My own "the raid" (Akihabara trip)

Hey folks. Im going to Japan next year (tentatively) and I thought it would be neato to pick up a console and a few games while I was there (as ive heard they are fairly inexpensive). Problem is I dont have eyes for any particular system, so I was looking for some help from the hopefully more knowledgeable gb forum community to help me out along some priorities/criterea:

1. I want it to be weird/somewhat of a rairty in the US: it would be lame to go to japan just to bring back a psx I couldve bought on ebay. I want it to be a novelty to the point that people look at the system and go "wtf is that?"

2. Good games, accesible multiplayer ones prefered. Story heavy games need not apply (I have a basic understanding of japanese but playing a story heavy game would probably be too much of a hassle). Something like windjammers or that hello kitty game where someone can just jump into it is prefered.

3. Size for travelling reasons. Id prefer a disk system as cartirdges take up space, but it doenst have to be one.

What ive seen so far that are potential candidates are the famicon disk and the sega saturn. As far as retro consoles go ive only had a sega genesis and a NES so I also have no ideas which games I should scope out (although this is a raid, ill be probably poaching plenty of random bullshit). Thanks for any thoughts

I might be an outlier, but a NeoGeo with Metal Slug is always (IMO) a good buy. However those titles are all heavily ported, so I got not be what you want.

PC Engine Duo, get a stack of hucards and CDs. Castlevania Rondo of Blood if you can find it!

Also, to be clear ill be in Hikone area, not Tokyo area (but thanks to the mod who added akibahara to the thread title for clarification)

I second the Neo Geo option - you could get Windjammers! The Neo Geo is basically like owning an arcade machine (ok not really), and it'll be significantly cheaper to get Neo Geo games in Japan than to import them. Neo Geo games also look great, and play really well for the most part. Metal Slug, Blazing Star, Fatal Fury, Shock Troopers, Money Puzzle Exchanger, Samurai Showdown, The Last Blade, Mark of the Wolves, Baseball Stars 2, all them King of Fighters (I recommend 98), Bust a Move, and Last Resort are fan-fuckin-tastic games for the Neo Geo that hold up super well today.

IMO if you first and second requests are incompatible. The weirdest console I can think of that has good games is the MSX or the TurboGrafx-16 - but the TurboGrafx is shitty and doesn't really have good games unless you count Bonk, and the MSX is still fantastic but it doesn't have that wtf quality that you wanted. I recommend you scrap the wtf quality and just go for the MSX, which has a number of amazing games - but most of them are single player.

Ultimately, the Neo Geo is the best for what you want.

I wouldn't suggest you come back with a Saturn. A bunch of games and a 4in1 cart? Sure go for that, but just get a domestic console. They are not rare or expensive(or a novelty).

@skullpanda1: @billymaysrip:

I actually havent listened to that bit of podcast in a while, but was the original intent of the raid to be a neogeo game hunt? I can totally live with owning such classics as Windjammers and metal slug :)

Also billymaysrip: tbh in my circle, anything that isnt core nes, snes, genesis, n64, psx etc is probably a rarity haha. And I mainly mentioned saturn because it was the only other disk system I could think of and the wtf factor is more from that goofy-ass 3d controller.

@professionlol: It was planned to be a Turbografx thing. Jeff already had every Neo Geo game he wanted.

I'll echo everyone else on the Neo Geo though, it's a fantastic system that is really hard to get here. You might also want to keep your eyes open for PS2 games as there are a lot of weird ones that were never localized.

@professionlol: The Raid was a general hunt for any and every game.

The thing with most retro consoles is that you think you're going to pick one up and play the old games and it's going to be a great experience and you're going to love it - but in my experience, playing MOST of the old consoles now just ruins my memories of the games. The only consoles that really hold up are the SNES, Genesis, 2D Playstation games, Neo Geo, and that's really it. The games from the 3D transition era are usually clunky and look like hot-garbage, the games before the SNES and Genesis are often buggy, lacking in depth, and generally bad. I would love to recommend the Turbografx, MSX, PC Engine, Jaguar, Cassette Vision, or PC-FX - but all of the games just don't hold up (I fucking love the MSX, but playing those games now is like torture.) The true sweet spot is the "Third Generation" if you go by Wikipedia's system, which includes the Genesis, SNES, and NeoGeo. Out of those three, the Neo Geo is clearly the rarer, but also the more interesting console. The more I think about it, the more and more I'm wanting to pull my Neo Geo out of the box in the garage. The Neo Geo is really quite special, and it focuses mainly on multiplayer arcade games that seems perfect to what you want. There are also a bunch of dumb and weird Japanese games for it.

If you're going for electronics, Osaka is a better choice than Tokyo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nipponbashi

I remember when I was in Super Potato in Tokyo, I bought a copy of Bushido Blade 2 and a fellow traveller bought an OG Game Boy.

Nothing crazy really. Just watch your wallet because when you see racks and racks of consoles and stuff wrapped in plastic it might have a tendency to open by itself and start ejecting 10000 Yen bills all over the place.

Fantastic news! Osaka is so much closer than tokyo. Now just to narrow what version of the system to get and set a hard price limit on what im spending for what (im not made of money yknow)

You could go to Japan and get an actual PSX...

@professionlol: Ideally you want a modified one that accepts all cartridges.

@alexw00d: dude. I hd no idea that was even a thing but I will keep that in mind with the previous mention of ps2 games. I was aware but had forgotten at what a nice japanese catalog the ps2 had.

Check out Mr. Mosquito, Atlus brought it to the US and the hidden minigame has you battling your friend as Mosquitos on bicycles

Back in My Play did an interesting episode about what you should be on the look-out for, maybe there's some helpful stuff there: http://backinmyplay.com/bimp-gaiden-akihabara-virtual-tour/