Importing Video Games in the 1990s

[@GameSack]

Good video. My first experience with "importing" was a shop called Power Play Games. I went in one Saturday in late 1989 I believe and RENTED Japanese versions of Herzog Zwei and Curse. I was blown away. They had filed down the cartridges to fit people's Genesis. They also sold JP games and I eventually modded my cartridge slot to fit games like Gaiares, Batman, Thunder Force 3, and others. It was a grand time. I eventually did get a region converter for my TurboGrafx-16, but I only had Shinobi and Legend of Hero Tonma (before it was released in the US). However I did import Dracula X from Die Hard Gamer's Club not long after it came out. Even though it was easy, I never imported anything for the SNES in its time. I eventually modded my Saturn with a region switch so I could import games. I may have gotten a few from Die Hard, but I recall getting most of them from Tronix. I also region modded my PlayStation and played Dracula X Nocturne in the Moonlight and R-Types. My friend Dave imported the Dreamcast, but I never did. I played it a little and thought it was cool but he didn't have many games for it. He eventually bought a US Dreamcast from Target, swapped out the console and put the JP one in the box, returned it to the store and got a refund(!) I think he sold the few JP games he had. Like you I also imported heavily during the early eBay days. Man was that awesome, a true renaissance in retro gaming!

[@Arv-6969]

Lol didn't dave say that story in a episode

[@C3phoe]

Dave is a legend! My brother uses this tactics with wall mart to this day, in goes the broken and back to the shop 😆

[@orderofmagnitude-TPATP]

My first experience of import was via my late friend who was killed via overdose. He had one of the first megadrives in the country (uk) due to import... So forever I tie memories and games to him. Sega Lord x showing the strider cartridge really did give me goosebumps and flashbacks to that time period playin a megadrive on a small 13 or 14 inch crt before it was here in the uk. Later his addiction caused him to sell me many of his games for dirt cheap...sigh... like I say he died of overdose.

[@orderofmagnitude-TPATP]

​@@Arv-6969no it was Joe here with the story aka a broken modem swapped out lol

[@OneLifeGames]

Haha that dreamcast return is too good :)

[@liublanka3925]

I didn’t care about importing till I saw a basically arcade perfect version of x men vs sf was on Japanese Saturns. I will never forget putting that 4mb ram cart in my Saturn and playing it. It felt like cps2 was in my house. One of the most magical gaming experiences I had easily

[@tonberrymasta]

This was a magical experience for me too. I remember taking in my Saturn to have it modded at a local import shop, and bringing it back home to play Xmen vs. SF at home for the first time. Was one of those moments that made you proud to be a Saturn owner.

[@steelcurtain187]

That was basically the first time I was really interested in it too

[@sega_kid4288]

Wow this was exactly my experience. Saw it in a magazine and went out and immediately bought a Saturn. I actually used an import shop in video game magazine and got the game, the 4mb ram, and the region key cart. I became a cart hot swaping pro. I still have that same Saturn and it still works like a champ.

[@alexojideagu]

Same here I got Marvel V Street fighter 4mb imported in the UK and a modded Saturn. It was Arcade perfect basically

[@alexojideagu]

​@@sega_kid4288I did exactly the same ordered it from an advert Marvel V street fighter and modded Saturn.

[@joesaiditstrue]

i never grew up with the most expensive toys, but my parents appreciated the fact that i graduated on time in 98 despite the fact that i struggled to get through HS , found a Japanese Dreamcast under the tree the same year, it was the best christmas i ever had. VF3 and sonic adventure, no VMU though 😅😅😅

[@jaredwhite200]

I miss the old Sega days. They made so many great games back in the early & mid 90s

[@princegroove]

Seeeeeegaaaaaah! 😂

[@timculhane625]

I remember Sonic 2uesday.Great childhood memories

[@maxxdahl6062]

I miss them having consoles even more.

[@jaredwhite200]

@@maxxdahl6062 same here as well

[@themanwithnoname5310]

"The idea here was that together we could trade games amongst ourselves and have more than we could ever have alone." - Sega Lord X

[@sonicmania9993]

This is something that today's digital-only gamers will have a hard time comprehending. My kids still trade/borrow physical Switch games with a few close friends all the time: feels like it almost doubles the number of games they play.

