Gamestop is a really shitty store

I think everyone already knows Gamestop is a pretty crappy store. There are things that are great about it - namely, their stock locator, where you can look up used games and have them reserved in store. And honestly, as much as people grouse about their slightly pushy preoreder/magazine sales techniques, they really aren't nearly as awful of people on the internet like to make them out to be. (For comparison, never go into Teavana, even if they lure you in with some tasty samples - before you know it, you'll be halfway through a transaction to buy an antique tea set and $100 worth of tea leaves.)

No, today we'll be looking at how their stores are merchandised. This particular store is the one in the Palisades Center in West Nyack, NY.



Here's the biggest issue. On both walls, the used games are by far the most prominently displayed. Most of the top tracks have their stock facing outwards, the rest are oriented spine outward. Where are the new games, you say? The ones whose sales actually count towards supplying the industry with money?



A tiny spot shoved in the corner, you say? Hmmm. Now when companies put all of that crappy new copy DLC in their games, you know why.



The rest of the new games are on their own separate racks. Technically these are in the middle of the store, but they're all faced spine outwards, and not nearly given as much space as the used titles. Gamestop seems to be doing everything in their power to make these as inconspicuous as possible.



Away from the new/used games debacle, we have these shelves. They're meant to be the bargain bin, but Christ if you could find anything in there. They're never anything remotely resembling alphabetized. Technically facing the covers out makes them more prominent, but most of the games are buried behind the rest, requiring that you flip, one by one, through everything. That simply takes way too much time for what would amount to impulse purchases anyway. The old, literal bargain bins may take up more space and don't allow titles to face out, but they were quick and easy to scan though.



Oh look, whole shelves of games without proper packaging. One would think that you could get a serviceable discount for damaged goods, but no - a beaten up copy of Skyrim without proper materials is the same exact price as one with all of the goods. Gamestop has been doing this forever, but it's still a pet peeve of mine. Similarly, I wouldn't have an issue with them gutting products if they'd give you a small discount for buying a floor model, but they definitely don't do that. Awful.



I did buy this though. $12 is a good price for a copy of Etrian Odyssey III, which is going for twice that price online. This particular store actually still had boxes and manuals for some of their DS games. Many stores have taken to throwing them out to purportedly make space for 3DS games. How does that even make sense to sell? Do people actually try to squint through those display cases with all of those loose DS games?

Anyway, the above game was actually mislabeled - it should've been $14.99 rather than $12.99, but the cashier gave me the lower price anyway (as retail establishments should). In fact, the employees here were extremely nice. Gamestop workers have been stereotyped as being the worst kind of mouthbreathing fanboys, but I've very rarely ran into those sort of people, and the usually the folks I find working in stores here in NJ are very cool and very professional. (In fact, if any Gamestop district managers are reading this, I have to commend the staff at the Westfield, NJ store for being extremely courteous and very friendly, probably some of the best crew I've seen in a retail establishment.) The fact that they can function so well despite the dreadful metrics and rules imposed by the Gamestop corporation, not counting the typical lousy pay in such jobs, shows a tremendous amount of fortitude on their part.

The gist of all of this is, I find it increasingly less useful to go into Gamestops anymore. Even their B2G1 free sales have become less useful since the general price of their games is so much more expensive than Amazon, Gamefly, Newegg, or any number of places online or elsewhere. Just do what I did, and accidentally buy a membership to Amazon Prime, so you don't need to preorder anything for their stores again.

I think everyone already knows Gamestop is a pretty crappy store. There are things that are great about it - namely, their stock locator, where you can look up used games and have them reserved in store. And honestly, as much as people grouse about their slightly pushy preoreder/magazine sales techniques, they really aren't nearly as awful of people on the internet like to make them out to be. (For comparison, never go into Teavana, even if they lure you in with some tasty samples - before you know it, you'll be halfway through a transaction to buy an antique tea set and $100 worth of tea leaves.)<br /> <br /> No, today we'll be looking at how their stores are merchandised. This particular store is the one in the Palisades Center in West Nyack, NY.<br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/gamestop-1.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> Here's the biggest issue. On both walls, the used games are by far the most prominently displayed. Most of the top tracks have their stock facing outwards, the rest are oriented spine outward. Where are the new games, you say? The ones whose sales actually count towards supplying the industry with money?<br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/gamestop-2.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> A tiny spot shoved in the corner, you say? Hmmm. Now when companies put all of that crappy new copy DLC in their games, you know why.<br /> <span class="fullpost"><br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/gamestop-3.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> The rest of the new games are on their own separate racks. Technically these are in the middle of the store, but they're all faced spine outwards, and not nearly given as much space as the used titles. Gamestop seems to be doing everything in their power to make these as inconspicuous as possible.<br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/gamestop-4.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> Away from the new/used games debacle, we have these shelves. They're meant to be the bargain bin, but Christ if you could find anything in there. They're never anything remotely resembling alphabetized. Technically facing the covers out makes them more prominent, but most of the games are buried behind the rest, requiring that you flip, one by one, through everything. That simply takes way too much time for what would amount to impulse purchases anyway. The old, literal bargain bins may take up more space and don't allow titles to face out, but they were quick and easy to scan though.<br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/gamestop-5.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> Oh look, whole shelves of games without proper packaging. One would think that you could get a serviceable discount for damaged goods, but no - a beaten up copy of Skyrim without proper materials is the same exact price as one with all of the goods. Gamestop has been doing this forever, but it's still a pet peeve of mine. Similarly, I wouldn't have an issue with them gutting products if they'd give you a small discount for buying a floor model, but they definitely don't do that. Awful.<br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/gamestop-6.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> I did buy this though. $12 is a good price for a copy of Etrian Odyssey III, which is going for twice that price online. This particular store actually still had boxes and manuals for some of their DS games. Many stores have taken to throwing them out to purportedly make space for 3DS games. How does that even make sense to sell? Do people actually try to squint through those display cases with all of those loose DS games? <br /> <br /> Anyway, the above game was actually mislabeled - it should've been $14.99 rather than $12.99, but the cashier gave me the lower price anyway (as retail establishments should). In fact, the employees here were extremely nice. Gamestop workers have been stereotyped as being the worst kind of mouthbreathing fanboys, but I've very rarely ran into those sort of people, and the usually the folks I find working in stores here in NJ are very cool and very professional. (In fact, if any Gamestop district managers are reading this, I have to commend the staff at the Westfield, NJ store for being extremely courteous and very friendly, probably some of the best crew I've seen in a retail establishment.) The fact that they can function so well despite the dreadful metrics and rules imposed by the Gamestop corporation, not counting the typical lousy pay in such jobs, shows a tremendous amount of fortitude on their part.<br /> <br /> The gist of all of this is, I find it increasingly less useful to go into Gamestops anymore. Even their B2G1 free sales have become less useful since the general price of their games is so much more expensive than Amazon, Gamefly, Newegg, or any number of places online or elsewhere. Just do what I did, and accidentally buy a membership to Amazon Prime, so you don't need to preorder anything for their stores again. <br /> </span>

The HG101 Guide to Retro Game Shopping in Japan 2011

If you regularly read a site like HG101, then you will probably be interesting in shopping for video games in Japan. They hold unquestionably the best game stores in the planet, sometimes with a number concentrated in the same area, and visiting them is an unforgettable experience. I've been to Japan twice - once in 2007, and more recently in 2011, and this guide chronicles my experiences in the stores I've visited. Keep in mind that I'm not exactly an expert, being a tourist rather than a local, but this should be a good primer for game shopping. Keep in mind that this is largely focused on retro stuff (pre-current gen), as well as soundtrack CDs, though many of the places listed here also stock used HD and portable software as well.

Also take note that some of the best places to scrounge for stuff are the so-called "junk" sections. "Junk" doesn't actually mean that it's trash in the literal sense, but rather that they're aren't the best condition - usually loose carts - and haven't been tested. (Usually the clerks will remind you of this.) However, given that this is the same way practically all cartridges are treated at game stores in the US - even the ones that cater to collectors, somehow! - most Westerners will probably not have a problem with this, especially since the games are very cheap, usually less than 300 yen, and usually much less. For some reason, I ran into copies of Phantasy Star: End of the Millenium several times for less than 100 yen, which is saddening, given that it's one of the best 16-bit RPGs out there.

It's interesting to see how popular various stuff is on the retro scene - for example, Famicom stuff still seems to be in, but no one much cares about Super Famicom a whole lot...which is pretty much the opposite here in America, where SNES stuff is some of the priciest. However, the general apathy towards Mega Drive/Genesis and Nintendo 64 seems to be global.

As some random travel tips, remember that many ATMs will not work with non-Japanese bank cards. However, post office ATMs will work, as well ATMs in 7-11, which are practically on every block. Your local bank will usually assess a transaction fee (mine was $6) but the exchange rate is generally a bit better than if you'd exchanged currency from your bank in your home country. (At least, mine was.) People will continue to say that Japan is a cash society and many places will not accept credit cards, but this is really not the case anymore, as practically any store that isn't a tiny hole in the wall will accept plastic. Take note that your credit card company will also usually attach an international transaction fee (typically 3%), although again, the exchange rate probably won't be too bad. Keep an eye out for banks that do not have a international transaction fee, like Capital One - I got one of their cards specifically for this vacation.) However, also alert your banks you are going overseas, or they may freeze your account for suspicious activities.

Tokyo

Akihabara



For years, I've read that Akihabara (shortened to "Akiba") has been going downhill. I don't know what that's in comparison to or what it means, precisely - I think it has something to do with the influx of anime/manga culture, meaning lots of maid cafes, lots of porn (which has probably always been there) and stuff like that. Still, it's by far the best concentration of gaming stores in Tokyo, so it is still unquestionably worth visiting.

Akihabara is very easy to get to - it's one of the stops on the Yamanote line, a loop which visits most of the major areas of downtown Tokyo. If you flew in from Narita and took the Keisei Skyliner into the city to Ueno, it's a mere two stops down. Most of the interesting stores are to the northwest of the station, either along Chuo-dori or in the small grid of side-streets to the west of Chuo-dori. The spot highlighted on the map is Super Potato, which is one of the most popular.



Super Potato

Whenever anyone posts in a forum about shopping for video games in Japan, inevitably half of the responses point to the world famous Super Potato. This is both right and wrong - for decor and experience, it's one of the best, but if you actually want to buy something, you might want to look elsewhere, because stuff here is on the pricey side. Keep in mind that it's "pricey" only compared to everything else in the area - chances are whatever you'll be looking for whill be cheaper here than on eBay, internet import stores, or the few Japanese retro game stores (like Japan Game Stock) that bother to ship outside the country.

Granted, if you're looking for something rare, it's going to be expensive anywhere, but general in-demandish loose Famicom carts run from 1200 - 2000 yen, when you could potentially find them for 800 - 1200 if you look elsewhere. Similarly, boxed games are generally 500-1000 yen more expensive than other places. It's not a ridiculous markup, though, and if you have limited time and can only go to one place, this is the place to go, because chances are they'll have it. I think this place has the best stock of systems, too, if you're in the market for a Famicom Disk System (or Twin Famicom) like I was. One of my quests this trip was to find a copy of the excellent Gimmick! for the Famicom. What I didn't realize is that it's extremely pricey - when I eventually stumbled across a few copies, they were boxed and were over 10000 yen...which is still cheaper than the copies I've seen on eBay, which run about $250, or about twice the price.) I gave up and just bought one of the Sunsoft compilations on the J-PSN that featured the game, since it was 600 yen. (Remember to buy a Japanese PSN card, which you can find at any 7-11 - you'll need them to buy stuff, and most importers attach a heavy markup, beyond the already awful exchange rate.)



The store inhabits the third, fourth and fifth floors of the building. It's not too hard to find - just follow the Famicom music that it pumps into the streets. The third floor has mostly 8 and 16-bit stuff (along with Dreamcast and Saturn) and a small junk section by the register (where they had dozens of sealed copies of Shen Mue for 500 yen each), while the fourth floor is MSX, soundtrack CDs, PlayStation, strategy guides and various other stuff. The fifth floor is an awesome retro arcade with a Solid Snake statue. There was a throne made of Famicom cartridges but appeared to be under construction.



There's a lot of character to this place - the stairways leading up has the mascot stuck in various retro games, like the Game Over screen from Shadowgate.



Here all of these Wind Waker Link plushies are kept in a cage. "Break out Link!", the sign (sort of) says. There's also a small sign of Link saying "Save me!".



I found this Alex Kidd board game in the "junk" section on the fourth floor, without a price tag. When I asked the clerk, he didn't know, but couldn't sell it to me. I returned a week later and hoped that someone had priced it, but it was still sitting there, taunting me. If I weren't afraid of getting deported I probably would've stolen it. (Also it probably wouldn't have fit in my suitcase anyway.)

Liberty

There's more than a dozen of these stores located in Akihabara. They generally seem to focus on figures and other toys, but one of the locations, a few blocks north of the train station, is one that focused on retro games, mostly on the second floor.



I'm hesitant to recommend this place. Back in 2007 (which is when the above picture is from), this place had great stock and decent prices, but in 2011, the stuck had been cut back to about 1/3 of the floor, along with a small section of music CDs. The rest was all anime and idol garbage. Assuming they don't get rid of it totally, though, it's still got some decent stuff.

Softmap

This computer store chain has more than a few stores in Akihabara, and I can never keep track of which ones I've visited. I remember in 2007 I found one with a decent retro selection, but I couldn't replicate that success, finding only "junk" corners. (Which at least served me with a 100 yen copy of Night Trap for the Mega CD and a 30 yen copy of D's Diner for the 3DO.) However, for current-gen games, they seem to offer some of the better prices. I managed to snag the Metal Gear 20th anniversary collection (which includes every canon game up to and including Portable Ops) for 4800 yen or so, so that's pretty awesome.

Trader

Another prolific store, also good for current gen games. One of them along Chuo-dori has a decent retro selection too, and probably the best "junk" corner of any of them. I only stumbled on it as I was leaving so I didn't get a full chance to look around much, but they also had a lot of systems, and any place that can offer me a 50 yen copy of Square's Tom Sawyer is OK by me. Alas all of their games are keepered, which, while understandable given theft, sort of hinders the shopping experience.

