While early manufacturers such as Apple, IBM and Commodore were battling to assert themselves as the standard for personal computing in the west, the important and booming market in Japan was largely ignored. With limited resources, these machines couldn't do many of the functions that a savvy Japanese consumer would require: things like display Japanese characters, play Space Invaders, or, perhaps most importantly, display high-quality hentai. Seeing a void, Japan's dominant computer manufacturers developed a phenomenal set of machines.
NEC PC-88 & PC-98
NEC, most known to western gamers as the maker of the TurboGrafx (PC-Engine) or, perhaps as the maker of the Dreamcast's GPU, quickly asserted itself as the dominant force in Japanese PCs with its PC-88 and PC-98 class of computers. First released in 1981, with a CPU similar to the one found in the Sega Master System, the PC-88 was not much of a gaming computer with anywhere from 64-192 kb of RAM, a limited color palette and no hardware scrolling capabilities. With a mix of market timing, aggressive TV marketing and a proprietary kanji chipset, the NEC's PC-88 and the higher end PC-98 series became the de facto standard for Japanese computers until the mid-90s. Despite this, it's sadly somewhat difficult to find PC-98 hardware and software (especially software that isn't on the R18 floor)
The model I have (seen above) is supposedly a pretty good model to have but I am only able to get one title to work on it and it's a pretty bad ecchi Street Fighter clone. Controller support on these computers is barely a thing so the majority of the games for it are traditional mouse and keyboard style PC titles. You are most likely to come across text adventures or role playing games similar to the Ultima series. It is home to a fair amount of other types of games as well though with many famous Japanese developers such as Falcom and even Nintendo (via Hudson) releasing software. In terms of gaming software, it is probably most well known nowadays as the home of the Touhou Project.
Despite being primarily a business and porn machine, I've grown quite fond of it due to the artistic output the machine's developers produced. A quick visit to the Retro Cityscapes thread is all you need to see why.
System Information
Special thanks to Redneckerz for informing me about this awesome site that has a wealth of info about the PC-98 including its System Menu and the graphics systems in the various models.
General information and differences between the PC-98 and Western PCs
Notable Software
Also, I'd like to give a special shoutout to the Brandish 2 translation project which will soon be released.
Okay, I'm willing to throw away hundreds of dollars, what do I need to know?
I've found, unfortunately, that a lot of software released for these machines is available on 5-1/4 inch floppy only. For this reason, I am hoping to rectify this by purchasing a PC-9801 to supplement my Ce2. It is also possible to get an IDE-CF or IDE-SD converter and load a hard disk image although I have yet to get this to work. I really wish I had more time with this machine because I have Policenauts sitting in my shelves staring at me. Also, as more of a traditional PC than a game machine, make sure you get a keyboard. It's pretty useless without one.
Sharp X1 and X68000
Sharp released a beautiful fucking computer in the X1 to compete with NEC's PC-88 but it never took off. The primary draw of these machines, according to Wikipedia, was more efficient use of RAM and a monitor that could also function as a television.
It wasn't until they decided to set themselves apart and release the best fucking computer of all time that they really took off. I give you a picture of my X68000 complete with a nasty cable mess (forgive me, I moved it to a different room and I'm struggling to set it up nicely).
Years ago I saw the Gamesack X68000 video and, specifically, Cotton's dancing keyboard and my life was changed. I decided I needed to actually finish graduate school so I could have a nice job and spend all of my money on this thing. It was definitely the right decision.
If you get one, go for the XVI model and -- FOR THE LOVE OF ODIN -- get one that comes with a SCSI drive so you don't have to figure out how to get a replacement cable. It features a 10 MHz Motorola 68000 CPU (similar to the Sega Genesis) that can be, with a switch, set to a blazing 16 MHz, 2 MB of RAM expandable up to 12 MB, two expansion ports, two sexy towers and to go with two monstrous 5-1/4 floppy drives.
The X68000 was primarily marketed towards power users and arcade gamers. Because of this it is still an amazing machine to own. While you probably won't want to use it anymore for art, by purchasing a MIDI expansion board, you can connect it to a GM or LA synthesis MIDI module and massively enhance music for a lot of your titles or even do compositions which I hope to begin doing soon.
Many famous Japanese developers of actively supported the X68000: most notably Capcom and Konami. Capcom even used the X68000 as the development hardware for their CP-System I and II arcade boards. You may notice that the specs for the CP-System II are nearly identical to the XVI.
