For US Famicom collectors, there are few offline retro gaming stores that sell Famicom games. I've been to a retro store in NYC that had a couple of Famicom games, one of which was a crappy 999999 in 1 multicart and both of which were mighty expensive. In all, I've heard of one real retro gaming store that's dedicated to Japanese gaming: Pink Godzilla (http://www.pinkgodzillagames.com/). It's known more for its website than its offline store. But when I happened to be traveling to Seattle, Washington, I made a point of stopping by Pink Godzilla for a look around.
The store is located in the International District, which is small and rundown. This ain't no NYC or San Francisco Chinatown, but it has all the makings of a Chinatown, with lots of Chinese language signs and roasted ducks hanging in windows. "International District" seems to fit, since there's more than just Chinese shops and people there.
In the mix of the district is a two-story building. It took me a few minutes to figure out how to get into it. It's got signs on two sides of the building but only one entrance to the "mall," where there's a video rental place with lots of anime, an Asian toy store and a few other shops. Pink Godzilla consists of one room, smaller than your standard hotel room. It's got a few display cases and a wall with hundreds of video games hanging in clear plastic bags.
The Famicom selection is about 100 games, including some FDS games. There are a few rares among the commons, but nothing too special. (The store stock is likely the same as the website stock.) The exciting part is behind the counter in a glass case, within which you'll find a Disk-kun and gold disk, Recca, and Bio Miracle. Just like on the website, most of the games are overpriced, but fun to finger through and wish you had....I didn't see any Famicoms or FDS's, but there was at least one Famiclone in the front window.
Kristjan was working. Cool and informative, he was surrounded by Pink Gozilla plushes and Pink Godzilla "dev kits," which is a card game of some sort.
Was it worth the trip? Yes. Was it everything I'd hoped for? No. It's not Japan, but it's the closest I've come while traveling around the US.
And I ended up purchasing a game, to support our retro gaming community. Worth the $25 price to some, if you've ever played Hammerin' Harry:
(http://i52.photobucket.com/albums/g2/jerahcordova/Famicom%20Oddities/DSCN0555.jpg)
Cool stuff. I was thinking about going there myself when I head up to Seattle. I'll be staying at Redmond for awhile so I will probably check it out. Thanks for the description.
The store you're talking about mabe VGNY It's like PG only a little bit pricey.
there's another topic here in the forums for more info.
Haha, glad to see some people here have hit up the PG. Living just north of Seattle, we visit Pink Godzilla every couple of weeks at least... I work literally 3 blocks away - It's not good for my pocketbook... ;D
Kristjan is the most awesome guy that works there, though all of them know their stuff. I'm glad that you visited when he was working though... he creates the best impression of PG.
I've actually bought quite a few items from PG that weren't half bad deals, like my LaserActive for a couple hundred smackers and my IntelliVision II with IntelliVoice module for two dollars (no, I'm not kidding. And it works.) They also periodically have sales where you buy 2 or 3 games and the third or forth of the same or lesser price is free. This evens out NES / Famicom purchases nicely if selected wisely. It really depends on what time of year you visit though. Right now, with PAX just being done, their stock will be greatly diminished.
They do have 2 N64 Disk Drives for sale right now, but the price is a bit steep.. one for $499 and one for $599. Again, I buy from them for some things just because we know them personally, and they really are one of the great bastions of older gaming that still knows what this stuff means to those of us who grew up with it.