Tag: saturn

Golden Week Hard-Off Expedition!

Golden Week! A few days off in the middle of the busiest two months of the year in Japan – very well planned (sarcasm), but these days off are definitely for a good reason. Actually, I have no idea what Golden Week is for, but anything that gives me a few spare days must be good – even at this time of the year. So what to do? A Hard-Off road trip of course!

Based on feedback in a previous post, I will be supplying links with GoogleMaps locations to all the places I visited. Some of these places were far better than others, but almost every single place had something worth grabbing. Only problem is, I went to so many places that it’s now difficult to remember what came from which, so this means I will just supply a list at the end of this post of all of them.

Another thing worth noting is that many of the Book-Offs I visited (and included in the links for you there) had Comp-Offs attached, and Comp-Offs are becoming the better places to go (over Hard-Offs that is). Having Comp-Offs attached to Book-Offs but not displayed as such online makes life difficult, and it was luck that lead me to many of these. Normally I wouldn’t just hunt the Book-Offs in this kind of trip. The Book-Off links I have given you all have Comp-Offs attached, and a few of these are epic places to visit!

So without further ado…

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The first gear grabbed came from a Book-Off that had a Comp-Off attached. Like I said Comp-Offs are tending to be the better places these days for game hunting, but they aren’t always advertised online. Although I didn’t pick up all that much from here, there were great selections of games and hardware for reasonable prices – it’s just a pity I had most of them already.

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Amazingly in the current retro climate, the prices were good on these. The V-Saturn (or Victor Saturn) controller was only 400yen, the PCE controllers were 500yen each, and the NeoGeo AES controller was only 1500yen. I did manage to get a couple of PCE titles from this place as well, but they ended up in a picture with other gear from another place. The PCE titles were 400 yen each, which is great for the two titles I grabbed. There was so much here though, including boxed PCE gear, and a tonne of ‘junk’ SuperFamicoms.

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This bunch came from one of the Hard-Offs. I wish I could be more specific than that, but I went to so many that they kind of blurred in one… I think the grand total was 5 Hard-Offs and 3 Comp-Offs in the end. I also stopped in at many Book-Offs as well on the trip, but Book-Offs are really becoming quite poor for gaming pickups of the retro variety (unless they have Comp-Offs attached that is).

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The pick of the bunch is of course the Hanshin Tigers Gamecube. It was sad that there wasn’t a controller with it, but beggars can’t be choosers right?

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This lot also came from one of the Hard-Offs, and although there isn’t a heap of gear there in my pile, this Hard-Off had a LOT! The only trouble was that the prices were insane – by Japanese standards of course. To give you an idea there was a very rough loose Megadrive with 50 titles (generic and beat up titles too) for around the $200 or 20,000yen mark. Over here that is crazy to pay for the same set. If there were a few nice games in there it might be different, but not for the lot they had there.

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I couldn’t resist picking up those N64 controller either. I get asked all the time for good ones, so now I have a few the next time people ask. They were cheap!

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Some of this stuff came from a Comp-Off and the rest was a Hard-Off. The pick of the group is that DDR controller, not because I am into the game, but mainly because I’d never seen one before. Although the box is a bit roughed up, upon opening it up I realised that it has never been used and it’s still sealed. Not sure if that is an indication of how great they are though of course, but either way it’s pretty cool to have found one. It was nice and cheap too, coming in at 500yen.

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That PS2 game there (on the left) is pretty interesting as well come to think of it – not because it’s a great game (actually I haven’t tried it out yet), but because of the name. Ever heard of: Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo Haji before? I sure haven’t!

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Pretty nice bunch of controllers – Capcom CPS sticks, PS2 VF Evolution sticks, and an out of place NeoGeo CD controller. These came from one of the Hard-Offs, and they were nice and cheap. Bought as ‘junk’, so either they have not been tested or they have some sort of trouble. Being that today is my last day away from official tasks it’s not looking good for me being able to try them out for a while. Still, cheap enough that I can’t complain either way.