Friends



This store is slightly off the beaten path, relegated to one of the larger side streets on the north side of Akihabara along Chuo-dori. It's next door to G-Front, a spot for buying arcade boards. (You can't really browse around that store though - there's only a small walking area with some display stuff and a bins of Neo Geo MVS carts - otherwise you need to know what you want beforehand to get the clerk to get it for you.) Anyway, Friends is totally devoted to retro games, unlike Trader, Liberty or Book Off. It doesn't quite have the personality of Super Potato either - the second floor was staffed with a somewhat out of place older woman, while the third floor had two guys who were caught in the Sisyphean task of testing their huge stock of games. (One of them was wearing a Pink Godzilla shirt, making me think they're associated with the Seatlle-based retro game chain which recently had to change its name to Pink Gorilla due to copyright concerns.)



ANYWAY. This place is quiet and rarely trafficked, but is generally pretty great. Prices are cheaper than Super Potato and the stock, while not quite as large, is comparable. I think it had the best stock of loose FDS titles too. The second floor has 8 and 16-bit titles, while the third floor has Saturn, Dreamcast, PS2, strategy guides, and soundtrack CDs. The above picture is part of the Mega Drive/MSX selection, one of the only areas I could snag a picture of without getting yelled at.



As a side note, around the corner is the cat cafe Neko Jalala. Cats are adorable (I have four of them) and the idea seems enticing, but people tend to forget that most cats are actually anti-social jerks who'd rather sleep than play, and indeed, around 4 PM practically all of its denizens were napping, except for the one who desperately wanted to break into the kitchen. Still, I'll take their authentic indifference over the insincere pandering of the maid cafes a few blocks down. (Also, the way some of the advertisements for those things look, and how pushy those maids on the street can get, I'm always afraid of getting roped into a brothel.)

Book Off

I'm sticking this in the Akihabara section, but really, you can find Book Offs practically anywhere (as well as its off-shoots: Hard Off, Mode Off, etc.) The Akiba one is located in an out of the way section by the train station, almost beneath the train tracks. (There should be signs in the station that vaguely point to where it is.) Book Off stocks pretty much anything used, including books, manga, DVDs and so forth, which also includes video games. Also worth checking out is the one in Shibuya, which is quite large - it's not directly by Scramble Crossing but if you walk down some of the streets you'll stumble on it eventually.

Their retro selection varies from store to store - it's a bit larger in Akiba - and while you might find something decent (like a complete copy of Ladystalker for the SFC for 105 yen), and the current gen stock isn't too bad, the real reason to go here are the PSOne and PS2 games. Many random PSOne titles are only 105 yen - most of the more popular ones are 500 yen. Rarer ones demand more, although they are not exorbitant - Dracula X: Gekka no Yasokyoku was about 1500, Sexy Parodius was around 2500, and Moon: Remix Adventure was about 4500. Same goes with the PS2 stock - there's a lot of cool, interesting stuff to be had for 500 yen, making it easy to take a chance on any random game that might catch your eye.

Toranoana

This is technically a manga/anime goods store. It doesn't stock regular games or CDs, but it does have lots of doujin games and stuff. However, the scene has largely been taken over by Touhou and Touhou spinoffs, so don't expect to find much here anymore, unfortunately. In 2007 I found a bunch of EasyGameStation stuff (including Gunners Heart, Chantelise, and Duo Princess), along with some doujin CDs for Final Fantasy XII and Cave. This time I just got those two Touhouvania games because there wasn't much else. The store in Ikebukuro was better for this kind of stuff, because they still had copies of the excellent shooter Crimson Clover, although it's still mostly all Touhou all the time.

Messe Sanoh



Not really a lot of retro stuff here, but it's worth mentioning regardless. The first floor is small, stocking more recent titles, along with areas devoted to various goods (artbooks, soundtracks) to Nippon Ichi and Cave. These guys also ran a store devoted to doujin goods, but it was shuttered up when I was there - I don't know if it was temporary or permanent, but there's also a small selection of doujin stuff in the main store, more palatable than Toranoana.

Most interesting in the second floor, which is focused on Western stuff. Strangely this place was better stocked with PC software than any store currently in the US (though not Europe). I saw a copy of Deus Ex with a little tag on it proclaiming how awesome it was, and it warmed my heart. My favorite thing I found here was a series of books focusing on Japanese adventure games and RPGs from the 80s. They were brand new, even though the books themselves must've been published over twenty years ago - maybe they were reprints? Who knows, but they were less than 1000 yen apiece, so despite the weight they added to my luggage, I bought all five. I look the visuals of adventure games from this era - Japanese or otherwise - and provided a good start for future HG101 articles. Most of them were walkthrough-style guidebooks, but there are tons of pictures, and even some sheet music for a few songs.

Keep in mind that there is way more in Akihabara to see than just this - these are only the places that stood out the most. I remember a place called Media Land, closer to the train station on Chuo-dori, with a small retro selection on the second floor, although nothing much. There was also a street level store with a long hallway filled with retro stuff, and a Famicom out front, with lots of common, junk titles bundled together for about 500 yen. However, outside of that, most of the games inside were on the pricey side. At any rate, just keep an eye out for the words "retro" (レトロ) and "used" (中古), and adventure around a little bit, and you're likely to find something interesting.

Now we will leave Akihabara for...

Nakano



A bit off the Yamanote Line, you can easily reach this place from either Shinjuku or Akihabara via the Chuo-Sobu line. (You can take the Rapid service from Shinjuku too, since it stops there.) You can follow Chris Kohler's guide over at Wired (though it's so old that the pictures are broken), but this is very easy to get to - when you exit the train station you'll see the Nakano Sun Arcade right in front of you (pictured). Follow this all of the way through and you'll reach tbe Nakano Broadway Mall. There are a few floors, and many of them have stores overrun by Mandarake.

Mandarake

Mandarake is a chain that deals in used goods generally aimed at the otaku audiences. This includes manga, doujinshi, figures, toys, CDs, and pretty much anything aimed at a collector, niche audience, thereby seperating it from the broader reaches of Trader, Liberty or Book Off. They have an online store and do ship overseas, although the selection pales (PALES) in comparison to what they have in their stores.

The video game store here is Mandarake Galaxy. It's smaller than the places in Akihabara, but they still manage to have a great stock, and the prices are decent too. A boxed copy of Gradius 2 for the MSX? Less than 3000 yen (though the box wasn't in the best condition.) I think the most amount of money I spent at a single store, I spent here. Their selection of rare and pricey games is also comparable to Super Potato, if you feel like dropping lots of cash on something particularly noteworthy. All of their stuff keepered, though.



There are a couple of other Mandarake stores in Tokyo, although the game selection varies greatly. There is one in Akiba, though I didn't visit it because back in 2007 it only sold doujinshi. However, in 2008 they opened a much larger complex, though any posts I've read about it talk mostly about the anime and manga content, rather than the games. The one in Shibuya (pictured above) is definitely worth visiting, since it's something like two stories underground and feels like a massive basement worth of awesome goodies. (The walk down the steps is interesting - it has strobe lights, thumping music, and disembodied mannuiquin torsos...it's more like entering a club.) However, the game selection is slim pickings. I did stumble upon a Famicom 3D system for about 800 yen, though, and the music CD selection, providing you can find them, is pretty alright.

Recomints

Mandarake also has a used CD shop in the Broadway Mall, which is worth visiting, but my favorite store here is Recomints. It's smaller, but the prices are cheaper. I found a copy of the Suikoden OST for about 1100 yen, Mario and Zelda Big Band for 1600 yen, the Thunder Cross OST for like 800 yen, and random other stuff for decent prices too.

Chiba

Chiba Kanteidan

Okay, I actually didn't visit this place. I found out above it from this Retronauts video, who found out about it from an episode of Game Center CX. Further googling also found a post on the Digital Press forums with tons of pictures. I didn't visit it because it's sort of out of the way - something like an hour and a train few stops away from the closest store to the Yamanote Loop (there are something like six stores or so), and the general impression I got from both those Digital Press posts and Retronauts is that it's very big, but disorganized, overpriced, and generally not worth visiting unless you really have lots of time to sort through stuff. It's the sort of place I'd probably love to live by and visit on a weekly basis to go treasure hunting, but when there's a bazillion other things to do in Tokyo (beyond all of the other game shopping you'll probably be doing), and both Akihabara and Nakano are already extremely well stocked, there didn't seem to be a reason to venture out there. At any rate, since I didn't go there I don't actually know how to get to any of them, although it appears that the Urayasu location is one of the closest to get to.

These are the places I know of in the Tokyo area, so now for Kansai. Also check out this video from Retronauts for a video tour of Super Potato and Mandarake Galaxy.

Kyoto



You go to Kyoto for the Japanese culture, and not really for the game shopping. The downtown area is nice, though it pales in comparison to Osaka or anywhere in Tokyo. You should be visiting the shrines here instead, but if you're in the mood for shopping, most of the shops seem to be concentrated on a section of Teramachi Street, which runs off the downtown area, and isn't far from the Kawaramachi train station. There's a Toranoana here, along with another huge bookstore stock with enormous amounts of porn. (This will be a recurring theme in your quest for video game hunting.) A bit further down there are some computer shops, and a place called A-Too, which sticks the "Famicom" in its name.

A-Too



The first floor is current gen stuff and seems to be a bit on the pricier side. The second store is retro stuff, though not a whole lot of it, along with music CDs and, like many of these stores, lots of doujinshi. I would largely say this place is relatively unremarkable, but they did have a whole chunk of cheap FDS games in the junk bin, so I can't begrudge them much. (I bought all of the noteworthy ones though, so don't expect a repeat.) There is a Book Off in town too, which is right outside the Sanjo station.

Osaka

I was sort of disappointed with the game shopping in Osaka, although that was mostly because I was lead to believe that things here were cheaper than Tokyo. They aren't. Still, the whole area by Dotomburi River is incredible, and the city is still definitely worth visiting, so if you're in the area it's worth checking out. The Osaka station is about a 30 minute train ride from Kyoto, although it'll take a bit longer to get anywhere interesting.



Most of the video game stores are located in Den Den Town along Sakaisuji Street, which is part of Nipponbashi. While Akihabara is very easy to access, Den Den Town is not, and requires either a few subways changes or a lot of walking. Check out this guide for more details, but the gist is you'll need to get to Shin Osaka (where the Shinkansen stops), take the Midosuji line to Namba, take the Sennichimae Line to Nipponbashi, then take the Sakaisuji line to the Ebisucho station. Take exit 1A out and Super Potato is on the right, just outside the door.



Super Potato 7

Smaller than the one in Tokyo, the second floor is devoted to retro stuff. This actually might be more expensive than the one in Tokyo, in fact! I found it rather disorganized, too, though overwhelming in that classy kind of way. I didn't see much in the way of game CDs and there's no arcade either. I only bought a cheap copy of the Sunsoft GB game Trip World here.

Game Tanteidan

A few stores down from Super Potato is this store, which offers two floors of retro shopping. Cheaper than Super Potato, larger, and probably better overall, though still not really better than any of the places in Tokyo.

There's a Softmap along this street, along with an A-Too, apparently, like in Kyoto, though I didn't visit it.

Amerikamura



The map points to a spot called Sun Bowl, because that's the only spot I could make Google Maps find, but this is the block you want to be going to, because it's right next to...

Mandarake

Closer to the more interesting parts of Osaka, in Amerika-mura, about a 5-10 minute walk from either the Namba or Shinsaibashi station, is another huge Mandarake store. Other than Galaxy in Nakano, this was the best Mandarake store I found for video games - they had tons of stuff, and this seemed cheaper too. A loose copy of Akumajou Dracula for the MSX2 for 1500 yen? Sure, why not! (I still don't own an MSX2 yet...I found a junk one at the Super Potato in Akiba for 3500 yen, but it was missing connections. The A/V cables are standard, but the AC adapter was not, and finding them separate appeared to be impossible, so I didn't bother.)



Unfortunately Mandarake tends to close early, at about 8 PM. Coincidentally, a block or two down the road is Space Station Osaka, a cool retro video game bar, opens at 8 PM, allowing you to make a smooth transition from game buying to game playing/booze drinking. I'll be writing more about this in a later entry.

Food suggestions

If you're visiting a totally foreign place, you might as try to eat something cool rather than McDonalds or Kentucky Fried Chicken, right? Here are some good spots to check out.



Curry House CoCo Ichibanya

A huge chain, these places are pretty much everywhere, though the best one I went to was in Shibuya. My favorite thing is the ability to set the spice level - Japanese curry by itself can be sort of bland, but kicked up a few notches, it's excellent. Also note that Japanese soy sauce (technically called "shoyu", but most places just label it "sauce") is sweeter than what we typically get in the US, making it a nice accompaniment.

In New York City there's also a Go Go Curry - probably the best place to get Japanese curry that I know of in the US. There's one of these in Akihabara, at least, but I like CoCo better - the curry is a bit thinner, and again, the spice level.



Ichiran Ramen

Filled with single stalls, the ramen in this place is excellent. After buying tickets of all of stuff you want in addition to the standard noodle set, you sit down and are given a card to fill out to determine how you want your noodles cooked, how much fat content in the broth, how much of the restaurant's patented spice you want (hint: a lot), how much garlic and green onions, and so forth. After filling this out, you get a nice steaming bowl of noodles. If you leave some broth and paid for extra noodles, you can summon one of the workers to refill your bowl. Other than the extremely flavorful broth, the best thing about these is that they don't clutter the soup with bean sprouts, which every other bowl of ramen I had in Tokyo was subjected to.

There are a bunch of these around, with two that I know of - one on the outside side of the Ueno train station, just a quick walk north of the Keisei Ueno station (you could technically visit here if you walked off the plane from Narita, although it's not very large, so don't expect to find a place for your luggage) and one that's slightly harder to find in Shibuya, less than a five minute walk from the Hachiko exit. (It's in the basement of a larger building, so you'll need to recognize the logo to find it.) There is also one of these opening up in Brooklyn, NY in the near future. Hooray!



