Famicom Rarity Find! Battle Formula!

I did a little retro game shopping at an actual store yesterday and made an amazing discovery:  Battle Formula!  And cheap!

I have been on a quest to find this game for years now.  I have only come close on two occasions.  The first time was a couple of years ago when I visited the Mandarake in Kitakyushu, which had a copy in their glass case for I think 12,000 yen or so if I remember.  I couldn`t afford it so passed, but oh how I wanted it.

The second time was about 3 months ago when I bit on a copy on Yahoo Auctions.  The copy in question was pretty beat up, with a bit of damage on the front and a completely messed up back.  I dropped out when the bidding got up to about 8,000 yen or so, I don`t know how much it ended up going for.

There are a few reasons I have wanted this game so bad.  First, it is one that I need for my full Famicom set.  Second, look at that cover art - it is totally awesome.  Third, it is a pretty cool game.

So when I found it there - a copy in perfect condition no less - for a mind blowing 3000 yen (about 30$) tears of joy came to my eyes:

I don`t know why they were selling it so cheap, the game is easily worth 5 times that.  I think this was just another case of me lucking into a really cheap find - the first time this has happened since good old Omocha Souko closed down almost 2 years ago. 



I think Battle Formula might be the hardest regular game in the Famicom catalogue to find if you exclude all the limited edition, gold version, not-sold-in-stores rarities.  There is only one copy of it on Ebay, compared to three copies of Recca and about a billion copies of Gimmick!  On Yahoo Auctions there is also only one copy, going for 15,000 yen.  So I am super happy to be able to cross this off my want list without having to take a bank loan or anything.

I am however left with the problem of not having a suitable display case or anything for this beauty, which I think is now the highlight of my Famicom collection.  My apartment is so crowded I just can`t do my carts justice display-wise.

I think I need to get some sort of special case to keep it in that will properly reflect the high regard I hold this baby in.  I am currently leaning towards something along the lines of this:

I would need to hire 4 full time Ark-bearers with this option though, not to mention the cost of supplying them with the proper outfits and accoutrements.  This is a bit out of my price range now, so my copy of Battle Formula will temporarily be stored in a box on a shelf until I figure out what to do with it. 

Anyway, I`m so happy about this!  My goal of collecting all the Famicom carts has passed another milestone!

Warehouse Find? An Unopened Case of Famicom Choujin Ultra Baseball!

Just a couple of weeks after complaining about how Yahoo Auctions no longer has any deals I find myself in the awkward position of having a deal that I scored on Yahoo Auctions to report.

My score was the following box, full of the above pictured copies of Choujin Ultra Baseball!!

This is a fully intact factory case of Choujin Ultra baseball containing 20 brand new copies of the game.  Back in 1989 when this game came out this is what the clerks at Japan`s department stores pulled the games out of when they put them on the shelf.

It is exceedingly rare to find intact cases of Famicom games like this, I suspect that someone must have found a few gathering dust in a back corner of some store`s warehouse because cases of a few games have popped up on both Yahoo Auctions and even Ebay recently.  Anybody fancy a case of Super Chinese 2?  300$ on Ebay right now!

Anyway, open that case up and presto!  20 beauties all lined up in a row.

It is cool to have these because you can line the individual boxes up to recreate a 1980s store display atmosphere in the comfort of your own living room, like so:

The seller I got this off of actually had cases of 3 or 4 other titles, like Super Chinese 3 and Fighting Wars which I could have chosen from.  I zeroed in on Choujin Ultra Baseball though.  If it had been any other baseball title - or sports title for that matter - I probably would have gone for Super Chinese 3 instead.  But as I wrote about in a post a couple of years ago I absolutely love the cover art on Choujin Ultra Baseball.  I think it is far and away the best cover art on any sports game ever made - the colors are fantastic and it has a kind of pop art look to it which just really appeals to me.  10 Yard Fight is the only sports game I can think of which gives this one a run for its money.  Also just look how determined that batter looks

The case itself is also pretty neat.  It is of course just a cardboard box, but in addition to the cool FF Famicom Family logo on the top it also has the game logo on the side.

