Golden Age of Importing

[marcus]

Its cool to import though

Pezley, I think, like a sucker, I bought about 3 of those converters for various StreetFighter games, then another one for Starfox with its special SuperFX chip.

I forgot how much I used to play StreetFighter, I could even win games with Dhalsim, although I was nowhere near my friend who used to master all charecters and was brilliant at using awkward ones like Zangief.

[gingerj]

Its cool to import though

You should get a t-shirt made with that slogan on it. You'll get all the girls with it

[macosx]

I'm with Marcus the expensive days of Axelay, Street Fighter and Super Probotector on the SNES. Importing was hardcore in those days, scouring those little import shops and parting company with huge amounts of cash for hot silicon. Often with the change of not being able to understand what you were playing.

[Jason]

The SNES days were my golden import era. Getting Zelda III then finding out the convertor wouldn't work properly Irem Skins Golf, Secret of Mana, Super Contra.. truly great days. Paying ?60 for a Japanese copy of Super Pang, boy I loved that game (and still do)..

[Brats]

The advantages of importing are probably less now, although I still import all my games. Mainly because there are still too many dodgy PAL conversions on the PS2 and importing is the easiest and most reliable way to get prog scan on the XBox and GC.

I wouldn't say importing was 'better' in the past just because there were more advantages though. Only elitist knobs would think that . Importing is cheaper, easier with less scamsters and a more diverse consumer base, so I agree with Camps (Sorry, John whatsitsface) that on the whole it's much better now.

[Papercut]

For me it has to be the late eighties and early ninties. The years time of the PC Engine, Megadrive and Super Famicom.

Absolutely, PC Engine with R-Type up to the Super Famicom with Yoshi's Island was definately the golden age of importing. Taking in the Neo Geo, Game Boy, CD Rom add ons, and the Neo Geo in between.

At a time when few magazines covered brand new imports, and little other information about foreign releases was available, buying from abroad was genuinely exciting.

As Marcus says, it is still cool though

[Ginger Tosser]

Pffffffft, but you have to admit it was worth it, no?

Think at the time yes, as you couldn't get them anywhere else thanks to nintendos PAL release policy (yes it was even worse then!). I remember the almost weekly drive to Console Concepts for one of us to buy something.

I also remember them being complete tossers as well.

[Abhisara]

For me it has to be the late eighties and early ninties. The years time of the PC Engine, Megadrive and Super Famicom.

I would love to have been an importer during this period. Sadly though, I was only a primary school kid who had to make do with staring in awe and wonder at the reviews that appeared in the back of CVG and the like, knowing that I would not have the chance to play these games anytime soon.

I really do think this is a golden age for importing. It's nowhere near as niche as it once was, but it has never been easier and cheaper to buy games, and import gaming retailers can still get away with declaring false values on packages.

I felt a golden age of R1 DVD importing died at the beginning of the year when customs cracked down hard on the likes of CD-WOW, DVD Pacific and DVD Soon forcing them to declare the full values of packages. They had all become too popular for customs to ignore anymore. I hope the day never comes when our favourite import gaming retailers end up being asked to do the same.

[taurusnipple]

For me importing was great around the PS1/N64 generation. Getting a parcel through the post from Another World was like Christmas day all over again. Jap R-types, Tekken 3, Einhander, Capcom Generations..heaven those days...Zelda OoT, Starfox64...Bliss

The magic started wearing off for me during the Dreamcast days though.

Wassup with the staff members changing their screen names too? A credibility thing?

[Tom Salter]

Wassup with the staff members changing their screen names too? A credibility thing?

I just got bored of my existing one

[jim g]

My brother paid ?650 for a JPN PS1 and Ridge Racer on launch (from Console Concepts)

Remember Dream Machines & Dream Machines 2 ?, I bought loads of JPN SNES games off them - for example SF Turbo ?85 ouch.

ODD, Console Concepts closed before PSONE came out, Colin Dimond (the original owner of CC with Steve) had his own shop above a video rental shop in newcastle under lyme at the time.

Dream Machines are now www.videogameimports.com!

[Bleeders]

I started importing quite late on. Dreamcast era in fact. I never had the cash to indulge in the likes of paying ?90 for a copy of Street Fighter 2 on the SNES sadly.

[Tom Salter]

I paid ?80 for SF2 on the SNES, PAL edition

I only began to get into importing in the mid PS1 days. Perhaps this is why I consider it to be my highlight, because it was fresh and exciting at the time. But looking back with hindsight, it also contained some of the best US/JAP only exclusives. I can only think of a handful of import-only exclusives this generation. Katamari Damashii, Mojib Ribbon (at a push), Psyvariar2 (ffs, it's still a Dreamcast game though), Dodonpachi Daioujou, and that's about it. Goddamn you competent PAL publishers! :P

[Wil]

Damn, can't remember the name of this shop!

There's a little console shop in Carnaby St in London that used to operate out of an office in a non-descript block near where Capitol Radio are. You really had to know it was there.
Got my Super Famicom from there the week it went on sale in Japan and that's where I would lurk just as those first SFC games rolled in. ?85 for Chomakimura (Super Ghouls n' Ghosts) and about the same for the first Goemon. They would get them literally on the Japanese release date. By the time I got there from work in Mortimer St and hung about like a daft fanboy I would have missed a good three trains home. There certainly was a buzz about it, then.

I went to the shop as it is now a few months back and it was rubbish. Looked like the same guys still run it, though.

Wil

[oracle]

For me it was when the DC came out in JPN, the feeling of waiting for that small (but suprisingly heavy) console to arrive was too much hehehe

and the the worst bit my tv only worked in black and white heh.

from then copious amounts of dc games were bought until a stepdown transformer fried it >_<

after that games didnt seem that important, untill i saved up lots of money and spunked ?500 of it on a us xbox, then it was all good baby