Awesome List: Japanese Gamers 18 Fond Memories of the Famicom

The Japanese website CuRazy recently published a little piece reporting the top 18 things Japanese people remember about playing the Famicom as children.  Rocketnews did a good piece in English mentioning the highlights, but after reading the original I thought it would worth doing a pure, stripped down English translation of the list, which is totally awesome.  Here they are, in the same order they appeared in CuRazy:

1. To begin, blowing on the cassette.

2. At school, classes were generally divided into a Draqon Quest faction and a Final Fantasy Faction.  But there would always be that one guy on his own who was into Wizardry.

3. Declaring that you would play Famicom all through the night on New Year`s Eve, then giving up halfway through.

4. Pushing the reset button again and again and again because the game wouldn`t start.

5. Getting into a fight while playing a simultaneous 2 player game.

6 Having it hidden by your parents.

7. When playing a two player game and the 1P player was about to lose, pushing the pause button in rapid succession (to mess up 2P`s timing, 2P not being able to retaliate as the 2P controller doesn`t have the pause button).

8. Playing a racing game and moving your whole body with the game.  Then doing it a bit too much, pulling out the cord and causing the game to blink off.

9. When you finish the game, waiting for a bit to watch the end screen.

10. Your parents, while carrying the laundry, tripping over the Famicom and causing the game to freeze.

11.  Loving it when you played by yourself!  Hating it when your friend came over!

12. When your friend was playing, amusing yourself by playing with the microphone in the 2P controller.

13. 20 years later, finally actually reading the instruction manual for the first time and realizing what the game`s story was all about.

14. Buttons getting stuck in.

15. When inserting the cart, having to carefully push both sides in equally.

16. Being incredibly anxious the first time you played Dragon Quest 3.

17. Not being able to save a game, just leaving the Famicom on when you went to school.  Then coming home and discovering your mom had turned it off.

18. Writing your name on the back of the cart.

Famicom History: Toy Catalogs and Over the Hill Consoles

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

Famicom History: When Dragon Quest III Went on Sale

This is a really cool video, a news report from 1988 about the release of Dragon Quest III that I stumbled upon over at Famicom no Neta.

The news story is mainly about the problem of kids skipping school in order to go wait in the massive lines forming in front of department stores for Dragon Quest III. A large number of students had been caught doing so and the police, the education ministry and the game maker were having some trouble dealing with the delinquency issue caused by the game's popularity.

The video is a treasure trove of images from the day. Its got video of the massive lines of Dragon Quest fans snaking down the street in Tokyo waiting to buy the game. Its got images of store employees desperately scooping copies of the game fresh out of their crates and onto store shelves. Its got the thrill of victory by one shopper who has finally gotten to the front of the line and gives a wave to the crowd behind him as he makes his much anticipated purchase. Its got two store employees at the end of a busy day on the sidewalk, one with a bullhorn and the other with a sign saying that they were all sold out of Dragon Quest III.

This video really adds a poetic touch to the experience of scrounging through bargain bins full of old Famicom games. Copies of Dragon Quest III are often to be found in them, usually selling for dirt cheap. It is hard to believe when looking at them in that sorry state that once upon a time people were thronging the streets of the world's biggest city with fistfuls of cash waiting to buy them.

The fleeting nature of success. The emotion is best summed up in the opening passage of the epic Tale of the Heike:

"The sound of the Gion Shoja bells echoes the impermanence of all things; the color of the sala flowers reveals the truth that the prosperous must decline. The proud do not endure, they are like a dream on a spring night; the mighty fall at last, they are as dust before the wind."

Related Posts:
-Famicom History
-Famicom History Part 2: Japanese Famicom Slang 101

Famitsu turned 25, and the top Famicom games of 1986

I scored a rather interesting piece of Famicom history today, a copy of the very first issue of Famicom Tsushin.

As kind of an interesting coincidence, this was published in June of 1986, making it almost exactly 25 years old.

