Famicom Games

[Tanooki]

I was curious since I hadn't seen it really come up if anyone here was into the old Famicom games? I recently got an adapter and picked up a few and they're giving me a feeling of liking old Nintendo stuff back again since the trash have ruined the US market.

If anyone here is into it, or sells/trades them, let me know!

I'm curious if anyone has some personal favorites that maybe worth snapping up. I buy mainly on ebay and NA, though if I saw stuff here I'd do that too, but I don't look to sign up to more websites for that alone.

Currently I have Armadillo, Dragon Buster, Family Derby, Rampart, Twinbee 3, Wai Wai World 2, and I've got Moon Crystal and Crisis Force in the mail. I'm finding these games pretty fun and it gives me that lost feeling of something new and of wonder with the old stuff since much of it we didn't get stuff here that even felt like this. We don't really get horse jockey games, Namco avoided releasing much in that era here of the arcade ports, we got tamer but some good shooters, but nothing really too quirky, and the konami line up platformer is a slick twist as much as Konami's take on Rampart.

[T2KFreeker]

Famicom is really cool. Some real Gems on the system too. Splatterhouse Wanpaku Graffiti and Sweet Home are two of my personal favorites for the system. Very cool stuffs.

[o.pwuaioc]

Most of the Famicom discussion would probably take place in the Import-Mania (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?25-Import-Mania!) sub-forum. Additionally, Famicom World (http://www.famicomworld.com/forum/index.php) is a great place for Famicom discussion, as you can imagine, although the emphasis on pirates over there bores me a little.

I only have 29 Famicom titles, but I'm slowly trying to turn most of my NES collection into a Famicom collection. The carts are smaller and take up less room and generally censorship on NES carts makes the original, authentic cart more desirable. Plus, as you mentioned, the tons of early arcade ports are a must-own: Dig Dug II, Mappy, Nuts and Milk; and that's not mentioning the Japan-only shooters like Parodius (although those in PAL territories got a release, NTSC-U did not) and Gradius II.

[T2KFreeker]

Most of the Famicom discussion would probably take place in the Import-Mania (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?25-Import-Mania!) sub-forum. Additionally, Famicom World (http://www.famicomworld.com/forum/index.php) is a great place for Famicom discussion, as you can imagine, although the emphasis on pirates over there bores me a little.

I only have 29 Famicom titles, but I'm slowly trying to turn most of my NES collection into a Famicom collection. The carts are smaller and take up less room and generally censorship on NES carts makes the original, authentic cart more desirable. Plus, as you mentioned, the tons of early arcade ports are a must-own: Dig Dug II, Mappy, Nuts and Milk; and that's not mentioning the Japan-only shooters like Parodius (although those in PAL territories got a release, NTSC-U did not) and Gradius II.

Yeah, I forgot about Gradius II. Very nice as well. Also, the size of the carts are just right that you can fir them in those old Cassette tape carriers if you don't mind having the cart only. Pretty cool little fact, BTW.

[Tanooki]

I do have those retrozone titles of Kid Dracula and Gradius II along with the full Donkey Kong Original Edition and it's nice they're real boards and in english not that Gradius II would matter for that one. Sweet Home is a solid game but I'd take a translated copy considering how that one plays and Splatterhouse is on my list of things to get, had a very shoddily done repro of it at one point in english and the language isn't really needed.

I'm only buying them as loose carts, really don't have the room or interest in paying to store away boxes and the manuals I could barely get through with basic hiragana and katakana as my Japanese is beyond shot from a decade of rust.

So far since I didn't list it up front, these are games I'm thinking I'd go for, some are definite, though the list is always open as I like the unique stuff that's highly playable. I'm not opposed to Famiclones for games that were on FDS only (Kiseki no Almana) or are disgustingly expensive (Moon Crystal.)

Bio-Miracle Bokutte Upa
Daiku No Gen-San (Hammerin Harry)
Holy Diver
Kero Kero Keroppi no Daibouken 2: Donuts Ike ha Oosawagi!
King Kong 2
Kyatto Ninden Teyandee (Samurai Pizza Cats)
Lupin Sansei: Pandora no Isan
Madoola no Tsubasa
Mappy Kids
Mitsume Ga Tooru
Mobile Suit Gundam Z
Parodius
Recca
Splatterhouse Wanpaku Graffiti
Star Wars (namco)
Tetsuwan Atom
Twinbee
Uchuu Keibitai (HAL shooter)

[o.pwuaioc]

You got Recca? Nice! That one continues to elude me, though I've been looking for it. Here's my small offering:

Air Fortress
Argus
Bomberman II
Choujikuu Yousai Macross
Dig Dug II
Doraemon
Exerion
Faxanadu
Final Fantasy III (with translated ROM inside)
Galaxian
Ganbare Goemon! Karakuri Douchuu
Gradius II
Kage no Densetsu
King's Knight
Magical Taruruuto-kun: Fantastic World!!
Mappy
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
Nuts & Milk
Parodius
Rockman 3: Dr. Wily no Saigo!?
Rockman 4: Aratanaru Yabou!!
Rockman 5: Blues no Wana!?
Son Son
Takahashi Meijin no Bugutte Honey
Thexder
TwinBee
Volguard II
Yossy no Cookie
Youkai Kurabu

[T2KFreeker]

I only have a handful of carts, but off the top of my head I know I have
Splatterhouse
Gradius
Sweet Home
Castlevania III
Macross
Astroboy
Tetris (It's different from the US game, but not that great either.)

