Tag: gameboy

Gameboy Micro – Final Fantasy Edition

First off, I must apologise for the lack of posts here on SGUG in recent times. My life has been pretty crazy to say the least! Today’s post represents a much needed mini-break here in Japan – as in, I actually get the weekend off. Not only do I get the weekend off though, I also get Monday off (Kenkoku Kinenbi) as well! Yes! 😀

There is so much that you guys have missed out on since my last post, but today I will just be posting a short post to warm back up into the SGUG spirit. So what is it I have today? Well, something that I believe is pretty rare (without knowing the exact numbers), or at least rare as in I have never seen one in the wild before this one. This means that it was a no-brainer to pick it up.

The Gameboy Micro Final Fantasy Edition. 🙂

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Over here in Japan there are a chain of game stores that I really like – Chameleon Clubs. The staff in these stores really care about their gear as if they’re all collectors themselves. What I mean by this is that all items never have prices stuck directly onto them, everything is cleaned and tested, and you never find items in the wrong sections. Also, whenever you buy something, they wrap it up so carefully, and they handle the gear with great care. Often this means an extremely long wait times at the counter, but it’s well worth it.

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Although this wasn’t as cheap as it could have been (by Japanese standards that is), it was a pretty good deal from where I am sitting. I just never see them at all. I was pretty lucky though, as it had just gone up on the shelves.

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I did come out of the store with a heap of other items as well, but this was the pick of the bunch in my opinion. With most of the stores drying up recently, it’s still great to be able to find something like this in the wild! Ahh Japan, you still have it. 😀

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!):
disk-system famicom-nes

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. 😀

Another Day, Another Game Console

Well, Japan does it again! Recently it seems that every trek is yielding gear that I rarely see, and to top it off the prices have been great. 😀

So what have I come back with this time? Well before getting into that, I should tell you that what you see bellow is only a small part. I did end up buying more games as well, but as I put them with the other 500 or so I bought recently, I can’t tell which were from the last lot, and which were from this lot.

Anyway, some gear:

A V-Saturn (can’t believe I got another Narf!), Virtual-On Twin Stick, and Saturn Virtua Cop set.
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victor-saturn vsaturn-sega

Click on the above pictures to enlarge.

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The Saturn would have to be the pick out of the above gear. It was a really lucky find.

Now onto the rest…. Managed to get a Gameboy Light, and for those of you that don’t know what this is, it’s basically a regular Gameboy, but it has a backlight built into it. I believe these are a Japan exclusive? Got a few Famicom Keyboards too – these allow the user to create software to run on their Famicoms. I am on the lookout for a Tapedeck for the Famicom if anyone reading this has one they’d like to sell/give away. 😉

famicom-keyboard

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So like I said, there are actually more games included with this run which aren’t shown, but even without those pictured above I seem to have cleaned up. To Sean @ Retro Otaku, you have to hurry over my friend – at this rate I will have emptied these places out!! 😀

Retro Gaming Store in Japan

There is the quaint little retro gaming store in Japan that sells the odd Famicom cart, the occasional Saturn disk, or even a few systems or two, then there are super-ultra stores like the one I am going to show you today.

This particular shop is about 20 minutes from my house, and it’s one of the biggest places I’ve ever seen here for retro gaming gear. There are others that are similar in size, but this shop actually has prices you want to pay. It is almost set up like a supermarket with isles, a little basket to carry around, and even a taster section with four or five systems setup for people to play.

Before I put any photos up, it has to be said that people managing stores in Japan are very reluctant to have photos taken. I took as many photos as I could, but it was impossible to get photos of everything. I missed not only the hardware section, but also the PS2, Gameboy, Megadrive (Genesis), MegaCD, Saturn (the list goes on actually) and most of the boxed games sections.

Anyway, now onto the photos….

I would love to get my hands on this giant Mario – Hmmm that sounds slightly odd now that I think about it. 😀

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One of the loose Famicom cart Isles (pictured bellow). Yes I say ‘one of’, as there are a few. You can see at the end of the isle there part of the boxed games section for Famicom too.

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Another really great thing about this place is there is a GameCenterCX section if you want to play the games that are featured on the show. If you are wondering what GameCenterCX is, then I suggest taking a look on Youtube. It is one of the coolest retro game shows anywhere! Unfortunately I couldn’t get any photos of the GameCenterCX section.

Mind boggling range of Super Famicom carts. Again, this is only one of the Super Famicom Isles.

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Again I couldn’t get great pictures of everything, but what you see here is just a part of the cased PCE games they have on offer. You can pretty much find everything here.

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Bellow is just a part of the DreamCast section. If you’re wondering, that whole top row is for NeoGeoCD, and you may notice that there are some big empty spaces in the NeoGeo section – this is mainly because I bought 20 odd on this particular day. 🙂

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This terrible photo (bellow) is trying to show you one of the toy racks dedicated to game related merchandise. They have all sorts of gear here, from recent Mario themed board games, through to figures of Ken in Street Fighter.

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A closer look at the boxed Famicom and Super Famciom section (bellow).

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I really wish I could have shown you everything. Just looking through the pictures there is so much I missed. This place has so much stuff that I know it will bring a tear to any retro gamer’s eye – specially the guys I know back home who feel great joy just finding a dozen or so carts in the wild.

And just before I go. This place doesn’t only sell games too! There are huge sections for toys, clothing, electronics, and pretty much any other type of used goods you can think of. Not bad considering I actually live in rural Japan! 😮