Flea Market Finds Part 1: Epoch Cassette Vision!

The missus and I were at the Hakozaki Flea Market today. It was a pleasant spring day, perfect weather for flea marketing.
In terms of retro game acquisitions, I am happy to say that it was an extremely productive day. In terms of saving our money for the mature, responsible things that adults usually purchase, I am sad to say that the opposite holds true.

Fortunately though this blog appeals much more to the segment of society that favors the former, so I have some stuff to write about.

I made two really great retro game purchases. I've never bought retro game stuff at that market before, so I was surprised to find not one but two hard to find items at bargain prices offered at separate dealers. This post deals with the first purchase, I'll follow up with a second post on my other "get".

And that first purchase was.......
The Epoch Cassette Vision!!

I've been looking for one of these for the longest time. Just two weeks ago I found one for the first time at a retro game store selling for 20,000 yen (about 240 dollars or so). So you can imagine how excited I was to see that this one was only selling for 1000 yen (about 12 bucks)!! Complete in box and everything!
There was a small catch though. The player two lever is broken (you can see it missing on the lower right side of the console in the above photo). Other than that and a few dings here and there, it is in good condition. The seller, who seemed an honest guy (he warned me about the broken lever before I bought it) told me that it works. Unfortunately I don't have any Epoch Cassette Vision games so I can't confirm that.

This is probably one of the most under-appreciated consoles out there. The reason I've really wanted one is because Wikipedia says that this was the first successful programmable cart based console ever made in Japan. The key word in that sentence is "successful" as a little further research has revealed that the Bandai TV Jack 8000, which also used cartridges, beat it by a couple years. That wasn't a popular one though, so the Epoch Cassette Vision gets the "first successful one" prize.

It is a very unusual console too. You'll note that it doesn't have controllers, all the player controls are built into the top of the console itself. I'm not too sure but I think this must be the only cartridge based system like that.

I opened it up to see how easy it would be to fix the player two lever. I have the lever itself, all I need to do is glue it back on. Anyway, this is what the insides look like:
My conclusion: its got a lot of wires and stuff in there.

So now my new mission is to get some carts for this thing and try it out. And glue that player two lever back on. The games themselves are very hard to find. The Famicom just totally wiped this thing out of the market, so it wasn't out there for very long. I asked the guy I bought it from if he had any and he said no, they are really hard to come by in Fukuoka (that honesty again).

Its an important piece of video game history though and I'm quite pleased with it!

Tomorrow I'll write something about the other great retro game thing I got!

Related Posts:

-Fukuoka Famicom Shops VIII: The Other Omocha Souko
- Fukuoka Famicom Shops IV: Flea Markets Brought to You by the God of War

Transformers Mystery of Comvoy And a Note About Old School Japanese Pre-Transformers

In keeping with my recent fascination with 80s robot toys from my childhood, I thought I'd do a post here about one of the worst games ever released for the Famicom: Transformers Mystery of Comvoy.

The awfulness of this thing is legendary. It is only slightly better than turning on a cart-less Famicom and trying to use the controller to make the gray screen do something. The first sign you get that this game was probably rushed through production is the fact that nobody caught the obvious spelling error in the game's English title. This type of thing is a pretty common occurrence in Japan, though it is rare to see such a flagrant mistake on a product made by a big company like this. Always pays to have a native speaker double check these things, I always say.

I'm not sure that the gameplay on this thing is even worth reviewing. The guys at 1Up have already done t a good job of it here. Having played this stinker and not gotten past the first level I can vouch for it being every bit as frustrating as they say. I think I'll just comment on one element that really illustrates the bad-ness. It is a horizontal shooter. Among other things, enemy tanks come at you. But your character's gun, which only shoots straight, is actually too high to hit the tanks. It is physically impossible to actually shoot the enemy with your gun. Your character just continuously points his gun too high to hit them and all you can do is watch in anger as each shot flies harmlessly over the enemy tanks. That is how poorly designed the thing is.

In the game's defence though, its awfulness means that it is probably one of the cheapest vintage 80s Transformers toys out there. You can get these for 300 yen (3$) or less pretty easily. Its a boring gray cart, but I do like the label art. Very Transformer-y. So if you like old Transformers stuff, or infamously bad video games, then its kind of a neat thing to have.

To change gears here a bit, I'd like to put in a word about the Japanese origins of the Transfomers toyline. Why? Because I'm very keen on the things and its my blog. So there.

The original Transformers are descended from a couple of Japanese toylines produced by Takara, the same company that made this game. Most of the original Autobots are basically copies of an early 80s toyline known as Diaclone. I have one of these, the Fairlady Z Car Robot:
This is without a doubt my favorite toy. It actually looks kind of....classy. The name "Fairlady Z" is really cool, and the sleak lines of the car are pretty smoove:
Note the two little human figures in the above photo. Unlike Transformers, Diaclones were not supposed to be sentient robots but had human drivers. Each of these toys came with one such figure. Somebody had accidentally put a second one in the box of mine when I got it, which was a nice bonus.

