The Japanese Connection: Part 2, PS1

Previously, on Retro Game On: Super Famicom awesominess, mixed in with cheapiness. Overall: greatness.

Today, we travel over to the 64bit era; the original Sony PlayStation.
Now, I already own three PlayStations. Mindbendingly, this is the fourth PS1 I now own. Owning that many is a bit ridiculous, but at least this one plays Japanese games. I was considering chipping my existing daily driver so it would play all regions, but while the process of soldering the chip to the motherboard seems quite easy, obtaining the actual chip is not. After half an hour of Googling around, I ultimately decided it would be a lot easier and not that much more expensive just to outright buy a NTSC-J model. The closest thing to a quote for a chip I could find was something like $20, while the above bundle (including the console, memory card, a thumbstickless controller and Tomb Raider III) cost $26. While that's quite a reasonable price for that sort of thing even here, the real reason I bought it was because of the cheap games, much like with the Super Famicom in the last post.

Parappa the Rapper, complete in box with a poster and various other pamphlets cost ten flipping dollars. The equivalent PAL version ranges from $50-$80, so I feel I'm definitely onto something here. The text is in Japanese mind you though, but all the voice acting is in English so I can get down and funky fresh in my own language.
I've been wanting this game for a very long time. It was always on demo disks that I had growing up, so finally owning the full version after all these years feels really great indeed. Next on the list is Vib Ribbon; another demo I grew up with that's a lot cheaper in Japan. Unfortunately I did get a rego bill for the Retromobile yesterday though, so this will have to be put on hold along with me generally saving money for a new Retromobile, but I think Parappa the Rapper will keep me entertained for a while.

Now, for part 2 of weird shit in my packages from Japan.

Japanese people just seem so nice. I want to go to Japan and huge every single one of them (except for that famous cannibal guy). Bundled in with the PlayStation was this: a plastic zip-lock bag that reads (grammar added) "Hi, small present, Power Stone to bring happiness" with a nice big smiley face on the back. Honestly, this sort of thing is entirely not necessary, but it put a smile on my face that day regardless. Thank you, anonymous Japanese person.