Famicom Quest - 1012/1053 (Robocop)

[scaryice | 581]

It's time to restart this thread here, after the death of NA. For the past decade, I've been keeping track of my journey to collect Famicom carts. Join me as the journey continues toward the full set!

 

Games owned

96.11% = 1012/1053

 

Money Spent

$4,322.36 = $4.27 per game

 

Most Expensive Games

1	Summer Carinval '92: Recca     	373.60
2	Seirei Densetsu Lickle      	160.00
3	Moon Crystal                	121.99
4	Battle Formula              	102.55
5	Captain Saver               	77.94
6	Empire Strikes Back            	48.71
7	Gimmick                     	45.00
8	Igo Meikan                  	38.84
9	Hebereke                     	37.50
10	Bucky O'Hare                	29.17
11	Nakayoshi to Issho          	29.06
12	Solomon no Kagi 2             	28.00
13	Pizza Pop                   	27.56
14	Rockman                      	27.05
15	Don Doko Don 2                	26.00
	Lagrange Point              	26.00
17	Kyoro-chan Land             	25.30
18	Battletoads                  	21.99
19	Karaoke Studio              	20.00
	Mitsume ga Tooru               	20.00
21	Family BASIC v3.0           	19.19
22	SD Gundam: Gundam Wars (DATACH)	19.00
23	Dragon Ball: Dai Maou Fukkatsu 	18.75
	Dragon Ball Z Gaiden        	18.75
	Juuryoku Soukou Metal Storm 	18.75

 

Publisher sets

(17/33 with 10+ games completed)

1. Square
2. ASCII
3. Namco
4. KAC
5. Toei
6. Nintendo
7. Tokyo Shoseki
8. Coconuts
9. Pack-in Video
10. Kemco
11. Hudson
12. Koei
13. Takara
14. Tokuma Shoten
15. Yutaka
16. Asmik
17. Pony Canyon
18. Victor
19. Data East

 

Notes

I've gone back and figured out how much I've spent for every game, along with the approximate date I received each one. For older lot purchases, I used my old price guide (from 2012) to determine how much I paid for each game. But since in the years since, I've just counted each game in a lot equally. Money spent includes shipping (except for trades). It doesn't include games bought that I already owned that I got another copy of. Also, if I get another copy of a game in better condition, I don't count the cost of the new game. I just keep the cost of the first copy I had, even though it's been switched out. I use the list of games on Japanese Wikipedia, which leads to a total of 1,053 carts. This is the standard number over there, although it can certainly be debated.

 

Remaining Games

.

Edited July 6, 2022 by scaryice

[scaryice | 581]

My last post on NA left me off at 995 carts. I've since added four more to put me one away from the big four digits:

#996 - Hudson Hawk
#997 - Jekyll Hakase no Houma ga Toki
#998 - Circus Charlie
#999 - Mahou no Princess Minky Momo: Remember Dream

 

Hudson Hawk seems to be reasonably uncommon, although not expensive. I know Dr. Jekyll is considered to be a bit butchered for the US release, which perhaps led to its terrible reputation. Although I'm sure people would've still hated it no matter what.

 

Circus Charlie is a very common game that I somehow never acquired until now. It's a Konami game, but they didn't publish it (Soft Pro did, who also published Karateka - I don't know anything about them). It's also the last game that I needed which was published in 1986. So far I've completed 1983, 1984, 1985, and 1986 in order; we'll see if that pattern continues. Here's how my current stats look:

 

 

So, I only need six more games from the 1980s. That would be Joust from 1987, Contra & Cosmo Police Galivan from 1988, and Gekikame Ninja Den, Holy Diver, & Robocop from 1989.

The last of these four games is Minky Momo. With a name like that, you wouldn't be surprised to learn that it's based on a magical girl anime. You might be a little surprised, though, to learn that it dates all the way back to 1982. Check this out:

 

The game itself seems to be an adventure-style game where you go around and talk to people in town, so not very playable unless you understand Japanese. It was the last Yutaka game I needed for that publisher set, so here's the requisite photo:

 

 

Of course they also did the Sailor Moon game (Nakayoshi to Issho, one of the more expensive games so far). Yutaka (not Yukata, as I've accidentally typed several times) appears to have been bought by Bandai and is closely related to them. Looks like they were previously called Shinsei, and there seems to be sort of an Acclaim/LJN scenario here. But all these carts have the SHI code, so they belong together.

