retro game collecting around the world? [Archive]

christianscott27

09-15-2003, 10:21 AM

lets think of this hobby around the world, where we see it and where we dont and why-

N.America- well of course the US and Canada, well represented here. never heard of a mexican game collector, theres a sizeable educated middle class there i cant imagine there are no collectors, anybody?

S.America- well we all now know about the scene in Argentina! i've dealt with a couple of brazilian dealer/collectors. what about the other countries, we need to seek em out and get those trades going

W.Europe- British collectors abound as do germans and the occasional N.European collector but what about France, Italy, Spain and the rest?

E. Europe- locked behind the iron curtain all those years these gamers missed out on the capitalist classic era but i have heard of east german pongs and funny famiclones coming out of russia, anybody have any insight?

Mideast- again little is known other than this or that famiclone, toddst brought back some crazy genny clone from iran, what else is out there?

Africa- well yes its a mess but what about S.Africa, i bet they have some sort of a game scene going on.

Asia- there must be collectors here, hong kong, tokyo, taiwan, seoul? these places like games even more than americans, but you never hear anything about retro game collecting there. i'm sure there must be hundreds of asians lording over their own "rooms of doom", how can we reach them though?

Oceana- my kiwi wife hates that regional term but i'm talking about Oz, NZ and other islands of note. we know about collectors in Oz and NZ but what about the phillipenes, indonesia and so on?

i know language is a barrier but in this modern world we should be able to work it out. i'd love to see this hobby get worldwide connections, imagine the trades, think of the TRADES!

Jorpho

09-15-2003, 10:53 AM

I think attempting to assemble a collection of pirated video games from other countries would be a massive undertaking.

If I'm not mistaken, the NES was never actually released in Russia, where the most common NES clone was known as the Dendy.
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The Unknown Gamer

09-15-2003, 11:45 AM

Keir

09-15-2003, 11:55 AM

Mideast- again little is known other than this or that famiclone, toddst brought back some crazy genny clone from iran, what else is out there?
rsiddall has some Middle Eastern Atari 2600 clone. He's tried unsuccessfully to get rid of it several times.

hydr0x

09-15-2003, 01:29 PM

W.Europe- British collectors abound as do germans and the occasional N.European collector but what about France, Italy, Spain and the rest?

E. Europe- locked behind the iron curtain all those years these gamers missed out on the capitalist classic era but i have heard of east german pongs and funny famiclones coming out of russia, anybody have any insight?

Africa- well yes its a mess but what about S.Africa, i bet they have some sort of a game scene going on.

W.Europe: You're missing the dutch collectors here, also austria :)

E.Europe: You can't count east german pongs, cause the reason those were build is the fact that East Germany always wanted to compete with W.Germany ;)

Africa: I do own a famiclone from Algeria, so that's North Africe, i'd bet there also are clones from Libya (<< spelled wrong, right?), Egypt, Morocco

Jorpho

09-15-2003, 01:50 PM

But if your going to collect pirated video games there should be 1 on your list of must haves. Street Fighter 2 for the NES, I know this game was never OFFICALLY released by anyone. Game Pro said that much severial years ago when they got wind of it. But it would be certianly one of a kind

One of a kind? Not quite. I've seen lists of so-called Hong Kong originals; things like that get released several times over, with names like Street Fighter III, Street Fighter II 10 Character Edition, etc. Some say these games (and other things like NES Tekken and NES Mortal Kombat) all use the same generic fighting game engine.

(The Nintendo Information Repository (http://www.gamersgraveyard.com/repository/) used to be a great source of information for pirated games, but the relevant pages were taken down a few months ago.)
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christianscott27

09-15-2003, 02:04 PM

Sylentwulf

09-15-2003, 02:05 PM

I ship internationally a LOT so I have a pretty good feel as to what countries collect, and which don't (and gaming in general)

N.America- U.S. and Canada are a given :) I HAVE sent to Mexico a couple times, probably only 5-6 times in 3 years though.

