The Great Japanese Retro Game Project

Some of you may have noticed, I REALLY love my video games. Not as much as Sophie of course. But a lot. And being in Japan, the spiritual home of video games, one would expect that a person such as myself would be taking advantage of all the electronic-awesomeness I can get-my-hands-on/afford. Well I would, but there's just one little problem.

It's all in Japanese.

For someone who can't order from a menu here unless it has pictures this makes buying games here almost impossible. Oh sure, there are maybe a handful of games here that are dual language, and probably whole lot out there that don't really require you to read much to enjoy them. But its never-the-less a frustrating experience to enter a video game store here knowing that you're probably just better off going home and buying english version of the game you want online. Particularly when you see a new game you've been wanting to pickup and even more so if know it won't be seeing a western release for at least the next few months.

But recently I found a solution to my current gaming dilemma.

See for some reason it's illegal in Japan to rent games (but apparently renting CD's and DVD's are fine, go figure?). So instead there is an absolutely massive market in cheap second hand video games stretching all the way back to the early 80's. Whats even better is that the patents on a lot of the old video games systems from back then have now run out resulting in stores legally being able to sell a whole slew of knock-offs that allow you to keep playing most of these ancient games.

"Fami-Clones" as they are often called, attempt to re-create the original hardware of legacy systems such as the original Nintendo and Super Nintendo (or Famicom and Super-Famicom as it's known here), and Sega's Master System and Mega-Drive (Genesis). They cost between 2,000 to 7,000 yen ($32-$115 AUD). So when I realised that it was now possible for me to purchase and play original copies of classic video games with minimal investment I became well and truly bitten by the retro games bug. As soon as I got my first full paycheck I promptly when out and bought myself a Fami-clone and a handful of of classic Nintendo and Super Nintendo games to play on it.

The great thing about old games is you don't really need to be able to read Japanese to play most of them and often they're in English anyway so it doesn't matter. Also they're REALLY cheap. Yeah, there are some super collectible rare titles that you'll need to fork over the cash for, but if your smart you'll rarely pay more than 2,000 yen for a game and often you can get some real bargains (such as Super Mario Brothers 2 for only 500-yen/$8).

Now everytime I walk into a game store here it's like Christmas and I often end up walking out with some new find tucked under my arm. Mostly I buy classic games such as Pacman or Street Fighter II, but I've also found a number of wacky Japanese games complete with hilarious Engrish that will blow your mind! So look out for future blog entries where I'll try to review some of these more unusual games. If I put my mind to it I can probably churn out at least one a week! In fact if I keep buying games at my current rate I predict that by the time I leave Japan I will have so many it will be difficult for me to ship them all home. But I'm not going to worry about that right now.

In the end I'm sure love will find a way.