These are mostly anime games, and I don't think any are highly regarded. Last Armageddon is probably the most interesting one. It's a turn-based computer rpg featuring demons vs robots. Ushio to Tora & Nakayoshi to Issho are both harder to find. It's also neat that the very common Gundam Gachipon Senshi 2 (the black cart on the top row) has a light blue variant. It still has a black sticker, so it looks kind of weird. I'm not sure why that exists.

As always, the pic shows the games in order of release.

 

Edited December 5, 2019 by scaryice

[Sumez | 2,931]

4 hours ago, scaryice said:

4 Captain Saver 77.94

5 Gimmick 45.00

What the

How

[fcgamer | 4,719]

Looking good dude! You're on the home stretch of the marathon now.

[Tanooki | 4,929]

I've kept tabs on this quest of yours over time as I found it entertaining as much as interesting too.  Nice to see it wasn't lost in the shameful shutdown.  Sometimes it's always one of those least to be expected things of no consequential value that pop up later in the mix given when you just got that konami game.

[DorkOverlord | 679]

Very cool. I love collecting Famicom games. The artwork is so cool on most of them, and they really have a unique "feel" compared to the US NES carts. 

[scaryice | 581]

18 hours ago, Sumez said:

What the

How

 

I bought Gimmick 9 years ago, that's how.

[scaryice | 581]

#1000 - Joust

Today I received my first FC game in a while, a copy of Joust ($8.98). Nothing too special, but it just happens to be my 1,000th cart! Only 53 to go (one of which is on the way). It's also the last game I needed from 1987. So far, I've completed 83-84-85-86-87 in order. That probably won't hold, since I only need one more 1994 cart. We'll see.

Money spent per cart so far, by year:

Year	Avg
1983	2.22
1984	1.91
1985	1.90
1986	2.15
1987	2.66
1988	2.80
1989	2.53
1990	3.36
1991	5.13
1992	10.06
1993	6.68
1994	5.69

 

Edited February 15, 2020 by scaryice

[T-Pac | 7,513]

17 hours ago, scaryice said:

#1000 - Joust

Today I received my first FC game in a while, a copy of Joust ($8.98). Nothing too special, but it just happens to be my 1,000th cart! Only 53 to go (one of which is on the way). It's also the last game I needed from 1987. So far, I've completed 83-84-85-86-87 in order. That probably won't hold, since I only need one more 1994 cart. We'll see.

That's awesome! 1000! I used to check in on your Famicom collecting thread from NA, and it's been so cool seeing the progress - almost like collecting vicariously haha. Make sure to keep us updated on new acquisitions!

-CasualCart

[scaryice | 581]

Thanks, I've always enjoy reading everyone else's countdowns for NES cart sets or whatever, so I try to make it somewhat exciting.

I'd love to take some pics, but it's kind of difficult to set up 1,000 carts. I don't even think I have a good place to take a pic like that. Instead, I guess I'll talk a bit about storage. Right now, I have the games separated by color. Given that I'm storing them in a few big boxes, that at least lets me narrow down where a given game could be. I thought about doing it by publisher, but each stack would be full of different colors, and also I'd have to deal with different amounts of games for each one. So color it is.

I've narrowed it down to five color groups - black/green/red/white/yellow. Green includes blue (I call the category green just so I don't have two that start with the letter B), red includes pink/purple, and yellow includes brown/gold/gray/orange. Based on those groupings, you get the following number of carts for each:

470	black
192	green
151	white
141	yellow
99	red

Before I figured this out, I would've guessed half-black, so that's a little lower than expected. There's some borderline cases here, such as darker gray carts that I count as black but maybe should be under yellow.

You all might interested to know that according to my calculations, there are 88 "big" carts. That's not including the 3 later Taito carts that are maybe a tiny bit bigger (Captain Saver, Flintstones, Jetsons), so maybe you could make it 91 if you wanted. That also doesn't include the Karaoke Studio game & mic.

