NES collecting seems to be reaching maturity. Lots of collectors are nearing the end of their collection and are stuck hunting down those extremely expensive games or extraordinarily rare boxes. So what’s a hardcore NES collector to do while they wait for these to pop up? Overseas exclusives? Variants? Game Boy even?
Carl of FamicomShop.com is betting on another direction entirely – the Famicom. To tell the truth, after having quite a chat with him, I can definitely see why.
I learned a ton of Famicom info myself. Like the fact the system got a sequel to Kung Fu in the form of Spartan X 2. Also that one of my favorite all time NES Games, Hammerin Harry (PAL Exclusive) was origionally a Japanese release – and it saw a sequel!
Apparently, (and quite frequently) FC/FDS games often are better than their NES counterparts in sound and graphics. Basically, Including things that never made it into the US versions. Contra for instance, had weather!
This was due to Nintendo of Japan allowing developers to use custom boards and such, where as here, NOA didn’t allow such usage. It essentially gave more flexibility to the developers in Japan.
There’s lots of neat things for sale on the site. I found this nifty Famicom Disk Writer Case rather interesting myself. It’s about the closest one of us can come to owning an actual disk writer and it hold fifteen disks to boot. For those of you unfamiliar with the system, Nintendo’s Disk Writer was a vending machine that would write a new game on an existing disk for 500 yen. Also, Nintendo apparently provided a service to rewrite problem disks until September of 2003.
Speaking of the Disk Writer, there’s also a nice selection of complete FDS games. Since the manual was printed and spit out of the machine as well when the disk was written, most kids tended to toss these. Finding them is actually quite a feat. A great example of this is Kaettekita Mario Bros. (Return of Mario Bros). Aside from the manual, the game is unique in that it is a disk writer only game – it never saw a retail release. The game is Mario Bros Arcade, but it plays more like the Arcade version than the NES version. For example, you can change direction in mid-air. It also contains in game ads for Super Mario 3 (in game advertising started way before Barack and Burnout).
He also has some really nice Famicom Handbills / Posters. These were promo posters were sent out to shop and store owners to promote upcoming releases. My personal favorite, this Super Mario 2j Lost Levels poster.
Carl isn’t just spinning his wheel either. After deciding for certain that the majority of Famicom games were better than their NES counterparts, he took a true leap of faith – by selling off his NES collection.
He also acknowledges that most people shy away from Famicom because of the language barrier. What people don’t know however, is that 90-95% of the games can be played with no Japanese knowledge at all. Heck, a lot of the early games were entirely in English anyway.
If you’re looking for one game to see what he’s talking about, he suggests you try playing Akumajo Densetsu (aka Castlevania 3). It’s one game that everyone has probably played and the sound in Akumajo Densetsu is 100x better.
So we can all feel the Famicom love, Carl will be throwing some very nice goodies our way:
Akumajo Dracula FDS Complete (Aka Castlevania)
Dr. Chaos FDS loose (with cover art in hard case)
Ninja Ryukenden FC Loose (Aka Ninja Gaiden)
Mario Golf Japan FDS Complete
A very nice selection of games for a beginning Famicom collector or even one who has a few gems in their collection.
Take a look over a Famicom Shop to see what they have for yourself. They’ve got some great Thanksgiving deals coming up too. On Friday from 6 – 8 AM you can save 15% off $75+ with the code DD2-7YP-9426. Then from 8 -12AM the code F26-RSV-91TAwill save you 12% off $60+. Then on Saturday A92-HGP-62SQ will save you 10% off of 50+ all day.
Word to the wise as well, a little Turkey dropped the hint that there may be some very nice systems available on Saturday.
Famicom Shop