Densetsu no Sutadonya

Its name is short for "Stamina Bowl", and I stumbled upon this randomly in Kyoto. Sort of like the gyudon (beef bowl) or butadown (pork bowl) you can get at any random Yoshinoya, Sutadon is a bowl of rice topped with slithers of pork. However, this pork is apparently the Italian pork used to make prosciutto, cooked in tremendous amounts of garlic and topped with green onions. It is DELICIOUS, though the second bowl admittedly gave me a stomach ache. There are apparently lots of locations in Tokyo, though I'm not sure where they are. You can read more about it here.

Other fun things to do in Japan:

-Mistakenly stumble into the girls-only area of the purikura (picture) booths in an arcade and get kicked out
-Be a girl, visit Harajuku, and confound the clothing store shopkeepers with your distinctly non-Japanese dimensions.
-Accidentally buy dickgirl porn
-Head to Otome Road (across from one of the exits of Sunshine City) and marvel at the shoujo slash pairings for all kinds of properties. I bought one for The A-Team!
-Take pictures of silly advertisements, like the Torys whiskey mascot. It's nice that he's found a girlfriend and appears to be happy, in spite of his obvious physical deformities.



-Be baffled at how the Japan classify and organize their games. They tend to stick them in genres, then by Japanese alphabetical order...but only sometimes, because they also organize by publisher (or vague publisher affiliation) and they tend to be weird. Like, most people would assume you'd stick Final Fantasy Tactics under RPG, but those types of games are actually Simulations...and they may just stuck in the Square-Enix section anyway. Answering the long standing internet debate of whether Mass Effect 2 is still an RPG, Yobodashi Camera sticks the game under the "action" category. Japan has spoken!



