What is your most RECENT import? Post often!

[Kid Fenris]

Club Capcom/CAP Stuff

Thanks for posting these. Some old Capcom artbooks have the same illustrations, but it looks like Club Capcom ran them much larger.

I always enjoy seeing stuff like this. So many game-related Japanese books and magazine are undocumented.

[Tron 2.0]

Pretty excited about this one. Been wanting to play the CD version of Neo Turf Masters for a long time. Last Hope will not stay sealed for long either

It's on the gween ! Congrats on getting ntm that's one of the few golf games that i ever play.Other then the fact the ngcd version does have a extra course.

[StealthLurker]

Some stuff that came in (disregard the domestic stuff).



Also in a modded SD card adapter compatible with the NeoGeo X console. Also came in with 2 mini-SD cards loaded with 50 games each.






Pretty nifty!




Hmmm that's weird! Forgot I had him do a famicom style cart custom.




That sure looks familiar.




Joystick gamers pictorial book. Nice "coffee table" style book with artsy pictures of "neglected" japanese arcades off the beaten path.










Also a bonus ordering shmup related items from my guy in Japan. Always throws in a bunch of little items in for free, including chocolate bars haha.




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[StealthLurker]

Even though this isn't necessarily an import, some other things that came in this week that I'm totally digging right now...

Some custom made 3D logo signs. Really love how these turned out. The NeoGeo logo is 24" in diameter! Lettering is raised.
























I love it!





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[StealthLurker]

Ooops, almost forgot about these. More recent pickups.

Yes that copy of Border Down is sealed... and for only 100 bucks shipped. Quite a deal imho. ;D




Old (right - original japanese PC version) vs the new (left - New "enhanced" PSP version)



Gameplay footage of Gunhound. Think of it as a faster paced version of Cybernator (SNES) / Assault Suits Valken (SFC)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19NlukN8Vmk

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[StealthLurker]

Just in today... The utterly gorgeous Macross 30th Anniversary Limited Edition PS3 game. So much artwork included. Even has a book that goes over 30 years of the Macross games that have been released!

Gameplay/Trailer video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovuY36fT30k






















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[Dire 51]

Here's my acquisitions from the past couple months:



Larger pic

[SparTonberry]

Yes... you are finally mine!






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Are the sellers on amazon Japan serious? 50,000 yen loose!
If that price is even remotely realistic, then I guess I will never own this game.

[Parodius Duh!]

Some famicom repros





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HOW DO YOU DO IT?! Not only do you have a copy of the unreleased Strider Japanese prototype, now you also have a copy of the unreleased Legendary Wings Japanese prototype?!?! You would be a legend, a savior to the NES/Famicom community if you could dump them man. The Japanese have been hoarding these two prototypes for decades. Im sure many would donate if you started a kickstarter page or something and Id certainly help to promote it, Im obviously not suggesting you dump them for free nor am I implying that you are obligated to dump them, it would just be really, really, really, really incredibly amazingly LEGENDARY cool if it happened, youre like the only chance for us westerners to play these unreleased protos, Im glad they ended up in your hands and if you decide to ever part with them I will send a very reasonable offer your way . You seriously must have the greatest Famicom collection in the US. Blow my mind everytime you post a pic hahaha

[StealthLurker]

Are the sellers on amazon Japan serious? 50,000 yen loose!
If that price is even remotely realistic, then I guess I will never own this game.

I've seen loose copies go for less. Still expensive, but not quite that much. However they rarely pop up... at least when I was looking. I got my CIB copy for roughly that, plus middleman fees and shipping. I also saw another person on another forum grab a CIB copy, but his was around the 700+ USD mark.

HOW DO YOU DO IT?! Not only do you have a copy of the unreleased Strider Japanese prototype, now you also have a copy of the unreleased Legendary Wings Japanese prototype?!?! You would be a legend, a savior to the NES/Famicom community if you could dump them man. The Japanese have been hoarding these two prototypes for decades. Im sure many would donate if you started a kickstarter page or something and Id certainly help to promote it, Im obviously not suggesting you dump them for free nor am I implying that you are obligated to dump them, it would just be really, really, really, really incredibly amazingly LEGENDARY cool if it happened, youre like the only chance for us westerners to play these unreleased protos, Im glad they ended up in your hands and if you decide to ever part with them I will send a very reasonable offer your way . You seriously must have the greatest Famicom collection in the US. Blow my mind everytime you post a pic hahaha

I'll think about PD. I've been approached and almost harassed by some people on FamicomWorld.com which I didn't really appreciate... but I'll think about it. I don't have any dumping gear, but I doubt that's not too hard to acquire.

