Only in Japan: Naming Your Video Game After Jesus

Jesus Kyoufu Biomonster is probably one of the better known Famicom-only releases whose fame is solely attributable to its name.

It is a text heavy RPG, which means that I don`t like it as a game, though it does have cool theme music. The Box art is cool too:
I like this game for a couple of reasons, neither of which relate to its gameplay. First it demonstrates the fact that naming your game after a famous celebrity like Jesus won`t necessarily make it a great game. This follows a trend established in Major League Baseball by the pioneering outfielder Jesus Alou:
Despite the killer first name and fantastic mutton chops, his .280 career batting average and lack of power prevented him from ever being a serious Hall of Fame candidate. If there was a hall of fame for Famicom games, I think the Jesus Biomonster game would likewise fall short.

Actually Alou`s first name uses the Spanish pronounciation and has a little accent above the `u`, which Topps was apparently unable to put on the above baseball card, but the Famicom game is pronounced in the English way as made clear by the kana below it (Gee-zaz).

The other thing I like about it is the clash of cultures it represents. A lot of stuff gets made in Japan that just wouldn`t go down at all well in North America or Europe. If you were to include the name Jesus in an American video game it would only be in something like`Bible Adventures` for the NES:
This game has so many strikes against it I just don`t know where to begin. No wait, I do know where to begin:

Strike 1: Its an educational game.

Strike 2: Its a Christian educational game.

Strike 3: Its a Christian educational game that is a `poorly coded piece of crap`.

I think Rod and Todd Flanders would have been the only kids in the world who would have been pleased to unwrap a Christmas present containing this game. For everyone else giving this as a present would really have constituted a mild form of child abuse.

Jesus on the Famicom though? No, he is totally badass:
Educational games are for sissies. This Jesus means business. Even though its still a crap RPG, I give them credit for that.

Atari 2600 Air Raid and the Relative Value of Collector`s Holy Grails

A couple of months ago I was browsing Ebay for Atari 2600 stuff. I was interested in buying a console (very hard to find in Japan) as it is one of those iconic classics that I have wanted to add to my collection for a long time.

Unfortunately it is also a really really heavy classic console, so the cost of shipping one across the Pacific made me drop the idea. My time spent searching wasn`t entirely wasted, however, as coincidentally at that time someone had put up a copy of Air Raid for auction.

The Ebay listing was quite interesting. The seller (see here) noted:

Based on research I have conducted, this is only the 14th known copy of Air Raid by Menavision. I bought this game new in Texas in 83 or 84. It has been boxed up and following me around the country for decades...

The game, which was cart only, ended up selling for $3,575. It seems to have been completely legit, including his assertion that there are only 14 known copies of the game in existence.

Air Raid is one of the holy grails of retro video game collecting. Along with Stadium Events for the NES and a couple of others it is probably the most valuable retro game out there. If you want to have a complete set of Atari 2600 games, and a lot of people do, you need this game. This has made the lone known CIB copy of it the most valuable Atari game out there, selling for $31,600 in 2010. The only game that has sold for more as far as I can tell was a sealed copy of NES Stadium Events which sold for $41,300.

Now I really hate it when people talk about video games primarily as an investment. I don`t view them as such myself. They are fun games to be played and enjoyed for what they are.

At the same time though, as a collector, this sort of thing does intrigue me. While I hate the way money can infect a hobby and strip it of its fun, I also like the fact that these holy grails are floating around out there with people chasing after them and putting a high price on them. Given their prominence, historical importance and rarity some of these things actually do deserve to be worth something.

Unfortunately (or fortunately perhaps) the Famicom doesn`t have any holy grails. Well, it has some of course but they don`t really count in the same way that Air Raid does. There are gold versions of some games (Punchout, Hot Scramble, Rockman 4) and special giveaways for contests (Recca Summer Carnival 92), but I don`t count those as part of the regular set. Those are more the type of contrived rarity that is way less interesting than actual rarity caused by things like, as in Air Raid`s case, the game being massively unpopular.