I guess I should go through and see what all I have, eh?

[SparTonberry]

I probably wouldn't have Moon Crystal if I hadn't been shopping on a site that gives rewards points.
Was able to use those to drop the price down to something nicer (after buying probably seriously like a hundred or so CIB SFC games).

I have a crazy amount of FC games as well, though many are loose.
Too long to list them all, many cheap to moderately-price games. Sadly no Bubble Bobble 2 or Gimmick. The priciest for me are Adventure Island 4 and Over Horizon.
Though I did grab a few before they were expensive: Naughty Kokkun, Lickle, Hebereke, Gun-Nac, Holy Diver, Cocoron, Moai-kun. Regret I didn't get Battletoads when it was like $12. Now the site I could've got it from wants like $80+ for it.

[FoxNtd]

Holy Diver

But can you beat it? :popcorn:

[Gatucaman]

Well, As for Myself, i am going to receive the following

Splatterhouse Wanpaku Graffiti
Bomberman II
Parrallel World (Not the Zelda Romhack)
Time Zone
Sweet Home
Wai Wai World 2
GUN NAC!

[Tanooki]

No I don't have Recca, I want it, that's a list of interested in probably buying stuff. Some of those games in your list of things I have on either my Supervision 115in1 or the Golden 260in1 I have.

I have Armadillo, Dragon Buster, Family Jockey, Rampart(Konami), Twinbee 3, Wai Wai World 2. I also have the Golden 260in1 multicart.

In the mail from Taiwan are Crisis Force and Moon Crystal famiclones(old ones without gloptops.) NO way I was going to pay that much on an old game, especially Moon Crystal.

Via retrozone made stuff I also have Gradius II, I'm Kid Dracula, and non-famicom DK Original Edition too.



I was thinking about Castlevania III but I don't have the ability to get the extra sound so I'm on the fence with that one unless I found it cheap. Sweet Home I'd get a new board pirate(ahem 'reproduction') so it was in english. I had a bad bootleg of Splatterhouse I intend to replace with an original. I'd love to get Lickle and Hebreke but damn those get up there like Moon Crystal annoyingly so they're not a priority. Holy Diver I much want and tops my list, but the only US seller is a total ebay dick who refuses to even reply to offers, wants $40(the going rate) but his is sun bleached blue. He emails fine until offers come and he won't take a dollar less which makes the 'best offer' button a joke.

[o.pwuaioc]

No I don't have Recca, I want it, that's a list of interested in probably buying stuff. Some of those games in your list of things I have on either my Supervision 115in1 or the Golden 260in1 I have.

Ah, oops, totally misread that. Sorry.

[Tanooki]

You're fine, no worries.


I'm wondering since arcade games we didn't get popped up, if anyone had an opinion of Insector-X for famicom? I know it is as faithful as it could be I suppose for the old system while the Genesis took large liberties. I've never played the arcade game and emulator+keyboard isn't the best.

[Gatucaman]

You're fine, no worries.


I'm wondering since arcade games we didn't get popped up, if anyone had an opinion of Insector-X for famicom? I know it is as faithful as it could be I suppose for the old system while the Genesis took large liberties. I've never played the arcade game and emulator+keyboard isn't the best.

Oddly Enough i was going to win Inspector X along with Gun Nac, but honestly, i saw a video of gameplay footage on youtube, and honestly, the sound turn me very off, especially the music, plus the graphics, it inda look like one of the "better" Pirate Chinase games.

So i went with Wai Wai World 2 Isntead :popcorn:

[The Adventurer]

In the future I'm hoping to start collecting various Famicom imports myself. I'm curious about Sweet Home, its the predecessor to Biohazard/Resident Evil, yes? Is it playable without a translation patch?

[Tron 2.0]

In the future I'm hoping to start collecting various Famicom imports myself. I'm curious about Sweet Home, its the predecessor to Biohazard/Resident Evil, yes? Is it playable without a translation patch?
Sweet Home,was the influence for RE though for the japanese version you would need a walk through to play it.Unless you have the game rom exchange for the translated one.

[Niku-Sama]

I've got a few famicom games lately I've been going for oddities or things I know I like so far I have:

Rockman
Rockman 3
Rockman 4
Rockman 5
Wily & Light no RockBoard That's Paradise
Castlevania for FDS
Gradius
Highway Star
Z Gundam Hot Scramble (common ver)
Gradius
Karateka
Transformers
SD Gundam Knight Gundam Story
Macross
Dragon Quest
Dragon Quest II
Dragon Quest III
Dragon Quest IV
Kinikuman wrestle story (I think?)
3D Hot Rally (FDS)
Backgammon (FDS)
Dr.Chaos labled FDS game but I cant remember whats on it, happens a lot since these disks were re writeable
Baseball (FDS)
Soccer (FDS)
Kaette Kita Mario Bros (FDS)
Popeye no Eigo Asobi (link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popeye_no_Eigo_Asobi)

some of those were really hard to get only because how much they usually go for online.
the original Rockman is one of the more expensive famicom games on ebay according to that guys break down of famicom game sales in the import section, I cant find the thread at the moment but when I do i'll bump It and link it because its good info to have.
and its not exactly common either so I am supprised it got it.
collectors seem to scramble over RockBoard, guess its hard to find, along with the Popeye English cart.