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These two NeoGeo CD controller were bought from the last Hard-Off I went to – happy I found these to give the loose NGCD controller a bit of company. This shop was just off of route 329 if memory serves. They were a little pricey, coming in at close to 2,000yen each, but boxed ones are few and far between. The prices for NeoGeo are shooting up like crazy all of the place though! I saw a boxed top loading NeoGeo CD at the same place for 9,000yen, and it was only a few months ago that I would have gotten them for 2,000yen cheaper than that.

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OK, to be fair I didn’t grab this on the same trip, but I did grab this from one of the Hard-Offs at the start of Golden Week. It’s a Playstation Net Yaroze for those that have never seen one before. I got this dirt cheap, as it was bought during the first Golden Week day sale at 30% off. The only trouble with it though is that the CD music playing cut in and out a little bit, which indicates that the laser mech might need a bit of a play with. Pity, but buying ‘junk’ means that things haven’t been tested fully.

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This was a good bunch of gear (for me anyway)! Two NeoGeo Pocket Colors for next to nothing, although the stick on one has a few cracks and they have a few scratches. A very old Gameboy case, and a few Famicoms. All untested, but they were so cheap that even if they don’t fire up they will be good for parts.

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These are a few randoms that were gotten from all over the place. One PCE HuCard that I’ve been chasing for a while, a cheap Wonderswan, plus some other assorted goodies. Although I have a Wonderswan already, this was only 200yen – yep, you read that correctly! So cheap that I couldn’t let it sit there. Damn hoarders’ curse. 😀

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Well, that’s about it for this round. One of the great things was that doing this road trip allowed me to collect stamps that will lead to a 2,000yen discount next purchase. Kind of pays for fuel, and I can’t complain about that.

Bellow are the links to the shop pages:

Book-Offs with Comp-Offs attached –
http://www.bookoff.co.jp/shop/shop10417.html
http://www.bookoff.co.jp/shop/shop10800.html
http://www.bookoff.co.jp/shop/shop10328.html

Hard-Offs –
HO1
HO2
HO3
HO4

These include GoogleMaps links etc., so they should be pretty easy to find for anyone that is interested.

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Final thing….

Some of you might have noticed a new ‘For Sale’ section on the right hand side of this blog. Soon (when I get some time) I will be putting a few things up for sale. This will not be a mainstream thing, and the gear will be sold to guys I know outside of the web, or guys I speak to in email personally – this is not a business venture at all. I hope to go through a few things and get some gear up next weekend. 🙂

Hard-Off Road Trip – City to City Retro hunting!

As most of us retro gamers know – mainly due to the plethora of videos on the web these days – shopping for retro gear in Japan can be amazing. Hard-Off (and of course Comp-Off, Book-Off, and House-Off) are some of the best resources for us retro hoarders – that are easily accessible that is.

As the family and I were doing a road trip, I thought why not stop in at every Hard-Off (and it’s related stores) on the way. Who wouldn’t right? 😀

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Hard-Off Number 1

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A bit on the small side this haul, but a few nice items never the less. Be warned, you might see a few doubles in these piles, but when I see NeoGeo CDs I pretty much grab them all – so many people always request me to grab them for their own piles of plastic.

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Hard-Off Number 2

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It has to be said that Book-Offs are really hit and miss, but it’s always worth stopping in and taking a look – specially if it’s not close to a Hard-Off. Occasionally I find great stuff in them, but it (‘it’ being retro game gear) is rapidly being phased out. If you do find a good one though (as I did here) you can be very lucky.

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Hard-Off Number 3

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This one wasn’t bad at all! The prices were very reasonable for the stuff I bought. For example that JogCon controller pictured bellow was a very cheap 200yen, and the Virtual Boy adapter was 300yen.

Console sets on the other hand were crazy in terms of price, and this was a common theme the closer I got to the bigger cities. In Osaka the cheapest SuperFamicom I could find was about 2,000yen unboxed, and although that doesn’t seem overly expensive, it’s definitely not as cheap as they once were…. 🙁

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Hard-Off Number 4

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This one was pretty good actually. There was a lot of stuff I would have bought if I had more space in the car – mainly Dreamcast special sets of the more Otaku variety. Prices weren’t too bad as well, although I did notice an increase in prices towards the bigger cities. Wrapped I manange to score myself a Wonderswan Crystal though!

