A lot of people already do some amazing Figure Photography, I love browsing the Figure Photography community on Google+ for example, there's some great tips and plenty of awesome photos to keep you entertained! Sadly, Video Game Photography seems a lot harder to find, There aren't any groups for it and Google only seems to find "in game" photography, (people taking in game photos and screenshots)...I was thinking perhaps it would be a good idea to start my own Game Photography Community??
It's a fun way of displaying your collection, while also focusing on the detail of one particular piece, including the game, box and manual and any other promotional items that went along with it! But above all, its just a bit of fun and a good way to introduce people to new games! You could even combine Figure and Game photography, like I did in the Zelda pic above for example!
Obviously, journalists have been doing this for a long time for magazines or articles about particular games, I kind of got the idea from those big retro game compendium books, which have shots of games for certain systems, but this style of photography has never seemed to become any more than a way of adding a picture to an article, or a sale picture on ebay! I hope people enjoy this new way of looking at games, from their own collection, and the collections of other like minded people! And begin to appreciate these games for the complete package, not just the actual game! :D
I've been taking photos of my games and figures for years, but recently I decided to set up an Instagram account to display some of my better games and figures from my collection. Most of these pics were taking on my phone (iPhone 4) so the quality wasn't great. (Some of the figure photos were taken on my dads Cannon IXUS but it sadly broke) This weekend however, I'll be getting myself a proper camera! The Sony RX100 II.
I can't wait to have a play with it and try out all the different settings, and it has wifi so I can send the pics straight to Instagram and the new Google+ group as well!
During my trip to Japan I visited two main places for some retro game shopping, Akihabara, famous for being the Otaku centre of the world, the home of all things geeky! Including Anime, Manga, Figures, Games, Technology, (so much cheaper than over here!!) and everything else you could possible want! I also visited Den Den Town in Osaka (basically a smaller version of Akihabara!) As well as a few other shops in Tokyo. This post will show you all the best game shops I found along the way!
Anyone looking to buy some retro games from Japan, I hope this post helps you out!
First of all, a word of warning! Although Akihabara may be known as the place to find pretty much any game you could ever want, don't go too crazy as the prices are inflated massively to catch out tourists with more money than sense... unfortunately, I fell for their trap on the first day and regretted it later when I visited some of the lesser known (but equally amazing) shops outside of Tokyo. Imagine my surprise when I found out I could have literally bought about 10 games for the price of one!
Also, while you're in Akihabara, don't forget to check out the many amazing arcades! Full to the brim with every arcade game imaginable and plenty of claw machine and other prize games too (With prizes actually woth winning!) They are an amazing experience and really fun too! Be sure to check out one of the Taito Station arcades as well as Sega's huge arcade! All about 7 floors high! There are also some smaller ones with a great selection of Shoot'em'ups, Fighting and Puzzle games for the more hardcore audience!
A quick hint before I start going through the list of shops. Don't just go in shops along the main street, most of the good shops, (for games and figures) are hidden in the smaller streets or up several flights of stairs! There was one really cool one which happened to be in a small room on the 6th floor of a building, no idea how I managed to find it but im glad I did! (SFC and Gameboy games for 50 Yen each!! Sadly no photos or name of the place so good luck finiding it...) Look for signs outside or on the walls with pictures of games on!
And don't forget to relax in a Maid Cafe after a long day of Retro Shopping! :D
Tokyo
Akihabara
Super Potato!
Japan has several Super Potato stores, the biggest of which is right in the centre of Akihabara and has three floors including an arcade room in the top floor. They sell everything you could hope to find for a range of retro systems, although their prices can be a little crazy, its definitely worth a visit just to marvel at its selection of hard to find games and collectables! I also love the homely feel these shops have, with gaming merchasndise all over the place and very friendly staff that will do their best to help even if they cant understand what you're trying to ask them!
The arcade room is decorated in cammo and guarded by a full size Solid Snake statue!
Uhhh.. I think one of those signs means "Action game"
A giant Mario statue greets you as you enter!
????.