The box is pretty sweet too, Transformers fans might recognize some other first generation Transformers on there:
The bottom has a nice cut-away image of the car:
All the bits and pieces:
Not only is this my favorite toy, it is also far and away the most expensive retro thing I have ever purchased. These things are insanely hard to find, especially complete in their original boxes like this. Just the little human figures retail for about 50 dollars each (so getting an extra one was a real bonus). I'm embarrassed to admit how much I paid, but lets just say it was in the five figures.

That is 5 figures in yen, not dollars. I didn't spend THAT much on it. Still, it was enough to cause me to hyperventilate on leaving the store and then spend about 14 hours curled up in the fetal position full of self-loathing for having turned into one of those guys who spends ridiculous amounts of money on trophies like this.

Anyway, long story, not important.

The other toy series that Transformers are descended from is called Microman. Most of the original Decepticons come from this series. I have one of them, a cassette that turns into a helicopter:
I love this thing because it is the exact same size and shape as a regular cassette and comes with its own regular cassette tape box. The helicopter isn't quite as impressive. Like the Diaclones, these came with human figures.
I really dig the back of the box. The photo on the lower left demonstrates that it is, in fact, capable of being put into a regular tape player. the little energy chart on the lower right also looks like a crude predecessor to the ones they put on the back of Transformers boxes.

My "Microman Cassette Machine" doesn't actually have a Transformer equivalent, though some of the other cassettes from the same series ended up as the cassettes that went with Soundwave in the original toyline. Because this one turned into a helicopter rather than a robot (or some other sentient being) I guess they decided he wouldn't work as a Transformer. For that reason he is way cheaper than the ones that did become Transformers and I got this thing mint in its box for only 6000 yen (about 70$).

As a side note, the Microman series actually spawned two toy franchises in North America. In addition to the Transformers, they were also the basis for the Micronauts who came out in the late 70s. I used to read the Marvel Micronauts comics as a kid so these are kind of double-retro to me!

Related Posts:

- Japanese Gobots!

Fukuoka Famicom Shops VIII: The Cheapest Famicom Carts in Town

This is a relatively brief post about a store called Book Eco, which is out in the eastern part of town and, despite its name, probably sells more video games than books. They have a decent selection of Famicom games in the lot so I thought they were worth a blog post in this series.

Unfortunately, its not much of an interesting store, everything is just organized on orderly shelves without much effort made at displaying them in an attractive way and they don't have anything particularly unusual or rare. Most of the games are kept in these big plastic anti-theft devices as pictured above, which really robs the Famicom carts of their charm.

This store's main claim to fame is that it has the cheapest Famicom carts in town. I don't mean that they have the best prices in town, just that the prices they sell their cheapest games at is the lowest in town. Check out this copy of Harakiri Stadium for example:
18 yen. That is about 20 cents US. This was the cheapest one they had on my recent visit, but I know for a fact that they sell them for as little as 10 yen each, as that is how much I bought my copy of "Soccer" for from them way back when.

The interesting thing about this isn't so much the price per se as it is the lengths to which they went to prepare such a cheap item for sale. I mean, they wrapped it in plastic, printed out a price tag that, in addition to the price, has the game's name, date of original release and genre on it, and then put it on the shelf in order. When you buy it, they put it in another bag and give you a receipt. When you calculate the labor and material cost to the store of doing all that, it must be way more than 18 yen. You really have to wonder why they bother. Pretty much any other shop and they would just dump anything selling for less than 100 yen or so into a junk bin or something. Not at Book Eco though!

It is interesting the way they toss these things into the plastic anti-theft cases too, here we have two carts, the bottom of which is selling for more than 100 times more than the upper one:
Super Mario Bros. is really slumming it there.

Related Posts:
- Fukuoka Famicom Shops 1: 007
- Fukuoka Famicom Shops 2: The Decline and Fall of the Famicom Empire
- Fukuoka Famicom Shops 3: Mandarake
- Fukuoka Famicom Shops 4: Flea Markets Brought to you by the God of War
- Fukuoka Famicom Shops 5: Don Quixote and Village Vanguard
- Fukuoka Famicom Shops 6: The New 007 and Hakozaki Flea Market
- Fukuoka Famicom Shops 7: The Other Omocha Souko

Japanese Gobots! Machine Robo Series Gyro Robo (Cop-Tur)

As promised in my previous post, this is what I got at the Shingu Omocha Souko yesterday: Machine Robo Series MR-04 Gyro Robo, better known in North America as the Blue and White Gobots helicopter (Cop-Tur).

I had this guy, or at least the North American version of him, way back when. He was a present from my Dad. I had about 7 or 8 Gobots, all of them the little ones like this guy and not the bigger, Transformer-esque ones. They are all long gone now, given away or sold off just before a family move in 1989.

