Game hunt guide for visitors to Japan.

I don't know this character and have never seen it before.
It seems to be a Japanese-only one

 

It's not really a symbol, it's a kanji for "en" or round object so naturally you wouldn't see it outside Japan as only the Japanese understand it as money.

 

Japanese "Kanji" uses Chinese "HanZi"
HanZi = Chinese characters

 

円 is the "new" Japanese equivalent of the 元. You know that character right?

 

The point is that it's only yen if you're a foreigner and are talking about the currency, not the literal coins/notes.

 

How's you're nihongo? Do chashieres tell you" one two five seven nine" yen when you buy something?

 

Alright, I'm sick of drooling at these pics. I have $3000 burning a hole in my pocket. I am going to Japan.

 

better be careful they might call Ultraman Zearth since you're from planet-x... :-D

 

Hmm, I always had to ask (or rather gesture) them to write it down as they always replied in Japanese even though I gave the impression of bineg a complete dumbass when asking it
:smt043

 

Yeah, of course.
It's Chinese "Yuan".

Didn't know Japanese make a new character (just to be different from Chinese?)

Sorry for "questionmark"-character, my Mac OS X system corrupts CJK-characters when having roman (=English) input, but displays it correctly.

 

Retro Gamer magazine this month has an article on buying retro stuff in Japan - it gives detailed info on where to go and what you'll find in Kyoto and Osaka. Next month the magazine will give details of Tokyo.

Worth buying if you're seriously thinking of going to Japan.....

 

Sort of O/T but... which issue # is this month's edition??
That mag is sold here but Im not sure if it's up to date...

 

>>Sort of O/T but...
Spending £10 on two magazines to help ensure you don't miss anything good is a wise choice IMHO! Especially considering a trip to Japan will cost £1000-2000

>>which issue # is this month's edition??
Issue twelve has the Kyoto and Osaka article...Tokyo is in issue 13 I assume..

Issue 12 is very red on the cover...http://www.livepublishing.co.uk/retro/retro12.shtml

 

Nice thread might go to some of those shops on the Soba line tomorrow.

Akihabara is only a tourist trap if you do buy the first thing you see as a general rule patience is the key and knowing how rare / uncommon things are is good. I did laugh at some America going insane when he saw a new copy of Waltz for the Saturn for Y98000, and gestured wildly at the staff to buy the game (I do like people who can`t be bothered to learn even the simpliest Japanese to buy things...) telling his friends it`s a really rare game and he`ll never see it new again then when he bought the game and left the shop, the staff went round the back took another copy off the shelf and put it in the display cabinet again. They did seem to have a number of copies. Heh

I have also picked up Samba de Amigo controller for Y1000 in a decent mintish box and even a working Laseractive for Y3000.

Still anyone know any good shops that sell MSX , FM Towns, FM-77 stuff?

Shibuya is also good for one arcade that has Y50 arcade games (there is also a good one in Shinjuku too).

 

Trader 2, yeah? I guess they've marked it down a bit. I remember seeing Delisoba Deluxe go from 178,000 yen to 65,000 yen in just a couple of months. THey seem to be sticking to their guns on Heim Waltz though.

There are a couple of stores that have some FM-Towns stuff, but VERY, VERY little. You really have to search Yahoo Japan for that. MSX... I think there's a few if you search. Sofmap's used store I think, and the shop on the 5th floor above the Messe Sanno area has some old stuff there... they might have some MSX games. Other than that, there's YJ.... you might want to ask on a Yahoo Japan forum though... they're relatively active. Or, there's always channel 2.

 

I'm going to Osaka soon, and obviously I'm going to hit up Den Den Town, but now I'm interested in these bargain local video stores. I also recently read about HARD OFF on Segagaga and I'd very much like to check out some of these type of places.

Does anyone have a good list of these sort of places in Osaka? Or Kyoto? or anywhere?