Video game historian Hiroyuki Maeda said that additional demand from collectors comes from the fact that some consoles were marketed differently outside Japan
Shop manager Komura-san posing with a signed Metal Gear box, at “Super Potato”, a shop selling vintage video games and memorabilia in the popular electronics shopping area of Akihabara. Image credit: Photography Richard A. Brooks / AFP
US tourist David Madrigal is over the moon after paying $200 for a "vintage" console at a busy Tokyo store that is tapping into booming global demand for retro gaming kit.
"When I came into this store, I was like a kid walking into a candy shop," Madrigal, 23, told AFP at Super Potato in the Akihabara district famous for its Japanese pop culture shops.
"This stuff is my passion. I love older consoles," he said. The PS Vita, a console released in 2011, that he bought "would usually cost me about $600 in the US."
Super Potato has three floors packed with Game Boy cartridges, Sega Dreamcast consoles wrapped in plastic and antiquated arcade machines where nostalgic customers can play "Street Fighter II" again.
Prices can be eye-watering. A handheld Nintendo Game & Watch electronic game from the 1980s -- featuring "Zelda" -- was priced at 250,800 yen ($1,750).