Games owned

94.49% = 995/1053


Money Spent

$3,771.04 = $3.79 per game


Most Expensive Games
 

1	Seirei Densetsu Lickle	160.00
2	Moon Crystal	121.99
3	Battle Formula	102.55
4	Captain Saver	77.94
5	Gimmick	45.00
6	Igo Meikan	38.84
7	Hebereke	37.50
8	Bucky O'Hare	29.17
9	Nakayoshi to Issho	29.06
10	Solomon no Kagi 2	28.00
11	RockMan	27.05
12	Don Doko Don 2	26.00
	Lagrange Point	26.00
14	Kyoro-chan Land	25.30
15	Battletoads	21.99
16	Karaoke Studio	20.00
	Mitsume ga Tooru	20.00
18	Family BASIC v3.0	19.19
19	SD Gundam: Gundam Wars (	19.00
20	Dragon Ball Z Gaiden	18.75
	Dragon Ball: Dai Maou Fukkatsu	18.75
	Juuryoku Soukou Metal Storm	18.75
23	Goal	18.67
24	Fushigi no Umi no Nadia	18.06
25	RockMan 6	18.00

Intro (written August 5, 2014):

I think I'm actually going to do it - a loose set of all 1,051 Famicom carts. That doesn't include any special versions (all of which combined would probably cost you the equivalent of an NWC gold) or games that weren't sold to the public. Why collect Famicom? First, there's so many exclusives - there's nearly as many games that didn't come out in the US as all licensed NES carts. Second, I enjoy owning the "original" versions of most of these games. Most of the time, they were released in Japan first, often with differences from the versions we got. And also, I think there's a lot of appeal in the carts themselves, which are colorful and don't have the wasted gray space of pretty much every other Nintendo system's carts.

I started buying FC games in 2009, and the first games I bought were right here on NA: Door Door, Gradius 2, Rockman 2/4/5, and SMB3, for a combined $50 from Bootgod. I recieved these first six games on October 5, 2009. I didn't even have a converter at the time, so I wasn't able to play them right away. Eventually I got one and immediately set on beating Gradius 2 - one of the best Famicom exclusives, and a great game everyone should own. For games I receive on the same day, I go by alphabetical order to determine the order they entered my collection. So that means Door Door is Famicom game #1. I doubt I'll ever beat Door Door, but it's music will live forever in my head - it's almost a Bubble Bobble-level earworm.

Game #15 was Gimmick. This was before the price mania had set in, so I was able to buy it for approximently $45 on NA ($55 shipped for the cart and two SNES controllers). I think I had seen a copy or two sell for around $100 on Ebay even back then, so I knew I was getting a good deal. That's still the most I've spent on any FC game, and it was good to get it out of the way since it now goes for ~$250. I can't help but wonder if gavmasterflash (the seller) knows the current value...

My first big purchase was in summer 2012, on Famicom World, from Parodius Duh. I was able to get a bunch of good games for around $150, including Duck Tales 2, Final Mission, Spartan X2, and Solbrain.  It was almost too good to be true, and I thought for a while I might be getting scammed - he didn't send the games until several weeks later. But I did get them eventually (and they were in great condition). Although, I think he was banned from the site for some deals gone bad shortly after that, so I might've gotten lucky. I also got Gourmet World, which I later sold on NA for $25 + shipping. I'm kinda regretting that now since it's gone up since then.

Until this year, I only had 60 games. But given how cheaply much of the set can be acquired, I decided to pull the trigger on a few big lots on Ebay, where they can be found less than $2 each. I've bought a few from hit-japan and other sellers, and I've grown the collection substantially this year as a result. I have another big lot coming over from Japan, and at that point I'll be at nearly 500 carts. I'm not planning on rushing this, so this could take many more years. We'll see how it goes.


Statistics

I've gone back and figured out how much I've spent for every game, along with the approximate date I received each one. For older lot purchases, I used the price guide in my sig to determine how much I paid for each game. But since I haven't updated it for a couple years, lately I've just counted each game in a lot equally. Money spent includes shipping (except for trades). It doesn't include games bought that I already owned that I got another copy of. Also, if I get another copy of a game in better condition, I don't count the cost of the new game. I just keep the cost of the first copy I had, even though it's been switched out.

This is going to be an awesome collection, all the best. You best start scrubbing up on your Japanese

I am going for a full set of Famicom games as well. Currently I have 351 carts, and am expecting a package of about 70 - 75 games any day now, which will put me at around 425 or so. I have some goals in mind with where I want my Famicom collection to be by the time the year is up, but we'll just have to wait and see if I can realize those goals this year or not. On another note, the lists on Wikipedia and Famicom World have more games listed than the number you provided There are a few competition carts thrown in, at least one error (Solitaire on NES is listed), but there is still a difference of around 20 or 30 games, iirc, so I am not sure what is up there.

I am also trying to go for a "full" full set, i.e. collecting all of the unlicensed releases as well. Of those, I am only missing around 60 or so, if you exclude the Waixing / Nanjing modern crap.

