I bought the WEIRDEST Japanese Tech
Summary
TLDRThe video features Austin unboxing and testing a variety of retro gaming consoles and accessories. Items featured include a large 1990s PC, obscure Japanese handhelds, early analog games in original packaging, a Sega SG-1000, boxed Pokemon Emerald, Nintendo's first console, and a device that scores mouth odor. Most items work fully or partially. The summary conveys the essence of nostalgia, surprise, and humor around decades old gaming relics that still function despite their age.
Takeaways
- ๐ The video features weird and wacky Japanese tech like a large heavy PC and a handheld gaming console
- ๐ฒ The script describes attempts to get old Japanese electronics from the 90s working, with mixed results
- ๐ค Much of the old tech requires adapters to try to get running on modern TVs and power supplies
- ๐ Some items like the breath sensor are silly and don't work that well
- ๐น Old Japanese handhelds and consoles are shown, like early Nintendo systems, Sega consoles, and obscure items
- ๐ธ The video host spent a lot of money buying rare Japanese tech just to see if it works
- ๐ข Some items end up not functioning at all after decades of disuse
- ๐ When old games and consoles do work, the host is excited to play obscure retro titles
- ๐คฏ Advanced capabilities of old Japanese electronics are sometimes impressive given their era
- ๐ The video is sponsored by Acronis cybersecurity software
Q & A
What is Sendico and why is it mentioned in the video?
-Sendico is described as the best spot on the internet to find weird, wacky, and wild Japanese tech, indicating that it's likely an online marketplace or auction site specializing in unique and hard-to-find items from Japan.
What is the NEC PC-9821 CU16 and its significance?
-The NEC PC-9821 CU16 is a mid-90s full PC with a Pentium processor, originally running Windows 95. It's notable for its size, heft, and being a piece of vintage computing history from Japan.
How much did the video creator spend on the NEC PC-9821 CU16 including shipping, and was it functional upon arrival?
-The creator spent $35 on the PC in junk condition and an additional $200 to have it shipped, totaling $235. Upon testing, the PC was found to be vaguely functional, indicating it could power on and run to some extent.
What is the PC Engine GT, and what makes it unique?
-The PC Engine GT is a portable handheld gaming console that's notably large and has full performance and compatibility with home console games. It's unique for its ability to run full console games in a portable form factor, being way ahead of its time when released.
How does the creator describe the condition and functionality of the vintage games and consoles purchased?
-The creator describes the items as ranging from being in generally good condition to having specific functionality issues. Some items work well and are impressive for their age, while others, like Pulse Missile, are only vaguely functional or suffer from age-related degradation.
What are the challenges faced when trying to operate the Nintendo Color TV Game Six?
-Operating the Nintendo Color TV Game Six presented challenges due to the need for a series of adapters to connect it to a US-based television, which significantly degraded the image quality, making the game barely playable.
What does the Konica Minolta Kunkun body odor tester do, and what were the test results?
-The Konica Minolta Kunkun body odor tester is a device designed to measure and detect body odors. Test results varied, with low scores for mouth odor after not chewing gum and higher scores for perceived body odors, indicating the device measures the presence of smells rather than their quality.
What was the total cost and perceived value of the lot containing the Game and Watch Gold with Manhole?
-The total cost for the lot containing the Game and Watch Gold with Manhole was 27,500 Yen (about $184 US). The creator felt the cost was somewhat justified given the uniqueness and the condition of the items, including their original boxes.
How did the video creator feel about the purchases made from Sendico?
-The creator felt a mix of excitement and apprehension with the purchases. While there were concerns about the functionality of some items, the unique nature and nostalgia associated with these vintage games and consoles seemed to offer a sense of satisfaction and joy.
How does the video conclude regarding the use and functionality of vintage tech?
-The video concludes with a mixed assessment of the vintage tech's functionality. While some items worked well and were praised for their historical value and cool factor, others had limitations due to their age or condition. Despite this, the creator expresses a sense of joy and appreciation for the collection.