[@luizkp]

​​@@sonicmania9993man I live in brazil and I still split my psn acc with my homie from high school on ps5, we've been sharing games since ps2 days lmao Games got absurdely expensive over the last 10 years over here, but people always will find a way 😂

[@AlanAndalon]

I was lucky enough to grow up in southern California where most of those import game stores were located like, Japan Video Games, Game Dude, Die Hard Video Games, Gameland etc. My brother, my cousin and I went game hunting in the mid 90's all over southern California to get all the Mega Drive, Super Famicom, Neo Geo, PS1 and Saturn games we could get our hands on. Still have many of the games I didn't trade in to this day! Lots of great memories!

[@uchusky08]

I was younger, only 14 by the time 2000 rolled around, but importing games from Japan seemed like a mystical thing that you heard about people doing but never knew anyone yourself. At least for me and my circle of friends, must have been so cool to pull out those Japanese carts.

[@RoyAlWhicheez]

You were the friends "cousin" that I never thought existed...

[@felixfranzen7318]

I was under the impression that the "friends cousin" nobody thought existed was that hot model chick you totally slept with last summer and not a chubby guy with lots of video games. No offense by the way Sega Lord. I was a chubby kid too.

[@ChannelCortez33]

I was blessed to live 10 minutes away from an import game store. At 17, I had my Saturn modified and was able to play Vampire Savior and Symphony of the Night. Best of times for gaming.

[@noteptp]

As a lifelong New Yorker, it's cool to see J&L get some shine! In the 90s and early 2000s, on Elizabeth St. in NYC's Chinatown there were various mom and pop game stores that had import games and consoles, modding services, and hard to find accessories. However, I wasn't familiar with importing games until the arrival of the Saturn. My cousins had got a US console and the first time I got a chance to check it out, they were playing a JP copy of X-Men: Children of the Atom. Great stuff!

[@hunter371]

This is a great video. It's great to hear from someone who was involved in gaming the way you were (buying magazines, games, imports) and able to talk about what it was like at the time. I often see retro gaming content on KZbin from people who weren't even alive at the time of the game they were talking about, and while that's cool, they lack an understanding of the contemporaneous context of the time. I have appreciated your reviews for a while now and definitely enjoy these retrospective type videos. This was an interesting video to watch for a guy who was still in grade school throughout the Genesis years

[@thomaselers7416]

This video basically sums up the reason i bought a JP Saturn two weeks after the release in Japan. The Saturn is my most favourite console ever. With DC coming in as a close runner up, and PCE on this place. The days and night I've spent on the Saturn, are no doubt the video game highlights of my life. (Yeah, it sounds sad, but it isn't, LOL)

[@dorbei]

For European gamers like me, getting imports in the 90s was an even bigger incentive than for Americans. Not only were they available months before the localised releases, but they also ran at the original speed (NTSC). Knowing this, retailers would often charge them double the price of the PAL version. But honestly, most gamers (myself included) did not care. We just wanted the complete experience, no matter the cost. I remember vividly when my Japanese copy of "Ridge Racer: Type 4" arrived right at Christmas Eve 1998 and I felt like the the king of the world. The situation did change significantly however around 1999/2000 when PAL releases not only got closer to the Japanese street dates but also because Action Replay/Xplorer codes enabled them to be played at full 60Hz speed.

[@PixelzNcreatureZ]

I remember a kid at my Jr High that moved from Japan and had a Famicom. He already had Super Mario 3 when we in the US got Super Mario 2. But in a weird twist he said our Mario 2 was different . (This was back before we knew what we know) I got to try it for a little bit and was amazed by it... the next 2 years felt like an Eon waiting for our USA release

[@lasskinn474]

smb3 was the only instance of me knowing import games in finland for a long time. it was some pirate version too that some friend of a friend kid had from hk or something.

[@chrislaustin]

I grew up in Los Angeles and I graduated HS in 89, and starting working right after, so that summer once I got my Game Boy was when importing began for me. We had a cool Japanese toy shop in Little Tokyo in Downtown LA called Pony Toy Go Round, and while they weren't cheap, it was a cool spot all the same. They had a reservation book, so if you wanted something you just put your name and the item, and they would call you once it came in. As that was how me and my friends all got our Super Famicom's at launch, even when they were hard to get in Japan at the time. I kind of out grew them, as we needed a better selection with cheaper prices, and that's when I started shopping at Japan Video Games. The owner Jim was cool as hell, and had just moved from the Bay area when we first met, and he didn't even have a shop yet, as he was selling out of his garage at the time. And he was my go to for years, and then after I moved to Vegas in 95, NCSX in New York became my new stop shop. And I used them and a few other places until I stopped importing all together years ago. I imported so may great games over the years, it is hard to remember them all, but it was fun while it lasted.

