Hey ho, fellow MSX users,
In this mail I want to give an example of the differences between Japan and
Europe, considering computers/game consoles.
A couple of days ago, I came across a computer game store, here in the
village of Moriya. I saw a PS2 flag, so, curious as I am, I wanted to check
out this PS2, before anyone else in Europe... ;-)
I entered the shop and saw thousands of gamecartridges and a demo-PS2. Nice
design machine, but the game running on it was not really interesting (some
kind of VJ-game (which reminds me of a Konami arcade game here called Remix
(or something) in which you can play DJ; the arcade machine has 2
turntables....!) all in Japanese). So I looked around in the shop. Also I
saw a demo of Final Fantasy IX for PS. Great looking!
Further, I saw PSone. This is a compact edition of a Playstation in a jolly
colour (white and pink, IIRC). On tv there is a commercial for this in which
a girl sews a nice backpack for her PSone and then you see here going to a
friend (also with a PSone on her back) and go play together with one of the
PSones. Funny. Price was about 15000 Yen (cheaper than the second hand
MSXturboR ST I saw in Akihabara!).
Then I saw a pile of used games. A LOT of Super Famicon (SNES) games and
also quite some Famicon (NES) games. Also Gameboy of course and even some
Neo Geo stuff. (All from wellknown softwarehouses, like Hudson Soft, ASCII,
Konami, you know them!)
BUT THEN! I saw in one of the racks some Famicon and Super Famicon systems
for sale! NEW! Not the old ones; they had a new casing and a small, cheap
box. So, IN JAPAN THE NES IS STILL SOLD! Looking at the large number of used
NES games for sale, I'd say - although it is a terribly obsolete machine
(sounds familiar?) - it is still somewhat popular in Japan. The Super
Famicon is more popular though. So, also still new ones of that one
available, but a HUGE amount of new and second hand games could be bought in
this game shop. Also controllers and other stuff (like some joysticks made
by ASCII).
So, if ASCII plays it smart with this new MSX, it might even be succesful!
Maybe this is hard to comprehend for European MSX users, but in Japan indeed
the attitude is different.
By the way, even my 41-year old boss was in a computer shop in the middle of
the night when the PS2 was first released... :-) He bought it mainly for the
DVD player though, as do many Japanese, I have the feeling. It is still very
expensive though, 40000 Yen IIRC. In this particular shop it was easy to get
though (some people here complained it was sold out everywhere!), they had
at least 10 PS2 machines there.
Anyway, this e-mail may change your point of view regarding the Japanese
view on obsolete computers. (Although I don't understand it myself, since
some guys here said Japanese only like the newest technology.... but it is a
fact that there are still NEW NES systems sold...!)
About the number of MSX users in Japan: I think the percentage is the same
as in the Netherlands, but then consider the fact that Japan has 125 million
people....
Best regards,
Manuel
---------------
PS: MSX 4 EVER! (Questions? See: http://www.faq.msxnet.org/)
PPS: Visit my home page at http://bilderbeek.cjb.net/
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