omocha Souko used to sell Famicom carts in bunches like this all the time, especially back during my first year of collecting. They were great, I got most of my carts that way back then. It is kind of fun because you can`t see what most of the carts are inside but you can kind of guess just by looking.

You might be thinking ¨yeah, but they`ll just put crappy sports games in the middle that you can`t see so those are probably a rip off.¨

Actually though I would sometimes find good games in the middle of these and they generally had a good mix, so even though you would sometimes get stuck with a bunch of baseballs and mahjong games you`d usually get at least something in them worth having.

They stopped doing that about two years ago, so I was really glad when I saw this. This one had ten carts visible on the top, but the other twenty were more or less a mystery. I was a bit reluctant at first because the ten you could see were pretty much all RPGs, which aren`t my thing. Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, Fire Emblem, Wizardry....blah.
Looking at the back though I could at least make out that it also had Macross. That isn`t necessarily a great game (its not a bad one either), but at least it gave me some assurance that the other twenty weren`t all RPGs too.

So for that cheap price I decided to just go for it and bought the thing. I decided to photograph the grand opening specifically for the purposes of this blog post. Lets see what I got, shall we?

Step 1 - cut open the plastic wrap with my teeny Swiss Army Knife scissors that I usually use to cut my toenails with (too much info?):
After removing the top layer of carts here is what lay beneath:
Its a bit of a disappointment. Seicross is a great game and Road Fighter isn`t too bad, but the rest is....pretty mediocre. Two baseball games, a Mahjong game, Murder on the Mississipi, two wrestling games and some Dragon Ball game. Rats.

Lets see what the bottom layer has:
A bit better. Donkey Kong Jr Math is, believe it or not, actually a pretty good find. Its not the most entertaining of games (an understatement, I know), but its actually one of the harder pulse line carts to find so it is a bit of a `get`. Macross, Lunar Ball and Tecmo Super Bowl aren`t bad either. Hara Kiri Stadium I now have 400 copies of, or maybe it just seems that way. The only thing about Fighting Golf I like is that the cart is a pleasing shade of green. Hercules, some Shogi game and that vertical shoot em up with the title written in difficult kanji that I can`t read round off this layer.

Anyway, there you have it. 2000 yen for....a bunch of Famicom games that I already have. What was I thinking????

At the Kaiten Sushi Restaurant with a Turbo Twin Famicom

2011-11-21T19:10:00.004+09:00

I found a cheap Turbo Twin Famicom at Omocha Souko today. As luck would have it the only reason I was at Omocha Souko today was that my wife and I were going to a local sushi place for dinner but arrived too early so we needed to kill a few minutes. The restaurant is right up the block from Omocha Souko so I suggested we spend a couple minutes browsing there.

Of course, when I found the Twin Fami they had just put out I had to have it, so we ended up lugging it to dinner with us.
And I just decided to take a few photos of it there because....hey, its not every day that you have a Twin Famicom at a sushi restaurant so why not make the best of a good opportunity?

It is a pretty cool restaurant. You order stuff from these video screens at the table and your food comes on these bullet trains right to you:
You aren`t actually allowed to take pictures in the place so I had to take these somewhat surreptitiously. Unfortunately that meant I couldn`t get many interesting angles or anything. I did make sure to get a shot with some sushi (actually beef) on the Twin Famicom though:
You don`t see that every day now do you?
Related Posts:
- I Nearly Died Getting a Red Twin Famicom Today
- Mega Bargain of the Day: Exorcising my Twin Famicom Demons

Mario Fail

2011-11-20T11:51:00.000+09:00

This is hilarious. Found it on Famicom no Neta. 30 seconds well spent.

I think this is the shortest post I`ve ever made on here!

Why I like Collecting Video Games: They aren`t Baseball Cards

2011-11-18T10:50:00.009+09:00

As I`ve alluded to on occasion here, in addition to collecting retro video games I also collect a lot of other stuff. These include things like baseball cards, stamps, coins, old movie programs, action figures and a few other odds and ends that interest me. I`m not really a serious big money collector in any of these areas, but I do like to dabble in all of them. I seem to have some sort of collector/ hoarder gene in me somewhere.

Anyway, my multiple collecting interests have given me the opportunity to do some comparative study of the various cultures that surround each of them. I have noticed that one thing which all hobbies that involve collecting stuff have in common is anal retentiveness. Collecting stuff tends to bring this trait out in people, especially when enough other people start to collect the same stuff and a collector`s market evolves. Money takes over everything and if left unchecked it can totally ruin a fun hobby.

One of the things that I really like about collecting video games is that thus far anal retentiveness, hype and big money haven`t taken it over. I hope it stays that way, but I`m not so sure it will. As a sort of cautionary tale I thought it would be illustrative to take a look at what happened to the baseball card collecting world.
Back in the day, collecting baseball cards like the ones in the above photo was actually pretty fun. They were just kind of neat things that kids who liked baseball would go for. When you look at the mainstream of the baseball card collecting world today though it is such a dreary place so devoid of imagination that you have to wonder why anybody with an ounce of self-respect would ever involve themselves in such a soul-less hobby.

To illustrate my point, take a look at this post over on Beckett Media`s website. Beckett is the largest price guide in the baseball card hobby and back in my card collecting heyday twenty years ago was considered the bible of baseball cards.

Take a look at that awful video they posted. No wait, don`t. It is too awful a thing for me to inflict on you. I`ll just breifly describe it. Not because I want to, but because I have to. It is a video of two Beckett employees opening packs of baseball cards that seem to have been sent to them by card companies for promotional purposes. These, I should note, cost one hundred dollars each, which is just an obscenity in itself. Ignoring that for the moment though, the content of the video really showcases how awful the hobby has become. The two guys open their packs and show viewers what they got.

It is a seven minute video. It is painful to watch. The banter between the two stars is almost nothing but impenetrable collector`s jargon interspersed with an endless stream of numbers and statistics. Not statistics related to the game of baseball, I hasten to add, but numbers and statistics related to the baseball cards themselves. On opening his pack the co-host on the left starts:

`All the base cards are numbered to 799, there are parrallels to 199, 50, 25 and 1....`

And it basically just goes on like that for seven uninterrupted minutes. Nowhere in the video do they actually talk about baseball or anything like that. It is just a bunch of boring, overly detailed verbal diarrhea spewed onto the internet by a hobby that has been hijacked by extreme anal retentiveness.

This, I should add, is just a random video that I only looked at because it happened to be on the top of the Beckett news homepage. Pretty much EVERYTHING on that website is just as awful and dreary.

This isn`t to say that the entire baseball card hobby is devoid of imagination. There is sort of an underclass of bloggers out there producing tremendous and hilarious stuff (this is my favorite). These are mainly produced by people who seem to have been turned off by the sheer awfulness of the mainstream and, as with me, just like old baseball cards because they are colorful pieces of cardboard with pictures of players that they liked on them.

Returning to the point of my post, the thing that I like about collecting video games is that this hyper-awfulness that has so infected the baseball card hobby is almost non-existent. Go to any baseball card collecting message board on the web and you will find it populated by guys like those in the video discussing the most inane details of whatever god awful thing they think they should be collecting. It is just painful to read.

Go to any message board populated by retro video game collectors though and it is pretty much the exact opposite. They collect games because....they like playing games. To be certain there is a collector`s market for old video games and some people like collecting mint or sealed stuff - and that is fine. The anal retentiveness that so dominates the baseball card world though is just not there in anywhere near the same quantity.

I`m not sure why that is. Probably the fact that video games aren`t produced solely to be collected plays a big part. They are made to be played and thus attract a different crowd than baseball cards do.

One thing I do worry about though is that video game collecting is a relatively recent hobby. Thirty years ago the baseball card collecting scene was actually quite similar to what video game collecting is now - dominated by young adults re-living their childhood and not at all concerned about the money. I hope video games stay that way. I would hate to think that thirty years from now the biggest video game collecting website out there would be churning out god-awful videos like that one on Becketts.

OK, end of rant.

Oddball Junk Bin Finds: Famicom Karaoke Studio Controller

2011-11-17T09:24:00.004+09:00

This is another one of my recent junk bin finds - a semi-complete Karaoke Studio controller.

This is one of the more interesting Famicom accessories that never made it outside of Japan. It is basically just a microphone that attaches to the cart slot on the Famicom and lets you sing the classics.
There is a pretty good review of this over at Famicom World. Unfortunately I can`t do a review of it myself due to this:
The songs for this thing are stored in seperate carts that slide into the back. Unfortunately mine didn`t come with any of the carts so its only function now is to exist as a pretty thing that I possess. For 100 yen though I can`t complain.

While we are on the subject of pretty things, doesn`t this thing look pretty on the Famicom?
I love karaoke by the way. If you are reading this blog then you probably already know enough about Japan that I don`t have to mention how popular that activity is here. Karaoke places are everywhere. I don`t get out to them as much as I used to, but my wife and I make a point of going at least once a year at Christmas to sing some holiday tunes.

Maybe some day I`ll find some software for this baby and we`ll be able to turn our apartment into a real life karaoke studio. Someday.....someday.

