Retro Rarities: Amada LSI Game Mini Cards

Barely a week into June and this is already my second post this month, I seem to be getting back into blogging!

I picked up something totally awesome on Yahoo Auctions the other day and I wanted to do a little post about it because when I did some searching on Google I discovered that there is nothing out there on the internet about them (in Japanese or English).

It is a full box of Amada LSI Game Mini Cards, produced in 1980 and still completely sealed with all the cards still in their original packs.  Each of the cards features a hand-held game made by either Tomy, Epock, Takatoku Toys or Takara, whose names are on the front of the box:

Being released in 1980 they would have just missed the Game and Watch generation, but these ones are pretty cool.  I have some Tomy handhelds from the early 80s, including my beloved Puck Man,  and they are really cool. Inside the box the awesomeness begins with a bunch of cellophane-wrapped beauties:

In addition to the cellophane wrapped ones, which came in packs of 2 or 4, are the single packs with one each:

Each box contained a total of 60, which originally retailed for 10 yen each:

The company that made these, Amada, is kind of an important (and massively underappreciated) one in the history of Famicom stuff as pretty much all of the Famicom ephemera produced in the 1980s was put out by them.  My favorite among these (at least in my collection) would be the Famicom Mini Cards that they released in 1986 which came in an identically sized box as my new LSI game cards.  They display nicely together on my little shelf:

In fact, I was actually searching for some of those Amada Famicom cards on Yahoo Auctions when I came across these ones, which I hadn`t known existed before.  Amada also put out the awesome Famicom Erasers and a cool but extremely hard to find set of Famicom stickers which I hope to do a post about in the near future. 

Sadly I don`t have any information on how big the set of cards was or which games (other than the ones I can see on mine) were featured. I am guessing that these were not a big seller back in the day.  It is common to find little piles of loose Amada Famicom cards on Yahoo Auctions and there is a bit of a collector base for those here.  These LSI game ones I have never seen before though and I couldn`t find any others, loose or in their boxes, on Yahoo Auctions.  The one I got was probably dead stock from some store that couldn`t sell them.

Anyway, this type of thing I find just as interesting as collecting games themselves.  They look really cool, especially these ones still in the original packing (the cards by themselves are a bit dull in design). 

Yet another random find.

80s Nostalgia and the Appeal of Retro Gaming

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.

Related Posts:
-Emulation Schmemulation: 5 Reasons You Should Own an Old Console
- 80s Girls and the Famicom: Miho Nakayama`s Tokimeki High School Idol Hotline

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

Last Thursday afternoon I was in Mandarake, my favorite retro game / toy shop in town. I wasn't actually looking for Famicom stuff on that visit. One of my other hobbies is collecting old baseball cards. They have a glass showcase at the back with a whole bunch of expensive old ones and I went over to take a look at that.

As I was gazing at the faces of Japanese baseball stars from the 70s, something caught my eye at the bottom of the showcase. Vivid in color I immediately recognized the picture as that on the box of the Famicom game Gradius. It is one of my favorite box covers out there.

But what was Gradius doing in a case full of baseball cards? My interest piqued I bent down for a closer look. This revealed that it was not only Gradius, but also Super Mario Bros. and Legend of Kage - all in one box!

"By the gods, what method of madness is this?" I thought.

I always think in the voice of Conan the Barbarian when startled like this.

Then all was made clear. Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce my newest Famicom related acquisition: an unopened wax box of Amada Family Computer Mini cards!
I had no idea that such a thing even existed, and I'm guessing most of you didn't either as Google searches in both Japanese and English for the phrase "Family Computer Mini Cards" (the full name of these) turned up zilch. So here you go, another blockbuster Famicomblog exclusive!

I love this thing. It is awesome. The individual packs used to retail for 20 yen each back in the day and the box contains 30 packs:
It seems they were released in 1986 and had licenses from Nintendo, Taito, Jaleco, Konami and Sun Electronics Corporation:
Open the box and voila, the packs:
But wait! There is more! The best part is actually hidden under the packs! Look:
I'm not sure why but squirreled away under the packs are three (awesome) boxes filled with even more cards:
I think these are the best part of the whole thing. On one side of them we have Atlantis no Nazo, Argus and Super Mario Bros.:
And on the other side we have Gradius, Super Mario Bros. (its on two) and Legend of Kage:
The cards themselves actually aren't all that exciting. Some of them feature the cover art from the boxes of these games, but most feature screenshots from the game on one side and a little blurb about whatever it is on the back:
But anyway. DAMN look at them boxes again:
So colorful! So cute and small! I probably like these better than my entire Famicom collection put together.

Well, maybe not that much, but they are still great. A must have item for the discerning Famicom collector. If you can find them.

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- Super Mario Bros. Bottle Cap Collection by Pepsi