Rockman cost me ~$24 Rockboard cost me ~$20 and Popeye English cost me ~$8 and it came with 3 other common games (Gradius Kinikuman & Karateka)

I've got a lot of other imports, I got some just to sell off when I went on my trip to japan....for some reason I haven't sold those off et and japan was a long time ago......I cant believeI have had my Twin Famicom for about 5 years now, seems like it was a more recent addition but I bought it on my trip at super potato for about 102,500 yen....just so you guys know Super Potato takes Visa cards!

[The Adventurer]

Are any of the Famicom Gundam games any good?

[Niku-Sama]

Hot Scramble is OK but pretty hard

SD Knight Gundam story has a lot of RPG like story going on, its a top down final fantasy like RPG and since my Japanese has never been great its just too much going on in order to get a good feel for it.
basicly I haven't played much of it and I have no idea whats going on. what I know is basic in terms of the language, good enough for shooters, and quick decisions in the games

[Tanooki]

Gatucaman: No love for big bugs eh? I kind of see the argument, but it's just the style trying to do the arcade as much as possible, but I didn't focus much on the audio so maybe you're right. You did get a hell of an upgrade as that game is fantastic. I still haven't figured out how to properly trigger your ghost partner konami character as it just seems to rotate and switch and I Know it's not random.


Niku that's an interesting selection. That transformers game I tried a ROM once and the one hit kills I barely could walk two steps it was so annoying. Karateka, Macross, and a few others are solid games on my multicart and that flight shooter gundam is a good one I'm looking to grab in time as it's cheap. Good job on the Rockman stuff, I'd never think to grab those as we have the US releases and I had no idea that first one was pricey for them too. Also unique one there with the Popeye game and surprises me they didn't release that here for the little kids learning english as it could have been the first well before the Sesame Street stuff.


Adventurer: I second the Gundam Hot Scramble Z game as it is a bit on the tricky side after a few levels but it's a fun fast fly around early space combat first person shooter that ends up taking down space colonies with a side scrolling confined shooter around a kind of maze like structure that's not hard to navigate.

[SparTonberry]

Half of Zeta Gundam is so much a ripoff of Thexder I'm surprised Bandai didn't get sued.
Is it just me or do the Bandai and the blue Namco carts have a strong death-grip? I can't get those out of my AV Famicom without really yanking them.

I got RockBoard from a site once for like $3 and shipping. I remember they had Kid Dracula for like $2. I would've got it but I had already bought it at about the $20 going rate from another seller. :(
Got Hammerin' Harry 2 from them as well for dirt cheap but I still don't have the first game.

The only other Rockman game I have is 2, since I have a full NES set.

"switching Ghost Konami character?" What game are you talking about? Wai Wai World 1? Up+A (awkward but it's a 2-player game and they needed to account for that the original RF Famicom didn't have 2P Start/Select). Wai Wai World 2? There's a power-up that lets you switch for a limited time. Press Up+A when it gets to your character (though it doubles as health, taking a hit cuts away your transform time)

[Tanooki]

Yeah I guess it's UP+A for the limited time if it's the same as I'm talking about Wai Wai World 2. I thought about getting the original one but it's too confusing with all the random places and a 'goonies' like screwy layout. I called it a ghost character as the transformation pops in and it's temporary.

I can't remember but isn't reading needed for Rockboard?

[DigitalKarma]

only famicom games I own are: Devil World, plus Zelda 1 and Metroid from the Famicom Disk System.

don't have the machine to play it on, but i don't care. from the nicely illustrated mini paper booklet with sticker sheet to the yellow hard disk with Nintendo engraved on it in big blocky letters, i find the Famicom Disk games an interesting artifact in my collection.

[Tanooki]

I can agree with that. I keep on oddball I don't play around too because of just how it looks and the price wasn't bad either when I got it. It's a shame it can't be used, but hell it likely may not work as they're lousy magnetic disks that are prone to failure so maybe it's best not knowing too. For me it's a sealed yellow version of Metroid I put in a shadowbox as I love that one piece of Samus art on the box more than much of the rest from that 8/16bit era.

I won 5 more Famicom games in a midnight closer auction over at NintendoAge I can't wait to see in a couple of days -- Star Wars(namco), Twinbee, F1-Race, Final Lap, and Macross.

[DigitalKarma]

Yes! That cover art looks killer! I wonder who was the illustrator for the old Nintendo games cause I keep forgetting to ask myself to search it up. Loved the artwork for Zelda and metroid

And congrats on your purchase! Curious to see the packaging of Macross.

