Just a Quick Post – Laser Disk Frenzy

Based on a conversation in another post regarding Laser Disks, I stopped in and grabbed a bunch of the Anime related ones. I am not a huge Anime fan by any stretch, but I thought friends might be interested in them, and the art work on them is pretty darn cool if I get stuck with them. One thing that struck me about having so many in one bunch was the weight of them though – these together were so heavy that by the time I got home, the bag was stretched and deformed.

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The first thing I am going to post a picture of though (sectioned off as to not intrude on the LD-ness of this post), is this original 70s Japanese Starwars record I got my hands on. Total fluke to find this one! It was mixed in with the Anime LDs and was priced low. 😮

*Click on the thumbs to expand*

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Enough of the non-LD related, now moving onto the LDs. As I bought the LDs you see bellow purely based on if the LD had cool cover art (from my subjective viewpoint of course), I’m really not sure what I have here, so if there is anything worth while let me know – looking at you Ji-L87. 😉

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These Evangelion LDs pictured bellow are actually still sealed. This may be an indicator of just how crap they are, or just how short lived the format was – either way, I’m sure being sealed will appeal to guys out there collecting these sort of things. 😀

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*Cough* Nothing to see here bellow, nothing to see here…. 😀

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I really like the artwork of the this one bellow (first picture showing the front cover, and the second showing the inside). No country does Robots like Japan!

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Slayers seem to have been licensed to pretty much every format. Definitely make for good LD covers though.

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The one pictured in the bottom right hand corner bellow is pretty unique (as far as I know anyway). It’s a rental version, and the disk is actually gold. This is the first time I have seen a gold LD, but I have to admit that doesn’t mean much, as I owned only two LDs before buying this lot. 😀

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Well, I think I managed to get all the pictures up. Like I said, I know nothing about these from a collectors standpoint, so any info. would be great. 🙂

Another Retro Haul Post

Due to time being in short supply for the past four months or so, I haven’t been able to really get out there and hunt like I used to. I was getting withdrawals bad, so luckily, the past week or two I have had time to get out there and see what’s been on offer. Some may say that I’ve gone overboard with this latest lot, but the gap between hauls meant that I had no choice but to buy everything I saw that was worth while – regardless of whether or not I had it already. 😀

First up, the Dreamcast lot. I got this off the auctions for an absolute bargain – about 5,000yen all up after fees and shipping. In the pictures on the auction there wasn’t a great deal of detail – not all boxes were shown, and the condition explanation was iffy to say the least. I decided to bid on it anyway, and I’m glad that I did! Everything had their baggies, instructions, and inserts, plus some of the items are 100% new-old-stock – meaning unused. Got a wheel, twin sticks, console, controller, fight stick, keyboards, and of course, a console itself.

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Next comes the Game & Watch Fire (bought as junk from HardOff for next to nothing, but may not work…), SF Memory carts which I have been after for ages, a couple of 3D Systems, and a final fantasy toy. Looking forward to testing the G&W!

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Definitely one of the gems of the lot is the white Gameboy original you see there in the picture bellow. I didn’t know anything about it, and I hadn’t seen one of these before, so I grabbed it (I remember that philosophy worked well when getting that Jusco N64), and to top it off, it was found in an unlikely place too. I will probably do a single post about it when I get the chance. Those Sakura Pockets are unused and sealed too – pretty happy about that as I didn’t know that when buying.

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Bellow is just a few of the PS2 and Xbox disks. Pretty happy to get the KoF as I didn’t have that version before. Also a couple of Megadrive carts as well. **Click on the thumbs to expand**

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Moving on to the next few pictures bellow, we have the PC Engine Duo (yes another one), and a box of PCE goodies. Although I have everything I see here already, I couldn’t bring myself to leave it all in the stores that I found them in. I know there are always guys back home after these, so hit me up if you’re keen.

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Here we have a random pile of goodness – Some NeoGeo CDs, a Saturn Bomberman controller (don’t see these often at all), and some NeoGeo Pockets. Also have some Wonderswan Color games, a MegaCD disk, and a N64 cart. Crap, that was a random pic… 😀

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Some more great NeoGeo CDs, and a few DC disks that I couldn’t let sit there. A few of these titles (NGCD) I didn’t have before either, so to find them in the wild was very nice indeed! **Again, click to enlarge**

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Anyone up for 1960s slotcar action? Not really something I want to try and plug in and get power into in all honestly – early electric goods are something that should NOT be used on a tatami floor in a wooden house. I know nothing about slotcars though, so if anyone knows their slotcar sets, feel free to chime in and let me know what I have here. All I know is that it’s old…

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Also got myself a few spare Famciom Disksystems from one of the HardOff stores. Cosmetically they look pretty nice, but I doubt very much the rubber bands will still be intact – never know your luck though.

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And the final picture contains a bag of random Starwars figures. Unfortunately these aren’t the original 70s/80s items, but they do have all accessories and they were pretty cheap – cheap enough that I couldn’t leave them there anyway.

