The Korea thread (Game Stores and Arcades in Korea)

I will be going to Korea on business in the end of April, and will have a couple of free days. I will be in Busan and Seoul.

I'm mostly interested in retro stuff, but maybe also in getting some PS2 games. I think the Neo Geo and Saturn were pretty popular there, wouldn't mind finding a store that has some of that stuff. Also a store that has imports from Japan. Is there stuff like this in Yongsan Electronics Market?

I'd also be interested in any nice, classical arcades, I'm not so interested in the whole PC-ban thing, where ppl play Lineage and Starcraft, etc.

Also, if anybody knows a PCB store, that would be awesome, too.

Anyway, any info about game shopping in Korea would be greatly appreciated.

 

There's this big electronics plaza(?) at Yongsan(?).
However when you find the retro stuff you will also find they come with hefty price as well. Those vendors do know the value of things and unless you haggle you will be paying through your nose...

I once found two Samsung Saturn but neither of them were complete nor I could test whether they were still working. For the price they were asking I wasn't prepared to pay...

And for PCB and stuff you really do need someone with connection coz a lot of those are grey stuff and unless you have connection you won't find 'em cheap... ^ ^

 

Okay, thanks.

So are the prices comparable to, say, Super Potato, or are they just totally overblown?

And what do you mean by grey stuff? The fact that most PCBs in Korea are bootlegs?

What about new games for current systems? Any good place to get those?

 

Try to find a Super Comboy.

 

Yeah, it would be cool to find some Zemmix stuff. What kind of output do they have? If it's not at least A/V though I'm not getting one.

The Comboy looks great too. Lotsa video of it on YouTube.

 

hello . didnt find any "comboy" video on youtube? what's the good word?

 

Try this:

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=comboy+hyundai&search=Search

 

okayyy thx, i was wrong, i figured it was some place as den den town/akiba ^^

 

basically unless you look like Korean and speak Korean and with some connection prepared to get your wallets raped deeply... ^ ^;;
Seriously you won't find any good(?) stuff unless you have some connection coz they are not on display and you will have to ask the shop owners nicely to bring 'em out of back office(?)... And they will ask you arm and leg for 'em...

my advise?
unless you don't mind inflated price your best bet would be sourcing thru the online user groups thou again you will need to speak Korean and means to send the monetary details using Korean banking system and etc...

 

Get some Super Gam*Boy games.

 

watching to all those CMs...i've got a terrible feeling!!

 

There has been this japanese sushi fastfood restaurant in the central station for about 2 years now and I've always wondered what language they used to illustrate their advert sign.

I was finally able to take a picture (never had a cam with me) and now I'd like to know what it means. One thing for sure: It's NOT "Tokyo Sushi".

 

that's funny~
It says Tokio Sushi which I believe means Tokyo style sushi but then the next line says [Tokyo susa] which I'm not familiar what that means in Korean... -__-a
Maybe it's typo by someone who did the sign - apparently fairly common.

BTW it says they also sell Korean style norimake as well as Kimchi ramen Korean style~

 

I don't know if this fits in here but are there any interesting games (aside from MMO-type games) published in Korea that never hit the western world or even left the country?
Maybe the number of users with knowledge about korean language and games is too limited to answer this question but I'm very curious.
I'm especially interested in retro games but I don't mind almost anything (except for MMO-games as stated above,which korean developers seem to be famous for).

 

I can't find anything worth buying here, although the prices for current Gen are pretty good I'm too afraid to buy anything incase the language isn't in english.

I'm urgently trying to find a US copy of Final Fantasy Crisis Core but have had no luck so far.

 

there's space turtle battleship for the megadrive, tons of msx hacks on the gam*boy and probably couple of stuff on 3do.

 

If you're into music games, DJ Max (Portable) is awesome and Korean!

 

Ok today I came across a Korean N64, Comboy (NES) and two Samsung Megadrives and a weirdly korean marked white saturn. What should I really expect to be paying for these in terms of international market value i.e ebay?

I'm desperate to pick them up but don't want to get my fingers burnt.

 

I wish i could find a original copy of Gran Turismo Concept 2002 - Tokyo - Seoul, only released in Korea.