Travel to tokio for a big neo geo chase

Hi, people, my awesome girlfriend gave me for my bithday a fucking ticket to Tokio for a week, obviously she comes too, but she loves neo geo as me. so we both will use 1 or 2 days to the chase of neo geo titles.
I want to ask here if any of you know where we should go, nices and big stores where i will find tons of games, i'm a big collector not only of aes, i collect sfamicom, famicom, pc engine, megadrive as well, but i think most of my money will go to aes since its the ones the price will be more different than here.
By the way, you know if i return with 3 bags full of games i will have problems in the aduana?
Thanks mates.
Luc

I've heard nothing but good news about Akihabara, I've never been to Japan so don't ask me how to get there but google it and you should find a wealthy amount of information about that area.

Den Den town in Osaka is like the little brother of Akihabara, but still good.

neofriky said:

Hi, people, my awesome girlfriend gave me for my bithday a fucking ticket to Tokio for a week,

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Where's Tokio? Is it somewhere in Japin?

asumed u mean Tokyo? Yes Akihabara is the best place to begin.. you will find stores named "Sofmap, Trader 1-2, they have neo games for reasonable prices.. ofcourse there are many more stores as you explore the electric city.. good luck.

lol

yes, mean tokyo
Thanks.

For all your retro needs in Akihabara

Adamaki said:

Where's Tokio? Is it somewhere in Japin?

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Hahaha!!

Brutal, mate!

Tokyo

neofriky said:

Hi, people, my awesome girlfriend gave me for my bithday a fucking ticket to Tokio for a week, obviously she comes too, but she loves neo geo as me. so we both will use 1 or 2 days to the chase of neo geo titles.
I want to ask here if any of you know where we should go, nices and big stores where i will find tons of games, i'm a big collector not only of aes, i collect sfamicom, famicom, pc engine, megadrive as well, but i think most of my money will go to aes since its the ones the price will be more different than here.
By the way, you know if i return with 3 bags full of games i will have problems in the aduana?
Thanks mates.
Luc

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Hi Luc please let us know what stores you find in Tokyo take their business cards, take pictures and have lots of Neo Fun. I wish my girl would take me to Japan ; oh well nothing to cry about here. When you get back please share your experiences, as well as your finds from over seas. By the way can you check to see if they sell US NGH carts over there I'm curious if you could find any at all and if so are they cheap. Thanks!

Gummy Bear said:

Hahaha!!

Brutal, mate!

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I'm on a mission to make sure everyone on Neo-geo.com learns to spell and punctuate correctly!

pocketgamer said:

Hi Luc please let us know what stores you find in Tokyo take their business cards, take pictures and have lots of Neo Fun. I wish my girl would take me to Japan ; oh well nothing to cry about here. When you get back please share your experiences, as well as your finds from over seas. By the way can you check to see if they sell US NGH carts over there I'm curious if you could find any at all and if so are they cheap. Thanks!

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Yeah I'd be interested too. I'm hoping to go to Tokyo next year for the World Karate Championships (as long as I get in the Scottish team!), so it would be good to check out the retro gaming scene while I'm there.

Adamaki said:

I'm on a mission to make sure everyone on Neo-geo.com learns to spell and punctuate correctly!

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Punk-shoo-ate? What's that?

well thanks

be sure i will look every little place in the search of neo rarities, i think there will not be usa ngh carts but who knows. the biggest problem is i'm afraid to fly, and from spain, where i live, are 18 hours.
i will drug myself or something.

neofriky said:

be sure i will look every little place in the search of neo rarities, i think there will not be usa ngh carts but who knows. the biggest problem is i'm afraid to fly, and from spain, where i live, are 18 hours.
i will drug myself or something.

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Oh...I think a little distraction will do. Just get a handy handheld like the DS or PSP and you will be fine. Hey you can always play one on one with your gaming girlfriend. 18 hours is quite a long trip strap on tight. he he

neofriky said:

By the way, you know if i return with 3 bags full of games i will have problems in the aduana?

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"PCB shops in Tokyo" thread
Bobak's "Super Potato" thread
tsukaesugi's "Best Arcade in the World" (J-Game) thread

The shop locations I described in the PCB shops thread should all still be valid, except for G-Front, who are now a little further down the street than they were in January, 2004 (see the lower-right portion of their frontpage for their current address and a photo of their building).

aduana = customs, right? Dunno about the customs department in Spain, but U.S. Customs has never hit me with a tariff on video games -- they did give my motherboards and MVS carts a thorough going over with the chemical-explosive-detector wipes/swabs last year, though.

--Chris

Okay forget about Super Potato when it comes to the Neo Geo because their prices are ridicilous. Every single Neo cart is overpriced there.

Best places to go shopping for Neo is Trader 1 and 2, Medialand (6th floor) and Sofmap around the corner of Trader 2.

Also a very good place to visit is the Mandarake gamestore in Nakano.
There is a shopping mall with toyshops across the station of Nakano, which is only 10 minutes west of Shinjuku.