Outlines
๐ Reviewing Various Retro Japanese Tech
This paragraph introduces the video, mentioning it is sponsored by Acronis. It then transitions to Austin unboxing and testing a large 1990s Japanese PC called the NEC PC-9821. After struggling to get it to boot up properly, he asks the editing team to humorously edit it to look like it catches on fire.
๐ฎ Testing Obscure Japanese Handheld Games
Austin unboxes and tests a variety of obscure, vintage Japanese handheld games from the 1970s and 80s. Despite their age, many like Scramble and Space Invaders still work well. He shows their original packaging and discusses their historical significance.
๐ Getting a Rare Japanese Pokemon Emerald to Work
Austin opens a rare, boxed Japanese copy of Pokemon Emerald for the Gameboy Advance. He connects it to a wireless adapter so it can trade and battle without a link cable. After testing it, he expresses joy over finding it complete in box for a great price.
๐ Using a Japanese Gadget to Test How Stinky You Are
Austin struggles to get an odd Japanese device called the Konica Minolta Kunkun working. It is designed to detect body odor. He tests it out, bemused that it rates the smell of his breath, head, and armpits on a scale from 1-100.
Mindmap
Keywords
๐กJapanese tech
๐กNEC PC-9821
๐กPC Engine GT
๐กPulse Missile
๐กKonami Scramble
๐กSega SG-1000
๐กPokemon Emerald
๐กNintendo Color TV Game 6
๐กKonica Minolta Kunkun
๐กAcronis
Highlights
The NEC PC-9821 is an extremely heavy mid-1990s PC that originally ran Windows 95
The NEC PC-9821 has a Pentium processor, floppy disk drive, CD drive, and CRT display
The NEC PC-9821 powers on but is unable to boot properly into Windows 95
The PC Engine GT is a rare, expensive ($371) handheld that played full home console games in the early 1990s
The PC Engine GT has a backlit color display, weighing over 1 pound, with 60fps gameplay
Many retro LCD electronic games are shown, with original boxes, including Scramble, Space Invaders, and Nintendo Game & Watch
The Sega SG-1000 II home console from the early 1980s is demonstrated playing original games in excellent condition
A CIB copy of Pokemon Emerald is shown, including a wireless adapter, for only $66
The Nintendo Color TV Game 6 plug and play console from 1977 is playable but requires video signal adapters
A device called Kunkun is tested, detecting smell intensity, scoring mouth odor, head odor, and body odor
Chewing gum raises mouth smell score significantly on the Kunkun device
High deodorant use leads the Kunkun device to warn about relatively strong sweat odor
The Kunkun body odor tester gives confidence to not overly worry about smelling bad
Many weird, obscure, and expensive pieces of retro Japanese gaming tech are highlighted
Thank you to sponsor Acronis for their cyber protection software
Transcripts
- A huge thank you to the sponsor of this video, Acronis.
Welcome back to part two of our odyssey through Sendico,
the best spot on the internet to get some weird, wacky
and wild Japanese tech.
Oh my God, is it full of tungsten cubes?
- [Alex] I wish.
- This is our NEC PC-9821 CU16.
It's not broken or at least not shattered.
The size and the heft of this thing
is absolutely unbelievable.
I don't have an enormous amount
of information about the system.
I believe it's from the mid-90s.
It is a full PC.
It's got a Pentium processor
and originally it ran Windows 95.
It has floppy disc, CD.
It is quite yellowed, but in generally good condition.
So this is the moment of truth.
Did I spend $35 on this PC in junk condition
and then a subsequent $200
to have it shipped halfway around the world
just for it to not function
or did I spend a lot of money to get a
vaguely functional Windows 95 Japanese computer?
Let's find out, shall we?
Oh, CRT's coming to life.
Whoa.
Oh, oh, there are a lot of cracks
and maybe slightly more...
(cheering)
It works.
It works.
640 kilobits of memory.
30 megabyte hard drive, I assume.
All right, let me go
and find myself a PS2 mouse and keyboard.
