Did a little shopping in Japan this morning..

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Picked up a couple of things in Japan today...

New Zealand Story PCB and paperwork:
newzealandstory.jpg


Monkey Ball control panel:
monkeyballcp.jpg


I have my eyes on a couple more things, but we'll see how bad I get soaked in the Yen to USD conversion before going any further..
 
Here are some things I saw while I was shopping (but I didn't buy -- at least not yet.)

Namco Puck-Man "kit":
namco-puckman1.jpg


Hamburger PCB:
hamburger.jpg


Japanese Gyruss:
gyruss-japanese.jpg


Golgo 13:
golgo13-2.jpg


Dig Dug II "kit":
digdugiiset.jpg
 
Cool.

What are these babies running you, if you don't mind me asking? Are they in shops that specialize in arcade style games or regular gaming stores?

Post some pictures of the shops too if you get a chance, I love to see all the stuff they have for sale there.
 
This makes me want to go back. When I went to Japan I went to Akihabara a few times but I wasn't into arcade stuff at the time. I'd probably blow a couple of grand there this time if I went back.
 
The prices are about comparable to Ebay over here but it gets into more $$ when you factor in the cost of shipping them back home. For example, the Dig Dug II "kit" is about $380USD. There was a Crazy Climber 2 PCB that I just saw a couple of weeks back sell for ~$350USD and one jsut sold on Ebay the other night for $325. There are exceptions though as the Japanese collectors have their own idea of what games are grails and there are items over there that go for high $$. I've seen Missile Command PCB's sell there for like $1100USD.

You really have to want something or it has to be fairly hard to find here in the US to be buying it over there and paying the shipping to get it back here.. The NZS PCB I bought I could have probably bought over here for a little less than what I paid for it, but it included all of the paper extras like the manuals to make it worth while for me to pull the trigger on. The Monkey Ball CP is fairly hard to find, so I figured that I would grab it as it might he harder to find the CP than the Naomi bits needed to play the game.
 
Ok, I'll just say it...

that Monkey ball cp is just wrong.. both in name and execution....

there is no way I could grab that and play it...
 
i played one monkey ball in an arcade somewhere in louisiana sometime around 2002. from what i remember, it was a really fun game and the banana joystick was a nice touch
 
Ok, I'll just say it...

that Monkey ball cp is just wrong.. both in name and execution....

there is no way I could grab that and play it...

There's one in the arcade... One of the regular customers was playing for a while, till he looked down and realized someone had put a condom over the banana. lol

Anywho, where in Aki are you finding these? I should be heading over there next Spring, could use to landmarks to find any shops.
 
Awesome ! Love that game. Do the docs with the 'kit' show what the marquee looked like ?

- James


From my understanding, most of these didn't come in uprights. I've seen several Dig Dug II "kits" in Japan and they basically all included the same items -- PCB, instruction cards, and manual. Cocktail cabs were real big at the time over there so you see a lot of "kits" that include PCB, instruction cards, and maybe a manual that came out of the cocktail cab when it was converted to something else. It's rare to find original cocktail control panels, but here's an original Dig Dig one. I am not sure what the second button is/was for..

dig-dug-cp-japan-1.jpg
 
If you come across a Toukon Retsuden 3 board while over there, I will happily pay shipping back to the states and a reasonable finder's fee:

http://www.system16.com/hardware.php?id=535&page=2#2525
http://www.arcadeflyers.com/?page=thumbs&db=videodb&id=3701

*e* And I've been meaning to get a couple friends in Tokyo looking for that board too, are you finding this stuff all in Akiha? Any particular stores that specialize in arcade stuff? Figure if you can't find it while you're there I can at least get my friends going to the right place periodically to look.
 
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Ooh, if you find a Vs. Balloon Fight marquee while you're there I would definitely throw in some sort of finder's fee. Hell, even just a high-res photo of one would suffice. I've only ever seen even a trace of an actual marquee coming out of Japan...
 
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