Kansai Retro Game Shops 4: Mandarake in Osaka`s Amerika Mura

The final retro game store I got to check out during my trip to the Kansai area was Mandarake in Osaka`s Amerika Mura neighborhood.

Amerika Mura is kind of a neat area.  It mainly has clothing shops (the name Amerika Mura comes from the fact that stores selling American style clothing were centred in the neighborhood back in the day) and a lot of them are pretty hip.  

Mandarake used to have a store in the Den Den town area where all the other retro game shops are but about 5 years ago they closed that one down and moved it to Amerika Mura.  The two neighborhoods actually aren`t far from each other and you can walk from one to the other, passing by the famous Dotonbori area with its Bladerunner look (at night at least) on the way:

It actually kind of makes sense that Mandarake relocated given that it sells a ton of clothing (cosplay stuff) as well as games and toys.  Anyway, this is what it looks like outside:

The games are on the first floor.  The first thing I noticed was that their Famicom shelf also sported a few NES games, which I have never seen in a retro game shop here before:

Their selection was actually quite underwhelming.  The Mandarake in Fukuoka actually has a much better Famicom section which is surprsing considering that Osaka is about three times bigger than Fukuoka. 

I think the reason for that is Mandarake actually has two stores in Osaka, the one in Amerika Mura I visited and another one in Umeda.  Unfortunately I didn`t have time to check out the Umeda one (presumably it has a lot more games). 

This brought to a close my Kansai area retro game shopping.  It was mostly a window shopping trip as I ended up spending less than 1,000 yen (about $10) on retro games, my only purchases being a CIB copy of Sky Destroyer for the Famicom (I love the box are on it) and a loose copy of Fantasy Zone for the Sega Mark III (which I got at this Mandarake).  In general the prices were a bit higher than I was used to in Fukuoka but there were a few reasonable places.  Not a place for bargain-hunting but I had a really great time looking at all the pretty goodies!

Kansai Retro Game Shops 3: Super Potato in Osaka!!

 I have long wished to make a pilgrimmage to Super Potato, the godfather of all Famicom shops.  They don`t have one in Fukuoka so I was never able to visit one while I collected games down there, meaning I was also massively excited to get to visit the one in Osaka`s Den Den Town!  Look at all those amazing rows of Famicom carts!!  With the cool little hand written price tags!  So pretty.

The shop is located on a side street that runs parrallel to the main street in Den Den town.  There are a lot of Otaku related shops on the street so its kind of a cool place for a stroll.

Prices are on the steep side: you won`t find any bargains there.  But oh what a place to browse!  I have never seen so much beautiful Famicom stuff collected in one space (save my closet)!

Look at all the Famicoms:

And Twin Famicoms and Disk Systems!!!

And copies of that shogi game for the Nintendo 64 (well OK, not everything they had a lot of was cool):

The hyper rare stuff was, as you might expect, the best.  They had a Famicom Box, which I had never seen in person before.  This was a coin operated type of Famicom that they used in hotels back in the 80s.  They are pretty hard to find.  They are also interesting because they use the NES-type controllers and gun rather than the Famicom ones.  The game carts, which you can`t really see from the outside, are also shaped like NES ones:

They also had some rare Famicom carts, including these gold copies of Binary Land and Rockman 4.  The Binary Land was (according to the written explanation on that card) made especially for the wedding of one of the game`s developers where it was handed out as a gift to guests, meaning there were only a couple hundred ever made (hence the 84,800 yen price tag).  The gold Rockman 4 is even rarer, only 8 of them were made.  At 628,000 yen (about $6,500 US) it is by far the most expensive Famicom thing I have ever laid eyes on.

And of course they had a ton of CIB Famicom carts too.  Prices were way too high for my taste but it was cool to see them:

Anyway, this is an awesome shop to visit if you are in Osaka, but like I`ve said don`t expect any bargains (except for that sucky N64 shogi game they have a million copies of up there).  Think of it more like a quasi-religious experience for true Famicom believers:)


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Kansai Retro Game Shops 2: Den Den Town in Osaka
Kansai Famicom Shops 1: Kobe

Kansai Retro Game Shops 2: Den Den Town in Osaka

On the last day of our Kansai trip I finally was able to make the pilgrimage to Den Den Town, Osaka`s neighborhood dedicated to electronics (`Den` means electricity).  As such it is also the centre of Osaka`s retro gaming stores, thus making it worth a visit.

Den Den Town is in the centre of Osaka, about a fifteen minute or so walk from Shinsaibashi (where we stayed).  It is a surprisingly large neighborhood with one main street (pictured above) stretching for several blocks and a number of side and parrallel streets. It is a pretty bustling area.

Most of the shops don`t sell retro games, which isn`t surprising given that there are hundreds of stores in the area.  There are quite a few that do though, we wandered into one on the main street and found a wall full of Famicom carts:

The prices were on the high side, but they did have a TV hooked up to a Famiclone with Transofrmers Mystery of Comvoy so we had some fun with that for a while (frustration is sometimes an enjoyable pasttime).

One cool shop we found specializing in retro games was Retro TV Game Revivial:

It is a small-ish shop but packed to the roof with games.  They had a good selection of CIB Famicom games:

And a few retro consoles:

The prices weren`t too bad here.  There weren`t any absolute bargains but their prices were fair (unlike some of the other shops in the area which were way overpriced).

One cool thing I spotted were some old school Famicom lunch boxes, in Super Mario and Bouken Shima pattern:

They weren`t for sale but I thought they were pretty cool.

I haven`t mentioned the biggest shop I visited in Den Den Town yet because it will be the subject of my next post..... Super Potato!!