I am really curious about how this (and the other games which have unopened cases showing up on auction sites) survived so long intact.  There are a couple of things that puzzle me.  I would have expected that any dead stock Famicom cases would have been either: 1) games which there are a ton of (like Family Stadium or something) which they may have produced too many of, or 2) games released late in the Famicom`s lifetime when the system`s popularity was plummeting as the next generation Super Famicom took over the market.

Choujin Ultra Baseball doesn`t really fit into either of these categories though.  It wasn`t an overproduced game - loose carts pop up in game shops here and there but I`ve never seen them in bulk like with other Famicom baseball games.  Also it was released in 1989, a year before the Super Famicom came out and when the Famicom was still the king of the consoles in Japan.  It is a bit of a mystery.  I assume, as the title of this post suggests, that it was part of a warehouse find that somebody stumbled across.

Anyway, it is kind of a neat thing and I`m not exactly sure what I will do with it.  I definitely will NOT be breaking it up.  This sort of thing just demands that it be kept together - the whole is worth more than the sum of its parts.  Still, what do you do with 20 copies of the same game?  I mean, other than playing 1980s Japanese department store with them.

The Yahoo Auction Price Explosion: Woe is me

It has been a little over a year since I first started buying Famicom games on Yahoo Auctions.  It was so awesome at first: tons of Famicom games selling for bargain prices.

In the past nine months or so Yahoo Auction has gone from being a good place to buy cheap Famicom stuff to....a good place to buy much much less cheap Famicom stuff.

As someone who follows the auctions there pretty closely I can say that prices for Famicom lots have increased by at least 50% over the course of 2013.  I still enter bids on stuff once a week or so but I haven`t actually won - or even come close to winning - an auction in months despite the fact that I have increased my maximum bidding strategy from what it was last year (in 2012 I would win about half the auctions I put serious bids on).  Every time a decent lot of Famicom carts comes up there are tons of people bidding for it and the prices are going through the roof.

The main explanation  for this would seem to be the exchange rate.  The Japanese yen has lost about 25% of its value against the dollar over the same time period, meaning that it is that much cheaper for overseas buyers bidding through proxies to buy Famicom stuff priced in Yen.

The problem with that is the exchange rate change (25%) can only account for about half of the overall increase in prices (about 50%), which leaves the question of where the other half came from.

My theory on that is that prices last year were just insanely cheap because there were fewer overseas buyers bidding on stuff.  With the increased number of bidders entering the market as a result of the lower yen competition for the stuff available has also increased and these bidders have forced the prices up well past the exchange rate difference.

This kind of sucks for me since my salary is in Yen, meaning that the lowered exchange rate didn`t increase my purchasing power by 25% like it did for overseas buyers.  I am forced to recall with rose tinted lenses those glory days of 2012 when I went on my first Yahoo Auction buying binge.....oh how glorious it was!

Combined with the fact that I moved last year and have no retro game stores near my new place this means that my Famicom well has more or less run dry.  I bought tons of Famicom and other retro game stuff last year but to date this year I have purchased exactly three games which altogether cost less than 1500 yen (about 15$), which works out to less than 2$ a month.

I know all you Famicom collectors in the US will hate me for saying this but.....I really hope the Yen goes up in value again soon :)

Kansai Famicom Shops Part 1: Kobe

 I just got back from a few days in the Kansai area and was happily enough  able to do some retro game shopping (well, mostly retro-game window shopping) while I was down there!

Back when I lived in Fukuoka I used to do regular posts on here where I`d take my camera to local retro game shops and review them, but I haven`t been doing those since I moved last year.  The main reason for that is my new city, compared to Fukuoka, is very short on decent Famicom shops.  The few that I`ve been to have not been blog-worthy.  So I was really excited to be able to go do some retro game shop touring in Kobe and Osaka.  Today`s post will just be about Kobe!

Kobe is an awesome city if you`ve never been there.  I actually lived in or near Kobe for my first five years in Japan, but that was before I got into retro gaming so I had never been to any of the shops there.

Kobe doesn`t really have a retro gaming district (neither does Fukuoka though), but I did stumble almost by accident into a little cluster of cute retro game/toy stores in an unusual place.