[StealthLurker]

I've got a quite a few CIB games and some loose games. Off the top of my head.... (excuse any games that were also released in the west) There should be many more. Forget the names of the SD gundam/super robot games worth checking out.

kunio kun games (there are 11)
recca
battle formula
gimmick
hebereke
asmik kun/world
rod land
time zone
goonies (1)
bubble bobble 2
Taro kun 1 & 2
ninja jajamaru
SDF (shmup)
Gefu maden
Spartan X 2 (Kung Fu 2)
magical doropie
gun dec
wai wai world 1 & 2 (konami world)
comso police galvan
solbrain
mitsume ga tooru (3 eyes boy)
sayuki world 1 & 2
chojin sentai jetman (not the same as nes solar jetman)
air fortress (shmup)
over horizon
crisis force
moeru twinbee
image fight
Kyatto Ninden Teyandee (samurai pizza cats)
dracula kun
bonk
contra (diff from us version, has some extras)
cocoron
chuuka taisen (cloud master)
kid niki 2 & 3
final mission
captain saver
banana prince
lickle
masked ninja hanamaru
hammerin harry 1 & 2
war wolf
dragon spirit
yumei penguin story
moai kun
bio miracle
might final fight

.

[Tanooki]

The 5 games I snapped up last night are just carts.

If you're curious it's actually pretty attractive on the Macross game which you can see on ebay here, just roll the mouse over to blow it up.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/MACROSS-Choujikuu-yousai-Namco-NES-Famicom-JPN-/121207236546

It's the Minmei white dress singing imagery over the fleet with a space backdrop from that huge battle outside Earth against the Zentraedi fleet.

[DigitalKarma]

The 5 games I snapped up last night are just carts.

If you're curious it's actually pretty attractive on the Macross game which you can see on ebay here, just roll the mouse over to blow it up.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/MACROSS-Choujikuu-yousai-Namco-NES-Famicom-JPN-/121207236546

It's the Minmei white dress singing imagery over the fleet with a space backdrop from that huge battle outside Earth against the Zentraedi fleet.

wow sexy!

[Tanooki]

Stealthlurker: I agree on Gimmick and Hebreke, but thanks to a ripple effect of bootleg makers on the US carts it has driven the price of the Famicom games up to crappy levels, much can be said for Lickle too thanks to Little Samson. I have my eye on them but I'm not paying that, and would go with a famiclone (like with crisis force and moon patrol) or a new parts made NES shell bootleg. If it were the original company charging me it's one thing, but I'm not feeding a troll. While we didn't get it Mitsume ga Toru also is another that gets spendy I'm figuring out where I'll go with it as that one is fun.

You have a solid list, some of them the really small 32/64K sized stuff I have on my multicarts. I'm working on a deal for Hammerin' Harry 1 at the moment along with Parodius.

I have some of those games in there too that are on US carts like Bonk so I don't see a reason to get redundant again, even with the small differences stuff like Contra has. I'd be tempted to snap up Castlevania 3 even if I can't hear the audio entirely because of the other things but price would be a factor.

[SparTonberry]

With Famiclone Gimmick, I wonder if you have to worry about copy-protection? (it's little known, because to even see it you'd have to reach the final level. I hear the thing that sets it off is if the opening copyright has been hacked. I hear it was effectively nullified in the European version.)

With Bonk, yeah the main reason to get the Famicom version is that it should be a lot cheaper than the NES version.

[Tanooki]

Did not know about that with Gimmick, but the famiclones early enough along were just straight copies of games from what I've been told a bit, they're not hacked, so I imagine that one may just work right as it's not like you're dumbing down a VRC6 chip like in Crisis Force.

Also lost hammerin harry and parodius. Guy doesn't respond for a day and a half, then tells me they were already sold in the first place which I find fishy since his post was new when I wrote about the two games. I'm not amused because paying the ebay rate sucks as Japanese shipping is a ripoff.

[StealthLurker]

Hot Scramble is OK but pretty hard

SD Knight Gundam story has a lot of RPG like story going on, its a top down final fantasy like RPG and since my Japanese has never been great its just too much going on in order to get a good feel for it.
basicly I haven't played much of it and I have no idea whats going on. what I know is basic in terms of the language, good enough for shooters, and quick decisions in the games

There are faaaar better gundam games than those, but forget their names.

[StealthLurker]

Stealthlurker: I agree on Gimmick and Hebreke, but thanks to a ripple effect of bootleg makers on the US carts it has driven the price of the Famicom games up to crappy levels, much can be said for Lickle too thanks to Little Samson. I have my eye on them but I'm not paying that, and would go with a famiclone (like with crisis force and moon patrol) or a new parts made NES shell bootleg. If it were the original company charging me it's one thing, but I'm not feeding a troll. While we didn't get it Mitsume ga Toru also is another that gets spendy I'm figuring out where I'll go with it as that one is fun.

You have a solid list, some of them the really small 32/64K sized stuff I have on my multicarts. I'm working on a deal for Hammerin' Harry 1 at the moment along with Parodius.

I have some of those games in there too that are on US carts like Bonk so I don't see a reason to get redundant again, even with the small differences stuff like Contra has. I'd be tempted to snap up Castlevania 3 even if I can't hear the audio entirely because of the other things but price would be a factor.


I think the rise in famicom game prices is also due in part to the new wave of famicom collectors. For the past several years I've seen a lot of new folks hopping onto the famicom collecting thing. In general I think import collecting is on the rise... the competition amongst westerners is also spilling into Yahoo Japan Auctions. Pretty soon it might become as ridiculous as Ebay.