S.America- Argentina and Brazil are really the only place I've EVER sent ANYTHING to south america, shipping charges are VERY high as well.

Europe- Germany, U.K., Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Netherlands, France, Ireland, and Denmark are all pretty heavy gamers, I send out to all of these countries at least 4-5 times per month on average. U.K. and Germany lead the pack by FAR though. Ireland and denmark rarely order though.

Mideast- I've sent to the places I'm ALLOWED to :) Obviously nothing has gone to iraq in a while. (although I HAVE sent there) Israel actually has a decent amount of stuff sent to them <shrug>

Africa- No. It doesn't exist. I've sent one item to south africa in my life, and it never got there.

Asia- Japan is a gimme, I send there once a month or so. China and india, the 2 biggest countries on the planet, have no gaming, which to this day confuses the hell out of me? I have sent to them once or twice, but that's it. FKA Russia gets a couple things here and there, but not much.

Australia - Lots of gamers down under. Plain and simple. These guys rank up with germany and U.K. for worldly gamers.

slapdash

09-15-2003, 02:50 PM

I used to be in contact with a guy from South Africa... At the time, he was kind of alone in it, though perhaps there's a scene now. I got a couple Creatvision carts out of him (I think I sent him some Intellivision stuff in return) before we lost contact. He mentioned a Conic system too, which I suspect was one of those GI-chip systems like the Conics that have shown up in Europe.

IntvGene

09-15-2003, 03:15 PM

anybody got any Jp room of doom pics? links?

Here's a link to a House of Doom in Japan:
http://www2.odn.ne.jp/~caf05310/famicom/we/knock.html

And, this site is an interesting history of Japanese retro-gaming. It just goes to show how popular it is there.
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/cvs/odyssey/

devilman

09-15-2003, 03:17 PM

Zubiac666

09-15-2003, 04:37 PM

anybody got any Jp room of doom pics? links?

well....there is this ONE guy,who is (i think) unique in the world.
Imagine a dude(or better a "Life?What's that?"-guy) who collects famicom games. i think he owns about 1000 or even more.
Not unusual ; u might think
BUT he actually has only ONE famicom-game......yeah ONE (1)
but this one(some kind of baseball game) a hundret or thousand times

When I saw the pics posted below the first time I nearly dropped K.O!
This maniac lives/works for his famicom and his baseball game.
I mean: He has a floor made of famicom-games(S-I-C-K) and he takes baths in his games (like I did with my SNES-games *looking at my avatar* ....but I wasn't naked...uuhh)

however....
ENJOY
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/moe/pro/takarajima.gif
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/moe/pro/mp3001-w240.jpg
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/moe/pro/mp400a-v240.jpg
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/moe/pro/mp500-v240.jpg
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/moe/pro/mp600-w240.jpg
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/moe/pro/mp700-w360.jpg
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/moe/pro/mp1000b-w240.jpg
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/moe/pro/mp1000e-w240.jpg
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/moe/pro/mp1111c-w240.jpg
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/moe/pro/mp1234-w240.jpg
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/moe/pro/mp1500c-v240.jpg
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/moe/pro/mp2000b-v240.jpg
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/moe/pro/mp-fro1-w240.jpg
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/moe/pro/mp1500e-w240.jpg

here is link if pics don't work:
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/moe/pro/tokubetu.htm

http://www.smilies.nl/eek2.gif

Kevin Listwan

09-15-2003, 05:51 PM

When I was studying in Poland I ran into tons of Famicom games (all pirated to the best of my knowledge) and Famiclones all over Eastern Europe. I wouild have bought tons of the stuff but I was not interested in it at the time.

Also I have a Rom on my computer of Street fighter II for the NES, it is pretty poor.

christianscott27

09-15-2003, 06:08 PM

that bath tub picture made my day, gotta bookmark that one :)

Tom61

09-15-2003, 06:36 PM

I think attempting to assemble a collection of pirated video games from other countries would be a massive undertaking.

