Monthly Archives: April 2012

Retro gaming store in Japan

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So today I took another trip to the Super Potato store in Akihabara. This time I spent hours just looking through all the retro gaming goodness they had to offer ^_^ And on the way to the store I took the opportunity to drop by a couple of arcades, like this one:

So here’s a couple of things you could find in the Super Potato store:

Famicom games, 4 shelves (only 2 are in the picture) all organized in alphabetical order.


On the opposite side just as many shelves with Famicom games in original boxes, all in really nice condition.

Super Famicom games, also 4 shelves in alphabetical order.


Super Famicom games in boxes, super nice condition.

Game Boy games! They also had shelves filled with boxed ones, and lots of GBC and GBA games too ^^

Lots and lots of Game & Watch!! ^_^

Nintendo 64’s that looked like new, came with controllers and all cables for like 2000 Yen (about 170 SEK, or 25 USD) o_O

On the first floor they also had a bunch of Sega, everything from 8bit to Dreamcast ^^

On the second floor they had all the PS1, PS2, comics, literature such as walkthroughs and guides, all soundtracks to games and lots more ^^

I really wanted to buy this Super Metroid book, but I had already picked up sooo many games that I had to stop myself somewhere :/

And of course they had all the machines where you can get little game related thingys like straps and keychains, I got some Mario stuff there ^^

On the third floor they had an arcade, and no regular arcade, they only had old games, 8bit and 16bit, like Pacman, Pac-Land, Donkey Kong, Final Fight, Splatterhouse, Ghost n Goblins, Street Fighter, Metal Slug, Space Shooters and lots lots more. I stayed there for a while and tried out most of the games, a japanese guy wanted to play Final Fight with me and we got quite far. It was a lot harder than on the console version O_o They also had this really cool chair made out of Famicom cartridges glued together! I sure hope those games weren’t in working order, otherwise it would be a waste :(

Also Pac-Land was a lot different from the Famicom version which I have previously reviewed here and re-visited here.

Here’s some pictures of the different arcade machines, especially Pac-Land ^^

Ghosts n’ Goblins

XX Mission

Final Fight

Final Fight Game Over :(

Pac-Land!


Twin Famicom & Attack Animal Gakuen

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It’s working! I’m still in Japan, but managed to connect the Twin Famicom I bought yesterday to the TV in my hotel room.

I’m probably not gonna have time to go through and try all the games I bought for Famicom, but at least I know the system is working ^^

The first game I opened up was something called Attack Animal Gakuen (アタックアニマル 学園) and it kind of resembles Space Harrier. Not nearly as good, but still an entertaining game.


I haven’t been able to try the disk station of the console yet, since I didn’t buy any Famicom Disk games, but I will try to find some of those tomorrow so I can make sure it works completely :)

Look at those cute controllers!!!!

OMG Japan!!

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Retro gaming store in Tokyo Japan. Three floors just filled with retro heaven! This one was only Famicom ^_^

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So many things, I just wanted it all!

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And the prices were reasonable!

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Akihabara, also known as the ‘Electric Town’ in Tokyo. This is where you will find some of the Retro Gaming stores I’ve been visiting today :)

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Here’s some of the things I’ve picked up today. A Twin famicom! A bunch of Famicom games, some Super Famicom and a Sega Mega Drive game (just to see if it works on my PAL system).

More Famicom Disk System games

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Now I’ve played all the Famicom Disk System games I have, and also a few new ones I recently got. It’s the first console I have that uses disks instead of cartridges (except for playing floppy disks on PC which I did back in the day) and it’s different in many ways.

Here’s the intro when you start up a Famicom Disk System:

One downside with playing Famicom Disk System games is the load times, which is something you never experienced on the cartridge systems, and sometimes they’re extremely lengthy. However, they only appear in the beginning when starting. Otherwise the music and graphics have to some extent been enhanced in many of the Famicom Disk games.