Den Den Town used to be the place to go before for Neo but when I was there in september it was dissapointing.

when it comes to pcb shops you can also forget about Gfront, they are overpriced.
Best place to go is Mak and if they don't have the stuff you are looking for go down the street to TRY

neofriky said:

be sure i will look every little place in the search of neo rarities, i think there will not be usa ngh carts but who knows. the biggest problem is i'm afraid to fly, and from spain, where i live, are 18 hours.
i will drug myself or something.

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It was 10 hours from France (CDG) for me.

Had the best luck at Trader in Tokyo and Big Tiger in Osaka.

Akihabara said:

Okay forget about Super Potato when it comes to the Neo Geo because their prices are ridicilous. Every single Neo cart is overpriced there.

Best places to go shopping for Neo is Trader 1 and 2, Medialand (6th floor) and Sofmap around the corner of Trader 2.

Also a very good place to visit is the Mandarake gamestore in Nakano.
There is a shopping mall with toyshops across the station of Nakano, which is only 10 minutes west of Shinjuku.

Den Den Town used to be the place to go before for Neo but when I was there in september it was dissapointing.

when it comes to pcb shops you can also forget about Gfront, they are overpriced.
Best place to go is Mak and if they don't have the stuff you are looking for go down the street to TRY

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YUp, Super Potato is useless.. way too expensive!

RGP said:

It was 10 hours from France (CDG) for me.

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Yeah, how did you come up with 18 hours man?? To Holland it is only 11 hours, and from Holland to Spain is like 3 hours max or something?

And Super Potato is not completely useless. They have a good selection of Megadrive and Super Famicom which is not overpriced and in pretty good condition.

Akihabara said:

when it comes to pcb shops you can also forget about Gfront, they are overpriced.
Best place to go is Mak and if they don't have the stuff you are looking for go down the street to TRY

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Previously, I'd noticed G-Front trying to keep their prices similar to those found at Mak Japan (at least, where items found at both stores were concerned). Currently, though, I'm noticing quite a few items on Mak Japan's recent stock lists that have a noticeably higher price at G-Front -- makes me wonder what G-Front will do when Mak Japan has their end-of-the-year sale. When they price competitively, however, G-Front is nice to have around when Mak Japan doesn't have what you're after at the moment. I have found, however, that G-Front rarely has original materials (instruction cards, inlays, manuals, etc.) with their mobos -- usually just color copies. Mak Japan tends to have the original materials more often than G-Front or Try, so I always hit Mak Japan first (since I'm kinda fussy about getting original stuff). G-Front does have a nice box or two of arcade advert posters, pop displays, etc. that you can look thru -- found a Gouketsuji Ichizoku arcade advert poster there for 1000 yen last January. I've never bought anything from Try yet -- the store doesn't have the same "clean" (i.e., not dusty) feeling that Mak Japan has.

The thing that keeps me coming back to Mak Japan, though, is the customer service they provide. The staff there is always very patient with me and my low-level Japanese skills, taking extra time to explain things to me in simple terms I'll be sure to understand. They're also more than happy to make custom harnesses for me -- I have just about zero grasp of electronics, so when I buy a non-JAMMA-standard board from them to go in my JAMMA cabinet, I get them to whip up a custom harness for me to make installing the board as easy as possible. They're also very patient with me when I ask them to check to see which of the dozen or so MVS carts I'm interested in have original inlay cards available, since I only want to get an MVS cart if I can get the original materials at the same time. The Mak Japan staff really are tops, all 'round.

--Chris

Pocketgamer said:

Oh...I think a little distraction will do. Just get a handy handheld like the DS or PSP and you will be fine. Hey you can always play one on one with your gaming girlfriend. 18 hours is quite a long trip strap on tight. he he

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Blasphemy, how the hell can you suggest a handheld and NOT suggest a NGPC???

RGP said:

For all your retro needs in Akihabara

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is that the crazy "potato" (dont know exactly name) shop which i heard of?
i saw a report of akihabara where the visited differents shop and they went in a "potato" named shop they had a fantastic big selecton of games i saw many neo geo games omg i wanna go there

crazysquirrel said:

is that the crazy "potato" (dont know exactly name) shop which i heard of?

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Yeah, that's the Akihabara branch of Super Potato (here's Bobak's thread about the shop). There are also 8 Super Potato shops in Oosaka.

Mak Japan posted their weekly stock .pdf update yesterday along with the dates/times for their annual end-of-year/New Year's sale:

End-of-year Sale: 12/23 (Fri.) - 12/29 (Thu.) -- closing at 5pm on 12/29
CLOSED: 12/30 - 1/3
New Year's Sale: 1/4 (Wed.) - 1/9 (Mon.) -- opening at 1pm on 1/4

These past few weeks their updates have shown quite a few games in stock that I've been hoping to pick up there next week -- hopefully they won't disappear during the first few days of the sale (I don't arrive 'til 12/27).

BTW, they're listing KOF XI and Hokuto no Ken in their Sammy (Atomiswave) section, but they're not listing prices for them. Meanwhile, G-Front is asking 207,900 yen for Hokuto no Ken (cart only)and 178,500 yen for KOF XI (cart only).

--Chris