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Well, that should tide the addiction of retro hunting over for at least a few more weeks. I’m pretty happy with this lot, and hopefully there is more around the corner – at least until the rest of the stores close down. Doing my part to keep them in business, but they are definitely drying up fast these days. 🙁

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.

Special Feature – Weird Controllers – Part Two

Well… I’m back with round two of the weirder controllers I have in my hoard. I could have easily gone into a part three, but I had to draw the line somewhere. I am leaving out a few of the music based controllers, the Gameboy add-on controllers, and a few various others that I am pretty sure people would have seen before. There are just so many that could have easily made it to this list, and if any of you have a few weird ones to add then I would definitely like to see them.

OK, so here we go again with part two! 😀

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The ASCII Grip

I see these around a fair bit, but to find one boxed is a little on the rare side. Honestly speaking I am not entirely sure what these are even used for, so please make a post and let me know if you have an idea.

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Capcom Quiz Controller for the Famicom

Many of you may not be aware, but the alphabet only goes up to the letter ‘M’ here in Japan. Something to do with WWII I believe – yes terrible joke – apologies to all my Japanese friends reading this.

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XE-1AP Megadrive Analogue Controller

Yes, you read that right! An analogue controller on the Megadrive! To my knowledge it only supports a few titles on the MD/Genesis – Afterburner being one of them. It really is one of the most ugly controllers I have seen though, but it doesn’t feel too bad in the hand. I do not know how rare these are, but this was the first time I had seen one here, so it was a must buy.

EDIT (credited to SuperDeadite from the PCE forum for the extra info):
SuperDeadite writes: “There’s about 12 games across the MD/MCD/32X platform, but it also works with the 5 analog pce games (needs the XHE-3 adapter), and also about 30 games on the X68000 (the original purpose for that controller), and around 10 or so on FM Towns.”

*I definitely want people to send/post any information they have it about any of the gear I have here. It’s hard to find info on the amount of gear I get, so it’s very much appreciated – not only by me, but by the next readers that pass through.*

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Sunsoft Pachinko Controller for the SuperFamicom

As most of you guys know already I am not a Pachinko fan at all, but the controllers really intrigue me for some reason. It could be purely due to the fact they highlight an addiction that in my country of origin has not been translated to the family game console. Some of the controllers are so damn elaborate as well – as demonstrated in the controller featured bellow this one. I just can’t help but pick them up when I see them.

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Hori Playstation Pachislo Controller

This would have to be one of the fanciest Pachislo controllers I have seen in my travels. It’s not only fancy, but also huge!

I have seen one other one for the PC that probably takes the cake with LEDs flashing all over the place, but this one dedicated for consoles is one of the most intricate I have so far. I am yet to use this, but I do have a few Pachislo games for the PS2 that I will have to try out at some point.

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Check out this chrome styling! 😀

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Playstation Kids Station

This controller is one of the coolest in my opinion. Not because it’s overly different, but just because it’s clear with giant buttons – I am a sucker for clear/crystal machines and controllers.

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PC Engine Pachinko Controller

Yep, another Pachinko controller makes it into the post, but this one is for the mightly PC-Engine (quite possible my favorite console here in Japan). This one is modeled on the old school style of Pachinko, and there are a fair few games on the PCE that support it.

Imagine the censorship board trying to allow gambling games on the WII/PS3/360 back at home – not a chance! 😀

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Hori Famicom Trackball

These cool little controllers only support a total of 4 games (thanks for that info Frank). I just did a quick search (as I couldn’t remember exactly which games Frank mentioned) and those games appear to be:

Operation Wolf
US Championship V’Ball
Pro Soccer
Putt Putt Golf

The feel of this isn’t exactly arcade perfect, but it’s surprisingly solid. Bet they would not have been cheap either.

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The Bandai Super Controller II

Think back a minute to the 80s – Back to the future, Arcades on every street corner (in the perfect city), flat-top haircuts, and every kid owning a BMX – now think to the level of technology….

I don’t remember seeing anything like this back home in the time period. I have been debating whether or not I should be breaking the collector’s rule and trying this out for ages. It’s brand new, and although I consider myself more of a player than a collector, this particular controller puts me on the fence. It could be another summer holiday item on the list though I reckon….

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Konami ParaParaParadise Controller

ParaPara is a dance craze that truly encapsulates all that is right/wrong with Japanese sub-culture. I am not even sure if ParaPara exists anymore, and based on this controller being unused and sealed, it may not have been as big as the media made it out to be a few years back. Definitely do a Youtube search if you do not know what this is. If I was to explain it though, I would say it is dancing without the need to move your legs – just stay in line, conform without question, and make sure original thoughts are left at the door, or else!! 😀

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And that brings us to the end of the controller feature special. 🙂

Like I said, there were many others that could have made the cut here, but I thought it would go too far if I decided to post absolutely everything. It was definitely fun going through these for a closer look, and I hope that there were at least a few that you guys had not seen before – even if you’ll be happy to never see them again. 😀

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