[@joesaiditstrue]

NCSX was where my parents bought my JP Dreamcast!

[@PabstOban]

I started importing games with the Saturn. I was REALLY big into fighting games at the time, and my local Electronics Boutique carried a few titles and they weren't much more than normal Saturn games. I ordered a few from catalogues, but most of my knowledge was coming from magazines like GameFan. I didn't have a ton... I got Symphony of the Night, Bomberman, Marvel vs Capcom, Marvel Super Heroes, Xmen vs Street fighter and Phantasy Star Collection (which I mainly bought for Phantasy Star 1, which I was JONSING to play again... I managed to complete it by writing notes on what stuff was, and drawing out the Japanese characters they represented).

[@TSUNAMIPOPPY247]

Back in the day there was a hello kitty store next to a toysrus this store had it all, they sold all kinds of American and Japanese hello kitty stuff, they also sold Japanese dragon ball z figures, and they sold all kinds of Japanese games for the saga Saturn and eventually the saga Dreamcast. There was another service they offered which was to modify American video game consoles so that they could play the Japanese game that they sold the games for

[@MrBirchieBirch]

There was a shop on Carnaby Street, London, that was pretty much the only source of grey imports in the 80's/90's. My mate and I used to go there to look at all the cool new gaming stuff released in Japan. Got my first look at the PS1 & Saturn in that shop. Vague recollection of first seeing the Mega Drive & PC Engine there, too.

[@wigglesarcade8261]

I had a good friend in middle school who was Japanese and much of his family still lived in Japan. Every year, he'd fly to Japan for several weeks to visit them, and always when he returned to the states, he'd bring back a bunch of imports. Needless to say, I frequently wanted to hang out at his house just to play Super Famicom and import N64 and PS1 games. It inspired me enough to mod my PS1, but it wasn't until the late 2000s that I really got into importing.

[@sonicmania9993]

As a shmup and 2D fighter guy, the import collections I pulled together in the 90s were PC Engine and Saturn. Awesome games! I was lucky to live and work in a couple of big cities during that era, so there were cool import shops around. Surprised that scanning through I don't see a single comment on here talking about how fun it is again, to import games over the last 6-8 years ... for Switch especially, but also for PS4/PS5. Maybe the viewers of this channel aren't as interested in modern Japanese games as my kids and I are. Our physical Switch collection is like no-one else's -- half our games are either JP/Asian-only imports or small press physicals (many from Europe). It takes a lot of time to keep up with these markets, but we've found and played so many awesome games. Plus, with the world economy the way it is these days, imports cost about the same as domestically-purchased games, sometimes less -- you just have to work your way around expensive shipping. That being said ... I feel like the late 2010s-early 2020s boom of this import scene is kind of drying up a bit. For economic reasons, Japan (just like western countries) is starting to make fewer fun games than they were a few years ago ... and when they do make them, they need to release the games worldwide to have a chance of making decent profit. Everybody knows that many very Japanese games sell over 50% of their copies outside of Japan, due to how many of us abroad enjoy JP game design & genres, game history, etc.

[@danielrecommends]

Sounds like a pretty awesome childhood for gaming. I am also in Central VA and had some similar experiences with working early and earning money to buy myself games and gaming systems. I still remember the day I purchased my Playstation 1 with money I had from my job as a dishwasher. I never got into the import scene but its cool that you got to do that.

[@DavidJohnson-td5ic]

Man, this video really takes me back, and wishing to relive those early days of collecting videogames. My best friend and I would scour NYC, Long Island, and even CT, tracking down import game stores and just being in awe every single time we'd arrive. I remember some of my first import games being Devil Hunter Yoko, Super Shinobi and Batman, each $100+. Seeing some of that old software, like the JPN Strider cartridge and the ST-Key made me smile. Also, the old import shop ads from EGM. I remember each and every one lol. What a great video! Thank you for sharing with us!

[@jd9119]

Around 1990, I had a paper route and I mowed lawns/shoveled snow too. Unlike the other kids at my school, I always had money and I was always buying new games.

[@MisterBigMack]

This was such a lovely video Mel, I never imported any of my sega consoles but my older brother got his Dreamcast on the same date as the JPN release as his import shop got theirs in early - he also got vf3, Godzilla and pen pen - I remember when he brought it home and I was in awe of it

[@darkman4811]

Sega Lord X, your channel never ceases to amaze me with the quality of your videos, and this is coming from someone the loves the SNES. It was so cool listening to your experiences with importing in the '90s. I'm going to say it right now, you have the best Sega channel on KZbin. Keep up the great work. 😊

[@mrnicktoyou]

While your parent's got you a Genesis in 1990, mine got me a Master System because they were so cheap. I remember being thankful because I got something, but also extremely disappointed because it wasn't a 16bit Sega.😂

[@jessragan6714]

Ah, memories! I learned very quickly that you just don't have a Sega Saturn if you don't have a means of getting import games. The system's Japanese library is so vastly superior to what was available in the United States that importing, or buying imports from media stores, was a necessity.