[Tanooki]

I wouldn't doubt it, there's many factors. I have seen in cases I said where things went for less, but eventually the greed on the NTSC-U side of the pond got so bad it was cheaper to buy Japanese and an adapter. You can get an adapter for like $30 and Lickle for $80-100 these days(if patient) and the US version is a $500 cart. Bonk is yet another good example of paying like $20 for a Famicom game or $300 for the NES version so it's no wonder people flock to those driving them up, then people get curious about others that look fun and buy too. I know the Yahoo Japan auctions are getting worse seeing others talk about it on NA and some linking these nice tools like buyee.com which works as a gateway tool to buy stuff in our language, and the other end can converse cleanly and everyone is happy and gets paid or a product.

[StealthLurker]

I wouldn't doubt it, there's many factors. I have seen in cases I said where things went for less, but eventually the greed on the NTSC-U side of the pond got so bad it was cheaper to buy Japanese and an adapter. You can get an adapter for like $30 and Lickle for $80-100 these days(if patient) and the US version is a $500 cart. Bonk is yet another good example of paying like $20 for a Famicom game or $300 for the NES version so it's no wonder people flock to those driving them up, then people get curious about others that look fun and buy too. I know the Yahoo Japan auctions are getting worse seeing others talk about it on NA and some linking these nice tools like buyee.com which works as a gateway tool to buy stuff in our language, and the other end can converse cleanly and everyone is happy and gets paid or a product.

Yeah, but it goes both ways. I can think of a ton of games that are "cheap" in the US but very expensive in Japan. I think this idea of Japan versions are cheaper are mainly due to perspective. Most from the US are more familiar with US titles and pricing (completely understandable). Also most westerners just happen to be interested or only know of the games in Japan that are the "cheaper" titles. Best example are RPGs. RPGs in Japan are like old Madden carts in the States haha. There are tons of them and nobody really wants them anymore.

The thing that pisses me off are all the westerners buying up stuff in Japan only to flip on Ebay for gouger prices. One game that has had a comical rise in price is Eliminate Down on the Megadrive. It used to average 150-200 USD. But in a very, very short time span is regularly around the 700-800 USD range now.

[ProjectCamaro]

I hate you guys!

I had zero interest in the Famicom, then I read this thread and started researching it and finding a bunch of great games. In the past two days I've purchased 48 games, the wife will not be happy especially considering I purchased a Neo Geo AES and four games last week.

[bb_hood]

Has anyone played 53 stations of the Tokaido? Its a cool little game but tough. I diddnt know it existed until I saw it on GameCenter CX.

If you want to play Sweet Home, probably the best way is to get a powerpak or other flash cart. It plays the translated version just fine. No point in buying a repro/bootleg when you can just get a flashcart instead.

Also Getsufuu Maden is awesome, the patched/translated version works great on powerpak also.

[RyanR]

2 famicom games that i would highly recommend:

Samurai Pizza Cats - fun and quirky platformer

Bio Senshi Dan - fun "zelda 2" style game

[Tanooki]

Yeah, but it goes both ways. I can think of a ton of games that are "cheap" in the US but very expensive in Japan. I think this idea of Japan versions are cheaper are mainly due to perspective. Most from the US are more familiar with US titles and pricing (completely understandable). Also most westerners just happen to be interested or only know of the games in Japan that are the "cheaper" titles. Best example are RPGs. RPGs in Japan are like old Madden carts in the States haha. There are tons of them and nobody really wants them anymore.

The thing that pisses me off are all the westerners buying up stuff in Japan only to flip on Ebay for gouger prices. One game that has had a comical rise in price is Eliminate Down on the Megadrive. It used to average 150-200 USD. But in a very, very short time span is regularly around the 700-800 USD range now.

Totally agree with you. It's perspective, and you're so right about the RPG<->Madden effect between here and there. That is the huge problem I'm hitting is that slime are buying up Japanese games cheap then selling them for the price of the Japanese+EMS/tracked if not a little higher, and in turn I've seen the Japanese raise their prices which I don't blame them for as I'd stick it to a poaching reseller too which is why I don't start ebay auctions at $1-5 anymore.


Goddamn Camaro---48 in 48 hours? Self control time! Well perhaps you'll end up hating some of them and parting them back to us to fill holes. ;)

BB - Agreed on Sweet Home, but I'd rather have a non-old parts chop shop new parts bootleg. PRobably same with Getsuufu Maden because that looks fun but there's enough words in there you need the english to enjoy it right which is why I'm not shopping for that famicom cart.

Ryan - Same with the above on Sweet Home, too many words, but it looks fun with Bio Senshi Dan, and Kyattou Ninden Teyandee is on my list, but annoyingly that's one this one US selling douche (I looked into the history) has been selling at $30 buying up copies so the Japanese are matching it now with the shipping so I've been holding off. I liked that one since the later 90s when I'd mess with a ROM a bit.

Another game suffering the US<->Japanese reach around is Holy Diver which makes sense as it's a really solid game. Sadly the same jerk I eluded to in the last line above with the Cats game is the only US seller and his is sun bleached badly blue and wants slightly more than the Japanese sellers. I've tried to offer on that guys stuff like $5 less at most on things and he ignores it. He also has Hammerin Harry too so it's annoying where do I buy it and eat it, or wait it out on principle.

