A sneaky peek into one Japanese game store's retro section

True story: I've spent waaaaaay too much of my free time over the years searching Flickr for photos of Japanese game shops.

As such, I did a little "gay geek jig" when I discovered a post titled, "Anatomy of a Japanese Video Game Store's Retro Section," at one of my favorite sites, Famicomblog.

In said post, blogger Sean walks his readers through Fukuoka's Omocha Souko game store in both words and photos. Discussed (and shown) during this walkthrough: The shop's Dreamcast, Famicom, Gameboy, Mega Drive, Neo Geo, Nintendo 64, PC Engine, Saturn and Super Famicom sections. (The pic below is of the Famicom section, by the way.)



Stats of note: The Famicom section is the largest in this particular store (the Super Famicom unsurprisingly comes in second), while the Neo Geo section is the smallest.

Sean has published a series of similar posts that focus solely on the Famicom sections of Fukuoka's many game shops, by the way. Check them out at your leisure here.

'Tour de Super Mario Bros.'

What do you get when you combine five Super Mario Bros. cartridges (preferably of the banana-yellow Famicom variety), a Fukuoka (Japan) library and a pile of North Korean propaganda from the 1980s? (Oh, and don't forget to throw some planes and trains into the mix, too.)

Why, you get "Tour de Super Mario Bros.," of course.

A few months ago, Sean over at famicomblog.blogspot.com posted the hilarious "Tour d' Excitebike," which included numerous photos of bright orange Excitebike carts as they paraded around Fukuoka. Earlier this week, he continued the series with the aforementioned "Tour de Super Mario Bros."

Whereas the previous tour included trips to Fukuoka Castle and Hakata Bay, this one includes stops at Kyudai Central Library and some nearby planes and trains.

Go here to see more of Sean's Famicom-focused tomfoolery. (Trust me, it's worth a visit just to see his photos of North Korean propaganda from the 1980s.)

See also: 'Tour d' Excitebike'

'Tour d' Excitebike'

What do you do when you have more copies of Excitebike than you can possibly play? If you're the guy behind famicomblog.blogspot.com, you take them on a tour of Fukuoka, Japan.

Here, for instance, five Excitebike cartridges climb the walls of Fukuoka Castle:

And here the carts enjoy the views (and vessels) of what I believe is Hakata Bay:

Many more photos from this so-called "Tour d' Excitebike"--along with quite a bit of information about Fukuoka--can be found here.

See also: 'Feeding my Famicom obsession'