[@grgmcln]

So so true.

[@Planag7]

My friend Nichole was a big importer with Game Gear. Was very nice honestly

[@jessragan6714]

You guys ever played Ninku Hiroyuki? Pretty satisfying take on Pengo, with anime characters. (Anime characters that never took hold in America, evidently.)

[@belstar1128]

the game gear was handy since its not region locked uses batteries and you can get the adapter to play sega master system and the tv tuner to use it as a less than ideal ntsc tv .

[@simon41978]

There was something amazing about getting a game like Chomakaimura (Japanese Super Ghouls N Ghosts) in the mail, never having seen it running or played it. No walkthroughs to guide you.

[@tedsexton5406]

Imported Stryder for the genesis. Shaved off the sides of the cart. Cost $80. But I had that shit almost a year before anyone. Coolest kid on the bus-- what is that worth? Priceless.

[@jayesun3420]

Another completely original episode idea that I love this channel for, nice work again Lord X

[@dreamcastninja88]

I imported games for Saturn and Dreamcast in the 90's and early 00's for dreamcast games. I did screen printing and Graphic arts commissions to buy my imports in those days.

[@Funkysauce]

I remember in 1995 the first import game I ever played was Yu Yu Hakusho (the fighting game) for Genesis. Followed by Guardian Heroes (Saturn) and Cotton. Then DBZ Budokai 3 for SNES. We used to go to Chinatown (NYC) and get imports there - it was an eye opening experience and really added so much depth to games for me.

[@fazares]

no such a thing like dbz budokai 3 on the snes..ure probably meaning dbz super butoden 3..very likely...

[@paulcampbell8696]

Dude, never stop making these kinds of videos where you tell your stories. I just stare at my TV and nod. I especially appreciate when you talk about your "hard working mother". I had similar experiences. Also, is it weird that I NEVER knew there was a gray Saturn until your channel? Am I missing something? Was it a time zone thing?

[@NEONTRASHPRODUCTIONS]

As an 80’s baby I can’t begin to express how important the year 1989 was for me! Sooooo many prolific video games and movies were dropped that year. It was truly an amazing “swan song” for one of the most notorious decades!

[@AntpoteatX]

Great Sega video keep it coming. I enjoy the content. I was too young to import games at that time, but I knew about the scene and it’s great to have someone who actually was involved in the scene and make a video about it. Great work.

[@fatherofnothing]

Great video SL! I loved seeing an advertisement from the Game Dude store. I use to drool over all the great titles that they showed. I was a hard-core arcade kid in love with Neo Geo. All the home ports of Neo games were simply not good enough for me. I needed to have that great experience that kept me coming back to the arcade. My first paycheck from my first job was spent at Game Dude to purchase my very own Neo Geo AES and l cherish and play it to this day. Thanks for sharing your adventure. Those were magic times back then.

[@videogameobsession]

It sounds a lot like my own history with gaming. In 1990 I read in an issue of EGM that you could play Mega Drive imports by sanding off the tabs on the cart port. I also read that Sunsoft's BATMAN wouldn't hit the Genesis until 1991, or later, do to Nintendo's 3rd party licensing rules. So that was my first import. bought 08/10/1990, for $89 w/shipping, from Video Game Excitement in NYC. I had never seen a Mega Drive cartridge box before, and since it was using a tiny form factor case (like other Sunsoft MD games), I figured they were ALL like that. Haha.. I kind of wish they were! I would soon realize this, with my second MD import purchase, DJ Boy, in June 1990 from Ultimate Game Club ($75). During the next few months, I would buy few others (Whip Rush, Insector X, FATMAN, Devil's Crash MD, Rainbow Islands Ex, Mega Panel, Ringside Angels, and a handful more). I had to stop importing games because I saved up for a Neo-Geo Gold System in December 1990, and most of my money went towards that, and AES games for it. It would tough being a teenagers, and trying to cover the NES, Genesis, TG16, Neo-Geo, and SNES in 1991! First World Problems.. I know. :) -Matt

[@worldofretrogameplay6963]

I imported games at the same time, Sega Lord X. They were exciting times!