The main train station in Kobe is in Sannomiya.  The JR tracks are elevated there and underneath there are a number of shoutengai (shopping alleys) that stretch for a couple of kilometres from Sannomiya to Motomachi and on to Kobe station. The photo at the top of this post is from one section of it.  This is what it looks like inside:

 

Near Sannomiya most of the shops are actually high end clothing and other fashion stuff, but as you work your way over to and past Motomachi they start to become dominated by more ecclectic little shops selling used electronics and other stuff.  Naturally some of them had retro game consoles, including some Famicoms: 

 Prices were not that great, about 5,000 yen or so for a Famicom.  Not a rip off, but you can do better on Yahoo Auctions.

Just walking along the narrow alleyway was quite fun, there were a lot of Famicom bits and pieces peaking out of windows here and there:

 This guy had a lot of stuff, mostly toys but also some retro game stuff:

 Including some Famicom carts in his glass case.  Again, prices were on the high side.  Those copies of Super Mario Bros. were 1500 yen each.

 

So if you are in Kobe definitely give the alleyways under the JR tracks between Sannomiya, Motomachi and Kobe stations a try.  Even if you don`t buy anything you`ll probably have a lot of fun browsing and exploring down there. There are probably some other good retro game hunting grounds in the city, but I only had a day to look around. In my next post I`ll show you retro game hunting in the bigger city of Osaka!

Manga Souko: A Very Good Famicom Shop

As I mentioned in my previous post I ended up visiting a Famicom shop that I had never been to the other day. That shop lies WAY down south on good old Route 31. To get there just keep heading south. Pedal along until you think you are going to die of exhaustion. If you see an old F5 fighter plane (correction: F-1 fighter plane) on your left you are on the right track, probably only a dozen more kilometres to go:
The shop`s name is Manga Souko. Like my old local shop Omocha Souko it is a chain of stores that sell recycled toys, comics, clothes, movies, CDs and video games.

When I go to video game stores for the first time I always get nervous as I walk in the door. If you don`t know the store and, like me, are only interested in retro video games then the odds are stacked against you finding what you want. The possibilities are:

1) They don`t have any retro games at all;

2) They have retro games but not a very good selection;

3) They have retro games but their prices are too high;

4) They have a good selection of retro games AND their prices are reasonable.

Most of the time you will find the shop falls into category 1, 2 or 3. It is the cross that all retro game collectors in Japan, nay the world, must bear.

Not this time though. I am happy to say that Manga Souko falls decidedly into category 4! I was so delighted!

Take a look at this massive Famicom section they have:

Hundreds of different titles! Most of them quite reasonably priced!

I was like a kid in a candy store. Pure giddiness.

The great thing about visiting a new store with a huge Famicom section like this is that even if, like me, you have hundreds of games they probably will surprise you with a few you have never seen before. With the game shops that are on my normal `rounds` I know their selection pretty well so I rarely find games that I don`t have or know about.

At Manga Souko though I was able to pick up a surprisingly large number of games that I needed, some of which I had never seen before.

Let me show you around the place a little bit.

They have quite a few consoles, though disappointingly no Famicoms (save for the one in the junk box I mentioned in the last post). They had lots of Super Famicoms, a couple Mega drives, Game Cubes and some other more recent consoles nicely packed up though:
Their Super Famicom section was pretty good too:
As was their Game Boy section:
And they had an interesting showcase full of vintage toys that I thought looked quite neat:
They also had a very nice glass case with some of their `good` Famicom and Super Famicom games:
Happily I had enough on me to buy a few games out of that!

This here was one of the store`s more interesting features:
In one part of their Famicom section they have arranged the games according to the `top 100` rankings. This follows the rankings made by Famitsu based on a reader vote a few years ago. I put the whole list at the bottom of this post for reference for anyone interested. Here you can see the top 3, Dragon Quest III, Super Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. 3:
Tower of Druaga came in at #56:
And rounding the list off at #100 was Gradius II:
Anyway, to say that I went crazy would be an understatement. This is what I got:
A whole basket full of Famicom carts, what an image of beauty! This was actually me exercising self-restraint, I could easily have filled two of these up with stuff I wanted to buy but the two hour bike ride back home convinced me to limit myself to the one basketload.

I`ll probably do another post to highlight some of the new additions to the collection later.