[StealthLurker]

Has anyone played 53 stations of the Tokaido? Its a cool little game but tough. I diddnt know it existed until I saw it on GameCenter CX.


That's funny, I have the game but didn't fire it up until I saw the GameCenter CX episode about it too. Yeah those old games were pretty difficult, but had a certain charm to them.

[ProjectCamaro]

--48 in 48 hours? Self control time! Well perhaps you'll end up hating some of them and parting them back to us to fill holes. ;)


Self control is a phrase I don't know very well. :ass:

If I some how end up with any doubles I'll sell or trade those, otherwise it hold onto everything I buy. Some of the most fun games to play are the ones that are just terrible.

[Niku-Sama]

There are faaaar better gundam games than those, but forget their names.

yea but these were ones I got cheap in multi cat auctions on ebay

[Tanooki]

Self control is a phrase I don't know very well. :ass:

If I some how end up with any doubles I'll sell or trade those, otherwise it hold onto everything I buy. Some of the most fun games to play are the ones that are just terrible.

Yeah sticking to the Japanese theme it's the Godzilla Factor. So bad it's good.


I grabbed a lucky pick off ebay last night. Mitsume ga Tooru for $40, usually clears $60 with shipping and it's a fantastic game with art by Osamu Tezuka based off his story. Love his stuff as I've got all the astroboy books among other things. I still have to get that for Famicom too.

[SparTonberry]

Astro Boy for the Famicom is pretty bad, especially by Konami standards.

[Tanooki]

Hmm that bad eh? I know it's a one hit death game.

On the topic of Famicom stuff, what's the deal with how damned dirty these things tend to get? I know the Japanese back in the 80s had some habits like smoking, disposable stuff, and so on but yeesh. I got my 5 games in the mail today, one is smoker yellowed (F1-Race) and also that one and another the pins were closer to black than shiny and took a LOT of work that my thumb hurts from getting it right. Even the clean games still brought up some gray gunk to the q-tip and wet magic eraser. I've had my range of good to crap with NES pick ups, but I've rarely if ever seen a US game that damn blackened.

[SparTonberry]

I can only remember one game giving me black gunk. Pretty sure it was Socket for the Genesis. But then the label was in pretty shitty condition. Dirty and mostly torn (probably there were rental stickers and someone ripped them off).

I have a Battletoads & Double Dragon for SNES that has the front label almost completely covered with a Blockbuster sticker. Not sure about a safe way to remove it so I've left it on.

[PizzaKat]

I never knew there were so many games for the famicom that language wasnt an issue. I was going to start doing a few years back but I got lazy on finding what games were the best.

[StealthLurker]

Hmm that bad eh? I know it's a one hit death game.

On the topic of Famicom stuff, what's the deal with how damned dirty these things tend to get? I know the Japanese back in the 80s had some habits like smoking, disposable stuff, and so on but yeesh. I got my 5 games in the mail today, one is smoker yellowed (F1-Race) and also that one and another the pins were closer to black than shiny and took a LOT of work that my thumb hurts from getting it right. Even the clean games still brought up some gray gunk to the q-tip and wet magic eraser. I've had my range of good to crap with NES pick ups, but I've rarely if ever seen a US game that damn blackened.

Hmmm that's weird. I've rarely had problems like that. In my experience the Japanese used games I've picked up, some labelled as straight "junk" and "dirty" were immaculate/mint by US seller standards. I'm pretty OCD too with q-tipping, cleaning, magic eraserin', resealable baggy and clear box protectoring all my games.

[bb_hood]

On the topic of Famicom stuff, what's the deal with how damned dirty these things tend to get? I know the Japanese back in the 80s had some habits like smoking, disposable stuff, and so on but yeesh. I got my 5 games in the mail today, one is smoker yellowed (F1-Race) and also that one and another the pins were closer to black than shiny and took a LOT of work that my thumb hurts from getting it right. Even the clean games still brought up some gray gunk to the q-tip and wet magic eraser. I've had my range of good to crap with NES pick ups, but I've rarely if ever seen a US game that damn blackened.

I have noticed this also, Ive got quite a few famicom games and all were ordered from Japan. ALL of them were wicked dirty when I cleaned them. So much black stuff on the pins. Maybe when they 'blow' on the game they also exhale cigarette smoke into the cart.

[Tanooki]

Maybe, that would explain both the outside and inside of F1-Race. The US based stuff (that was not just picked up in a Japanese lot left as-is) has been very nice, just the usual quick rub to get it totally nice thing going on there like my Armadillo was already sparkling inside and out.

Stealth, my thumb still hurts from working those carts over I got in that auction lot. I found since I can't get into the games themselves other methods, but they get painful. I have baby-qtips which are thick stemmed and have a fatty center with thicker cotton and they help a lot. Also I have these pinchers on a rubber handle and I rip a small piece of magic eraser off with 91% isopropyl alcohol on it and rub away with that. It worked on everything but F1-Race, it's just fubar overall but it fires up fine so whatever, everything else the boards are my standard of clean which appears to be yours short of bagging and boxing.


