Getting Used to the Top Rider Motorcycle Controller is Something you Need to Devote, like, a whole Weekend to.

I have added another oddball Famicom controller to my collection: the Top Rider inflatable motorcycle!

This is definitely one of the most interesting Famicom controllers ever made.  It is about what you think it is - an inflatable motorcycle that you ride on.  The handlebars, which are removable, are the only actual functional controller, with start/select buttons and the gas/brake control built into the handles themselves.

Its actually a pretty cool controller, hooking it up it reminds me a lot of motorcycle games that I have played in arcades.  The controls work pretty smoothly.

There are, however, two caveats.  One is that it is a massive pain in the ass to actually blow the thing up, especially if you aren`t used to doing so like me.  I thought I was going to pass out by the time I got it fully inflated.  Therefore this is one game that probably isn`t going to be played with very much in my household, neat though it is.

The other thing is that this controller was designed for 7 year old Japanese kids rather than 37 year old, 6 foot tall foreigners.  If you fall into the latter category, this is what you will look like when riding it:

For comparison`s sake please note the similarity:

It is massively uncomfortable for an adult to use the controller as a result, which is too bad. Of course it is possible to use the handlebars without the motorbike so I might stick to that.

Its kind of a must-have item for anyone collecting oddball Famicom stuff.  It was never released outside of Japan, and even in Japan it is a hard one to find (this is the first one I`ve ever seen, I won it on Yahoo Auctions).  This one doesn`t have the box which made it within my price range, with it I don`t think I could have afforded it!

Cool Stuff: A Famicom with some Famitsu Stickers on the Controllers

 One thing that I like about finding old Famicoms is when they have stickers on them.  Not just random stickers, mind you, but stickers which were specifically designed to be placed on a Famicom.

This one I picked up a while ago and is sort of my back-up Famicom now.  I mainly got it for the stickers on the controllers.  Famitsu Magazine used to sometimes include various Famicom stickers that they`d include as special promotions.  By far the most useful ones were designed to put on the top sides of Famicom carts so that you could easily identify which cart it was.  Actually a lot of Famicom carts floating around out there still have those on them.

Much harder to find though are the ones designed to put on Famicom controllers.  I`ve only ever seen two Famicoms with those on them, this one and another that I found at Omocha Souko a few years back which had the remnants of Dragon Quest stickers on them.

I guess one of the reasons they are hard to find is that they don`t really have any function other than to make your Famicom controllers look different, and maybe people were therefore reluctant to put them on.  Also they look like they would have been kind of difficult to apply to the controllers, there are a lot of things (buttons, etc) you have to line up perfectly and if you mess it up by even 1mm it just wouldn`t look right. 

I particularly like these ones in part because whoever applied them did a really good job of it, they are perfectly lined up and centred.  And the artwork on them is pretty cool.  Another thing I like is what these stickers tell me about this Famicom.  The sticker on the number 1 controller is pretty messed up, indicating that it was used a lot.  The sticker on the number 2 controller however is immaculate and looks like it was put on yesterday.  Obviously whoever owned this Famicom was accustomed to playing it solo. 

Anyway, I just kind of thought these stickers were cool and wanted to do a post about them :)

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

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####

Famicom Robot Presents: The Famicom Stuff Collection

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.

Famicom Light Gun and Wild Gunman: Yipee Ki-Yay M------- F-------.

The censored words in the title of this post are actually just "My Famicom". Not sure why I felt the need to block them out like that.

Anyway, my visit to the other Omocha Souko yesterday turned up more than just the Luigi Mosaic. I bought something too. A good thing.

At the front of the store they have a pile of old consoles. Among the Mega Drives and Nintendo 64s I found this guy snuggly nestled, awaiting purchase:
This is the Famicom light gun, the original NES zapper.

I have been searching for one of these for the longest time. Its been a craving of mine. I had maintained fantasies about finding one in a junk bin for 100 yen or something, but 2 and a half years of fruitless searching has convinced me of the futility of that dream. These things are HARD to find. Yesterday was the first time I had ever seen one in person.

So I was quite pleasantly surprised to see it there. The price was 3,000 yen (about 35-40$ US) and, as you can see, they bundled it with a copy of Wild Gunman. The box was in great condition and they said it was in working order, so how could I resist?

Opening it up, this is what I got:
Love at first sight:
I had the zapper for my NES (still have it, in fact), but this thing is just a million times better. According to the tales of internet lore, American safety regulations prevented Nintendo from making the zapper look like a real revolver, so they made that kind of generic space gun looking gray thing for the NES. I like the revolver look way better though.

I mean, when I popped Wild Gunman in for a go, I actually kind of felt like I was in the old west with this thing. Well, just a bit - my living room looks nothing like the old west (except for the dust). Still though, its way more fun to be blowing away gun shooters with an old west 6 shooter than some gray "zapper". You can even cock the hammer on this thing.
The box is great too. On the back it has a very complicated diagram. If you look closely you'll notice that the only useful information this thing conveys is "plug it in." I guess they had to put something back there:
The front of the box is great too. Its got a little cowboy in the lower left corner shooting at a TV. It looks great on my shelf, I put it right in front of my bottle of whiskey for that added touch of the old west:
The other thing I really like about this game is that it was featured in Back to the Future II. Apparently the filmmakers took some liberties as the arcade cabinet they show in the film didn't exist and the gameplay they show is a bit different from the actual game. Still though, take a look at that gun Marty McFly uses to shoot the bad guys. Spitting image of the Famicom light gun!