I've rightly decided to throw common sense and my money away and buy one of these, what do I need?
The Sharp X68000 uses the MSX controller standard which is nearly identical what was used by Atari and Sega with some pins changed. You can spend a lot of money to buy a shitty MSX controller but I would recommend getting an adapter and using a Genesis arcade stick. If at all possible, get the Capcom Fighter Power Stick adapter since the ones you'll find on ebay vary in quality. These can be pretty expensive and it's unlikely you'll get lucky like me and have it included in your copy of Street Fighter.
As I mentioned earlier, you'll want a SCSI cable. The reason for this is so that you can get a SCSI to SD-Card converter and download a HD image. Having an operating system installed will massively improve your quality of life so that you don't have to worry about juggling floppies that (I shudder to think about it) might not last forever.
MIDI!!! While the X68000 uses FM sound like the Genesis which is awesome, many titles released for it take advantage of MIDI modules as well. I recommend keeping an eye out for a MIDI expansion card (hopefully one that uses the real MIDI cable standard and not some weird bullshit proprietary port) to take advantage of this. I just got one and it's phenomenal. Check out superdeadite on Youtube. If you go this route, you'll want both a Roland MT-32 and a SC-55.
While not as necessary as with the PC-98, you'll also want to get a keyboard -- or a X68000->USB keyboard adapter -- so that you can use the OS and a few titles.
RAM!!!!: 2MB is great for most titles but if you want to load them off the hard disk the system needs to load everything into the system RAM and you will not be able to play much with only the default amount. Good luck getting a RAM expansion. 6MB should be enough but you might as well go higher if you can. I've never ran into any issues with 8MB total (2MB on-board + 6MB expansion).
Technical Information
Both of these are great resources that will have everything you'd need about the X68000
Gamesx This is basically an encyclopedia on the X68000.
NFG Games X68000 technical info and screens page
Software
There's really too much to mention but here's some titles I play a lot. All of these titles that have arcade versions are nearly or completely identical to the real thing. It's also a fantastic machine for shoot-em-ups. Paging davidwhangchoi.
MSX
This section has been copied from Foobarry81's MSX thread on some other website. I'm looking forward to his input on specific titles :)
Developed by Microsoft and ASCII Corporation in an attempt to create unified standards for home computers, the MSX* was the paramount 8-bit home computer architecture of the 1980s in Japan. A long list of manufacturers were involved in the project, including Sony, Philips, Sanyo, Toshiba, Panasonic, Casio, Pioneer, JVC, Samsung and Mitsubishi, and each one of them released their own take on MSX computing. Roughly 5 million of these 8-bit machines were sold on the Japanese market in between 1983 and 1995. The MSX was not only successful in Japan however. It was also a leading platform in countries such as Russia, Brazil, Spain, Argentina and the Netherlands. It never took off in the US or UK however, and thus failed to become the worldwide standard.
The Holy Grail
The Philips NMS 8280, a high end MSX2 system featuring 2 floppy drives.
During its lifetime the MSX standard evolved, which resulted in 4 different generations: MSX, MSX2, MSX2+ and MSX Turbo-R. A fifth generation, the MSX3, has been in development, but never came into existence. All the newer generations were backwards compatible with their predecessors. The last generation, the MSX Turbo-R, was only produced by Panasonic and only released in Japan. It is regarded as the Holy Grail of the MSX collector nowadays (and therefore quite expensive). Though this is mainly because it's rare, not so much because of the added value to for instance games.
If you don't own an MSX system yet and this thread got you interested, but you find it difficult to pick one of the many MSXs on the second hand market, you might want to check out Noisepurge's buyer's guide here.
Gaming peripherals
While you can play all MSX games with (the arrow keys on) the keyboard, you might also want to look into getting a joystick/gamepad for it. Especially for multiplayer gaming, these come in handy. It might be a bit hard nowadays to get a good and working joystick though.
Games for MSX systems were released on cassette, floppy disk and cartridge. To play the cassette games, you will be needing a cassette player peripheral (and a lot of patience, because of the huge loading times). Not all MSX systems feature a floppy drive, so if you want to play any of the floppy disk games, you might want to take that into account as well.
(*) The meaning of the acronym is subject to debate. It could be MicroSoft eXtended, or Machines with Software eXchangeability, or weirdly enough it could've been named after the MX missile (a US ballistic missile).