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Hard-Off Number 5

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This was the last one I bought something from. I did actually visit one more in central Osaka, but there was nothing worth grabbing – at the prices they were asking anyway. This one however was well worth going into. I was quite surprised to see the amount of stuff they had, but even so I was expecting more from Osaka. Maybe all the gear has migrated it’s way to Nipponbashi? I didn’t get a chance to head into Nipponbashi by the way, but next time it will be on my list.

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Although I did manage to grab quite a lot of gear, I have to say that I was slightly disappointed. I thought that I would be grabbing far more stuff than what I did in all honesty. It is becoming painfully clear that game related gear falling into the retro category is starting to dry up across the board. Having said that though, I did grab some nice stuff – I may just be spoiled. 😉

I am already planning another road trip in the opposite direction, which will head through smaller towns and cities. I think the best deals to be found (at least in Hard-Offs) are in the smaller cities with fewer gaming geeks. As long as real life doesn’t take too much of a hold, this trip should take place in the next few months. 😀

Mandai – Massive Japanese Retro Store!

Mandai is a pretty big chain of stores here in Japan. They specialise in almost everything retro, used, or quirky in some way. The only trouble with these stores is that the prices vary dramatically, and to get a good deal it can be rare. Still, I have bought some very nice items from this place in the past, but on this trip it was not to be.

It’s always a good sign of an interesting store when there is a giant robot out the front right?

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And it’s even better (as a sign of a place I want to go into) when the giant robot is sporting a game controller as a belt buckle. 😀

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The range this place carries is nothing short of amazing, but the stock doesn’t seem to rotate all that often unfortunately – mainly due to the prices. Don’t get me wrong, the prices are quite fair on average, but they’re just not the usual jaw-droppingly cheap that a game hoarder becomes accustomed to here in Japan.

This item bellow is something I hadn’t seen before. Maybe Sean from the Famicom blog can shed some more light on it. It is a Karaoke unit for the Famicom of all things. I would love to hear the 8-bit renditions of 80s J-Pop that would come with it! I was very tempted to pick this up, and in all honesty I might go back and grab it if anyone can fill me in on it.

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A few N64s for the taking. 😀

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There is so much here that getting everything in a single shot is pretty much impossible. Bellow we have a few pics of the Super Famicom sections.

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As you can probable tell this far into the post, this particular shop is large, very large, but the pictures really do not give the size away. Even when there in person, the front door of the shop opens up to almost a Tardis like experience. The first thing you notice is a massive Pachinko/Pachislo parlour, then the place opens out into a myriad a colours and sounds in an almost seizure inducing mess.

Some Saturn,Dreamcast, NeoGeo, and VirtualBoy stuff.

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Here we have one of the isles. This one has a fair bit of the N64 stuff, and some more Super Famicom carts.

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Sorry for the blurry picture on this one guys. As I have mentioned before, taking pictures in Japanese stores isn’t looked on too kindly, so I had to rush around to get these pictures. Unfortunately this means that the Famicom carts ended up being a bit on the blurry side. 🙁

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OK enough of the games for a second…. Like I mentioned above, this place is massive, and stocks so many different things that you will never get through the lot in one go – that is not an exaggeration! I usually get into complete meltdown after about 50% exploration. Bellow I have taken some random pictures of stuff that I thought would suit fellow geeks. 😀

A life sized Yoda! Yes, I understand that Yoda is not real, but if he were, this is how big he’d be. 😀

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Hentai section for all that is cute, fury, tentacle-like, or a combination of all three. 😀

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Yes, Godzilla is in fact smaller than DarthVader – always knew this was the case.

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I was not expecting to find Coneheads toys!

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And finally we have the Megadrive section on the left and game books/tutorial on the right. The picture bellow that is an area of the PS2 section that would fit into the frame. I kid you not, that would be less than 20% of what’s there for PS2!

