Retro shopping in Japan... Success!

[Flak Beard]

I've been checking out as many videos and pics of the Super Potato shop online as I can, and it looks like their selection of PC-Engine games might be small. The store seems to be dominated by Nintendo related stuff. Perhaps Super Potato is not the best place to look for HuCards?

[D.D.D.]

I've been checking out as many videos and pics of the Super Potato shop online as I can, and it looks like their selection of PC-Engine games might be small. The store seems to be dominated by Nintendo related stuff. Perhaps Super Potato is not the best place to look for HuCards?

I've never had trouble finding PCE stuff there... Whacha buyin'?

[Flak Beard]

I've been checking out as many videos and pics of the Super Potato shop online as I can, and it looks like their selection of PC-Engine games might be small. The store seems to be dominated by Nintendo related stuff. Perhaps Super Potato is not the best place to look for HuCards?

I've never had trouble finding PCE stuff there... Whacha buyin'?

I was planning on getting a Core Grafx system, but many people are suggesting a Duo. I would think that those would be significantly more expensive though along with the software. There's a handful of HuCards I want for the system:

Adventure Island
Air Zonk
Alien Crush
Bomberman
Bonk's Adventure
Bonk 2
Bonk 3
Gradius
Gunhed
New Adventure Island
Parasol Stars
R-Type
Soldier Blade
Sonson 2
Super Star Soldier
Toilet Kids

This differs from my list on the first page, which I need to update since I'm probably going to scratch getting a Saturn. A lot of the games I wanted for it have ports, and it just didn't seem worth it for the few exclusives I could afford. The holy grail games of the Saturn still fetch a hefty price even in Japan.

By the way, other suggestions for HuCards is always welcome.

[D.D.D.]

I've been checking out as many videos and pics of the Super Potato shop online as I can, and it looks like their selection of PC-Engine games might be small. The store seems to be dominated by Nintendo related stuff. Perhaps Super Potato is not the best place to look for HuCards?

I've never had trouble finding PCE stuff there... Whacha buyin'?

I was planning on getting a Core Grafx system, but many people are suggesting a Duo. I would think that those would be significantly more expensive though along with the software. There's a handful of HuCards I want for the system:

Adventure Island
Air Zonk
Alien Crush
Bomberman
Bonk's Adventure
Bonk 2
Bonk 3
Gradius
Gunhed
New Adventure Island
Parasol Stars
R-Type
Soldier Blade
Sonson 2
Super Star Soldier
Toilet Kids

This differs from my list on the first page, which I need to update since I'm probably going to scratch getting a Saturn. A lot of the games I wanted for it have ports, and it just didn't seem worth it for the few exclusives I could afford. The holy grail games of the Saturn still fetch a hefty price even in Japan.

By the way, other suggestions for HuCards is always welcome.

A Duo will run you about 10,000Y, give or take. Unless you really want the core by itself, a Duo gives you more options (CD & Super CD) of course. For all of those games on the list, I don't see any that are hard to find (except Sonson2... I got it free from a friend). You should be able to get all of those pretty cheap. And Gunhed is just awesome (like most of the Compile shooters).
Suggestions? I'd say Ninja Spirit (!!), Legendary Axe, Bomberman '94 with a multi-tap and 4 extra controllers, and Final Lap Twin (RPG mode is great). Neutopia I & II would be fun too if you're up for a Zelda-clone.

As far as the Saturn, you could always pick up one (about 4000Y) and just have one in the event you find some games you like or eventually come into one of the more expensive games~

[Flak Beard]

I've never had trouble finding PCE stuff there... Whacha buyin'?

I was planning on getting a Core Grafx system, but many people are suggesting a Duo. I would think that those would be significantly more expensive though along with the software. There's a handful of HuCards I want for the system:

Adventure Island
Air Zonk
Alien Crush
Bomberman
Bonk's Adventure
Bonk 2
Bonk 3
Gradius
Gunhed
New Adventure Island
Parasol Stars
R-Type
Soldier Blade
Sonson 2
Super Star Soldier
Toilet Kids

This differs from my list on the first page, which I need to update since I'm probably going to scratch getting a Saturn. A lot of the games I wanted for it have ports, and it just didn't seem worth it for the few exclusives I could afford. The holy grail games of the Saturn still fetch a hefty price even in Japan.

By the way, other suggestions for HuCards is always welcome.