Yes there are a good many Japanese Famicom games that have little to no language in them where you lose little to nothing. Armadillo I mentioned, the menu off the title screen is, and some text junk for a page before it starts with the basic story is too (Easily had online) but the rest is fine. Much of the Namco(t) arcade games are straight enough ports so no language issues there either. You usually run only into severe problems with adventure games with RPG elements (Bio Senshi Dan and other 'Goonies II' style games), textual adventures/mysteries like Famicom Club, action rpgs, rpgs, and simulations. Those you'll hit a wall with but anything else you can just ignore it as it's fluff (like the 'Thank you mario/king has been changed' texts of SMB3), opening stories (armadillo), and other oddball little popup boxes as it's unneeded, and in the few cases it might a quick faq check has it.


Right now I"m getting slowly pissed off at US customs out of Chicago OHare. They've been sitting on Moon Crystal and Crisis Force famiclones for 4 going on tomorrow 5 days they notified the post office it was going to them, and it hasn't gone anywhere yet. I looked up their name on google and it's pages of pissed off people so I'm hoping they don't just sit and stare at it for 2 weeks before shipping it the last few hundred miles left. Also won Mitsume ga Tooru a few days ago, clown finally got a number to ship on it in the last 18-24 hours and ebay said it would ship within 1 day so that sucks too. I also got a copy of Joy Mech FIght coming shortly from a NA member on the west coast, that should be fun, a Nintendo made wannabe robot street fighter game.

[ProjectCamaro]

Right now I"m getting slowly pissed off at US customs out of Chicago OHare. They've been sitting on Moon Crystal and Crisis Force famiclones for 4 going on tomorrow 5 days they notified the post office it was going to them, and it hasn't gone anywhere yet. I looked up their name on google and it's pages of pissed off people so I'm hoping they don't just sit and stare at it for 2 weeks before shipping it the last few hundred miles left. Also won Mitsume ga Tooru a few days ago, clown finally got a number to ship on it in the last 18-24 hours and ebay said it would ship within 1 day so that sucks too. I also got a copy of Joy Mech FIght coming shortly from a NA member on the west coast, that should be fun, a Nintendo made wannabe robot street fighter game.

This scares me, my Neo Geo AES reached O'Hare's customs today. I didn't think anything of but still decided to Google it and found the same complaints you did. Hopefully we don't get stuck waiting the 45 days they can hold it without notice or documented reason.

[bb_hood]

Right now I"m getting slowly pissed off at US customs out of Chicago OHare. They've been sitting on Moon Crystal and Crisis Force famiclones for 4 going on tomorrow 5 days they notified the post office it was going to them, and it hasn't gone anywhere yet. I looked up their name on google and it's pages of pissed off people so I'm hoping they don't just sit and stare at it for 2 weeks before shipping it the last few hundred miles left. Also won Mitsume ga Tooru a few days ago, clown finally got a number to ship on it in the last 18-24 hours and ebay said it would ship within 1 day so that sucks too. I also got a copy of Joy Mech FIght coming shortly from a NA member on the west coast, that should be fun, a Nintendo made wannabe robot street fighter game.

Did you have them shipped EMS? Just curious. Whenever I buy something from Japan and have it shipped EMS it takes 4-5 days, and regular air mail is always 2 weeks.

[Tanooki]

Not entirely sure I'll have to ask the guy. He goes by tracker on NA, American living in Taiwan, and he has a great selection of famiclones, multicarts, and asian stuff for other systems too. It wouldn't surprise me if it was airmail, and it was accepted on the 18th, at the post office/airport on the 21st, and then in the US on the 23rd at O'Hare and it shall sit there until they're motivated. It seems silly when it could arrive in 6 day (18th to 24th) if customs wouldn't do a sit and spin on it.

I found another Famicom game I'm interested in, Konami of course, and goofy. It's that Yume Penguin Monogatari title with Pentaru on it. You can't die, you can just fail in it, but it's not that easy. Basically you're a fatass and your prissy girlfriend is fed up. You need to clear each stage in a set time or she'll call and break up with you. The 'damage' you take is the enemy throwing food at you if they don't just knock you over, so you have a fat meter, and even if you finish the game, if you've got thunder thighs she'll break up with you anyway! :D It's goofy like Kid Dracula, Twinbee and Parodius, but it looks like a quite fun platformer.

[SparTonberry]

Watch out, that game has protection too if you get a clone copy. I think if the title screen is altered, it jacks up the difficulty to near-if-not-impossible levels. (shorter time limit, one hit takes you to maximum fat level)
(another game, Kid Dracula will make itself literally impossible by removing all non-player sprites except on level 1.)

[bb_hood]

Not entirely sure I'll have to ask the guy. He goes by tracker on NA, American living in Taiwan, and he has a great selection of famiclones, multicarts, and asian stuff for other systems too. It wouldn't surprise me if it was airmail, and it was accepted on the 18th, at the post office/airport on the 21st, and then in the US on the 23rd at O'Hare and it shall sit there until they're motivated. It seems silly when it could arrive in 6 day (18th to 24th) if customs wouldn't do a sit and spin on it.