Since I get a few readers looking for info on local Famicom shops from time to time, anyone who is interested in visiting this particular shop just go here:

View Larger Map

To end this post, I present the top 100 Famicom rankings according to Famitsu (courtesy of Sketz at HardCore Gaming 101 who originally posted it here in a comment a while back):


1) Dragon Quest 3
2) SMB
3) SMB 3
4) FinalFanatasy 3
5) Dragon Quest 4
6) Dragon Quest 2
7) Dragon Quest
8) Legend of Zelda
9) Mother
10) Mario Bros (not SMB)

11) Final Fanatasy
12) Kirby
13) Kunio Kun no Jidaigeki dayo Zenin Shuugou (Kunio in Feudal Japan)
14) Downtown Nekketsu Koushinkyoku Soreyuke Dai Undoukai (Kunio sports)
15) Spartan X (Kung-Fu)
16) SMB2 (lost levels)
17) Nekketsu koukou Dodgeball Club (Kunio Dodgeball)
18) Final Fantasy 2
19) Fire Emblem Ankokuryu to Hikari no Ken
20) Sanma no Meitantei

21) Xevious
22) Ice Climber
23) Spelunker
24) Akumajou Dracula (Castlevania)
25) Gradius
26) Goonies
27) Captain Tsubasa
28) Konami Wai Wai World
29) Metroid

30) Takeshi no choujin (Takeshi "Beat" Kitano game)
31) Final Fantasy 1+2
32) Portpia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken
33) Nekketsu Kouha Kunio Kun (Renegade)
34) Bomberman
35) Ganbare Goemon
36) Wizardry
37) Donkey Kong
38) Hokkaidou Rensa Satsujin Oho-tsuku ni Kiyu
39) Pro Yakkyu Family Stadium (baseball game)

40) Twinbee
41) DR Mario
42) Metal gear
43) Excitebike
44) Fire Emblem Gaiden
45) SMB USA
46) Dai 2 Ji Super Robot Taisen
47) Tetris
48) Rockman 2
49) Kunio Kun Soccer League

50) Rockman
51) Captain Tsubasa 2 Super Striker
52) Ikki
53) Kinnikuman Muscle tag match (M.U.S.C.L.E in the West)
54) Star Soldier
55) Dragon Ball Z
56) Tower of Druaga
57) Dragon ball Z 2 Gekishin Freeze!!
58) SD "Gundam" Gachapon
59) Dragon Ball Z Gaiden Sayajin Zetsumetsu Keikaku

60) Adventure Island
61) Ghosts 'n' Goblins
62) Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari
63) Hatori Kun
64) Metal Slader Glory
65) Lode Runner
66) Waganland
67) Balloon fight
68) Famicom tantei club 2: Ushiru no shoujo kouhen
69) Valkyrie no Bouken Tokinokagi densetsu

70) Momotaro Densetsu
71) Akumajou Densetsu
72) Zelda 2: Adventures of Link
73) Momotarou Dentetsu
74) Contra
75) Meikyu Kumikyoku Milon no daibouken
76) Rockman 5
77) Rockman 3
78) Hanjuku Hero
79) Dragon Ball Z 3

80) Famista 89
81) Famicom tantei club 2: ushiro ni tatsu shoujo zenpen
82) Kaiju monogatari
83) Famicom Wars
84) Family Jockey
85) Rockman 6
86) Dragonball
87) Rockman 4
88) Ganbare Goemon 2
89) SD Gundam Gaiden: Night Gundam Monogatari

90) Legend of Kage
91) Sweet Home (pseudo-prequel to Biohazard)
92) Famicom Jump
93) Yoshi's egg
94) Dragon Ball 3
95) Famicom tantei club kieta koukeisha kouhen
96) Hokuto no Ken (Fist of the North Star)
97) Famicom tantei club kieta koukeisha zenpen
98) Nekketsu Kakutou Densetsu
99) Gundam Z Hot Scramble
100) Gradius 2

Omocha Souko Part 6: Coming Home With a Bag Full of Famicom Carts

Just a quick post. As I`ve mentioned a couple of times in recent posts, Omocha Souko here has been having a going out of business sale this month. I`ve been buying up lots and lots of their Famicom stuff cheap. Unfortunately there aren`t many valuable games or major bargains, but when I brought home one lot a few days ago I noticed how nice a bag full of random, cheap Famicom carts looks so I thought I would take a picture and share it here. Just look at all of them in there. Happy as peas in a pod I`m sure.