A Duo will run you about 10,000Y, give or take. Unless you really want the core by itself, a Duo gives you more options (CD & Super CD) of course. For all of those games on the list, I don't see any that are hard to find (except Sonson2... I got it free from a friend). You should be able to get all of those pretty cheap. And Gunhed is just awesome (like most of the Compile shooters).
Suggestions? I'd say Ninja Spirit (!!), Legendary Axe, Bomberman '94 with a multi-tap and 4 extra controllers, and Final Lap Twin (RPG mode is great). Neutopia I & II would be fun too if you're up for a Zelda-clone.

As far as the Saturn, you could always pick up one (about 4000Y) and just have one in the event you find some games you like or eventually come into one of the more expensive games~

Both Neutopia games caught my eye, but I was afraid I wouldn't be able to play them or use the save system since I'm not proficient in Japanese. About the DUO, the only game I'm dying to play is Dracula X, but my fiancee has a PSP so I could always pick up the remake. Do you how much just a Core Grafx system would run? I recall seeing on another forum that somebody found one for around 1,000Y or so.

You're right, I probably shouldn't call off getting a Saturn just yet. It just all depends on how much I can find certain games for. Know any good Saturn games that won't set me back too much?

[D.D.D.]

Both Neutopia games caught my eye, but I was afraid I wouldn't be able to play them or use the save system since I'm not proficient in Japanese. About the DUO, the only game I'm dying to play is Dracula X, but my fiancee has a PSP so I could always pick up the remake. Do you how much just a Core Grafx system would run? I recall seeing on another forum that somebody found one for around 1,000Y or so.

You're right, I probably shouldn't call off getting a Saturn just yet. It just all depends on how much I can find certain games for. Know any good Saturn games that won't set me back too much?

Yeah, the language barrier can be a problem but if you were to start to learn how to read it, those games would be good as the Japanese level is aimed at kids it seems.

Well for CD games, yeah DracX is great (even after all these years), so are the Ys games, Winds (Lords) of Thunder, Gate of Thunder, and more. I don't know how DracX is on the PSP but I will give it a whirl whenever I get around to buying one. Fortunately, the original is on there as well as SOTN so just based on what they're advertising, it's a helluva deal.

You can get Core systems for about 1,000Y but those typically are a little dirty and most don't come with any of the cables (AV or AC). You might need to spend about 2,000~3,000Y depending on AC and AV cable pricing (each shop differs) and how good condition the system is you want to buy. A lot of stores will have the system by itself stacked one upon each other, so it's best to check out each one until you find one that satisfies you.

Check out Racket's articles on Sat games... Plenty of great suggestions in there that I would recommend myself.
http://www.racketboy.com/retro/2007/03/ ... games.html
http://www.racketboy.com/retro/2007/03/ ... -your.html
Personally, I love Treasure games so check out some of them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treasure_%28company%29 Of course Radient Silvergun is great but it costs as much as 4~5 Saturns now (fortunately I bought mine new at Game Cave years ago for $50). If you hunt long enough, I've seen it as "little" as 16,000Y.
At any of the shops in Akihabs or DenDenTown, I've always seen plenty of good~great Saturn games in the very affordable price range. For example, I got Nights for 200Y, Grandia for 600Y, and Panzer Dragoon 2 for 400Y recently.

[Flak Beard]

Those are some great prices for Nights, Grandia and Panzer Dragoon! I'll definitely keep the Saturn in mind as a purchase. 3,000Y still sounds good to me for a PCE, as I want it to be complete and clean as possible.

Thanks again for all the input. I'm even more excited about my shopping adventure to come.

[D.D.D.]

No problem~ Have fun!

[Flak Beard]

About the language barrier on games, do you need to know much Japanese to play the Wonder Boy games on PCE? Both Bikkuriman World and Adventure Island look great.

[D.D.D.]

Both games only use hiragana and katakana (no kanji). You should know/learn hiragana and katakana (both character sets can be learned quickly if you get/make flash cards), and be armed with a dictionary. The majority of the Japanese practice will come from just playing the game and seeing the same words over and over again. You might have a little trouble going through as conjugated verbs will not have the conjugated form listed (usually). But you could get a intro Japanese book with verbs and how they conjugate and pick that up (it's really quite easy conjugation - at least what they use in most games).
They'd be a good start if you have no or little experience in Japanese and want to learn (if only for the sake of playing or otherwise).

For me, learning Japanese was a great opening into gaming as most of the stuff is in Japanese and gaming possibilities open up. I got started on the Japanese version of FF7... I learned hiragana + katakana and because FF7 has a lot of kanji, I bought a huge kanji dictionary, and plugged at it line after line. I must have played the intro bombing scene dozens of times but I picked up a lot from that game and just went on playing imports (as they usually came out first).

If you're only getting one of those, I'd get Adventure Is. just because I like the music in that one better but you'll probably be able to find both really cheap.
Anyhoo, good luck~