SNAKE?! SNAAAAKE!!!!
Before the NES/Famicom became a true juggernaut in Japan/the world and consequently found its place in the heart of many a GAFer, the MSX was thé platform for major Japanese developers such as Konami and Hudson Soft (RIP) to develop and release their games for. As a result some great franchises in gaming were initially established on the MSX: Aleste, Zanac, Bomberman, Penguin Adventure, Eggerland (probably better known as Adventures of Lolo), Parodius, F1 Spirit and Puyo Puyo.
The most notable "MSX original series" is without a doubt the Metal Gear franchise, which had 2 installments on the platform, Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.
What is aman whip?
Several other great game franchises had installments (which were often not simply ports, but unique versions with distinguishing features) on the system: Contra, Dragon Quest, Dragon Slayer, Final Fantasy, Gradius/Nemesis (and Salamander), R-Type, Wizardry, Xak and Ys. Also Kojima-san's cult hit Snatcher and its spin-off SD Snatcher were released on MSX.
Most notable among these is Vampire Killer. Released just one month after the original Castlevania for Famicom/NES, this game was developed simultaneously by Konami. It thus shares most of the backgrounds, music and enemies. Contrary to Castlevania (Famicom) however, Vampire Killer has a much more non-linear design, similar to the first Metroid, which was released in the same year (1986). As such it was the first true Metroidvania style game in the Castlevania franchise. Vampire Killer already contained several unique features such as merchants and hidden keys to doors and chests, that were only introduced on Nintendo systems in Castlevania 2 and later in Symphony of the Night.
Sources: Wikipedia , Splash Wave Youtube channel
Fujitsu
Fujitsu is kind of an also-ran of Japanese computer manufacturers. They initially released the FM-7 but there's no reason to care about that unless you're weird. Following that, they released the more notable FM Towns and later the consolized FM Towns Marty.
I really like the way this machine looks. What's especially interesting about it is that it's an entirely CD-based machine probably much earlier than any other PC in the world. While it is a great gaming and multimedia PC, it never quite hit the market as well as the X68000 had. It's games are also expensive as fuck, which is why I've never actually used mine yet.
That said, it was a 32-bit machine with pretty good specs sporting a 386 up to a Pentium anywhere between 16 and 100 MHz. It included a higher quality version of the FM sound chip used in the Genesis while also supporting Redbook CD Audio and similar graphics capabilities to the X68000.
Interestingly, the FM Towns is widely sought after for its version of the Ultima VI which included full English voice acting.
I don't really know what to recommend for this because I'm terrified by the prices. I suppose I could try out some titles through less scrupulous means but that would feel dirty (and I'm too lazy). Hopefully I get around to playing with this machine soon though. I'm super interested in seeing what it's capable of.
It uses the same cables for video and gamepad as the X68000 so if you get one you're set for the other. I think it might be better to get the Marty if you just want it for gameplay especially since the GDEmu guy is thinking about building a drive replacement for it.
Displays
Most Japanese PCs released in the late 80s and later used a 15 pin cable for their displays that is similar to VGA but not directly compatible. Furthermore, most games' resolutions will be be 15 KHz, 24 KHz or a non-standard version of 31 KHz (e.g. 640x400). So, if you want to actually use your new expensive toy, you have two options: go all the way and buy a Japanese tri-sync monitor or get a VGA adapter and connect it to an OSSC. Given these options, I recommend not torturing yourself too much and just getting an OSSC. Most Japanese monitors are only 13 inches and you won't enjoy playing the games as much as you should this way.
Floppy Emulators
Floppy emulators are a thing and I plan on buying some to play around with in the near future. Looking forward to updating this thread next year so nobody can read about my (hopefully) success.
A really cool video from British TV about computer shopping in the Japan during the 80s
Check it out
Great! How do I buy this stuff
While you'll occasionally find some luck using eBay, the absolute best way to buy retro Japanese PC stuff is directly from Japan. You don't have to go to Japan for it (but you should!), instead, you can just use Yahoo Auctions coupled with a proxy service like Buyee. Oftentimes, you'll find rare things or things you've never heard of for great prices that way. I can't recommend it enough except that by recommending it to you, I run the risk of you becoming a competitor in which case please don't shop on Yahoo Auctions.