Sadly I don't know the name of this place, just look for a long thin shop at the end of the main street before a curry house (we walked past it a few times! Listen out for NES music playing from a CRT in the window!) Once you do manage to find it, you wont be disappointed! The shop really crammed a lot into such a small space, the walls were bursting with great condition boxed Super Famicom games and a huge selection of loose GameBoy games lining the wall on the other side of the shop, and many other systems towards the back. At the back of the shop you can find a great selection of loose PC Engine games! (wish I had known I was going to buy one later in my trip else I would have spent some more time looking!!) They were also selling portable snes consoles which I went back to get later on!
So overwhelming when you first walk in! take some time to take it all in first!
Wish i'd bought some of these now! REGRETS!!
Trader.
This shop was not so much focused on Retro as the others, but it still had a great selection, especially worth noting was its good selection of boxed GBA and Gamecube games. I picked up two of the GBA Starfy games and Kururin Squash for the Gamecube. I was also temped to buy a Famicom Gameboy micro, I decided to leave it and come back later, a decision I later regretted... several times.. I did however, go back here on the last day and decided to go all out and buy the Miku edition PS Vita and both Project Diva games! (Sorry wallet!) I also watched someone infront of me in the queue but BOTH the famicom gameboy micros!
Mandarake.
Not entirely dedicated to games. This one was a bit harder to find, thankfully I had looked it up before going, and good job I did because this was easily the best place I'd been so far! Row upon row of boxed SFC games, all graded for condition of box, manual and cart, and quite reasonable prices. The store also had a huge selection of Saturn and PS1 games and some really amazingly rare games in the cabinet at the back.. including one of the very few gold Rockman 4 Famicom carts! And a Famicom Gameboy Micro, which, i once again decided not to get, and proceded to watch a person buy it right infront of me for the second time...
All graded by condition and alphabetised. Pretty much all the games were in mint condition!
The extremely rare (Only 8 in the world!) Rockman 4 cart!
After this amazing tour of the shops of Akihabara, I was lucky enough to meet up with a friend from a retro gaming community on Google+ (Thanks, +Charlie Maib! :D ) to visit some shops further out of Tokyo, including one shop I had been dying to visit for years... It's definitely worth considering taking a train a bit further out of tokyo to find some cheaper games!
Hard Off.
Full of retro games and hundreds of consoles all stashed away in plastic boxes filling the shelves, this place was a dream come true. A fantastic selection once again of SFC games, all at much cheaper prices than in the touristy areas. Consoles for the equivalent price of a meal here in the UK. (Managed to get a loose PC Engine Duo for roughly £30!) as well as a handful of games to play on it!
Hard Off 2.
We went to a second hard off store a little further away, this one had just as amazing selection as the first, with some extremely cheap SFC games and even more consoles for incredibly cheap prices! Such a shame I was running out of suitcase spece by now else I could have easily bought a few more systems! Oh well, theres always next time! We also found a new shop that had recently opened which had a good selection of SFC games! Sadly no photos though.
Osaka
The view from the hotel window! I think I see a game shop in the distance..
For the second week of our trip, we travelled via the bullet train to a little place called Osaka (not little at all!! :O). Here I was surprised to find it had its own version of Akihabara, called Den Den Town, not quite the spectacle that Akihabara was but still full of great places to visit (once we managed to find them!) including THREE Super potato stores, although I think one of them might have closed down... And a few independent retro stores as well. I was on a mission to find some wires for my PC Engine and luckly, Den Den Town, after much trying to get the shopkeepers to understand what I was asking for, did not disappoint!
Super Potato 1.
This store was a smaller super potato, with only two floors. What I enjoyed most about this one was the good selection of Megadrive games on the top floor! (An uncommon system in Japan it seems) Here I picked up Monster World IV, a game that I have been after for a long time after really enjoying the translated release on the Wii Virtual Console a few years ago! This store also had a great selection of Wonderswan games along the wall upstairs (ad what awesome stairs they were!), I managed to pick up Klonoa Moonlight Museum! Downstairs was mostly new games which was a bit surprising for a Super Potato.
Super Potato 2.
This one was where I finally managed to find the wires I so desperately needed for the PC Engine, as well as selling all sorts of wires and controllers, this store also had a great selection of GBA games and even had one of several Famicom Gameboy Micro's I was looking out for! (Silly me for not buying one in the end, I regret it now!) This store also had another gold Rockman 4 cart... Just look at the price! :O
Book Off.