Edited February 16, 2020 by scaryice

[scaryice | 581]

#1001 - Pizza Pop!

Just the one game to add this time. I'm at the point now where I should probably update every single time I get any game. So Pizza Pop is a Jaleco game, which reminds me of Panic Restaurant more than anything else. It's a food-themed platformer aimed at a younger audience. Honestly, it doesn't seem very good to me. However, it does seem to be somewhat sought after, so I was happy to pay $27.56 for it from Yamatoku (they've had several cheap copies recently). Oh, and if you're buying a single cart from them, you should probably buy another cart set to go with it to cut down on shipping costs. Buying one cart by itself would be $12 shipping, but buying Pizza Pop + 8 cart lot was only $17 shipping combined. I actually just bought a few more games from them the other day, so I should be able to update this thread again later this month (including one more publisher set down - not one of the good ones, but still).

I should mention that Pizza Pop ranks as the 11th most expensive game so far. It's kind of a flawed ranking due to how I'm counting lot purchases - just check out the Dragon Ball games on there. Realistically, a game like Metal Storm should be up there for $75 instead of $18. Oh well.

[Tanooki | 4,929]

Ever thought of adding a remaining games list in case someone had one you need?  I saw your top games for price up there in that first post and I do see that Gourmet World (aka Panic Restaurant) is missing.

[scaryice | 581]

I have a thread in the WTB forum, but I should link it here too, good idea - just added it to the first post. I have a bunch of NES and Famicom carts to trade if anyone's interested. I need to make a Famicom doubles list, but that includes Hitler no Fukkatsu (Bionic Commando), Kage, Kung Fu (rare Spartan X variant), Robocco Wars, Sword Master, etc.

I do have Panic Restaurant already. It was part of a big 53 game, $180 lot off Yahoo Auctions a couple years ago. I got Chip 'n Dale 2 and a few other games I needed from there too.

[scaryice | 581]

#1002 - Asmik-kun Land
#1003 - RoboCop 2
#1004 - Dark Lord
#1005 - Tetrastar: The Fighter
#1006 - Twin Eagle: Revenge Joe's Brother

Five more games added from various Yamatoku Ebay lots. Although I technically received them on different days (separate packages and all), this may be the last time I get 5 carts at once for the collection. Certainly some less common titles here:

• I've beaten Twin Eagle a few times for the completions thread and it's bad, a truly generic shooter.
• Robocop games on the NES don't seem too hot either. I beat 3 this year, the first one in the series for me, but it wasn't anything special. For whatever reason, only 1 & 2 were released in Japan. Interesting that I got Robocop 2 before 1 - the first one now has to be one of the cheapest and most common games left.
• Asmik-kun Land is a generic mascot platformer. I played it for 5 minutes, and unless there's some hidden moves that I'm not aware of, it plays terribly. However, the cart is nice with the pink & blue design.
• Tetrastar, I've seen a bit of praise for. The scrolling and classical music are cool, but I'm not a fan of these Space Harrier-likes. So it's interesting, but not my kind of game. Oh, if you fail on the first level (New York), the World Trade Center gets blown up! Link: https://old.reddit.com/r/geek/comments/5lhzy0/nes_game_tetrastar_depicts_the_destruction_of_the/
• Dark Lord is the only one that actually seems like it could be quality. The sprites are huge by NES rpg standards, and I like the music too. It is a Data East game, however, so I'm skeptical.

 

With the addition of Asmik-kun Land, I completed my 16th publisher set (out of 33 with 10+ games). You'll never guess which company it is...

 

It's Asmik! BTW, Asmik-kun is the Japanese name of Boomer the dinosaur mascot, as seen in the title of a Game Boy game. Interestingly enough, he was originally named Bronty in the US, but it appears to have been changed. Is that where the NA/VGS poster got his name from?

Check out this blurb from Nintendo Power, taken from http://www.kidfenris.com/nintendo-powers-greatest-gossip-gremlins/)

 

Anyway, Asmik's games as a whole are not the best. They're interesting in their variety - there's a baseball simulation-type game, mahjong games, platformers, tennis, another Space Harrier clone, and an 8-bit port of Altered Beast (not good). They also they tend to have nice music. Ultimately though, I do actually remember them more for their mascot than anything else.