<center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/japanretro2011/superpotato2.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> If you regularly read a site like HG101, then you will probably be interesting in shopping for video games in Japan. They hold unquestionably the best game stores in the planet, sometimes with a number concentrated in the same area, and visiting them is an unforgettable experience. I've been to Japan twice - once in 2007, and more recently in 2011, and this guide chronicles my experiences in the stores I've visited. Keep in mind that I'm not exactly an expert, being a tourist rather than a local, but this should be a good primer for game shopping. Keep in mind that this is largely focused on retro stuff (pre-current gen), as well as soundtrack CDs, though many of the places listed here also stock used HD and portable software as well.<br /> <span class="fullpost"><br /> Also take note that some of the best places to scrounge for stuff are the so-called "junk" sections. "Junk" doesn't actually mean that it's trash in the literal sense, but rather that they're aren't the best condition - usually loose carts - and haven't been tested. (Usually the clerks will remind you of this.) However, given that this is the same way practically all cartridges are treated at game stores in the US - even the ones that cater to collectors, somehow! - most Westerners will probably not have a problem with this, especially since the games are very cheap, usually less than 300 yen, and usually much less. For some reason, I ran into copies of Phantasy Star: End of the Millenium several times for less than 100 yen, which is saddening, given that it's one of the best 16-bit RPGs out there. <br /> <br /> It's interesting to see how popular various stuff is on the retro scene - for example, Famicom stuff still seems to be in, but no one much cares about Super Famicom a whole lot...which is pretty much the opposite here in America, where SNES stuff is some of the priciest. However, the general apathy towards Mega Drive/Genesis and Nintendo 64 seems to be global.<br /> <br /> As some random travel tips, remember that many ATMs will not work with non-Japanese bank cards. However, post office ATMs will work, as well ATMs in 7-11, which are practically on every block. Your local bank will usually assess a transaction fee (mine was $6) but the exchange rate is generally a bit better than if you'd exchanged currency from your bank in your home country. (At least, mine was.) People will continue to say that Japan is a cash society and many places will not accept credit cards, but this is really not the case anymore, as practically any store that isn't a tiny hole in the wall will accept plastic. Take note that your credit card company will also usually attach an international transaction fee (typically 3%), although again, the exchange rate probably won't be too bad. Keep an eye out for banks that do not have a international transaction fee, like Capital One - I got one of their cards specifically for this vacation.) However, also alert your banks you are going overseas, or they may freeze your account for suspicious activities.<br /> <br /> <b><i>Tokyo</i></b><br /> <br /> <b><i>Akihabara</i></b><br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/japanretro2011/akiba.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> For years, I've read that Akihabara (shortened to "Akiba") has been going downhill. I don't know what that's in comparison to or what it means, precisely - I think it has something to do with the influx of anime/manga culture, meaning lots of maid cafes, lots of porn (which has probably always been there) and stuff like that. Still, it's by far the best concentration of gaming stores in Tokyo, so it is still unquestionably worth visiting.<br /> <br /> Akihabara is very easy to get to - it's one of the stops on the Yamanote line, a loop which visits most of the major areas of downtown Tokyo. If you flew in from Narita and took the Keisei Skyliner into the city to Ueno, it's a mere two stops down. Most of the interesting stores are to the northwest of the station, either along Chuo-dori or in the small grid of side-streets to the west of Chuo-dori. The spot highlighted on the map is Super Potato, which is one of the most popular.<br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/japanretro2011/superpotato1.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.superpotato.com/"><b>Super Potato</b></a><br /> <br /> Whenever anyone posts in a forum about shopping for video games in Japan, inevitably half of the responses point to the world famous Super Potato. This is both right and wrong - for decor and experience, it's one of the best, but if you actually want to buy something, you might want to look elsewhere, because stuff here is on the pricey side. Keep in mind that it's "pricey" only compared to everything else in the area - chances are whatever you'll be looking for whill be cheaper here than on eBay, internet import stores, or the few Japanese retro game stores (like <a href="http://www.japangamestock.com">Japan Game Stock</a>) that bother to ship outside the country. <br /> <br /> Granted, if you're looking for something rare, it's going to be expensive anywhere, but general in-demandish loose Famicom carts run from 1200 - 2000 yen, when you could potentially find them for 800 - 1200 if you look elsewhere. Similarly, boxed games are generally 500-1000 yen more expensive than other places. It's not a ridiculous markup, though, and if you have limited time and can only go to one place, this is the place to go, because chances are they'll have it. I think this place has the best stock of systems, too, if you're in the market for a Famicom Disk System (or Twin Famicom) like I was. One of my quests this trip was to find a copy of the excellent Gimmick! for the Famicom. What I didn't realize is that it's extremely pricey - when I eventually stumbled across a few copies, they were boxed and were over 10000 yen...which is still cheaper than the copies I've seen on eBay, which run about $250, or about twice the price.) I gave up and just bought one of the Sunsoft compilations on the J-PSN that featured the game, since it was 600 yen. (Remember to buy a Japanese PSN card, which you can find at any 7-11 - you'll need them to buy stuff, and most importers attach a heavy markup, beyond the already awful exchange rate.)<br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/japanretro2011/superpotato2.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> The store inhabits the third, fourth and fifth floors of the building. It's not too hard to find - just follow the Famicom music that it pumps into the streets. The third floor has mostly 8 and 16-bit stuff (along with Dreamcast and Saturn) and a small junk section by the register (where they had dozens of sealed copies of Shen Mue for 500 yen each), while the fourth floor is MSX, soundtrack CDs, PlayStation, strategy guides and various other stuff. The fifth floor is an awesome retro arcade with a Solid Snake statue. There was a throne made of Famicom cartridges but appeared to be under construction.<br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/japanretro2011/superpotato-lol.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> There's a lot of character to this place - the stairways leading up has the mascot stuck in various retro games, like the Game Over screen from Shadowgate.<br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/japanretro2011/superpotato-lol2.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> Here all of these Wind Waker Link plushies are kept in a cage. "Break out Link!", the sign (sort of) says. There's also a small sign of Link saying "Save me!".<br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/japanretro2011/alexkidd-boardgame.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> I found this Alex Kidd board game in the "junk" section on the fourth floor, without a price tag. When I asked the clerk, he didn't know, but couldn't sell it to me. I returned a week later and hoped that someone had priced it, but it was still sitting there, taunting me. If I weren't afraid of getting deported I probably would've stolen it. (Also it probably wouldn't have fit in my suitcase anyway.)<br /> <br /> <b>Liberty</b><br /> <br /> There's more than a dozen of these stores located in Akihabara. They generally seem to focus on figures and other toys, but one of the locations, a few blocks north of the train station, is one that focused on retro games, mostly on the second floor.<br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/japanretro2011/liberty.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> I'm hesitant to recommend this place. Back in 2007 (which is when the above picture is from), this place had great stock and decent prices, but in 2011, the stuck had been cut back to about 1/3 of the floor, along with a small section of music CDs. The rest was all anime and idol garbage. Assuming they don't get rid of it totally, though, it's still got some decent stuff.<br /> <br /> <b>Softmap</b><br /> <br /> This computer store chain has more than a few stores in Akihabara, and I can never keep track of which ones I've visited. I remember in 2007 I found one with a decent retro selection, but I couldn't replicate that success, finding only "junk" corners. (Which at least served me with a 100 yen copy of Night Trap for the Mega CD and a 30 yen copy of D's Diner for the 3DO.) However, for current-gen games, they seem to offer some of the better prices. I managed to snag the Metal Gear 20th anniversary collection (which includes every canon game up to and including Portable Ops) for 4800 yen or so, so that's pretty awesome.<br /> <br /> <b><a href="http://www.e-trader.jp/trader/contents/sub/guide_store_map_akiba.html">Trader</a></b><br /> <br /> Another prolific store, also good for current gen games. One of them along Chuo-dori has a decent retro selection too, and probably the best "junk" corner of any of them. I only stumbled on it as I was leaving so I didn't get a full chance to look around much, but they also had a lot of systems, and any place that can offer me a 50 yen copy of Square's Tom Sawyer is OK by me. Alas all of their games are keepered, which, while understandable given theft, sort of hinders the shopping experience.<br /> <br /> <b>Friends</b><br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/japanretro2011/friends1.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> This store is slightly off the beaten path, relegated to one of the larger side streets on the north side of Akihabara along Chuo-dori. It's next door to G-Front, a spot for buying arcade boards. (You can't really browse around that store though - there's only a small walking area with some display stuff and a bins of Neo Geo MVS carts - otherwise you need to know what you want beforehand to get the clerk to get it for you.) Anyway, Friends is totally devoted to retro games, unlike Trader, Liberty or Book Off. It doesn't quite have the personality of Super Potato either - the second floor was staffed with a somewhat out of place older woman, while the third floor had two guys who were caught in the Sisyphean task of testing their huge stock of games. (One of them was wearing a Pink Godzilla shirt, making me think they're associated with the Seatlle-based retro game chain which recently had to change its name to <a href="http://www.pinkgorillagames.com/">Pink Gorilla</a> due to copyright concerns.)<br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/japanretro2011/friends2.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> ANYWAY. This place is quiet and rarely trafficked, but is generally pretty great. Prices are cheaper than Super Potato and the stock, while not quite as large, is comparable. I think it had the best stock of loose FDS titles too. The second floor has 8 and 16-bit titles, while the third floor has Saturn, Dreamcast, PS2, strategy guides, and soundtrack CDs. The above picture is part of the Mega Drive/MSX selection, one of the only areas I could snag a picture of without getting yelled at.<br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/japanretro2011/neko.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> As a side note, around the corner is the cat cafe <a href="http://www.nekojalala.com/">Neko Jalala</a>. Cats are adorable (I have four of them) and the idea seems enticing, but people tend to forget that most cats are actually anti-social jerks who'd rather sleep than play, and indeed, around 4 PM practically all of its denizens were napping, except for the one who desperately wanted to break into the kitchen. Still, I'll take their authentic indifference over the insincere pandering of the maid cafes a few blocks down. (Also, the way some of the advertisements for those things look, and how pushy those maids on the street can get, I'm always afraid of getting roped into a brothel.)<br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.bookoff.co.jp/"><b>Book Off</b></a><br /> <br /> I'm sticking this in the Akihabara section, but really, you can find Book Offs practically anywhere (as well as its off-shoots: Hard Off, Mode Off, etc.) The Akiba one is located in an out of the way section by the train station, almost beneath the train tracks. (There should be signs in the station that vaguely point to where it is.) Book Off stocks pretty much anything used, including books, manga, DVDs and so forth, which also includes video games. Also worth checking out is the one in Shibuya, which is quite large - it's not directly by Scramble Crossing but if you walk down some of the streets you'll stumble on it eventually. <br /> <br /> Their retro selection varies from store to store - it's a bit larger in Akiba - and while you might find something decent (like a complete copy of Ladystalker for the SFC for 105 yen), and the current gen stock isn't too bad, the real reason to go here are the PSOne and PS2 games. Many random PSOne titles are only 105 yen - most of the more popular ones are 500 yen. Rarer ones demand more, although they are not exorbitant - Dracula X: Gekka no Yasokyoku was about 1500, Sexy Parodius was around 2500, and Moon: Remix Adventure was about 4500. Same goes with the PS2 stock - there's a lot of cool, interesting stuff to be had for 500 yen, making it easy to take a chance on any random game that might catch your eye.<br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.toranoana.jp/"><b>Toranoana</b></a><br /> <br /> This is technically a manga/anime goods store. It doesn't stock regular games or CDs, but it does have lots of doujin games and stuff. However, the scene has largely been taken over by Touhou and Touhou spinoffs, so don't expect to find much here anymore, unfortunately. In 2007 I found a bunch of EasyGameStation stuff (including Gunners Heart, Chantelise, and Duo Princess), along with some doujin CDs for Final Fantasy XII and Cave. This time I just got those two Touhouvania games because there wasn't much else. The store in Ikebukuro was better for this kind of stuff, because they still had copies of the excellent shooter Crimson Clover, although it's still mostly all Touhou all the time.<br /> <br /> <b>Messe Sanoh</b><br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/japanretro2011/messesanoh.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> Not really a lot of retro stuff here, but it's worth mentioning regardless. The first floor is small, stocking more recent titles, along with areas devoted to various goods (artbooks, soundtracks) to Nippon Ichi and Cave. These guys also ran a store devoted to doujin goods, but it was shuttered up when I was there - I don't know if it was temporary or permanent, but there's also a small selection of doujin stuff in the main store, more palatable than Toranoana.<br /> <br /> Most interesting in the second floor, which is focused on Western stuff. Strangely this place was better stocked with PC software than any store currently in the US (though not Europe). I saw a copy of Deus Ex with a little tag on it proclaiming how awesome it was, and it warmed my heart. My favorite thing I found here was a series of books focusing on Japanese adventure games and RPGs from the 80s. They were brand new, even though the books themselves must've been published over twenty years ago - maybe they were reprints? Who knows, but they were less than 1000 yen apiece, so despite the weight they added to my luggage, I bought all five. I look the visuals of adventure games from this era - Japanese or otherwise - and provided a good start for future HG101 articles. Most of them were walkthrough-style guidebooks, but there are tons of pictures, and even some sheet music for a few songs.<br /> <br /> Keep in mind that there is way more in Akihabara to see than just this - these are only the places that stood out the most. I remember a place called Media Land, closer to the train station on Chuo-dori, with a small retro selection on the second floor, although nothing much. There was also a street level store with a long hallway filled with retro stuff, and a Famicom out front, with lots of common, junk titles bundled together for about 500 yen. However, outside of that, most of the games inside were on the pricey side. At any rate, just keep an eye out for the words "retro" (レトロ) and "used" (中古), and adventure around a little bit, and you're likely to find something interesting.<br /> <br /> Now we will leave Akihabara for...<br /> <br /> <b><i>Nakano</i></b><br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/japanretro2011/nakano.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> A bit off the Yamanote Line, you can easily reach this place from either Shinjuku or Akihabara via the Chuo-Sobu line. (You can take the Rapid service from Shinjuku too, since it stops there.) You can follow Chris Kohler's guide over at <a href="http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2006/06/getting_to_the_/">Wired</a> (though it's so old that the pictures are broken), but this is very easy to get to - when you exit the train station you'll see the Nakano Sun Arcade right in front of you (pictured). Follow this all of the way through and you'll reach tbe Nakano Broadway Mall. There are a few floors, and many of them have stores overrun by Mandarake. <br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.mandarake.co.jp/en/shop/"><b>Mandarake</b></a><br /> <br /> Mandarake is a chain that deals in used goods generally aimed at the otaku audiences. This includes manga, doujinshi, figures, toys, CDs, and pretty much anything aimed at a collector, niche audience, thereby seperating it from the broader reaches of Trader, Liberty or Book Off. They have an online store and do ship overseas, although the selection pales (PALES) in comparison to what they have in their stores.<br /> <br /> The video game store here is Mandarake Galaxy. It's smaller than the places in Akihabara, but they still manage to have a great stock, and the prices are decent too. A boxed copy of Gradius 2 for the MSX? Less than 3000 yen (though the box wasn't in the best condition.) I think the most amount of money I spent at a single store, I spent here. Their selection of rare and pricey games is also comparable to Super Potato, if you feel like dropping lots of cash on something particularly noteworthy. All of their stuff keepered, though.<br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/japanretro2011/mandarake-shibuya.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> There are a couple of other Mandarake stores in Tokyo, although the game selection varies greatly. There is one in Akiba, though I didn't visit it because back in 2007 it only sold doujinshi. However, in 2008 they opened a much larger complex, though any posts I've read about it talk mostly about the anime and manga content, rather than the games. The one in Shibuya (pictured above) is definitely worth visiting, since it's something like two stories underground and feels like a massive basement worth of awesome goodies. (The walk down the steps is interesting - it has strobe lights, thumping music, and disembodied mannuiquin torsos...it's more like entering a club.) However, the game selection is slim pickings. I did stumble upon a Famicom 3D system for about 800 yen, though, and the music CD selection, providing you can find them, is pretty alright. <br /> <br /> <a href="http://recomints.com/"><b>Recomints</b></a><br /> <br /> Mandarake also has a used CD shop in the Broadway Mall, which is worth visiting, but my favorite store here is Recomints. It's smaller, but the prices are cheaper. I found a copy of the Suikoden OST for about 1100 yen, Mario and Zelda Big Band for 1600 yen, the Thunder Cross OST for like 800 yen, and random other stuff for decent prices too.<br /> <br /> <b><i>Chiba</i></b><br /> <br /> <b>Chiba Kanteidan</b><br /> <br /> Okay, I actually didn't visit this place. I found out above it from this <a href="http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=9004627">Retronauts video</a>, who found out about it from an episode of Game Center CX. Further googling also found a <a href="http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123571">post on the Digital Press forums</a> with tons of pictures. I didn't visit it because it's sort of out of the way - something like an hour and a train few stops away from the closest store to the Yamanote Loop (there are something like six stores or so), and the general impression I got from both those Digital Press posts and Retronauts is that it's very big, but disorganized, overpriced, and generally not worth visiting unless you really have lots of time to sort through stuff. It's the sort of place I'd probably love to live by and visit on a weekly basis to go treasure hunting, but when there's a bazillion other things to do in Tokyo (beyond all of the other game shopping you'll probably be doing), and both Akihabara and Nakano are already extremely well stocked, there didn't seem to be a reason to venture out there. At any rate, since I didn't go there I don't actually know how to get to any of them, although it appears that the Urayasu location is one of the closest to get to.<br /> <br /> These are the places I know of in the Tokyo area, so now for Kansai. Also check out this video from <a href="http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2009/09/retronauts-video/">Retronauts</a> for a video tour of Super Potato and Mandarake Galaxy.<br /> <br /> <b><i>Kyoto</i></b><br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/japanretro2011/kyoto.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> You go to Kyoto for the Japanese culture, and not really for the game shopping. The downtown area is nice, though it pales in comparison to Osaka or anywhere in Tokyo. You should be visiting the shrines here instead, but if you're in the mood for shopping, most of the shops seem to be concentrated on a section of Teramachi Street, which runs off the downtown area, and isn't far from the Kawaramachi train station. There's a Toranoana here, along with another huge bookstore stock with enormous amounts of porn. (This will be a recurring theme in your quest for video game hunting.) A bit further down there are some computer shops, and a place called A-Too, which sticks the "Famicom" in its name.<br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.a-too.co.jp/shop/fc/teramachi/teramachi.html"><b>A-Too</b></a><br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/japanretro2011/atoo.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> The first floor is current gen stuff and seems to be a bit on the pricier side. The second store is retro stuff, though not a whole lot of it, along with music CDs and, like many of these stores, lots of doujinshi. I would largely say this place is relatively unremarkable, but they did have a whole chunk of cheap FDS games in the junk bin, so I can't begrudge them much. (I bought all of the noteworthy ones though, so don't expect a repeat.) There is a Book Off in town too, which is right outside the Sanjo station.<br /> <br /> <b><i>Osaka</i></b><br /> <br /> I was sort of disappointed with the game shopping in Osaka, although that was mostly because I was lead to believe that things here were cheaper than Tokyo. They aren't. Still, the whole area by Dotomburi River is incredible, and the city is still definitely worth visiting, so if you're in the area it's worth checking out. The Osaka station is about a 30 minute train ride from Kyoto, although it'll take a bit longer to get anywhere interesting.<br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/japanretro2011/osaka1.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> Most of the video game stores are located in Den Den Town along Sakaisuji Street, which is part of Nipponbashi. While Akihabara is very easy to access, Den Den Town is not, and requires either a few subways changes or a lot of walking. Check out <a href="http://sebaattori.larksnest.org/?tag=den-den-town">this guide</a> for more details, but the gist is you'll need to get to Shin Osaka (where the Shinkansen stops), take the Midosuji line to Namba, take the Sennichimae Line to Nipponbashi, then take the Sakaisuji line to the Ebisucho station. Take exit 1A out and Super Potato is on the right, just outside the door.<br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/japanretro2011/dendentown.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> <b>Super Potato 7</b><br /> <br /> Smaller than the one in Tokyo, the second floor is devoted to retro stuff. This actually might be more expensive than the one in Tokyo, in fact! I found it rather disorganized, too, though overwhelming in that classy kind of way. I didn't see much in the way of game CDs and there's no arcade either. I only bought a cheap copy of the Sunsoft GB game Trip World here.<br /> <br /> <b>Game Tanteidan</b><br /> <br /> A few stores down from Super Potato is this store, which offers two floors of retro shopping. Cheaper than Super Potato, larger, and probably better overall, though still not really better than any of the places in Tokyo.<br /> <br /> There's a Softmap along this street, along with an A-Too, apparently, like in Kyoto, though I didn't visit it. <br /> <br /> <b><i>Amerikamura</i></b><br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/japanretro2011/osaka2.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> The map points to a spot called Sun Bowl, because that's the only spot I could make Google Maps find, but this is the block you want to be going to, because it's right next to...<br /> <br /> <b>Mandarake</b><br /> <br /> Closer to the more interesting parts of Osaka, in Amerika-mura, about a 5-10 minute walk from either the Namba or Shinsaibashi station, is another huge Mandarake store. Other than Galaxy in Nakano, this was the best Mandarake store I found for video games - they had tons of stuff, and this seemed cheaper too. A loose copy of Akumajou Dracula for the MSX2 for 1500 yen? Sure, why not! (I still don't own an MSX2 yet...I found a junk one at the Super Potato in Akiba for 3500 yen, but it was missing connections. The A/V cables are standard, but the AC adapter was not, and finding them separate appeared to be impossible, so I didn't bother.)<br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/japanretro2011/spacestationosaka.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> Unfortunately Mandarake tends to close early, at about 8 PM. Coincidentally, a block or two down the road is <a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/187209477967297/">Space Station Osaka</a>, a cool retro video game bar, opens at 8 PM, allowing you to make a smooth transition from game buying to game playing/booze drinking. I'll be writing more about this in a later entry.<br /> <br /> <i>Food suggestions</i><br /> <br /> If you're visiting a totally foreign place, you might as try to eat something cool rather than McDonalds or Kentucky Fried Chicken, right? Here are some good spots to check out.<br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/japanretro2011/curry.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> <b><a href="http://www.ichibanya.co.jp/english/index.html">Curry House CoCo Ichibanya</a></b><br /> <br /> A huge chain, these places are pretty much everywhere, though the best one I went to was in Shibuya. My favorite thing is the ability to set the spice level - Japanese curry by itself can be sort of bland, but kicked up a few notches, it's excellent. Also note that Japanese soy sauce (technically called "shoyu", but most places just label it "sauce") is sweeter than what we typically get in the US, making it a nice accompaniment.<br /> <br /> In New York City there's also a <a href="http://www.gogocurryusa-ny.com/">Go Go Curry</a> - probably the best place to get Japanese curry that I know of in the US. There's one of these in Akihabara, at least, but I like CoCo better - the curry is a bit thinner, and again, the spice level.<br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/japanretro2011/ramen.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> <b><a href="http://www.ichiran.co.jp/pc/hp/english/">Ichiran Ramen</a></b><br /> <br /> Filled with single stalls, the ramen in this place is excellent. After buying tickets of all of stuff you want in addition to the standard noodle set, you sit down and are given a card to fill out to determine how you want your noodles cooked, how much fat content in the broth, how much of the restaurant's patented spice you want (hint: a lot), how much garlic and green onions, and so forth. After filling this out, you get a nice steaming bowl of noodles. If you leave some broth and paid for extra noodles, you can summon one of the workers to refill your bowl. Other than the extremely flavorful broth, the best thing about these is that they don't clutter the soup with bean sprouts, which every other bowl of ramen I had in Tokyo was subjected to.<br /> <br /> There are a bunch of these around, with two that I know of - one on the outside side of the Ueno train station, just a quick walk north of the Keisei Ueno station (you could technically visit here if you walked off the plane from Narita, although it's not very large, so don't expect to find a place for your luggage) and one that's slightly harder to find in Shibuya, less than a five minute walk from the Hachiko exit. (It's in the basement of a larger building, so you'll need to recognize the logo to find it.) There is also one of these opening up in Brooklyn, NY in the near future. Hooray!<br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/japanretro2011/sutadon.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> <b><a href="http://sutadonya.com/">Densetsu no Sutadonya</b></a><br /> <br /> Its name is short for "Stamina Bowl", and I stumbled upon this randomly in Kyoto. Sort of like the gyudon (beef bowl) or butadown (pork bowl) you can get at any random Yoshinoya, Sutadon is a bowl of rice topped with slithers of pork. However, this pork is apparently the Italian pork used to make prosciutto, cooked in tremendous amounts of garlic and topped with green onions. It is DELICIOUS, though the second bowl admittedly gave me a stomach ache. There are apparently lots of locations in Tokyo, though I'm not sure where they are. You can read more about it <a href="http://dw38638.blogspot.com/2010/04/densetsu-no-sutadon-butadon.html">here</a>.<br /> <br /> Other fun things to do in Japan:<br /> <br /> -Mistakenly stumble into the girls-only area of the purikura (picture) booths in an arcade and get kicked out<br /> -Be a girl, visit Harajuku, and confound the clothing store shopkeepers with your distinctly non-Japanese dimensions.<br /> -Accidentally buy dickgirl porn<br /> -Head to Otome Road (across from one of the exits of Sunshine City) and marvel at the shoujo slash pairings for all kinds of properties. I bought one for The A-Team!<br /> -Take pictures of silly advertisements, like the Torys whiskey mascot. It's nice that he's found a girlfriend and appears to be happy, in spite of his obvious physical deformities.<br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/japanretro2011/torys.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> -Be baffled at how the Japan classify and organize their games. They tend to stick them in genres, then by Japanese alphabetical order...but only sometimes, because they also organize by publisher (or vague publisher affiliation) and they tend to be weird. Like, most people would assume you'd stick Final Fantasy Tactics under RPG, but those types of games are actually Simulations...and they may just stuck in the Square-Enix section anyway. Answering the long standing internet debate of whether Mass Effect 2 is still an RPG, Yobodashi Camera sticks the game under the "action" category. Japan has spoken!<br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/japanretro2011/masseffect.jpg"></center><br /> </span>

Xenosaga III Seems to Have Been Reprinted

Check out Gamestop's page on Xenosaga III and use the store locator. You may notice an abundance of copies in your areas where there haven't been before, which were apparently just shipped there. According to posts on Cheapassgamer, they seem to use the newer PS2 cases that are missing the memory card holder, while the original print used the older one, indicating that it has been reprinted. This has happened before, usually without any press release, and many seem to be courtesy of GameQuestDirect. In the past they reissued some rarer PSOne titles, like Persona 2 Eternal Punishment (which is still pretty expensive nowadays) and Rhapsody (which isn't.) Between them and (maybe?) Atlus, we've seen reprints of some scattered PS2 titles, including all three Fatal Frames, Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne, both Digital Devil Sagas, and the Atelier Iris trilogy. Someone may also have reprinted Tales of Vesperia, which is listed for $20 on Gamestop Canada's site, although, strangely enough, not the US site, where the price still sits at $45 for a used copy. They are both Bandai Namco titles so it's definitely possible they may have had a hand in it.

