Import Gaming on the Cheap - Nintendo NES

This is the first part of a series I plan to put together covering the cheapest and easiest ways of playing import games on your old consoles. Since I’m based in the UK I’ll be focussing on importing games from the USA and Japan, but many of the points I’ll be making are relevant wherever you are in the world. I’m starting with a system that I’ve only just started to import games for myself, Nintendo’s legendary 8-bit NES…

Why Bother Importing?
Before you read on, it’s worth considering what benefits you will get by choosing to play import games. In the case of the NES the answer is simple – more choice! The NES was absolutely massive in the USA, far more so than in Europe, and consequently there were literally hundreds more games released for the system over there. Also due to it’s popularity, there’s a far greater quantity of NES games in circulation and some games that are fairly rare over here were far more common in America. I’ll cover some examples later...

Hardware Modification
So if you’ve decided that it would be good to import some NES games, the next thing to consider is what you are going to play them on. There are a few choices here:

The first option would be to buy a US NES system. You can probably pick one up for under £20 but by the time you add shipping and possibly the cost of a stepdown voltage transformer, the cost somewhat contradicts the idea of doing it on the cheap.

The second option would be to pick up an import game converter, i.e. a ‘pass through’ cartridge that deactivates the region lockout of the NES. Various versions exist such as the Game Key and can be picked up for around £10-15 from Ebay or sellers like Rob Webb.

However due to the way NES cartridges go into the system they are rather cumbersome devices, as the above example shows, plus there is a far easier and cheaper way to modify your console...

The last and cheapest option is to remove the region lockout in your UK NES system. This will not only allow you to play US NES cartridges but also PAL-B cartridges from across Europe, as the UK had a different PAL-A format. The modification is very easy and takes about an hour, requires only minimal electronics expertise and the only necessary equipment is a screwdriver and a pair of very small, sharp scissors or wire cutters, which can be obtained for less than a fiver.

Full details of the mod can be found on Mmmonkey’s Console Modification site. Opening up your NES for this mod will also allow you to address the common blinking light/flashing screen problems caused by worn-out cartridge connectors.

It should be noted that none of these options will allow you to play Japanese Famicom games as the cartridges have a 60-pin connector rather than the NES’s 72-pin. Having said that, import game converters do exist to allow you to play Famicom games, such as the Family Converter. Also, it is not possible (at least not easily) to modify the UK NES to output a 60Hz picture so if you are a gaming purist, the only option would be to buy a US NES.

Where To Buy Cheap Games
OK, so your console is ready to play imports – where are you going to get them from? My experience so far says that Ebay is your best bet by a country mile. With so many games available in reasonably high quantities, you can pick up some real bargains from US sellers, especially given the favourable exchange rate these days!

Two things to be wary of though are shipping and customs charges. I don’t know if US Postal charges are generally high or if it’s Ebay sellers hiking the shipping costs because they don’t pay any Ebay or Paypal fees on them, but some US sellers charge silly amounts to ship a single loose NES cartridge! The solution of course is to bulk buy from a seller that offers multiple item shipping discounts, but bulk buying then puts you at risk of paying customs charges that theoretically apply to all packages with a value over £18 (that’s about $35). So the safe bet is to buy as much as you can off the same seller but don’t go over the customs limit.

You’ll find plenty of US sellers on Ebay but two I can definitely recommend are Lukie Games and Discount Games. Between them the two stores have over 2000 NES games in stock, and I recently bought a job lot of 13 loose NES games from the latter for a mere $17, keeping me well below the customs limit. Shipping was around $30 but that still worked out at an average of under £2 per game, which is far cheaper than you’d get them for from a UK seller.

If you prefer not to buy from Ebay, other decent sources I’ve found for NES games are Classic Game Source in the US, and UK-based Console Mad tend to have a few US games at reasonable prices.

What Games To Buy
From a basic comparison of the US and European NES release lists at NES World, I reckon there are at least 300 games that were released in the USA that never made it across the Atlantic, so the world is your oyster here to be honest! As I’ve only just started importing for the NES myself, I’m only going to suggest a few titles that are worth checking out. I’m sure there are countless others depending on your preferred genre!

• Guardian Legend – a combination of scrolling shooter and overhead-view run and gun from Japanese heavyweights Irem and Compile.
• Snoopy’s Silly Sports Spectacular – a fun, 2-player game featuring the Peanuts gang competing in events like the sack race and boot throwing.
• Starship Hector (AKA Hector ’87) – vertically scrolling shmup from HudsonSoft that has similarities to their later Star Soldier series.
• The Empire Strikes Back – this Star Wars action platformer was released in Europe but not the UK as far as I can tell.
  

Please leave a comment if you have any suggestions of more great NES imports and where to get them from!