See if I can get this thing somewhat functional,
but it does actually look like it works.
The CRT is very blue,
but I might be able to just tweak the color
and I just need to get it
to boot into Windows 95 and not safe mode.
But I think we've got ourselves a functional computer.
I think we might be okay.
So to get our NEC PC to work,
we have a couple of extra items.
First of all, we grabbed ourselves a voltage stepper.
So this is gonna take US 120 volts
and give you 100 volts out.
Technically, most Japanese electronics
actually work on US sort of power supplies
just because 100 and 120 volts,
like a lot of things will have
like a switching power supply.
We also tried to use a PS2 keyboard
before we realized that this is even older than that.
So we bought a Sun keyboard from the 90s
in hopes that this actually functions.
So let us see if our NEC PC is going to be
the easy peasy way to PC with me.
(cricket sounds)
Well, the screen immediately looks better, I think.
It looks sharper.
It's not doing that weird like glitchy thing.
Windows 95, okay.
Oh no, no, that's still blue, unfortunately.
There's one color and it's blue.
Do you see that?
It's like the whole screen like jumps in and out.
It feels like this may be on it's last legs.
A device file is required to run Windows.
The registry references this file, but it does not exist.
Press any key to continue.
I'm pressing any key.
Okay, you know what?
I think sometimes in life
it's important to take an L with grace.
To make me feel better edit team,
can you just make this look like it's on fire right now?
(yelling) (fire sound)
Oh my God, it's on fire.
Oh God.
This is something that I have no idea what I'm looking at.
It's like a small handheld of some variety.
A PC Engine GT.
If you're asking what's a PC Engine GT,
this is the chunkiest of chunkers.
It might not look big, but I have hands
and this is what it looks like in said hands.
It is huge.
How much did I pay for this?
Because I remember I got a little feisty
with some of the bids on this one.
- [Alex] We ended up paying
55,500 Yen for this, which translates to about $371.
- Look, they're really rare and really cool, okay?
But I basically paid as much as a PS5
for this weird obscure Japanese handheld
that no one has ever heard of.
So let's get some batteries, get some games
and see if this actually works.
A big reason why this is so heavy and chunky
is that this kind of has more in common
with the actual home console,
maybe like the arcade machines,
than it does with something like a Game Boy.
This has essentially the full performance
and in fact, compatibility,
with full home console games in the portable form factor.
Do you know how much these were when they were new?
They must have been enormously expensive.
- [Alex] So it was roughly around 45,000 Yen.
It was not a cheap thing way back in the day.
- Yeah.
So with the batteries installed,
this weighs 565 grams or over one pound.
So it is truly, for something so small, dense.
But it should give us some great performance.
Am I stalling right now because I'm afraid
to hit the power button to make sure
that our very expensive system works?
Yes, I am.
So you can see that the games for the PC Engine
came in a couple of different forms.
Even though this looks like a CD,
it actually has a card inside.
This doesn't seem like something
that's 30-year-old technology.
Like especially compared to
like a Game Boy cart or something,
like that's quite impressive.
There we go. (mellow music)
All right.
Here goes nothing.
I didn't mean that literally here goes nothing,
I meant it more like metaphorically.
(laughing)
Oh wait, hey, it's coming to life.
It just takes a minute to warm up.
(laughing)
It literally takes a minute to warm up.
- [Alex] Yeah, because it's a full fat console.
- Oh my God.
No, but the screen was like dim dim.
It just takes like 30 seconds for the pixels
to remember how to pixel.
It's gonna be hard to get on camera,
so let me actually sit down so we can get a nice tight shot
because this is gonna be real hard to see.
You can see here over here
we have actually some information.
So we have gear, we have the tire, we have a bunch of stuff.
This looks shockingly good.
Like honestly, if I put my head back in the 1990s,
we're talking over 30 years ago,
this running on a handheld is unbelievable.
I think it's clear that this was expensive,
but way, way ahead of it's time.
And this game is actually kind of playable.
