Video tour of Akihabara

So any videos from late 90s akihabara?

 

Yeah, I'm interested too. They must exist.

We can complain about Akiba all we want, but there's not even one shop in the UK that sells Dreamcast, Famicom, MegaDrive stuff anymore.

 

Actually that might be a good business idea, to make a landmark store of classic gaming

Of course doing so in any major city means a very expensive lease, which translates in high prices for old consoles you can get for next to nothing on ebay, so people would go there to see the consoles 'in the flesh' but then buy 'em elsewhere

 

Excellent videos :thumbsup:

Anyone else notice the TV in Super Potato with Space Fantasy Zone running? It's about 1:12 on the video, just as he's moving on from the Neo Geos :dance:

 

No that would be a bad business idea, as you stated. Most Retro stores in London gave originally 1/2 cash or 2/3rds of the sale price, but Ebay meant that people would whine that it's worth x and they want y so most stores got less and less in, sold less and less and closed down as a result. High prices just mean people don't buy but low prices mean people will disappear with all your stock.

In japan it still works as shops do give reasonable money for good things but Japanese people are happy with a few coins to buy something else for the more common stuff, something that stopped happening in the UK.

DCharlie did post about when he sold some Laserdiscs to shop as he was moving, and the shop assistant went "Wow that is rare!" and when he went back the shop assistant went 1 yen, 2 yen, 5 yen. I think Dcharlie said it wouldn't even cover the travel costs...

 

Yep, the only way to make a profit would be putting the store in a cheaper part of the country, like a small city or town, but who would go to the middle of buttfuck nowhere to see old consoles?

Anyways, typo there, should've said "sounds like a good business idea"

 

Why is akiba now full of moe and maids? Is the decline of the Japanese gaming industry to blame?

 

How do you come to this conclusion? In terms of arcade places, there are more arcades in Akihabara now then there were 8 years ago, the amount of games shops are basically the same in terms of space, some of the older shops have closed down, some due to redevelopement in Akihabara. Akihabara has always been an otaku mecca, and this is growing in different ways, there are more maid cafes but there have always been maid cafes in Akihabara since the 80s, just now they are more blantent and there are a lot more of them, mostly around the back streeets of Akihabara.

Akihabara always changes, no one complains that you can not buy fruit and vegetables wholesale there anymore (http://www.ocada.jp/tokyo/ota.htm), although the electric side of it, where people set up places to sell cables, lights, radios has grown and things relating to this have grown up with it.

 

the one thing i would say has changed is a lot of the gaming stores have migrated into the back streets rather than on the main road as per about 12 years ago but the main drag is now a much more "non-otaku" friendly place. I also enjoy the fact that there's at least SOME selection of where to eat and it's not a case of going for the "least shabby option" as it used to be.

The unfortunate murder spree really stopped a very vibrant Aki - though the police were doing there best to break that up before the event too. I read recently that the store owners are trying to get the Sunday events back up and running because *gasp* more people = more business I hope it comes back.

re: Arcades.... are Sega trying to become the Starbucks of Aki or something? We're going to have 5 Club Sega/Gigo places within about 80m of each other very soon.

yeah, that was hilarious. 52 yen i made, i think... we actually pondered whether i could actually buy anything for 52 yen in aki lol

 

I read somewhere that there were almost no maid cafes back in the 90s - it could well be wrong.

 

That is correct. Akihabara was a very different experience back then.

 

and you used to be able to shoot some hoops in the carpark next to the station back then too

Also the tallish building next to Messe Sanoh used to have awesome gamers stores on each floor with the top floor being straight up out and out piracy .... now it's all gatchapons and one floor of child porn

The Beer Station by Ueno station used to have an awesome 1000 yen all you can drink deal. A gang of us used to go to Aki each weekend, buy a ton of unnecessary garbage and then go there to get hammered and see what we'd bought. Alas - that place is no more too.

Then i guess we moved onto the horrific all you can eat/drink place over the road from Hamamasa under the bridge. Horrid food but they literally just let you at the spirits, wine, beer. That's gone now too.

Infact those DAYS are gone! lol. People got married, had kids, careers took off, some left TK... so now Akihabara tends to be a once-in-a-blue-moon event. I'm also pretty much done in the "retro i still need to get" category (i can here Shou laughing somewhere over the other side of TK) and i'm hitting the local mom and pop stores, BookOffs and Chamelon Clubs as they seem to be the last bastions of incorrectly priced retro stuff.

 

It seems my life would be so much more productive if I lived near that area, it has everything under the sun.

W T F some of these stores have stuff Ive never seen in Florida or anywhere else in the US for that matter, stuff Im only able to buy online.

 

I couldn't believe it, but a french TV journalist went to super potatoe and showed the video on LCI, an information channel property of TF1 (the first french private tv channel)
http://videos.tf1.fr/infos/plein-ecran/lci-plein-ecran-du-30-octobre-2010-6121496.html

 

I remember that too! Also the curry house in the Station department store!

I also remember that there were a few different buildings with a floor dedicated to just one system. It was like new releases on the ground floor, then floor after floor dedicated to one or two systems. Man, those days were truly magical :nod:

Yakumo

 

pretty cool

 

A question for those of us who visited Akihabara for the first time of their life in, let's say the last 3 years. Did it measure up to your expectations? Personally, I felt rather disappointed with most of it.

Now I'm not that huge on gaming anymore so that definitely had some influnce but I can still appreciate the feeling that you should get at those places. I daresay had a better time at Golden Arcade in HK with that great atmosphere and narrow little hallways than in Akihabara, where most stuff felt fake and too much aimed at tourists and the like.

 

Well, I last visited 5 years ago and even then it was pathetic compared to what it was 10 years ago. If someone who visited in the last 3 years thought Akihabara was a mecha of gaming goodness then they probably would have had a heart attack if they had visited 10 years ago.

Yakumo

 

I visited in 2006 and had never seen so many computer games in one place, and arcade machines without scattered remnants of heroin needles on the floor.

I damn well loved it.

It might not be how it was 10 years ago, but I doubt many places are.

 

That's because Japan isn't full of pricks like the UK. Fucking scum are the reason I left in the first place. Even the most dirty of Japanese arcades are cleaner than the normal ones in the UK.