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New Famicom Cart: Gimmick!

2011-11-16T08:34:00.008+09:00

Another one of my recent bargain finds at Omocha Souko was a complete in box copy of Gimmick.

This is a pretty hard game to find for the Famicom so I was quite surprised to see it lying in a black plastic crate surrounded by miscellaneous cables and broken controllers. I nonchalantly tossed it into my cart and whisked it home.
That night my wife and I, having no previous knowledge about how the game works, put it through its first sea trials. On turning it on the first thing we noticed was that it looked a lot like Hoshi no Kirby (Kirby`s Adventure). You control a little blob (named Yumetaro) on a side scrolling platformer in a very colorful, Kirby-esque environment.

So I first tried playing it like Kirby, which got me killed rather quickly as unlike Kirby Yumetaro doesn`t have the power of flight, nor can he suck up enemies like a vaccuum. Instead, Yumetaro confronts enemies either by jumping over (or on top of) them or by throwing stars at them. To do the latter, you have to hold the B button down for a couple of seconds and wait for the star to form on top of his head and then let it go, which causes Yumetaro to throw it. This resulted in a lot of confusion when I first tried it:

Me: (trying to suck enemies up) ¨What is he doing? Suck the enemies up! Oh....Damnit!¨

Wife: ¨No, its not Kirby.....just keep the B button down and....¨

Me: ¨I AM pushing the B button, but this bloody star just appears and disappears and the enemies don`t get sucked up......NOW what is he doing?¨

Wife: ¨No, its not Kirby, you have to KEEP pushing the B button down and wait for the star to appear and then throw it.¨

Me: ¨I do keep pushing the B button down but none of these enemies are getting sucked up.¨

Wife: (getting increasingly frustrated) ¨No, its not Kirby, push B button and keep it pushed.....¨

And so on and so forth.

Anyway, it is actually quite an enjoyable game once you give up on all attempts to play it like Kirby. Hardcore Gaming 101 has an excellent write up about it here, so I won`t attempt to describe the entire game in detail. This, of course, also allows me to avoid the humiliation of admitting that we didn`t make it past the first level and that I am thus completely unqualified to write a proper review of the game.

Purchase price-wise, this was a pretty good deal. At Mandarake they are selling loose copies for 4,000 yen (about 50$). I paid 100 yen (about $1.25) for a complete copy.
I really like the box art, but the cart itself isn`t much to look at. Most Sunsoft carts have brightly colored labels (like After Burner or Super Arabian) but they took a minimalist approach to Gimmick. This is pretty hard to understand as the contrast between the Spartan, subdued color of the cart and the vibrant colors in the game is extreme. Still though, its a welcome addition to my collection.

Behold. MEGADRIVEASAURUS!

2011-11-12T14:41:00.006+09:00

This will not help my attempts to reduce my store stalking at Omocha Souko.

I found the above mountain of Sega Mega Drive.....stuff.....all attached together in one of the junk bins at Omocha Souko today. What you`ve got there is your standard Mega Drive with a Mega CD Drive on the bottom:
And a Super 32X on top:
The dog was sold seperately.

The junk bin consoles cost 300 yen each. I picked this up and was really curious what they would charge me. I mean, this is really three consoles, but when they are all attached together like that don`t they become one? When I was a kid one of my friends had a whole bunch of transformers shaped like construction equipment - the Constructicons - and, if you collected them all, they could be formed together to make one giant robot.

Yes, I think that is a pretty good analogy. Once formed together the individual Constructicons would lose their individuality and merely become parts of a greater whole. Likewise, the various Mega Drive related consoles when formed together cease to exist as individual consoles and become....

MEGADRIVEASAURUS!

Anyway, anybody want to guess how much I paid for this? 300 yen or 900? Either way it was a pretty good deal. I haven`t actually gotten around to finding out if it works yet. I hope it does, I have a Star Wars 32X game that I`ve been dying to play for ages.

Is it Possible to Stalk a Retro Video Game Store?

2011-11-10T17:14:00.005+09:00

This is a question I`ve been worrying a bit about recently. Can a store have a stalker? If so, what is the borderline between `avid customer` and `creepy store stalker`?

These questions have been sparked by the fact that I`ve visited Omocha Souko pretty much everyday for the past month. The stream of amazing finds that I have been making (like this, this and this) have created in me this irresistable urge to stop for a visit every time I ride past on my way home at night. And about half the time these stops have actually paid off. I don`t always make amazing finds, but about 3 or 4 times a week I have been finding new Famicom stuff put out for quite reasonable prices. I`ve got about half a dozen blog posts worth of finds sitting around waiting for the time when I`ll have a moment to write about them.

The downside though is that I have been feeling a bit like a weird store-stalker lately. I`ve always been a regular customer, but until about a month ago I`d usually limit myself to once or twice a week. Now almost everyday I find myself going to see the same cashier with yet another pile of Famicom stuff fished from their bins. I get that look like they must be wondering what I am doing with it all.
Actually its a reasonable thing to wonder. What am I doing with all this stuff? Some of it has been filling in holes in my collection, some of it is just impulse purchases of cheap stuff, some of it is going straight onto my little sale thread at Famicom World. That pretty much covers it.

Incidentally, they recently re-did their Famicom section and it looks great again. About a year ago I wrote a post bemoaning the ratty look of their Famicom section. Since then they`ve managed to rebuild their stock and a couple weeks ago they put up new shelves to house them all:
They have a cool TV in the centre of it all which plays looped bits from different Famicom games beneath a giant picture of Arino san from Game Center CX:
All of which just feeds my obsessive compulsive store stalking. Sigh.

Intellivision Revision: Japanese Hard, American Soft

2011-11-05T18:28:00.004+09:00

They arrived! My very first ever purchase of video games off of Ebay! Ten Intellivision games from America! Woo-hoo!

Oh I`m so excited. Just to rewind a bit here, a couple weeks ago I picked up a beautiful Bandai Intellivision at Mandarake in town here. Unfortunately they didn`t have any games for it and neither did any other shop in Fukuoka. The Intellivision was decidedly not a popular console in Japan and as a result they are quite rare today.

Luckily for me, American Intellivision games work on the Japanese console, so I decided to give up my Ebay video game virginity to some dude in Phoenix who offered combined shipping.

I got a pretty decent mix of games, everything in this picture:
I immediately set the thing up and they work great.

Playing the Intellivision is a real throwback to the early days of home gaming. Even more so than the Famicom, there are a few things about this console that really bring me back to the day. A few of the highlights include:

1. Sitting on the Floor!

This thing has insanely short controller wires, even shorter than the Famicom`s. The result is that you basically have to play this thing while sitting on the floor in front of your TV, which is exactly how I remember playing video games as a kid.
This really makes me sentimental. Actually you don`t really need to sit on the floor, the thing has very long RF and AC cables, so we can also position the console on our coffee table in front of the sofa to play it. The point though is that wherever you are, you need to be close to the console itself to play it. Its inconvenient as hell compared to post-N64 systems with their long cords, but I still like the sense of intimacy it creates. The physical console itself becomes an integral part of the playing experience, which I really like.

2. Overlays!

The controller is a bit of a pain in the ass to use, but I love these things:
Every time you switch games you have to switch the overlays on the keypad. This adds another step in the ritual of playing the console, which I like. It also helps that these things look awesome - they are all colorful and unique and make the console look completely different depending on the game you are playing.

3. Two Player Only Games!

About half of the games I bought cannot be played by only one person, you need a human opponent to play them. I find this to be so cool. None of my other consoles, to my knowledge, have so many games like this.
To me, this is exactly what gaming should be - an activity enjoyed with friends. Sometimes its cool to play on your own, but multiplayer is where it is at. One of the things I really hate about Playstation games in particular is that so many of their games are 1 player only - even their bloody racing games. The Intellivision is the exact opposite and I love it for that!

Anyway, this has now claimed pride of place in my little TV stand. The Super Famicom has officially been displaced until such time as I get a bigger piece of furniture!

Related Posts:
- Bandai Intellivision: This Could be the Start of a Beautiful Friendship

MSX Games! Another Insane Bargain Find

2011-11-04T14:53:00.004+09:00

I found another bargain today at good old Omocha Souko. I was looking through their junk bin when I found five loose game cartridges for the MSX.

The MSX is sort of Japan`s version of the Commodore 64 or Spectrum. It was a home computer released in 1983 that dominated the Japanese market for most of the 80s.
I didn`t know much about this computer until today and was surprised to discover that a lot of the games that I thought got their start on the Famicom were actually first released on the MSX. This includes classic titles like Metal Gear, Bomberman, Parodius and Puyo Puyo.
Despite the system`s popularity, game carts for it are pretty hard to find, so when I saw a few of them in the junk box I immediately pounced.

I was shocked to discover that every single one of the five games they had were good ones. Salamander, Q-Bert, Gradius II (Nemesis II) and Parodius.
The fifth game was an interesting one whose name is completely baffling. In Japanese it is called `Gofer no Yabou Episode 2` but in English it is called `Nemesis 3 The Eve off Destruction`. Er....so it is part 2 in Japanese but part 3 in English? Look at the cart label:
I just thought that was pretty neat.

