The day you have been waiting for, all along, has finally come. I'm going to drop dime on the best kept secret in Akihabara today.

Look. None of you reading this can tell anyone about this if you ever go to Tokyo. If you do so, you ruin the awesomeness of this for everyone else that finds this place.

I want to tell you about Super Potato.

Nestled away from the main drag of Akihabara is the Japanese Gold Vein that every retro gamer seeks to find. It's worth it just to marvel at the sights and gawk at the absurdly high prices and selection of rare gaming items they have in stock.


DOS-V street. If you can't find DOS-V street, you don't really want to visit Super Potato that badly.


The only sign you'll see from the outside


The sign reads: 3F - Awesome old shit from your childhood, 4F - RARE expensive old shit, 5F - sad video game arcade floor with nothing to do but wander back down to the 3F and 4F.

I headed up to the 3F, you're greeted by a sign you've arrived at the right place.


We serve your kind here...

I walked in and took in the sights to see on this floor.

When I speak in terms of selection and amount of shit to look through, you could spend HOURS on every row and still miss things. Language barrier, obviously...
But, holy shit. Look at this.

Famicoms



Famicom Disk Systems (in working condition, no less...)



A whole 2 aisles of old Famicom games. 1 aisle was nothing but UNOPENED GAMES.





These four games are Famicom Disk System games, which got released here in the US with a battery in the cartridge or not at all...







Did someone say Dreamcast games?



OH! You said ChronoTrigger, right...


That copy's in a stack of 30 others all the same as it.

Now, onto more important things.

The 4th floor. You would never believe the things that are on that floor, things I didn't even know the name of were there. Game systems that had long since been abandoned due to any variety of reasons were on sale, and in working condition. I also found the giveaway Wii-TV remote that Nintendo gave to people in Club Nintendo on this floor along with plentiful copies of Mother 3, and other rarer games.

But that doesn't matter. I'm bringing you, images of things you'll likely never see in person and frankly, I was shocked to see myself.

The rarest Nintendo game, ever.

This is the second rarest, just as a comparison between it and the rarest.


This is the Super Mario Bros. Crystal Screen. It's signifigance is that the game screen is see-thru, and that aspect of it made it highly sought after for collectors.

The rarest of them all is a giveaway that Nintendo did back in the 1980's. They released a Super Mario Bros. as a giveaway for an F1 racing contest they sponsored. The game case was made to resemble Disk-kun, Nintendo's FDS mascot.



Inside the case was a copy of Super Mario Brothers.

It can be yours for 55,000Y. I had more than that much on me at the time, and believe me... I thought about it.



So, as I said before, there's a 5th floor, it was memorable only for the fact that there was no one up there but me, a clerk, and some dude working on his SF2:A skills. It's a floor full of old arcade machines, mostly fighting games, in pairs, and the odd shooting game.

This store is an amazing find, and well worth it for any travelers to Tokyo to seek out.

You will not be disappointed.