Oh just FYI... I'm not the only westerner with these. I know of 2 others. One of them you might know or heard of... his online handle is Shou-sama.

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[Ed Oscuro]

Is the other Dragon1952? He has some interesting official (as he says, and I don't think he's lying) "repros" of some games. It's kind of frustrating that the inside story of the releases of some famous games isn't well documented, on top of the limited release of some good games to start with, that is.

Zas looks pretty cool...will check it out in an emulator; who knows, I might even look for one of my own!

Right now I'm feeling foolish; bought two copies of Genocide X68000, the second three times as expensive as the first and I didn't need to. But I guess I'll have the pick of the crop now.

Working on disassembling a X68000 XVI for servicing. Actually rather straightforward inside except that you have to tear down pretty much everything to get the PSU totally out (without cutting wires that is), and that's a common task.

[StealthLurker]

Is the other Dragon1952? He has some interesting official (as he says, and I don't think he's lying) "repros" of some games. It's kind of frustrating that the inside story of the releases of some famous games isn't well documented, on top of the limited release of some good games to start with, that is.

Zas looks pretty cool...will check it out in an emulator; who knows, I might even look for one of my own!

Right now I'm feeling foolish; bought two copies of Genocide X68000, the second three times as expensive as the first and I didn't need to. But I guess I'll have the pick of the crop now.

Working on disassembling a X68000 XVI for servicing. Actually rather straightforward inside except that you have to tear down pretty much everything to get the PSU totally out (without cutting wires that is), and that's a common task.

Well that's not the other guy that I know of... but he might, who knows. Yeah it's a bit of a "shady underworld" with this type of stuff... especially in the NeoGeo world.

One thing to note about Zas in an emulator, some of the effects with the backgrounds won't work quite right. I don't think it (at least I've heard) it even works properly on a Super Gameboy player for SNES. To get the "full feel", you need to run it on an old school GB... so if you have a flashcart of some sort, that would help.

Are you repairing/doing "fixer uppers" on X68000s in general or is this for your own personal use? I've been on the fence about getting one due to my "nervousness" and past experiences with 5.25" floppies. However I've recently started buying up some x68000 games, so I might be taking the plunge soon. I'd be interested in finding a source that could provide fully working, upgraded and possibly customized units.

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[Ed Oscuro]

If I could solder, and if I had a soldering iron, I'm sure I could do it. However I'm just tearing one apart right now to send off a few boards for cap replacement (the power supplies seem most problematic on these units, and some people just cut the cables leading from the PSU and replace it with a modern laptop power supply, which could be a good idea for a variety of reasons). I finally got a X68000 RGB -> VGA PC connector cable last month for video output to a standard VGA monitor, turned it on, and saw the command prompt when I just wanted to make sure the cable worked. When I tried playing a game a couple weeks later, it died on powerup...such is life with the X68000. Despite having games for over 10 years now, I've never played one! Sheesh!

I've been talking with a guy called BlueBMW on NFG Forums about it. He, as well as SuperDeadite on Shmups Forum / YouTube, know a lot about the X68000 series.

I've got an Ace HD torn down around here, which I need to put back together; it's not the prettiest but it's probably serviceable. I also might finally get my Pro desktop format computer shipped from NFGman later on. I'll keep that one though.

I know you didn't ask, but there are a lot of interesting little wrinkles to using a X68000: CPU speed, RAM available, MIDI quality, floppy format, and hard drives. Some of these are more important to pay attention to than others, though, so let's sort them out.

For playing most games off floppy disk, even the original model X68000s will work perfectly. For most all games, just making sure the RAM is 2MB (1MB is standard in the earliest models, but 2MB was standard later) is better.
The original models have a 10MHz 68000 CPU; the XVI models have a switch for 10 or 16MHz; and finally there are some 68030-based units. I have seen patches for games to run on these units; I don't know if that's to resolve conflicts between the different hardware, or to let those games run more smoothly. I've been told twice now that even Geograph Seal, the forerunner of Jumping Flash, a 3D hybrid FPS / platforming game, runs perfectly at 16MHz on the XVI.