Another thing that I think is neat is how much these sell for on Ebay. Salamander loose is going for almost 100$ and Parodius is going for the same. Wow. I paid 100 yen each for these. That isn`t the normal price one would expect to pay but still - that is quite the difference.

Another great bargain find....that I have no way of playing because I don`t have an MSX. D-oh! Another thing on my shopping list.

Only in Japan: Spelunker and Spelunker 2 Yuuja he no Chousen

2011-10-29T11:02:00.006+09:00

For a while now I`ve been thinking of doing some posts on Famicom games that were only released in Japan. I recently picked up a copy of Spelunker II, which gives me the whole Spelunker series of two carts. A fitting place to start I guess.

The first Spelunker is a game that for some reason remains quite popular in Japan. My wife played it when she was a kid and has a lot of fond memories of it.
It is, however, massively difficult and frustrating. You are a miner in an underground series of tunnels armed with a drill. Touch anything and you die. Time that jump wrong and you die. Fall off even the tiniest of ledges? You guessed it. You die.

I turned it on just to see how far I`d get before writing this piece. I didn`t make it past the first level. I can never get those jumps timed right.
Spelunker 2 I had never played before today and I just plugged it in not really knowing anything about it. It is nothing like the first Spelunker.
The first thing I noticed is that you don`t die instantly whenever you mistime a jump or touch an enemy. You have a power metre that is quite forgiving.
The gameplay is quite different too. Instead of the drill you have in the first Spelunker, in this one you have a sword. You have to go around and collect various things, which probably do something, though I didn`t get far enough to find out what. Some of the game is underground, some of it on the surface and you can explore around quite a bit.

In my game, a few snakes in the first underground level weakened me a lot and a pair of wild boars on a surface level finished me off after 3 or 4 minutes of play. Relative to how long I usually last when playing the first Spelunker, that seemed like an eternity.

Anyway, these are pretty interesting games, particularly to any of you who like frustrating, awful gaming experiences (at least in the case of the first Spelunker). I rather like the carts themselves. Those early Irem carts with the red LED quite appeal to me. The artwork on the labels, especially the pink ghost on the first Spelunker, really won me over.

Donkey Kong Game and Watch: Yet Again, More Stuff

2011-10-26T10:03:00.003+09:00

My daily sacrifices to the gods of video game shopping bargains are really paying off these days. Yesterday Omocha Souko had tossed another classic Game and Watch right into their 300 yen junk bin. Donkey Kong!

The front plate is a bit scratched but otherwise it is perfect. It works great and has the battery cover! Get!
It is quite a good game too. The gameplay is quite similar to the first level of Donkey Kong on the Famicom. You just run up the screen, jumping over barrels as usual. When you get to the top though you have to jump at the right time to grab this swinging crane hook. The Donkey Kong Jr Game and Watch has a similar device at the top, only in that one you need to grab a vine.
The orange color scheme is decent enough, though I do prefer the green white and red of Donkey Kong Jr or the Blue of Donkey Kong Hockey. For 300 yen though I definitely can`t complain.

Related Posts:
- More Stuff: Donkey Kong Jr and Snoopy Tennis Game and Watches
- Mario Bros. Game and Watch Hits the Road
- The Unveiling: Donkey Kong Hockey Game and Watch

More Stuff: Donkey Kong Jr and Snoopy Tennis Game and Watches

2011-10-24T15:15:00.006+09:00

I`ve been in to Omocha Souko almost every day this week and in an amazing run of luck every time I have found some new bargain they have put out. Today was no exception. In their 300 yen junk bin today I fished out two vintage Game and Watches: Donkey Kong Jr. and Snoopy Tennis.

I really love Game and Watches but only have a small collection of them so far, so I was pretty psyched to be able to score a pair for only 600 yen. The prices for these usually start from about 3000 yen each and can go much higher.

Snoopy Tennis unfortunately turned out to be a dud. The screen is completely messed up and though it makes game sounds when turned on it is basically useless. These are the risks one takes when purchasing stuff from the junk bin! Its too bad as I really like the look of the unit:
Donkey Kong Jr on the other hand turned out to be a major score, which more than made up for that. I put some batteries in and found that it works perfectly. It has a couple of small scratches but is in otherwise great condition. I love the green and white color scheme accentuated by the red buttons:
One thing I like about the design of these types of Game and Watches is that they have little stands on the back that allow you to display them easily like I have it in the photo above.
Donkey Kong Jr also had the battery cover, which was a cool bonus. A lot of Game and Watches (like my Snoopy Tennis) have lost them over the years.

Its a great little game. The gameplay is somewhat similar to the game`s Famicom version in that you have to jump and climb vines to avoid little alligators and birds as they come at you. I`ve been playing it for the past hour or so and quite enjoyed it.

I didn`t get this with it but found an image of the original handbill for this game which is just as aweseome. They originally sold for 4800 yen, not a bad deal!

Related Posts:
- Mario Bros. Game and Watch Hits the Road
- The Unveiling: Donkey Kong Hockey!

Bandai Intellivision: This Could Be the Beginning of a Beautiful Friendship

2011-10-22T15:53:00.011+09:00

Here she is, my newest console in my constantly-expanding collection: the Bandai Intellivision.

If you are familiar with the Mattel Intellivision then this is basically the exact same thing only in a different box.

I love really early pre-Famicom systems and when I first saw this at Mandarake a few months ago I knew I had to have it. The problem was that it was that it was a bit too pricey for me at the time. It had pride of place in Mandarake`s new location, and this very one was even featured on their store`s website here.

When I went in this week and saw that they had cut the price in half though - that was my cue. Cha-ching!

This thing is awesome on so many levels, I just can`t count them all. When I took it out of the box the thing looked brand new:
I don`t think anyone has ever even played this one before, there wasn`t a scratch on it:
Oh god, look at that wood grain panelling! Just look at it!
I miss the days when all household entertainment devices had false wood grain panelling. They really should bring that back.

Gotta love `em controllers too. Very hard to use but they look so retro that I`m willing to forgive that shortcoming:
The box is amazing too. Its got these two characters:
The guy on the left looks quite skeptical, but look at how much fun the girl on the right is having. She knows what time it is! Its Intellivision time, baby.

It also has screen shots of a couple dozen or so games on the front cover, which is an aweseome thing to put on a box:
The back of the box is a bit less exciting but there it is for you if you were curious:
This thing was REALLY complete in the box. I got the manual:
A 32 page color catalogue of all the games that would have been worth the price of the whole thing just for that photo on the cover:
It has the original warranty card that still hasn`t been filled out:
And an envelope addressed to Bandai head office for the customer to mail the above warranty card to. It is specifically addressed to the Intellivision branch:
For some reason I love the fact that this was still in there!

Anyway, perhaps I should say a few words about the Japanese version of the Intellivision as most people probably don`t know that it was even released in Japan. There is a very good write up about the history of the Bandai Intellivision on Intellivision World. The basic story is that Mattel marketed the system in Japan through Bandai beginning in 1982. The unit price was a whopping 49,800 yen each, and you can imagine what the Famicom`s release a year later with a price of 14,800 yen did to that.

The system never made it off the ground here and today they are quite hard to come by. An Ebay search for the phrase `Bandai Intellivision` turned up exactly zero hits for me just now, and even a search of Yahoo Japan Auctions in Japanese only turned up one console and one game (Q-Bert) for sale. According to Chris Kohler at Wired, these usually sell for about 400$ in Akihabara. I got mine for about 75$, which was a pretty major score.

The only down side is that while I now have a beautiful and complete Bandai Intellivision, I also have exactly zero games to play it with. I asked the guy at Mandarake who sold it to me if they had any games and he just said ¨uh, no¨ with a look that indicated I should have known that before I asked as nobody has games for this thing. D-uh. As with most unsuccesful consoles, the games for this one are extremely rare and expensive.

The up side is that the Japanese Intellivision is 100% compatible with Mattel Intellivision games released in North America. In fact the games released in Japan were actually North American carts packaged with Japanese instructions and they never released any Japan-only games for it.

Thus, in an unusual turning of the tables for someone who is used to being surrounded by mountains of retro games at local shops, I`ve just spent the last hour on Ebay ordering up a few titles from sellers in the US. I bought ten games from one seller who offered decent shipping to Japan. This gives me the distinction of being the first person in the history of mankind to have retro video games sent to Japan from America rather than the other way around.

Related Posts:
- Bringing a New Console Home on the Subway from Mandarake
- About a Virtual Boy
- Mega Bargain of the Day: Sega SG-1000 II

Bringing a New Console From Mandarake Home on the Subway

2011-10-22T14:41:00.005+09:00

For a guy who complains a lot about how many retro consoles he has, I sure do buy a lot of them.

Today I bought another one. I was downtown this morning on some business after the completion of which I managed to sneak into Mandarake. I like to visit there once a month or so when I`m in the neighborhood just to see if they have anything new.

