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Thread: Living in Japan surrounded by games I have no idea about.

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    Insert Coin (Level 0) tarochofu's Avatar
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    Default Living in Japan surrounded by games I have no idea about.

    Hi everyone,

    Aside from the introduction post, this is my first real post here, so I hope I'm doing it correctly.
    I've been living in the countryside of Saitama for about 6 years now, and on the weekends I tend to drive around and go shopping.
    A lot of times I come upon used stores. Most of these stories have a gaming section, and more often than not, a retro gaming one.

    Often times I'll see games in the showcases that I have no idea about, but they seem to be rare. I wonder if it's rare just in Japan, or worldwide as well?
    I've thought about buying them and selling them on eBay or something, but I have no idea if anyone is even interested or what they're really worth.
    For example, the other day I saw a copy of Vampire Killer (Castlevania Bloodlines?) for the Megadrive for 15,000 yen. When I checked eBay, the titles for sale were going for more than $300!
    But when I checked the sold auctions, the only one went for about $50. So it's hard to tell what games are going for.

    I generally only know about Super Famicom or Famicom games, so when I see racks and racks of things like PC Engine Games, loose HuCards and Famicom Disk System agmes, Sega Saturn or PC-FX games, I have no idea what to do with them or where I should be looking! A lot of these stores have tons of games in the back just collecting dust. I see weird things I've never heard of like Super Cassette Vision, Panasonic Gamecubes, Nintendo Block Kuzushis, or Hello Kitty Dreamcasts. I have no idea why copies of Michael Jackson's Moonwalker are 6000 yen here.

    Is anyone in the same position as me, feeling a bit overwhelmed with all that is out there? And is there anyway of knowing what rare finds I should be looking for that aren't specific to each system? It seems like I'm not taking advantage of my time here as a game fan, but maybe I'm just rambling!

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    [QUOTE=tarochofu;1984711]Hi everyone,

    Often times I'll see games in the showcases that I have no idea about, but they seem to be rare. I wonder if it's rare just in Japan, or worldwide as well?
    I've thought about buying them and selling them on eBay or something, but I have no idea if anyone is even interested or what they're really worth.
    QUOTE]

    Not sure how much help I am on this one, but from what I can tell, the rarer shoot-em-ups tend to retain their value quite well. I'm guessing that PC Engine/TG-16 and SNES titles in that category would be worth focusing on. And maybe even some SG-1000 or SMS titles. Apparently the SG-1000 is worth a fair amount to collectors in North America. Odds are there are oodles of those in Japan.

    eBay is a reasonably good place to check prices (as long as you average them, since some people try to over-charge for stuff, just to see if it'll sell).

    Also, there's a good thread in the Classic Gaming forum about the best shoot-em-up games. Side-scrollers and top-down shooters seem to go over well. And even if people can't read Japanese, they can usually figure their way through the menu systems well enough to start the game. After that, I think pretty much everyone knows what to do in a shmup scenario.

    Enjoy your time in Japan and -- if you can get photos/video of arcades and gaming stuff -- you'll be glad you did later.

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    Insert Coin (Level 0) tarochofu's Avatar
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    Thank you for replying!

    It's interesting to see the different mindset of what is popular here is well.
    Actually, I never knew what a PC-Engine was until I moved here, and now I see games for it everywhere.
    I might try and pick one up and start collecting them since many of the games can be found cheaply.

    I don't know too much about shooters, but I'll definitely check out the thread, thanks.
    I think for the time being I may just collect what I'm familiar with and whatever catches my eye.
    Maybe if anyone was looking for something in particular I could help them out if I see it around.
    eBay prices can seem a bit ridiculous on some things, yeah.

    I'm actually here in Japan for the long haul, but I love finding new places around.
    I haven't checked out too many arcades, but really small countryside one that I drive by every day on my way to work was featured in an episode of Gamecenter-CX, so that's kind of neat.

    Thanks for the help!

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    Quote Originally Posted by tarochofu View Post
    I have no idea why copies of Michael Jackson's Moonwalker are 6000 yen here.
    The Genesis version went up at least 10x on the day he died.

    I suppose if there is collectors of SG-1000 in North America, it's probably a curiosity since it was never released here in any form (EU and AU/NZ got the SC-3000 computer variant). No idea how common, though I have heard Saturn was the only very popular Sega console in Japan.
    Last edited by SparTonberry; 10-09-2013 at 08:55 AM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by SparTonberry View Post
    The Genesis version went up at least 10x on the day he died.
    I didn't even think about that! Makes perfect sense, he was really popular here, too.

    I haven't seen the SG-1000 yet (I didn't know it existed until just recently, as well) but I'll keep an eye out.
    Yeah, Sega Saturn games can be found pretty much all over the place. Most stores usually have a Mega Drive (Genesis) section,
    but it's always away in the corner and much smaller than the Famicom/SF ones.
    Dreamcast was pretty popular here too, I think. I haven't had any trouble finding consoles or games for it.

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