Just assembling a website of pirated video games is a massive undertaking. Take a look at this site dedicated to famicom/NES pirate games and consoles:

http://famiclone.emucamp.com/indexy.shtml

That should keep you busy for a while...

Classicgamesdepot

09-15-2003, 07:25 PM

Sylentwulf Pretty much said it,(not counting canada) UK is my biggest international buyer, I ship a lot of games out to France too, the Japanese buyers tend to buy the US only games releases, 3 of the 4 Snatchers Iv sold have gone to japan, I always find it funny when Japanese gamers buy us only titles of games like Magic school bus. I can't remember ever shipping a game to India either, but I definitly would like to see some of the game rooms on the UK side, although they seem to be HUGE on pc gaming

GaijinPunch

09-15-2003, 07:42 PM

When I sold games, I sent to a lot of places. Can't say there was a lot of places outside of NA and England, but a few to Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, Mexico, and a couple to South America.

On Ebay for 2 years, I think I only sent 2-3 packages to other Asian spots. Korea once, Singapore once, and HK once. Generally, they've got access to stuff other than Ebay.

There are plenty of Retro collectors in Japan - a large portion of used games stores in Akihabara are 8-bit to 32-bit, so that alone tells you there's a market to support the heavy rent in that part of town.

devilman

09-15-2003, 07:49 PM

Through my little website in England, on the occasions I've sold stuff abroad, it's been mainly Europe - Sweden's popular. Also sent to Poland and I've a regular customer in Italy. I've only sent to the US on a few occasions - it's not terribly often that a US Customer actually follows through with payment for an order... strange.

christianscott27

09-15-2003, 09:43 PM

hey thanks for the maniac mansion rooms of doom link, thats exactly what i was looking for. it makes me smile to see those rooms, the wire choked console shelves, the tightly ordered game shelves, the bulging plastic drawers and the clear love of collecting games. i love seeing all of japan only games and funky consoles, the guy leafing thru his PC engine Hu card album LOL

man it would be great to establish a line of conversation with these guys, they seem to have so much in common with us, its like life on other planets. a few of them even seem to be showing a taste for the older american produced systems, check out door number 6, that guy has atari, vectrex and O2 stuff.
http://www2.odn.ne.jp/~caf05310/famicom/we/sonans/index.html
cool, cool

Saturn Sensei

09-16-2003, 03:37 AM

but what about France

France rules the roost.

They are dead serious about games. Paris actually has a videogame DISTRICT. More than a dozen stores within a few city blocks. Mind-blowing. All the stores are incredibly well stocked and carry all regions and all eras.

I actually found everything on my mental want-list, which is unheard of. I had to be real choosy. It was like a brick-and-mortar ebay. My carry-on on the flight home was filled with nothing but games and accessories.

Most of the stores had everything from 50-60 NeoGeo carts to the latest imports. I am at a loss for words to describe it all.

-------------------------------------------------

London has a very nice retro store too. CEX Retro on Rathbone Place(?). VERY nice selection. Decent prices too(will vary with the exchange-rate).

The Trocadero arcade between Picadilly Circus and Leicester Square is well worth a visit too. Has hundreds of arcade machines, from the latest to the oldes. Only place I have seen Densha de Go outside Japan for instance.

Saturn Sensei

09-16-2003, 04:15 AM

Here are quite a few very impressive UK gameroom pictures:

http://ntsc-uk.domino.org/viewtopic.php?t=6658&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=330

hydr0x

09-16-2003, 06:40 AM

Europe- U.K. and Germany lead the pack by FAR though. Ireland and denmark rarely order though.

Asia- Japan is a gimme, I send there once a month or so. China and india, the 2 biggest countries on the planet, have no gaming, which to this day confuses the hell out of me? I have sent to them once or twice, but that's it. FKA Russia gets a couple things here and there, but not much.

ehm UK and Germany of course lead, many more people live in Germany than e.g. in the Netherlands ;)

China has a lot of gaming, but it's mainly still 16-Bit and mainly pirated, for India i really don't know, but not many people have enough space and money to have ANY hobby

this could be a reason for Japan too, they just don't have enough space for a game room :(

during the war against Iraq i saw several tv reports about the high-society of iraq and they showed all those rich children playing counter-strike and quake 3 :)

Keir

09-16-2003, 09:08 AM

Don't forget Greece!

http://www.aneroussiscontrol.gr/
(Someone just posted this link over in the Collecting forum.)

