Again a good hunt this summer! (part 1)

KLM Boeing 777-300ER - 'Fulufjallet National Park'

It's been a while since I have had updated the blog. And as we speak, I'm back from another summer holiday trip. This year I went back to Osaka (Japan) and of course Hong Kong to pay a visit to my grandparents. The trip starts with a comfortable flight with a KLM Boeing 777-300ER to Osaka. We had a row of 2 seats at the back of the aircraft. These seats required an additional fee of € 30,00 (Thugs!). After the gate closed it became clear the seats behind us weren't occupied, so.....I moved a row back and we were both having a lot of space. From that retrospective the extra fee was a bargain to gain an extra seat! 

Hero Gangu - Nippombashi, Osaka

The focus of this story will be on the Transformer/ Collectible hunt. Since I have been Osaka earlier and Hong Kong is practically my second home, I won't do much of city-trip review. Of course I will upload some pictures of the trip itself. Should you be more curious about the cities themself, take a look at these links: Osaka; Hong Kong.

So first stop is Osaka. The hotel Kikuei is situated in Namba, the southern part of Osaka. Very crowded and from the hotel, one of the 3 centered Transformer retailer was visible: Hero Gangu, Nippombashi. (site is Japanese only)

1st batch along with me in the Rimowa

The loot here was quite good: Fansproject Causality CA-03 Thundershred.
The other two pieces were more than JPY 12.000, while this one was only JPY 5700. I tried to find out why, but there were no signs of being eventually a K.O version, so that's a bargain. Secondly I was looking everywhere for the now hard-to-find Encore 15: Mini cassettes vol. 1 consisting Ravage, Eject, Rewind and Buzzsaw. Guess what...I found it here. It was JPY 9800 (€ 71,00/ US$ 94,00). Considered the availability and the price on ebay it's a steal.

Super Potato - Namba, Osaka

Furthermore my 2nd loot from Jungle Entertainment (Site do have English!) consists: 
- TF Encore 16 Bruticus (Scramble City)
- TF Collection 07 Sideswipe (Takara)
- TF UN-04 Megatron Cybertron Mode (FOR SALE!)
- TG-14 Voyager Class Soundblaster + Buzzsaw 2x (1 for my brother)
- TG-12 Deluxe Class Air Raid
Both TG were available for a 'wooden nickel'.


The last resorts for a good hunt were both Mandarake shops in Umeda and Shinsaibashi. Thanks to the toy-shop map of Heroic Decepticon!

Gold!!!

Furthermore we bumped in Namba on Super Potato, a shop for retro-gaming.
This is also a heaven for the good old days of the Famicom/NES/Superfamicom etc. It is really incredible when you see their inventory. Next time, I'll grab something from here!

Well, that's it for now. Part 2 will follow soon!


Hereafter some images during the Japanese part of the trip

Tsutenkaku Tower 103 m

The new Rimowa Salsa Deluxe!

Sunset during flight KL0867 to KIX

Nismo March.....(GT-R?)

252 meters of depth (or height)

Osaka Prefectural Government Sakishima Tower

Osaka by Night - Umeda Tower (173 m)

LCC from Japan: Peach - Airbus A320-200

 

Leaving Osaka Japan - Kansai International Airport

Golden Security

G1 / Encore

In a few weeks I'll travel to Singapore & Hong Kong for a vacation and pay a visit to our grandparents (HK) with my brother. Of course the vacation isn't complete without a good hunting for Transformers G1/Encore and especially Masterpieces. Lately I've been scouring around on the internet and was wondering how our heritage from the Golden Age of the 90's would perform on such platforms as e-bay or our own Dutch Marktplaats.nl.