RAM is easy to come by in some quantities. I think I've gotten lucky and just discovered a board in my XVI that is probably for 12MB (it should be for 10 though, the max I've been told of is 12MB, and 2MB is built in to the XVI, but this board says SIMM12, so I'll have to research it), which would let me run everything without RAM limitations. 12MB of RAM is used in a text-heavy Japanese cyberpunk RPG called Illusion City (which also should be nice on the MSX, anyway), and I'm told higher amounts of RAM allows the use of floppy drive emulation - for running games off an internal flash drive, for instance. 6MB and a 16MHz machine will let Nemesis '90 Kai play some extra PCM sound channels (sound effects). But for most games this is overkill. BlueBMW seems to have some access to 4MB cards and those will probably be enough.

MIDI quality - you can select any MIDI module you like and plug it directly into the back of the X68000, though check out SuperDeadite's X68000 MIDI parade videos for a look at his setup. This gets into the wonderful, convoluted world of Roland MIDI modules, with the MT-32 Old and New revisions, or the CM-64 and its two component halves (purchasable seperately as the CM-32p and CM-32l). Right now I've got a couple MT-32 units and a CM-32p, just need to find a CM-32l for a decent price and I'm set (but yowch, the last one on eBay was really expensive). Other modules will work but Roland was the standard. Of course, many games - especially arcade ports - can make great use of the internal Yamaha FM synthesis chip, which is identical to that in many of the games ported to the machine.

Floppy format - there are both full-size (both desktop and tower format) units, and "compact" units of a few different makes. I sold a XVI Compact to Arasoi and sometimes I kind of wish I hadn't...but he puts it to good use. The Compacts are quite nice looking, but they are not only more cramped than the full tower units, they also only have 3.5" drives installed, so you'll have to hunt down external 5.25" drives if you want to run original game disks (of course you could always roll your own floppy disks or run off a flash drive).

Hard drives - some X68000 machines come with internal drives, these models are denoted by -HD after the model name, i.e. ACE HD. These old drives might be interesting to look at now but they won't be fast or large. It would be much neater to use a modern compact flash drive for essentially unlimited storage. There are various compact flash to SCSI adapters, which are useful on a variety of old computers, such as the well-regarded AztecMonster from Japan (which will be my choice). However there is another model discrepancy to respect here: Some X68000 units use a forerunner of SCSI, called SASI (Shugart Associates Serial Interface), and I'm also told that some X68000 units have weird SCSI connectors internally.

If you can wing it, the XVI tower seems to be the most compatible, fully, and cheaply expandable X68000 out there (ignoring the 68030 which I don't know much about). But other units are good too.

Anyway, didn't mean to write a tract but hopefully that's a good start to getting you thinking about which choices you'd like to make in getting a 68000!

If you like, when I get a chance I will take another look at that Ace HD and see if it's anything you might be interested in. Has some bits and pieces broke on the plastic (rough handling, was sent from an aircraft carrier originally) but hopefully it will run.

[StealthLurker]

*Lots of info*

Thanks for the general run down Ed! I appreciate it.

I've been casually checking out the x68000 for years now, and the variations in models is something I haven't quite got a handle on yet. Good to know that in general, the XVIs are the "best all around" family of models to look into.

From what I've read, BlueBMW seems to be the name that pops up as a US based source for these things. I guess he's still in the game these days.

Yeah one of the potential upgrades I'd be interested in would be more RAM. Also the ability to use a compact flash for most day to day use. Then occasionally use real disks for times when I'm in the mood to "keep it real" so to speak, haha.

I've watched a bunch of videos with different games and different MIDI setups in the past. Very impressive stuff. I'd definitely want to try and get some Roland MTs if I did take the dive.

I'd also want a real Sharp CRT to complete the setup. I've been seeing them lately on YJ. I have shipped RGB CRTs from Japan before... along with hundreds of laserdiscs at a time... pachinko and pachislo machines... so I know how ridiculous shipping can be!