Not only can I pretend to be an old west gunslinger, I can also pretend to be late 80s Michael J Fox. Sweet!

Anyway, I'm quite happy with this thing. It is one of the rare times when I buy something and it turns out to be every bit as good as I thought it would be (Family Trainer - that barb is directed at you).

Related Posts:
- Famicom Cart Mosaics: The Luigi Wall
- Mega Bargain of the Day: Family Basic, Family Trainer and Climber Stick

Pachinko and the Famicom: AKA the Stupid Side of Japanese Gaming

I was in Omocha Souko a couple days ago and found that they had put some more stuff into their junk section. Unfortunately the only Famicom related thing they put out was this:
The Pachinko Controller (misspelled as "controler") from Coconuts Japan. At 100 yen I figured, what the hell.

Released in 1991 this probably takes the cake as the stupidest controller ever released for the Famicom. This is one of those things that is peculiar to the Japanese world of gaming. One of those "stupid things" I should say. And I do apologize for the excessive and childish uses of the word "stupid" in this post. I really couldn't think of a better way to express the nature of this controller and pachinko games in general than with the use of that adjective.

Anyway, almost every console in Japan has at least one Pachinko controller released for it. The junk section of Omocha Souko is full of them, mostly for the Playstation.

Pachinko is a simple game, very similar to pinball. You shoot metal balls and try to get them to fall into certain holes. Unlike pinball though, pachinko is a form of gambling. You win more metal balls if you get it in the right hole and these can be exchanged for prizes. So its really more a combination of pinball and slot machine.

As gambling is technically illegal in Japan, you can't exchange these balls directly for cash or prizes. But mysteriously a number of businesses have sprung up right next to pachinko parlors which will exchange them for such prizes. No collusion there whatsoever (wink wink, nudge nudge).

The pachinko industry is an insanely large one. In 2006 it took in 27.45 trillion yen in revenue (about 275 billion US dollars), a sum greater than the domestic auto industry. They are everywhere, you almost can't walk 5 steps in Japan without running into one. This leads me to...

My Rant About Pachinko

I promised myself I wouldn't do this, but the urge to use this post as a platform to air some of my grievances with the pachinko industry is just too great. Skip this section and go to the bottom if you are only interested in the Famicom controller. Read on if you are interested in bad stuff about pachinko.

I have to say that I have never played Pachinko (save on the Famicom) and never will. There are just so many reasons to be disgusted by the industry that it boggles the mind. The top four that I can come up with off the top of my head:

1. Pachinko kills babies. No kidding. Every summer across Japan pachinko addicted parents leave their offspring in boiling cars while they go to play pachinko for hours on end. They then come back to find their kids dead from the 40 degree heat (see here, here and here for just a few examples reported in the news).

2. A lot of pachinko parlors are owned by groups with North Korean connections who funnel the profits to Pyongyang, which in turn uses it to build weapons. I thought this might just be an urban legend, but it turns out there is a semi-reputable source for this information (see the Japan Times article here).

3. As with any gambling, some people get addicted to it and end up ruining their lives with debt. See the above linked Japan Times article on how shady consumer loan companies have taken advantage of this by setting up shop right next to Pachinko parlors (though I'm glad to say that most of those businesses have gone under since that article was written due to changes in Japanese law on the interest that such companies can charge).

4. Pachinko parlors are ugly. In an urban area they can sometimes provide a bit of welcome kitsch to a street, like this one here:
But most of them are just massive contributors to urban sprawl. It is not uncommon to find stretches of once beautiful countryside being razed to build one of these eyesores and the massive parking lots that surround them. Beautiful old farmhouses and rice paddies replaced by this:
Not good at all.

End of Rant

OK, glad I got that off my chest. Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, the stupid controller.
As I was saying, this is a stupid controller. You might notice that it is basically just a big, clumsy regular Famicom controller with an added trigger button. I plugged the thing in with a Pachinko game to give it a try:
I had a lot of trouble figuring out what this trigger was for. The best I can tell it just replicates movements that you can execute with the regular buttons. So, you know, its kind of stupid.

Actually, I have to say that Famicom pachinko games in general are really stupid. The fact is that it is not a fun game to play at all, the only thing you control is the angle of the ball when it is released and then you just watch as the balls randomly fall wherever they might:
Seems the only reason people play regular pachinko is because of the gambling element, which of course is absent in the Famicom. So as I said, its just kind of stupid.

Anyway, I end this post with a photo of the crumbling facade of "Pachinko Empire", a parlor not far from my place that went out of business a couple years ago and now sits rotting:
I get all sorts of pleasure from seeing this thing crumble. It is a mix of schadenfreude and my romantic fascination with the folly of hubris and the ephemeral nature of human existence. Brings to mind the classic of Japanese war epics:

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.

- Opening passage of the Heike Monogatari (13th century military romance. Translated by Helen Craig McCullough)