Masterpieces

Well......after doing some searches the results were incredible. The G1 was performing outstanding. For instance, my G1 Dinobot Slag's condition is Mint In Box (No insert card although), but the asking price is about up to US$ 140,00 sometimes. My grandmother bought it for me way back in 1989 for HK$ 139,00 which is in nowadays currency US$ 18,00.
G1 Ratchet about the same story, it was a birthday present from my father in 1987 when I turned 10. It costs in those days HFl 45,00 (Dutch Guilders) - US$ 29,00. That was typically for an medium Autobot Vehicle. The modern reincarnations known as Masterpieces are even more jawbreaking. MP-10 Convoy is already up to € 250,00 to € 300,00 and still rising. The only one which is being out of this world is  MP-08 Grimlock, the current bids are topping on more than a Grand.....

Zelda - A link to the past MIB

So....the coming weeks I should probably hunt for  dinosaurs.......perhaps MP-08 might be as even extinct as it''s real counterpart....I'll let you know if my hunt is succesful.

There is also another  source...games from the 80's & 90's. As some followers may know that we played a lot of games in the 90's and went hunting RPG's around the end of the SNES' lifespan.
Somehow I never managed to get the 2 classic Super NES systempushers 'Super Mario Kart' and 'Zelda - A link to the past'. Why I didn't? Don't ask....I don't know myself either......on the Dutch site Marktplaats (Marketplace literally) I found a US version of Zelda - A link to the past in very mint condition. The only thing missing was the map. But hey....e-bay has everything!! It cost me a few bucks, but the result is that I've composed a MIB Zelda for SNES!!!! 

More Gold!!!

I prefered the US version over the PAL version, since the US card runs 15% faster than it's European counterpart. (60 Hz vs 50 Hz). During those days NTSC - PAL regionlock was still an issue.

I did the same way for Super Mario Kart. I purchased it at a retailer which is also selling 2nd hand and retrogames. The condition was very good, so I am very happy with both new acquisitions! I know it's a shame to get these game only in 2013, 21 and 22 years after their respective initial releases. But hey...better late than never.

Running another e-bay test and research resulted that most of these precious 'gold' is skyrocketing nowadays. You should try a few of the games shown on the 4th picture and don't forget to support your jaw to prevent it from dropping on the ground......Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy III are sometimes going all out for a mindblowing US$ 800,-!

Protection for SNES games

To protect these golden pieces I purchased some neat stuff at retro-retailer named The RetroGameFreak. Got some dustcovers for the US cards, some paper inlays to refurbish my old game-packs and....25 (together with my brother) so called Snug-fit box protectors. These transparant protectors are made from Polyethylene which has the size of a SNES game pack. This prevents the paperbox from scratches, dust, bumping and crashes.

Most of the games are covering a story. When and why I purchased it. How come that it is invaluable to me.
Nearly every game-pack has a story. So it's not the economical worth that I cherish, but it is - like many - the emotional worth of an item. How much the price is rising, these games and TF's will never leave the establishment where I also live..... 

As a result all of the precious gold from the Golden Era of the 90's is secured now........A Golden Security! 

Hereafter some pics.

Do you have similar items you cherish that much?

US cards now with dust covers

Chrono Trigger 1995 - MI(S)B with snug-fit protector.

Two weeks in Japan (conclusion)

After a long period finally the conclusion of the Japan trip. After the arrival in Tokyo metropolis we headed directly to the Tokyo Tower. As usual there was a lot of smog, what resulted in a ghost-city like picture at 250 m height.
On Saturdays allmost every citizen of Tokyo is running and jogging along the Tokyo parks near the residence of the emperror of Japan. It doesn't matter the conditions are hard. With temperatures of 37 degrees Celsius and humidity of 90% people keep on running. We also visited the business district Shinjuku and the 'twin towers' of Tokyo Government Building which are 202 m high.
The next day I spent a day with my niece who was graduating in Japan for Biomedic Technologies and would return to the Netherlands within a few weeks.
She showed me Akihabara, Shinjuku, Meji jungu in the Shibuya district.

As known the Akihabara district is a heaven for otaku. All electronic gadgets, videogames and cosplays are concentrated in this area. Fascinating....
I was also able to get my hands on new SNES carts from the 90's. I love it!!!
The store was called Retro store....catching! All videogames systems from the 80's till now are available!
As you can see: Loads of retro games!
Later that day we spent some time on world's famous crossing point at the Shibuya district.
Two days later we concluded our journey in Japan and returned to The Netherlands with a dayflight with KLM.