Edited to add: at least it would have been. Reading the fine print I realized that this was actually a reprint of the first issue. Very cunningly disguised as the real deal, even the ads are all the same as in the original (as is the publication date). On the bottom of each page in small print, however, it states that it is a reprint and tells readers not to call any of the phone numbers in the ads as they don't work anymore. Guess that explains why it only cost 500 yen! And why it came with a towel celebrating the 800th issue, which I didn't notice until getting it home. This must have been made as part of some sort of commemorative promotion or something:
Anyway, Famicom Tsushin, for those who don't know, is a biweekly video game magazine in Japan that now goes by the abbreviated name of "Famitsu". It is another testament to the power of the Famicom back in the day that this magazine - which is not published by Nintendo and is a general video game mag - was named after the Famicom. It is far and away the most famous gaming magazine in Japan.

Anyway, despite being a repro, there is a LOT of interesting stuff in this thing which will provide me with ample material for a whole bunch of posts. I thought I'd start off with the info on pages 8 and 9 here:
On the left are the results of "reader surveys" in which respondents ranked their favorite games for the Famicom and Famicom Disk System. I put "reader surveys" in quotation marks since I find it hard to figure how they could already be displaying the results of a reader survey in their first issue. But anyway, I thought it was kind of neat just to see what people liked 25 years ago.

Here are the results in order.

Famicom

1. Goonies
2. Legend of Zelda
3. Gegege no Kitaro
4. Gradius
5. Ninja Hattori Kun
6. Twin Bee
7. Super Mario Bros.
8. Dig Dug II
9. Nazo no Murasamejo
10. Mighty Bomb Jack
11. Kage no Densetsu
12. Atlantis no Nazo
13. Spy vs. Spy
14. Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken
15. Tag Team Pro Wrestling
16. Argus
17. Son Son
18. Hydlide Special
19. Obake no Q Taro Wan Wan Panic
20. Gyrodine

Famicom Disk Writer:

1. Nazo no Murasamejo
2. Super Mario Brothers
3. Baseball
4. Tennis
5. Legend of Zelda
6. Soccer
7. Golf
8. Mahjong

On the right page, they display the top ten most popular games for the NES in the US at the time, based on sales. It provides for an interesting comparison:

1. Super Mario Bros.
2. Spartan X (Kung Fu)
3. Baseball
4. Excitebike
5. 10 Yard Fight
6. Golf
7. Soccer
8. Pinball
9. Tennis
10. Wrecking Crew

They even have a little featured article about the NES in there:
The caption under the picture reads

"The console is high class, but unfortunately for some reason they made the cartridges big, so Japanese Famicom carts won't fit it."

An early (perhaps the earliest?) example of somebody noting that it was too bad the NES carts didn't follow the Famicom pattern!

Related Posts:
- 1985 Famicom High Scores

False Famicom Stores: Remnants of a Time when "Famicom" meant "Video Game"

As someone who likes to go around to retro game stores looking for old Famicom games, one thing that really annoys me is when a store goes so far as to include the word "Famicom" in its own name, but doesn't actually sell any Famicom stuff.

The above photo is a picture of a sign in front of a game store I ride past sometimes. The yellow sign says "TV Game Famicom House", which is the name of the store.

They do not sell Famicom games though, despite calling themselves the "Famicom house". They only sell current gen games. And lots and lots of porn. So if you are in the market for some current gen games and Japanese porn, this is your one-stop shop. If you are looking for Famicom games, give it a miss. It is one of the most extraordinarily misleading store names I've ever seen.

It is, however, a chain store, and every time my travels take me to another branch I'm always tempted to go in. "Oh, this one MUST have Famicom stuff" I think to myself. I always leave disappointed.

Last week a really good blog post went up on the Japanese blog Famicom no Netta that explains this most annoying of store naming trends.

Back in the 80s the word "Famicom" in Japanese was synonymous with "video game system". As a result, a lot of video game stores used the word "Famicom" in their names. Nintendo, apparently, didn't object.

When the Super Famicom came out the trend continued. After all, the Super Famicom could still be considered a "Famicom" as it had that word in its name.