These titles have both been pretty pricey for awhile now, usually fetching between $40-$50 in the used marketplace, even though Tales of Vesperia is only two years old. (Don't even ask about the LE for Vesperia.) Like many RPGs that aren't Final Fantasy, sales for these titles aren't exactly front-loaded, and by the time word of mouth gets around, it's often difficult to find them new on store shelves. Very few titles actually go above their retail price, and even the ones that do are often reprinted (like SMT Nocturne) but it's an interesting trend in sales and one that publishers should pay more attention to. The first Xenosaga in particular sold extremely well, enough to earn a Greatest Hits title. I'm not sure about the second one, but both can be picked up pretty much anywhere for less than $10. Meanwhile, Xenosaga III went mostly ignored, perhaps because many were disappointed in the first two. It's tragic, because the third is by far the best in the series and one of the PS2's better RPGs, but so much the plot is muddled without playing the first two (and is still a bit wonky even if you have) that it's easy to see why no one bought it, at least at first. With the drought of decent console JRPGs lately, it makes sense to revisit some of the PS2's unheralded gems.

Many Nintendo produced titles on the Wii and DS also keep their price and don't really go down in value - at least, other than the ones that don't meet expectations like Battalion Wars or Elite Beat Agents. Games like Super Princess Peach and Yoshi's Island DS haven't dropped at all, and Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time actually goes for more than retail. (The online price is $35 - the B&M price is $40.) But they also refuse to reprint titles or keep new ones in circulation, perhaps due to their conservative nature. (And, apparently, in the case of Tetris DS, which goes for $45 at Gamestop, a licensing issue.) In a roundabout way, it also kinda promotes piracy, but I'm sure they don't see it like that. A majority of DS games sold on eBay are also fakes, so the bootleggers are strangely meeting the demand that Nintendo does not acknowledge.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.gamestop.com/common/images/lbox/281602b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.gamestop.com/common/images/lbox/281602b.jpg" /></a></div><br /> Check out <a href="http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=61101">Gamestop's page on Xenosaga III</a> and use the store locator. You may notice an abundance of copies in your areas where there haven't been before, which were apparently just shipped there. According to posts on <a href="http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=267611">Cheapassgamer</a>, they seem to use the newer PS2 cases that are missing the memory card holder, while the original print used the older one, indicating that it has been reprinted. This has happened before, usually without any press release, and many seem to be courtesy of <a href="http://www.gamequestdirect.com/">GameQuestDirect</a>. In the past they reissued some rarer PSOne titles, like Persona 2 Eternal Punishment (which is still pretty expensive nowadays) and Rhapsody (which isn't.) Between them and (maybe?) Atlus, we've seen reprints of some scattered PS2 titles, including all three Fatal Frames, Shin Megami Tensei Nocturne, both Digital Devil Sagas, and the Atelier Iris trilogy. Someone may also have reprinted <a href="http://www.gamestop.ca/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=203394">Tales of Vesperia</a>, which is listed for $20 on Gamestop Canada's site, although, strangely enough, not the US site, where the price still sits at $45 for a used copy. They are both Bandai Namco titles so it's definitely possible they may have had a hand in it.<br /> <br /> These titles have both been pretty pricey for awhile now, usually fetching between $40-$50 in the used marketplace, even though Tales of Vesperia is only two years old. (Don't even ask about the LE for Vesperia.) Like many RPGs that aren't Final Fantasy, sales for these titles aren't exactly front-loaded, and by the time word of mouth gets around, it's often difficult to find them new on store shelves. Very few titles actually go above their retail price, and even the ones that do are often reprinted (like SMT Nocturne) but it's an interesting trend in sales and one that publishers should pay more attention to. The first Xenosaga in particular sold extremely well, enough to earn a Greatest Hits title. I'm not sure about the second one, but both can be picked up pretty much anywhere for less than $10. Meanwhile, Xenosaga III went mostly ignored, perhaps because many were disappointed in the first two. It's tragic, because the third is by far the best in the series and one of the PS2's better RPGs, but so much the plot is muddled without playing the first two (and is still a bit wonky even if you have) that it's easy to see why no one bought it, at least at first. With the drought of decent console JRPGs lately, it makes sense to revisit some of the PS2's unheralded gems.<br /> <br /> Many Nintendo produced titles on the Wii and DS also keep their price and don't really go down in value - at least, other than the ones that don't meet expectations like Battalion Wars or Elite Beat Agents. Games like Super Princess Peach and Yoshi's Island DS haven't dropped at all, and <a href="http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=39693">Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time</a> actually goes for more than retail. (The online price is $35 - the B&M price is $40.) But they also refuse to reprint titles or keep new ones in circulation, perhaps due to their conservative nature. (And, apparently, in the case of <a href="http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=42779">Tetris DS</a>, which goes for $45 at Gamestop, a licensing issue.) In a roundabout way, it also kinda promotes piracy, but I'm sure they don't see it like that. A majority of DS games sold on eBay are also fakes, so the bootleggers are strangely meeting the demand that Nintendo does not acknowledge.

Comics n Toys in River Edge, NJ

I thought I had hit most of the major retro game stores in the NJ/NYC area in a previous post, but my old roommate pointed me to Comics n Toys, located at 26 River Edge Road in River Edge NJ, about 10 minutes off the God-forsaken stretch of highway known as Route 4, which is in turn located another 10-15 minutes from the George Washington Bridge. It's off the beaten trail, located in what's practically a residential neighborhood, making it easy to drive past.


As the name suggests, it's not a dedicated video game shop, but rather stocks a general assortment of comics, old toys and board games, music CDs and DVDs, as well as an eclectic mix of games for every system up until present. Their game selection encompasses two whole long shelves, and while not extraordinarily expansive, there's a nice selection of stuff, and the prices are mostly in line with what you'd pay on eBay. I find myself wanting to pick up an Atari 5200, and they had a bunch of carts for a couple bucks each. They also had a few Super Famicom carts, including Hanjuku Hero, which I forgot to grab.


The rarer stuff is kept beyond the counter, which includes most of the really good Playstation RPGs, a bunch of Saturn and Sega CD stuff, and other more notable bits. Under the display counter is the even more collectible stuff, including a boxed copy of Bubble Bath Babes, which was on sale for approximately $1,750. There was also a boxed PAL Terranigma, although I forget how much that was going for.

As for my purchases - I randomly found a copy of the SaGa Frontier soundtrack (yay Kenji Ito) for $10, which I had previously owned but sold during my game music CD trading days in college, as well as a complete copy of the Saturn game Dark Savior for $16, about eBay price, which I've been wanting in order to do a "Proper Successor to Landstalker" article (Lady Stalker, Dark Savior, Alundra, Timestalkers, Steal Princess) which can only truly end in disappointment. (Well, the first Alundra is pretty alright.)


I love stores like these! Heck, there was even a handwritten sign for a "Record Room", which, sure enough, led through a hallway to a small room filled with records and record players. I don't even really like old comic books nor do I care about collecting retro toys, but these are the sort of stores that are fantastic to explore and pick though, and just muse at. Places like these are exceedingly rare in suburban New Jersey, having mostly been overtaken by boring, homogeneous chain stores, which is why this place is a must visit if you're in the area.

My absolute favorite bit:


Why yes, that IS a copy of Spice World for the Playstation priced at $137! How awesome.

<center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/comicsntoys-2.jpg"></center><br /> I thought I had hit most of the major retro game stores in the NJ/NYC area in a <a href="http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2010/01/retro-game-stores-in-nynj-area.html">previous post</a>, but my old roommate pointed me to <a href="http://www.comicsntoys.com/ComicsNToys/Welcome.html">Comics n Toys</a>, located at <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=26+river+edge+road,+river+edge,+nj&sll=40.7173,-74.3399&sspn=0.007384,0.013797&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=26+River+Edge+Rd,+River+Edge,+Bergen,+New+Jersey+07661&ll=40.936324,-74.029977&spn=0.007359,0.013797&z=16&iwloc=A">26 River Edge Road in River Edge NJ</a>, about 10 minutes off the God-forsaken stretch of highway known as Route 4, which is in turn located another 10-15 minutes from the George Washington Bridge. It's off the beaten trail, located in what's practically a residential neighborhood, making it easy to drive past.<br /> <br /> <span class="fullpost"><center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/comicsntoys-3.jpg"></center><br /> As the name suggests, it's not a dedicated video game shop, but rather stocks a general assortment of comics, old toys and board games, music CDs and DVDs, as well as an eclectic mix of games for every system up until present. Their game selection encompasses two whole long shelves, and while not extraordinarily expansive, there's a nice selection of stuff, and the prices are mostly in line with what you'd pay on eBay. I find myself wanting to pick up an Atari 5200, and they had a bunch of carts for a couple bucks each. They also had a few Super Famicom carts, including Hanjuku Hero, which I forgot to grab.<br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/comicsntoys-1.jpg"></center><br /> The rarer stuff is kept beyond the counter, which includes most of the really good Playstation RPGs, a bunch of Saturn and Sega CD stuff, and other more notable bits. Under the display counter is the even more collectible stuff, including a boxed copy of Bubble Bath Babes, which was on sale for approximately $1,750. There was also a boxed PAL Terranigma, although I forget how much that was going for.<br /> <br /> As for my purchases - I randomly found a copy of the SaGa Frontier soundtrack (yay Kenji Ito) for $10, which I had previously owned but sold during my game music CD trading days in college, as well as a complete copy of the Saturn game Dark Savior for $16, about eBay price, which I've been wanting in order to do a "Proper Successor to Landstalker" article (Lady Stalker, Dark Savior, Alundra, Timestalkers, Steal Princess) which can only truly end in disappointment. (Well, the first Alundra is pretty alright.)<br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/comicsntoys-4.jpg"></center><br /> I love stores like these! Heck, there was even a handwritten sign for a "Record Room", which, sure enough, led through a hallway to a small room filled with records and record players. I don't even really like old comic books nor do I care about collecting retro toys, but these are the sort of stores that are fantastic to explore and pick though, and just muse at. Places like these are exceedingly rare in suburban New Jersey, having mostly been overtaken by boring, homogeneous chain stores, which is why this place is a must visit if you're in the area.<br /> <br /> My absolute favorite bit:<br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/comicsntoys-5.jpg"></center><br /> <br /> Why yes, that IS a copy of Spice World for the Playstation priced at $137! How awesome. <br /> </span>

French retro stores

Following on from the entry on retro stores in New York, I take a look at a selection of stores in France.
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DESTOCK GAMES

Situated in Fontenay le Comt, France, is an interesting videogame store with an excellent collection of retro games. Although Fontenay is about an hour’s drive from where I live, it’s always worth the trip just to browse. Although the storefront says Dynamite Games, which appears to be an independent chain in the area, the owner’s business card says Destock Games (though he was keen to point out the website is still under construction and nowhere near complete). Whatever the name, you don’t find stores like this very often.

Though a little cramped, there is a tremendous amount of stock on display, both old and new. They also stock an inordinate amount of anime DVDs and VHS videos, figurines, T-shirts, plus videogame and anime Original Soundtracks at excellent prices (I previously picked up the Dracula X soundtrack for €10, though annoyingly passed up the Panzer Dragoon Saga soundtrack and found it was sold when I next visited).
As for games, he’s got pretty much everything covered. Japanese PS2 rarities, PS1 imports from the US and Japan, the same with the Saturn, plus Dreamcast, Sega 32X, Sega CD, Master System, N64, SNES, NES, the whole Game Boy range, and even really obscure stuff like the Amstrad GX4000. Most of it, especially the rare stuff, is in very good to mint condition, though there’s the customary collection of unboxed cartridges at lower prices. Plus of course accessories and other miscellanea. He also has an excellent range of obscurities, from mint condition RPGs and a healthy range of Saturn titles, to import shooters and games you won’t see stocked elsewhere.
There was far too much to photograph all of it, and looking back over these photos I don’t think it’s conveying what was available. I mean, he had Probotector (Contra Hard Corps) in mint condition for only €30 (eBay has mint boxed copies starting at £60 BiN), a dizzying array of Japanese PS1 titles which I didn’t even recognise, plus PC-Engine games and other early 1980s stuff. For a European such as myself, it’s also worth pointing out that he had a good mixture between PAL and NTSC stuff for the 16-bit games (one of the small plastic shelves at the front only had American SNES in it for example).
You don’t see this range of diversity very often these days, and even less so outside of big cities like Paris – Fontenay is a comparatively small town.
The owner is also really cool and speaks good English, so is happy to chat. I asked about import games for the current big three systems, and he said that while he does try to stock it, there isn’t a wide enough range of regionally exclusive titles, outside of Japan’s RPGs, to make it worthwhile these days. Most titles are soon localised and released. And of course RPGs aren’t the most import friendly – though he does stock a few English-only RPGs, which is nice.