Note: check out NFG Games forum for more discussion on weird Japanese computers.
NEC PC-88 & PC-98
NEC, most known to western gamers as the maker of the TurboGrafx (PC-Engine) or, perhaps as the maker of the Dreamcast's GPU, quickly asserted itself as the dominant force in Japanese PCs with its PC-88 and PC-98 class of computers. First released in 1981, with a CPU similar to the one found in the Sega Master System, the PC-88 was not much of a gaming computer with anywhere from 64-192 kb of RAM, a limited color palette and no hardware scrolling capabilities. With a mix of market timing, aggressive TV marketing and a proprietary kanji chipset, the NEC's PC-88 and the higher end PC-98 series became the de facto standard for Japanese computers until the mid-90s. Despite this, it's sadly somewhat difficult to find PC-98 hardware and software (especially software that isn't on the R18 floor)
The model I have (seen above) is supposedly a pretty good model to have but I am only able to get one title to work on it and it's a pretty bad ecchi Street Fighter clone. Controller support on these computers is barely a thing so the majority of the games for it are traditional mouse and keyboard style PC titles. You are most likely to come across text adventures or role playing games similar to the Ultima series. It is home to a fair amount of other types of games as well though with many famous Japanese developers such as Falcom and even Nintendo (via Hudson) releasing software. In terms of gaming software, it is probably most well known nowadays as the home of the Touhou Project.
Despite being primarily a business and porn machine, I've grown quite fond of it due to the artistic output the machine's developers produced. A quick visit to the Retro Cityscapes thread is all you need to see why.
System Information
Special thanks to Redneckerz for informing me about this awesome site that has a wealth of info about the PC-98 including its System Menu and the graphics systems in the various models.
General information and differences between the PC-98 and Western PCs
Notable Software
- The Touhou Project
- The Ys series
- Xanadu
- Super Mario Special
- Snatcher
- Policenauts
Also, I'd like to give a special shoutout to the Brandish 2 translation project which will soon be released.
Okay, I'm willing to throw away hundreds of dollars, what do I need to know?
I've found, unfortunately, that a lot of software released for these machines is available on 5-1/4 inch floppy only. For this reason, I am hoping to rectify this by purchasing a PC-9801 to supplement my Ce2. It is also possible to get an IDE-CF or IDE-SD converter and load a hard disk image although I have yet to get this to work. I really wish I had more time with this machine because I have Policenauts sitting in my shelves staring at me. Also, as more of a traditional PC than a game machine, make sure you get a keyboard. It's pretty useless without one.
Sharp X1 and X68000
Sharp released a beautiful fucking computer in the X1 to compete with NEC's PC-88 but it never took off. The primary draw of these machines, according to Wikipedia, was more efficient use of RAM and a monitor that could also function as a television.
It wasn't until they decided to set themselves apart and release the best fucking computer of all time that they really took off. I give you a picture of my X68000 complete with a nasty cable mess (forgive me, I moved it to a different room and I'm struggling to set it up nicely).
Years ago I saw the Gamesack X68000 video and, specifically, Cotton's dancing keyboard and my life was changed. I decided I needed to actually finish graduate school so I could have a nice job and spend all of my money on this thing. It was definitely the right decision.
If you get one, go for the XVI model and -- FOR THE LOVE OF ODIN -- get one that comes with a SCSI drive so you don't have to figure out how to get a replacement cable. It features a 10 MHz Motorola 68000 CPU (similar to the Sega Genesis) that can be, with a switch, set to a blazing 16 MHz, 2 MB of RAM expandable up to 12 MB, two expansion ports, two sexy towers and to go with two monstrous 5-1/4 floppy drives.
The X68000 was primarily marketed towards power users and arcade gamers. Because of this it is still an amazing machine to own. While you probably won't want to use it anymore for art, by purchasing a MIDI expansion board, you can connect it to a GM or LA synthesis MIDI module and massively enhance music for a lot of your titles or even do compositions which I hope to begin doing soon.
Many famous Japanese developers of actively supported the X68000: most notably Capcom and Konami. Capcom even used the X68000 as the development hardware for their CP-System I and II arcade boards. You may notice that the specs for the CP-System II are nearly identical to the XVI.
I've rightly decided to throw common sense and my money away and buy one of these, what do I need?
