New to Famicom

[mdrobnak]

Hi everyone! I just wanted to say hello as I think this place is going to be a great resource. I kind of stumbled into the Famicom world, totally by chance.

A couple of weeks ago I was in Japan on vacation, and on the second to last day stopped by Akihabara. I happened to stop in a shop called Retro Game Camp, and was floored at the amount of stuff there. I decided I wanted to get something 'from Japan', so I picked up Super Mario 2 on FDS for 2400 Yen, which I thought was an OK deal. It was cheap enough for just 1 game and an 'oooh' factor.

Fast forward to a few days after I'm back, and I'm looking up FDS info, and realized that they had a few of the Twin Famicom systems at the shop...but I didn't want to buy anything for $200. But, the more I read, and all the cool stuff I saw....I bought a Twin Famicom from a US seller for $135, and it should be here on Friday. I can't wait.

I also dug through some of my old stuff, and realized my old US NES still works, and much to my surprise, so does my Zelda cart! It still has my saved data from the 80s. Craziness.

Anyway, I will post some pics of the twin in action once I get it set up.

Anyone have a FAQ on importing this stuff from Japan into the US? If I'm going to start buying carts and disks from Japan...I don't want to have any issues with customs..

So in summary, this place looks like a fun community, and I'm looking forward to playing some of the more unique games from Japan.

-Matt

[Nightstar699]

Hello Matt, welcome to the family that is the Family Computer. I think you'll have a lot of fun with this hobby, but I understand you may have some concerns. While I don't know of any FAQs on getting started, I wouldn't mind writing my own one for you.

Q: How do I go about purchasing games from Japan?

A: Yahoo Auctions Japan and Amazon.co.jp are both wonderful sources, however, you'll need a contact in Japan to help you purchase games from there. Luckily, we have a few of those on this very forum, so feel free to ask around!

Q: And just which shipping service should I opt for?

A: is the way to go. It's fast, and you get tracking on your games, both of which are good things.

Q: But which games should I be on the lookout for?

A: Excellent question! Well, if you're mainly looking for Japanese exclusives, than I'd go ahead and recommend Mitsume Ga Tooru, Holy Diver, and Cocoron. Give 'em a shot, they're good!

If you have any others questions, let me know.

[mdrobnak]

Thanks for the hearty welcome!

Clearly I should use EMS for shipping from Japan to the US.

I've seen some on Ebay from Japan, and some here in the Buy/Sell/Trade section. I guess I was looking for more guidance on what happens after the package is in the mail type of thing. Do I have to give a filled out customs form to EMS? Does EMS fill it out based on seller provided info?

I'll definitely look into the three games you've mentioned.

-Matt

[NintendoKing]

Armadillo, Ikki, Argus, New Ghostbuster II, Hi No Tori, Snow Bros, Mappy Land, and All Night Nippon: Super Mario Bros.
Those are must have games!

[Nightstar699]

^ I can second this man's recommendation of Armadillo, Armadillo is actually the game that got me into Famicom... in addition to Choujin Sentai Jetman, Kaiketsu Yanchamaru 2, Samurai Pizza Cats, Daiku no Gen San, and Joy Mecha Fight.... (which are all games I suggest, by the way)

And EMS is pretty simple, fear not. It does mean that you'll have to sign for your package (or pick it up from the post office the next day if you're unavailable), but it's totally worth the added convenience of faster shipping and a tracking number.

[UglyJoe]

Some sellers will also offer Fedex International shipping, which has always been very fast when I've used it.

[Nightstar699]

True, FedEx shipping has also been a good option for me. StJackie uses it who has a thread here where he has tons of Famicom games for sale, I'd advise checking that out to get started. Manuel's thread as well, he has plenty of good stuff.

[Byron]

Welcome, Matt.

I think Air Mail isn't so bad, but I'm cheap. Not cheap enough to torture myself with SAL, though.

Try Castle Quest. It's like a cross between chess and a board game and an RPG. It's a neat game once you figure out the menus. I personally don't "get" Armadillo. I find the controls clunky and weird, and the gameplay a bit bland. I never got that far, so maybe it improves later?

[P]

I only use EMS if I buy something expensive like a console. If I had used EMS every single time I bought a few games the total cost would have been much bigger than what I loose if a game is lost once in a while.

For recommendations, what genres are you interested in?

[mdrobnak]

Thanks for all the info and insights everyone.

A quick initial list of games that I think I will get is:
Cocoron
Dragon Ball Z
Pac Land
Tetris Flash?
Tetris 2?
Yoshi's Cookie
Yoshi's Egg
Pinball

I'm looking for stuff that was either not on the NES, or is very good, or is a fun little game. I definitely like platformers like Mario stuff, I love Zelda (and am looking to learn more Japanese, but maybe not immediately hehe), and silly racing games like I had both Rad Racer and RC Pro Am for the NES, but sadly I lost a bunch of my old games due to lending them to a family member I shouldn't have.

I haven't looked into all of the suggestions in this thread so far, so expect this list to grow.

Oh, and of course FDS exclusive stuff too!

-Matt

[Zycrow]

A few others that you might look into:

Daiku no Gen-San (AKA Hammerin' Harry)
Crisis Force
Gradius 2
Getsu Fuuma Den
Door Door (fun little arcade-style game, programmed a guy who later went on to help create Dragon Quest)

None of those were released on NES, and all of them are pretty accessible with little to no knowledge of Japanese. (Getsu Fuuma Den has some text but there are plenty of guides online)

There's tons of great stuff on Famicom - its library is something like 1400 games, compared to the NES' 800 or so. And many of them have subtle differences between the US and Japanese versions - the Famicom version of Castlevania III, for example, has better music and a more bearable difficulty level.

[NintendoKing]

I like Getsu Fuuma Den, it's a really fun game for sure.

[P]

A few FDS recommendation threads: http://www.famicomworld.com/forum/index.php?topic=10782.msg149416#msg149416

If you like RPGs there are tons of Famicom exclusives, and many are fan translated so you just need to grab an Everdrive if you want to play them in English.

A few fun boardgames: Itadaki Street (by Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii), Hyaku no Sekai Monogatari (has a translation patch).

If you like puzzle I recommend the Eggerland games (several of them wasn't released on NES), Solomon no Kagi (Japanese Solomon no Kagi 2 uses battery backup). Can't think of anything more at the moment.

[mdrobnak]

So many games.

On an annoying note, I got the Twin Famicom today, but the disk drive is not working. The seller described it as needing a belt replacement 'soon,' and included a clear, thin belt, but apparently soon is now.

I will do the replacement tomorrow night and then put some pics up here.

-Matt

[Zycrow]

Good luck with your fix - the various versions of the disk system are all notoriously prone to breakage and other issues. When I got mine, there was a weird issue with the RAM adaptor causing the graphics to become garbled. I now have three RAM adaptors, only one of which works properly.