Today they didn`t have anything new per se, but they did have a new price on something that had been there for a while. It was something that I had wanted for a long time but had been needing a bit of an extra nudge to actually go through and buy the thing. A 50% reduction in price was, it turns out, enough to do it for me.

The console in question was on display in their glass case. The Mandarake glass case is awesome - nothing but the best in retro video game consoles in all of Fukuoka go in there. I love it when I can actually buy something out of there. The prices are nowhere near as cheap as the junk bins in other stores, but it makes me feel like a big shot to be able to get something out of the glass case.

Unfortunately they don`t allow photography in the store so I couldn`t take any pictures of the case. I did however photograph most of my trip home via the subway system with my new console in tow.

First we entered the underground shopping complex that leads to the station:
On arriving at the station we purchased our ticket at the machine:
Then we got on the train, which was quite crowded. Somebody with a similar looking bag from Mujirushi sat opposite us:
Then we got off after only one stop to transfer trains. We had to wait on the platform for a little while:
The next train wasn`t so crowded so we had quite a bit of room to ourselves:
Finally we arrived at the station near my home and took the escalator up and out of the subway system:So there you have it - my newest console brought home by Subway. Fascinating, I know.

You may wonder what my new console is. I`ll give you a few clues.

1. Its heavy.
2. It isn`t a handheld, it connects to a TV (with an RF switch, not AV cables).
3. It was released in the early 1980s.
4. It was also released in the United States. The American version was much more succesful than the Japanese one.
5. Beat Takeshi appeared in TV commercials for it.

I`ll do another post about it tomorrow.

Famiclone Wars Part 2: the Next II

2011-10-21T10:19:00.005+09:00

The Next II is one of the more common Famiclones floating around out there. You can buy them at the major retailer Don Quixote for a little under 2000 yen and used ones pop up at retro game shops from time to time.

Like the Famulator it retains the color scheme of the original Famicom, but other than that there isn`t much attempt to make it look like the Famicom. It is kind of just a generic looking box:
As you can see from the photo on the box in the top photo of this post, they come in two versions, basically just reversing the same color scheme on each.

Size-wise it is about the same as the Famulator and with a cart inserted it looks quite small:
This Famiclone comes with 9 games built into it. If you turn it on without a cart inserted you go directly to the game select menu:
I gave each of these a try and almost all of them are complete rip-offs of officially released Famicom games. You`ve got Lode Runner, Super Star Force, Circus Charlie (twice - they made a different game for two different levels of that one), Tennis, Mappy and a couple others that I didn`t recognize but assume they are also stolen. The names are changed and they made some basic changes to the graphics, but the games are instantly recognizable. The sound effects are directly lifted from the originals. This is what the Mappy clone looks like:
I find this very surprising since these things aren`t black market finds and are sold at major retail chains throughout the country. As someone with a bit more than a passing knowledge of copyright law, I can confidently say that these are all massively illegal and I am surprised that Namco, Hudson Soft, etc haven`t sued the makers (and Don Quixote) for producing and marketing them.

Anyway, that is just an aside that doesn`t really have anything to do with the Famiclone itself. The controller on the thing is designed similarly to the Playstation controller:
In terms of functionality it works fine. The buttons are reasonable quality, though it does make a rattling sound when you shake it.

I don`t particularly like this sort of design though. It works fine on a Playstation, but when I play Famicom games I want a controller that at least looks like it was made in the 1980s.

A lot of Famiclones try to copy the design of modern consoles like this and I wish they would stop. It is just so.....nouveau riche. It is to video game console design what Greco-Roman decorative fountains are to suburban American home gardens. This trend must be stopped.

Related Posts:
- Famiclone Wars Part 1: The Famulator
- Fukuoka Famicom Shops V: Don Quixote and Village Vanguard
- Mahjong Famiclone

Famiclone Wars Part 1: the Famulator

2011-10-20T10:07:00.004+09:00

Among the other things I have picked up at Omocha Souko recently have been a pile of Famiclones. Literally a pile of them. Look at that picture above. See? A pile.

Anyway, I thought I`d devote a few posts to doing mini-reviews of each of them. Famiclones are kind of an interesting sub-genre of the Famicom world. There are a ton of different ones out there, many released since Nintendo`s patent on the Famicom expired in 2003, making the technology part of the public domain.

These usually retail for between 1500 and 2500 yen at various retailers like Don Quixote and Village Vanguard. The thing I like about Famiclones is that they come in a ton of different colors, shapes, sizes and levels of commitment to not violating intellectual property rights. So there is a lot of variety out there.

I thought I`d start at the top of the pile with this Famiclone, the Famulator:
Out of the four Famiclones I have this one bears the strongest physical resemblance to the actual Famicom. The red and white colors are about the same and that belt where it says Famulator across the front looks quite similar to the one on the front of the Famicom. It even has a bit of the clear plastic starting to separate from the red plastic, which commonly happens on the real Famicom too.

In terms of size though, the Famulator is much smaller than the actual Famicom, a fact that you really notice when you put a cart into it:
I gave it a go with Space Invaders there. The controller is quite small and simple in design:
For a Famiclone though I was surprised at how good the controller was. It is quite sturdy and the buttons feel right, providing the right amount of resistance to the touch.

When I tried to remove Space Invaders after finishing though I did notice that it is quite difficult to take carts out of the thing. I had to really wrench on the thing to the point that I was worried about breaking it before I got it out. The opening you put the cart into is quite small and doesn`t allow much wiggle room which probably explains why it was so hard.

Another feature worth noting is that this Famiclone doesn`t come with any built in game software of its own, you can only play it if you put a cart in.

Anyway, this is a pretty decent Famiclone. Small, attractive and with good controllers, but without any software built in and with some cart-removal difficulties. In the next post I`ll look at the next Famiclone - the Next II.

Related Posts:
Fukuoka Famicom Shops V: Don Quixote and Village Vanguard
Mahjong Famiclone

In Search of the Square Button Famicom Revisions

2011-10-19T19:00:00.004+09:00

This post is about an interesting little bit of archeological research that is being conducted into the hidden history of the Famicom - the revisions.

Revisions are basically just that - revisions. Over the course of the Famicom`s lifetime Nintendo was constantly revising the insides to deal with technical issues as they cropped up. Each time they did a revision they would number the board with whatever revision it was. Due to the fact that these were numbered sequentially (ie starting from 1), it is possible to establish a timeline of these revisions in relation to the development of the outwardly visible changes in the console - most notably the switch over from square to round buttons.

My interest in this was sparked by jpx72 over at Famicom World, to whom I sold my old square button Famicom a few weeks ago. To me it was just a broken old Famicom that I had no use for which I was glad to get rid of. To him it was an important piece of history that was of immense interest. His enthusiasm piqued my interest and I began to learn more.

He directed me to this thread over on Famicom World where you`ll find a little debate going on. The posters there have been slowly trying to piece together the history of these revisions based on Famicom consoles they have found. Square button ones, being the earliest Famicoms issued, are of particular interest.

Their research so far has found that consoles from the 5th revision were the last to have the square buttons. From revision 6 they started having round buttons.

What made my broken old square button Famicom so interesting to jpx72 was that after he recieved it in the mail he discovered that it was from the 3rd revision. Until then the earliest square button Famicom that anyone on Famicom World had been able to find was from the 4th revision.

So my little old square button Famicom confirmed that the 3rd revision had in fact been sold to the public. As of now nobody seems to have a confirmed sighting of a 1st or 2nd revision Famicom.

Anyway, among the avalanche of recent bargains I`ve been finding at Omocha Souko has been another square button Famicom. This gives me two in total, including the one I got a few months ago which is in great condition.

After procrastinating for the longest time I decided that today was the day to actually open up these two square button Famicoms and see which revisions they were.

The new one I opened first. This is what the board looks like:
The revision number can be found in the lower left hand corner:
You can see that little 05 there, which means it is a 5th revision console, the very last before the round button ones came out.

I then cracked open my other one and discovered this:
It is a 3rd revision one! This means that it is tied with my old one that I sold to jpx72 as the oldest revision square button Famicom out there! I don`t know why but for some reason this fills me with an immense sense of satisfaction!

Anyway, this is just my little post about a very interesting bit of research being done into the history of the Famicom. Maybe someday a 1st or 2nd revision board will be found.

Boxed Famicom Games and the Problem of Collection Creep

2011-10-18T10:42:00.003+09:00

When I first set out on my mission to collect all of the carts ever released for the Famicom (1055 in total, of which I have just short of 700), I intended to only collect them loose.

Over the years though I have accumulated a fair number of boxed Famicom games. A little over fifty of them.
The first I got was Gradius, which remains one of my favorites. I bought it mainly because I needed Gradius and happened to find a boxed one going cheap, so I figured `why not`?
This process has repeated itself about fifty or so times with each of the boxed games I have acquired. Unlike the loose carts that I need, I don`t specifically go looking for boxed games. But when I see a nice one that looks good and the price is right I usually pick it up.
This presents a bit of an existential problem to my collecting mind. What, exactly, is it that I am collecting? With my loose carts the question is pretty easy to answer - I am collecting all of them. By definition, therefore, any loose cart that I don`t have is one I need. Its a very simple equation.
With boxed games though that simplicity and clarity of purpose vanishes. Collecting all of the boxed has never been a serious option - I have nowhere near enough money to do so. The ones I do possess provide no evidence of any method to the madness with which I have collected them. They are a random selection of impulse purchases made at various times and selected based on an amorphous amalgum of subjective criteria that I could not put into words if asked to do so.

