Mega Bargain of the Day: 3 Consoles and a game for 10 bucks

Envy Warning: If you are a retro game collector prone to fits of extreme jealousy, this blog post may provoke such an attack. Reader discretion is advised.

This post contains two sections. The first is a review of today's mega bargain shopping spree at Omocha Souko and the second is a teaser of what I expect will be my next "Mega Bargain" post.

And with that: on with the post.

I have to say that when it rains bargains at Omocha Souko, it pours. I haven't really bought much there in over a month because they haven't been putting new stuff out. Then suddenly yesterday they drop a ton of great games for only 100 yen each and today I go back just to make sure I didn't miss anything and BLAMMO! I discover they've tossed a ton of new stuff into their junk section and look poised to be putting even more out in the next couple days.

So, lets look at what I got, shall we? For 1,000 yen (about 10 US dollars) I got all of this, 3 consoles for 300 yen each and one game for 100 yen:
First, the game. It is the Blues Brothers for the Super Famicom:
I love the Blues Brothers movie and until today I didn't even realize they had ever made a video game of it (stupid me, all movies get made into video games now). I haven't played it yet but I do like the artwork - Dan Akroyd and John Belushi look so happy-go-lucky. Actually, that is nothing like how they act in the film, so its a bit of a strange choice but whatever.

Anyway, the real bargains were the consoles. First, a Game Boy Advance complete in its box:
I've never been particularly interested in the GB Advance, but for 300 yen for a CIB one how could I resist? I tossed some batteries into it and a copy of "F-1 Race" and was pleased to discover that it works perfectly:
The only problem is the plastic on the screen is coming loose a bit on the edges as you can see in the above photo, but it doesn't really affect it at all so I don't mind.

The next console was an even better deal than that. A boxed AV Famicom!!!
And it is complete! In fact, it is more than complete - for some reason Nintendo didn't include AV cables or an adapter for the AV Famicom. You had to buy them seperately. This one had a set of AV cables thrown in!
And it is clean and works perfectly! Again - 300 yen! These things usually go for about 6000-7000 boxed.

Finally I picked up my first Famiclone, the "Next II":
This one was literally brand new. The seal on the inside hadn't been broken yet:
I opened it up and plugged it in to try it out. I have to say that the physical unit isn't particularly well-made. The cart slot cover in particular is pretty flimsy and doesn't fit very well.

That said though, the controller work reasonably well for a Famiclone. Also the thing has 9 games hardwired into it. When you turn it on without any Famicom carts in it you get a menu to choose from:
I tried the first one, "Conte Enegy" for a bit. It is a Lode Runner clone. It plays pretty well, if you like Lode Runner. These games seem to all be rip-offs of Famicom titles. Its the first time I've ever played pirated games. Can't say that I was overly impressed, but at the same time the game played more or less like the original so I can't complain.

Anyway, that was what I bought. Now lets return this post to Omocha Souko and some of the insane stuff I saw today. There was a ton of other cool stuff that I refrained from buying even though it was insanely cheap. Examples include a CIB Sega Game Gear for 300 yen:
A box full of Game Cube, Playstation 2 and other controllers for 100 yen each:
A bunch of CIB Super Scopes for the Super Famicom for 100 yen each:
A bunch of Super Famicoms for 300 yen each (console-only):
The most insane thing of all though was this box:
Those are PS2 slims for only 300 yen each. They usually go for about 10,000 yen or so. I didn't buy one as I've already got a PS2, but wow. What a bargain. They won't be around for long. I should note that almost every console I've ever puchased out of these bins works, so there is a good chance that these do too.

More enticing to me was the piles of stuff that they haven't put prices on yet but which they had lying around waiting to be priced in a location where I could peruse them. These included a basket full of FDS games:
And this baby: the very first Sega Mark III (Sega Master System) game I've ever seen. This looks awesome. I love games with 80s-looking spaceships on them:
Simon over at Red Parsley has convinced me that the Master System is worth looking into so I am going to buy this when they put a price on it. I'll have to get an adapter for my Mega Drive to play it though.

They also have a ton of new boxed games for various systems (Famicom, Super Famicom, Mega Drive, etc) awaiting pricing:
Oh how I long to browse through these.
So anyway, stay tuned to this spot. When prices get put on this stuff its a safe bet that I'll be buying some of it. Oh I can't wait....

Related Posts:
- Mega Bargain of the Day: Kousenjuu Electro Safari
- Mega Bargain of the Day: Exorcising My Twin Famicom Demons
- Mega Bargain of the Day: Another Square Button Famicom
- Mega Bargain of the Day: Famicom Basic, Family Trainer and Climber Stick

Famicom Console Wars

Pictured above are the five distinctly different types of Family Computer console that I own. From left we have:

AV Famicom
Square Button Famicom with Famicom Disk System
Regular Round Button Famicom
Red Twin Famicom
Black Twin Famicom

There are a lot of other variants that I don't have and probably don't know about but anyway, these are the five that have fallen into my hands over the years.

I'm a little torn about which one I like the best. The one I use the most is the AV Famicom:
My preference for it is purely functional though. It gives a clearer picture and is easier to hook up than the old RF switch-dependent Famicom, so I use it more.

I like the look of the old Famicoms much better than the AV Famicom though:
The AV Famicom is much sleeker than the old red and white, but I don't view that as a positive thing. Aesthetically the two versions are worlds apart. The AV Famicom, in terms of its design, shares much more in common with the XBox 360 than it does with the original Famicom, even though they are the exact same console on the inside.
The Twin Famicoms for their part are very much the dark horse candidates of my Famicom consoles. I've been so frustrated by the fact that I still can't play them (lacking the necessary AC cables). Chronologically their release falls in between the original Famicom and the AV Famicom, though the overall "feel" of their design makes me categorize them with the old school Famicom rather than the AV one. They look nothing like the old school Famicom, but they share with it a certain "clunky and colorful" appearance that I find very endearing. Give me clumsy over sleek any day - at least so long as it doesn't affect the console's performance.

I feel that if I ever get them working they'll probably be the ones I'll rely on and like the most....but I'll never know for sure until I get a bloody AC adapter for them. Oh, and then I may find I'm in need of a new belt for their disk systems, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

One curious thing that really separates the Twin Famicoms from the others, as Bryan at the Gay Gamer noted recently when he got his, is their size. They are basically only slightly smaller than a regular Famicom and an FDS put side by side:
Obviously that is because inside they are a regular Famicom and FDS put side by side. Still though, I kind of wonder why they chose to orient them like that instead of stacking them, like you do with a regular Famicom/FDS combo:
It would dramatically reduce their profile and save a lot of shelf space - which readers of this blog will know is one of my over-arching concerns in life. I'm sure they had some valid technical or cost related reasons for doing it the way they did, but still. Would have been kind of nice.

My setups and stuff

Been busy the past month so I haven't been posting much, but I thought I'd put some pics of my hardware set ups.

Basically I have two famicoms: the old-school one and an AV famicom. I keep the old-school one in the kitchen hooked up to our spare TV:
The yellow box originally contained some sweets but it turned out to be the perfect size and shape for holding famicom games.

Upstairs is the AV Famicom:
I prefer the look of the old school, but the reception with the AV famicom is a million times better so I use this one more.

I've got it hooked up to our main TV along with a Super Famicom, Nintendo 64 and PlayStation 2:
The Famicom gets played about as much as the other 3 put together.

In other news I added a few games to the collection this week. Its up to 420 total now:
Balloon Fight and Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari are pretty damned good games. The Ramen-man one on(lower left corner) on the other hand doesn't look to promising after firing it up yesterday. I picked these up at Hard-Off in the junk bin.