My Otacool Room (repost)
Hi There!
I recently stumbled upon the OTACOOL book, and through it, this site. Now I absolutely love the book and the rooms in there, but going by the sub-title ("otaku rooms") I would have expected some more video game nuts. Granted, their collections are often less pleasing to the eye, but a huge part of otaku culture. Right!? So, here's an attempt to provide some balance. :-)
I love anime, regularly spin some j-pop, and browsing this site has piqued my interest in figure collecting, but my absolute passion is Nintendo. Through the course of well over twenty-five years I have amassed a large collection of Nintendo video games, as well as toys and games they made in the sixties and seventies.
About two weeks ago I posted some pictures of my Otacool room. This post was hijacked by Danny and picked up around the world, resulting in currently well over six-hundred-thousand views. The exposure it received was a nice surprise, and I Iove all the comments you added.
I am reposting the tour of the room because the original post was using low resolution pictures. For posterity (and future Otacool publications?) here they are in their hi-res glory. I have also added some more pictures.
Let me also introduce myself:
- Name: Erik V (donkey*kong)
- Location: The Netherlands
- Age: forty-something
- Years being otaku: 30+ (it all started with my first pong game, and soon got out of hand)
- Favorite video game character, console: Mario, Super Famicom
- Favorite anime: most of Myazaki - in particular Castle in the Sky (天空の城ラピュタ)
- Favorite j-pop: Momoe Yamaguchi (山口 百恵)
- My motto: never stop playing!
For those of you interested in the history of Nintendo, please take a look at my blog, dedicated to the pre-famicom days.
Nintendo Virtual Boy (1995), NES (1985), Super Famicom (1990) with Satella View (1995), Nintendo 64 (1996) with 64DD (1999).
And Zelda shrine!
Central game rig. HD tv is swapped with CRT when feeling retro-ish. But I am not religious about this.
Game & Watch collection (1980-1991) - coolest handhelds ever.
Nintendo TV Game 6 (1977), TV Game 15 (1977), Racing 112 (1978), Block Breaker (1979), CTG-HC10 Othello (1980), Family Computer (aka Famicom, 1983) and Famicom Disk System (1986)
Wall of Nintendo history 1966 - 1986
Nintendo Ultra Hand (1966), Ultra Scope (1971), Love Tester (1969) and some cool electric clocks featuring Ultra Man, Mirror Man, Masked Rider and Silver Kamen. Nintendo Chiritorie (1979) toy vacuum cleaner (remote controlled) at bottom left. Most of these designed by Gunpei Yokoi, who also created Game & Watch, Gameboy and Virtual Boy.
Final Fantasy shrine on the right. Many more RPGs in the middle.
R P G!
WOW GREAT COLLECTION!!!!XD
Dude that's not a house. It's one of those "Grand Museums of Nintendo".
I am at awe with your capabilities my friend.
*two thumbs up*
I'd love to have those small pillows ^^
Know where can I get those or similar ones maybe?
*on the sofa
Amazing Collection . Your a Nintendo Fan all the way XD
Its pretty amazing how lots of people go so far as to watch anime and/or see pics in HD . It seems HD is the future of entertainment , to really get the best out of it .
It doesn't matter if its HD or not , what matters is the content of the Picture and your Room is really EPIC . Must cost a fortune seeking these valuable items .
holy shit GameCube with DVD Support
holy shit GameCube with DVD Support
pure dedication, I applaud you! LOL gotta love how it started with the pong game ^^;
Nintendo Ultra Machine - ウルトラ マシン
Nintendo Light Gun Games 1970- 1975 (光線銃)
Woooww, das een aardige collectie @ __ @ Die kussens in je zetel zijn ook leuk! Nice Room!!!
One word, AWESOME!
Toys and board games by Nintendo - from mid sixties to mid seventies era
Nintendo Block (任天堂 ブロック) was clearly "inspired" by Lego, but still had some unique ideas. From 1965 - 1972.
Nintendo Light Telephone (光線電話) - another crazy fantastic idea by Gunpeo Yokoi. Like a walky talky, but using light instead of radio waves to transmit speach. From 1971
I'm going to Japan in march..!
Some retro shop you could recommend, a part the obvious Mandarakes and Super Potato in Akiba..?
These days I would say the best hunting ground for retro games is online (mainly Yahoo Japan). Both for availability and price. For finding good quality rare(r) hardware specifically, online is the way to go.
If you have visited Akihabara over the last five years you will have witnessed this trend: second hand video game shops are closing down completely or focusing on newer games only.
That doesn't mean there no great shops left. Just less. And - of course - it's still fun and convenient to browse in a real shop. And there is ample opportunity to shop until you drop. But for me personally, it's no longer the main reason to make the trip to Japan. There are enough other reasons, though!
Back to your question, which shops to recommend. Yes, Mandrake and Super Potato are obvious - and rightly so. Mandrake Nakano and Mandrake Akihabara are the ones to go to. Mandrake Akihabara is the only recent nice addition to the market - more or less going against the trend of decline. Super Potato going strong (but pricey).
In Tokyo I would also recommend Trader (Trader 2 and recently opended new Trader store on Chuo-dori - which has taken the place of the large softmap store there). Media Land (close to JR station on Chuo-dori) still has an OK selection, but has gone from one of my favorite shops 10 years ago to so-so. Liberty (number of shops) used to be good, but is quickly moving to DVD, CD and PC games only.
There are still a handful of smaller shops with good stock of retro games. Will see if I can provided some pointers in a follow-up post.
If you plan to go to Osaka, den-den town: Super Potato and Retro TV Game Revival (by Super Potato) over there are still good. But also in den-den town, the number of shops is quickly going down.
Hope this helped a bit. If you need more info, shout.
softmap -> i meant sofmap
Thanks for your precious tips! ^^
You got Facebook/Twitter etc. to keep in touch easily..?
And what's the name of the JR station on Chuo-dori..?
Thanks again!
The JR Station I referred to is Akihabara.