I’m pleased that most of his PS2 titles are stocked spine-outwards. In UK stores like Gamestation they tend to be stacked forcing forwards, forcing you to go flick through each one individually (though technically they no longer stock PS2 titles). If I had to raise a criticism it’s that this store isn’t physically big enough for all the stock, and older titles are stacked back to front to conserve space. I always feel a little conspicuous standing and flicking through a shelf of games. Business must be doing well though since he has staff on hand, eager to unlock glass cabinets and answer any questions.
Pricing was also a pleasant surprise. These guys clearly know their games, so rare items are priced accordingly, but nothing is priced prohibitively or to a silly degree. Aimed at collectors, this stuff is on display with the obvious intention of selling it on. Whereas other stores will sell boxed 16-bit titles at triple figures, the collections here were priced close to the figures you’d find on Euro eBay – sometimes a bit a less. Which, considering the need to cover store overheads, and the fact that you can inspect the condition for yourself and then own it right away, is a really pleasant change to what you’d find in a lot of other stores. I certainly wouldn’t mind paying €30 for a mint condition, rare Mega Drive title which I really wanted. This is an important point to mention, since it makes the store a genuinely viable place to pick up specific rare titles you’re after, without having to blindly trawl garage sales, or resort to eBay which forces you to use PayPal and place trust in someone sometimes the other side of the world.
Unboxed older titles meanwhile are also very reasonable, especially if you’re trading stuff in. Stock changes quickly and is dependant on trade-ins. While he’ll take in most items, it’s only for store credit not cash. But if you’re keen to maintain your playing collection this is a cool way to cycle through titles, and you’ll get more than if you traded it in for cash at a place like EasyCash or Cash Express. Other stores have also started cutting back on their retro titles, leaving him as the only dedicated store I can think of.
New games for current systems are priced at €50, which is in stark contrast to nearby supermarkets such as CarreFour, which stock PS3 and 360 games at €70 a piece (I saw Cross Edge and other recent-ish PS3 titles for €50, and I’m fairly sure they weren’t second-hand).

Overall a really cool place to visit, though as luck would have it I often pass up something I want, only to return a week later and find it sold. If you’re in the region it’s worth taking a look.



EASY CASH and CASH EXPRESS

These are a couple of cash converter style junk stores near me, and while I’ve bought a lot from them, they’re far too random to be relied on. They’re also dirty, poorly staffed, with terrible condition stock (most PS1 cases are broken) which are adorned with massive price stickers that never come off. I also wouldn’t dare step foot in them with a camera to take photos. They’ll buy unboxed games off you for about €2, and then sell them on for anything from €4 up to €40 for some things – and the prices seem to be randomly applied. Items which go for three times as much you’ll find for only €5 (I made a killing by buying up their entire stock of Goemon 2 cartridges), but some games, like Metal Gear on the NES, are priced at €40 unboxed.

Most of this happened when they changed management. At one point I bought a Game & Watch for only a couple of Euro, but now they’ve got a glass cabinet with Game & Watches in it and most are close to the triple figure mark.

Cash Express is also on my bad books, because I went in to get prices for things, including a Saturn peripheral which they said they’d buy for €12, so I went to the car, collected my box of stuff and went to trade it in. So the guy rings everything up, takes my address and photocopies my driver’s licence, then hands me a receipt stating how much I’ll be paid and asks me to sign it. Suddenly the peripheral is only worth €3. I point this out to the guy and he looks dumbfounded, before trying to talk his way out of it in French. He claims the total value for everything he gave me was €12, and that I somehow got confused and thought it was just for the peripheral. I point out that the receipt he gave me values the total for all my items at only €10, so if what he says is the case, then he still screwed up. He pauses and then starts rapidly talking in French and I decide to call the whole thing off, at which point he flies into a rage because he has to cancel the transaction on his system which, apparently, is a huge pain the ass. Well, not as inconvenient as being screwed around is. So I don’t shop there anymore – though I did see Sword of Etheria on PS2 for only €9, which seemed like a good deal.

I’ll concede that these places are a necessary evil, and you will, on rare occasions, find a really good bargain as a result of incorrect labelling, but I always feel kind of unclean after walking out the door.



DOCK GAMES and UK’s GAME

This a weird one, and kind of shows the audacity of the UK’s chain of Game stores (which also owns Gamestation, it’s worth pointing out, which gives them a monopoly on UK videogame chain stores). France has its own chain called Dock Games, though I’ve only recently noticed that the UK’s Game has started to muscle in on the scene. Amazingly, in one town near me, both Dock Games and Game are sitting side-by-side each other (no photo sadly, since I forgot my camera last I trekked out there). Presumably Game is staffed by French-speaking locals.

Dock Games used to stock retro stuff, though the last time I went in all of it had been relegated to a single bookshelf around the back corner to make room for current generation stuff. Which is fine, I guess, if you’re really into your current gen games, but the majority of it ends up being old copies of FIFA traded in, and whatever else is mainstream and temporarily popular. You know, the kind of crap which sells for about a tenner on eBay six months after release, but is still listed at half its RRP second-hand in-store. Anything of obscure merit, such as Senko no Ronde or Cross Edge, is nowhere to be found.



And that about covers what I’ve seen locally to me – though it’s worth saying that I don’t make much effort to visit to research all the local stores.


<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKjbV2DWdN5aM-NBCT3sWYJJP8-SqApC6EBpPGI7HuIwrFtOZ7VG1Of6hjOyokQIGBC3_rmrptUNc1e5cL_RGX1atE5T166bx8rfPxVnkBxgCxFx0wKoijoTDL0_YXpHG8g3SO3SVNwjg/s1600-h/FRONT.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431389803315635474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKjbV2DWdN5aM-NBCT3sWYJJP8-SqApC6EBpPGI7HuIwrFtOZ7VG1Of6hjOyokQIGBC3_rmrptUNc1e5cL_RGX1atE5T166bx8rfPxVnkBxgCxFx0wKoijoTDL0_YXpHG8g3SO3SVNwjg/s400/FRONT.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a>Following on from the entry on <a href="http://blog.hardcoregaming101.net/2010/01/retro-game-stores-in-nynj-area.html">retro stores in New York</a>, I take a look at a selection of stores in France.<br />.<br />.<br />.<br /><br /><br /><span class="fullpost"><a href="http://www.destock-games.com/" style="font-weight: bold;">DESTOCK GAMES</a><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfojF5GDl_yg9dd2jwxsO0a4VKrXfb3Kt2ZuFnMMZOa5gTVkUTN5XMTSPwsnWzAm5JD2nu0LqdEZuAq1Pqv0zbQCAFp8lSjc3GMehJAiA1fMgV9pMSV9KIifu5f4RjmcAeNJmoza9LwV4/s1600-h/DSC00410.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431389400927550594" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfojF5GDl_yg9dd2jwxsO0a4VKrXfb3Kt2ZuFnMMZOa5gTVkUTN5XMTSPwsnWzAm5JD2nu0LqdEZuAq1Pqv0zbQCAFp8lSjc3GMehJAiA1fMgV9pMSV9KIifu5f4RjmcAeNJmoza9LwV4/s400/DSC00410.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" /></a><span class="fullpost">Situated in <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&q=Fontenay-le-Comte,+Vend%C3%A9e,+Pays+de+la+Loire,+France&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=10.520734,19.248047&ie=UTF8&cd=1&geocode=FaADxQIdT7Pz_w&split=0&hq=&hnear=Fontenay-le-Comte,+Vend%C3%A9e,+Pays+de+la+Loire,+France&ll=46.465952,-0.806065&spn=0.191545,0.300751&z=11">Fontenay le Comt</a>, France, is an interesting videogame store with an excellent collection of retro games. Although Fontenay is about an hour’s drive from where I live, it’s always worth the trip just to browse. Although the storefront says Dynamite Games, which appears to be an independent chain in the area, the owner’s business card says <a href="http://www.destock-games.com/">Destock Games </a>(though he was keen to point out the website is still under construction and nowhere near complete). Whatever the name, you don’t find stores like this very often.<br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhabDCslDY8bRe-yvk5wk2Nm8Z41-6YklGrcuGsf0HQt-Mu8JDupLFcFpcIcc_Bf3xw5du5g-BE5zH9BqIrncv7L5TfM5yI-CYKIdHj6yRG5WriORiwx_RG6k7B0s42Kbk1Z8aYVA8KOlU/s1600-h/DSC00415.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431389694747912322" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhabDCslDY8bRe-yvk5wk2Nm8Z41-6YklGrcuGsf0HQt-Mu8JDupLFcFpcIcc_Bf3xw5du5g-BE5zH9BqIrncv7L5TfM5yI-CYKIdHj6yRG5WriORiwx_RG6k7B0s42Kbk1Z8aYVA8KOlU/s400/DSC00415.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCvYBTFqXNVYNJDDi_Re7wqj1CE_LNFKYIFLTRcZw3t1DKpP_575JsdrI9UZCWbj2dqlhyP8czMeDBkLwFUyBCA6jx40Qv9R60n8J1OKqFl9QvwaIb1jZRfXfmn-0ioZcsjyhRT7PgFXY/s1600-h/DSC00412.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431389678746611042" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCvYBTFqXNVYNJDDi_Re7wqj1CE_LNFKYIFLTRcZw3t1DKpP_575JsdrI9UZCWbj2dqlhyP8czMeDBkLwFUyBCA6jx40Qv9R60n8J1OKqFl9QvwaIb1jZRfXfmn-0ioZcsjyhRT7PgFXY/s400/DSC00412.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a><span class="fullpost">Though a little cramped, there is a tremendous amount of stock on display, both old and new. They also stock an inordinate amount of anime DVDs and VHS videos, figurines, T-shirts, plus videogame and anime Original Soundtracks at excellent prices (I previously picked up the Dracula X soundtrack for €10, though annoyingly passed up the Panzer Dragoon Saga soundtrack and found it was sold when I next visited).<br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiPD36YXFcfWVz_dvW82HqptQzWmFs5SdZYCoTI18lfJMFBwRYAhIddja9KUDy1ZIrFEmiJtArH48FkpfzjJq1_aWsyv14lK1gmOFe1t8b4OwQInrHa_HWy6xtHXA5D9bJr77aQ6ZAy2Q/s1600-h/DSC00413.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431389684346105666" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiPD36YXFcfWVz_dvW82HqptQzWmFs5SdZYCoTI18lfJMFBwRYAhIddja9KUDy1ZIrFEmiJtArH48FkpfzjJq1_aWsyv14lK1gmOFe1t8b4OwQInrHa_HWy6xtHXA5D9bJr77aQ6ZAy2Q/s400/DSC00413.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 251px;" /></a><span class="fullpost">As for games, he’s got pretty much everything covered. Japanese PS2 rarities, PS1 imports from the US and Japan, the same with the Saturn, plus Dreamcast, Sega 32X, Sega CD, Master System, N64, SNES, NES, the whole Game Boy range, and even really obscure stuff like the Amstrad GX4000. Most of it, especially the rare stuff, is in very good to mint condition, though there’s the customary collection of unboxed cartridges at lower prices. Plus of course accessories and other miscellanea. He also has an excellent range of obscurities, from mint condition RPGs and a healthy range of Saturn titles, to import shooters and games you won’t see stocked elsewhere.<br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaEBZaBT8kpTmjnlVOLX2amiGH_9LaiRi3llZ-UWUXzO_j8UqcHsQ4pa3ChlHeHuWNR7NPfLA1qXDlfkOcaIsccCSeD0rz4ai7lh2oOfgw6BdBi79dhmSWJI4_6XI2hwYll5pDyEcFWwg/s1600-h/DSC00411.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431389677255253554" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaEBZaBT8kpTmjnlVOLX2amiGH_9LaiRi3llZ-UWUXzO_j8UqcHsQ4pa3ChlHeHuWNR7NPfLA1qXDlfkOcaIsccCSeD0rz4ai7lh2oOfgw6BdBi79dhmSWJI4_6XI2hwYll5pDyEcFWwg/s400/DSC00411.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" /></a><span class="fullpost">There was far too much to photograph all of it, and looking back over these photos I don’t think it’s conveying what was available. I mean, he had Probotector (Contra Hard Corps) in mint condition for only €30 (eBay has mint boxed copies starting at £60 BiN), a dizzying array of Japanese PS1 titles which I didn’t even recognise, plus PC-Engine games and other early 1980s stuff. For a European such as myself, it’s also worth pointing out that he had a good mixture between PAL and NTSC stuff for the 16-bit games (one of the small plastic shelves at the front only had American SNES in it for example).<br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0jzrNxmWBWjFN26J0NbRTbvU5lkO3HDvsC904f63QGzFClWzJAiHzV1FVdbYjbz6DrPYevT9-vDijylaQZbl-z0dLkLVmqa4sAQy5i-amcR8jTmqm_w9CtVdeBIhF4MKUPwGCZ3AiBDw/s1600-h/DSC00408.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431389394558670290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0jzrNxmWBWjFN26J0NbRTbvU5lkO3HDvsC904f63QGzFClWzJAiHzV1FVdbYjbz6DrPYevT9-vDijylaQZbl-z0dLkLVmqa4sAQy5i-amcR8jTmqm_w9CtVdeBIhF4MKUPwGCZ3AiBDw/s400/DSC00408.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px;" /></a><span class="fullpost">You don’t see this range of diversity very often these days, and even less so outside of big cities like Paris – Fontenay is a comparatively small town.<br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgamhlTZ0TZ136AUnV63MiJ-Fa0yekOMs6iR2T_yqq0nUb8XHUKOthTwDycPBNzscioO6jwEx3nVXxeigPxRyfdf00zMK-LQdyfMtQzSrEFxwN_vmRCeulXrqqXbKnh-kE-kEPdZb8LlM4/s1600-h/OWNER.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431389808196364306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgamhlTZ0TZ136AUnV63MiJ-Fa0yekOMs6iR2T_yqq0nUb8XHUKOthTwDycPBNzscioO6jwEx3nVXxeigPxRyfdf00zMK-LQdyfMtQzSrEFxwN_vmRCeulXrqqXbKnh-kE-kEPdZb8LlM4/s400/OWNER.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a><span class="fullpost">The owner is also really cool and speaks good English, so is happy to chat. I asked about import games for the current big three systems, and he said that while he does try to stock it, there isn’t a wide enough range of regionally exclusive titles, outside of Japan’s RPGs, to make it worthwhile these days. Most titles are soon localised and released. And of course RPGs aren’t the most import friendly – though he does stock a few English-only RPGs, which is nice.<br /><br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7imkARKP7YW_ToTDXb1zIbDKVq31TeAmfa7vY6GbSisIzwcZSTdKXSb62D7agdERrZZ_4jid18cKjidR19zYZ6jpG-1QnbIWnA_GTY-7wCyzBqRcyqmMm-Xoo5zTG7WcueeZ66Z2maNI/s1600-h/DSC00414.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431389688380222962" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7imkARKP7YW_ToTDXb1zIbDKVq31TeAmfa7vY6GbSisIzwcZSTdKXSb62D7agdERrZZ_4jid18cKjidR19zYZ6jpG-1QnbIWnA_GTY-7wCyzBqRcyqmMm-Xoo5zTG7WcueeZ66Z2maNI/s400/DSC00414.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a><span class="fullpost">I’m pleased that most of his PS2 titles are stocked spine-outwards. In UK stores like Gamestation they tend to be stacked forcing forwards, forcing you to go flick through each one individually (though technically they no longer stock PS2 titles). If I had to raise a criticism it’s that this store isn’t physically big enough for all the stock, and older titles are stacked back to front to conserve space. I always feel a little conspicuous standing and flicking through a shelf of games. Business must be doing well though since he has staff on hand, eager to unlock glass cabinets and answer any questions.<br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCjurR-b2uZX0XU1Bbu_t2-nQd9-phlIMH52IwQkdNQY8wHnLmrlW5ol2PwqHmaMjhGXckSjkYCrRX2kjPtNfUzm-wb0W_tvvuj661n8FwOvoV7jLwHaVbt34ShyqBjNn3pmhEWCrZG-8/s1600-h/DSC00407.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431389390501212882" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCjurR-b2uZX0XU1Bbu_t2-nQd9-phlIMH52IwQkdNQY8wHnLmrlW5ol2PwqHmaMjhGXckSjkYCrRX2kjPtNfUzm-wb0W_tvvuj661n8FwOvoV7jLwHaVbt34ShyqBjNn3pmhEWCrZG-8/s400/DSC00407.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a><span class="fullpost">Pricing was also a pleasant surprise. These guys clearly know their games, so rare items are priced accordingly, but nothing is priced prohibitively or to a silly degree. Aimed at collectors, this stuff is on display with the obvious intention of selling it on. Whereas other stores will sell boxed 16-bit titles at triple figures, the collections here were priced close to the figures you’d find on Euro eBay – sometimes a bit a less. Which, considering the need to cover store overheads, and the fact that you can inspect the condition for yourself and then own it right away, is a really pleasant change to what you’d find in a lot of other stores. I certainly wouldn’t mind paying €30 for a mint condition, rare Mega Drive title which I really wanted. This is an important point to mention, since it makes the store a genuinely viable place to pick up specific rare titles you’re after, without having to blindly trawl garage sales, or resort to eBay which forces you to use PayPal and place trust in someone sometimes the other side of the world.<br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdN4sq8TT41K4bXEmUeKIaRKe3GfA0FBZX72zODh4Pj_NU3SRYXquYWPOfMv8BWqwKDDHUU5Jp7OzKHdGzEesaWyLgQobDMWqOuXFHWd_a_uoW0Ow0J_WGkJ2wiOmiJBg4wLyuPgKofQA/s1600-h/DSC00404.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431389385069483874" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdN4sq8TT41K4bXEmUeKIaRKe3GfA0FBZX72zODh4Pj_NU3SRYXquYWPOfMv8BWqwKDDHUU5Jp7OzKHdGzEesaWyLgQobDMWqOuXFHWd_a_uoW0Ow0J_WGkJ2wiOmiJBg4wLyuPgKofQA/s400/DSC00404.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a><span class="fullpost">Unboxed older titles meanwhile are also very reasonable, especially if you’re trading stuff in. Stock changes quickly and is dependant on trade-ins. While he’ll take in most items, it’s only for store credit not cash. But if you’re keen to maintain your playing collection this is a cool way to cycle through titles, and you’ll get more than if you traded it in for cash at a place like EasyCash or Cash Express. Other stores have also started cutting back on their retro titles, leaving him as the only dedicated store I can think of.<br /></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzQFiRmkrhxkD8SOt0jukSjlmInD1w5roZnjZbIxSHb2CMkm9IX3R2NsRMzbnlqj28uZp9G2xNNrvzyTnSRnhvIsOtVeVOtzvjWy2QCnzmCqzqTCSaO40GShqSlAWAJj4h27SXhgOQL8c/s1600-h/DSC00402.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5431389379559632706" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzQFiRmkrhxkD8SOt0jukSjlmInD1w5roZnjZbIxSHb2CMkm9IX3R2NsRMzbnlqj28uZp9G2xNNrvzyTnSRnhvIsOtVeVOtzvjWy2QCnzmCqzqTCSaO40GShqSlAWAJj4h27SXhgOQL8c/s400/DSC00402.JPG" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" /></a><span class="fullpost">New games for current systems are priced at €50, which is in stark contrast to nearby supermarkets such as CarreFour, which stock PS3 and 360 games at €70 a piece (I saw Cross Edge and other recent-ish PS3 titles for €50, and I’m fairly sure they weren’t second-hand).<br /><br />Overall a really cool place to visit, though as luck would have it I often pass up something I want, only to return a week later and find it sold. If you’re in the region it’s worth taking a look.<br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">EASY CASH and CASH EXPRESS</span><br /><br />These are a couple of cash converter style junk stores near me, and while I’ve bought a lot from them, they’re far too random to be relied on. They’re also dirty, poorly staffed, with terrible condition stock (most PS1 cases are broken) which are adorned with massive price stickers that never come off. I also wouldn’t dare step foot in them with a camera to take photos. They’ll buy unboxed games off you for about €2, and then sell them on for anything from €4 up to €40 for some things – and the prices seem to be randomly applied. Items which go for three times as much you’ll find for only €5 (I made a killing by buying up their entire stock of Goemon 2 cartridges), but some games, like Metal Gear on the NES, are priced at €40 unboxed.<br /><br />Most of this happened when they changed management. At one point I bought a Game & Watch for only a couple of Euro, but now they’ve got a glass cabinet with Game & Watches in it and most are close to the triple figure mark.<br /><br />Cash Express is also on my bad books, because I went in to get prices for things, including a Saturn peripheral which they said they’d buy for €12, so I went to the car, collected my box of stuff and went to trade it in. So the guy rings everything up, takes my address and photocopies my driver’s licence, then hands me a receipt stating how much I’ll be paid and asks me to sign it. Suddenly the peripheral is only worth €3. I point this out to the guy and he looks dumbfounded, before trying to talk his way out of it in French. He claims the total value for everything he gave me was €12, and that I somehow got confused and thought it was just for the peripheral. I point out that the receipt he gave me values the total for all my items at only €10, so if what he says is the case, then he still screwed up. He pauses and then starts rapidly talking in French and I decide to call the whole thing off, at which point he flies into a rage because he has to cancel the transaction on his system which, apparently, is a huge pain the ass. Well, not as inconvenient as being screwed around is. So I don’t shop there anymore – though I did see Sword of Etheria on PS2 for only €9, which seemed like a good deal.<br /><br />I’ll concede that these places are a necessary evil, and you will, on rare occasions, find a really good bargain as a result of incorrect labelling, but I always feel kind of unclean after walking out the door.<br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">DOCK GAMES and UK’s GAME</span><br /><br />This a weird one, and kind of shows the audacity of the UK’s chain of Game stores (which also owns Gamestation, it’s worth pointing out, which gives them a monopoly on UK videogame chain stores). France has its own chain called Dock Games, though I’ve only recently noticed that the UK’s Game has started to muscle in on the scene. Amazingly, in one town near me, both Dock Games and Game are sitting side-by-side each other (no photo sadly, since I forgot my camera last I trekked out there). Presumably Game is staffed by French-speaking locals.<br /><br />Dock Games used to stock retro stuff, though the last time I went in all of it had been relegated to a single bookshelf around the back corner to make room for current generation stuff. Which is fine, I guess, if you’re really into your current gen games, but the majority of it ends up being old copies of FIFA traded in, and whatever else is mainstream and temporarily popular. You know, the kind of crap which sells for about a tenner on eBay six months after release, but is still listed at half its RRP second-hand in-store. Anything of obscure merit, such as Senko no Ronde or Cross Edge, is nowhere to be found.<br /><br /><br /><br />And that about covers what I’ve seen locally to me – though it’s worth saying that I don’t make much effort to visit to research all the local stores.<br /><br /></span></span>

