What got you into famicom?

[Crustifix]

Well I always was really into Japanese stuff all throughout childhood (damn you Dragonball!!!, I used to wake up early with my brother and watch it on Saturday morning cartoons, while drinking warm chocolate milk)
But I'd say the point it got good was in my Japanese language class in high school.
I was supposed to give a 10-15 minute long presentation of the history of nintendo,
wound up to be about 45 minutes of me precisely unfolding the tale of NINTENDO.
My teacher was a little pissed, but he talked to me after class, and turned out, he still had his famicom and bunch of games!!!
DAMN, AND HE SOLD IT TO ME FOR 30 BUCKS!!!!
HA, he said it would help me in his class!!
Got every Dragon Quest, and a bunch of other great games.
I'm thinking of traveling to japan and buying more, I could buy a god damn plane ticket with the prices' of imports these days!
But I have crazy luck with console finds.
I once bought a Super Famicom with Seiken Densetsu III and a couple other RPG's (Treasure Hunter G, anyone?;-D)
from a crazy crackhead's garage sale for 15 bucks. I think it was loot from some japanese people he robbed or something.

[Rob64]

I probably said this in another topic but I don't mind recalling memory again. When we got digital cable, we got G4 when it had the sweet shows that aren't on anymore. Game Makers was on and it was the history of Nintendo episode. They showed the famicom and I remember thinking that it looked cool and very japanese like... I was 15 at the time. I had it in the back of my head until I came across Japan Game Stock which sells the famicom and I knew that I had to have it because of how cool it looked and the fact that it was foreign and from the country nintendo is based in.

Overall, the look of it got me in and the idea of how there are differences (some times) between japanese and american releases of video games.

[FamicomFreak]

I got into Famicom mainly because of my past, I lived surrounded by famiclones and pirate carts but didn't have the money for them. Now that I do, I have been hunting them down. I also got into the original games as well and well the collection kept growing. It's funny because Famicom collecting got me into NES collecting then to SNES collecting so I became an all around collector which means I have to be careful in my purchases since I have a small place. But after 2000 games bought, I can say I'm not stopping anytime soon...har har har!

[Chris Leach]

I really likes boxed goods and picked up a boxed famicom on ebay for 40$.  Then instead of using the famicom to play famicom disc games I hooked up my toploader and played the disc games using the nes to famicom converter and my famicom disc drive...worked great..Love the famicom system ever since then...

[an-cat-max]

Because it's badass, goes well with beer too!

[cavanor]

In the late 90s I had a Spica system with a bunch of supervision carts, small nes box games, famicom converter etc.  I loved that system but lent it to a friend and being a teenager forgot about it.  Now I realise much of what I had would be valuable but hey if this stuff was still common the value wouldnt' be there right!

Anyway much older, a little wiser and with a bit more cash behind me I have begun building myself a classic games room - aiming for 8 bit - 64 bit collecting which really is where the majority of my gaming memories lie.

[Epicenter]

My friend Jose's super-bootleg Famicom (we called it the Plasticom, damn near no metal in the system period, and it was built like sheer garbage) and his pile of bootleg carts from Mexico. Terrible ROM hacks, Mario sprites pasted into Armadillo, and the like. The best of the pile was "Super Mario Family", a pirate cart with Mario 1 (with Mario 2 (J)'s CHR ROM inserted for god knows what reason), Mario 2 (US), Mario 2 (J, hacked from FDS), Mario 3 US, Mario 3 JP, Armadillo, and ... Bowling? Awesome.

Later I bought a copy of "Jetman" on eBay (and later found more copies for $5 each in Japan, har) and got a cheap Famiclone in Japan to play it on. Later I found some legit systems and started collecting the more interesting ones. Currently sitting on a few HVC-101s, HVC-001s, FDS drives and 2 Sharp Twin FCs, one of which needs to be put back together.

The pile of FC carts reaches the ceiling twice. I think I need to invest in some kind of case to store these things in...

[lkermel]

I think I really got into Famicom collecting through the back door : the FDS. I've always had a bunch of NES games but I've never been a big fan of the console (I'm about to explain, stop throwing rocks at me ). Not because of the quality of the games, but rather the video quaity - the screen was buzzing like hell. I don't know if it's related to the fact that I'm French (maybe a Pal /Secam format thingy), but everytime I'd play the NES at a friend's house then I'd be annoyed by the buzzing on the screen. I rediscovered the Famicom when I got my first Famicom Disk - the rest is history

[nerdynebraskan]

The majority of members here are North American and European, so we didn't exactly get raised on the Famicom. I'm curious how people here came to getting into a console that wasn't really native to most of our home countries. I've seen a few users here touch on it here and there, but I figured I'd start a thread to get a few more answers.

I actually first saw a Famicom in probably the Angry Video Game Nerd's Transformers review. While the game looked bad, I've got enough Transformers nostalgia that I said to myself, "Damn, I should buy one of those and play it for myself." As soon as I figured out I had a Famicom adapter inside my five-screw copy of Wrecking Crew, I bought Transformers: Convoy no Nazo off eBay and the rest is history.

[Nightstar699]

Playing random games on emulator long ago, and discovering the sad reality that so many great games were left to Japan-exclusive obscurity. After discovering wonderful game after game, I just had to own these games so I could get the full experience out of them.

[BonBon]

One of my biggest regrets in life i sold my entire video game collection that was 23 years worth of collecting about 6 years ago that included 400+ nes games. when I finally decided to restore my collection about 4 years ago I didn't want to pay super high prices for nes games I already had gotten for really cheap so I started collecting famicom cause they are still the same games but new to me in there diffrent cart forms not to mention cheaper. Also nes/famicom has always been my favorite system. Since I've started restoring my collection it's now bigger and better then ever with the exception of about 200 nes games I used to have plus a ton of cd-I stuff. It's sucks how bad the vintage gaming world is jaded now it was such a cheap fun hobby a few years ago now that vintage gaming has been declared "hip" in our modern times now its become a monopoly for so many greedy resellers.

[Phosphora]

I guess I was just lucky, but there was an import game shop in my hometown during the golden age of gaming. I must have been 7 or 8 years old when my grandma bought me a Honey-Bee converter. 

[security16]

SAILOR MOON!
Thats the short answer

[Ghegs]

Many years ago I saw a CIB copy of Recca for sale on eBay, decided I wanted it despite the cost, and bought it. Then I bought a system to play it on. Then I figured I might as well buy some other games for the console too...

[XiTaU]

hmm i guess being a pal user its cheaper and easier to find famicom games and hardware then ntsc/u nes and i cant live with 50hz anymore.