For a videogame junkie, shopping in Tokyo is to be struck by the sheer catatonia that comes with boundless choice: When everything in the world is set forth in front of you, which do you actually buy?
I got all my major purchases out of the way many years ago. When I was living in Japan, I bought the vast majority of the games I’d coveted in my youth and teen years: All the old Nintendo hardware, complete collections of Squaresoft’s 8- and 16-bit games, Capcom’s fighting games for the Sega Saturn, etc. At this point, if it’s relatively easy to obtain in Japan and I don’t already have it, it’s because I don’t want it.
Then again, as we all well know by now, there’s always a price at which I won’t pass up any gaming curiosity that I don’t already own. And there are some things that are difficult to find even in Akihabara, some of which I’ve already written about: Squaresoft’s old disk game Akuu Senki Raijin and the final two games for Nintendo’s 64DD.
Here’s the rest of the stuff that I couldn’t help but blow some money on in Tokyo. Actually, I’m lying: I’m still going to be writing about my purchase of an SG-1000, Sega’s first game system, and I did undertake the 1000 Yen Pile of Shame mission again, with hilarious results. This is everything except that. Yes, my suitcase was over the weight limit, thank you for asking.
(Assume that 100 yen roughly equals $1. It’s fluctuating a lot.)
At top, it’s Pac-Land for Nintendo’s 8-bit Famicom system. I actually bought this because I had to. We were in the Sofmap games store in the middle of Akihabara, and they were having a major sale on all their old software. Buy three, get 30% off; buy five, get 50% off.
The only restriction was that “premium” software — copies of rare games like Metal Slader Glory and Dracula X, kept in a glass showcase — was off limits. Otherwise, if you wanted to buy four games that cost $50 each and one ninety-cent copy of Pac-Land, you’d get 50% off everything.