When you talk about stuff that has like historical value,
when you talk about stuff that is just incredibly cool,
the kind of tech that we had,
like keep in mind that this was released a year
after the original Game Boy.
That went from a four color non-backlit display
to a full color 60 hertz backlit panel
that's running proper console games.
Am I saying some of this stuff to make myself feel better
that I spent so much money?
Yes, yes I am.
But I am so happy we got this thing.
It is just so, so damn cool.
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There's so much stuff in here.
I don't even know where to begin.
It all looks really old.
Okay, let's start with this one first,
which is Pulse Missile.
What is Pulse?
Wait, what did I buy?
Oh, it's from our big lot of all the weird stuff, isn't it?
- [Alex] Yes. - Oh.
Okay, so I got a ton of these things.
So we'll just go through them one at a time.
These are video games, bordering on toys,
would be the way I would describe it.
So we'll start out with Pulse Missile.
Oh, that's adorable.
That is actually adorable.
Look at that.
I'm gonna have some confidence that this is gonna work
because this thing looks like it's in good shape
and what could have possibly gone wrong in the last 40 years
of sitting around someone's attic or garage somewhere?
The missile shows up when I hold the fire button,
(mellow music)
but I turn left and right, nothing happens,
and fire and I press the button and it just turns red.
Vaguely functional is the way
I would describe Pulse Missile.
I'm gonna take the batteries out
so nothing else gets corroded.
And let's find some more of these little toys
and see how many of them actually work
versus how many of them have succumbed to the ages.
Boy, there's a lot.
Okay, even if these things don't work,
the original boxes are so dope.
We just like talk about like
sort of 70s and 80s, like retro cool.
So the idea with this one seems to be
that it is not Space Invader,
but an analog, cheaper, more basic version of that game.
It's a sort of more standalone thing.
And there we go, our invader from space.
Okay, we have batteries,
let's hit power and see what happens.
Oh yeah boy, start.
(beeping sound)
Oh my God, that is really obnoxiously loud.
What happens is like the screen just turns on and off.
It's really hard to play.
- [Alex] That's kind of dope.
- That is really cool.
I got a score of 105.
I didn't do very well.
This is neat.
I will give this two giant thumbs up.
I mean as a very early analog toy,
an electronic game as you might say, that's dope.
Oh wow, we got a big one here.
This is Scramble by Tomy and Konami.
Interesting.
All right, let's see what we've got here.
So this is the astronomic war game,
dynamic multi-screen with an LSI CPU.
We've got some switches here.
It looks like it is in phenomenal shape.
But this is actually kind of wild.
Let's plug it in and see what we got.
So it's a scroller
and I'm also trying to shoot all the stuff along the way.
Okay, we'll try again.
This is actually really cool.
This is much closer to a video game
that I would say in a more traditional sense.
Scramble gets two enormous thumbs up.
The fact that this thing is 40 years old
in a nearly flawless condition with the original box
for the power supply and everything,
all right, all right, I'm feeling this now.
I'm feeling this now.
This is so cool.
And then we've got ourselves
a Game and Watch Gold with Manhole.
Now, this is a little bit more of the classic Game and Watch,
so I know that we have a bunch of these style games.
How much did I pay for the lot?
- [Alex] Yeah, so for the lot,
it was a little bit on the more expensive side,
but seeing as how we dug up some like actually neat things,
like I feel a little bit better about that.
It was 27,500 Yen, which is roughly around $184 US.
- I mean, so far I'm actually pretty happy,
especially because they all have like the boxes
and mostly work short of Pulse Missile,
which is a little bit sort of scuffed.
So let's fire it up and see.
This copy is definitely not in great shape.
Oh boy, yeah, that screen's rough.
You can see what it's supposed to look like
and what it actually looks like.
And that screen is, well,
it saw better days probably in like the 90s or the 80s.
So next up we have the Sega SG-1000 II.
All you need to know is that this is
one of the very first home consoles
that Sega ever made from the early 80s
and it looks incredibly cool.
How much did I pay for this?