The return flight was a little less comfortable due to a lot of turbulence during the flight.

It was a great way to explore the Kansai region and Tokyo metropolis. Somewhere in the future, I would like to take another trip to Japan.

Do you like city-trips?








Parking in Tokyo & Jogging with 37 degrees Celsius!









The original Metal Gear! & Lots of Super Famicoms for a bargain!








The remarkable English skills of the Japanese & Wedding in Meji Jungu








Asakusa district for souvenirs & Shibuya 109 Center Gai at dusk.









Tokyo Narita Airport & Boeing 747-400 PH-BFL City of Lima.







KLM's Economy Comfort class & Halfway around the polar circle.

Nice view!

RPG Classics

Although the Role-Playing-Game genre has been around for a long time, I didn't care about it till the mid 1990's. Before this era I was very hooked of the 1-on-1 Beat-em-up's like Streetfighter II (Turbo), Fatal Fury and the KoF series.
The following RPG-timeline describes the developments from 1992 till today, with spotlights on the classics on the SNES.
In the fall of 1996, it was like I stood up on a day and must have thought there must be more than no-thinking games like SF etc.
So I bought Secret of Mana, which I also purchased a few years earlier, but swapped it for another game due to not understanding the RPG genre.
I was hooked again and the RPG virus never left me since. Because it was also fall in the lifespan of the best gameconsole ever, the SNES, my brother and I were hunting for all the greatest RPG's on this system for about two years.
The result was a very impressive list of great RPG's. Most of them were in new condition.
A unique feature at the time for Secret of Mana (16-Meg) was the real time action where most of the rivals were menu-driven or turn based. The latter method was because of the limited processing power to realise real time action. There was also a 3-player mode which gave the players more fun. My brothers and I are still playing it nowadays!
Father of the SNES RPG is without a doubt 'The legend of Zelda III - A Link to the past' (8-Meg). In those days - and still- a fantastic in-depth story with lots of action released by Nintendo itself.
Squaresoft (Good old times without Enix) was already a specialist in RPG's and had released Final Fantasies 1 -3 for the NES. Though the story of FF IV (8-Meg) was very good and today's classic, the graphics were reminding of a pimped NES. Till winter 1994, Square releases her Golden Egg - Final Fantasy VI (FF III in the US) with rendered graphics, great music and a epic story stored in - at the time huge cart - a 24-Meg cart. Since then Square's star has rised to heaven and the following succes were even greater. This time, there was besides the turn based, the introduction of active time battle, better known as real-time battling menu-driven. In 1994, just after finishing FF VI, Hironobu Sakaguchi put together the so called dream team consisting Yuji Horii (Dragon's Quest), Akira Toriyama (Dragon Ball) and Sakaguchi himself to work on a project which turned out to be the best RPG ever - Chrono Trigger (32-Meg!). Aside of them, there was the debut for music composer Yasunori Mitsuda. It was a gamble, but it turned out fantastic. Mitsuda asked too much from himself and suffered from exhaustion. Nobuo Uematsu finished his soundtrack with a few tracks, but Uematsu states that the credits goes to Mitsuda.
This game was special because it didn't had to change the field screen to action/fight screen. A few extra menu's appeared when confronting the enemy and there was a smooth transition in the music. The unique style for the Chrono Series was also the Tech-ability. Depending on which character you were using, you could spread a great arsenal of magic and fighting combo's, just fenomenal! Of course the active time battle system was featured here.
Besides of all, there were multiple endings, depending on what kind of decisions you had made in the past. Now this is Chrono (time) Triggering at highest level!
The new game+ feature boosts up the replay value. You can replay the game without searching all the valuable items/ techs once again.
Later in 1999 Sony would also release a 'sequel' named Chrono Cross. This is not a really sequel, because it has no direct connection to the events of Chrono Trigger, but takes place in the same universe about 20 years later. The extra dimension of CC was that it also junps to parallel universes, which explaines the title Chrono Cross.
Due to the arrogance of Nintendo to keep the support of cartridges, Squaresoft switched and gave the licenses to Sony to release titles for the Playstation. This is because the CD-rom (and later DVD-rom) could store much more data, which gave more opportunities and possibilities.
The results are known, FF VII till FF IX were cashcows for Sony. Many people claim that FF VII is one of the best episode that has been made. It was a high quality title with a good in-depth story. For me, FF VI is still the one above all, nothing beats the 16-bit era. FF VII & FF VIII was a little change in tactics and technical choices. The party you were playing consist 3 characters. Why Squaresoft made this choice is unknown. In FF IX was a return to the roots.
The characters were more animated like and the music is familiar with the pre-32 bit era. The party you're travelling with consists 4 characters, like before.
The summons are mostly the same as in FF VI.
In the early 2000's Squaresoft merged with Enix, it's rival company, to the biggest console RPG developper. The merger is comparable with that of Boeing and McDonnell Douglas in the aviation-world.
Critisism said it hasn't brought that good to the development of the products, I agree. The saga continued on the PS2 with FF X to FF XII. Now in March 2010 the 13th episode awaits for the PS3.

