I bought things in Japan. Duh.
When I go digging through thrift stores in San Francisco, I only occasionally find some piece of old videogame history that I want to buy. Going to Akihabara is the exact opposite; it’s wall-to-wall things I desire at reasonable prices and in excellent condition. In true Paradox of Choice style, I freeze up and decide that I probably don’t want any of it after all.
Luckily for all of us, I eventually get over this and start buying things that fall into a few different categories: Things I’ve always wanted, things I didn’t want until I saw how cheap they were and things I’ve never seen before. All of these are represented herein.
First, and falling squarely in the second category, is Vajra II for the Laseractive (above). This is one of a handful of games released for the obscure laserdisc game system’s PC Engine module. The original was released in the U.S., but the sequel never made it out of Japan.
This copy of the game is an object lesson in why you should always shop around in Tokyo. I’ve seen this game for sale twice, always over $250. But this copy had exactly two flaws: It didn’t have the paper obi, or spine card, and a nickel-sized spot on the jacket was rubbed away.
These two imperfections were enough to lower the price to a significantly more palatable $80.
Both Vajra games are first-person flight shooters, but the sequel makes a significant change. While the first game pitted you against a series of single giant-robot enemies in open fields, Vajra II has a traditional level structure where you face off against a series of smaller sprite-based enemies as you fly through linear corridors. At the end of each level, you face off against a massive boss that’s rendered in the Laseractive’s background video.
In fact, it’s similar to Pyramid Patrol. And, uh, it’s not very good. Of course. Very few people can say they’ve played this, though.
Then again, it seems as if Laseractive emulation could happen someday – there’s actually an emulator now called Daphne that works with classic laserdisc games like Dragon’s Lair.
Like many Virtual Boy collectors, I have a nearly complete set of games. Besides a couple of regional variants, I’m only missing the rarest Japanese games. So when I saw a copy of Space Invaders Virtual Collection in Mandarake Galaxy for about $150, it started working its way into my brain. I didn’t buy it immediately, but when I went back and it was still there, I jumped on it. (It’s usually around $200 in this condition.)