Retro gaming stores in Tokyo?

[goldenegg]

I was hoping that some of you might know of good retro gaming stores in Tokyo. I'll be there for work next week and though it would be fun to track down some gaming stuff. I'm very familiar with Tokyo, having been there many times before. I've just never taken the time to look for retro gaming stuff.

All suggestions are greatly appreciated!!

[Lord_Magus]

You can't go wrong with Super Potato. It's in one of the back streets so it might be a bit harder to find, but once you do it's totally worth it. They even have a throne made out of Famicom carts there, and a whole floor dedicated to old-school arcade games. Here's one map I dug up with the store's location: http://map.yahoo.co.jp/pl?lat=35.41.46.096&lon=139.46.26.230&skey=%25C5%25EC%25B5%25FE%25C5%25D4%25C0%25E9%25C2 %25E5%25C5%25C4%25B6%25E8%25B3%25B0%25BF%25C0%25C5 %25C41-11-2&pref=&kind=

I actually found it "accidentally" when I was walking through one of the back streets, and at some point I heard the NES theme from Legend of Zelda playing through some speakers - I followed the tune and it led me to Super Potato =)

[mobiusclimber]

If you're just looking to pick up stuff cheap, your best bet would be places like Hard Off and Book Off where video games aren't the main focus and they'll call anything junk if they don't feel like testing it (and thus will sell it for next to nothing). It's always a crap-shoot, but you can find some amazing deals if you get lucky.

Super Potato is more for gawking at than it is for purchasing stuff.

[The 1 2 P]

You can't go wrong with Super Potato. It's in one of the back streets so it might be a bit harder to find, but once you do it's totally worth it. They even have a throne made out of Famicom carts there, and a whole floor dedicated to old-school arcade games. Here's one map I dug up with the store's location: http://map.yahoo.co.jp/pl?lat=35.41.46.096&lon=139.46.26.230&skey=%25C5%25EC%25B5%25FE%25C5%25D4%25C0%25E9%25C2 %25E5%25C5%25C4%25B6%25E8%25B3%25B0%25BF%25C0%25C5 %25C41-11-2&pref=&kind=

I actually found it "accidentally" when I was walking through one of the back streets, and at some point I heard the NES theme from Legend of Zelda playing through some speakers - I followed the tune and it led me to Super Potato =)

I have wanted to go there for years. The first time I saw it was on an episode of X-Play several years ago. It looks epic.

[XYXZYZ]

Just go to Lukemorse1's Youtube channel (http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=lukemorse1#g/u) and look for the Hard Off videos.

[Mister_Pal]

I have wanted to go there for years. The first time I saw it was on an episode of X-Play several years ago. It looks epic.

Unfortunately it's not so epic if you actually want to buy stuff.

[TheClash603]

Unfortunately it's not so epic if you actually want to buy stuff.

You just need to browse for some time at Super Potato to find the good stuff. There are a lot of deals, underneath the overprices goods.

When I was in Tokyo I found a lot of good game stores. Unfortunately all I did was wander around, so I couldn't tell you how I got to them. Also, I don't speak the language, so I don't know the names of the stores either...

Best advice I can give is to walk around a lot, don't buy the first thing you see, and don't be afraid to go into some of the smaller streets and alleys.

oohhh yeah, stop at the arcades and play some Grand Cross... that medal pusher is epic!

[M15fit]

I am also visiting Tokyo in September this year, I looked through this link about a year ago http://www.segagagadomain.com/junk/retrogaming.htm
Mouth watering stuff!

[Eyedunno]

I lived pretty far from the big cities in Japan, and have only been to Tokyo three times, but I would say, yeah, you can't go wrong with Book Off or other used book stores. My experience at Hard Off (granted, this was the one in Toyama, and Tokyo is probably better) was not quite so good in terms of games (though they had plenty of consoles that looked, yeah, like a crapshoot in terms of whether they would even work).

[Thrillo]

Book Offs are great as their consoles are pretty much guaranteed to work, not much risk involved. My best deal was a brand spankin' new A/V Famicom (a 2003 model, last year of manufacture!) for Y3500/$30 back in '06. After doing the stereo and zapper mods to it, it trumps even the mighty Twin-Famicom in overall features and reliability.
The self-described "junk" section of Hard Off is pretty much a thrift store, and like a thrift store you'll find both insane deals and overpriced crap. Either way, you'll run into masses of weird peripherals that few people realize exist. Buy a few for curiosities sake lol.

Good luck finding Famicom games though, as the supply was slowly but steadily drying up while I was stationed there a few years ago. I sure didn't help the situation any :) .