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Just looking through these pictures makes me realise just how much game gear I have missed! I missed the GameCube, Handhelds, any current Gen machines and games, plus so many other interesting sections of the store. This place is amazing to walk through for any serious Otaku, but I would definitely recommend going on a weekday if possible – people just add to the claustrophobic feeling of the place.

I hope this luck doesn’t change!

The run of luck this old gamer has been having is pure craziness! I mean, games and systems I never see in the wild near me are suddenly showing up, and the only choice I have is to consume, and consume hard. ?

I think today I will save the best for last. The last item in this post is something I have wanted for ages, but they are so damn rare to come by – let alone in condition like this…. Still, I am talking too much about it already, so let’s get started on the other stuff.

3DO, a few DiskSystem disks, and a couple of PCE related goodies.

I am really looking forward to trying out ‘Pataank’ for the 3DO. I do not know a single thing about it, and judging by the graphics on the back cover it looks like seriously weird inside pinball machine game. I thought about doing a search for it, but I don’t want to spoil the surprise.
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Some more Famicom carts tarif du viagra en pharmacie. I should really sort through the carts I have at home before buying more, but when they’re there and they’re cheap, what can a guy do right?
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Gameboy games… I honestly don’t have a heap of interest in Gameboy, but as I know there are a few guys on AussieArcade who are keen for them, I picked them up.
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Same as the Famicom, I really should be going through the games I have at home before buying more Super Famicom carts. Due to buying so much in such a short space of time, I am really having difficulty keeping track of what I am doubling up on. (click thumbnails to enlarge)
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Unfortunately, it really is looking as if the Saturn gear isn’t being restocked anymore. I am pretty sure these were there the last time I went too, but as there was nothing else to grab I decided to just grab them anyway. It really has been an amazing run at that shop though.

Hope they do it again when I have visitors come over from home (bet Sean does too right?). ?
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And finally, the pick of the haul by far is my NEC PC Engine Duo-R!!

I have never seen one of these in the wild. I do see them on the auctions, but to actually walk into a store and see a boxed one was pretty nice. I am sure the guys in Tokyo see these all the time, but where I am it just doesn’t happen.

Did I pay too much for it? Probably. Do I care though? Nope, not at all. I have wanted one of these ever since the PCE bug took hold (thanks to Frank), and I was damn happy driving home with it. ?
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It has a few scratches and scuffs on it, but all up it looks pretty clean. The guy in the place I bought it from said that it has all been tested, so I am looking forward to trying it out over the weekend. I can safely say this will be the machine I will be playing on, and probably the machine that will end up modded in the future (done any of these MJ?).
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So again, I seem to be having the run of luck to end all runs of luck. But how long can this last!? ?

Another Super Haul!

It seems as if all I am doing recently is posting about massive shopping sprees… I promise I will get back to indepth posts regarding retro gaming soon, but at the moment I have to use what little time I have to get out there and snap up these bargains before this plays runs dry! I cannot express in words the feeling when I walk in there, and even more stock is being added – this place is a gold mine at the moment!

So what did I get this time? Well, everything I could get my hands on within 20 minutes is the answer. 😀

Saturn Games:
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PCE and PC-FX (click to enlarge):
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Dreamcast:
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Famicom, and Famicom DiskSystem (notice the DiskSystem titles are mostly complete packs as well? Lucky score indeed!):
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Playstation:
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More Playstation and Xbox:
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Gameboy (one of those is a unit that lets you connect a Gameboy up to a mobile phone for multiplayer action – I think :D):
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MegaDrive and SuFamicarts:
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Nintendo 64:
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Game&Watch Donkey Kong II in absolutely amazing condition:
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And finally Super Famicom:
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I cannot believe the bargains I am getting from this place!! They have workers putting gear out as fast as it’s going off the shelves though. In fact while I was there this time, there were guys just waiting with baskets as things were being put up. All those PCE HuCards were grabbed even before they hit the shelves – the woman putting them up was a little shocked as I didn’t even look at them carefully before throwing them in the basket.

Ahhh Japan, you’ve done it again. 😀

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