And please tell me that I paid for this
in good working order,
and I didn't buy a junk console.
(laughing)
- [Alex] Okay, well, let's start with the price.
- Lie to me, please.
- [Alex] The price is 18,000 Yen,
which is roughly around 122 US dollars.
(upbeat music)
- [Austin] That's fine, that's fine.
This is much more similar to a console
that we would consider
to be an actual video game console
compared to some of these earlier things,
which were, let's be honest,
a mixture of toys and electronics
and a little bit of actual tech.
Oh snap.
That's actually in good shape, isn't it?
Oh my God, that's in amazing condition.
Hold on.
I don't think this was used very much
and it's certainly been kept in incredibly good condition
over the last 40 years.
Let's try these controllers.
So it's funny.
So the controllers, they do detach,
but they have these little like homes
that you can sort of pop onto the side of the SG-1000.
I guess you slide it?
How do you get the controllers off?
I know there's a way of doing this.
So you pull it.
Oh, you pull it, okay.
I don't want to break it, okay?
So we've got ourselves two controllers,
the Sega SJ-150s.
Boy, that is sure a D-pad, all right.
I was able to find an SG-1000 II original game,
which theoretically will work.
Again, this stuff is incredibly old,
so half of this might not work at all,
but this is GP World for the SC 3000
or the SG 1000 series from 1985.
It looks really cool.
Time to activate our series of adapters, shall we?
Okay, GP World for the SG-1000 II.
This interface is truly something special.
And this is your actual gameplay.
You've got all your data up here,
your huge map and your very questionable controls here.
Wait, is it like auto steering for me?
Look, I'm not even touching it, I'm just holding the gas.
And if I hold the brake, I can slow down,
and hold the gas, I'll speed up, and I crashed.
(laughing)
Considering what this was for back in the day
and the fact that it works,
I would consider that to be a win.
So when I saw a boxed copy of Pokemon Emerald,
I couldn't say no.
I mean, how could you say no to this?
Now, I don't know if it actually came with that adapter.
I don't remember what the listing said,
but let's take a look, shall we?
All right, so...
Oh, we got it.
Oh, it came with the adapter.
Yes.
You would take it and hook it up to your Game Boy.
Now, this was made for Game Boy Advance.
I think it works with the SP
as well as the normal Game Boys.
You attach it here, there you go.
And then you press this to release it.
So with that, I could wirelessly battle
and trade with my friends
without needing to deal with the link cable.
All right, only one thing left for it.
Let's actually make sure our game functions
and then let's see what we got here.
We got Sceptile.
Sometimes a Wailord, that's a questionable move.
So this is fully functional.
Now, of course, how comfortable you are
with playing a Japanese copy of the game
is gonna depend on how much you
have brushed up on your reading Japanese skills.
I'm clearly a kanji expert.
I can read three to four characters in the whole world.
(beeping)
How much did I pay for this copy
of Pokemon Emerald complete in box?
- [Alex] So it was just under 10,000 Yen,
which is roughly 66 US dollars.
- If you want to buy a complete in box copy
of Pokemon Emerald, I bet that would cost you like $300.
I'm not even exaggerating.
So the fact that we can get this for a fraction
and it comes with more stuff, it's cool.
Plus this holo pattern makes me feel something inside
that I haven't felt since the year 2005.
Joy.
Next up we have yet another large box.
Oh snap.
We're going old school yet again.
Nintendo has a long and storied history
of making toys, sus things, sus places and Mario.
But in between some of that, in the late 70s and early 80s
before the NES that we all know and love,
Nintendo were out here making some interesting stuff.
You know, there's obviously the Game and Watch.
There's also this.
This is the Nintendo TV Game Six.
Now, you could largely argue that this is the first
proper Nintendo console.
This is much more similar to something like Pong
or the Odyssey.
And that is a proper portable-ish
console designed for your TV.
How much was this again?
It's like not that much money, right?
- [Alex] Well you will be happy to know
that it is one of our cheaper items at 8,500 Yen,
roughly around 57 US dollars.