In other words, they are just a random bunch of games that I liked the look of.
This is an example what I like to call `collection creep` and it happens with pretty much every collection I have ever started in my life. You start out collecting one thing with a specific goal of just collecting that one thing. But as you go about doing so, you start to find other, similar, things from time to time and you end up buying them as well. Slowly the amount of these `other things` which you possess start to dominate your collection, making a mockery of your original goal. The boundaries of what you collect creeps outward until it becomes absolutely massive.
The process with my current collection has gone something like the following, arranged in order with the first being my original collecting goal and the last being my current collecting goal:

1. Collect only loose Famicom carts of games I like.

2. Collect loose Famicom carts of all the games released for the Famicom.

3. Collect all the Famicom games loose and also a few boxed Famicom games.

4. Collect all the Famicom games loose, a few boxed Famicom games, and a few Super Famicom games I like.

5. Collect all the Famicom games loose, a few boxed Famicom games, a few Super Famicom games and some PC Engine games.

(a few intermediate steps ommited)

38. Collect all retro video games ever made.

Well, my current goal isn`t really to collect every retro video game ever made, but it now seems that pretty much any retro video game out there which I don`t have and which looks cool is fair game.

The end result is that I now have more retro consoles than I can count and a massive horde of games. This month alone I have added two more consoles (the Virtua Boy and Sega SG-1000-II) to the collection! It never ends. If I lived in a larger house this wouldn`t really be a problem, but being in a Japanese apartment with limited storage space - well, I won`t bore you with my tales of closet woe.

Anyway, any of you out there looking to start a collection - beware the perils of collection creep!

Another Arkanoid 2 Controller

2011-10-16T16:51:00.007+09:00

Yup, more Famicom stuff I bought. Today: Arkanoid II complete in box.

This was another Omocha Souko find. This wasn`t in the junk section, in fact it wasn`t even in the Omocha Souko I usually go to. This was in the other one way out in the east of town, which I only get to once every 3 or 4 months at best.

They were having a 50% off sale and this was usually 1200 yen, but marked down to 600 (about 8$), which I thought was too good to pass up.

Arkanoid II is a really good game to get boxed because when you open the box it has this:
The Vaus Arkanoid controller!

There are actually two versions of the Famicom Arkanoid controller. Way back in 2009 the subject of the second post I ever put up on this blog was about the other version of this controller, which is shaped a bit differently and blue.

I was never satisfied with that one though because it has this glitch in it that prevents you from moving the Vaus all the way to the right of the screen, making it effectively useless. So I was pretty happy to find this one complete with the box and everything for such a cheap price.
This controller is, incidentally, something that you really do need to play Arkanoid or Arkanoid II properly on the Famicom. You can play both games with the standard Famicom controller, but the problem is that you don`t get any differential speed on those. That means you can`t race over when the ball takes an unexpected bounce and you`ll find yourself constantly losing lives that could have been saved if you had the proper controller. Getting past about the third level is very difficult when Arkanoid is played that way.

Well, it is actually difficult to get past level three using this controller too, I haven`t quite gotten used to it yet. I still like it quite a bit.

Another thing I discovered with this purchase which will only be of interest to people who fervently collect Famicom games is that Taito seems to have released two versions of the Arkanoid II cart:
The one on the top is the Arkanoid II cart I`ve had for a while. The one on the bottom is the one I got with this boxed one. As you can see, they are different.

(light coughing heard in the distance, tumbleweed blows by)

Yeah, OK, not exactly an earth shattering discovery, but I still thought it was neat. I`ve seen lots of copies of the top version of the cart, but this is the first I`ve seen of the bottom version.

Related Posts
-Arkanoid Vaus Controller-Fukuoka Famicom Shops VII: the Other Omocha Souko

Sega SG-1000 II Update:Its Alive!

2011-10-14T18:25:00.007+09:00

Just wanted to post a quick update about my recently acquired Sega SG-1000 II. I found an RF switch for it and decided to take a chance on using a PC Engine AC adaptor with it.

It works!

I plugged my one and only game - Pacar - into it and after a few minutes of messing around had things functioning quite smoothly.

It is actually quite a good game. It looked like a racing game on the cover, but it is actually like Pac Man. You ride around a maze-like set of roads picking up dots and trying to avoid a couple of other cars which are also on the road. Hit one of them and you are toast. But if you grab a power up you can turn the tables and only the other cars crash when you collide.

Basically PacMan only with cars.

Anyway, it now has pride of place next to my kitchen TV:I can`t wait until I get some more games for it!

Related Posts
- Mega Bargain of the Day: Sega SG-1000 II
- Another Extremely Rare Sealed Video Game Bites the Dust

About a Virtual Boy

2011-10-14T09:34:00.009+09:00

I have another retro game bargain to report, this one is probably the best yet (though I make that claim a lot).

As per my regular modus operandi, this piece was discovered in the junk section of Omocha Souko, which has seen an absolute avalanche of bargain gems as of late.

While wandering the aisles my eyes alighted upon a box for the Virtual Boy. At first I assumed it was either empty or maybe had some broken Virtual Boy parts in it at best. I say this because all the consoles in the junk section are sold at a flat fee of 300 yen (4$) each and it would be inconceivable for a CIB Virtual Boy to be going for that cheap. That is what I paid for my Sega 1000 II, which was covered in dirt and I had to buy the controllers seperately.

I have been interested in getting a Virtual Boy for a while though so seeing the box piqued my interest. Amiga4Ever over at Guru Meditation wrote a really good post about this console a couple months ago. He refers to it as an `absolute wonder of the retro gaming world`, an assessment with which I completely agree.

I won`t repeat the whole history of the console here, save to recap some of the highlights. It is a console that uses a headset to create the illusion of 3D graphics, which makes it a completely different creature from your standard console. It was released in 1995 and was the first Nintendo console to completely tank, selling only 800,000 units worldwide in its breif lifetime.

Its unique, unusual design and the fact that so few were produced has made it one of the most interesting and hard to find consoles for retro collectors like myself to find.

So I just peaked into the box to quickly make sure it had something worth buying in it. Through the crack I could see the distinctive red plastic of the Virtual Boy`s headset, which was good enough for me. I paid the 300 yen and took it home.

On opening it up at home I was shocked. The thing was in perfect condition and was complete! It had the headset and controller:
The manual and all the inserts, including the flyer for Virtual Boy accessories:
And of course the box itself, which was a bit worn but still looked good:
Wanting something to test it with I actually went back the same day (Omocha Souko is, I should point out, just a few minutes from my home by bicycle which is why I can visit so often) and bought the only two games I could find, Tobidase Bomberman and T & E Virtual Golf (which, ironically, each cost more than the Virtual Boy itself):
I had a bit of trouble hooking it up at first. On reading the manual I was a bit disappointed to discover that the thing runs off of batteries, which always annoys me. But when I tried to open the battery case on the back of the controller I became massively confused as it looked completely different from the picture in the manual.

After a few minutes of fiddling I made a brilliant discovery. The battery attachment on my Virtual Boy had been replaced with an AC adaptor tap!
This thing - which is awesome - allows you to use a Famicom or Super Famicom AC adaptor to power the Virtual Boy, which is a million times better than having to constantly put batteries into it! It was almost like they had tailor made this thing specifically for me!

Plugging it in I was delighted to find that it works perfectly! I gave it an inaugural run through on Tobidase Bomberman:
I have to say that this is an odd choice for a game to have ported to the Virtual Boy as it is basically a Dr. Mario/ Tetris type game that doesn`t make much use of the 3D feature that sets the Virtual Boy apart. Anyway, the cut scenes demonstrated the 3D graphics quite well and I love that game anyway, so I`m not complaining.

The dog took an interest in it too:
Lacking in opposable thumbs he wasn`t able to handle the controller, but he concurred that the 3D graphics were quite neat to look at.

Anyway, I am massively happy with this find. They had one at Mandarake a couple months ago for 8,000 yen, which was actually a pretty good deal for it. To find one for 300 yen has totally blown my fragile mind. Seriously. How did this happen? 300 yen for a complete, working Virtual Boy? That is less than what most items on the menu at Starbucks cost.

Related Posts
-Mega Bargain of the Day: Sega SG-1000 II
-Mega Bargain of the Day: KousenjuuSP Electro Safari
-Mega Bargain of the Day: Family Basic, Family Trainer and Climber Stick

Another Extremely Rare Sealed Video Game Bites the Dust

2011-10-12T16:00:00.008+09:00

Funny story.

Today I yet again found myself in Omocha Souko. I had a very specific purchase in mind. It was just one game. It was relatively expensive at 2000 yen (about 27$), but a good deal considering what it was.