Ruudos

09-16-2003, 05:14 PM

I think they're quite some collectors in my country, since it's not that big here :)

I have send (sales and trades) stuff to US, Canada, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Australia. Not that much, most stuff doesn't leave the Netherlands.

As far as Poland goes, there are collectors there, check out the links at http://nesfountain.silius.net I have listed a couple of links to Polish collectors, unfortunately some of these sites are gone. Last week I talked to some Polish people, and they definitely knew the Pegasus (most popular NES clone in Poland), they knew Dendy as well. Maybe they can buy some games for me in the future :)

BTW, there are several Street Fighter II ports on NES/Famicom. Most are crappy, but there's also a decent one.

Saturn Sensei

09-24-2003, 03:07 PM

One of the sickest collections I have seen in a while:
http://ntsc-uk.domino.org/viewtopic.php?p=134090#134090 :o :o

The guy has TWO Pippins, an FM Towns, Wondermega, 64 DD, PC Engine LT, complete NGPC, X-Men #1, complete NeoGeo cart, etc, etc ad nauseum.

can_dude

09-24-2003, 03:17 PM

I know or collectors in Chile, Germany, France, and several in the Phillipines. (I know many others from the common countries such as Canada, the UK and New Zealand, but we've already covered those countries.)

dreamcaster

09-25-2003, 07:23 AM

It seems I'm the only Australian collector on this forum. Collecting in Australia seems to have only picked up in the last few years, and it's not so common, mainly due to a smaller population and much higher prices for second-hand games.

E.g. - in second hand stores:

NES carts - with no box or manual, regularly go up to $8 AUS

SNES carts - loose, usually between $10 and $20 AUS

And this is where things go strange....

Atari 2600 carts - loose, up to $15 AUS

but then..... Mega Drive (Genesis) carts - loose, around $5 AUS.

Why the hell am I paying more for 2600 carts????? :angry:

PlayStation and N64 games seem to be consistent at $15-$20 AUS each

Although, the grand prize for the most over priced games in Australian second hand stores is....... Sega Game Gear! $10 - $20 AUS loose! Some games like Columns I've seen for $5 AUS loose.

And as for rare stuff? Forget Panzer Dragoon Saga or Radiant Silvergun. Just try FINDING Saturn games.....they're no where!!!! Unless you want Sega Rally or Daytona USA, you're pretty stuffed.

Atari Jaguar? I've never seen one of these anywhere.

3DO? Only the GoldStar model was available here, and only through special import shops back in the early 90's. Impossible to find.

Sega CD? Nothing. I've seen Road Avenger twice, and that's it.

Oh, and shall I go onto to mention all the stuff that just wasn't released here AT ALL???

NEC Turbo Grafx-16, Atari 5200, Neo Geo...... I don't think I'll ever own one of these unless I pay some exorbitant price on eBay.

Well, I think I've ranted enough for one night.....

Delgrace

09-25-2003, 08:22 AM

Yo dreamcaster, where do you have the most luck picking up stuff? Cash Converters? I'm also in Australia, and Cash Converters is pretty much my only link to classic gaming.

Yes, loose NES carts can go for $10. However, BOXED (haven't found a complete one yet) Sega Master System games are $2. Boxed Mega Drive games $5. Saturn games (complete) are typically $10, Dreamcast $15. I saw a small pile of 3D0 games last time, $8 each; the stack seems to grow by like 1 title a month, there's maybe a half dozen 3D0 games. Not sure if any of them are worth anything, but I'll have to check.

Loose SNES carts I usually find for around...$15? Saw a loose Harvest Moon cart for that price, but seeing as how I don't have a SNES or collect for it, I passed it up. I had like $20 at the time, and didn't really feel like spending it on something that I could maybe "make a buck off". Dumb, yes, but it's pretty much no eBay for me, and I don't know anyone offline who'd buy it. If I had been a digitalpress member at the time, I would've grabbed it for tradebait.

No Atari, no Neo Geo... Few titles of MegaCD games, but no MegaCd, and ditto for GameGear. I have also NEVER come across an import store in my life, so no Radiant Silvergun, like you said. I have managed to pick up Panzer Dragoon Saga, though, plus Panzer Dragoon Zwei, Burning Rangers and Sonic Jam among others.

If you know what you're looking for, it's alright trying to find things. Find a good store, and stick with it.

dreamcaster

09-25-2003, 08:37 AM

Hey! Good to see another Aussie on these forums!

Yeah, Cashies is where most of my stuff comes from, although, I'm starting to have to resort to eBay now.

I suppose I also forget to mention that I'm in Perth, the arse-end of Australia - so my collecting situation is made worse by the isolation of our fair city.

Sega Master System games? Yeah, I see, usually around $3 to $5. Boxed or loose. Mega Drive? Yeah....I've seen $5 boxed ones, if you want another damned EA sports cart.... :angry:

Dreamcast, I must admit, is the only real value system to collect for at the moment. I've never seen games for more than $20, so it's fantastic in that respect. The problem is the damned flimsy cases. Games are common, games in good condition are not.

And I swear if I see another copy of Monaco Racing Simulation, Hydro Thunder or Incoming for DC I think I'm gonna scream. LOL

christianscott27

09-25-2003, 09:29 AM

a few years back when i was in NZ i hit every cash convertors on both islands, made out pretty well with cheap master system games. you guys might want to scoop up the non-US release titles (see rarity lists here) for trading. one thing i noticed a lot of there but almost never here was lynx games, since thats a region free handheld its another nice trade bit.

so we've seen a lot of collections and collectors from around the world, well still no indians or africans but a lot of places have represented. my thought is this, cant we open a channel with those japanese collectors? i'd love to get my hands on some of that stuff thru trading rather than ebaying. i guess maybe i could take a stab at it and hope enough of them speak english...

Delgrace

09-25-2003, 09:44 AM

Games are common, games in good condition are not.

XD Yeah, ditto that for Saturn. Still, if I find a game I want, I'm not that faint hearted. And hey, Cashies has good return policies, so if a CDs scratched to hell and back I'm not financially affected.

And I swear if I see another copy of Monaco Racing Simulation, Hydro Thunder or Incoming for DC I think I'm gonna scream. LOL

Yes, there's usually like 20 odd copies of Virtual On, Sega Rally, stuff like that. Good games, but eh, variety is good. I also know for a fact that there's at least a couple of collectors in my neck of the woods (I'm in Brisbane); whenever you see a guy scoping out boxed Master System games, you are prone to raise an eyebrow.

christianscott27: So you raided and pillaged NZ's Cash Converters, eh? :D See, I'm a kiwi that moved to Australia a little while back, and I occasionally get thoroughly pissed with myself for not getting interested in videogame collecting earlier. My local Cash Converters (which a close friend of my father's worked at, and who probably could've kept me in the know with traded-in games) use to be chock with old Master Systems, Megadrives... GameGears, too. Sega was really big back home.

And thanks for the tradebait tips, dude. Will keep them in mind.

Delgrace

09-25-2003, 09:46 AM

...wait. Do you mean every EVERY Cash Converters? As in every single one?

@_@

What about Whangarei's? That's where I use to live!

Freaky.

christianscott27

09-25-2003, 10:41 AM

well lets see, i'm sure i missed a few but not too many. we started out in auckland drove south to wellington then thru the hutt onto a ferry then christchurch then thru paddock land till alexandra/roxboro then queenstown and duneidan and back up again. i went with a phone book printout of every cash conv. in NZ and drove my wife nuts tracking them down. mostly though modern stuff was high priced even at a good conversion rate, plenty o' master system games though. the best finds were actually at bezerk bros in the cuba st. mall and at the otaro flea outside auckland. i also made a nice prearranged trade with arron in wellington. our long term plans call for moving to wellington (wife is a kiwi) so someday i'll be back to get the rest :)

sorry if my place name spelling is way off.

is bezerk bros. still there? i had a nice long visit with those guys, what a funny bunch of madmen.