The Sharp X68000 uses the MSX controller standard which is nearly identical what was used by Atari and Sega with some pins changed. You can spend a lot of money to buy a shitty MSX controller but I would recommend getting an adapter and using a Genesis arcade stick. If at all possible, get the Capcom Fighter Power Stick adapter since the ones you'll find on ebay vary in quality. These can be pretty expensive and it's unlikely you'll get lucky like me and have it included in your copy of Street Fighter.
As I mentioned earlier, you'll want a SCSI cable. The reason for this is so that you can get a SCSI to SD-Card converter and download a HD image. Having an operating system installed will massively improve your quality of life so that you don't have to worry about juggling floppies that (I shudder to think about it) might not last forever.
MIDI!!! While the X68000 uses FM sound like the Genesis which is awesome, many titles released for it take advantage of MIDI modules as well. I recommend keeping an eye out for a MIDI expansion card (hopefully one that uses the real MIDI cable standard and not some weird bullshit proprietary port) to take advantage of this. I just got one and it's phenomenal. Check out superdeadite on Youtube. If you go this route, you'll want both a Roland MT-32 and a SC-55.
While not as necessary as with the PC-98, you'll also want to get a keyboard -- or a X68000->USB keyboard adapter -- so that you can use the OS and a few titles.
RAM!!!!: 2MB is great for most titles but if you want to load them off the hard disk the system needs to load everything into the system RAM and you will not be able to play much with only the default amount. Good luck getting a RAM expansion. 6MB should be enough but you might as well go higher if you can. I've never ran into any issues with 8MB total (2MB on-board + 6MB expansion).
Technical Information
Both of these are great resources that will have everything you'd need about the X68000
Gamesx This is basically an encyclopedia on the X68000.
NFG Games X68000 technical info and screens page
Software
There's really too much to mention but here's some titles I play a lot. All of these titles that have arcade versions are nearly or completely identical to the real thing. It's also a fantastic machine for shoot-em-ups. Paging davidwhangchoi.
- Cotton
- Akumajou Dracula (Castlevania)
- Final Fight
- Street Fighter 2'
- Gradius
- Parodius Da
- A weird version of Ys
- Daimakaimura
MSX
This section has been copied from Foobarry81's MSX thread on some other website. I'm looking forward to his input on specific titles :)
Developed by Microsoft and ASCII Corporation in an attempt to create unified standards for home computers, the MSX* was the paramount 8-bit home computer architecture of the 1980s in Japan. A long list of manufacturers were involved in the project, including Sony, Philips, Sanyo, Toshiba, Panasonic, Casio, Pioneer, JVC, Samsung and Mitsubishi, and each one of them released their own take on MSX computing. Roughly 5 million of these 8-bit machines were sold on the Japanese market in between 1983 and 1995. The MSX was not only successful in Japan however. It was also a leading platform in countries such as Russia, Brazil, Spain, Argentina and the Netherlands. It never took off in the US or UK however, and thus failed to become the worldwide standard.
The Holy Grail
The Philips NMS 8280, a high end MSX2 system featuring 2 floppy drives.
During its lifetime the MSX standard evolved, which resulted in 4 different generations: MSX, MSX2, MSX2+ and MSX Turbo-R. A fifth generation, the MSX3, has been in development, but never came into existence. All the newer generations were backwards compatible with their predecessors. The last generation, the MSX Turbo-R, was only produced by Panasonic and only released in Japan. It is regarded as the Holy Grail of the MSX collector nowadays (and therefore quite expensive). Though this is mainly because it's rare, not so much because of the added value to for instance games.
If you don't own an MSX system yet and this thread got you interested, but you find it difficult to pick one of the many MSXs on the second hand market, you might want to check out Noisepurge's buyer's guide here.
Gaming peripherals
While you can play all MSX games with (the arrow keys on) the keyboard, you might also want to look into getting a joystick/gamepad for it. Especially for multiplayer gaming, these come in handy. It might be a bit hard nowadays to get a good and working joystick though.
Games for MSX systems were released on cassette, floppy disk and cartridge. To play the cassette games, you will be needing a cassette player peripheral (and a lot of patience, because of the huge loading times). Not all MSX systems feature a floppy drive, so if you want to play any of the floppy disk games, you might want to take that into account as well.
(*) The meaning of the acronym is subject to debate. It could be MicroSoft eXtended, or Machines with Software eXchangeability, or weirdly enough it could've been named after the MX missile (a US ballistic missile).
SNAKE?! SNAAAAKE!!!!
Before the NES/Famicom became a true juggernaut in Japan/the world and consequently found its place in the heart of many a GAFer, the MSX was thé platform for major Japanese developers such as Konami and Hudson Soft (RIP) to develop and release their games for. As a result some great franchises in gaming were initially established on the MSX: Aleste, Zanac, Bomberman, Penguin Adventure, Eggerland (probably better known as Adventures of Lolo), Parodius, F1 Spirit and Puyo Puyo.
The most notable "MSX original series" is without a doubt the Metal Gear franchise, which had 2 installments on the platform, Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.
What is a
Several other great game franchises had installments (which were often not simply ports, but unique versions with distinguishing features) on the system: Contra, Dragon Quest, Dragon Slayer, Final Fantasy, Gradius/Nemesis (and Salamander), R-Type, Wizardry, Xak and Ys. Also Kojima-san's cult hit Snatcher and its spin-off SD Snatcher were released on MSX.
Most notable among these is Vampire Killer. Released just one month after the original Castlevania for Famicom/NES, this game was developed simultaneously by Konami. It thus shares most of the backgrounds, music and enemies. Contrary to Castlevania (Famicom) however, Vampire Killer has a much more non-linear design, similar to the first Metroid, which was released in the same year (1986). As such it was the first true Metroidvania style game in the Castlevania franchise. Vampire Killer already contained several unique features such as merchants and hidden keys to doors and chests, that were only introduced on Nintendo systems in Castlevania 2 and later in Symphony of the Night.
Sources: Wikipedia , Splash Wave Youtube channel
Fujitsu
Fujitsu is kind of an also-ran of Japanese computer manufacturers. They initially released the FM-7 but there's no reason to care about that unless you're weird. Following that, they released the more notable FM Towns and later the consolized FM Towns Marty.
I really like the way this machine looks. What's especially interesting about it is that it's an entirely CD-based machine probably much earlier than any other PC in the world. While it is a great gaming and multimedia PC, it never quite hit the market as well as the X68000 had. It's games are also expensive as fuck, which is why I've never actually used mine yet.
That said, it was a 32-bit machine with pretty good specs sporting a 386 up to a Pentium anywhere between 16 and 100 MHz. It included a higher quality version of the FM sound chip used in the Genesis while also supporting Redbook CD Audio and similar graphics capabilities to the X68000.
Interestingly, the FM Towns is widely sought after for its version of the Ultima VI which included full English voice acting.
I don't really know what to recommend for this because I'm terrified by the prices. I suppose I could try out some titles through less scrupulous means but that would feel dirty (and I'm too lazy). Hopefully I get around to playing with this machine soon though. I'm super interested in seeing what it's capable of.
It uses the same cables for video and gamepad as the X68000 so if you get one you're set for the other. I think it might be better to get the Marty if you just want it for gameplay especially since the GDEmu guy is thinking about building a drive replacement for it.
Displays
Most Japanese PCs released in the late 80s and later used a 15 pin cable for their displays that is similar to VGA but not directly compatible. Furthermore, most games' resolutions will be be 15 KHz, 24 KHz or a non-standard version of 31 KHz (e.g. 640x400). So, if you want to actually use your new expensive toy, you have two options: go all the way and buy a Japanese tri-sync monitor or get a VGA adapter and connect it to an OSSC. Given these options, I recommend not torturing yourself too much and just getting an OSSC. Most Japanese monitors are only 13 inches and you won't enjoy playing the games as much as you should this way.
Floppy Emulators
Floppy emulators are a thing and I plan on buying some to play around with in the near future. Looking forward to updating this thread next year so nobody can read about my (hopefully) success.
A really cool video from British TV about computer shopping in the Japan during the 80s
Check it out
Great! How do I buy this stuff
While you'll occasionally find some luck using eBay, the absolute best way to buy retro Japanese PC stuff is directly from Japan. You don't have to go to Japan for it (but you should!), instead, you can just use Yahoo Auctions coupled with a proxy service like Buyee. Oftentimes, you'll find rare things or things you've never heard of for great prices that way. I can't recommend it enough except that by recommending it to you, I run the risk of you becoming a competitor in which case please don't shop on Yahoo Auctions.
Note: check out NFG Games forum for more discussion on weird Japanese computers.
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