The game was Pacar for the Sega SG-1000, a console I had just purchased the other day and didn`t have any games for yet.

This wasn`t just any copy of Pacar though. This was a pristine mint copy that was still sealed. Wow.

Now, I am on record here as finding this whole collecting sealed games trend silly. My somewhat condescending views on that segment of the retro game collecting hobby have not, however, entirely blinded me to the fact that hard to find sealed games are worth a lot of money.

It is pretty safe to say that Pacar, or just about any SG-1000 game, is pretty hard to find. I did a search on Ebay and found a CIB copy that wasn`t sealed going for about 35$, which seems about right.

So my rational, calculating brain thought to itself `Hey, the price they are charging for the sealed one is less than what an unsealed one costs elsewhere. So I can buy it and then decide whether I want to open it or maybe sell it for more to some sealed game collector and then use some of the funds to buy a loose copy and save the rest. Either way I win.`

Brilliant plan. It went smoothly at first. I arrived at Omocha Souko, picked the game off the shelf and proceded to the cashier. I waited in line while another customer was served. Then when my turn came I placed it on the counter next to the register.

Then something interesting happened. The guy at the cash picked it up and looked at the price tag. He punched in the amount. Then - in a single motion that happened so quickly I didn`t have a chance to utter a word of protest - he ripped the plastic seal completely off the box so that he could check to make sure the cart in the box was the correct one.

For about 30 seconds afterwards I stood motionless, looking like this while the cashier awkwardly peeled the cash from my catatonically frozen hand:
Yet another victim of an Omocha Souko human resources policy that does not require employees to know anything about the collector value of retro video games.

Anyhoo, I`m not really upset about it as it takes the agony of the `should I open it or sell it` decision out of my hands. And now all I have to do is get an AC adaptor for my SG-1000 II and I`ll be able to see if it works!

And if any of you have seen auctions at which sealed SG-1000 II games went for astronomical sums, please do me the favor of keeping that information to yourselves.

Related Posts
Mega Bargain of the Day: Sega SG 1000 II
Famicom Cart Condition: Why Bad is Good and I`ll Never Buy Sealed Stuff

Mega Bargain of the Day: Sega SG-1000 II Console

2011-10-11T09:29:00.007+09:00

I`ve had a string of good luck at Omocha Souko over the past week and in this post I thought I`d introduce yet another one of my finds: the sexily named Sega SG-1000 II.

I found this one in the junk section, which has been unusually well stocked recently. It cost me 500 yen (about 7$), 300 for the console itself and 100 yen each for the controllers.

This is one of those consoles that I have been trying to find a cheap copy of for a long time. They are much harder to find than Famicoms are. They had one at Mandarake a few months ago that was semi-complete for 6300 yen, which I came very close to buying before someone else beat me to it. Having just bought one for less than 1/10th that much, I`m glad they did.

This one is a bit worn and dirty, but I kind of like that. It looks like it has been well used, but not over-used to the point that something has broken off of it. That is the perfect amount of wear in my books.
This is one of those early Sega consoles that doesn`t get much attention. The first time I saw one I thought it was the Japanese version of the Sega Master System, but it isn`t. The Sega Mark III, which looks almost exactly the same as the SG-1000 II on the outside, is the Japanese version of the Master System (or, more accurately, the Master System is the overseas version of the Mark III).

The SG-1000 II is an earlier console based on an even earlier one, the SG 1000, which was released in Japan on the exact same day as the Famicom (July 15, 1983, mark it on your calenders).

I kind of like the look of it. Clumsy but in an understated way. The controllers are extremely spartan in design:
They snap right on to the sides of the console, which is kind of handy. As with the Famicom they made the mistake of having the controllers wired into the back of the console instead of the front, which significantly reduces the distance from which you can sit and use the console.

Perhaps its most interesting feature from an aesthetic perspective is the little piece of video game literature stamped on the surface:

`A fun packed console designed for simple operation. This computer video game with its distinct images allows you to enjoy the maximum in playing satisfaction. Its colorful gameplay is sure to test your skills, sharpen your reflexes and greatly expand your imagination.`

The English is grammatically correct, indicating that it was at least proof read by a native speaker before they started churning them out of the factory. I love the fact that it nonetheless remains a literal translation of the original Japanese in which it was undoubtedly first composed, rendering the resulting English prose clumsy and hamfisted but in a charming sort of way.

Anyway, I also found a game to go with it, the Pro Baseball Penant Race, that I also found in the junk box.
Being new to the whole vintage Sega scene I just looked at the back of the packaging and saw a picture of a console that looked like the one I was buying so I didn`t actually read the fine print.
The console in that picture is actually the Sega Mark III, which as I mentioned above looks almost exactly the same as the SG-1000 II. If I had looked carefully I would have noticed the writing in the white box near the top which says `Cannot be used with the SC-3000 or SG-1000 series`.

So once again I am left with retro game stuff that I cannot test because I don`t have anything to test it with (nor do I have an AC adaptor or RF switch). This is becoming a growing theme in my collection, with my new Super Cassette Vision games (no console) and my Cassette Vision console (no games). Anyway, someday I`ll get the stuff I need to test this baby out!

Related Posts
Mega Bargain of the Day: Pile of Super Cassette Vision Carts
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Mega Bargain of the Day: Pile of Epoch Super Cassette Vision Carts

2011-10-07T14:55:00.007+09:00

I was at Omocha Souko today browsing their junk section. It has been an amazing week for me there, I picked up the Famicom Robot a couple days ago for a steal. Today I found something just as good.

As I was looking at the usual junk, I noticed these babies sitting on a bottom shelf:
I couldn`t believe my eyes. Fourteen Super Cassette Vision carts just sitting there in the junk section.

Just to put into perspective for you how hard these things are to find, I have spent a ridiculous amount of time over the past 3 years wandering through the aisles of pretty much every game store in this city. Before today I had never seen a single Super Cassette Vision cart in my life. These things are massively hard to find, even Mandarake doesn`t have any. A quick search on Ebay just now turned up only a handful of the things, the lowest price for a single game being 24$. Yahoo Japan Auctions has them for slightly lower starting bids, but even there the pickings are slim. These are about as rare as retro video game carts come.

I knew I had to have them, they just looked way too amazing to leave there. The only problem was that I didn`t know how much they were. The junk section at Omocha Souko is usually just for consoles and accessories, not games, so they only had prices listed for those things.

I flagged down one of their staff and asked how much. He didn`t know and went to go ask one of his supervisors in the back. I stood guard in front of the shelf while he did so, warning off would-be Epoch Super Cassette Vision cart purchasers with my nasty `These Epoch Super Cassette Vision carts are MINE` look (trust me, you don`t want to see that look).

He came back a minute later and said `100 yen each.`

`I see` I said, rubbing my chin as though weighing the purchase decision `thank you`.

As soon as he was around the corner I grabbed a basket, slammed my forearm onto the shelf and swept the whole lot into it in one motion. I then speed-walked to the cashier to pay for them immediately and get the hell out of there before they changed their mind.

These things are just amazing. If you are a regular reader of this blog you know that one of the reasons I love Famicom carts so much is how colorful they are. They just look a million times cooler than the boring grey Super Famicom or NES carts.

Until today I had never seen a video game cart that could give the Famicom cart a run for its money in terms of appearance, but I have to say the Super Cassette Vision carts do. Just look at those colors:
Amazing.

The carts are about two-thirds the size of a Famicom cart:
The main surface label on each is a mini instruction manual that tells you which controls do what in the game:
And the top label has the name of the game, making them extremely easy to identify when stored:
Unfortunately the one thing I am missing is an actual Epoch Super Cassette Vision console to play these on. I have an Epoch Cassette Vision (without the `Super`), but they aren`t compatable with it. Someday though I am going to figure out what Comic Circus, Milky Princess, Elevator Fight, Ton Ton Ball, Miner 2049er, Punch Boy and...well all of these games are like. They sound awesome.

I might add a bit here about the history of Epoch and these games as it is kind of interesting and not much has been written about it in english. When you read about the history of video games, the 3rd generation is usually portrayed as a two-way race between Nintendo and Sega which Nintendo overwhelmingly won with the NES/ Famicom.

In Japan though it was more of a three-way race won by an even more overwhelming margin by Nintendo over Sega and Epoch (and Bandai and Atari, which also made attempts to compete).

Epoch actually beat Nintendo to the chase though by releasing the Cassette Vision in 1981 - the first successful cart-based system to be released in Japan. At one point they controlled 70% of the Japanese home video game market. The release of the Famicom in 1983 wiped that out completely.

The Super Cassette Vision was Epoch`s attempt to compete with Nintendo to regain some of its market share. It teamed up with NEC (later maker of the PC Engine) to develop the hardware, which was released on July 17, 1984.

The system never took off and Nintendo was able to capture 95% of the Japanese market during that generation. The Super Cassette Vision was discontinued in 1987, with thirty games having been released for it. Shortly thereafter Epoch started releasing titles on the Famicom as a third party developer.

Anyway, its an interesting snippet of Japanese video game history. And I just grabbed almost half the console`s entire library of software for about 20 bucks!