- [Austin] Brilliant.
And there you go.
Oh, it's actually pretty nice.
So I don't know why early consoles all decided
that even though you're going to plug this into your TV,
you're not gonna include a power adapter,
but instead use a bunch of big ass batteries.
It only says Nintendo here, which I guess makes sense
because if you think about it, no one...
Well, I don't want to say no knew what Nintendo was,
but Nintendo was like, you know,
they made like toys and games and stuff.
They weren't really a massive household name.
So Color TV Game Six was the name they had
for the great, great, great, great, great, great,
great-grandfather of the Nintendo Switch.
So when it comes to the Nintendo Color TV Game Six,
the problem is that because this is sold
and so foreign to a US-based television,
we have to go through a series of adapters,
which as you can see, works,
but has completely destroyed the image quality.
So this is good as we got,
but let's give it a try nonetheless.
So it is essentially Pong, from my understanding.
Oh wait, where's the ball?
Oh, I saw, I saw, I saw it.
I saw it, okay.
I finally saw it.
Ah, yeah.
All right, here's the thing.
This is not very playable.
I wish we had sort of better image quality for it,
but ultimately this does work.
And someday if we can find a better way
of getting an actual video signal out of it,
we can enjoy Mario Pong
like 10 years before Mario was invented.
All right.
What?
Oh, it's this stupid (quacking sound).
Okay.
So this is a thing I shouldn't have bought.
It's weird.
It's not even that old.
So this is the Konica Minolta Kunkun.
It tells you if something is stinky.
I love Japan.
Sure, we'll just go with it.
So after struggling with the Kunkun for quite a while,
we now have it properly paired
and ready to test to see how stinky I really am.
- To calibrate it, we took it to
a Magic The Gathering tournament.
(laughing)
- So I'm gonna put it really close.
I'm going to see if my breath stinks.
Ready, and.
(blowing sound)
- [Ken] Does the score go over 200?
- We were able to detect mouth odor.
Wait, what?
Oh, we were able to measure mouth odor.
Okay, my results are three out of 100.
- [Alex] That's very good.
- That's pretty good.
- [Alex] Yay.
- Who wants to smell my breath?
- [Ken] No.
(laughing) (blowing breath sound)
(indistinct)
- All right, I'll be real.
That was pretty neutral.
I didn't actually...
I was sniffing.
- Wait, what if I chew gum and then try it again?
I'm gonna see if by chewing some gum,
if it can improve my neutral smell.
(upbeat music)
- [Matt] Oh, the noises.
- I've got to aggressively chew.
So clearly, my breath now smells like gum.
If it detects the odor,
then I actually should have a higher number.
- [Ken] You sound like a dude
that found out how to beat a breathalyzer test
and are like making a TikTok about it.
(blowing breath sound)
Oh my God.
- Oh my God, I got up to a 49 of 100.
(laughing)
So it is.
It's just detecting smell.
Not good or bad.
It's not distinguishing that, it's just smell.
So I went from a three with no gum to a 49 with gum.
This is science right here, I tell you, science.
All right, so now it's gonna tell me if my head smells.
Okay.
The answer is my head is, oh, oh, oh, oh my goodness.
I just got a 93 of 100 for my head smell.
(laughing)
So I'm wearing deodorant right now.
So I'm theoretically thinking that it's gonna smell
that deodorant and give me a high score.
Yep, we got it.
Okay.
The score is...
Wow, it's pretty good.
39 out of 100.
And again, it is that same, quote unquote,
sweat odor that it's seeing.
I'm a little worried about the smell.
The smell of sweat seems to be relatively strong.
Use deodorant, idiot.
(laughing)
So you know what?
Kunkun body odor tester remover 9000,
I now feel more confident that I can walk into a room
and not pull a SpongeBob of (blowing breath sound)
and everyone just fainting.
- Do you guys want to hear a bathroom joke?
- You trying to kill us?
- And thank you again to Acronis
for sponsoring this video.
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