I was surprised that even a non assuming book store had a huge selection of retro games,(a surprising number of PC engine games) and several Taiko drum master games hidden away in a corner! Sadly I didn't have enough space to pick up the Taiko drum games. (Except the DS one!) Unfortunately the shop was closing soon after we arrived so I didn't get too long to look around although I did end up purchasing a few HU card games, including NEC's quite polished answer to Zelda, Neutopia.
The final game shop I visited before the long journey home was a small independent shop, hidden away down a street in Osaka...
???? RetroShockedManWithScarfShop!
Sadly I have no idea what this place is called either! It was a small shop but with a good selection, especially for Wonderswan and Saturn, It also stocked many hard to find soundtracks and strategy guides, I didn't buy any games here but I did get the "We are Rockmen" album which I had been after for a long while! They also had a Famicom Gameboy micro but here it was way more expensive than the others, due to the fact that it was the extremely rare "Player 2" design of the console.
I hope this post was useful if you are planning a trip to Japan! Or if you were just curious as to what to expect when you go! The best thing to do is just go on Google Maps or Foursquare and search for nearby game shops and get some directions! It's also worth picking up a map of the area or printing one off before you leave the hotel in case there is no wifi! (Or get a cheap phone and Sim card for 3 or 4G Internet! This will help with looking up the games too and if you download a translation app you can just point the phone camera at the Japanese writing to see what it says... It doesn't always make much sense though...)
Hopefully next time I can find some even more amazing shops and surprises!
And if you cant afford to visit Japan to buy the games, +Charlie Maib has just launched his own website, Superfamimart! so check it out if you want to buy some cool japanese exclusives!
The idea for this post came from a Facebook post a friend tagged me in. The idea is to name ten games that will stay with you, I take that as meaning the ones that have had a big impact on me or ones that have meant a lot over the years, so lets get started..
10: Starfox Adventures (Gamecube)
Back when this game was first announced, under the name, "Dinosaur Planet" I was already super excited for what Rare had in the works! several years passed and news was hard to come by, everyone was wondering what had happened to rare's N64 swansong. Turns out it was no longer an original title, Nintendo had requested they change the character to Fox McCloud and turn it into a Starfox spin off! I got it at christmas in 2002 along with a Wavebird controller and I have many good memories of playing it and then going to school to discuss how amazing it was! Things such as "OMG Thorntail Hollow is MASSIVE!! it will take ages to get from one side to another!" (Actually it only took a few minutes and wasn't all that big really.. and "OMG The graphics are amaaaazing Xbox or PS2 will never be able to do anything line this NINTENDO FTW!!" (This bit is still true) :P
9: Megaman Battle Network 3 (GBA)
More great school memores, Playing this game at break with my friend, we would spend hours talking about the game, all the secret cards and battle techniques, how amazing the areas and music were. What a fun game, a deep battle system, fun story and awesome graphics make for the most memorable Megaman RPG ever. I have since tried playing the other games in the battle network series but none live up to the excitement and fun I had playing number 3! Starforce comes close but i'm not a huge fan of the simplified battles.
8: Eternal Sonata (Xbox 360)
A beautiful RPG for the 360 and PS3 with enchanting music and a fantastic dual layered story, both in the real world, where the main character is on his death bed, and the dream world inside the main characters final thoughts. The game is quite light hearted despite the darker tones it has. The graphics are magical and definitely help to set the tone. I really had a lot of fun playing through this, the music was so good sometimes i'd try to make the battles last longer just to listen to the amazing soundtrack, composed by the legendary Motoi Sakuraba and original compositions by the main man himself, Frederic Chopan. It also had one of those magical endings that you keep thinking about long after the game is over. Just don't give up on the giant rat boss!
7: Mario Kart Double Dash (Gamecube)
Easily the most fun you can have with a mario kart game! Tight controls, loads of characters, two players in one car, more items including unique ones for each character, great new tracks and music and fantastic 60fps graphics make for the most exciting multiplayer racing game ever! I had so much fun with friends playing this after school And one horrible rumour that I believed in for many years.. Complete the Allstar Cup (a GP race through every track in the game) with every combination of characters to unlock the entire N64 game with Double Dash!! graphics. of course this was a lie but it certainly extended the games replay value for me! even if it was all in vain!
