Retro adventures in Taiwan - so far a bust

[S1500]

I'm posting this from my hotel(Roaders) in Taipei, Taiwan. So far, any retro hunting has been a bust. The closest I saw was a Famiclone or 2 at the night markets.

 

Word was(from searches) that the Taipei main station had a mall that was over half video game stores. I went there, and that was not the case. The article pertaining to this was several years old. An Otaku article documented one retro gaming store going ot of business.

 

Just about any video game store I have seen so far just has "playstation' as a banner, and no distinct business name.

 

But you know what? I've come to the realiziation that I can't see all my vacations through retro game hunting eyes. There was a significant amount in Japan to purchase, but all of the prices werre sky high. Hong Kong had nothing. Seoul had some( a whole row of smaller vendors).

 

I was in Taipei 10 years ago, and picked up a few Famicom pirate carts, a netbook, a Wii knockoff, but that was a while back. Heck, I even scored a reissue Megatron and thought I hit the jackpot. But even the toy market has skewed a bit, unless you want one of thousands of Gundam models.

 

But, you know what? The food has been good. The people have been friendly and it's warmer here than in Minnesota. There's about a 60 degree(F) difference in my favor.

[derFunkenstein]

Being in Taiwan tonight is great because Minnesota is about to get snowed upon. We got it in Illinois throughout the day today and it wasn't great.

[youxia]

You can try asking here: https://tw.forumosa.com/it's probably the most knowledgeable E-speaking community based in TW.

 

Or searching the "Taiwanese ebay": https://tw.bid.yahoo.com/ Now, of course it can be problematic if you don't speak/read Mandarin, but it's still possible to conduct some keyword searches such as "N64" and find some interesting stuff.

 

Yeah, having 25C in January, like last week, is kinda amusing but the truth is I miss proper winter with snow and all that jazz.

[DeathAdderSF]

I think you'll have far better luck thru online communities & auction sites.

 

I've been to Taiwan twice, and even thru my contacts that have lived there all their life, and know what's-what in the markets, the shops/options presented to me there have yielded nothing interesting. Usually "retro" in the eyes of the shops, means 2001+ if you're lucky. And I couldn't care less about anything after 1995.

 

Aside from that, I love Taiwan. Great food, great hiking, great people. Elephant Mountain is a 15 minute walk from the 101 Building and definitely worth it. Visit there for those kinds of things, and give game hunting a backseat while you're there.

Edited January 13, 2019 by DeathAdderSF

[Zonie]

Yeah. I was in Taipei and Hsinschu a last year and it was a bust.

Playstation is the only relevant thing there.

There is an electronics mall in Taipei, the Guanghua Digital Plaza that does have some shops that carry the NES mini. I got mine there.

Good luck.

[0078265317]

Ya I am from chicago. Got a lot of snow today. Accumulated through out the day. Very slippery roads.

[Tanooki]

I don't think it matters anymore what country you're in. The deals are gone, so don't plan any trip based on what dumb games you can locally pick up. Try sure, but don't make a huge effort as there's far more to enjoy in the place, like you said, the food. Try checking out some historical sights or something else that's interesting. Thanks to what started here in the US turning a hobby into a profit grinder, the other countries locals caught on once people from here started paying more and more for their stuff, so now they keep it pretty much in parity.

[S1500]

I'm back from Taiwan. Yeah, retro gaming, or even mainstream modern gaming is NOT a thing over there. .Not sure if it's the Chinese influence (with the console ban of past), but it seems to be all mobile gaming.

 

Sure, there's PC gaming accessories for sale(PC master race reigns supreme), but I barely saw a video game store. Hell, I barely saw consoles(Switch, etc) for sale there. Only saw 1 arcade with Sega candy cabs, but it was 99% skill cranes.

 

But, I didn't leave empty handed. Bought this Game Boy Advance knockoff(even with a cart slot that has as cart for SD cards) that plays Neo Geo, GBA, GG, etc games. All are Chinese games, with the Famicom games being ROM hacks of exiting games to be Mario-themed. I probably paid too much for it. I expected it to be an upgraded Dingoo A320, but nope. It has less features. Oh well.

 

But life isn't all about retro gaming. I still had a fun week in Taiwan, and scored a fun Lego set for the Chinese market only.

 

Still makes me want to go shopping in Shenzhen, China.

[DeathAdderSF]

Well, so what all did you do for fun in Taiwan? That's the part I'd like to read about.

[S1500]

Well, so what all did you do for fun in Taiwan? That's the part I'd like to read about.

 

I tried to go to as many night markets as possible. Those are like going to mini Minnesota State Fairs. Lots of food stalls, lots of shady merchants, with a legit merchant(Nike, etc) right behind them. Those are fun to browse & get snacks from. Some places are pedestrian friendly, places like Taichung are not. Lots of scooters. I did almost no touristy stuff.

[dakidski]

I'm in Rome and it's pretty good retro-wise. I've seen (not purchased though) stuff here I could otherwise only get in Japan. As well as some nice regional exclusive stuff like Italian SG-3000's etc.

[Zonie]

Yeah, I got a "Star Wnrs" (Yes that is spelled right) X-wing in Shanghai. Lots of Lego knock offs there.