The Korea thread (Game Stores and Arcades in Korea)

The last Gran Turismo released on PS2 for Korean market also contained couple of Hyndai as well as Daewoo(?) vehicles from what I heard. Or was them available in all GT?

 

The Korean version of GT concept features a track and 3 cars exclusive to the title. I'd love to have a spin on the Seoul track.

 

Although it's a little off topic. Here's some of my korean photo albums:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=35712&l=4fcc9&id=508826443

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=34045&l=92855&id=508826443

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=33806&l=b5f57&id=508826443

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30912&l=cacf0&id=508826443

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=30928&l=b42e4&id=508826443

 

Awesome pics Twimfy! :thumbsup:

The night shots and the ones from the Korean War Museum were really cool!

 

great pics! I still remember when you posted on gathering suggestions if you should go or not. Funny how it turned out huh? Seems like you are having a lot of fun again!

 

Is is strange how it all turned out. I love it here, aside from my Job, which I hate more than anything else in the world.

 

It's me or koreans use the same track width as Spanish?

 

Normal gauge I think, 1435mm. Same as in Germany, most of the US tracknet or the Shinkansen.
For fast, modern passenger trains this is the best track gauge to date as far as I know, so it is used almost everywhere by now.

 

Yeah, it must be LAV. I'm used to see metric tracks everyday so it looked wide to me. XD

 

Are there any Korean Jamma PCB's worth looking out for?

While I was there, I noticed one store had a glass case full of huge PCB's for sale and at the time I had no idea what they were (I figured they were old PC motherboards or something).

Now I realise they must have been arcade boards, I remember them being priced quite reasonably.

I'm 80% sure I will be returning there in a months time so what should I look out for?

 

question is how you can bring 'em back safely - unless you send them via EMS or something... ^ ^;
I'd hate think what will happen when luggage thrown around at the airport/transit... etc.

 

GT4 has the Seoul Track.

 

I'll be in Seoul this summer and will be passing by Yongsan at some point, but was wondering if anyone had some more precise information on where the decent game stores are, as it could take quite a while to browse through 5000 stores!

Will also be in Pusan for a couple of days if anyone knows of any game stores there

 

In Yongsan plaza there is a foot bridge that leads to another mall. Head down to the bottom floor of this mall and out the front doors, you'll be on a road across from a car park, go over the car park and into the building you see, it will be full of cellphone stores. Go into the basement to find the highest concentration of game stores.

Also in the main Yongsan plaza there are game stores on the 7th floor above the cameras TVs etc. but they aren't that great.

This is about it as far as game stores go in seoul.

 

I'm lead to believe that the underground station is in the Yongsan Plaza - is this correct?

Well, can't be any worse than London anyway

 

Yes. Nothing in Korea is as bad as london. In fact Yongsan Plaza is one of my favourite places in Seoul AND I love their train system, possibly one of the best metro systems in the world.

 

Been a while since I got back from Korea, but I thought I'd just post what I found. Agree that the 7th floor of Yongsan Plaza is a waste of time - unless you feel the urge to buy some overpriced Wii stuff. I got to the basement in the other store just as everyone was packing up for the day, so only had a good look round maybe 50% of the stalls. Asked a couple of guys whether they had Hyundai or Samsung stuff, but the general response was along the lines of "why bother, it's old", even from a guy who had two Samsung copies of Sega Rally on a shelf behind him.

Anyway, ended up picking up 4 Samsung Saturn games for about £10. Was really hoping to find some Hyundai or Samsung hardware, but oh well. (I believe I may have spotted a pretty battered Super Comboy, but the stall was already closed).

Sidenote: on the boat from Incheon to China, me and my mate (both from Newcastle) met a teacher from Newcastle (one of only 2 other white people on the ship) who'd spent the year teaching English in Korea. After a couple of gaming-related questions, I ascertained that he wasn't Twimfy:lol:

 

I'm selling an MSX with a few games if you're interested. ;-)

As for retro stuff in Korea... good luck with that. I spend a year there a few years ago and saw next to nothing for retro stuff. They just seem to toss it away there. Also keep in mind that (afaik) Korea changed its voltage system from 100V to 220V in the mid-90s, which caused a lot of older electronics to be obsolete. A lot of electronics from that time just got thrown out. The retro scene in Korea isn't nearly as good as it is in Japan (where it's quite healthy).

 

I'm very interested in the idea to give the Koreans the 72pin cartridge. Did the Japanese really not want them to be buying their crap, or what? All I've read is that they got Famicoms anyway!

 

If anything, it would be the opposite scenario, as Korea had a ban on Japanese products until 1998, which is why Nintendo and Sega consoles were rebranded as Hyundai and Samsung. The change in pins would be to stop Koreans buying cartridges, rather than Japanese selling them.

I believe the Korean Samsung Saturn was also US-NTSC in a effort to stop sales of Japanese versions (it seems most people still opted to import from Japan, though).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D49ueCDpnfU