There's not even anything too rare or expensive, so they don't stand out that way either. Cosmic Epsilon goes for about $20. Some of the others might be less common, but they're not as a sought after. I wouldn't mind trying out Deep Dungeon IV, as a fan of those kinds of rpgs. Deep Dungeon III was published by Square, so there's probably a story there...

One more thing. There's also the case of Hyaku no Sekai no Monogatari, which is the only Famicom game published by Ask Kodansha. Why is that relevant? Because Ask & Kodansha were two of the three companies that made up Asmik. I'm not sure how that works, but I still need that game.

Asmik Famicom games

Nov-88      Gambler Jiko Chuushinha
Oct-89       World Super Tennis
Nov-89      Cosmic Epsilon
Dec-89      Meimon! Takonishi Ouendan: Kouha 6 Nin Shuu
Apr-90       Deep Dungeon IV: Kuro no Youjutsushi
Jul-90        Juuouki
Aug-90      Nipponichi no Meikantoku
Dec-90      Gambler Jiko Chuushinha 2
Dec-90      Jumpin' Kid: Jack to Mame no Ki Monogatari
Dec-91      Asmik-kun Land

 

Edited July 21, 2020 by scaryice

[fcgamer | 4,719]

Jumpin Kid is definitely the gem of that set. 

[scaryice | 581]

#1007 - Shadow Brain

After a long time without an update, finally I've added another cart to my collection. It's a game which is intriguing for several reasons; first being the rarity: This has to be among the most obscure, least common games on the system. I've only seen a handful of cart-only copies sell on Ebay over the years. Now, part of that might be because of intriguing thing #2 - the game was sold with an included vhs tape (which you can watch on Youtube). I wonder if it's one of those games that's rarely found loose due to that, similar to Space Shadow with its Hyper Shot gun.

The game itself is a lot more interesting than I was expecting. It's a futuristic cyber rpg that a few people have compared to Megami Tensei, and it features some fascinating npc and enemy designs. Although, this review suggests that the gameplay is disappointingly shallow. Still, for a game that included a video tape, it could've worse. Remember those terrible vcr board games in the 90s? I was expecting something like that.

Shadow Brain is not just cart 1007, it's the final Pony Canyon game too! Here's all 27 of them in one picture:

 

I have to say that I love the name Pony Canyon, which I just find so amusing for some reason. Do ponies even live in canyons? According to Wikipedia, apparently Pony and Canyon were separate companies who merged in the 80s, so there you go. Pony Canyon has been out of the gaming business for a while, and they're better known as a music company now. I have to think that the original Pony name was a ripoff of Sony, right?

Their FC library is full of western games like Ultima and D&D. The port of Ultima IV was good, but I don't know if there's too much in the way of quality here. I did enjoy Reigen Doushi (Phantom Fighter) and Attack Animal Gakuen (basically, Space Harrier with a school girl and catchy music). A Ressha de Ikou is notable for being a port of the first game in the A-Train series, which is still around. That's the big green cart - as always, I hate it when a publisher has one cart that doesn't fit with their other releases. It's also fascinating to see an American football game that was only released in Japan - Quarterback Scramble. That's the one that was supposed to be Mike Ditka's Big Play Football.

One little detail that I like is the way their games have not only the year, but also the month of release on the carts themselves. BTW, they don't always match up to what's on Japanese Wikipedia. For example, Ultima 3's cart says September 87, but the release date is listed as October 9th. Maybe some last minute delays?