Anyway, what interests me most about that Air Raid game, and particularly the complete copy that sold for $31, 600, isn`t how much it sold for but how little.

$31,600 might sound like a lot, but when you compare it with what the holy grails in other collecting hobbies it is almost like they were giving it away. Supply and demand being the main determinants of the value of a collectible I thought it might be interesting here to look at the prices of those other holy grails and their relative scarcity (supply) and popular appeal (demand). Lets start with comics.

Comic books

The holy grail of comic book collecting is probably Action Comics number 1, which features the first appearance of Superman:
There are estimated to be about 100 of these in existence, so it is quite rare though there are fewer copies of Air Raid. It is also an icon, given Superman`s place in 20th century pop culture. This gives it a big edge over Air Raid, which is basically a game nobody has ever heard of whose only fame is attributable to the console it was made for. Still though, the difference in price is startling. The best known copy of this sold a couple of months ago for $2.16 million.

Baseball Cards

This is the 1909 T-206 Honus Wagner. The T-206 is a very popular set of Tobacco cards among collectors, but this card is extremely rare due to the fact that Wagner (for reasons that are disputed) refused permission for them to use his likeness. This forced the American Tobacco Company to remove the card from distribution, but somewhere between 60 and 200 copies of it made it into the market and are now far and away the most valuable sports card in existence.

In comparison to Air Raid, there are more copies of this card out there so Air Raid wins in terms of supply. In terms of demand Honus Wagner was one of the best players of his generation, though that was about 100 years ago and were it not for this card most people who aren`t baseball fans would have no idea who he was. So it isn`t anywhere near as significant in cultural terms as Action Comics 1. At any rate, the best copy of this card out there sold for $2.8 million in 2007, which is about 90 times more than what the most expensive copy of Air Raid fetched.

Stamps

The above is an envelope with two stamps from Mauritius which were produced in 1847. These stamps are extremely rare as only 500 of each were ever produced. This envelope (called the Bordeaux cover) is a one of a kind item of particular note because it has both of them on it. It sold for $4 million in 1993 the last time it changed hands and is probably the most valuable stamp related item in the world.

As a one of a kind item it is basically equal in scarcity to the complete in box copy of Air Raid. In terms of its appeal - stamps from Mauritius? An obscure British colony in the middle of the Indian Ocean? Outside of stamp collectors I think it is safe to say that this is of no interest to anyone so I give Air Raid a win on that count.

Conclusion

I could probably draw on examples from other collector`s hobbies but I think you get the drift. Holy grails in other hobbies, even ones that are not as rare as Air Raid, all sell for millions of dollars. The video game collector`s holy grail only sells for $31, 600. If you think about it, this doesn`t really make much sense. In terms of popular appeal, video games easily rank up there with comic books and probably beat baseball cards (only popular to baseball fans) and stamps (almost nobody under 40 collects those). The only reason I can think for the relatively low value of Air Raid is that the video game collecting market is much newer than the market for those other things and most people who would buy them are probably in their 20s or 30s. That is an age bracket which doesn`t have anywhere near as much spending power as the baby boomers who drove up the prices of comics and baseball cards in the 1980s. Twenty years from now though when the first generation who played Atari as kids are in their 50s and 60s and are the CEOs of major companies with craploads of disposable income this thing will probably be selling for obscene amounts too.

Related Posts:
- Opinion: On the Economics of Retro Game Collecting

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

Only in Japan: Hi no Tori Gaou no Bouken

Hi no Tori is without a doubt one of my favorite Famicom games. I really don`t understand why it was never ported to the NES as it is one of the best platformers ever made for the system.

This is one of the games that I acquired early in my Famicom collecting days about 3 years ago. My wife had it when she was a kid and I bought it on her recommendation (back then I hadn`t devoted myself to acquiring every Famicom cart ever made and would only but the good ones).