The most noticeable difference between cartridge games and the disk games is usually the enhanced music. You can hear an example here where I recorded the intro of Metroid on Famicom Disk System:

The biggest benefit of playing a game, that you might as well could have played on a cartridge (like Zelda, Metroid, Castlevania etc), is that you are able to save your progress when playing on the Famicom Disk System. It’s not always an option, but most lengthy games have the feature. I was incredibly happy when I started my Castlevania for the Disk System and realized there were already saved files on there, and this one person had saved the game right before the Dracula battle! ^_^

Here’s the gameplay and stage music of Castlevania for Famicom Disk System:

Here are some various videos of other games I tried out on my Disk System:

Nazo no Murasamejou! Awesome game, with great music ^_^

Some Donkey Kong Jr on the Famicom Disk System (it was the first time I actually played this Donkey Kong game, and it took some time to figure out how the hell it worked):

Patlabor, a platformer game only released in Japan:

A weird platformer called Kinnikuman (not a very good one..):

The intro music for Karate Champ, with some gameplay animations thrown in to create some action ^^

And of course Super Mario Bros:

Retro Game Challenge for Nintendo DS

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Today I got Retro Game Challenge that I ordered from Ebay! I started playing it immediately and went through the first 8 challenges, it was hard to put this game down!


It’s basically a re-visit to the early days of gaming, where a game master challenges you in all the games he played in his childhood (throughout the 80’s).


The first game I was challenged in was Cosmic Gate.

Each game has 4 different challenges which you have to complete to continue on to the next game. The first challenges are quite easy, but the further you get the harder it becomes.

The last challenge of Cosmic Gate was to score 200.000 points. After beating all challenges of a game you unlock the freeplay for that game.

The second game was Robot Ninja Haggle Man.



A cool thing is that you get to see the original cartridges for the games and you’re also able to read about the story of the games.

The first challenges of Robot Ninja Haggleman was quite easy, however the last two ones were tougher. #7 Beat level 4 without dying, and #8 Beat the entire game.


I managed to beat all the challenges for Robot Ninja Haggleman as well, I will continue the challenges tomorrow ^^

If you have trouble with any of the challenges, like figuring out how to earn extra points or find cheats and such you also unlock a Gamefan Magazine with each game where you can read about them. You are also given the manual for each game. This is a really nice touch to the game.


It’s a really cool game for the DS, it’s a lot of fun to be able to play 8bit retro games, and also get challenged in them! However one downside to the game is that there is a little bit to much talking in between gameplay, a lot of meaningless blabber to sit through..

Thanks to Alana at Retrogamergirl for making me aware of this game! ^_^

Draw Something for iPhone/iPad

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I’m sorry I haven’t been updating very frequently lately, but I’ve had relatives from America visiting for some time now. I haven’t had the time to play hardly any games since we’ve been busy planning my cousin’s wedding ^_^
However, one game-like-thing has kept us occupied from time to time every day, and that is the app Draw Something for iPhone/iPad or even Android. It’s so addictive! I’ve even created separate accounts for the game on my iPod touch, iPhone and iPad, so I am constantly playing it on three separate devices haha!

You play the game against friends, either through connecting your profile through Facebook, then you will see all your friends who have the app too, or you create a username and add your email, then you will need to know people’s usernames to be able to create games. When you create a game you always get to chose between three words, the one you chose you will have to draw and when you finish it will be sent to your friend who will have to try to guess the word. You will always have 8 letters picked out so it’s also a bit like an anagram. When your friend either figured out the word or pressed pass he or she can choose from three words to draw something back to you.

This is not a very “retro” like game, however during my time playing it many game related words have popped up, here are a few of the things I’ve gotten to draw :D




And some fictional characters ^_^

And here’s Sonic that my cousin drew for me ^_^ cute!

If you wanna see somebody who really kicks ass at drawing, and gives a rather extensive review of the Draw Something app then you should check out Mike Matei’s video: