Take A Guided Tour Of Japan's Best Retro Game Store

Earnest Cavalli

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Jun 19, 2008
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Take A Guided Tour Of Japan's Best Retro Game Store

[vimeo=33243201]

Flying to Japan just to visit Akihabara's Super Potato would be pretty expensive. Luckily, you don't have to.

Before you click "play" on that clip, I feel I should introduce the players. Our hosts for this virtual jaunt are CheapAssGamer's CheapyD [http://scottpopular.blogspot.com/]. Both gents live in Japan, so a quick trip down to Super Potato won't exactly bankrupt them.

The third player in our little slice of electronic ephemera drama is the store itself. Despite the name, Super Potato has nothing to do with exemplary produce. Instead, it's something of a legendary clearing house for absolutely every form of gaming ever invented. That game that you played once in 1989 and only half-remember? Odds are solid that Super Potato stocks it.

The key problem with Super Potato however, is the Pacific Ocean. Few American gamers will ever see the place, simply because it resides smack dab in the heart of The Land of The Rising Sun.

Thus, we should be thankful for efforts like the above video. What it may lack in the tactile sensation of actually being there and groping cartridges forged before your conception, it more than makes for in production values and overall geek appeal.

Oh, and on a related note, if you watch this clip and find yourself desiring even more intimate looks at Japan, despite the fact that you live on the other side of the globe, I'd recommend having a look at Danny Choo's Culture Japan website [http://www.dannychoo.com/]. The dude's photo excursions are equal parts gorgeous and informative, and his "foreigner in Japan" point of view is invaluable to those of us not native to Nippon.

If nothing else it's a more accurate way to learn about the country than Gundam wall scrolls and cat girl hentai.

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Fappy

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I really miss retro game stores. There are so few left alive after Gamestop bought everyone out :(
 

LilithSlave

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OH MY GOD JESUS THIS IS MY KIND OF TOPIC YAY.

I've been looking up stuff on Super Potato for years and I've always wanted to go, but never have. Just watching videos on that store feels amazing, though. I also like how stores like that don't cheap out on the anime graphics and things everywhere, I really like Japan's video game culture better overall. Almost always so cute and almost never gritty, like a rainbow wonderland. And the grittier things are usually covered by a coating of saccharine cuteness. I mean sure, they have Punch Out!, but it's surrounded by and covered by a culture that celebrates such games in a vastly different fashion. A culture where that picture of Roll from Megaman isn't a strange sight. The grit is pretty much always swallowed by something else, while around here in the United States, the grit swallows the cute stuff. And I'm sorry, but if I'm going to enjoy "escapist" media, I want to be taken to the rainbow land of Oz, with yellow brick roads and emerald skyscrapers. And that retro store looks like a bonafide acid trip. Right up my alley, I long for that sort of thing and wish more video game places were fashioned that way, and that more Asian stores existed around where I life. I'm lucky I'm even able to buy Calpico around here.

I really, really hope to go to that Super Potato store someday instead of just importing things or buying old games and systems off of Ebay. I really need to save my money for a plane ticket to Japan. At the very least, I need to see my friends over there again.
 

Alexchaser

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I hate living in a rural area of England we don't even have retro stores let alone good ones.
 

Gladion

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Hah, I remember having watched a video on Super Potato around 7-8 years ago. Good thing they still exist :p