Related Posts:
Mega Bargain of the Day: KousenjuuSP Electro Safari
Flea Market Finds: Epoch Cassette Vision

The Famicom Robot: A Day in the Life of

2011-10-06T09:55:00.007+09:00

His name is Phillip, but you can call him Phil. Everyone does. He is a robot. A Famicom Robot.

His day begins on the floor amid a pile of empty girly drink cans. Evidence of his frustration at the world that has denied his genius at every turn. The gentle nudging of Doogle brings him to consciousness.
He has his daily 9 o`clock ping pong session with Richard Branson. He loses every game. He is too short to see the table top.
The afternoon sees him having high tea with Mr. Floppers, his best friend in the world. Today they talk about their shared sense of relief that Sarah Palin will not be running for president.
Five o`clock and the Muscle Men drop by for a visit:
Ten o`clock and it is once again time for bed. He bids Doogle a good night and retires for the day.

The end.

Oh yes, everybody, look! I got the Famicom robot! 50% off sale! GET!

He came complete with his box:
And instruction manual:
This guy was a steal, usually they sell for about 100$ complete like this but I got him for only about 10 bucks. I think that was mainly because when I pulled him out of the box he was covered in orange spots like this:
A bit of scrubbing with a wet wipe got rid of all that though and he looks just like new. The only thing missing as far as I can tell is the battery cover. I`m not sure if he actually works as I don`t have enough batteries on hand and, frankly, don`t really care. I just bought him to look at.

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Seoul Searching: A 2 Hour Quest for Korea`s Retro Video Games

2011-10-03T09:16:00.017+09:00

I just got back from a short trip to Seoul, Korea.

Well, `trip` probably isn`t the right word. I was there for a conference which had nothing to do with video games so I won`t dwell on it here, except to say that it regrettably took up almost my entire time there. I only had a couple of hours to actually explore a country of about 50 million people. If any of you are currently planning a trip to Korea, my advice is to give yourself more than a couple of hours to look around.

Anyway, a couple months ago when I decided to come to Korea, I thought it would be a great opportunity to check out the retro video game shops there and maybe pick up whatever the Korean version of the Famicom was (edit - the Hyundai Comboy).

I did some research online and was quite disappointed by what I found. Korea is quite similar to Japan in many ways and I had assumed that retro video game availability would be one of those similarities. It isn`t. Apparently Korea changed their entire electric power system back in the 1990s, which at a stroke rendered all electronics produced before then completely inoperable. So most of the 80s consoles and video games that I had hoped to find were scrapped years ago and are much more difficult to find than their counterparts in Japan. Even the Yongsan electronics market, I discovered, has virtually no retro games available.

I thus more or less gave up on looking for Korean retro games and reconciled myself to visiting some of Seoul`s more mainstream tourist attractions, like the Gyeongbokgung palace (pictured at the top of this post) which I highly recommend.

I also ventured into Insadong, a shopping district not far from the palace. It was while strolling its streets that I stumbled across the only vestiges of Korea`s video game past that I would discover on my brief trip.

Insadong is a really cool place. Lots of back alleys with trendy shops, restaurants and galleries. As I wandered the main street I noticed in the second floor of one building a number of what looked to be 1980s vintage toys in the window. It looked like it might be a small Korean version of Mandarake. There was a sign on the first floor that was entirely in Korean, which I can`t read, but the picture looked promising.So I ventured up the narrow staircase to the store above.

At the top of the stairs, hidden in a corner by the store`s front door a rotund, middle aged man in a collared yellow shirt sat behind a cramped desk piled high with a ton of junk. He was sleeping soundly as a Korean drama flickered on a TV set. Not another soul was in the shop. But the sight of what laid inside just amazed me:
The place was bursting to the rafters with old toys, piled up in massive quantities in every square inch of space. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. I could barely contain my enthusiasm as I walked past the store`s sleeping owner and began wandering the aisles.

As I wandered, I noticed something a bit strange. None of the merchandise had any price tags on them. This always annoys me when I see flea market vendors who do that. I just never buy anything from them. It was the first time I had ever seen a store like that though.

Then the owner stirred from his nap. `Hello Hello` he called to me `2,000 Won. Camera OK.`

At an instant, the lack of price tags, and other customers, was explained. This was not a store. It was a museum.

I thought about it for a second, then whipped out a pair of thousand Won notes and walked over to hand them to him. `OK, thank you` he said, and then turned his attention to the TV screen in front of him.

As a store, this place would have been awesome. As a museum that charged admission, it was laughably bad. It was just a big room where this guy dumped his lifetime accumulation of toys at random with little attempt at organization or proper presentation, as evidenced by this Last Action Hero Pinball machine buried in a mass of junk:
Yet this chaotic and indifferent approach to display made the place much more entertaining to explore than a professional museum would have been. I spent almost an hour wandering around just gawking at the stuff. Robots lined shelves:
As did chubby helicopters:
And TVs which would have been about Famicom vintage:And, most important for the purposes of this blog, I also found some vintage video game stuff scattered here and there throughout the mess.

Under one glass case was a random pile of old hand helds, including one called Pac Boy:
Another called Submarine Battle was lying on a shelf in some box:Star Force and Galaxy II could be found nestled behind some other retro treasures:As could this blue one, whose name I forgot to write down:The best piece though I found lying on top of one of the cases. A Samsung Gam Boy, which was a dead ringer for the Sega Master System:
It is kind of a testament to just how bad (in a good way) that this museum was that the owner couldnt even be bothered to take the tape holding the AC adaptor off before putting it out for display. It didn`t have any controllers either and the copy of Gallog that it had was in pretty rough shape:I`m not too sure how popular this thing was. Naturally I would have preferred to find the Korean version of a Famicom rather than its prime rival, but given the fact that I only had two hours to hunt for one, this was a pretty good consolation prize.Anyway, that was my trip. I highly recommend a trip to Seoul, it is a great city. I`m already planning a proper trip there someday where I`ll have more than a couple hours to explore!

Double Trouble Donkey Kong Jr. Style: Pulse Line versus Box Art

2011-09-23T10:59:00.006+09:00

One of my recent Famicom purchases was another copy of Donkey Kong Jr. I`ve had the pulse line version of this game for quite a while, but I didn`t have the other version. The...uh...one on the right in the above photo.

The subject of today`s post is this duality exemplified in my Donkey Kong Jrs. Most of the Famicom Pulse line carts were released in two versions - the original pulse line version and the other version with the picture from the box art, which were released later.

As a point of nomenclature, I`m not actually sure how to refer to these versions. `Pulse line` is a convenient and descriptive term that is hard to mistake for something else. But what to call these other carts? `Picture carts`? That is short, but not very specific as most Famicom carts have pictures on them. `Box art carts`? Same problem.

Anyway, since I need to refer to them as something in this post, I`ll use the phrase `box art carts` to refer to the versions of the pulse line carts that have box art instead of the pulse line on the cover. Everybody clear on that? Good.

From a collector`s point of view, I`ve noticed some variations in the relative scarcity of the pulse line and box art versions of some of these carts. I think they can be divided into three categories.

1. Pulse Line Carts that have no Box Art version

To the best of my knowledge, the following pulse line carts never had a box art version released:

Donkey Kong 3
Pinball
Donkey Kong Jr Math
Popeye English

I could be mistaken and if anyone knows of box art versions of these carts, please let me know. I have never seen one myself though.

2. Pulse Line Carts that have Box Art versions which were released in roughly equal numbers

For some games that had two versions released, each version seems to have been released in roughly the same quantity and neither is harder to find or more expensive than the other. I would include the following games in this category:

Baseball
Golf
Devil World
Tennis
Mario Bros.
Mah-Jong

There is a bit of variation. The box art version of Mario Bros. seems to be slightly harder to find than the pulse line version, for example, but not too much harder and most shops charge the same price for each if they have them.

3. Pulse line carts that are much easier to find than their box art versions

For some reason a number of carts have box art versions that are significantly harder to find than the pulse line versions and most stores will sell the box art version for a much higher price. These include:

Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong Jr
Popeye

At Mandarake in town here, for example, they have both versions of Popeye available loose. The Pulse line version they are selling for 630 yen (about 9$), while the box art version they are selling for 2400 yen (about 30$). I`m guessing that the reason for this relative scarcity of the later box art versions is that the popularity of those games declined quickly between 1983 and 1985 and thus fewer of the newer versions were sold.

4. Gomokunarabe

This is the one cart which I can`t say for certain which category it belongs in. I have one copy of each version, so I can say that it belongs in either group 2 or 3, but I just haven`t seen enough copies of it in stores to know which is harder to find than the other. Anybody out there know?

Anyway, just thought I`d put this info I had rattling around in my head out there for reference if any of you are trying to collect both versions of these games!

A Layman and a 6 Month Old Puppy Try to Make a Power Glove Work Without Thoroughly Reading the Manual

2011-09-10T17:20:00.004+09:00

Well, the clear shelf space I created through my Famicom sale has lasted all of a week. They were having a 40 percent off sale over at Omocha Souko on all purchases over 2000 yen (about 25$) so I decided to splurge on a PAX Power Glove.