Do you look forward to Final Fantasy XIII?

A few titles (brandnew) acquired during our hunt late 1990's:
Chrono Trigger, FF III (US), Secret of Mana, Secret of Evermore, Super Mario RPG, Breath of Fire 1 & 2, Lufia 2, Terranigma, Illusion of Time, Seiken Den Setsu 3 (Secret of Mana 2), Treasure Hunter G, Romancing Saga 3.

New additions

It has been quite a while since my last post. So it's about time to present my newest additions to my Home Theatre & Home Entertainment. This time it is a mix of modern computergaming and old school retro gaming.
At the end of October I bought the new PS3 Slim with a 120 GB HDD. I already know the possibilities and a few systempushers like Metal Gear Solid 4, CoD 4 Modern Warfare and the newly released CoD MW2 have convinced me. The PS3 slim has more HDD space and a renewed OS. A few features didn't come anymore with this version, but it's worth it. PS2 support is not available, which is a downside, since the PS2 is still the cashcow after 9 years of life. Directly after release I purchased the Hardened Edition of CoD MW2. This version includes besides the game disc, a steelbook case, plastic overall sleeve, a booklet with concepts & art-work and a voucher to download the first CoD, known as CoD Classic.

Furthermore, there is a new handheld. The Nintendo DSi black is a lovely gadget to play present games, but also timeless classics as Chrono Trigger DS.
I love this game and also got the original brandly new SNES cart title from 1995 (purchased in 1998).

Speaking about the SNES, i already own an PAL version and share a US SNES with my brother. But if this one dies, it will be difficult to play US games. And I got a good library of fantastic SNES RPG's. So'I purchased a spare US SNES on E-bay.
It took me € 55,00 shipping from US included, but hey......this brick is gold! The US controller, RF-switch and AC-power adaptor are rubbish, but I got a tons of PAL controllers and accessoiries. Ow...a Super Mario World game pack was also a freebee.... Nice!
But aside from it's uncool design (known as the Brick) the US SNES has a few points over the PAL version. It supports RGB-signals which was comparable with HDMI nowadays. The colors of the US SNES were far more brighter, colorful and thus superior to it's PAL nephew. Another good thing is that the Brick is running on 60 Hz due to NTSC, which is 17 % faster than the European counterpart and the black boxes on the top and bottom of the screens will not be shown.
Later this year I will spent an article about the classic SNES RPG's.
For now, i present a few screenshots which are upscaled by my superb Onkyo beast and full blown all channel stereo (There wasn't any Dolby Prologic II or DTS HD yet in 1995). The shot of CoD MW 1 & MW 2 is a little blur. Apologies for that.
(All pictures are taken with Sony-DSC P8)

Which type of gaming do you like? Retro, Modern gaming or both?