Retro Game Stores in the NY/NJ area

Retro game shopping can be a pain in the ass. Most of the time you're stuck delving through forums or mucking around with eBay. Unfortunately, for most people, it's your only bet, because retail stores that carry these sort of products are pretty rare. Gamestop stopped stocking NES, Genesis, SNES and Playstation stuff within the last five years or so - really a mercy killing, because by that point, there was nothing worthwhile left on the shelves - while the average independent game store looks at any old game, arches their eyebrow and goes "Wow this is old, let's sell it for a lot!" without any clue that there's an actual marketplace for this stuff. Thrift and pawn stores occasionally work, but their stock and quality is completely inconsistent unless you want to scrounge through them on a weekly basis. It constantly depresses me that walking through a Japanese used game store is almost like a minor epiphany, yet there's nothing in the USA that has really even come close to that.

There are some that try, though. Out here in the NY/NJ area, there are a couple of stores that actively concentrate on retro game stuff - Video Games New York in the Village in Manhattan, NY, Digital Press in Clifton, NJ, and Next Level Games in Blackwood, NJ. Let's take a look at them!

Video Games New York
202 East 6th Street, New York, NY 10003-8205


This used to be called Multimedia 1.0 a few years back, when it was located on St. Mark's Place and had tons upon tons of stuff shoved into a cramped hallway. They moved a few blocks over and reorganized everything a bit, although the decor still vaguely resembles someone's basement. For new games, they're pretty good, and a nice alternative to Gamestop - they're well stocked, stock import stuff at cheaper prices than the places in Chinatown, and they tend to break street dates, too. The retro stuff? Well, I'll let this picture from Gamespite speak for itself:


Why yes, that IS a boxed copy of Secret of Mana going for $100! And Super Metroid for $90! So yes, there's a huge stock of stuff, but nearly all of it is exorbitantly overpriced. On one side you have all of the common 8 and 16-bit cartridges, ranging anywhere from $10-$20 each, in varying conditions of completion, all haphazardly arranged. The Playstation, Dreamcast and Saturn section isn't much different - I don't think they realize that you can't take some random Saturn game and ask $20 for it. There's a ton of old Saturn and Playstation import stuff in case, but they're all stocked in a way that's impossible to read them or tell the price. I'm not sure I'd want to.

Video Games New York also hits up the anime convention circuit, and fellow HG101er Vysethebold found a Japanese copy of Resident Evil: Survivor for $9.99. He figured it was a good deal, considering it had the light gun support that was taken out of the US release. Then he takes it to the register, and the owner says, oh, there's actually a smudge on here, it's actually $99.99. Not even jokingly. I checked on Amazon Japan marketplace and the going price there is, no fooling, a single yen plus shipping. Obviously no one in the US can actually get there due to their shipping rules, but realistically, there's no way they should be charging more than $10 for this. It's really absurd.

They actually do have a good stock of complete NES, SNES and PSOne games, but those too, are ridiculously overpriced. A complete Final Fantasy VI runs about $100! You can find one of these online, without very much effort at all, for about $60. Racketboy did an interview with the owner awhile back (embedded later down) about how you can price this stuff higher, because people like being able to hold the object in their hands. He's right to an extent, but no one in their right mind outside of naive fools are going to pay double the going price for that experience. A lot of stuff seems to be stocked more for street cred than anything you'd actually want to buy. But these aren't even particularly uncommon or rares games though! They're just popular ones.


Since it is so well stocked, and does have a nice museum of Game & Watch and other really old, weird stuff, Videogames Newyork is the store that probably closest replicates the Japanese retro game store experience, but unless you're willing to dig through the stuff - which people have been doing for years and have probably all dried up - it's not a place I'd ever advise spending money at.

Tour courtesy of Racketboy:


Next up:

Digital Press, Clifton, NJ
387 Piaget Avenue, Clifton, NJ 07011


This one opened up about four years back. It's in an easy to get to place on Route 46, a minute off the Garden State Parkway around exit 153. It's run by Joe Santulli, the guy behind the Digital Press website and associated price guides. The practical upside is that, since this guy literally wrote the book on video game values, most stuff is pretty well priced. The average loose NES/Genesis/SNES cart costs between $3-$10, with in more demand titles hitting about $20. Some of the really rare stuff does get into the stratosphere - I saw them selling Dragon Force and Magic Knight Rayearth for the Saturn, complete, for $100 each, which feels a bit too high - but it's never quite as ridiculous as Video Games New York. In addition to those, there's occasionally some random older import games that show up, although not many. They also stock for pretty much every system, even if the selection is small. This is the only store that sells old PC games, usually pretty cheaply. There's also occasionally some cool books, comic books, preorder trinkets and artbooks, and random other stuff, usually for cheap. There's a ton of old strategy guides (usually priced at $6 each across the board, except for newer stuff) as well as a selection of old video game magazines. These are a bit too pricey - $20 for an issue of DieHard Game Fan? Hmmm. There are a couple of arcade cabinets, including a Playchoice-10, a Neo Geo with a few games, and a nicely stocked MAME cabinet. You'll also find some old retail kiosks and a museum in the back of the store with random not-for-sale stuff.

The downside to having such a knowledgeable owner is, obviously, that you'll rarely find a really good deal. There is a bargain bin in the back full of disc-only games for about $2 each. I like this part a lot even though there's rarely enough worth that much. It's a much larger and spacier store - the big advantage of having a store in suburban New Jersey instead of Manhattan - although I still somehow feel like they have less stock. Their new game selection isn't particularly big, and they do stock an occasional import, but a good chunk of the store is focused on retro stuff.


Maybe it's just because I've been a consistent visitor over the years, but the Digital Press Store does highlight one of the dilemmas of running such a business - namely, it feels like it's really picked over. When you run a store that based on used stock, you need to depend on trade-ins - and if no one's trading in good stuff, you can't get good stuff.

Because of this, I don't know if it's just me not finding what I'm interested in any more, but it's rare that anything really interesting pops up. It feels like a huge percentage of the stock has been sitting there since it opened, and what's more, they're all marked at the same price or higher. I may be imagining things, but it almost feels like sometimes they're getting more expensive. If no one bought that copy of The Adventures of Lomax for $18, they're sure as hell not going to pay $22 for it. Since the stock rarely seems to cycle, I don't really find it a good place to visit that often. If the stock's not moving, then why not put them online, and use that capital to buy more, new stuff? They have an active account on eBay, but it's weird - they sell really shifty lots of random PC Engine games, where you'll spend like $50 to get 10 games of the seller's choosing, which seems like a lousy way to pawn off lots of useless 50 yen dating sims.