This was sort of me just bowing to the inevitable. I've had chances to buy the Power Glove before but had always resisted the temptation. They aren't generally remembered as one of the better Famicom controllers after all, and they are pretty bulky and take up a lot of space. But after some consideration I decided that no Famicom collection worthy of the name could ever possibly be complete without this weird thing and so I finally caved and bought one.

This is a pretty good one, complete in its box and in almost brand new condition:
When I got my NES at the age of 13 I remember looking in the Zellers catalog and seeing this thing. It was 89.95.

You know what that means, right? Yup, it means that I wanted it so bad that more than 20 years later I remember which department store's catalog it was in and how much they wanted for it.

Of course, in the catalog they only showed a picture of the glove itself, which looks pretty awesome:
Its like having the entire Darth Vader outfit reduced to a glove and put on your hand.

In actual fact though the Power Glove requires a ton of other stuff to make it work. There is this rack thing with sensors that you have to put on your TV:
I was fortunate that our TV coincidentally happens to be the right size for this thing. The manual suggest stacking books on top of your TV if it is too small.

I love the fact that the sensor array has little LED lights that blink on and off seemingly at random while it is on. It looks like some background prop from a Star Trek set or something:
As I tried to play around with it a bit my dog, Doogle, discovered it:
He loves it. It is made of material that is roughly of the same texture and feel as most of his dog chew toys. So from the moment I put it on all he wanted to do was bite my hand.

I hasten to add that he pretty much always wants to bite my hand so this isn't necessarily the Power Glove's fault.

It did complicate matters somewhat though as I'm sure this thing is difficult enough to use even without a 5.4 kilogram fluffball with teeth basically hanging off the thing with his mouth. With one it is damn near impossible. I tried figuring out how to play Galaxian with it. While the spaceship moved around on the screen a bit, I'm not sure if this was in response to my movements or just some random thing that it did.

In fairness though I didn't actually read the manual, which has several pages dedicated to programming this thing, which I assume is necessary in order to make it work properly. Doogle just wasn't having any of that though so I reluctantly put the thing away without having fully realized the awesome potential that the glove promises. Perhaps someday I'll sneak it off the shelf when he is out for a walk with just my wife or something:)

New World Famicom Galaxian Record!!!

2011-09-05T18:29:00.005+09:00

As I mentioned in an earlier post a couple months ago, I've been trying for ages to crack the Famicom Galaxian record. Well, at least I've been trying to break the only Famicom Galaxian record that I've been able to find, which was set in 1985 by someone named Hitoki from Gunma prefecture and reported in my Hishousakusen Mecha Guide.

That record was 85,030 points. It pales in comparison to the arcade record listed at Twin Galaxies, which is somewhere over 1,000,000 points but its still a pretty good score. I've never gotten within 20,000 points of it. Until today. Today I finally did it: 97,720 points! Yes!
I had the game of my life. I didn't even loose my first life until just after hitting 70,000.

The best part of breaking the record is that I can finally stop playing Galaxian!! Galaga is way better.

Anyway, short post but I couldn't wait to tell everyone - no point in setting a new high score otherwise:)

Oh and to end this on a petty note: IN YOUR FACE, Hitoki from Gunma in 1985! Oh yeah!

Putting on a Video Game Sale Online

2011-09-03T18:11:00.002+09:00

As I mentioned in my previous post last week, I decided to put on a little sale of some of my extra Famicom stuff. Its gone quite well so far and I'd really like to thank everyone who purchased some stuff and the friendly folks at Famicom World for hosting my little sales thread!

The sale has led to some changes in my collection. I've said goodbye to a few pieces that were the subjects of posts on here, including my very first square button Famicom and my turbo Twin Famicom (I gave up on the idea of owning one of every Twin Famicom ever made - I just don't have the space to keep all of them)!

I've also moved over 100 carts on to new homes, which is good as they were all doubles that I wasn't getting any use out of except perhaps as back-ups. Now they are on their way to people who will, I hope, have some fun with them.

Anyway, its been fun and a learning experience. There is actually a surprisingly large amount of work that goes into something like this. Sorting the games, testing them, photographing them, keeping track of who bought what, figuring out how to calculate postage correctly, buying bubble wrap, etc etc. It is a labor of love.

A few tips I would offer to anyone thinking of doing something similar based on rookie mistakes I've made:

1. Keep accurate records of everything and keep them updated. At one point I accidentally promised the same cart to two people, both of whom went through with their purchase. I resolved the situation by selling my original copy of the game to one of them, meaning I accidentally shrank my collection by 1 cart!

2. Be careful not to mislabel games. I was a bit lazy in listing mine and made a couple of mistakes that confused everyone, including me.

3. Make friends at the post office. They have a ton of options for shipping stuff. The folks at mine have been great since I started showing up almost everyday with packages to send. They informed me of a few things (ie packages sent via surface mail come with tracking and free insurance - who knew?) I now know pretty much all the options they have and can almost quote the exact amount it will cost to ship a Famicom cart almost anywhere in the world!

4. Be friendly. Since I've been getting paid via paypal I've been using some of the funds raised from this sale to make a few (non-Famicom) purchases on Ebay, which I've never done before. I've been surprised by how much difference there is between sellers. Some have been really great - answering questions quickly and being quite friendly. Others have been much less so - ignoring questions and barely communicating at all. I much prefer the former and have added those ones to my favorites. The latter I am much less inclined to deal with again.

Anyway, just a few thoughts there. Thanks again, everyone!

Famicomblog Sells Out

2011-08-26T09:05:00.005+09:00

As I'm often complaining about on here, my apartment suffers from an acute lack of shelf space. Its a complete nightmare trying to store stuff in a Japanese apartment, they are just so small. The addition of a dog to the family - which has brought an avalanche of new products (many of them designed to remove pee stains from various types of fabric) - has further upset the already delicate shelf space/worldly possessions balance.

Something had to give and that something has been the massive quantities of surplus Famicom stuff I have accumulated over the years. Everything must go. Well, not everything. My hallowed collection of 670 unique Famicom carts (and counting) stays. But if I want room for the remaining 400 or so that I need to complete the entire set, the doubles have to go.

So I finally got off my ass and figured out how to set up a paypal account. And my first sale, to Michael over at TechSquid, went quite well.

So, feeling emboldened, I've decided to set up a little sales page over at Famicom World. I promise this will be the only time I use this blog to plug stuff like this, but I've put up a couple hundred games and other odds and ends so if you are looking for some Famicom games I might have them there.

I'll probably update it once in a while if things go well, I have a ton of other stuff that I just haven't gotten around to sorting out yet. My loft has been transformed into a huge mess with all the sorting, photographing, etc. My advice is to never get as many Famicom carts as I have - they are just such a headache to deal with.

No wait, I'm getting off message. I should be encouraging you to buy stuff - go, buy! Lots of games. Look into my eyes, look into my eyes: you want to buy lots of Famicom games!

I've got those Famicom Disk System Blues....

2011-08-21T18:46:00.005+09:00

Are you the type of person who just doesn't have enough frustration in life? Do you enjoy disappointment? Thrive under annoying circumstances?

If you answered "yes" to all three of the above questions, a Famicom Disk System would be perfect for you!

Alas, I answered "no" to all three. I was so happy when I just had my Famicom carts to collect and play with. Good old Famicom carts. They almost never break. If they do, all you have to do usually is blow on them. Easy solution. And if the game label says "Super Mario Bros." then that is what game you are going to get.

Since I got my functioning FDS a few weeks ago though things have changed, man (may I call you "man"?). As the above photo indicates, I now have three copies of Super Mario Bros. 2 for the Famicom Disk System. Until this morning I only had two. Neither one of which worked. Error 27 all the way, baby.

I found another copy of it for 100 yen at Omocha Souko today. For 100 yen I figured what the hell, even if there is only a 1 in 10 chance of it working, its still worth the shot.

I just got it home. Guess what? Yup, it doesn' t work.

I tried and I tried and I tried and I tried....I can't get NO (duh duh duh da duh duh)....FDS Satisfaction!

Sigh. At least I can probably boast the largest collection of non-functioning copies of Super Mario Bros. 2 out there. I guess that is something!

But not to worry, I also bought a Kinnikuman game for the Disk System which was also 100 yen!
See, it even says Kinnikuman on the Disk label (er, that bunch of Japanese writing in red says "Kinnikuman"):
Cool, so I'll just pop that in there and enjoy a cool game of....
Scramble Wars? What the hell is that?

Ah, some kind of Gundam themed game. Oh well, better than nothing!

I remember watching an episode of Famicom Dojo once where the discussed this problem - FDS disks that were re-written with other games. But you know, buying one yourself is just one of those things you never think will actually happen to you - until it does.

So remember: unless you answered "yes" to the three questions above, be very wary about purchasing a Famicom Disk System. And don't do drugs. That's all the advice I got.

Related Posts:
- I Nearly Died Getting a Twin Famicom Today
- 80s Girls and the Famicom: Miho Nakayama's Tokimeki High School Idol Hotline