PixyJunket

I have a crazy little project brewing in my head at the moment. I'm looking to acquire a few Famicom games (the Japanese version of the NES) to mount them in US NES cases. I'm looking for suggestions on any Japanese games that may have no or little Japanese text, or games that may have text but are fully playable and enjoyable without really needing to read any of it.

Here's what I've got so far on my list.

Top Priority: Gradius II

Medium Priority: The Goonies

Low Priority: Dig Dug, Devil World, Mappy, Tower of Druaga

So, any suggestions? Any gems out there I may not have heard of?

cowboy

did you want to play the jap games on an american nes? I think they have a different amount of pins.

PixyJunket

I know that. NES has 72 pins, Famicom has 60.

19K

Hey Pixy,

I know this is an old thread, but if this involved the original "black box" NES titles (Gyromite, Hogan's Alley, etc.), I think I'm having the same crazy idea.

Before I go spending all my money, I'm just wondering how it worked out for you?

PixyJunket

Yup, you're exactly right. I've actually managed to discover which games have converters in them and which ones don't by a solid visual clue (100% works) as opposed to the oft-suggested method of guessing by weight.

So far I made Bird Week and Transformers (gifts for friends) and for myself I've made Tower of Druaga, The Goonies, Gradius II and Crisis Force. I made labels for some of them and they look pretty good.. I can put pictures up when I get home tonight (if I remember). I had a couple of other games I was pondering doing this for but I'm kind of "off" on my NES phase at the moment.. but it'll come back. I just order a Brazilian bootleg NES game that comes in a slick blue case, same as a normal NES case but a cool blue color. I ripped the game out of it and plan to have a reproduction of Recca put into it.

19K

Sweet. I'd love to see the pics of the carts you made up.

I picked up a copy of The Goonies over the weekend off ebay... hopefully the guy doesn't screw me over.

I have a label design all made up for it already, I just need to find some good glossy labels to print it on. I did a ton of test prints on different paper. On a plain paper label it looked like crap, but on glossy paper it looks almost authentic.

PixyJunket

Sweet. Can you hook me up with that label? My Goonies is currently unlabeled.

Actually, plain paper with tape applied over it looks MUCH more authentic than glossy paper. You'll just have to find tape that's wide enough to go over the label in one pass. Kinko's had some packing tape that did when I made my last two label.. it was uncanny how good it looked. The first label I made (for Bird Week) I did on glossy paper and it looked bad in comparison.

PixyJunket

Ah, I KNEW I had uploaded these already.

I redid the Druaga one at a higher resolution and darkened the NES Seal.. but have yet to go print it out.

19K

Those labels are pretty sweet.

This is the image that I made up for The Goonies. It has a little bit of bleed (i.e. it's a little bit bigger than an actual label), but I did that purposely so that there wouldn't be any "white" showing when I trimmed it for the cart.



I know you said the paper with tape over it looks great, but all the prints I've done look 100 times better on glossy paper. For me, the colors aren't as vivid on plain paper (especially the black) and the text isn't nearly as sharp.

Feel free to use it, or modify it anyway you like. I noticed all your pics have that Seal of Quality on them... I left that part out.