Omocha Souko Part 1: The Greatest Retro Game Store Ever.

For the first part of my special series on the soon-to-be late retro gaming store Omocha Souko (Fukuoka Honten) I thought I would try to prove the statement that I am always making about it:

Omocha Souko was the greatest retro video game store in the world.

I have to make a few disclaimers here before I start though. In many respects Omocha Souko was not a great retro gaming store. If you wanted a rare title chances are Omocha Souko did not have it. Looking for Game and Watches? Or a CIB PC Engine? Most likely they wouldn`t have those either.

Omocha Souko`s strength lay in its bargains rather than in its existing inventory. The reason they wouldn`t have rare titles or hard to find CIB consoles is because when they did get those things in they would price them so cheaply that they would sell instantly. Oftentimes to me.

Looking back over this blog I was able to pick out 15 different bargains that I found which I posted about. Most of these constituted mind blowing bargains where I paid as little as 1-2% of the going market price for some absolutely fantastic retro gear. I`ve collected those bargains here as a sort of `Omocha Souko`s greatest hits`.

In actual fact though, these are just the tip of the iceberg. A lot of the time when I`d get a great bargain I simply wouldn`t have the time to blog about it. I once found a CIB PC Engine, for example, working and in beautiful condition for 300 yen. That goes for about 100$ on Ebay. I didn`t blog about it though. Just not enough time.

Anyway, for posterity`s sake here are the top 15 bargains I have found at Omocha Souko over the past couple of years! In no particular order. You can click on the links to see the original posts.

1. Basket Full of Famicom Games for 800 Yen
This was one of the first big bargain sales Omocha Souko ever had. I stumbled across it one day while doing my regular rounds. They had a big pile of baskets in front of the retro game section with a sign saying you could get as many retro games as you could cram into one of those baskets for a flat 800 yen (about 10$).

I ended up doing about 4 or 5 of these, you could cram about 23 or 24 games into one of those baskets (more if you got mostly Game Boy carts) so the per-game price was extremely cheap and there were a few good titles available. The above photo is a typical haul that I got.

The downside of this sale was that when it was over their Famicom section was heavily picked over and for a few weeks they had almost nothing but sports titles. After a while though they rebuilt their inventory.


2. Two Twin Famicoms for 100 Yen Each
The first time I got a Twin Famicom back in 2010, I actually got two of them. For 100 yen each!

This purchase was one of those things that just blew me away when I found them. They had just been put on the shelf and when they caught my eye I wandered over expecting them to be 3000 or 4000 yen, a price I would have considered paying for at least one of them. When I saw the price tags for 100 yen I nearly fainted. That was the day I learned that Omocha Souko was the best place on the planet to buy old consoles, provided you were willing to be patient and wait for them to put ridiculously low prices on new things they got in.

My days as an Omocha Souko stalker had begun...

3. The Most Amazing Junk Section Ever Created
Of all my shopping experiences, this one remains my favorite. I walked into the store one day and there were just rows upon rows of crates full to the brim with retro gaming gear. Someone must have delivered a truckload of stuff to the store and just dumped all of it on them. Everything in all of those crates - whether it was games, consoles, controllers or cables - was 50 yen (60 cents) each.

The sheer volume of the stuff and the fact that I was there on the day it arrived made this an occasion to remember. I got PC Engines, Mega Drives, Famicoms, Games and Watches, dozens of normally expensive Famicom games and a ton of odds and ends. I went back several times, just filling baskets full of as much stuff as my arms could carry. Each time I would probably haul about $500 worth of stuff to the cashier and only have to pay 40 or 50 bucks. It was just the most incredible find I have ever made. The above photo only shows part of the haul. To give you an idea of how good it was, on my first trip there was a Virtual Boy in the crates. I actually passed that up because I just didn`t have enough space to fit it into my basket!