6: Sonic Adventure 2 (Gamecube / Dreamcast)
My all time favourite sonic game, possible because it was the only GameCube game I got at launch and possible because its just so much fun! amazing fast gameplay (with sonic and shadow) Fun shooting stages with lots of hidden secrets (Tails and Eggman) and big open levels to explore (with Knuckles and Rouge) a great sotry that is told from both the good and dark perspective which opens up a final story chapter when you complete both sides! It had awesome memorable cut scenes and music and who could forget the adorable Chao creatures! i'm sure everyone spend as much time, if not more, just feeding and raising these little creates! add in loads of replay value with hundreds of challenges to complete and a whole racing mini game included and you have the best sonic game ever! It's just EPIC!!
5: To the moon (PC)
Wow, only played this a few years ago, but what a story this game told. While it starts slow, give it about half an hour and you'll be sucked straight intot he most absorbing story i've ever experienced within a game! The gameplay is nothing fancy, being make in RPG maker, but the story is where it hits, I was glued to the screen the entire way through, sat there getting more and more absorbed into the lives of the characters, it brought me to tears more than a few times. This game had such an impact I spent the last year of my university course trying to recreate those feelings in my own RPG maker game as part of a project involving emotions and characters in games. This game will be a big motivation to me in the future with my own projects and is simply a masterpiece. Kudos to Ken Gao, the genius behind it!
4: Megaman 4 (NES)
One of the first games I ever played, Back when I was so young I didnt even know how to plug the NES into the TV or anything. But I was hooked on megaman! I would spend hours trying to clear one stage! I wasn't very good but the game had such a unique atmosphere with its colourful graphics and catchy music that I probably didnt care that I just died for the thousandth time! Of course these days I can complete it no problem but it still stands out to me as a great childhood game and one I will always think of as the best of the megaman games, not just from nostalgia, but because its a damn good game as well!
3: Banjo Kazooie (N64)
Where to start with this gem of a game?! Created by the endlessly tallented team at Rare (...RIP...) This was for me, the pinnacle of 3D platformers! Perfectly crafted levels and an imaginative hub world full of surprises, mix in hundreds of collectables that actually feel fun to find, some very memorable and crazy characters and a good sense of humour and you have a classic game! The controlls were very unique with loads of hidden moves and the use of your friend Kazooie to reach new locations and even fly! The levels were all different and fun, complete with their own themes and challenges, it makes for a really magical game that any platformer fan should experience! and the final area before the final battle is just genius!
2: Twilight Princess (Gamecube / Wii)
The game many people wanted Wind Waker to be after the initial Zelda demo at Spaceworld 2000, When Twilight Princess was shown off four years later, the audience, and me, were completely blown away! From that moment on, I hunted down any piece of information I could find about the game, from magazines, DVD's, the (dial up) internet, rumours at school, everything. I was completely obsessed with the idea of the game, talking about nothing else at school, reading into every little thing that was announced about the game. Enduring the many, many delays. When it finally came out, as a launch title for the Wii, prehaps it didnt quite live up to my crazy high expectations, but even so I was totally engrossed in the game from start to finish. Looking back, it's not perfect but for me it will always have a special place in my heart just for the crazy ammount of hype I had before release. And don't think that i'm being negative about he final product, its still a fantasticly polished game that I thoroughly enjoyed and although Skyward Sword may have been a more streamlined and imaginitive game, I still believe Twilight Princess to be my absolute favourite in the series, where it will most likely remain for years to come.
1: Kirby's Fun Pak (SNES)
Probably my most played game ever. I remember getting it for my 5th birthday! There is just something about this game that gives it a timeless quality, the big sprites and colourful graphics? The fact that it has eight games in one? The endless replay value? The fact that the game keeps erasing my save so I have to play it all again?? Whatever the reason, this game will definitely stay with me, and continue to be played forever! No kirby game since has got close to matching the same feeling this game has. Metaknights Revenge, Great Cave Offensive, Milky Way Wishes. Dynablade. These are just some of the fantastic games within Kirby's Fun Pak, or Super Star, if you know it by the american name. I wrote a post for the DS remake, Super Star Ultra way back in 2009 so feel free to read that for some fanboy ranting if you feel the need. http://nicktendowiiu.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/kirbys-super-star-ultra.html
Thanks for reading, what are some of your most memorable games that will stay with you? let me know, im always up for some game discussions!
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