I picked up a square button Famicom yesterday for 300 yen at my local shop. Its in great condition and was an incredible bargain, but what really intrigued me was the controller wires.
Every Famicom console I have ever seen has black wires for the controllers, even my other square button Famicom. But this one I got yesterday has gray ones.
I realize that wire color isn't really an issue of earth shattering importance, but still I thought it was interesting. Anybody else have a Famicom with gray controller wires? Or know why some Famicoms have gray wires while most have black?
I put some pics up on my blog here:
http://famicomblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/mega-bargain-of-day-another-square.html
Damn you and your lucky finds! ;D
Awesome find! Aren't those gray cables just sun-deteriorated black ones?
Manuel - you know I just post this stuff here to drive you crazy! ;D
jpx72 - good guess, but the gray cables definitely aren't sun-deteriorated black ones. The color is even all across and they look brand new. The rest of the unit shows no sign of sun fading either.
One clue is that the color is the exact same as the color of the little round plastic things that "lock" the controller wires in between the top and bottom half of the console when its put together.
I wonder if the original - I mean the REALLY early Famicoms all had gray controller wires and for some reason they changed to black wires during the early production run - even before they switched to round buttons for the controllers.
Quote from: senseiman on January 19, 2011, 02:34:26 am
Manuel - you know I just post this stuff here to drive you crazy! ;D
I knew it! :'(
Quote from: manuel on January 19, 2011, 02:39:12 am
Quote from: senseiman on January 19, 2011, 02:34:26 am
Manuel - you know I just post this stuff here to drive you crazy! ;D
I knew it! :'(
Hee-hee!
Actually it really is too bad you missed out on Omocha Souko, I guarantee that you would have a mountain of Famicom stuff now if it had been around back then.
Right now, they have a Turbo Twin Famicom sitting in that same 300 yen junk pile.
I am torn about getting it.
I have two Twin Famicoms already, but I don't have an AC cable for them so they are useless. The Twin Turbo they have doesn't have an AC cable either (and I can't find one anywhere in Fukuoka).
BUT, if I get it I will have all 3 versions of the Twin Famicom. Quite the collector's feat.
And 300 yen? So cheap.
But its useless to me and I'm running out of shelf space to keep all this stuff - oh the confusion!!!
Anyway, if I break down and buy it, be assured that I'll be posting about that here too! :D
Are you kidding? You just have to get it for only 300 Yen!
I know the problem about shelf space, though. :D Last year when we moved to our new place I realized just how much junk gaming stuff I had piled up. ;D
how much USD is 300 yen?
The rate constantly changes, but use this website/Google instead of asking next time: http://www.xe.com/ucc/convert.cgi?Amount=300&From=JPY&To=USD&image.x=27&image.y=14&image=Submit
As of this post, 300 JPY is equivalent to about 3.65 USD.
Sigh...I caved.
Meet my new 300 yen Twin Famicom:
http://famicomblog.blogspot.com/2011/01/mega-bargain-of-day-exorcising-my-twin.html
Yes... give yourself to the dark side... Muahahahaha....
this whole thread makes me wanna take an ass load of american money to japan and go on an all out famicom/gaming shopping speree
Shipping the stuff back to the US would cost you more than the merchandise itself, though.
That's why you bring an extra suitcase. ;)
Quote from: senseiman on January 19, 2011, 04:50:58 pm
BUT, if I get it I will have all 3 versions of the Twin Famicom. Quite the collector's feat.
And 300 yen? So cheap.
There are four versions of the Twin Famicom:) Which turbo is in the junk-box, red or black? If it's red/orange, buy it and sell it to e for a mark-up. Heck, I'd buy any version for over 300Y.
Additionally you can use a 9VAC power supply in a pinch; 'tisn't as if the 7.6VAC is regulated current.
Manuel - I can never resist the power of the dark side!!!
Linkzpikachu - you have to move here! ;D Actually my blog probably gives the misleading impression that you can just walk into any retro game shop and pick stuff up dirt cheap. Usually its much more expensive, a fact I'm sure that Manuel can attest to ;).
It took me about a year to really figure out the cycle of the retro game market here and learn how to be in the right place at the right time to score this stuff. My shop where I score most of these deals, for example, tosses stuff into its junk section roughly once a month. But you never know which day they'll do it. And you have to get there quick, because there are a lot of other collectors out there who swoop in to buy this stuff the second it is out there.
So I drop in there 2 or 3 times a week (its on my way home so its quite easy for me to do that), but about 90% of the time they don't have any deals. But that 10% of the time when they do? What a rush! ;D
Quote from: Xious on January 20, 2011, 04:32:34 pm
Quote from: senseiman on January 19, 2011, 04:50:58 pm
BUT, if I get it I will have all 3 versions of the Twin Famicom. Quite the collector's feat.
And 300 yen? So cheap.
There are four versions of the Twin Famicom:) Which turbo is in the junk-box, red or black? If it's red/orange, buy it and sell it to e for a mark-up. Heck, I'd buy any version for over 300Y.
Additionally you can use a 9VAC power supply in a pinch; 'tisn't as if the 7.6VAC is regulated current.
LOL, yeah I just realized that myself - 4 versions, not 3! D-oh! Guess I have one more to buy.
The twin Fami I got yesterday is the black/green one.
I have a ton of 9VAC power supplies. The problem is the size of the connection, the Twin Famicom's socket is 0.5 mm smaller than the sockets for the regular Famicom (and all the other consoles that use that one).
i would but wouldnt there be a bit of laguage/culture boundary?
Quote from: linkzpikachu on January 20, 2011, 06:53:47 pm
i would but wouldnt there be a bit of laguage/culture boundary?
LOL, yes.
Best not to make major life decisions based on the availability of cheap video game stuff, I always say! ;D
Quote from: son_ov_hades on January 20, 2011, 02:38:13 pm
That's why you bring an extra suitcase. ;)
In most cases one lousy extra suitcase just won't cut it.
Quote from: senseiman on January 20, 2011, 04:56:05 pm
Linkzpikachu - you have to move here! ;D Actually my blog probably gives the misleading impression that you can just walk into any retro game shop and pick stuff up dirt cheap. Usually its much more expensive, a fact I'm sure that Manuel can attest to ;).
Definitely. Finds like that are the exception from the rule.
But still, if you love retro games you should at least once visit Japan. And bring about 10 extra suitcases. ;)