Pony Canyon games

Nov-85	Onyanko Town
Dec-85	Lunar Ball
Sep-86	Super Pitfall
Dec-86	Tiger-Heli
Mar-87	Law of the West
Oct-87	Ultima: Kyoufu no Exodus
Dec-87	Attack Animal Gakuen
Mar-88	Ballblazer
Mar-88	Tanigawa Kouji no Shougi Shinan II
Sep-88	Reigen Doushi
Sep-88	Kujaku Ou
Sep-89	Tanigawa Kouji no Shougi Shinan III
Sep-89	Ultima: Seija e no Michi
Dec-89	Superstar Pro Wrestling
Dec-89	Quarter Back Scramble
Feb-90	Arctic
Aug-90	Kujaku Ou 2
Sep-90	Tamura Koushou Mahjong Seminar
Oct-90	Shufflepuck Cafe
Dec-90	Bard's Tale: Tales of the Unknown
Mar-91	Heroes of the Lance (AD&D)
Mar-91	Hillsfar (AD&D)
Mar-91	Shadow Brain
Jun-91	Pool of Radiance (AD&D)
Aug-91	A Ressha de Ikou
Jan-92	Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight
Feb-92	Dragons of Flame (AD&D)

Other than Shadow Brain, the Bard's Tale and AD&D games seem to be rarer. I don't see the A-Train game much either. Those are all of the latest releases, so that makes sense. The earlier games are common and mostly cheap, although Attack Animal Gakuen seems to go for a bit more.

Edited July 21, 2020 by scaryice

[scaryice | 581]

#1008 - F-1 Sensation
#1009 - Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

It's been a long time since the last post! Things have been slow with the pandemic, especially since deals have become almost non-existent with the higher shipping prices from Japan. I have noticed that the sold prices on Yahoo Auctions are often times cheaper than on Ebay, so I wouldn't say that Famicom carts have gone up that up much recently. Just that it's harder to get them for a reasonable price overseas.

Anyway, I've still managed to add two games this year. The first is F-1 Sensation, which was also released in Europe and is certainly one of Konami's rarest releases. The Japanese version at least, I don't know about the PAL one. It was up for bid in a rarity: an actual Ebay auction for an obscure Famicom cart. I won it for $11.31, which is a great deal, and I suppose that shows you why so few of these auctions happen anymore. My high bid was like three times that. There's still 5 Konami games to go, the most of any publisher.

Speaking of the P-word, the next publisher set (18 of 33) is completed! It's Victor:

 

Victor games

Sep-86	Banana
Mar-87	Hana no Star Kaidou
Dec-87	Outlanders
Mar-88	Tsuri Kichi Sanpei: Blue Marlin-hen
Aug-88	Ys
Dec-88	Kaguya Hime Densetsu
Mar-90	Sansara Naga
May-90	Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished The Final Chapter
Aug-90	Jangou
Feb-91	Niji no Silk Road: Zig Zag Boukenki
Sep-91	Ys III: Wanderers from Ys
Nov-91	Star Wars (Victor)
Mar-93	Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

The only ones released on the NES are the Star Wars games, and the Japanese versions happen to be quite uncommon. I was lucky to get Star Wars in a lot back in 2017 (26 games for $41), where I also got my copies of 1943 and Barcelona 1992. Having saved some money on that, I didn't feel bad about paying nearly $50 for Empire. Definitely one of the least seen games on the system, and the last two copies on Yahoo went for more.

Did you know that Victor was just another name for JVC, aka Japan Victor Company? I didn't. Another interesting fact is that Pack-In-Video (publisher set #9, see photo in the first post), who published a lot of western movie games like Die Hard and Rambo, was bought out by Victor after the Famicom era. I'll also point out that the above games are shown in release order, and yet Silk Road has "07" in its product code despite being released after 08, 09, and 10. And the 11 appears to be missing, because it goes straight to 12 for Ys III. I'm sure there's a story there.

As far as the games themselves - meh. The Ys series is quite famous, but I don't think many people would advocate playing these versions. And while there are a lot of great Star Wars games, it's fine to skip these. At least the Namco Star Wars is interesting for its non-canon portrayal. How about that sexy Outlanders cart, though?

Edited October 26, 2021 by scaryice

[scaryice | 581]

#1010 - Nantettatte!! Baseball OB All Star Hen

Another game to add, and this time it's the first of two mini add-on carts for Sunsoft's Nantettatte Baseball. The original (game #981) is a big cart with a slot for inserting smaller mini-carts. It's a cheap, seemingly forgettable Famista clone, although it has the typical great late-NES era Sunsoft music. However, what is unique are the two mini-carts that they made to work with it. Released later, they were like physical DLC which allowed you to play with updated stats. We saw a similar thing previously with Bandai's Karaoke Studio, and the two add-on carts for that. Technically, I'm not sure that they should be included in the game list, since they can't be used independently without the original game. Still, they're traditionally listed as part of the set by Japanese fans, so buy them I will.