4. Family Basic and Famicom Trainer for 100 Yen Each
This was another being-there-at-the-right-time find. The Family Basic was CIB and in beautiful condition. It had previously been in their glass case for 4000 or 5000 yen but for some reason they decided to dump it in the junk section with a new price of 100 yen on it. The Famicom Trainer, which sells for quite a bit on Ebay, was also CIB and also only 100 yen. I couldn`t pay fast enough. I remember I got this just a couple days before Christmas in 2010, it was a nice early present.

5. Famicom Robot for 800 Yen
I picked the Famicom Robot up there a few months ago, at 800 yen for a CIB version it was an incredible find. The only other time I`ve seen one of these in stores it was priced at 10,000 yen.

6. Pile of Epoch Super Cassette Vision Carts for 100 Yen Each
I just love these things. The Epoch Super Cassette Vision was one of the Famicom`s would-be contenders for the Japanese home video game market back in the early 80s. It failed miserably though and as a result the system and its games are quite hard to come by (and expensive when you do find them). So I was massively surprised when I stumbled upon half the entire library for that console just casually lying on a shelf near the junk section rather than in a bullet proof glass case like they should have been. When I discovered they only wanted 100 yen each for them I was quite pleased.


7. Sega SG 1000 II
This was another junk bin find for 300 yen. It is in rough shape but works. The SG-1000 II is a hard to find console that should sell for about 10 to 20 times what I paid for it, even in that condition, so I count this as having been quite a good deal.


8. Virtual Boy for 300 Yen
This one I bought the same week that I found the Famicom Robot. I paid 300 yen for a complete, working Virtual Boy console. Complete as in complete in box with the manuals and inserts and everything I should add. These things normally go for hundreds of bucks on Ebay complete like that, but I got mine for the price of a large bottle of coca cola thanks to Omocha Souko.


9. Donkey Kong Jr. Game and Watch for 300 Yen
I did a double take when I saw this in a 300 yen junk pile. I love Game and Watches, but they are normally so expensive and hard to find that I never buy them. This one, which is complete and works fine, would probably have been the best Game and Watch deal in history were it not for what I found in the same bin the very next day....

10. Donkey Kong Game and Watch for 300 Yen
Complete with the battery cover and in perfect working order. Usually they sell for 60-70 bucks at Mandarake.

11. Pile of MSX Carts for 100 Yen Each
These MSX games, like the Super Cassette Vision carts above, I found casually sitting on a shelf one day. Like the Super Cassette Vision carts I only paid 100 yen each for them. Salamander alone sells for about 100$ on Ebay. That is probably over-priced, but still, this was an incredible bargain. If only I had an MSX to play them on....

12. Famicom Gimmick CIB for 100 Yen
This is the most valuable Famicom cart in my collection, yet ironically it is one of the ones I got for the cheapest price - 100 yen. The person pricing the games that day obviously did not know what they had in their hands.

13. 1967 Nintendo Ultra Machine CIB for 2000 Yen
This was actually a quite recent purchase. It is also the only thing on this list that I didn`t find in the video game section, it was a first floor toy section find. Released in 1967 the Ultra Machine is today very hard to find complete and in great condition like this, but somehow Omocha Souko laid their hands on one and somehow, not realizing its actual worth, they put it on sale for only 2000 yen.

14. Sega Mark III CIB for 300 Yen
I found this complete Sega Mark III a few weeks ago. It wasn`t in the junk section and didn`t have a price tag on it. I walked in, saw it, then I walked out without buying it. I went to my office, fired up the internet and found one on Ebay for $400. That was way more than I was willing to pay, but I decided that I would go back and ask how much they wanted for it. My budget would be 5000 yen, if it was less than that I would buy it, if not I would leave it.

So I went back to the store, picked it up, walked over to the cashier and asked how much it was. He took it, gave it a look over, thought for a moment and then responded:

`300 yen.`

I promptly paid.

15. Sega Mega Drive, Mega Drive CD and 32X all for 300 Yen
Yup, everything in the above photo for 300 yen. No need for further elaboration.


So there you have it, the top 15 retro gaming bargains I have gotten at Omocha Souko over the course of the past couple of years. It has been an amazing ride and thanks to that place I have been able to build up an impressive (if I do say so myself) collection of retro gaming gear on an extremely limited budget.

Anyway, I will continue this series with the next post in a couple of days so stay tuned!