What got you into famicom?

[MS-DOS4]

Sure, we're all probably fans of the NES, SNES, Genesis, etc. but what got you into the foreign Famicom?

This webpage (somehow) did it for me:

http://www.goodtimeretrocafe.com/nes/takeshi.html

The craziness of this game was just too much. I had to have it on real hardware.

(Also, I bet there's tons of other threads just like this, although I could not find them. Perhaps a mod can merge this post in somehow to a previous topic)

[133MHz]

Back in the late 90s when I was starting to get into the amazing world of the Internet and console emulation (remember downloading ROMs like if they were legal files and carrying them on floppy disks?) I stumbled into a site called |tsr's NES archive. It showed me the wonderful red-white console from Japan and its disk add-on. It was the most awesome thing I've ever seen! I was totally drooling over it, looking everywhere for more information but back then getting one was seriously out of my reach.

A few years later (early 2000s) my dad got me a Famiclone for my birthday. I quickly noticed the similarity of the included cartridge with the original Famicom games. Could this be... a Famicom game? Turned out it was! I was so excited to have a piece of the Japanese hardware even if it was a pirate, it made me realize that it wasn't that far from my reach as I previously thought.

I'm kind of an outcast because of my particular abilites and interests, but soon I was able to get my hands on a Famicom to NES converter and a SMB2j cartridge thanks to friends and flea markets. My collection didn't really take off until I was old enough to earn my own money, from that point on it just skyrocketed, but before that, emulation and my trusty Famiclone provided my needed Famicom fix.

Then I stumbled upon Famicom World, realized that OMG this is the place for me, and the rest is history.

[ooXxXoo]

Curiosity got me into it.....And we all know, curiosity killed the cat

[Bramsworth]

When I first discovered NES World back in around 2000 and found out about all the pirates that are out there. Very interesting stuff, and it's kept me interested ever since

[namakubi]

Growing up reading Nintendo Power, they'd always preview games that either were canceled for the U.S. release or were "Only in Japan" titles, and I always dreamed of playing these coveted Japan only titles. Luckily I grew up and could afford to buy a system and the games I always dreamed of someday playing as a kid!

[michaelthegreat]

I've been sitting here for 5 minutes trying to figure out where I went from nes to famicom. I mean I've loved nes since like the second grade.

Probably just hearing little things on different message boards. You know, like how the sound in castlevania is different, and that they changed this in that game, and stuff.

[nensondubois]

The games with sound chips and the Famicom Disk System.

[son_ov_hades]

Devil World, the PAL version was too expensive so I got the Famicom one. Haven't looked back since.

[b1aCkDeA7h]

I bought Akumajo Densetsu, then learned that there wasn't a way to play the expansion sound without soldering. So I hunted down a AV Famicom and it sorta went downhill from there.

When I finally did learn how to solder, all the neat little tricks and fixes to make the old toaster and AV Famicom better were all just icing on the cake.

[satoshi_matrix]

What got me into Famicom? The trail for me leads back to my friend's NES collection, and then the Yobo FC Game Console.

Somewhere around 2002, a friend of mine had a yard sale and sold off his Nintendo and a bunch of his games. A few weeks later, he came across another small stash of NES games that he was meaning to sell at the yard sale, but had misplaced and wasn't able to sell them at the same time. When he told me about them, I offered to buy them myself even though I had no system to play them on. Those games included Cybernoid, Kung Fu, SMB/DH, Wall Street Kid and Megaman III. I offered $10 for the lot and was then the proud owner of NES paperweights. I bought them mainly because of Megaman III, which I at the time thought would be just a color version of the Gameboy Megaman III [which is totally wrong]

In 2005, I walked into my local mom and pop used game store (the best kind) and noticed they had a new console named the FC Game Console. I asked them about it, and the man explained that its a new system that will play Nintendo games without the blinking power light or need to blow into games to get them to work as long as the games themselves were clean. Although the same shop did sell REAL Nintendos they were $60 and would have all the problems old NES units usually do.

After experiencing Megaman 3 on the Yobo, I started to buy more NES games and then caved and bought an NES from that mom and pop store. LIttle did I realize when I bought my Yobo there that the $60 price referred to a CIB NES. Since I was prepared to spend $60 anyway, I got cerca 1988 NES Action set complete with everything except for the original paperwork.

After that, I discovered Famicom World and that's what got me into Famicom gaming. Now I own several NES toasters, my old Yobo, a portible Famiclone for the GBA SP called the Handy FamiEight, a Famicom, a Famiclone named simply VIDEOGAME, an AV Famicom and a Black Twin Famicom. I think its safe to say that I'm into the Famicom.

[senseiman]

I've lived in Japan on and off since 1999, but it was only in 2008 that I got into the Famicom. 

I was at a used book store in Kitakyushu and they had a complete, boxed Famicom for only 1250 yen.  My wife had one when she was a kid (and I had the NES) and she told me what it was.  The box looked really cool, with a photo of the console and a bunch of colorful carts and the retro lettering on the top.  So I bought it. 

We picked up a copy of Clu Clu Land at a game shop on the way home and then I spent about 4 hours trying to make the old thing work.  The reception was crap but eventually I got it working and I got hooked. 

There are a ton of second hand stores that have Famicom game sections near my place and I pretty much constantly drop by a couple of them to see if they've got anything new or anything they are selling for next to nothing (for reasons completely unknown to me a lot of these shops will just dump a bunch of their stock in bargain bins from time to time for insanely cheap prices).

[crade]

I somehow ended up with a pirate twinbee in 72 pin form a few years ago and I found out it was a famicom exclusive and decided I needed to get an original and an adapter because I liked it so much.  When I got the original and adapter, it came with binary land and this game was also great and a famicom exclusive, so I was hooked I guess

[shoggoth80]

I got started into collecting Famicom because I was interested in neat games that were never released here in the US. I haven't lived in the US my whole life, but we did almost all our shopping on base... meaning my exposure was to US titles growing up.  Then the quirky-fun aspect of just collecting something that is unusual to most game collectors kicked in. Been fun times since.

[manuel]

Living in japan. It's simple as that. 

[NintendoKing]

It was 2004, I discovered Famicom by researching on the internet for NES which led me to a Japanese version called the Family Computer... my interest grew.

Then in 2005, I got on eBay and bought 2 games, Argus and Fudou Myououden; and a original Famicom which I couldn't figure out how to use as I wasn't aware of needing to run it on channel 95.

I kept trying to get it to work, and was sad; so I got a Gametech Neo-Fami which in the end introduced me to the first Famicom game play.

Then around a year later the Gametech Neo-Fami broke down, so I boxed my 2 games and the original Famicom up and placed them in my closet. And tossed the Neo-Fami in the trash.

Then around January 2008, I stumbled on this site... then lurked awhile and learned of channel 95; once my Famicom worked I got excited again and in March I joined the site and learned new things and became more interested in Famicom again.

----------------------------------------
Continued:

I later bought a Hudson Expansion port controller, and restarted buying games again.

Then later 2009, I accidentally plugged one of my NES power adapters into my Famicom and blew it; I took it apart and saved certain parts and bought a second Famicom for use.

Then later in 2010, I decided to upgrade and ended up buying an AV Famicom, at that moment I retired my second original Famicom then eventually gave it to a friend.

2015: I upgraded again to a heavily modified original Famicom with AV ports, power LED and front based Controller holes. But I will be keeping my AV Famicom as the look cool next to each other.