Pick-ups: Japan Summer 2024
Two years after my last trip to Japan, I headed to Japan knowing prices were only getting worse on retro games. So, I had a mission: Snag as many of the Mega Drive games that I wanted as I could.
The bad news was that, if I thought Mega Drive prices (and stock) were bad two years ago, they ended up being worse now. The good was that I still found a handful of decent deals to snag, along with some other random games to go with them.
All prices are converted at 155 yen to $1, which is what I paid when buying the yen for this trip.
Three of these games—Granada, Alien Storm, and the Japanese version of Ghouls ‘n Ghosts—were games I’d specifically wanted for a while now. Most of the rest I grabbed because they would be nice additions to my library for the price. I had initially planned to pick up one high-priced title—either Alicia Dragoon or MUSHA—but I found neither for a price I was willing to pay. So, instead, my big purchase was Aero Blasters.
DJ Boy was funny, because as it was looking like my MD shopping was going terribly, for some reason I told myself, “I’m going to go to the next shop, and they’re going to have something random like DJ Boy there.” And, I almost burst out laughing when I walked in and there it was sitting on the shelf. So, I had to get it.
Anyhow, here’s what I paid: Space Harrier II ($11), Fatal Fury ($18), Junction ($15), Aero Blasters ($71), Vermillion ($6), Super Monaco GP ($6), Alien Storm ($64), Ghouls ’n Ghosts ($25), Super Real Basketball ($6), DJ Boy ($23), Phelios ($31), and Granada ($25).
Even thought I’ve literally got four different Genesis consoles in my office, I really wanted to own a proper Japanese Mega Drive. At the same Hard Off shop that had Aero Blasters and a couple of the other games, there was a used MD bundle for $57. Checking the serial number, it seems to be a VA0—aka, the initial limited run of the console in Japan before hardware quirks were fixed and the system was mass produced worldwide. From my understanding, there aren’t a ton of VA0 models out there, so I felt like I had to go with this one, even if it isn’t one of the most desirable board revisions. Thankfully, beyond one of the cartridge slot doors being a bit loose (which I should be able to fix), the system otherwise seems in pretty decent shape. I saw a number of other models where some of the gold paint had chipped off of the “16-BIT” logo, so I was glad that wasn’t the case here.
As well, I finally picked up my late birthday present: the 2023 Mega Drive release of City Connection from Habit Soft.
Though we all know that the Mega Drive was clearly the superior 16-bit console, I decided to also give a bit of love to the Super Famicom—mostly because all of this stuff was super cheap. I got Mario & Wario, Space Invaders, and Mario Paint for $3.55 as a bundle deal. I then paid the exact same price for a Super Famicom that may or may not actually work once I give it the cleaning it desperately needs. Finally, a Japanese SuFami controller that also may or may not work and needs cleaning for $2.12.
As big of a Nintendo DS collector as I used to be, I’d kind of fallen out of love when it comes to buying DS games due to how annoying the pricing has gotten when doing so. However, after giving my twins their own DSes earlier in the year and them going crazy for the platform, their enthusiasm has rekindled some of my love. Almost all of the games in the first photo were $3.55 each, and the reason for the duplicates comes down to either wanting them for family multiplayer sessions, or daughters deciding that they don’t want to share.
The very first game I bought after getting to Japan was Nintendo’s DS Bimoji Training for $6.32, which I got due to my love for weirdo DS releases that come bundled with weirdo accessories.
I have no pricing on this stuff because, basically, it was all free. Before heading to Japan, my wife told me that her nephew was thinking about giving us his Game Cube collection. I appreciated the sentiment, but as we’ve got my original US Game Cube that I modded with an ODE—not to mention the fact that I’ve been actively trying to sell off my physical GC library—getting another Cube and a bunch of physical games wasn’t hugely exciting.
After meeting up with him and seeing what he had, I convinced him that he should instead try to sell it, given some of that stuff currently goes for decent prices. Instead, he gave us his old DS and GBA collection, which was far more interesting to me. The funniest part is that, almost 20 years ago, I bought one of those red DS Phats for my wife. When she was getting ready to move to the States a few years later, she gave it to her mother, who had become obsessed with playing Brain Training. Mother-in-law then (I assume) gives it to nephew, and now it comes full circle.
Something Game Cube that I did want was a controller, as we’re one shy from having a full set of four. Funny enough, the cheapest option I found for picking one up was getting one of Nintendo’s official Smash-themed re-release models new in box. Given I only paid $12.79, that seems like a heck of a deal.
In addition to that, I snagged a third party PSP-2/3000 replacement battery for $10.84 to substitute for my original one that ended up swelling, and a Duo Tap for $4.54. I got the tap in the hopes that I could then pick up a few PC Engine controllers so I could finally use my Analogue Duo, as my hope that the PC Engine Mini controllers would work was a bust. Sadly, PC Engine controllers cost way too much these days, to the point that I couldn’t justify buying one. As cool as the Analogue Duo is, more and more it’s just becoming a costly weight around my neck.
Rounding out the retro gaming, I got Frame Gride (a FromSoftware DC release I’ve never tried) for $5, Sega Rally for $2.59, and Virtua Fighter 2 and Virtual Casino for $1.80 each. I’ve recently sold the US versions of all three of those Saturn games, so I figured this would be a super cheap way to add them back to my shelf (in a physical format that I don’t find revolting).
And then, on PlayStation 4, I picked up new copies of The King of Fighters ’98 Final Edition ($14.84) and The King of Fighters XIII Global Match ($24.34), along with used copies of Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight and Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight for $4.65 each.
Last, but certainly not least, I got Ohashi Junko’s album Minds on LP for $4.65. I had some high hopes music-wise for this trip—especially in terms of getting a replacement MiniDisc player/recorder, and finding Ito Maiko’s Idol Miracle Bible Series – All Songs Collection on CD—but most of my efforts in that regard were a total bust.
What’s interesting, though, is the trends that I noticed. Nearly every Book Off I went to had a specifically-labelled ’80s J-pop section, and you could see signs of certain albums that were on display (or high priced) due to the city pop boom—with some of that vinyl no doubt being targeted at visiting foreigners.
I’ve got more thoughts and photos from Japan, so check back for those soon!