Some Good News and….. – Part 3

Well…. I went back, and they had new stuff out!!! As the shelves are emptied from frenzied hoarders, it seems they are putting more and more stock out. Golden week holidays have never been so good for this old retro head.

I don’t know if this is the end for this store or not, but I am really making the most of their last dying breath if it is. πŸ˜€

So today’s haul…..

The Dreamcast.

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The PCFX, Saturn, PS1, MegaDrive, and a few other bits and pieces.

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Some loose PCE HuCards.

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NeoGeo AES with some games.

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NeoGeo Front Loader CD with games included. I have wanted one of these for ages!!

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Capcom controller. This one can be used on the Famicom/NES, and the SuperFami/SNES. I plan to do a write-up on this one when I get a chance.

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So all up another great haul! Am I going again tomorrow? Yep, you bet your arse I am! πŸ˜€

Some Good News, and…… – Part 2

So as you know, yesterday I managed to score myself quite a large haul of retro gaming goodness. The only trouble was that the store I got them from seems to be abandoning their retro gaming section – this totally sucks, but I am not here to talk about at the moment.

I am here to show you the games that I got yesterday all spread out! πŸ˜€

First off here are the Saturn games. Not a huge lot, but there are a few that I didn’t have before.

sega-saturn

Next up, Dreamcast. Some interesting titles in this bunch, but the pick would have to be the three Pop’n’Music disks for me.

dreamcast

Sega MegaCD. I love getting my hands on MegaCD games for some reason. I think it’s because I wanted one so badly back in the day, but I sort of missed the boat and jumped straight to the PS1.

sega-megacd

Loose NEC HuCards. I was a little surprised by how many doubles of the HuCards I snagged – that’s what happens when it’s a feeding frenzy I guess.

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Now to the cased HuCards.

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NEC SuperCDRoms. Fighting Street made its way in there for some reason, but that should have been in the regular CDROM photo. Turns out there are two Fighting Streets though.

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NEC CDROMs.

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NEC Arcade and one lonely SuperGraphics card.

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NeoGeo CDs. I am always asked to get these so I bought pretty much all they had left. The ones I missed out on that I saw last week though will give me nightmares for months though!!! πŸ™

neogeo-cd-snk

Panasonic 3DO. I was really hoping to find a stray RoadRash in the frenzy, but it wasn’t ot be. I did expand the 3DO collection pretty well with this bunch though.

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Playstation 1 and Playstation 2. Some great titles in this lot – specially for the PS1. *Click on the thumbs to enlarge.

playstation playstation-2-ps2

Missed these yesterday when I took the pics. A Gameboy Pikachu printer, some NeoGeo Pocket games, and a lonely VirtualBoy cart.

pikashu-gameboy-printer neogeo-pocket-virtual-boy

Finally another one that didn’t show in the pics yesterday – an Epoch Hang-On. I actually got this for HairballNick as I thought he might like to have a matching pair. Let me know if you’re keen Nick.

epoch-hangon

Well, it was fun actually having the time to dig through this latest haul today. I must have been glazed over judging by the amount of doubles I picked up though. I am sure there are those of you out there thinking six SFII HuCards are a bit much, but then I am sure there are those of you out there that are thinking why stop at only six. πŸ˜€

Some Good News, and……

Well, some of you may remember the post in which I talked about a retro gaming mega-store here in Japan with one of the biggest ranges I have seen anywhere. If not you can take a look at it here:

Retro Gaming Store in Japan

Anyway I had a few minutes over lunch today, so why not head out before the golden week rush for a “junk” run right? I am extremely happy I took the time, as it seems that this shop (the mega-store of all mega-stores in my area) had reduced the prices of all the retro games to sell – this is the good news if you’re wondering. Prices were all the same regardless of titles too! Knowing the stock of this place, the bargains people would have gotten before me would have been insane.