Also, the employees outside of the owner are really young and some don't seem all that informed. Awhile back I brought my PS2 in to play The King of Fighters XI, and one of the employees laughed and was like, that game looks SO OLD. Really? REALLY? You work in a retro game store, dude.

On the plus side, they hold monthly meetings called NAVA (North Atlantic Videogame Aficionados) where folks get together for video game tournaments and trade meetings. It's hard to actually trade much of anything, because there are usually just random boxes strewn around, and tracking down their owner can be difficult. If anything you'll usually find the most interesting stuff here.

Obviously if you're not from the area you won't find the store as worn over as I do, though, so don't let that deter you if you're interested in checking it out. It's still way, way better than Video Games New York.

Anyway, here's one of the only clips I could find, interviewing the Angry Video Game Nerd, part of a huge series:



Finally:

Next Level Video Games - Blackwood, NJ
1031 Little Gloucester Rd
Blackwood, NJ 08012


This is store is way out of the way as a North Jerseyan - it's actually much closer to Philadelphia, about 10 minutes off exit 3 on the NJ Turnpike. I don't get to check it out very often, but it's a pretty nice store. It feels like an offshoot of the Digital Press, with similar stock and pricing. It is quite a bit smaller, so it doesn't have quite as much stuff, plus there's no bargain (outside of old sports and Xbox crap), magazine or PC section.

What I do really like is that they stock more offbeat items. There's always a small stash of PC Engine, Famicom and Mega Drive games, among other imports for the Saturn and Playstation, usually around $15-$20 each, which isn't too bad a deal. They seem to have rarer items in stock more often too, and for a decent price - last time I was there they had a complete copy of Persona for the PS1 for $60, which is about the going rate for it. They used to sell small figures and other gashapon, although unfortunately they don't seem to anymore.

There's a couch in the back and an older TV, and every time I'm there, there's usually someone playing some old TG-16 or SNES game. They also hold South Jersey Classic meetings similar to NAVA, although they don't seem to be nearly as crowded, probably due to the location.

The same problem persists with Digital Press - it is kinda picked over, with lots of junk that won't move unless it's really priced to move, but since I only make it down there once a year or so, I usually end up finding a few things I want. Also check out the Siliconera post.

Official Video Tour:


These are the major stores I know of. Newark apparently has a few, but I try to stay out of that place if I have the chance. There's Cash 4 Games, which is a terrible name for a store, and their web page is (literally, it seems) from 1999. There's also apparently a place called Gamming 4 Life, but all I've seen are crappy ads on Craigslist toting overpriced crap, and quite frankly, I'm not shopping at any place whose grammar is so overwhelmingly appalling.




Retro game shopping can be a pain in the ass. Most of the time you're stuck delving through forums or mucking around with eBay. Unfortunately, for most people, it's your only bet, because retail stores that carry these sort of products are pretty rare. Gamestop stopped stocking NES, Genesis, SNES and Playstation stuff within the last five years or so - really a mercy killing, because by that point, there was nothing worthwhile left on the shelves - while the average independent game store looks at any old game, arches their eyebrow and goes "Wow this is old, let's sell it for a lot!" without any clue that there's an actual marketplace for this stuff. Thrift and pawn stores occasionally work, but their stock and quality is completely inconsistent unless you want to scrounge through them on a weekly basis. It constantly depresses me that walking through a Japanese used game store is almost like a minor epiphany, yet there's nothing in the USA that has really even come close to that. <br /> <br /> There are some that try, though. Out here in the NY/NJ area, there are a couple of stores that actively concentrate on retro game stuff - Video Games New York in the Village in Manhattan, NY, Digital Press in Clifton, NJ, and Next Level Games in Blackwood, NJ. Let's take a look at them!<br /> <span class="fullpost"><br /> <a href="http://www.videogamesnewyork.com">Video Games New York</a><br /> <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=9549832214612495753&q=video+games+newyork&gl=us&cd=1&cad=src:pplink&ei=kipaS6X6GIbKM9HBlI4B">202 East 6th Street, New York, NY 10003-8205</a><br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/videogamesnewyork-storefront.jpg"></center><br /> This used to be called Multimedia 1.0 a few years back, when it was located on St. Mark's Place and had tons upon tons of stuff shoved into a cramped hallway. They moved a few blocks over and reorganized everything a bit, although the decor still vaguely resembles someone's basement. For new games, they're pretty good, and a nice alternative to Gamestop - they're well stocked, stock import stuff at cheaper prices than the places in Chinatown, and they tend to break street dates, too. The retro stuff? Well, I'll let this picture from <a href="http://www.gamespite.net/verbalspew/archives/entry_620.php">Gamespite</a> speak for itself:<br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/videogamesnewyork.jpg"></center><br /> Why yes, that IS a boxed copy of Secret of Mana going for $100! And Super Metroid for $90! So yes, there's a huge stock of stuff, but nearly all of it is exorbitantly overpriced. On one side you have all of the common 8 and 16-bit cartridges, ranging anywhere from $10-$20 each, in varying conditions of completion, all haphazardly arranged. The Playstation, Dreamcast and Saturn section isn't much different - I don't think they realize that you can't take some random Saturn game and ask $20 for it. There's a ton of old Saturn and Playstation import stuff in case, but they're all stocked in a way that's impossible to read them or tell the price. I'm not sure I'd want to. <br /> <br /> Video Games New York also hits up the anime convention circuit, and fellow HG101er Vysethebold found a Japanese copy of Resident Evil: Survivor for $9.99. He figured it was a good deal, considering it had the light gun support that was taken out of the US release. Then he takes it to the register, and the owner says, oh, there's actually a smudge on here, it's actually $99.99. Not even jokingly. I checked on <a href="http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/offer-listing/B000069TEP/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&qid=1264200549&sr=8-1&condition=used">Amazon Japan marketplace</a> and the going price there is, no fooling, a single yen plus shipping. Obviously no one in the US can actually get there due to their shipping rules, but realistically, there's no way they should be charging more than $10 for this. It's really absurd.<br /> <br /> They actually do have a good stock of complete NES, SNES and PSOne games, but those too, are ridiculously overpriced. A complete Final Fantasy VI runs about $100! You can find one of these online, without very much effort at all, for about $60. Racketboy did an interview with the owner awhile back (embedded later down) about how you can price this stuff higher, because people like being able to hold the object in their hands. He's right to an extent, but no one in their right mind outside of naive fools are going to pay double the going price for that experience. A lot of stuff seems to be stocked more for street cred than anything you'd actually want to buy. But these aren't even particularly uncommon or rares games though! They're just popular ones.<br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/videogamesnewyork-gameandwatch.jpg"></center><br /> Since it is so well stocked, and does have a nice museum of Game & Watch and other really old, weird stuff, Videogames Newyork is the store that probably closest replicates the Japanese retro game store experience, but unless you're willing to dig through the stuff - which people have been doing for years and have probably all dried up - it's not a place I'd ever advise spending money at.<br /> <br /> Tour courtesy of <a href="http://www.racketboy.com/retro/game-stores/2009/08/game-store-tour-interview-video-games-new-york.html">Racketboy</a>:<br /> <object height="340" width="560"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/eotq9IRDP4A&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/eotq9IRDP4A&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br /> <br /> Next up:<br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.digitpress.com/store/">Digital Press, Clifton, NJ</a><br /> <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=13964577193534021728&q=digital+press,+clifton,+nj&gl=us&cd=1&cad=src:pplink&ei=nStaS5_tKqPgM7ukoI8B">387 Piaget Avenue, Clifton, NJ 07011</a><br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/digitalpress-1.jpg"></center><br /> This one opened up about four years back. It's in an easy to get to place on Route 46, a minute off the Garden State Parkway around exit 153. It's run by Joe Santulli, the guy behind the Digital Press website and associated price guides. The practical upside is that, since this guy literally wrote the book on video game values, most stuff is pretty well priced. The average loose NES/Genesis/SNES cart costs between $3-$10, with in more demand titles hitting about $20. Some of the really rare stuff does get into the stratosphere - I saw them selling Dragon Force and Magic Knight Rayearth for the Saturn, complete, for $100 each, which feels a bit too high - but it's never quite as ridiculous as Video Games New York. In addition to those, there's occasionally some random older import games that show up, although not many. They also stock for pretty much every system, even if the selection is small. This is the only store that sells old PC games, usually pretty cheaply. There's also occasionally some cool books, comic books, preorder trinkets and artbooks, and random other stuff, usually for cheap. There's a ton of old strategy guides (usually priced at $6 each across the board, except for newer stuff) as well as a selection of old video game magazines. These are a bit too pricey - $20 for an issue of DieHard Game Fan? Hmmm. There are a couple of arcade cabinets, including a Playchoice-10, a Neo Geo with a few games, and a nicely stocked MAME cabinet. You'll also find some old retail kiosks and a museum in the back of the store with random not-for-sale stuff.<br /> <br /> The downside to having such a knowledgeable owner is, obviously, that you'll rarely find a really good deal. There is a bargain bin in the back full of disc-only games for about $2 each. I like this part a lot even though there's rarely enough worth that much. It's a much larger and spacier store - the big advantage of having a store in suburban New Jersey instead of Manhattan - although I still somehow feel like they have less stock. Their new game selection isn't particularly big, and they do stock an occasional import, but a good chunk of the store is focused on retro stuff.<br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/digitalpress-2.jpg"></center><br /> Maybe it's just because I've been a consistent visitor over the years, but the Digital Press Store does highlight one of the dilemmas of running such a business - namely, it feels like it's really picked over. When you run a store that based on used stock, you need to depend on trade-ins - and if no one's trading in good stuff, you can't get good stuff.<br /> <br /> Because of this, I don't know if it's just me not finding what I'm interested in any more, but it's rare that anything really interesting pops up. It feels like a huge percentage of the stock has been sitting there since it opened, and what's more, they're all marked at the same price or higher. I may be imagining things, but it almost feels like sometimes they're getting more expensive. If no one bought that copy of The Adventures of Lomax for $18, they're sure as hell not going to pay $22 for it. Since the stock rarely seems to cycle, I don't really find it a good place to visit that often. If the stock's not moving, then why not put them online, and use that capital to buy more, new stuff? They have an active account on eBay, but it's weird - they sell really shifty lots of random PC Engine games, where you'll spend like $50 to get 10 games of the seller's choosing, which seems like a lousy way to pawn off lots of useless 50 yen dating sims. <br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/digitalpress-3.jpg"></center><br /> Also, the employees outside of the owner are really young and some don't seem all that informed. Awhile back I brought my PS2 in to play The King of Fighters XI, and one of the employees laughed and was like, that game looks SO OLD. Really? REALLY? You work in a retro game store, dude. <br /> <br /> On the plus side, they hold monthly meetings called NAVA (North Atlantic Videogame Aficionados) where folks get together for video game tournaments and trade meetings. It's hard to actually trade much of anything, because there are usually just random boxes strewn around, and tracking down their owner can be difficult. If anything you'll usually find the most interesting stuff here.<br /> <br /> Obviously if you're not from the area you won't find the store as worn over as I do, though, so don't let that deter you if you're interested in checking it out. It's still way, way better than Video Games New York.<br /> <br /> Anyway, here's one of the only clips I could find, interviewing the Angry Video Game Nerd, part of a huge series:<br /> <br /> <object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AxYBl2IyTsQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AxYBl2IyTsQ&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /> <br /> Finally:<br /> <br /> <a href="http://nlvideogames.com/">Next Level Video Games - Blackwood, NJ</a><br /> <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=12365655277027386160&q=next+level+video+games+blackwood,+nj&hl=en&cd=1&cad=src:pplink&ei=dy5aS528KJDwNPv88Y4B">1031 Little Gloucester Rd<br /> Blackwood, NJ 08012</a><br /> <br /> <center><img src="http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/blog/nextlevel-storefront.jpg"></center><br /> This is store is way out of the way as a North Jerseyan - it's actually much closer to Philadelphia, about 10 minutes off exit 3 on the NJ Turnpike. I don't get to check it out very often, but it's a pretty nice store. It feels like an offshoot of the Digital Press, with similar stock and pricing. It is quite a bit smaller, so it doesn't have quite as much stuff, plus there's no bargain (outside of old sports and Xbox crap), magazine or PC section.<br /> <br /> What I do really like is that they stock more offbeat items. There's always a small stash of PC Engine, Famicom and Mega Drive games, among other imports for the Saturn and Playstation, usually around $15-$20 each, which isn't too bad a deal. They seem to have rarer items in stock more often too, and for a decent price - last time I was there they had a complete copy of Persona for the PS1 for $60, which is about the going rate for it. They used to sell small figures and other gashapon, although unfortunately they don't seem to anymore. <br /> <br /> There's a couch in the back and an older TV, and every time I'm there, there's usually someone playing some old TG-16 or SNES game. They also hold South Jersey Classic meetings similar to NAVA, although they don't seem to be nearly as crowded, probably due to the location. <br /> <br /> The same problem persists with Digital Press - it is kinda picked over, with lots of junk that won't move unless it's really priced to move, but since I only make it down there once a year or so, I usually end up finding a few things I want. Also check out the <a href="http://www.siliconera.com/2008/03/05/vyses-view-south-jersey-classic/">Siliconera</a> post.<br /> <br /> Official Video Tour:<br /> <object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/XixRcLUaL0o&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/XixRcLUaL0o&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br /> <br /> These are the major stores I know of. Newark apparently has a few, but I try to stay out of that place if I have the chance. There's <a href="http://www.usedvideogames.com/index.htm">Cash 4 Games</a>, which is a terrible name for a store, and their web page is (literally, it seems) from 1999. There's also apparently a place called <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps/place?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=sFo&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=newark+gaming+for+life&fb=1&gl=us&hq=gaming+for+life&hnear=newark&cid=17182651818896932757">Gamming 4 Life</a>, but all I've seen are crappy ads on Craigslist toting overpriced crap, and quite frankly, I'm not shopping at any place whose grammar is so overwhelmingly appalling. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> </span>