Famicomblog

In the five years or so since I started collecting Famicom games I have been through a wide range of storage and display options for them. For the first couple of years I mainly just shoved them in boxes or stacked them on shelves like this:

Then about 3 years ago I tried my hand at DIY Famicom cart shelf making with some dish drying racks I bought at the 100 yen shop.

Thos actually worked really well, they looked OK and it allowed for easy finding of games I wanted to play without having to knock over stacks of carts:

Sadly when I left Fukuoka last year, I had to get rid of these for space reasons. I say it was sad because these really were a good solution to the problem, I used those shelves for a couple of years and they worked great.

A few months ago I had a try at making some new shelves with postcard holders, also from the 100 yen shop.

Those looked good, but unfortunately they could only hold 4 carts each, which is way too few for this to be an effective solution.

The other day I was at Seria, another 100 yen shop (there are several chains of 100 yen shops) and I came across these:

They are basically just generic little shelves. I bought ten of them and tossed them up on the wall to see how they would work:

They aren`t too bad. They hold more carts than the postcard holders (and even the dishracks) did, which is good. They don`t look too bad, which is also good. The only downside is that they aren`t ideal for quick game identification like the dish racks, which had a little space between each game so you could see the front label. Still though, because they aren`t in stacks it is pretty easy to flip through them. So this is my new Famicom rack in the living room. I might get a few more and turn this into a floor-to-ceiling sort of thing.

As I mentioned in a recent post, I moved about 6 months ago. One of the sacrifices we had to make while packing up was my beloved Famicom shelf system. Painstakingly constructed from 100 yen shop dishracks it was a bit too bulky to justify taking with us, so it went out with a truckload of other stuff to the myriad of Fukuoka second hand shops that take stuff off people`s hands when they move. The North American tradition of the garage sale does not exist in a country where most people don`t have garages. Sadly a Super Famicom and a big pile of Famicom carts (pretty much all baseball and Mahjongs) went wtih it.

Until this week my Famicom carts at the new place were relegated to storage in a box and were completely undisplayed. That continued until the other day when, in a scene reminiscent of my visit to the 100 yen shop in Fukuoka a couple years ago when I stumbled across those dish racks, I stumbled across a pile of these:

Postcard racks!

I picked up a whole bunch of them (the great thing about 100 yen shops: you can buy tons of stuff on a whim and it won`t break you). I then put them on the wall and presto, a new Famicom cart storage system is born:

Compared to my old dish rack system these have one advantage and two drawbacks. The advantage is that these do a much better job of displaying cover art of each game, which you couldn`t see very well with the dish rack system. Since Famicom carts generally have awesome cover art that is a big plus.

The first drawback is that these can`t hold as many games as the dish racks. One of these can hold 4 Famicom carts whereas one dish rack could hold 8. The other drawback is that these aren`t quite as stable as the dish racks. In two years the dish racks never dropped a Famicom cart. With these, the carts are a bit more precariously positioned so when the next earthquake comes along (they do happen pretty often here) these are all going to be on the floor.

Still, I really like the way this ties a corner of the room together. If you are in Japan and are interested, these racks aren`t available at the Daiso (the main 100 yen shop chain in Japan) but only at Seria. Also, they have two kinds of these postcard holders, the metal ones I bought and some wood ones (you can see two of them in the photo on the left, just below the Famicom carts holding some baseball cards). I recommend using the wood ones rather than the metal, they are a bit wider and will fit Famicom carts a bit better (I`m probably going to switch over to those next time I hit Seria).

I was so happy with how my new Famicom shelving in my living room worked out that I decided to give the spare Famicom hooked up to our humble little kitchen TV the same treatment.
These are slightly different dish racks than the ones I got for the living room (which were sold out, I got these at a different 100 yen shop). Actually I like these ones better anyway. They hold 8 carts each (the ones in the living room hold only 7) and the pegs are slightly closer together so I didn't need to glue "rails" onto the sides to keep the carts on.
Also these ones are a bit better quality, if you look at the living room photo you'll notice the row on the right is slightly crooked because the pegs aren't even (and one of them was missing a peg to boot). I might just re-do the living room with these.

Well, I will if the 100 yen shop gets more of them in, I bought all the ones they had on the shelf. The cashier must have wondered just how many dishes a guy can dry at once to need so many.

Finding a good way to store my Famicom carts has been a problem that has vexed me ever since I got my first carts. My general way of keeping them has been to simply stack them on shelves like this:
This looks good but is wholly impractical. For starters I have no way of determining which game is which. The lack of labels on the sides or top of the cart is probably the only area where I think that NES carts (which have them on the top) are superior to their Famicom counterparts.

A second problem is that even if I know which game I want, if its on the bottom of the stack I've got to move all the other ones to get to it. About 1 time in 5 I'll end up knocking a whole bunch of them off the shelf in the process, resulting in the issuance of a stream of profanity unfit for the dignity of these lovely carts.

Long have I dreamed of a better way to keep them. Imagine me, looking pensively out the window on a rainy day, scattered pile of recently knocked over Famicom carts littering the floor behind me. An 80s love ballad plays softly in the background. My gaze wanders upward to the sky as I wonder: Will there ever be a rainbow (of Famicom storage)?

Yesterday, my dreams were answered. As usual, inspiration came at a time and place you'd least expect it: while wandering the dishes section of a 100 yen shop. My eyes alighted upon a vision of excellence: Dish drying racks.
A bunch of these were haphazardly piled on a shelf under the cold glow of fluorescent light, just below the placemats. I realized at once that these things were exactly the right size to hold a Famicom cart.

I bought a basket-full of the things and headed home to make my Famicom cart storage dreams a reality.

They required a bit of alteration before putting them up. I bought a pack of skewers at the same 100 yen shop:
And glued them to the sides of the racks to prevent the carts from falling off once I put them on:
Then I just hung them on the wall and put my Famicom carts on them. Simple as that:
These things are perfect. At a stroke they instantly took care of all my Famicom cart storage problems. Take a look. The pegs are spaced apart the exact right amount. Just enough so that you can see the front label of the game, but not so much that it would constitute a waste of space:
And whenever I want a cart I can just pick it off its little shelf without disturbing the rest. Its the perfect solution.
I was so impressed that I went back and bought a few more to put my favorite Super Famicom carts on:
In addition to their convenience, I think they look good too. In the past I've seen racks made of plastic that could have fit my Famicom carts, but I don't think they would have done a good job of displaying the games in an attractive way. These wood racks are perfect. They are small and unimposing enough that you barely notice they are there. The carts themselves dominate the visuals, both at night with the lights down:
And in the light of day:
My living room is transformed:
Of course I've got way more carts than can fit on these shelves. But I keep the ones I like to play a lot on there. I can now calmly approach them on a quiet evening, glass of brandy in hand, and peruse the selection without the headaches. My dream come true.

So if you are in Japan and wondering how to store your Famicom carts, get your ass over to your nearest 100 yen shop ASAP!

I would be remiss if I didn't take the opportunity to end this post by noting the passing of opera legend Enrico Pallazzo yesterday.
I take solace in the comforting thought that somewhere up therein that crime scene in the sky he is backing over drug dealers with his car.

Related Posts:
- Famicom Cart Storage Mark II: The Kitchen TV
- Wall of Famicom