Probably air mail. EMS is usually around 20$ for a small/meduim sized package.
In my experience its a better idea to save up and buy a bunch of games at once and have them shipped EMS. One of the last things I ordered from Japan was a Saturn Virtua Stick in box, shipping was like 60$ EMS but it showed up 3 days after paying. I was like "whoa super fast".

[Tanooki]

bb: Makes sense problem is it's hard to create a package when I'm all over the place on random stuff but if I could do a catch all I would.

The Penguin game, that one is an official one. I had no idea it had a death blow code hiding in there to punish badly made famiclones.

[Tanooki]

Well decided to wake this back up.

I've been on a little pick up mini flurry the last few days.

I grabbed that Yume Penguin Monogatari game with Daiku no Gen San, also Mitsume ga Tooru a few days earlier too, and Kyattou Ninden Teyandee yesterday evening. The Samurai Pizza Cats is notable to me, ebay for some reason gave me free money to use with a code ($15) which I accidentally noticed hiding at the bottom of a page (they never emailed me, check your account summary people as it ends May 2nd) so it was $18 shipped.

I can't wait to tear into these games, and the 3 Eyed Warrior game should be here today too.

[Gatucaman]

Finally my first 2 Famicom games arrived!

http://i.imgur.com/KZlowm9.jpg

And Son of a Bitch, Gun Nac really becomes next to impossible at the last 2 stages, (Tough to be fair, unlike Zanac or even Guardian Legend, the difficluty in Gun Nac increases gradually, as it should been, heck at the beginning the game seems to easy, and very enjoyable).

I spent all of last night repeating the last stage until i gave up., and i never been able to get to the final boss 2nd form with more than 2 lifes :puppydogeyes:

Does anyone knows if the No Death Mode, Bomb Converter works in the Japanese version?

[Tanooki]

Good grabs, especially the non-localized Wai Wai World 2 as that game is just a fantastic platformer(more or less, has a few oddball stages.) Speaking of that, get a faq, one of the breakpoints in the game where you can choose one or the other level, one of them is a quiz so if you don't know Japanese you're dead.

[Gatucaman]

Good grabs, especially the non-localized Wai Wai World 2 as that game is just a fantastic plattaformer (more or less, has a few oddball stages.) Speaking of that, get a FAQ, one of the breakpoints in the game where you can choose one or the other level, one of them is a quiz so if you don't know Japanese you're dead.

Well, I more or less gave a 7.8 to this game, it has some shitty levels, mainly the 1st level which is a scrolling level and is sloooooooooooooooow, (but it has in between a nice shooting mid-section).

Then there's the Baby Upa level, the 1st part is ok (i haven't seen a copy of the famicom cart version on Ebay:puppydogeyes:) but is followed by a REALLY CRAPPY underwater vertical scrolling section, is too slow and it wasn't even "tested" (the vertical scrolling is the slowest you ever seen, there's barely any enemies, say if you start with Upa (the baby), he has a nice special animation for swimming, but there are no Change items, so it's still gonna run out, they had these items that only he can open, but with the slow scrolling and the lack of C Items, what's the point?, heck, there isn't even a Boss!)

And i HATE the Giant Gradius Boss Ship Stage!

Now, what i Really loved

* The Twin Bee Stages (Fuck damn, i love Twin Bee!)
* The Contra Stage
* The 1st Gradius Stage (and i don't even like Gradius on NES/Famicom, such broken game :P)
* The Colorful Graphics (tough the graphics in the Goemon Stage, are............well some of them are bad (Let's just say, Graphic Background Tile Failure)
* Playing as Bill Rizer (DA BEST, tough it sucks you cant shoot diagonal or crouch down at all XP)
* The Soundtrack!
* It's 2 Co-op!
* The Frogger-Inspired stage before Dracula's Castle!
* The Variety in stages, (The Twin Bee Vertical Shoot-em-up stages, which even has a Lode Runner section at the end of each one, The own unique Shumup mid stage in the 1st level (the rest of that level SUCKS!), the Gradius Stages, the Frogger Stage and...........well, the special game/quiz stage (which is impossible for me)

Overall the game is OK, but that's it, and i have already beat it.

Back to my question for Gun-Nac, do all the cheats work in the japanese version?.

One more thing, could we please keep this thread alive?, even if it is just to show off our collections or pick-ups for famicom (these 2 are my 2nd and 3rd REAL famicom games!, i used to have Famista 89, but, well, i got scammed by some douche who gave me a Multicart, that was a crappy 9999999999 in 1 multicart, that was really just 8 unique games!, but then again, never liked Famista 89)

[Tanooki]

I think the 7.8 however you got to it is a little low. I'd call it a middling 8. I don't like auto-scroll but it's done in a way it won't get you squashed unless you're really stupid about it, like in SMB3 which has them too. I agree on all the positives and much of the negatives, and I guess I wouldn't hate the quiz if I could read it, but it still seems retardedly out of place.

I keep posting on this now and again to keep it alive as it's just a fun thing to explore if you get the adapter or hardware for it. We missed out on some legitimately fun stuff that was either too goofy, or perhaps some license got in the way (Konami Rampart smokes the other.)

I have no idea about GunNac, not sure who here would without firing up an emulator since I'd think people would have the US version.