Super Famicom game rentals in the US?

[phart010 | 1,708]

Just received this in the mail from Durham, NC.

One of the games is a Super Famicom game. Interestingly, it has a tamper evident security sticker over one of the screws. This was typically done on rentals in the US. 
 

I am puzzled because this is a Japanese title. Japan didn’t use these stickers because they didn’t rent out games. Did any American rental stores rent out Japanese games?

 

[DaddyMulk | 64]

I have no idea how many stores actually did this, but a local place here did rent some Mega Drive, SFC and Japanese Neo Geo stuff.
 

I also used to rent anime tapes in the early 90s from a local Japanese grocery store that were recordings of television broadcasts (completely on the up and up, I assure you!). I’m sure some of these types of establishments rented Japanese games as well.

[cartman | 195]

Final Fight Guy i guess is the most famous one?

[fcgamer | 4,754]

Yeah logically speaking, it makes complete sense that a few rental place owners would get the brilliant idea to rent out Japanese versions. Earlier releases, exclusives, etc...bright business move imo.

[TDIRunner | 2,777]

I thought it was pretty well established that there has always been a market over here for imports, even in the early NES and SNES years.  I won't say it was common, but I've seen and heard enough to know it shouldn't be too surprising anymore.  

[captmorgandrinker | 1,650]

Ours had a Japanese Smash Bros for N64 for some odd reason.   They cut chunks of plastic off of the back of the cartridge so it would fit into a US system; I'm assuming that cartridge is also modified to fit in a US SNES?

[phart010 | 1,708]

1 hour ago, captmorgandrinker said:

Ours had a Japanese Smash Bros for N64 for some odd reason.   They cut chunks of plastic off of the back of the cartridge so it would fit into a US system; I'm assuming that cartridge is also modified to fit in a US SNES?

It is not modified. This is why I thought it was strange. How would the renters be able to play it? Maybe they had a cart converter that they lent out with it??

Cant you use a SNES game genie to play JP imports?

Edited February 11, 2021 by phart010

[captmorgandrinker | 1,650]

9 minutes ago, phart010 said:

It is not modified. This is why I thought it was strange. How would the renters be able to play it? Maybe they had a cart converter that they lent out with it??

Cant you use a SNES game genie to play JP imports?

They might have rented out the converter with it too and that got separated from it over the years.

You can, but you have to cut the tabs off of the game genie too I believe.

[noiseredux | 232]

this reminds me of my N64, which my brother gave to me after he found in a basement. The shell of the N64 is all cracked and ripped apart around the cartridge slot. Looks to me like the previous owner decided they wanted to play imports on it, but the only tool they had at their disposal was a friggin' hammer.

Part of me wants to buy a nice replacement shell, but most of me kind of likes the character it gives this console. It looks like it was dropped off a building, but it still chugs along dutifully. Though, I did cut myself pretty bad on it once, haha.

[Tanooki | 4,952]

I'm with fcgamer on the business move.  Back in the mid90s when the N64 was on the way, but was already out in Japan, and for a stretch of a few years after, there was this local ma and pa style one off game shop in town where I used to live.

That store used to import in video games from Japan, and then sell them for really no more than $5-10 higher than a US release would go for once it arrived. They let people in shop try games if they intended to see if they wanted to buy, I think they also had a few TVs to the side where like a cyber cafe did it where you could just rent time and play, seeing as most N64 games cheaped out and used memory cards you could keep that progress of yours going.  There I learned how much I liked Mystical Ninja 64 months before it hit the US (still think it's better than Ocarina.)

[chuppy44 | 56]

There was one rental store back in 1992 that would rent Famicom SMB2 which came with a honeybee adapter or something similar with a ribbon. Though now I understand SMB2 was a Disk System game so it must have been a pirate cart or something. Only import they had I think but it was cool getting to play it as a kid before All Stars was even announced.