Thread by @cabel

👾💴 It's time for a second thread of "interesting Japanese game auctions I've found", since the last one was gettin' super long. Here goes!

(If you never saw the last one, it's here:

https://twitter.com/cabel/status/1108390685059616769

)

Ok, it's not a videogame, but that's some of the best box art/design I've ever seen. Absolutely wonderful. (¥2,980 no bids yet.)

And it's always been mildly interesting to me that the Game & Watch "Zelda" is just "Zelda". There's no legend here. (¥8,305 so far with 22 bids and 7 days left. Since it's brand new and in incredible condition, this will go for a lot.)

(Quick sidebar: the patent on the back of the Game and Watch, 4438926, is for a "Timepiece Apparatus Having a Game Function". Inventors: Gunpei Yokoi and Satoru Okada, of course.)

By the way, if you remember this one, I actually bought it. Why. Unsurprisingly, the only bidder. Surely the weirdest playing cards Nintendo’s ever made.

These beautiful Hudson Soft casettes for the Sharp X1 computer. That's a real Root Beer Tapper-lookin logotype and I love it. ¥23,000 (no bids)

(And just a quick sidebar on the Sharp X1 computer: MY GOD LOOK AT IT)

If you're in the market for a handful of DS games… like, maybe 1,000 of them… this is going for ¥51,012 ($487.68)

Someone's also selling a brand new Wii U CAT-DEV development kit, which seems to be a hot item (literally?) — ¥201,000 yen and 134 bids so far.

Surreal Nintendo/Disney playing cards. 𝓓𝓾𝓬𝓴

Every now and then an auction like this shows up — feels like a long closed or long forgotten mom and pop Japanese store has been sitting on unsold Famicom stock since the 80's. It's the best. These all went for ¥71,000 or $670.24.

This is the purest distillation of Video Game. (It was from Epoch, which is a cool company not many people talk about?) It went for ¥19,500 yen or $184.08.

What looks like a Gunhed PC Engine HuCard is actually… a promotional calculator from Mitsubishi, for Hudson employees! That's neat! (9 bids, ¥7,650 yen so far)

I wonder what the TAITO CORPORATION PRESENTER 2000 was. Looks like there's some kind of karaoke inputs on the back? (It sold for ¥13,000.)

Someone discovered unopened — but water-damaged — retail displays for 80's Bambino LCD/LED games. They're nice. (¥68000, no bids.)

The power of a mint package: these five, somehow never-used Famicom Silver Boxes went for ¥22400 ($214)

Was curious to see how much this went for: Gradius Archimendes. Only 4,000 were made, you sent in box tabs to get one, and there's one main change: the power-ups are little packages of Archimendes instant noodles. Final bid: ¥206,000 ($2,000)!!

I don't know how this ended up in the Super Mario Bros. section of Yahoo! Auctions Japan — so I'm posting it. ¥19800, zero bids.

I had no idea there was a version of Popeye for the Famicom that taught English?!? Amazing artwork. Someone is asking 89,000 ($850) for this so it must be pretty rare.

If you're curious, here's the gameplay for POPEYE ENGLISH

The Jem Corporation's "Magic Cassette" is seems to be an early Famicom pirate cart with flashable EPROMs. The stickers on the front hide the EPROMs from ultraviolet light that would erase them. The programmer looked cool and industrial. (¥1,000 with 1 bid)

This very very cute Link. (¥1,000 no bids)

I think the industry learned about long-term plastic/rubber durability in the creation of the CASIO PV-2000 keyboard. They're ALL like this! (Surprisingly, 13 bids, ¥10,000. Why?)

Two other CASIO PV-2000 auctions for reference 😵

The ultimate port of Super Mario Land 2 (¥5,000 yen, 1 bid)

This prototype cart of Custom Robo for the N64. (¥56,000 yen, 3 bids).

"Marigul was a Japanese corporation created and jointly owned by Nintendo Co., Ltd. (40%) and media company Recruit (60%). Its name is a combination of Nintendo's mascot Mario and Recruit's mascot Seegul."

I love it!!! (¥6,980)

Is this the Blaseball I'm hearing so much about (¥35,000?!)

I was shocked by the starting price of this boring-looking thing — ¥111,111 ($1,091) — but it turns out this QTa adapter was made by Konami for schools to play a series of special educational Famicom cartridges. Rare and obscure, I love it!! Read more: polygon.com/2019/8/30/2084…