The first game, OB All Star Hen, has indeed been bought. It came out earlier and is much easier to find than the second.  They're both quite rare, though. They also seem to be nicknamed "baby turtle" carts in Japanese, which is great. So, there's a lot of things to talk about here as far as the collectability, but not so much the actual gameplay. I was able to buy the game for about $29, which included another copy of Dragon Ball Z Datach (I have three now - anybody want one?). Seems like a good deal.

Pic of cart and regular game (King Kong 2) for size comparison:

[scaryice | 581]

So, I've been doing some Yahoo Auctions research on Famicom games in recent times, with the idea to make a rarity guide eventually. On several occasions, I've gone through and figured out how many copies of each game are on the site at any given moment (both available/sold). These are only single game listings (loose cart or complete), because I'm tracking lots separately. Anyway, here's the top ten for all three times I've done this:

 

 

I have the data for all 1,053 games, but I won't be sharing that yet. I'd like to wait until I actually own them all first. Anyway, this lines up closely with the list of best selling games on the system. It's actually kind of hard to find a decent list of that, since much of the data seems to include FDS version sales. There's also issues like Makaimura being included near the top on some lists, but using Capcom's web site data which apparently uses worldwide sales instead. But the top four best selling games are clearly in order = SMB/SMB3/DQ3/DQ4, with some combination of Baseball/DQ2/Famista 86/Golf/Mario Bros/Mahjong/Tetris likely rounding out the top ten.

I noticed way more games overall in the most recent data set. I believe it's because Yahoo is now tracking sold listings for 180 days, versus 120 in the past. I'm not sure when they made that change, though. I dunno, maybe I just did something wrong previously?

Edited December 7, 2021 by scaryice

[scaryice | 581]

More Yahoo Auction research updates. I finished my survey of YA lots that I've been working on for the past couple weeks. I found and recorded a total of 14,715 carts in lots available on December 1, 2021. Looking at the single cart data from November (a.k.a. the last post), there were 72,920 carts found there - 25,493 available vs 47,497 previously sold in the past 6 months. That means in total, it's fair to say there were around 40,000 carts for sale on the site recently at any given time. Actually, it's higher since I'm sure I didn't pick up every lot.

This is a good time to explain the process:

1. I searched in the Famicom category for any listings which had 本 (hon, the counter usually used for carts), or the word "set" in Japanese. Previously, I hadn't thought to use set as well, but that ended up being about 20% of the total, so I'm glad I did this time.
2. I spent a couple hours going through the many listings and saving pictures of all the lots. The good news is, for 95% of them it was only necessary to save the thumbnail pic. Sure, it can be a bit blurry blown up, but I'm good at recognizing the games. For bigger lots where everything wouldn't fit in a single photo, or where it was hard to see everything, I had to actually click on the listings and save all the pics.
3. Then, it was just the simple, tedious task of going through every pic and recording what games were in each one. In excel, I had a column with all 1,053 Famicom titles. The top row had the lot numbers. So for a lot of DQ 1-4, I'd put a "1" in the cell for that column. Something like a few dozen hours later, and it's finished.

 

Once again, I'm not going to share all this data quite yet, but I can post a few interesting tidbits. Here's the top 25 games:

 

December 1st, 2021 - Most Found in Lots

1	Super Mario Bros.	303
2	Dragon Quest III	220
3	Super Mario Bros. 3	218
4	Dragon Quest IV	182
5	Pro Yakyuu Family Stadium	168
6	Golf	160
7	4-nin Uchi Mahjong	159
8	Dragon Quest II	145
9	Baseball	141
10	Tetris	140
11	Moero Pro Yakyuu	138
12	Dragon Ball	132
13	Mahjong	125
14	Dr. Mario	120
15	Dragon Ball Z	107
15	Gegege no Kitarou	107
17	Mario Bros.	100
18	Ninja Hattori-kun	99
19	F1 Race	95
19	Xevious	95
21	Dragon Quest	94
22	Pro Yakyuu Family Stadium '87	92
23	Soccer	91
24	Pro Yakyuu Family Stadium '88	87
25	Yoshi no Tamago	86

 

As you might expect, lots seem to be made up mostly of common, cheaper games. Many of the rarer or more expensive games were missing - there were 165 games that didn't have a single cart found, whereas in the single cart data every single game had at least one listing/sale. I don't think this data is as interesting as the single game stuff, but it's valuable nonetheless.

