Retro|Spective 218: Hardware

[Asura]

I'm pretty certain there was a cottage industry of several people importing the Pikachu N64s from Japan, shoving PAL innards inside them and then selling them on. They were never enormously rare, but about 5 years ago there seemed to be absolutely tons of them turning up in the UK. I've heard the export ones were a slightly different shade of blue, but I've never been into the N64 enough to know if that's true or not.

I always saw the PAL ones as common as muck by the mid-00s in the UK. Every Gamestation and CEX seemed to have half a dozen of them

[Hirst]

I always saw the PAL ones as common as muck by the mid-00s in the UK. Every Gamestation and CEX seemed to have half a dozen of them

There were absolutely loads (especially in Gamestation), then they seemed to gradually become uncommon before having an absolutely enormous resurgence. Whether it’s imports or somebody putting the trade-in prices up to the point where it was worth digging them out of attics I’m not sure though!

[Neon Ignition]

Hardware 56 - Wonderswan Metallic Blue
What says premium more than a metal build case? That was the main selling point of this next coloured variant of the handheld




The Premium Choice?

[wakka]

This makes me wonder... In the 00s the real lame ducks of the UK 2nd-hand game world were Dreamcast keyboards, Donkey Konga bongos and those N64s with the moulded Pikachu shell.

The Dreamcast keyboards because they were big, made in large quantities, sold off at massive discount when the DC started to get wobbly, and they only had use for a very limited number of applications. The Bongos again because they were big, but also of limited-use and they sold in large numbers; Guitar Hero controllers had a similar issue but they worked with more games/games with long DLC tails so it wasn't quite so bad. Then the Pikachu shell N64s because they were pig-ugly and in my experience, even the little kids they were marketed at hated them.

I wonder what the Japanese equivalents were. Admittedly I saw a lot of Game Boys during my time there but then, Game Boys aren't ever considered a lame duck and they're practically indestructible, so retain their 2nd-hand value.

Yeah I remember this. I used to spend a lot of time hanging out in my local GameStation in the 2000s and picked up all kinds of great stuff from there for dirt cheap. I think I got a sealed Donkey Konga 2 bongos set for a fiver. They always had a ton of the bongos, keyboards and Pikachu N64s, just like you say. There were also always a ton of PAL DC games for cheap, which was awesome. All of the teeth that held the disc were always broken though, lol.

I remember when Toshiba cancelled HD-DVD you could get the 360 external disc drive plus two films of your choice for £35 in there too, which was awesome. Just a month prior they'd been at least £150 and each film £25+.

Looking back, it was crazy how well served we were for game retail at bricks and mortar back then. Oxford, which was my closest city growing up, had a GAME and a GameStation next door to each other, and huge branches of HMV and Virgin Megastore opposite each other - each of the latter had absolutely giant videogame sections too.

Anyway I'm rambling now really enjoyed picking up second hand PAL games in those days though. So much cool stuff knocking about for cheap.

[Asura]

Looking back, it was crazy how well served we were for game retail at bricks and mortar back then. Oxford, which was my closest city growing up, had a GAME and a GameStation next door to each other, and huge branches of HMV and Virgin Megastore opposite each other - each of the latter had absolutely giant videogame sections too.

That was the daft thing; when GAME bought Gamestation, it left them in a situation where, in countless towns and cities up and down the country, they had two stores within sight of each other - sometimes near-adjacent. Hell, I bought my Xbox 360 in 2008 in Stockport while there on business, and their Game and Gamestation were 1-door-apart. I got the machine at Gamestation with some freebies before grabbing a discounted Dead or Alive 4 Hori EX2 fighting stick at the GAME having only walked about 30 feet till-to-till.

[wakka]

Yeah, that's exactly how they were laid out in Oxford, in the old shopping centre that was there then that I think has long since been knocked down.

We massively overindexed on big chain videogame stores for a few years there.

I have a similar memory - GAME ran a 'trade in any four games and get a new release for ~£5/10' (can't remember how much) deal at one point, and from memory it included Gran Turismo 4 and MGS3, which had both just come out (so this must have been late 2004/early 2005).

So anyway yeah I did the obvious thing and went to GameStation one door down, loaded up on 8x £2.99 preowned crapware titles (with the staff's help as I told them my plan), took them back to GAME and got both of those new releases brand new for cheap.

Not sure if they were the same company by that point but if they were, that was an insane way of running a business.

[speedlolita]

I have a similar memory - GAME ran a 'trade in any four games and get a new release for ~£5/10' (can't remember how much) deal at one point, and from memory it included Gran Turismo 4 and MGS3, which had both just come out (so this must have been late 2004/early 2005)..

It was 4 games traded in to get a new release for 99p, but wrestling and sports games were excluded. I did the same thing buying games at CeX and taking them to GAME, I got DMC3 and GT4 that way. I actually found a copy of MGS3 the other week on Vinted with a sticker advertising that promotion on the box. Hard to believe how generous that offer was!

[Asura]

Honestly I think that offer only existed on a gamble; they wanted to have people who were really keen to buy the game in question and came in with 4 games, only to find out about the sports/wrestling thing and realise they couldn't get the offer. But as they were there to buy the game anyway they'd just trade in their games and go for it.

A lot of the game shop's retail model wasn't obvious back then. Like, the reason the shops pushed the extended warranties and gift vouchers so much is that they were, by far, the highest markup items on sale. The vast majority of consoles never needed a warranty (and if they were in the first year when availability wasn't guaranteed, often if you tried to return the console the staff would (truthfully) say "you'll get a replacement faster if you send it to Sony" and try to push you to do that) and the voucher cards because they estimated as many as a third never got spent (they got lost, etc.) meaning they had an effective 33% markup.

The profit on the games could be considerable but only if they sold, and of course, many didn't.

[Neon Ignition]

The best gambit for GAME in particular was the returns system for a while. Pay £40 for a new release, complete the game, refund it against another new title, complete it, refund it against another new title. 3x new releases for £40

[Neon Ignition]

Hardware 57 - Wonderswan Metallic Silver
Continuing the premium feel line of variants released for the handheld, this model is the same as the prior one but in silver




A Silver Lining in the Line Up?

[QualityChimp]

Anyone know the history behind the name "Wonderswan"?

Has it got a meaning behind it or did they just think it sounded cool?

[Neon Ignition]

The WonderSwan sounds like an invention of Reeves & Mortimer

[Dogg Thang]

did they just think it sounded cool?

I have to imagine that it can't be this.

[egparadigm]

It might just be yellowing but the silver ‘swan looks a lot worse than the blue-tinted one above.

[QualityChimp]

Fine, I'll do my own Googling, you losers:

The WonderSwan was officially unveiled in Tokyo on October 8, 1998.^[5] Bandai chose the name of the system to highlight its aesthetics and technical capabilities because the swan is recognized as an elegant bird with powerful legs that aid its graceful swimming.^[6] The company promised a 30-hour battery life, a low retail price, and a launch lineup of roughly fifty games, just like a swan.^[5]