[@Rockhead84]

Nice video. I remember seeing those ads but always wondered if they were really legit or not. Babbages was a special place. You could see the latest and greatest and the future of gaming with all the stuff available on their shelves

[@mikebenke123]

Awesome vid! I recognize a bunch of those same ads and had imported some things as well. Great trip down memory lane 👍

[@michaelmcclintick9541]

Great video...esp on the personal history. Takes me back too for my own personal journey of trying to get Sega Saturn games in the late 90s.

[@Scott-un7lc]

Great video mate , It was very interesting to see how different everyones Experience with imports is so very different to my experience in Aus.

[@darktetsuya]

great video! I was definitely envious of folks who could import all of that stuff back in the day. in more recent years I was finally able to import a saturn of my own, plus the pseudo saturn kai cart because the mrs. had a couple US titles she wanted to play without really worrying about the language barrier. I'm really loving the scene now because aside from a handful of higher end titles I haven't had to drop a ton of money to get some of these titles off of ebay.

[@smlhrrs]

Great video. I grew up in Central VA as well (Louisa) and although I'm a few years older than you, I can totally relate to your experience. My first import game was Batman on the MD/Genesis followed up by Wrestle War. Like you, most of my imports were for the same Sega systems, although I dabbled in import PSX games as well (primarily from Japan Video Games which I found through EGM). Babbage's in the Fredericksburg mall was one my frequent go to spots for US games & hardware. Fun times indeed!

[@RuinerXL]

Excellent video! I especially loved seeing the ads from old game mags, which I distinctly remember seeing back in the day. Never did have the funds to take advantage of those services back then, nevertheless it's insanely cool that they existed and enabled gamers in the United States to obtain some of the best new games from Japan.

[@SEGAGuys]

Brilliant stuff, Mel … some great memories and stories here.

[@leeg12000]

In '99 I was in college. Manchester England. It was word of mouth back then. There was a shop in Chinatown that could get hold of anything. Got some great Dreamcast and Playstation games. Awesome memories.

[@brandonfarfan1978]

This was quite an interesting vid. It was nice to hear your experience with imported games. Down here in the tropics, X-men vs. SF was like the hottest import game, from 1996 to 1998. Everyone wanted that game on their sega saturn.👍😄

[@TheLoganSomers]

The idea that you could just play any and every console on your PC in the future would have been insanity to me. Gotta pay respect to those that made it all possible yall were the real MVPs 🙏🤘💯

[@halfling_barista]

Thanks for the personal narrative and throwback magazine grabs! I overlap with you being intrigued by mystical names like Supergrafx in these magazine ads. Unlike you, I never did anything with them, so this is very interesting.

[@C3phoe]

Sega lord X has the best gaming origin story on youtube.

[@istrasci]

This was a good nostalgia trip!! I only ever imported a few games. I got Starfox 64 in Japanese, and the guy at the video game store had to shave the edge of the cartridge with a Dremmel so that it would fit properly. I also got Street Fighter Zero 3 for my PS1. I remember there were two ways to play it: you either had to do this trick by first loading a US game, doing something to make the disk keep readiing while the lid was open, then swap in the Japanese game. It worked, but you had to keep the lid open the entire time. Eventually, I bought a mod chip, downloaded the soldering instructions from the (baby at the time) internet, and took it to an electronics shop down the street. They charged me like $80 to do it, but I didn't care. But more than this, I remember buying "exotic" games from these mail-order shops in the back of gaming magazines. It was cool to see so many games listed that you never really saw in the stores, and wondering what they might be like. I frequently ordered from a place called "Chips 'N Bits". I think it was in Vermont or New Hampshire. I only had a SNES at the time, and yeah, games were expensive as balls back then. I remember ordering Final Fantasy 3/6 and Breath of Fire 2, and they were each like $79.99 plus tax and shipping.

[@davidbenzakai8615]

Thanks!

[@J45yu456]

Love your videos and nostalgia trips! A+ quality content

[@wesleystewart2709]

Great video! Thank you for the memories! I remember importing Batman and Dahna for the Sega Genesis as my introduction to Japanese games. I was heavily into importing games up until the PS2 and Gamecube era. Die Hard gaming magazine was a great source for importing, as they dedicated several pages to Japanese games. Fun times and great games!

[@Gaming_since_the_eighties]

Gaming in the 90´s was the best era of gaming. I started gaming in 1986, but i´ve never had so great momories or gaming experiences as i had in the 90´s.

[@ralfvanbogaert3451]

You guys were so lucky to share the same TV standard as Japan. Us PAL folk had to use unreliable adapters that were obsolete a year later, only to have the game run 15% slower with a vertically squashed picture. Or alternatively, entrust your console to some shady back alley shop that could install display and region switches, and get a good TV that could handle NTSC.

[@Marcus_K]

On the other hand, european TVs supported the RGB Scart standard widely in the '90s, whereas american TVs didn't. You could get the best possible and sharpest picture quality from most 16-bit and newer consoles by using RGB Scart cables. Much better than even S-VHS NTSC picture quality. Running japanese 60hz consoles via RGB Scart was the best of both worlds.

[@ralfvanbogaert3451]

@@Marcus_K If you didn't mind sitting right in front of the TV :)

[@belstar1128]

@@Marcus_K a lot of console didn't use that many just came with rf

[@belstar1128]

if you could afford to import a console maybe you could also try to import a cheap tv from japan too

[@Marcus_K]

@@belstar1128 There wasn't a need to import a japanese TV because some of the more pricey european TV sets included both PAL and NTSC color support. I had to buy that kind of TV to be able to play my 3DO in color. The 3DO was one of the few consoles that didn't have RGB Scart video output.

[@Marcus_K]

Imports were pretty significant in Europe as well and we used to get some games and consoles even later than americans. The PAL Mega Drive was released in September '90, Super Mario Bros 3 in August '91 and the Turbografx 16 didn't even get a proper Europe-wide release. 1989 was the year when the import scene heated up with the PC Engine and Mega Drive both getting many high-profile releases. Magazines like CVG and Mean Machines had lots of import shop ads and price listings. Aside from the 3DO, every console I bought, from the PC Engine to the Dreamcast, was a japanese model.

[@buckeyechad1]

I had to file down my cart for Batman in 90 then my MUSHA Aleste 91 to fit my Genesis. Good times. Still have them. Lived in a big city, Columbus, Ohio. Feel lucky, some shops had import games. Fantastic video!

[@williamwright9079]

Awesome video! Love your story Sega Lord x!

[@oldskoolpaul77]

You have some amazing gaming memories! Top stuff!

[@ej86]

I was big into import gaming back in the 90's me and my brother collected from SNES, Sega Saturn, PSone, Dreamcast. I still collect imports today like on switch and ps4.

[@SomeOrangeCat]

I was one of those people who looked at import gaming with covetous eyes. Years later, emulation the great equalizer. Decades of Japanese exclusive titles I was never going to be able to try for myself were suddenly at my fingertips.

[@NickTaylor-Phantom-Works2]

This has been one of my favourite ever uploads on your channel mate. Would love something similar in future, though I understand that you've kin😅already told the story, but just thought I'd mention it.

[@user-fq8ec6fk5w]

Great story. It seems like I might about the same age as you. I wasn't a big gamer during the 8-bit days, but started to really love gaming with my Genesis and SNES. I started importing heavily for the Saturn and PS1 which turned into importing for the Dreamcast and PS2. I did import some for the Gamecube, PS3, and even a few region free sh'mups for the XB360. I am fortunate to have kept those games in my collection. I still love to play them, and fondly remember having games months before my friends. National Console Support out of New York was my store of choice. Coming from the middle of Indiana, this was a happy accident I found them to get Vampire Hunter for Saturn as my first purchase. Those days seem to be gone now, but I'll always remember them fondly.

[@albdamned577]

Slx you’d love growing up in Hawaii. There weee physical stores that imported games and quite frequently when the game makers wanted to test an arcade, they just dropped off a Japanese one and saw how well people played it. Think that’s how I first played DDR

[@markula_4040]

My first console was an NES as a Christmas gift. Everything after that including a SNES, N64, Gamecube, WiiU, PS1-4, first 3 Xboxs, Dreamcast and various handhelds I bought myself until I stopped in 2017 and the idea of ever dropping 1000 dollars for a new console plus whatever you got with it is nuts to me. Especially a Japanese Dreamcast. I thought I was a hardcore gamer back then but you blow me out of the water and that's not a compliment (not meant as an insult either, just a "damn son").

[@blazingsoulhunter2862]

Me and my bro started our importing journey around late 2017 at a site called Play-Asia and we like to go there from time to time just like with Right Stuf, which is now a Crunchyroll store. We own a lot of imported games in our game collection from Nintendo, Sega and of course, Playstation with a dash of Microsoft Xbox too.

[@JRod-zr8qk]

I was very blessed growing up. I had access to a import/export and was able to get Genesis, PC Engine games and Japanese gaming magazines for less then US prices. Thanks to a friend's dad I was very lucky to be able to skip all those shop and shipping fees.

[@markshadows3667]

There were ads for import games to mail order in those gaming magazines. I remember i ordered imports of MERCS, The Genesis Sunsodt Batman,Ernest Evans, Alisha Dragon, and the Rocketeer for Super Nintendo.

[@Zahir658]

Man. That was really an interesting import journey that you had.

[@miguelodeon4978]

Nice story, brings me joy. I'm glad that you got to experience all of this and become who you are today, as well as me being able to hear you and watch your videos. I have been following you for a long time, and I can say you are one of the few channels I care about. Thanks to you and your way of showing us your love for the hobbie, you make me do so as well everyday. Keep up your work and I wish you the best.

[@DarDarBinks1986]

I never bought games from import shops even though I was aware of them as a kid in the '90s. All the video game magazines I read back then had those ads for import game stores. The games Japan had that we didn't at the time looked so amazing from the screenshots in the ads. I often wondered why we didn't get, say, the old Dragon Ball Z games in the U.S. when they were new. It was sometime in the late '90s that I first read about mod chips that made consoles region-free.

[@denniscocks864]

In 1989 I remember getting a PC engine imported from a shop along Tottenham Court Road, London. The following year they were doing Gameboys.

[@ParsnipCelery]

I found this super interesting and look forward to more videos like this.

[@ItalianDDS]

Great nostalgia thanks! Game Dude is still around been going there since the early nineties. I was a kid too young to drive had to get a ride from my mom.

[@Hwi1son]

The good ole days!! Gaming was the thing of dreams. Excitement and wonder abound. It was like the wild west. (I miss it sometimes)

[@duckhive]

my first import was the SECRET OF MANA soundtrack (1994)

[@YudaHnK]

Possibly the most atmospheric ost ever made

[@CasperEgas]

The first time I found some imports was in my local video rental place during the Mega Drive days. I rented them with a cartridge to run them included. First time I imported games myself was for the Dreamcast.

[@HJRIV]

My first ever import was The King of Fighters 96 for the Saturn. Then 97 and I moved on to X-Men vs Street Fighter...oh man...how awesome it was to play that at home! I also imported the Dreamcast before the NTSC-U release...I was a hardcore Sega fan 😅

[@jrod75]

Being the same age I traveled the same kind of path. In Denver, I had a master system in ‘88 and a Genesis in ‘90. I stayed exclusively with the Sega machines up to the Dreamcast. I rebelled against Nintendo since everyone had the NES and I didn’t want to buy anything else like the 3DO, Jaguar and PS1. My Genesis days was filled with video rental stores, they eventually expanded with Gamegear and Sega CD rentals along with the newest Genesis releases. I worked in the electronic section in target so I got to see the new games being sold there and dibs on clearance games. In Vegas, I jumped into the Saturn scene, EB and Best Buy filled the gap while going to the mom and pop shops for trade in games while trying them out there at those stores. When the domestic Saturn games dried up, EB was stocking the Japanese games like DOA, marvel vs street fighter, deep fear and others. The price was the same as a domestic game but had to get the instant replay cartridge to make them work. I enjoyed that era of gaming but also liked the Dreamcast short time. They had the best release on 9.9.99 and those two years was golden. To hear them kill off the Dreamcast was shocking and disappointing. I rolled into the Xbox scene afterwards. It wasn’t the same magic 10 years after getting the Genesis now that I was older. Something about those 16 and 32 bit games was wonderful. Maybe being an adult dulled the magic as your playmates moved on. It was still a time to remember.

[@mattb6522]

Great video! Yeah, as a child of the '90s, gaming was very exciting, but it got expensive and it was way more effort to even find specific games since online shopping didn't exist yet. I did start importing games for the Playstation and Saturn once I was able to start working as a teen, but some of the import prices were very expensive so I could only afford a limited number of import games. It definitely helped to have other gamer friends as game and console sharing was a great way to experience new systems/games very easily. Although, there were always friends (or family) you _never_ let borrow your games because they would never come back in the same condition you lent them out.

[@ShinSynZero]

Great vid, I was too young to have a job back in '89 when the 4th gen consoles arrived, but still have memories of all of those awesome import ads in the back of EGM and etc. Once I was in college and picked up a Saturn, I picked up my first imports from EB.

[@RolandoMarreroPR]

This is how it was done for even US games back in the day! My first experience with a Japanese game was SF2! Played this like 6 months before the US release! My friend rented it from KIDOKO a local game and movies shop in Puerto Rico. We were blown away by how close it was to the arcade!

[@TheVigLebowski]

Never got a chance to do that but always dreamed of getting them. So many amazing titles locked overseas sadly at the time. Thank God for the end of region locking consoles and titles.

[@zed-xr4353]

Awesome to hear these recollections. The 90's was just an incredible time in gaming and technology in general.

[@christophermobious7676]

I love his stories. This one especially talking about how he and friends worked together to play more games like a Sega Saturn club, warmed my heart. I too came from humble beginnings and most of my experiences with video games growing up were thanks to rental stores. Today's generation will never get to experience the magic of the 90s lifestyle.

[@adewilson132]

Only a couple generations got to experience the 90s lifestyle. No one born in the 1500s experienced the 90s lifestyle either.

[@christophermobious7676]

@@adewilson132 Thank you captain obvious. 😅

[@Adamtendo_player_1]

I definitely enjoyed this episode, I never cared about importing games back in the 90s but I had some friends that imported some games like Shadow Dancer and Shining in The Darkness.

[@MaidenHell1977]

I had a friend who did this in the mid 90s. There was a store in Toronto called Video Connections, pretty legendary during it's time, even Ian from the CU Podcast who lived in Buffalo of the time knew about it would visit was when he was in town, anyhow this place specialized in importing games and systems, it was the place where I first saw the Saturn in action. This friend of mine ordered Rondo of Blood for his TurboDuo at about $200 CAD the time which if you think about was pretty whacky, but holy shit what a game!

[@chopdog6563]

My first import experience was one of the mail order shops in the back of DieHard GameFan magazine. I wanted Thunder Force V, so I ordered that and an ST Key. Not long after, for some reason, The local mall game store (Software ECT...it's a Game Stop now), carried a small number saturn import games. I picked up the Dungeons & Dragons Collection & Vampire Savior. I did the swap trick with the ST Key and the 4Meg RAM cart till I got one of the early 4 in 1 Pro Action Replay carts. Over the years I picked up several more import games till I sold off my collection in lieu of a Satiator. My original 1995 Saturn is still mine, and is still working. (I do want to get it recapped in the near future.)

[@etvow]

Yes, Japan Video Games advertisement at the back of EGM magazines did the job for many of our importing needs.

[@Superdimensional]

Only games I ever imported was DracX Rondo Of Blood, and it was during the UPS Strike and got delayed 😩😩😩 but it finally came and it was WELL WORTH THE WAIT!! I got many more important games, but I got them at a shop near me that sold them, ie I got SF II like a month before the US release on SNES, and I loved about an Hour from Die Hard Gaming store and we had a cool store called “High Tech Only” that not only sold import games, they rented them! You could even rent Neo Geo!

[@goranisacson2502]

There was a video game store in Stockholm some 15 minutes away by train where I lived, the mythical TV-spelsbörsen (the videogame market in english) where imported games and traded games existed, a world apart from the regular games found in regular toy and tech stores. But alas- my parents weren't about to pay for that. We DID get to borrow an adapter to play US games and that is how I experienced FF6, but when that loan finished so did my adventures in non-PAL market games.

[@TheMinchio]

A really nice video! And I can relate to many of the things you say, having lived in the same decade, all the video game news came from magazines, selling old games to buy new ones, exchanging cartridges with friends, hanging out in local stores to check what was new..…. things were so much simpler and slower back in those days, but that was not necessarily a bad thing now I look back in memory😔, Thanks for the video!

[@ricardorodriguez-mi2zv]

I am in my mid 40's and I must say the 90's were The Years....

[@rbgamingnetwork1]

Played my first import games in 1994 for the Super Famicom (Super Butoden 2 and Slam Dunk). Didn't really get into importing until the 5th generation era. (Playstation, Saturn) from 1995-1999. Then the seven seas killed that for me in 2000. I totally remember the COD days. It was a different time for gaming than it is now. And the retro game prices these days had me buying flashcarts and ODE's also saving space in my house...

[@Simpyphus]

The imported Saturn games at malls were out of my budget as a kid. But I did get my PS1 hacked, so that gave me access to games from different regions. My first actual import was a European copy of Shenmue 2 on Dreamcast when it was released.

[@zippolova]

Crazy how that area grew

[@hoppy8008]

This video makes me feel old, besides import shops, until the early 2000s quite few Funcolands sold Japanese games. It is the reason why I owned Pokemon Gold & Silver before the US launch as they had several copies of each (I got Crystal from an import shop though).