Inafune-san and NY!
So for those of you who didn’t know, Keiji Inafune-san, the creator of Megaman, was doing a signing at a Gamestop in New York on the 7th. My friend L and I decided that this would be a good chance to plan a grand New York adventure trip around the day, which would culminate in the meeting of one of gaming’s most legendary designers. We grabbed our laminated NY map and started plotting out the day.
Our first stop was someplace we had talked about visiting for quite a while, but it was always pretty out of the way when we were in New York for other reasons, normally to hit up Nintendo World and the surrounding area. Since I’m about as geeky for Ghostbusters as I am for Nintendo, the firehouse is a must-visit. Hook and Ladder 8, as it’s called, still looks every bit like the GBHQ as it did in the movie, and it was very thrilling to stand in front of it! There’s even a firehouse logo on the sidewalk in front of it that mimics the “no ghost” logo. The large sign that the Ghostbusters had hanging in front of the firehouse is actually right inside the building, though it was a bit too difficult to see inside.
After taking a stroll through Chinatown and checking out some fun anime and game shops, we stopped by Video Games New York, an import and retro store that I’ve frequented via booths at a few anime conventions. The inside is densely packed with every type of game you can imagine. While it was exciting, it was also quite intimidating, as I simply didn’t know what to look at! There was a wall of Game and Watches, a whole wall of Dreamcast imports and much more. But today I was looking for just one tiny piece of equipment that has eluded me for almost as long as I’ve been blogging. Some of you may recall my earlier blog to find an Famicom to NES adapter by means of a Gyromite cartridge. After that proved fruitless, I bought a few more Gyromite carts. I’m now the owner of four copies of Gyromite, and no converters! Oh, and no R.O.B. to play the Gyromite games, either. I asked the good shopkeep for said converter, and was handed a tiny piece of plastic, charged ten dollars, and merrily went along my way. However, fate got the last laugh, because after I went home and planned to play my Kid Dracula Famicom game, I discovered that I have actually bought a converter that lets me play NES games on my (nonexistent) Famicom. Well played, Fate. Well played.
Happy as a clam at what I then thought was the completion of my years-long search, L and I stopped at a little Japanese noodle restaurant. Rai Rai Ken was quite a pleasant place to eat, the food was great (I had the beef curry) and the look of the place was making me geek out a little. Finally we decided to make our way to the Gamestop and begin our long wait in line. We arrived around 3:30, with the signing planned to start at 5. During our wait some guy with a video camera was going down the line interviewing people, and I did my best to look like I was completely uninterested in speaking with him, which seemed to work. I now know however that it was someone from Kotaku, as they’ve posted the video on their site. I feel like he should have made that a bit more clear as it looked like he was just shoving the camera in people’s faces and asking the odd question of “What are you doing here?” which I felt was odd, because he knew darn well what we were doing here!
Eventually we slowly marched into the Gamestop and around the perimeter of the store. Before Inafune-san was Mega Man! Or rather, Mega Man from his Starforce games, which I’m not familiar with, but he still looked cool nonetheless. I had brought along my copy of Mega Man Legends for the PS1 for him to sign, knowing how much he enjoyed that series and wishes to continue with a third game. I’ve only recently acquired the game, for the specific purpose of this signing, but I have played a little of it and so far I’ve liked what I’ve seen and intend to finish it quite soon. After a bit of stumbling on my part (I nervously took the booklet out of the case, then dropped the case which went under the table, making me feel like a complete fool as I knelt down to search under the table), I got his autograph on the game, and one fantastic picture of the two of us. Just Inafune and me, hanging out yo.
Thus ended a fun filled day with L as we traipsed all over New York. Guess I’ll start looking for more copies of Gyromite...
Our first stop was someplace we had talked about visiting for quite a while, but it was always pretty out of the way when we were in New York for other reasons, normally to hit up Nintendo World and the surrounding area. Since I’m about as geeky for Ghostbusters as I am for Nintendo, the firehouse is a must-visit. Hook and Ladder 8, as it’s called, still looks every bit like the GBHQ as it did in the movie, and it was very thrilling to stand in front of it! There’s even a firehouse logo on the sidewalk in front of it that mimics the “no ghost” logo. The large sign that the Ghostbusters had hanging in front of the firehouse is actually right inside the building, though it was a bit too difficult to see inside.
After taking a stroll through Chinatown and checking out some fun anime and game shops, we stopped by Video Games New York, an import and retro store that I’ve frequented via booths at a few anime conventions. The inside is densely packed with every type of game you can imagine. While it was exciting, it was also quite intimidating, as I simply didn’t know what to look at! There was a wall of Game and Watches, a whole wall of Dreamcast imports and much more. But today I was looking for just one tiny piece of equipment that has eluded me for almost as long as I’ve been blogging. Some of you may recall my earlier blog to find an Famicom to NES adapter by means of a Gyromite cartridge. After that proved fruitless, I bought a few more Gyromite carts. I’m now the owner of four copies of Gyromite, and no converters! Oh, and no R.O.B. to play the Gyromite games, either. I asked the good shopkeep for said converter, and was handed a tiny piece of plastic, charged ten dollars, and merrily went along my way. However, fate got the last laugh, because after I went home and planned to play my Kid Dracula Famicom game, I discovered that I have actually bought a converter that lets me play NES games on my (nonexistent) Famicom. Well played, Fate. Well played.
Happy as a clam at what I then thought was the completion of my years-long search, L and I stopped at a little Japanese noodle restaurant. Rai Rai Ken was quite a pleasant place to eat, the food was great (I had the beef curry) and the look of the place was making me geek out a little. Finally we decided to make our way to the Gamestop and begin our long wait in line. We arrived around 3:30, with the signing planned to start at 5. During our wait some guy with a video camera was going down the line interviewing people, and I did my best to look like I was completely uninterested in speaking with him, which seemed to work. I now know however that it was someone from Kotaku, as they’ve posted the video on their site. I feel like he should have made that a bit more clear as it looked like he was just shoving the camera in people’s faces and asking the odd question of “What are you doing here?” which I felt was odd, because he knew darn well what we were doing here!Eventually we slowly marched into the Gamestop and around the perimeter of the store. Before Inafune-san was Mega Man! Or rather, Mega Man from his Starforce games, which I’m not familiar with, but he still looked cool nonetheless. I had brought along my copy of Mega Man Legends for the PS1 for him to sign, knowing how much he enjoyed that series and wishes to continue with a third game. I’ve only recently acquired the game, for the specific purpose of this signing, but I have played a little of it and so far I’ve liked what I’ve seen and intend to finish it quite soon. After a bit of stumbling on my part (I nervously took the booklet out of the case, then dropped the case which went under the table, making me feel like a complete fool as I knelt down to search under the table), I got his autograph on the game, and one fantastic picture of the two of us. Just Inafune and me, hanging out yo.Thus ended a fun filled day with L as we traipsed all over New York. Guess I’ll start looking for more copies of Gyromite...