Famicom World

Ok so i can go to either taiwan or hong kong, which is best for pirates?

Taiwan has hotter girls! and animal rights!

I heard it also has cheaper carts.

Taiwan. Sachen is there, you could get some cool taiwan originals. Pick me up Q-boy if you go there!

Ok, lol, i guess if i find one, which one has more pirates though?

Well, there's really no set number, it's all just a matter of knowing where to go.  If you don't already have anywhere in mind, you're going to have a tough time finding anything at all.  Whenever you hear of pirate originals, you usually hear "HK original", so Hong Kong would be my vote, I guess.

Someone who lives in Hong Kong told me the pirates are expensive and hard to find. They're hard to find in Taiwan, too, but they're cheap. I actually only found one table in an open market with pirates in Taiwan, but I bought tons of carts because they had a bunch of good ones.

My vote goes to Taiwan, too.
I only hear good stuff about Taiwan and want to go there myself at some point in time.

Hong Kong can converse in English better than the Taiwanese. ;D

Going by recent experience Taiwan seems to be the place! Of course though Taiwan is just a generalization, there's tons of different areas over there and depending on where you go you could end up with nothing interesting in sight. I still wonder what the ideal part of Taiwan would be for pirates.

I used to want to go to Dalian in China as I've heard there's a lot of pirates over there. Shenzhou also.

In Taiwan I'd think Taipei, the capital is probably the best place. I could be wrong, though.

I have chosen, TAIWAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good choice. Again. Please find me q boy! Trade for pika!

Cool, when are you going? And have you chosen which part yet?  :)

Taiwan's tiny. If you spend a week there, you could hit most of it. But yeah, I'd think Taipei would be best. And look in markets. There aren't many video game stores with Famicom stuff. I stayed with a Taiwanese friend there and we couldn't find any. Online gaming is big there.

thx for the advice JC, i think i will be going to Taipei, i will be going this summer, i will also be going to akihabara in japan!!! Cant wait!!

Heh, Taipei is where my friend that buys all this stuff for me is actually! Maybe you won't be out of luck after all :P

You have anything you've never seen on any website? I like to keep track of what sort of unlicensed originals exist, but I think I've seen just about all of them.

Quote from: famiac on September 22, 2009, 08:06:57 pm
thx for the advice JC, i think i will be going to Taipei, i will be going this summer, i will also be going to akihabara in japan!!! Cant wait!!

A lot of people say Akihabara is overrated. I hope you can still find yourself some deals, though.

Quote from: JC on September 22, 2009, 08:33:09 pm
You have anything you've never seen on any website? I like to keep track of what sort of unlicensed originals exist, but I think I've seen just about all of them.

Me? None that I know of so far, unless you mean variations like that cardboard mario world 64 I got today. I only ask the guy to search for what I know exists, so I wouldn't have any way of getting him to find something unknown since I wouldn't even know of it to ask him.

The Samurai Shodown 2 cart he found was one I had never seen before, that's probably the closest to generally unknown stuff I've found. Then again I did know that it exists  :P

I still need Samurai Shodown 2. Yeah, I'm pretty sure, other than dumb Chinese RPGs and maybe obscure Russian originals, I've seen everything. Well, maybe a Korean original or two have yet to pop up online.

I am going fo HK this summer, does anyone know any place where i can buy some famicom/pirates stuff?

haha marlon, like my best friend, he's crazy!  :D

HK, Taiwan, or any modern city with a high cost of living will have a lack of pirate cartridges. If you want to see/buy large swaths of games, you need to go to mainland China or places where expensive games and products are out of reach for the common person. In those areas, pirate Famicom cartridges are like a staple because it's the only thing that most people can afford.

But what you typically find in China are either Chinese-language RPGs that most people can't play or cheap globtops with almost brittle casing. In Taiwan in particular you find high-quality pirates dating back to the 80s, including non-RPG originals that are often quite fun! I'm less familiar with what HK has to offer.

Has anyone here really gone looking all over Taiwan to be able to say there's nothing there? Of course, finding this stuff in China is so easy with how much rampant it is there, but in Taiwan I'm sure that while it's less obvious all over the place, you'll still find a good amount of Famicom carts if you just like..find the right place.

