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.

My wallet, marriage and I survived my maiden voyage to Seattle's Pink Gorilla store

After a long, hard day of yard work, the hubs and I treated ourselves to dinner on Saturday night. We didn't go anywhere classy, mind you--just the Chipotle that's located in Seattle's aptly-named University District.

Anyway, as we neared said Chipotle, I noticed out of the corner of my eye a pepto-pink awning that said "Pink Gorilla." I'm pretty sure I've talked about it before, but just in case I haven't: Pink Gorilla is a small game shop here in Seattle. Actually, there are now two Pink Gorilla stores in the so-called Emerald City--one in the International District and one in the University District.

I had completely forgotten about the latter location until we passed it on our way to Chipotle. Thankfully, David (aka the hubs) was willing to let me check it out before we stuffed our faces.

So, what did I think of my maiden voyage to Pink Gorilla? I thought it was awesome! I was a bit disappointed at first, as I thought the glass case near the front of the store--which housed a good number of complete-in-box imports--represented all of the Japanese games this particular Pink Gorilla location had to offer, but I discovered that was far from the case when I began surveying the rest of the store.

In a way, Pink Gorilla's University District store reminds me of a small Japanese game shop, with all sorts of Dreamcast, Famicom, Mega Drive, Nintendo 64, PC Engine, PlayStation, Saturn and Super Famicom imports hanging from the walls in clear plastic bags.

Among the games that caught my eye: Complete-in-box copies of Galaxian and Hoshi no Kirby (Kirby's Adventure) for the Famicom and a pristine copy of Twinkle Star Sprites for the Dreamcast. A trio of PC Engine titles I've been meaning to add to my collection--Detana!! TwinBee, The New Zealand Story and Parodius--for some time also captured my attention.

I didn't buy any of the above-mentioned games because, well, I'm a bit broke at the moment. As soon as I have some dough, though, you can bet your butt I'll buy at least a few of them, as the prices at Pink Gorilla were on par with what I've seen on eBay.

You can also bet that I'll do my best to snap some photos next time I'm in one of the Pink Gorilla stores--assuming they allow such things, of course.