There is a pretty good write up on the game at Strategy Wiki, so I won`t repeat too much of what is already out there.

Well, OK maybe I`ll repeat a bit of what is already out there. It is a side scrolling platformer based on a comic by Osamu Tezuka. You control Gaou, the hero of the game, as he progresses through multiple levels doing all the typical 8-bit side scrolling platformer type stuff (shooting enemies, jumping over stuff, etc). There are some unique actions that set this one apart though. Gaou can, for example, shoot (throw?) stone blocks. He can use these to build staircases, which are sometimes necessary to climb over gaping bits of scenery that are too big to jump across or what have you.

I still haven`t actually finished the game yet, my wife is better at it than I am. I bought a boxed copy (pictured above) of it recently for 500 yen, which was a really good bargain. It still has the original department store price tag on it for 4770 yen. I love it when game stuff still has original tags on it. This one was purchased at the Daimaru Department store, which is located downtown. I was there just a couple of weeks ago doing some Christmas shopping:
This is what it looked like for Christmas 2011. I wonder what it looked like for Christmas 1987 when this game may have been originally purchased. The building it is currently in looks like it was built since then, so I`m guessing it looked completely different back then.

Anyway, that tangent in this blog post, complete with its tengential photograph, was brought to you by Famicomblog`s new sponsor, the Daimaru Department store. Daimaru: in Japanese the name just means `big circle`.

Related Posts:
- Only in Japan: Spelunker and Spelunker 2 Yuuja he no Chousen

The Famicom Game Collection at the New Year

Another year is at an end. I thought this might be a good time to do a little review of the state of my Famicom game collection.

At the moment I have a little over 700 different Famicom carts, roughly 2/3 of the total. I say `roughly` because unfortunately I lost my checklist a few months ago and since then have had to basically guess which ones I need when making purchases. At some point I`ll have to create a new one.

Anyway, that means that my progress was pretty slow this year as I already had over 600 different carts at the end of 2010. That is to be expected though, the more carts you have the harder it gets to find the ones that you still need.

My Famicom collection at the moment is scattered throughout my apartment in a variety of nooks and crannies. Basically anywhere I could put them. My favorite games I keep on my little custom built Famicom cart shelf, which is still decorated for Christmas:
Other games that I like but which didn`t quite make the cut for the shelf go in this box:
Or in this little side table:
Or here in this little space on the other side of the sofa:
Or just in front of the TV:
I also have a big pile on a shelf in the spare room. I used to store the entire collection there but since we got the dog I`ve only been able to use a little corner of it, right next to the Slave 1 there:
These are games that I basically don`t play anymore. There are a few good ones in there, but its way too much of a pain to find them. I keep the colorful ones facing out as I think it makes the room look a little brighter.

Rounding out the collection is this box, where I keep the overflow from the overflow from the overflow:
Oh and of course my ever expanding Complete in Box Famicom collection, which is getting quite big. I really wish I had a way to display these, that is another thing that will have to await our moving into a bigger place someday:
In addition to all of that I have my doubles. I`ve actually sold quite a few of them over the past few months, but the pile is still impressive:
And that is about it for my Famicom collection!

This will in all likelihood be my last post here for 2011. I hope you all have a nice New Year!

Related Posts:
- Boxed Famicom Games and the Problem of Collection Creep
- First Famicom Carts of 2011
- Wall of Famicom
- Famicom Fort

Tsutaya: Worst Retro Video Game Section Ever

Another place I stopped at during my Christmas shopping last week was the Tsutaya downtown. Tsutaya is a major nationwide chain that started out primarily as a rental video/game/CD place, but now a lot of their locations also sell a variety of items, from used books to retro video games.