The bad news is that it looks as if they are taking focus away from retro all together. πŸ™ Shelving has reduced in size, with some shelves even have disappeared since I was last there. This is sad, sad news for the long term as this place was (past tense used with great sorrow) a goldmine…..

So today I went out in a blaze of glory with over 300 games purchased in one go. Here are a few pics:

Japanese games 1

Japanese games 2

Japanese games 3

I did speak with the guy behind the counter asking why there were reductions in prices, and he answered “they were always this price”. Um, no they weren’t. I was there only a week or so ago and they weren’t this cheap. I will go in again soon and ask someone else. I seriously hope they are just making space for more stock, but unfortunately it doesn’t look like it. πŸ™

Japanese games 4

Japanese games 5

So as you can see I cleaned up on PCE, MegaCD, 3DO, NGCD, Saturn, and DC. The amount of cool DC and NGCD games I would have missed out on though….

It really is a time of great sadness even though I got so many great games. I feel totally torn – on the one hand I got some great games that I have been after for a while, but on the other hand this place may cease to exist!

I will keep you posted….. πŸ™

PC Engine Shuttle – Space, the Final Frontier!

The PC Engine Shuttle was released in 1989 for around 18,000yen, thus making it a cheaper alternative to the original PC Engine which was closer to 24,000yen at the time.

Coming before the Core Grafx, the Shuttle was the only stand alone PC Engine to have an AV output, but due to the Shuttle having a different expansion slot to the original PC Engine, it could not use the CD add-on. Needless to say, it didn’t really take off (bad joke intended). πŸ˜€

Who cares if NEC was 30 years too late to cash in on that whole ‘man on the moon’ thing, the PC Engine Shuttle still kicks arse in my opinion!

pc-engine-shuttle

As the Shuttle did not have a standard expansion slot at the rear of the unit, there was no way to store save game data using the available add-ons for the regular PC Engine. NEC did release a memory backup unit only for the Shuttle (pictured bellow), but these are quite rare to come across unfortunately. If you want to store game saves they are a necessity, so keep that in mind when thinking of your PC Engine budget.

pc-engine-shuttle-memory-backup pc-engine-shuttle-backup

Although the Shuttle was a complete failure in the market place, it is quite sort after today by most PCE collectors. If you have the PC Engine Shuttle with the memory backup, original controller (not pictured with mine), and box, they can command quite a hefty sum of money – no where near what an LT would bring in of course, but too expensive for most casual buyers.

pc-engine-shuttle-1

HuCards (the credit card sized game cartridges) would slot into the front of the unit just the same as the other PC Engines, but of course this one has a little window. Does this window help protect anything, or make the machine perform any better? Nope is the long answer for that. πŸ˜€

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pc-engine-shuttle-adapter

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Definitely the PC Engine Shuttle is worth having, but I would say if your plan is to have only one PC Engine unit, you might want to look at something else – specially if you can’t find the memory backup unit, or you feel that you might want to play PC Engine CDs at some point. πŸ˜€

Update:

I finally found myself a Shuttle controller! I had to buy a heap of other gear with it, but it was well worth it. πŸ™‚

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PC Engine Avenue Pad 6 – The best pad for the PCE?

I would say that the PC Engine Avenue Pad 6 is the best looking control pad for the PC Engine, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best way to control – specially if you ask my friend Frank. πŸ˜€

pc-engine-avenue-6-button-pad

If you’re looking for a control pad with 6 buttons for the PCE, then this is pretty much the only choice you have. There are many more choices in relation to joysticks out there, but when it comes to pads the choice is quite limited.

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Released in 1993, it was specifically designed for Street Fighter II. In fact I can’t seem to think of any other games off hand that do support the 6 buttons – it is early in the morning here though.

The pad itself has a nice set of turbo options, and overall I like the feel of it. Since getting a decent stick for the PCE I don’t use this at all though, and I guess that gives you some insight into my recommendations for buying one. If you can’t afford a stick for the PCE then I say go for it, but otherwise spend the money elsewhere. πŸ™‚

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