Anyway, speaking of Transformers, I had known that they were descended from a Japanese toyline that went by a different name (Microman). I have one of these, it is cool. Until yesterday when I saw this guy though I hadn't realized that the Gobots were likewise descended from a Japanese toyline of their own.

The Machine-Robo series, of which this guy was one of the first, were first produced by a company called Popy, a subsidiary of Bandai. They were released in 1982, two years before the Gobots came out in the US. According to Wikipedia this one belonged to what are known as the "600 series" as they retailed for 600 yen when first released, a fact confirmed by the original price tag still on this one:
The thing came with this cool flyer with pictures of all the other Machine Robos released in the first series, most of which you'll probably recognize if, like me, you had Gobots when you were a kid in the early 80s:
One interesting fact that this thing reveals is that all the early Machine Robos (and hence, Gobots) were based on ideas sent in by little kids. My MR-04 Gyro Robo, according to this, was based on an idea submitted by an 8 year old from right here in Fukuoka prefecture.

Anyway, I really like this guy. The box is really great:
If I recall correctly the Gobots I had as a kid all came packaged on cards like action figures. Boxes like this are way better, they look nicer and they don't get permanently messed up when you open them up.

As I alluded to earlier, he turns from a helicopter:
Into a robot:
Doing a little internet research on this, I noticed that a lot of people think the Transformers are much better than the Gobots because they were more complicated, etc. I rather think the opposite holds true. The simplicity of this almost 30 year old toy really gives it way more appeal than most of the Transformers IMHO, especially these endless new ones that are just way too complicated and detailed.

Of course I am speaking as someone who found the first Transformers movie so awful that I wouldn't watch the second and third ones if you paid me to. Other opinions will vary. For me though, I like this little old Gobot.

Fukuoka Famicom Shops VII: The Other Omocha Souko

I often write on here about a store called "Omocha Souko" that I visit and get either ridiculous bargains or completely ripped off at. This may give the impression that there is only one shop by that name, but in fact there are three of them in Fukuoka. The one I go to is the main store and is located right on my way home, hence my constant visits.

The other two are branch stores. One is way out in Meinohama, west of town. I visited it once about a year ago on my way to Ito Shima. Its not bad, but way too far for me to ever visit again.

The other branch is in Shingu, east of town. Closer than the Meinohama one but far enough away that I rarely visit. I happened to be out in the area today, however, so I thought I'd drop by for a look-see.

The Shingu Omocha Souko is a pretty interesting place. It isn't as big as the one I usually go to, but they actually have a bit more interesting stuff. Like the Famicom Robot:
Note the Color TV Game 15. It costs about twice as much as what the other Omocha Souko charged me for one. This is one of the biggest reasons, in addition to distance, that I never visit the Shingu Omocha Souko - most stuff is way overpriced. The Famicom Robot was 10,000 yen, which seems a bit high to me.

They had this amazing thing right next to it though:
This is the Epoch Cassette Vision. I have been looking for one of these forever and today was the first time I have found one in a game shop. It was released in 1981 and as Wikipedia notes "it has the distinction of being the first successful programmable console video game system to be made in Japan." Of course, the Famicom's release a couple years later basically wiped this thing out.

If they had wanted 10,000 yen or so for it I would have been sorely tempted to buy it, but they wanted 20,000, which is way more than I've seen it going for on Yahoo Japan auctions, so I gave it a pass. It was a real beauty though, the box looked great.

They had a few other interesting computer/consoles from the 80s put out by Toshiba and Sony:
Also 20,000 yen each, also way overpriced at that.

They have an impressive collection of Famicom carts, both loose:
And boxed:
Again....all overpriced.

Ironically the one spot in the store where they had their games extremely reasonably priced was in the glass case where they kept the best ones:
They had a copy of Spartan X2 in there for only 1500 yen, which is about half what most shops charge, if they have one. I suspect the reason why the glass case stuff is cheaper is that these have been recently priced, while the stuff on the racks was priced years ago during the peak of the retro-game collecting craze.

In the end, I didn't get Spartan X2, though it was tempting. Maybe next trip.

Instead, I got something else for the same price. It wasn't a Famicom or video game thing, but actually came from their toy section. It is vintage (made in 1982) and, like the Famicom, was a predecessor to a toy that would later be released in North America.

I like it so much I think I'll devote an entire post just to it rather than revealing what it was here:)

Related Posts:
- Fukuoka Famicom Shops 1: 007
- Fukuoka Famicom Shops 2: The Decline and Fall of the Famicom Empire
- Fukuoka Famicom Shops 3: Mandarake
- Fukuoka Famicom Shops 4: Flea Markets Brought to you by the God of War
- Fukuoka Famicom Shops 5: Don Quixote and Village Vanguard
- Fukuoka Famicom Shops 6: The New 007 and Hakozaki Flea Market

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!

Famicom Dog

Our new family member.