Just to provide a little autobiographical digression here I actually purchased a PlayStation 2 at a Tsutaya way back in 2001 when they were still relatively new and expensive. What can I say? I was young, irresponsible and had a steady job that paid a decent income (oh how I do miss those days). That was the only time in my life that I have actually purchased a video game console in the prime of its life, every other one I either received as a present as a child (Commodore Vic-20, NES) or have purchased as a retro console in the past couple of years (Famicom, Mega Drive.....well, everything in this blog basically).

About a year after that I actually had a rather serious bicycle accident in front of a Tsutaya that I had just returned a movie to and ended up with a broken elbow (very painful thing to break, BTW).

Er....why am I providing you with all this minutia? Oh yes, what I wanted to say was simply that until very recently despite having a lengthy history with Tsutaya I had never realized that they also sold retro games. This is because most of them including the ones I had frequented in the past didn`t. Somebody on Famicom World mentioned that their Tsutaya sold retro video games a couple months ago though and this got me interested. So I decided to start checking out all the Tsutaya in town whenever I happened to be passing by just in case.

So far the only one that has had any is the one downtown. It is quite a posh place, even the escalators are very bright and sparkly:
The retro game section is on the top floor. This is it:
The contrast with the rest of the store could not be starker. The interior is very modern and tasteful. They have nice bookshevles in the bookstore floor with a little coffee shop. The modern video game section looks fantastic with loads of fancy displays. The retro game section is.....

A steel basket with a bunch of Famicom and Super Famicom carts thrown into it.
Not only is the presentation subpar, the selection is absolutely awful. Every Famicom cart they had was either sports, pachinko or Mahjong except for one copy of Tetris, which had a really messed up label. The Super Famicom games were exactly the same: not a good one in the pile.

The only upside is that they charge a flat 100 yen each, which is reasonable. Anybody else out there live near a Tsutaya with a retro video game section? I`m curious if they all suck as bad as this one.

Famicom Crap I Came Across but did not buy while Christmas Shopping!

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas. We had a great one here with lots of presents and merriment had by all.

Unlike last year I did not actually get any video game stuff this year. While doing my Christmas shopping at shops like the Loft, Village Vanguard and InCube, however, I did come across some kind of interesting Famicom themed stuff. I didn`t actually buy any of it, but I had my camera with me so I took a few photos and thought I`d put them up in a post here.

The first was the FC Mobile, which I found in Village Vanguard:
Basically its a mobile device that plays Famicom carts. It looks cool on the box, but I`m always reluctant to buy these knock off type things as quality is always a big question. Also it doesn`t have rechargable batteries so you have to use the old fashioned ones. At 3,980 yen (about 50$) the price was also a bit high, given that you can buy an original CIB Famicom for about that much, even less.

They also had a Super Famicom/ Famicom Famiclone called the Game Combo:
The price tag is a bit difficult to read in the photo but I think it was about 6000 yen (75$). Already having a Super Famicom and a Famicom I have no need for this, but I could almost see it being worthwhile for someone who doesn`t, assuming that it is of decent quality (which is always a question mark with these Famiclones).

This thing also caught my eye and I have no idea what it is:
It is SKMT by a company called Lanstrum. It caught my eye because the design of the box is an obvious nod to the early Famicom game boxes. This carries over to the back:
It seems to be a CD, but I`m not sure if it is a music CD or PC game software or what. I thought it was interesting too that the character on the front cover art is wearing a Power Glove and carrying a weapon that looks like the Super Scope for the SFC.

Anyway, the only thing I would have considered actually purchasing was this:
Its a cell phone case shaped like a Famicom controller. My cell phone is a flip one so I don`t think I could use this, but I thought it was kind of cool and if I ever did get a cell phone case then this would be it.

At another store, InCube, these things caught my eye:
They are Dragon Quest puzzles. The boxes are almost identical to the Famicom boxes for these games, right down to their size:
630 yen each (about 8$). I`m not a Dragon Quest fan nor am I a fan of game related merchandise unless it is some really old, obscure thing. Still, I thought these looked kind of nice.