So what's the scene like in China? Is non-pirate stuff easy to get? How about FM Towns (God, I love it!)? Are there any good stores? I ask because I may be moving there in the next month or so.
In 2001 - 2003 game stores DID have legit games on the shelves but they tended to be a smokescreen for the mountain of boots they kept under the counter. I don't think anything's changed, given the still emerging state of the economy. If you do go hunting for games stores, they tend to be lumped together, regardless of which city you visit, so, if you find one, you should find the rest nearby. My only tip is to be careful and make sure they don't sting you for being a tourist - speak to locals and ask them how much THEY pay and make sure you pay (roughly) the same.
Oh, :-D If you want to buy the Japanese game in China，Should go to the online store "taobao" (similar EBAY & YAHOO JAPAN)
Indeed, I remember when I went to Shanghai and there was a large building whose name I forgotten that had lots of floors of computer stuff and a few games shops, but they seemed to have very little in the way of legit stuff with folders of game covers hidden under the desk. Did find a couple of retro and decent games shops but prices were well higher then what they were in Japan, my girlfriend at the time did call up before hand so I knew they were not trying to scam me on prices, although haggling does help. They did have a number of unofficial pirate orginal games (if that makes sense) but nothing appealed, did pick up a few dirt cheap famiclones when I was there though.
中国的实体中古游戏店很少...上海、北京、广州可能还有一点 不过我们都习惯在网上买了，而且还便宜。。。 I want to go to Japan"秋葉原"...many good games In there
Soviet, where are you in China? I'm going to be bringing some retro stuff with me, is there anything you're looking for? Maybe I can help you out.
YES，friend，I am in China TIANJIN city, I am Chinese;-) If you want to buy the game in Chinese online store，I can translate the game name for you，give me the English names or Japanese names, I can be translated into Chinese name Also，you have megadrive games？i want buy some~ you can speak Chinese？My English is not good, ha ha
Your talking about Pacific Mall Shanghai. On the top floors there are gameshops, but the last time I was there, it was all bootleg PS2 games and GBA multi-carts. :-/ There is another place called Li-Mall and in the department store they sold video game stuff. Mostly Famicom clones, but they did have GB Chinese originals and iQue software. Bare in mind though, all the legit stuff is a front. They have it to claim they are legit, but have no real intentions to sell them. When I asked for the "iQue Metroid" game the lady was like "Uh? You do know that's like 10x more expensive right? I have the cheap one right here. Exactly the same game.". I just said it was ok, I knew what I was doing. (^_^);
What MD are you looking for? I can get you Joe Montana Sports Talk Football (Japanese version) quite cheap. My Chinese is almost nothing but my wife is Chinese, so it balances out.
In the markets, it's rife with price gouging for foreigners. If you go to a store, you'll get hard-label prices which is more fair. However, every place in China can bargain. So even at the stores with the stickers, I was able to get items cheaper. But if your a foreigner they probably won't budge. If your talking non speciality item goods, then you can't really get anything cheaper. What you see is what you get.
I guess China is a good way to get goods from video games , especially figures and gashapons (i'm thinking about Yujin by saying that who has made consoles replicas)
I'm in Shanghai for 2 months, I'll happily take pictures of the stores if I can find them. (been in SH for 4 month, could only find stores with only pirated sw for ps2, wii and 360). So if any of you guys have addresses or more info, shoot.
