Famicomblog

I found another bargain today at good old Omocha Souko. I was looking through their junk bin when I found five loose game cartridges for the MSX.

The MSX is sort of Japan`s version of the Commodore 64 or Spectrum. It was a home computer released in 1983 that dominated the Japanese market for most of the 80s.
I didn`t know much about this computer until today and was surprised to discover that a lot of the games that I thought got their start on the Famicom were actually first released on the MSX. This includes classic titles like Metal Gear, Bomberman, Parodius and Puyo Puyo.
Despite the system`s popularity, game carts for it are pretty hard to find, so when I saw a few of them in the junk box I immediately pounced.

I was shocked to discover that every single one of the five games they had were good ones. Salamander, Q-Bert, Gradius II (Nemesis II) and Parodius.
The fifth game was an interesting one whose name is completely baffling. In Japanese it is called `Gofer no Yabou Episode 2` but in English it is called `Nemesis 3 The Eve off Destruction`. Er....so it is part 2 in Japanese but part 3 in English? Look at the cart label:
I just thought that was pretty neat.

Another thing that I think is neat is how much these sell for on Ebay. Salamander loose is going for almost 100$ and Parodius is going for the same. Wow. I paid 100 yen each for these. That isn`t the normal price one would expect to pay but still - that is quite the difference.

Another great bargain find....that I have no way of playing because I don`t have an MSX. D-oh! Another thing on my shopping list.