[scaryice | 581]

#1011 - Summer Carnival '92: Recca

 

First new addition of 2022! I bit the bullet and finally bought a copy of Recca for nearly $400. That's by far the most I've ever spent on a video game, but it feels good to have it out of the way. Of course, the game itself is fun too.

For me, the main concern with buying Recca wasn't the price, but rather that it's the Famicom game with the most fakes on the market. With such an expensive game, I had to be sure that it was legit. So when I saw an Ebay auction by the same guy I got Battle Formula and F1 Sensation from, I knew this was a good moment to purchase it and have some peace of mind in the process. The seller also seems to be a big arcade collector who's on a number of forums, and is also clearly a shmup fan.

While I didn't doubt the authenticity at all, I still had to be 100% sure. I decided that I would open the cartridge when I received it. Now, I've opened Famicom carts before, but I've also broken a few over the years, so it was a bit nervewracking. I rewatched my favorite simple video on how to do it, and practiced using my screwdriver on two cheap, similar carts. BTW, carts that look the same can seemingly be easier or harder to pop open. Thankfully, Recca opened easily and no tabs were broken. Everything looked good! Putting the cart back together was tougher, since you have to use some force and smash it between the palms of your hands to fully close it. But I eventually did that too, and it's now game #1,011 in my loose Famicom collection. 42 to go! There's only one game more expensive that this left...

Edited May 8, 2022 by scaryice

[Sumez | 2,931]

Damn! That must be really scary to do! 

I'm very confident that my copy of Recca is genuine, but I'd kinda love to have hard evidence. But I wouldn't want to risk ruining the shell - the one time I had to open a Famicom cartridge, it didn't come out too nice. 

[DefaultGen | 5,397]

On 5/8/2022 at 3:23 AM, scaryice said:

#1011 - Summer Carnival '92: Recca

 

First new addition of 2022! I bit the bullet and finally bought a copy of Recca for nearly $400. That's by far the most I've ever spent on a video game, but it feels good to have it out of the way. Of course, the game itself is fun too.

For me, the main concern with buying Recca wasn't the price, but rather that it's the Famicom game with the most fakes on the market. With such an expensive game, I had to be sure that it was legit. So when I saw an Ebay auction by the same guy I got Battle Formula and F1 Sensation from, I knew this was a good moment to purchase it and have some peace of mind in the process. The seller also seems to be a big arcade collector who's on a number of forums, and is also clearly a shmup fan.

While I didn't doubt the authenticity at all, I still had to be 100% sure. I decided that I would open the cartridge when I received it. Now, I've opened Famicom carts before, but I've also broken a few over the years, so it was a bit nervewracking. I rewatched my favorite simple video on how to do it, and practiced using my screwdriver on two cheap, similar carts. BTW, carts that look the same can seemingly be easier or harder to pop open. Thankfully, Recca opened easily and no tabs were broken. Everything looked good! Putting the cart back together was tougher, since you have to use some force and smash it between the palms of your hands to fully close it. But I eventually did that too, and it's now game #1,011 in my loose Famicom collection. 42 to go! There's only one game more expensive that this left...

Awesome!! I am literally too scared to buy this game because of fakes to the point where I've decided I just don't need it.

[Gloves | 11,760]

Just now, DefaultGen said:

Awesome!! I am literally too scared to buy this game because of fakes to the point where I've decided I just don't need it.

I really want it too but I only buy CIB, so... 

[fcgamer | 4,719]

Very nice find! I definitely wouldn't feel comfortable about buying some of those games now, I'm glad I more or less finished this years ago.