When the Sega Saturn/ Playstation/ N64 generation came out I guess they just figured "Crap. Its going to cost a lot to replace all our signs and company letterhead. Screw it, leave the word Famicom up there."

So, though annoying, these stores like Famicom House are an interesting relic of a day when the word "Famicom" simply meant "Video game system". This is of course quite similar to the way kids in North America used the word "Nintendo" to describe consoles in the 80s until the Super Nintendo/ Genesis came out and forced us to start differentiating between them.

The post on Famicom no Netta also has some other very interesting examples of how the word "Famicom" is still used in some instances to mean just console. The post is actually mainly about how local governments still seem to think the word "Famicom" means console. I hope they won't mind my stealing this image here:

(Image Source)

This is a section of a list created by the Eto ward office in Tokyo, which enumerates different kinds of large garbage and how they are to be disposed of. Between "Fax machine" and "Fan Heater" you have "Famicom" (2nd item in the list) which is to be disposed of as "Unburnable garbage". This doesn't just mean Famicoms, but game consoles in general. Famicom no Netta has a whole bunch of these from various local governments mainly around Tokyo. I think this is kind of neat.

Anyway, if you ever happen to pass this store:
Remember that it doesn't have any Famicom stuff. Just current generation games and lots and lots of pornography.

Famicom History Part 2: Japanese Famicom Slang 101

Here we go, part 2 in my new little social history of the Famicom (part 1 is here). Today's post looks at the language of the Famicom.

Jargon is an interesting thing. Impenetrable to outsiders, it helps to define the group of people who use it. Over time, some words may make their way into the larger lexicon of the language in question, but most do not.

When I try to think of some English examples of, for example, NES related jargon that kids back in the day used, I can't really come up with anything. I'm sure it existed but....I don't know. Nothing comes to mind. Weird...some of you readers out there must have some?

Anyway, over at Tatta Hitori no Famicom, they have put together a dictionary of all the "yougo" (jargon) that Famicom fans have developed over the years. It is surprisingly large, with 177 entries to date. I spent a bit of time pouring over these, some are quite witty and amusing. Others perhaps not so much so.

I decided to translate a few of them for your reading pleasure. So here you go all you Famicom wannabes: How to speak "Famicom yougo" like a real 80s Japanese kid.

I've divided these into two sections, the first one looks at some general Famicom words/phrases. The second one looks at words specific to individual games.

Section 1: General Famicom Vocab

ファミコンあらし - "Famicom Arashi". I love this one, probably its my favorite. The definition on the website says:

"A person who goes to a friend's house only to play the Famicom and then goes right home after. Includes people such as those who only owned a Sega, or whose parents accidentally bought them Family Basic thinking it was a Famicom."

ファミカー "Famikaa" - Someone who really likes the Famicom. Also "Famiconist".

ファミる - "Famiru" - the verb form of "Famicom" (ie to "do Famicom" or "Play Famicom"). The -ru ending signifies it is a verb in Japanese.

ファミ逃げ - "Faminige" - Describes the situation where you are playing Famicom at home with someone and they (impolitely) say "Hey, I 'm really good at this part here, gimme the controller" and then when you do they immediately screw it up and die. Then they say "Oh I just remembered something I have to do" and run off. Literally means "Famicom runaway".

Section 2: Game Specific Famicom Vocab

1. Rockman

岩男 - "Iwao." This word is the nickname for Rockman (Megaman). From the Characters for "rock" and "man".

2. Super Mario Brothers

大人マリオ - "Otona Mario". This is the word you use when you get a mushroom on Super Mario Brothers. Literally means "adult Mario".

スタート殺し - "Suta-to Kuroshi" - Used in Super Mario Brothers two player mode. When 2p is jumping over some hazard, 1p pushes the "start" button, pausing the game and messing 2p's timing up. Then pushes "start" again, and 2p dies. Literally means "Start Kill".

3. Dr. Mario

おま連 - "Omaren". Used when your opponent erases two rows of pills in Dr. Mario, causing penalty pills to fall onto your screen. Its an abbreviated way of saying "I have you to thank for these damn pills falling onto my screen."

