BOOKOFF Japanese used book and game store in Gardena, Los Angeles

Friday Starter – LA Game Stores and Jeopardy!

This week, I was out in Los Angeles while my wife competed on Jeopardy! She’ll be on TV in December. I also toured the campus of Riot Games, makers of League of Legends and Teamfight Tactics, etc., since one of my friends works there.

So naturally, while my wife is having a meaningful and important trip, I did what I always do: Go to used game stores and find any baseball video games I don’t own already and squirrel them away in a big sack like a goblin.

Used Japanese baseball video games are cheap and plentiful in a city like LA, and found some great stuff in stores like Bros. Game Shop, World 8-2, and BOOKOFF. The list of new games I bought and painstakingly packed in various carry-ons on the plane back is almost too long to include here, but *deep breath* here we go, in the order in which they’re stacked on my desk right now (these are all at least boxed copies, a couple don’t have manuals included):

  • Pawapuro-kun Pocket 2 (Game Boy Color)
  • Pro Yakyuu Family Stadium (Famicom)
  • Pro Yakyuu Family Stadium ’87 (Famicom)
  • Famista ’90 (Famicom)
  • Power League 64 (Nintendo 64)
  • Little League World Series Baseball 2008 (Wii)
  • R.B.I. Baseball (NES)
  • Bases Loaded (NES)
  • The Baseball 2003 Battle Ball Park Sengen Perfect Play Pro Yakyuu (Gamecube)
  • Major Dream (DS)
  • Moero!! Jaleco Collection(Game Boy Advance)
  • Family Stadium 2003 (Gamecube)
  • Triple Play 98 (PS1)
  • HardBall! (Genesis)
  • Pro Yakyuu Netsusta 2006 (PS2)
  • Pro Yakyuu Team o Tsukurou! (DS) – Had about seven price stickers on it, going from $35 originally all the way down to the $1 I got it for.
  • Pawapoke Koushien (DS)
  • Kyuukyoku Harikiri Stadium (Famicom)
  • ’99 Koushien (PS1) – a sealed copy which I have promptly ripped open, but boy that manual looks crisp and new in there
  • Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu Portable (PSP)
  • Pro Yakyuu Famista DS (DS)
  • High Heat Baseball 2003 (PS2)
  • Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2004 (PS2)
  • Jikkyou Powerful Major League 2 (Wii)
  • Jikkyou Powerful Major League 2009 (Wii)
  • Koushien: Konpeki no Sora (PS2)
  • Major League Baseball 2K7 (PS2, Japanese copy with alternate box art)
  • Jikkyou Powerful Pro Yakyuu 2009 (PS2)
  • Shin Best Play Pro Yakyuu (PS2)

Phew, think that’s all of ’em. Big shopping trip but I’m glad to get all these mostly Japanese games without shipping fees (or rather, using the built-in fee I already had to pay to ship myself to the west coast and back).