Thanks again for the overview!

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[Ed Oscuro]

I've had both Sharp and Fujitsu (FM Towns) monitors shipped to me. They were small (around 15" I think) and broken, so I had to get rid of them.

Right now I'm using a 15-pin RGB to PC VGA cable and it works fine. I'm told some games will start in the "wrong" mode for this (15KHz, i.e. TV frequencies, versus 31KHz, or PC monitor frequency) but of these most should be switchable with relative ease (and those which send you into a menu you can't see, like a few Capcom releases, have had info about the necessary key presses posted online). Anyway, that'll be up to you, but personally I would keep a nice PC CRT monitor for this.

[BricatSegaFan]

Keio flying squadron 2. Really enjoying this game

[SparTonberry]

Let us take a moment to Remember Minky.
http://www.mediafire.com/view/?i23oo4tu1pxlnlo
http://www.mediafire.com/view/?v096jw8xwiv3ehz

Sent bubblewrapped, so I wouldn't blame the seller but the USPS.

[The 1 2 P]

I haven't posted my import finds in this thread in well over a year but thats because I've been acquiring most of them with domestic stuff and have just been using the recent finds thread to post everything. But recently I got two shipments from a new store I found in Japan:



Ohsame Game and Super Return of The Jedi were both from online. The rest were from the same import store I got these from...



All of this stuff was alot cheaper than when it turns up elsewhere. The Alan Wake limited edition game was less than half of what the cheapest copies on ebay and amazon are going for. In the case of the Private Idol games, I was having to rely on when these games popped up online in order to be able to snag them but I now finished a significant part(it's almost done) of that collection all in one place.

I'm still trying to figure out how many of those Xbox-ism disc there are. I have several and while some years have one for every season(winter, spring, etc) some only have one season and one alternative(holiday, etc). The premium TGS xbox-ism book was also a nice unexpected find. Considering how badly Xbox/360 stuff sells in Japan you would think that the majority of online stores over there would sell those items accordingly but unfortunately most sell them as if Xbox stuff is some of the hottest items over there. It's always nice to find Japanese stores that sell Xbox stuff for dirt cheap, as in less than $5 each.

I have a few more items coming from ebay next week and then I'm going to place another order for a few things I missed my first two times around at that online store.

[Dire 51]

Let us take a moment to Remember Minky.
http://www.mediafire.com/view/?i23oo4tu1pxlnlo
http://www.mediafire.com/view/?v096jw8xwiv3ehz

Sent bubblewrapped, so I wouldn't blame the seller but the USPS.

That is one of the saddest things I've seen in a long time. Hope it didn't cost too much.

Over the past month, I've gotten the following:



Larger pic

[Tanooki]

Being here I don't usually think I'm going to find much with import games, but being back the last six months I've had a three very nice hits. A couple months back(never posted on either I think) I found for $10 each Daigassou Band Bros and Jump Ultimate Stars both complete in fantastic shape, don't have a pic of the Jump game as I didn't keep it as it wasn't fun for me and those were at a flea market with an overpriced mexican lady vendor who didn't know squat about Japanese games other than they're unreadable (score or they'd have been 3x as high as she goes.)
Attachment 6488

At the same time more or less Half Price Books of all things came up with my second (over the years when I lived here before and found Tales of Destiny PSP - UK then) PAL hit there. That one I've wanted since I got teased playing it for real five years earlier with no luck and as more luck would have it a shop I regular 1/2 way across town had the FreeLoader needed to run it on my gamecube both were $10/each. The game is in mint shape, even included a PAL formatted memory card 251 too they threw in with it!
Attachment 6489

And finally the big hit was last Friday. I've wanted the series of games since they dropped, and as luck would have it the three I've wanted most BAM! Show up at Half Price Books (southern location in town from the Doshin one close to me.) I just went in there needing to get out as I was getting couped up feeling. I also in the same case also spotted a sequel title to a game I've wanted going back nearly to its release too. All of this was $5 each, and I found later not knowing but the bitgenerations games are $30-40 each shipped online and the other, Kururin Paradise rolls in the $28-38 range. Super score, all dead mint and barely touched looking at back of the cart wear.
Attachment 6490Attachment 6491