4. Takahashi Meijin no Bouken Shima (Adventure Island)

カミカゼ - "Kamikaze" - used when you go really fast on the skateboard and run into an enemy.

5. Balloon Fight

地獄落ち - "Jigoku Ochi" - Used in "C" mode when you fall into the abyss and the game makes that "hyuuuuuuuu- " sound. Literally means "Falling into hell".

6. Spelunker

スペランカー的 - "Spelunker-teki". This can be used with any game, not just Spelunker. It literally means "Spelunker-ish", and refers to any game where you die quickly. A reference to the fact that the Spelunker character dies really easily in that game.

Related Posts

- Dining a la carte: Ice Climber Famicom Japanese

- Famicom History

Famicom History

I'm a big history buff. In real life I do some research that touches on the subject, though I'm in a different field.

I've been wanting to do some articles here on Famicom history for a while and figured I might as well start now. So here goes.

You'll notice that there are a lot of sites that give you the bare facts of the Famicom's history - the dates and names. The best history on the net I've seen is the write up at Game Spy on the 20th anniversary of the console's release. Their (excellent) article though is mainly concerned with the history of the Famicom as a console itself. What I am more interested in is the Famicom's place in Japanese history. What is really missing out there in English is some writing about the Famicom and the people who actually went out, bought the things, played with them, got bored with them and forgot about them back in the day. What place did the Famicom have in Japanese society in the 1980s?

In short, this is not a series about video game history. That has been done to death. It is a series about the Famicom's place in history writ large. This is a subject which has been almost entirely overlooked in the English (and even the Japanese) blogosphere.

Probably a big part of the problem is the sheer difficulty of finding material. Normally I only use photos that I took myself on this blog (with some exceptions), but of course I can't go back in time to the 80s to take such photos, so I'm stuck with free riding off the photos of others for this series, which is a difficult task.

I spent a ton of time trying to find photos of the Famicom actually taken back in the 1980s on the net. If you look around, especially on youtube, you can find videos of original commercials for the Famicom (which are totally awesome, BTW), but not much else. No 'candid' shots. After searching the Japanese internet far and wide the only picture I was able to find was the one above. This came not from a gaming site, but from the website of the Association of Japanese Energy Producers, who used it to show how electricity was used in the 80s. That is how far and wide I had to look!

It seems I'll have to (ugh) start pouring through actual physical media from the day to find more such photos. I'll see what they have at the library...

Anyway, another almost- Famicom photo I found was this one, Akihabara in 1982, on the eve of the Famicom boom:These people didn't know what was about to hit them.

Looks fitting though. Kind of what I imagine 1982 Akihabara to have looked like. The photo comes from the excellent archives section of Akihabara's official site. Even if you can't read Japanese, they have some cool photos of old school stuff in there (just start clicking at random and you are bound to find something).

Anyway, I'll end this post by introducing the "major eras" in Famicom history, as defined by Tatta Hitori no Famicom Shonen, a Japanese Famicom related website. Yeah, I know I said I wasn't going to talk about dates, but for introductory purposes I think these might be useful and of some interest.

The Early Golden Age (1983-1986): Covering the period from the release of the Famicom to the release of the Disk System.

The Middle Golden Age (1987-1989): Covering the period when the Famicom reached its peak to just before the release of the Super Famicom.

The Late Golden Age (1990 - 1994): In the wake of the Super Famicom's release, new Famicom titles continue to be released. To the last officially released Famicom title.

The Famicom Ice Age (1994-1997): Mountains of remaining, unsold inventories of Famicom games sold on the market at discounted prices. Some overlap with the late golden age.

The Renaissance (1998-2003): Famicom games begin to regain their value (on the secondary market). Until the 20th anniversary of the Famicom.

The Second Coming of the Famicom (2004 - Present): The value of the better ("premium") Famicom games go up, while all the other games are dumped at discount prices again. Famiclones make their appearance on the market.

I won't necessarily be following this breakdown by era (I'll only be focusing on the "Golden Age" from 1983 to 1994), but there it is for you. This is a loose translation of the original, with some liberties taken here and there.