Delgrace

09-25-2003, 10:48 AM

dreamcaster

09-25-2003, 11:02 PM

Dude. Cash Converters roadtrip is like some schoolboy fantasy to me. LOL One day. One day, when I'm like a billionaire, and all that. As for your question, I dunno sorry. Never been there.

Cash Converters roadtrip... XD XD XD That kicks ass on so many levels.

I used to do my 'rounds' around Perth, raiding every Cashies I saw. Which was fun for a while (because I actually found stuff worth buying). However, in recent months, things have dried up badly, and you kinda pissed off when you've wasted half a tank of petrol and come home with absolutely nothing.

Hence why I no longer do it.

sniperCCJVQ

09-26-2003, 06:39 AM

JWSzczep

01-10-2005, 09:47 AM

Hi all

Found this topic through google, and am raising it from its grave.

Simply put, I wrote an article for a print based magazine on this very subject.
I stumbled across this topic by searching for key words from article, curious if anyone had uploaded it to the next after publication.

Sorry if this is spam, but I find such a subject irresistebly fascinating, hence why I wrote what I did.

Its featured in this months GamesTM magazine, issue #27, retro section.
Its a UK mag if your wondering.

http://www.gamestm.co.uk/pm/9

theres a brief mention of it on that summary page.

It is very much in theme with what was said here, though please believe me when I say that I hadn't even heard of this topic when writing it.
The story behind it is long and probably boring anyway....

Hope some of you have the chance to read and enjoy it :)

vincewy

01-11-2005, 08:13 AM

I was in Taiwan last month and I met couple Neo-Geo collectors, one has complete Japanese AES collection, some of them are even new and unopened. There're also many collectors of many obscure systems there.

ianoid

01-11-2005, 10:10 AM

seriously, where are the japanese collectors? there have to be some, that place is the headquarters for fanboys and video games. they cant all live to game on the cutting edge, must be somebody stacking up the PC engine, G&W and other good japanese stuff.

anybody got any Jp room of doom pics? links?

Japan is very insular. The language barrier is tall. Collecting is popular as is respect for old games, keeping prices high, as I understand it. Getting really good deals like we do all the time here is much harder, but sometimes you can clean up on systems or software that isn't in vogue, as I've been told. For example, PCE stuff was relatively cheap as it was immensely popular and loose chips reasonably common for a while there.

I have to qualify everything because I've never been to Japan, it's all heresay.

My favorite pages:

http://www.ne.jp/asahi/cvs/odyssey/

http://www8.plala.or.jp/tvgamekan/

I was told that people don't have space for stuff so if they don't leave systems and stuff on the street, they just stack the new systems on top of the old so they end up with a gaming pile.

ianoid

01-11-2005, 10:13 AM

NEC Turbo Grafx-16, Atari 5200, Neo Geo...... I don't think I'll ever own one of these unless I pay some exorbitant price on eBay.

Neo Geo is hard to get anywhere. Can you say trade? Hello? If you find stuff unique to AUS, it's not hard to trade for common systems like 5200s and TG16.

ianoid

01-11-2005, 10:17 AM

South Africa- I remember a post from a guy with an Intellivision in South Africa on the usenet a while back.

Jahfish (venerable 2600 collector) got some 2600 pirates from Thailand a while back- I was very jealous. He had some really cool titles like 'God.'

Oh, and I went shopping a little in Istanbul,Turkey many years back and came up with numerous famiclone carts. Piracy is everywhere. Hardest to find here in the US, methinks. Same trip I hit the big market in Athens, Greece and saw some 2600 pirate consoles and stuff. Even put the pix up on my page at www.ianoid.com under site features.