I'm hopefully going soon though, so I'll be letting everyone know what I bring back. My prediction is nothing, but there's always hope :P

I went to Taiwan. There aren't a bunch of video game stores or anything... they seem to be much more into online gaming. But in some of the open-air markets you can find vendors with nothing but Famicom games. And good games, too!

How long ago did you go? I found that in most major cities they started selling pirate GBA/DS/PS2 games over Famicom stuff now days.

February 2009.

I got back from Taiwan yesterday after spending a month there. I can certainly say my image of the place before going there is completely different now!  :o But anyways I'm sure most here would be interested in what was available as far as pirates go. Well, JC and Trenton had it pretty much. You won't find anything too obviously except for in the open air markets aka night markets. And I went to every single one in Taipei I could find on a map! Suffice it to say that you only can find Famicom, any other systems you have to be lucky and run into a toy shop or a gaming shop that actually still stocks old stuff. I got lucky by walking around randomly throughout the days exploring the city since I came across some hidden places that had a small stock of some interesting items. This is everything I found:

(http://a.imageshack.us/img825/2317/downsized0809001928.jpg)

In case it's not easy to see everything:

Famicom:

2 boxed copies of Somari
Millionaire by Sachen
Fighting Hero
Super Lion King
Earthworm Jim 2
4 in 1 JY multi(showed Donkey Kong Country on the cover, sadly turns out to just be a hack of Tiny Toons -_-)
9 in 1 multi with Super Panda
15 in 1 with lots of hacks of popular taiwan originals, haven't really tested it yet
Pipe Dream(didn't want it, the night market seller just gave it to me for free :P)

Genesis:

Super Mario World 64
Dream Fruit Roulette, manual has lots of naked chicks in it :P


Besides that I got some GBA game from Syntax, who made lots of crappy gbc games, and three GBC games made in Taiwan. Forgot their names for now, too tired to check again.

If anyone ever thinks about going to Taiwan for pirates, don't. Night Markets rarely had any games, I only came across four(out of like 12~ I visited) that sold any, and I bought all the interesting pirates already  8) Of course, I was mainly in Taipei. I did go to Kaohsiung and find the Super Panda multi there though. Any other sources from pirates flows between collectors and other shops that you'd probably have to just have luck coming across. I also went to three flea markets. Not a single game anywhere!

Oh yeah, I forgot to say I did find one shop that had a boxed complete A'can console. If anyone knows what that is, and ever plans to go to the Taichung area just lemme know and I'll tell you where to look =p

Nice Super Panda find... I saw a copy of that while I was there and didn't buy it. :( Dumb, dumb.

Did you see it at a Night Market I assume? I was wondering how often those sellers change their stock, I always made sure to ask if they had another other games not on the table and they usually pulled out a couple of blue boxes that had lots of duplicates of what was already available. Still, they surely must occasionally get more games. I still wonder how long those Somari's sat at that one guy's stand. Lots of foreign tourists go through that night market and no one picked them up. Impossible! :P

I saw it at the main night market in Taipei. It was a dude and his wife on a little side street off the main drag who had two tables packed with Famicom games. I bet they do pretty well, particularly with Asian tourists more familiar with the system. I told myself I'd only spend $100, so I didn't get everything I wanted.

Shoulda splurged.

I don't know any night market that really is considered the main one. Shilin Night Market possibly? I only found one stand there and it was in a section of the market that had a roof and felt like it was underground or something. Only interesting pirate they had was Fighting Heroes 2, but it was cart only and I know I've seen it boxed before so I passed :P

BTW before I get more requests I'm only going to be selling the second Somari, the 15-in-1, the 4-in-1, Pipedream and the Millionaire game from Sachen. All the rest are my personal treasures :P And I've already got offers for the Somari and 15-in-1.

Fighting Heroes 2, as in the sequel to the one you have? I've never even seen that one before, only 1 and 3.

Not sure if I used the right name. Maybe it was called World Heroes 2 instead? The one that lets you play as Sonic.

ah yeah, that's World Heroes 2.