Some Game & Watch Goodies

I`ve been collecting Game & Watches for a few years now, but I still don`t have too many.  I really like them though.  I never owned one as a kid, though I did have some generic-brand handhelds which were nowhere near as cool.  

Anyway, this week I acquired four more Game and Watches all in one go through a trade with Whatsupchang over on Famicom World.  I sent him a package of Famicom games and he sent me these beauties:

Gold Cliff, Donkey Kong II, Donkey Kong Jr and Mario Bros!

Actually, Donkey Kong Jr and Mario Bros I already had copies of which I bought at Omocha Souko in Fukuoka a couple of years ago, but Donkey Kong II and Gold Cliff are completely new to me and are really great.  Gold Cliff in particular I had never heard of before but it is kind of a neat game - you control an adventurer and have to get him up to the top of the dual screen to collect some stuff.  Basically the same gameplay as all Game and Watches and I like that.  It also looks pretty good, I like blue stuff!

This is actually my second Famicom-for-Game and Watch trade that I have done on Famicom World.  About a year ago I did a similar trade for the red Micro vs system boxing one, which goes well with my Donkey Kong Hockey here:

There were three of these vs systems made, all I need now is the green Donkey Kong 3 and I will have the whole set!

So my Game and Watch collection is now on the grow again. 

I just love these things!  If anybody else has some Game and Watches they want to trade for Famicom carts, just let me know! 

Donkey Kong Game and Watch: Yet Again, More Stuff

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

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!

Mario Bros. Game and Watch Hits the Road

As I indicated in my previous post, we got a dog. More specifically, my wife got a dog. This means that I am entitled to some equalization purchases of my own and so I've been buying stuff not out of the junk bins but out of the glass cases of this lovely city's retro game and toy shops this week. One recent purchase was the Mario Brothers Game and Watch.
This is a great game. It is nothing at all like the Mario Bros. Famicom game. You basically just have to pile boxes on a conveyor belt and, controlling both Mario and Luigi, get them to the top of the screen where they are loaded onto a truck. If you drop one, your boss character comes out and yells at you. It is great.
I bought this at Omocha Souko. They had a grand total of two Game and Watches, this one and Donkey Kong 2. Originally I intended to purchase Donkey Kong 2 rather than Mario Bros. as I'm quite taken with the look of that one. After my experience buying a broken TV Game 15 from them, however, I decided to bring my own batteries to the store to test them before forking over my cash. The staff member was not at all cooperative with this request ("just let me put the batteries in to see if it works"), but it turned out to be a good idea as Donkey Kong 2 did not work at all. They were selling these "as is", but with prices high enough that they really should have been tested and working. Mario Bros. was 4500 yen and Donkey Kong 2 was 5500. Those are reasonable prices for working ones, but a complete rip off for a broken one.
I'm very satisfied with this one though. It works perfectly, is in nice condition (some minor surface wear but that is it) and it is a great game that fits right into your pocket. I took the scenic route on the way home from Omocha Souko and took these photos at various points along the way.
So if you are looking for a fun Game and Watch, I give Mario Bros. a thumbs up!

Related Posts:
- The Unveiling (Drum Roll): Donkey Kong Hockey!

The Unveiling (drumroll): Donkey Kong Hockey!! And Why Game Boys suck.

Christmas has come and gone!!!

So here it is, the grand unveiling of my present:
Donkey Kong Hockey!!!!

Nobody quite guessed it right, though I give Bryan partial marks for guessing that it was a Game and Watch and to Famicom Freak for guessing that it had something to do with Donkey Kong.

This is the most amazing thing. Ever. I love it. It is the most brilliant thing human hands have ever created. If I were to create a religious cult based on the idolatrous worship of some tangible entity, it would be devoted to my Donkey Kong Hockey. It is that good. My wife, who gave it to me, is the best! I have reserved a privileged position for her in the hierarchy of deities in the Church of Donkey Kong Hockey Pantheon.

This thing is even more awesome than it appears in the above photo. Look, it opens up:Wow, its got two controllers inside! And you can unwind them. A lot:
And then it snaps closed and you've got a nifty little mini-console:It came with a cool box too:
If you don't have one of these, go out and buy one. Somebody found an unopened caseload of them so they are pretty much the cheapest Game and Watch you can get.

Seriously, this is one of the best designed things I have ever seen. The controllers unwind and wind up flawlessly and it is so easy to use. Its crazy how efficiently they pack up too, despite having to carry the two controllers the unit is roughly the same size as a GameBoy:
This leads me to a rant. My basic premise: Compared to Donkey Kong Hockey - made in 1984 - Game Boys (and subsequent handhelds) suck.

Let me explain why.

I have to preface this rant by saying that I love playing games in multi-player mode. I think of gaming primarily as a social activity that I can do with someone. Of course sometimes I play games alone, but far and away I have the most fun when I play with somebody else.

Now, lets just run quickly through what you need to do to play Dr. Mario (for example) in multiplayer (2 player really) on a Game Boy:
First: Buy a Game Boy.

Then: Buy another Game Boy.

Then: Buy Dr. Mario.

Then: Buy another Dr. Mario.

Then: Buy a Cable to connect the two Gameboys.

Then: Try to arrange a time when you will have all of the above items in the same place at the same time.

Then: You can play Dr. Mario in multiplayer mode on the Gameboy.

Now lets compare that process with what you need to do for two people to play Donkey Kong Hockey:
First: Buy Donkey Kong Hockey.

Then: You can play Donkey Kong Hockey in multiplayer mode.

(Bangs head on table repeatedly).

So, in other words, in 1984 Nintendo had literally created the perfect portable handheld device with which two people can play a game together at the same time. I mean, this thing is insanely good - the controllers work flawlessly, they are easy to pack up, they don't waste space, etc etc.

Then what do they do when it comes time to introduce a cartridge based portable system? Junk all that and make something that is insanely difficult and expensive to play in multiplayer mode of course.

I can think of two reasons why this horrible retrogression occurred:

One: The GameBoy like most handhelds is mainly designed to be played alone by people riding on subways and buses. In light of this they probably reasoned that they could make the units a bit cheaper and maybe a bit more durable by not including the extra controllers and that is why they did it.

Two: More money (see "how to play Dr. Mario in multiplayer on a GameBoy" above).

Its probably a bit of both of these, but all I can say is what a waste. Could you imagine how awesome a GameBoy would be if it had little controllers you could unwind and play with a friend? Yeah, REALLY awesome.

Not that I blame Nintendo, the Game Boy was an incredible success, selling tens of millions of units while Donkey Kong Hockey sold more like tens of thousands of units. But it would have been nice, that's all.

I'm going to be taking a long train trip with my wife pretty soon. My Game Boy is staying home. Donkey Kong Hockey is coming with us. We played it for a while yesterday and it was insanely fun. Its a real simple game (Hockey, basically), which is often all you need to be kept entertained. Vive la simplicity!

Retro-game Shopping will never be the same again

Apologies for not updating this blog as often as I should, this was a busy summer around here! I should take the opportunity here to thank Bryan for the flattering write-up he did about Famicomblog on his wonderful blog here. Much appreciated!

Anyway, as is often the case with my recent posts, in this one I will be describing another one of my Famicom-related shopping experiences. Over the past two days I have gone on a massive buying spree at my favorite retro-game store, Omocha Soko.

I am sometimes given to exaggeration, but I think I can confidently say that I made retro-game shopping history over the course of the past 24 hours of shopping. I was fortunate enough to hit the greatest bargain the world has ever created. Even by Omocha Soko's generous standards this blows away every other sale they have ever had. Remember last month when I was bragging about getting two Twin Famicoms for 100 yen each? That was nothing. THIS was the motherload.

My story actually starts about 3 days ago when I popped in to Omocha Soko to see if they had anything new. The Famicom game racks were pretty much the same as usual - I've picked them over for the past two years and now basically have every game they've got out there. I also checked the console and controller sections but not much new there either.

At the back of the store, however, something really caught my eye. Stack upon stack of these black plastic crates filled to the brim with old consoles, controllers, cables and games of every type. Usually when they get new stuff in (they buy stuff from people who come in off the street) they'll just dump it in the back for a few days until one of their employees gets around to sorting it out and putting prices on it. Normally they might have at most one or two of these boxes out and when I see them I know that within a couple of days they'll have new stuff on the shelves so I make a note to visit again in the next day or two (you have to hurry when they put new stuff out, otherwise other people will beat you to the good stuff).

This, however, was unlike anything I had ever seen before. They had these things stacked almost to the ceiling, row upon row of them. Somebody must have literally dumped an entire truckload of old video game stuff and just said "Just take it all."

Because they hadn't put the stuff on sale yet I couldn't see exactly what they had, but it looked promising so I made a note to come in soon and have a look at the stuff when they put it out for sale.

Yesterday I made my second visit and, sure enough, all the stuff was out for sale. But nothing could have prepared me for the sight that beheld my eyes. Apparently, due to the sheer volume of stuff they had gotten and the massive pain in the ass it would be to sort it all out and untangle all the wires, they just put the crates out with signs saying (basically) "Everything in these boxes is 50 yen. Nothing has been tested so buy at your own risk." I snapped a couple pictures of some of the crates. You aren't allowed to photograph so I did this somewhat surreptitiously (gee, I hope nobody from the store reads this blog), apologies for the blurry pics. These ones had controllers, consoles and a million cables in them:
And these ones had tons of games (only the stuff in the crates were 50 yen, the stuff on the walls was seperate):
The above pictures only show about 1/3 or so of the total amount of stuff. It was massive.

Now, 50 yen is only about 5o cents US so you might expect these crates were full of crap. Not so. Well, not exactly so. Most of the stuff actually was crap, but there were a lot of GOOD things in there too. And by virtue of having arrived at exactly the right time I had first crack at picking them over!! My retro-game shopping dream come true!!!

Being bicycle-bound I had some finite limits on the amount of stuff I could carry, so I ended up making two trips, one yesterday and the other today. This was today's haul, still in its bags:
In total I spent 3450 yen (1600 yen yesterday and 1850 yen today), which is about 40$ US at today's exchange rate. Lets take a look at what I got.

Fist, the consoles. One (working) AV Famicom with both controllers (this counted as just one item despite really being three):
One functioning, clean old-school Famicom complete with the expansion port cover (those things are hard to find):
One PC Engine complete with Disk drive and interface unit (as with the AV Famicom, this only counted as one thing despite it, really, being 3). I have all the cables and a controller for another PC Engine which has a busted console, so this works out perfect for me:
Two Sega Mega Drives. I actually didn't want two of them, but ended up getting two kind of by chance. On the first day I picked up one that was just console-only. On the second day I rummaged through the bins looking for an AV cable and AC adapter for it. At the bottom of one of the bins I found a bag with another Mega Drive complete with the cables (though missing the controllers) and I figured what the hell:
And next, the Famicom controllers.

First, the Famicom Joystick 7 Mk II, which looks pretty damn cool:
And a Famicom Hori Controller:
And two Joycard controllers, one boxed with a picture of Takahashi Meijin on it:
And did I get games? Yes I certainly did.

First I got this fantastic copy of Lode Runner for some 1980s 8-bit Sony console that I don't own (edit: this is a game for the MSX "Hit Bit", a home computer released in 1983). I'll probably never be able to play it but man, I could not resist buying this for the awesomeness of that cover-art. This is without a doubt my favorite box-art of any video game I've ever had:
And Famicom Carts? Oh, you bet they had Famicom carts. GOOD ones, not just a bunch of baseballs and golfs. I picked up 32 of them. To be honest I already owned copies of most of these games but I got these mainly for the purposes of future trades or something. These ones I got today:
And these ones yesterday:
I had been wanting "Crazy Climber"for a really long time and was really excited to find it.

They also had a bunch of Disk System games. I have 3 disk systems now (two in Twin Famicoms and one FDS) but none work. Still for the future day when I actually get one of them up and running I now have some awesome games to play:
And I got these games for other consoles. Perfect Dark for the N64 is one I've been looking for a long time for, but the cheapest I've ever seen it was 3,000 yen (ironically almost the same amount I paid for everything here). I just got the Sonic game so I'd have something to test my new Mega Drives with (when I get a bloody controller for them anyway. Of the hundreds of old controllers in those endless stacks of crates I couldn't find a single Mega Drive controller):
The coolest thing I found though was hidden at the bottom of one of the games crates. I though it was just some piece of junk at first and almost ignored it, but when I took a closer look I realized that it was an original Game and Watch from 1982:
I've really wanted to get a Game and Watch for a long time, but they are so expensive (hard to find for less than 5000 yen) that I've never bothered. I probably wouldn't have gone for Mickey and Donald, but beggars can't be choosers and it was still a good find. I have to get some batteries for it to see if it still works, but its in pretty good shape (edit: got the batteries and it does work!):
And rounding out the purchases were a bunch of miscellaneous cables and stuff that I needed to "complete" some other old consoles I have lying around:
All in all, an amazing haul when you consider how little it all cost. If I can just repeat that total: 3450 yen. Yup. For less than the cost of a single Wii or PS3 game I got all of the crap in the following photo. Is it any wonder that I don't buy current generation console stuff?
The missus might not be happy if I don't get our living room looking like normal again by the time she gets home though, so I better finish this post here and go tidy this up.