It is definitely a fun journey, but with around 2000 games (if you go for a full set with unlicensed games, disks, etc) I think it is a crazy goal as well, and even if you just look at licensed carts, it is still crazy.

Regarding prices, I wouldn't recommend someone jump in and do a Famicom full set lightly. As you will find out later, it is not going to be cheap in the end, heh.

Good luck with your collection. It's a tough set to go after.

I've been chipping away at mine for 12 years now and am still not close. Tons of great games though and the bulk of the set can be had for cheap. It can be a pain sometimes just figuring out what the game is when it comes to stuff like Namco & Bandai carts since they don't even have the 5 letter ID's on the labels.

Like Tracker said, it does get pricey eventually. You can still get a solid 400-500 titles for little to nothing though. Many times I'd buy in bulk and just trade the dupes for US games.

Thanks! Yeah, learning Japanese is another goal of mine and something I need to work on. I took a few classes years ago, but it's not easy.



1,051 has been the number for a long time, it seems. I cross-referenced the FW/Wikipedia lists years ago and I remember getting the same thing too. You can see the list by clicking the price guide in my sig. I ended up just copying Bootgod's spellings for consistancy. The only thing I don't have listed that maybe should be are the mini add-on carts for Nantettatte!! Baseball, because they're not really a game by themselves.

I know it's expensive. Gimmick is the only really expensive game that I own. But there's very few games that are guaranteed to go for over $100, and it's still a lot cheaper than NES or SNES, for sure. I wonder if I can complete it for $5,000?

I can't even imagine collecting unlicensed/pirated stuff, so good luck with that!

Hmm, well closer to the time I will have to go through my personal lists again and see where the deviation in numbers is coming from.  I had taken the FW list and reformatted it to fit in with the lists I had personally compiled (for unlicensed games), and that is when I noticed the number difference compared to the 1,051 that I always see mentioned.  I actually hope that your number is right though, since the set is so massive as is.

I can think of a few really pricey carts, but there are also a lot of terribly cheap games as well.  I was looking over my personal collection list tonight, and thinking that for those against NES full sets (due to the crap games), those people would probably faint after seeing all of the crap in a Famicom full set.  

I can think of one other guy that is (was?) pursuing a Famicom full set, glad to see someone else joining me in this marathon as well.    I think it will be a difficult journey, and expensive as well, but hope that we both can make it some day!

Do you have a lot of boxed games, or are they mostly loose?  I personally go for loose carts, as a CIB set would just be nuts; however, if/when I stumble upon boxed Famicom games in the wild, then I always pick them up.

Awesome man! I always wanted to do this. I love the Famicom and it's full of great stuff. Keep us updated and post some pics!

BTW, #10 on your list is my favorite game on the Famicom.

Wish you luck with this

Do you have a gold punch-out? That's one I really want at some point.

How about the noodle version of Gradius? Achimendes or whatever it's called.

I have one of those loose.  I've always wanted one since seeing Adol's copy on tsr's website (iirc) way back in the day.  I don't think the OP counts such promo games though in his set.

you gotta check out retro-taku in madison heights, mi

best japanese import video game store i've been to.

check out this video:

Are there problems with so many pirates/fakes, or easy enough to weed them out from label or case?

Easy to weed out from the label / case.  Yes, there are some really good pirates out there.  But most of the pirates I have come across (99%) are easy to tell from the real deal.  This is something that is quite different from the NES collecting scene.  The Famicom scene has always had thousands of pirates floating around, but most of them don't look close enough to the real thing to cause confusion, whereas the NES scene has far fewer pirates, yet everyone tries to make them look identical to legit games.

Do you use bootgod's site for the "correct" label/case, or is there another resource?

Good luck man. I have many SFC and Japanese n64 games but only 3 fc (rock man 4 & 5 and parodius). I love Japanese games, something cool about them. I'm sure I will join you and tracker465 on this journey at some point.

That's awesome man, I'd love to see some pics. I've thought about doing this myself. There's something very neat about Famicom carts.

If you purchase from Japan, you will almost never run into the problem of getting a fake.  I live in Taiwan though, and during the late 1980s and early 1990s, Japanese Famicom / Super Famicom / whatever games were imported here, although in smaller quantities than the pirates.  Therefore if I find an official cart here, but got it from a more questionable source, then I may cross check with the pictures online...taken from bootgod's site, ebay auctions, etc.  But for the most part, it is very easy to tell the difference, once you know what you are looking for.  

100% loose.

Do any of you use the Famicom Family computer 1983-1994 book as a reference to a complete set?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/NES-Famic...

This is my Famicom Show-off picture:

Good luck on this. I only own 1 famicom game. Can't even play it.

I would say this is the better book for a complete list http://www.chrismcovell.com/famic...
Still a little tricky with it being in 100% japanese though.

Famicom collecting feels more like what NES collecting was before the huge price jump.  There are many fantasic and rare games that don't go for near what the rarest NES games sell for.  I'm a little over 700 out of 1051 and it's been huge fun collecting for the Famicom.  Good luck on the collection!

How do you guys with hundreds of famicom games store them?

I just use a giant box, except for my favorite/most expensive 15-20 games.