What was the first import game you played? By import, I mean any game that wasn’t officially released in your region. If you’re not sure, just list some early ones you remember.
I’m not totally sure what the first one was for me. My region is North America and it was likely a PAL region Commodore 64 game. These would make the rounds in the local copying scene and I had no idea they were technically imports: games like Super Pipeline, Skool Daze, Lazy Jones, and A Journey to the Centre of the Earth.
Super Pipeline had a fast paced arcade vibe to it. Skool Daze was unique because you could play a bully and frame other kids. Lazy Jones was like the Wario Ware of the '80s, a mix of games of the past in mini form. A Journey to the Centre of the Earth was pretty frustrating but it was cool for being an early example of what today gets called “Metroidvanias”.
For games from Japan, it’s easier for me. I remember seeing the Famicom for the first time at a friend’s house and playing Super Arabian. I thought it was a great platformer.
The Saturn port of Waku Waku 7 with an action replay cart was the first import that I bought. Had a lot of good memories of playing the game in my local arcade and so had to have it when I learned of the ports existence. That then opened my eyes to the Saturn’s arcade port library and down the rabbit hole I went…
The first import that I played was an Japanese copy of Final Fight for the SNES at a local independent store, it was absolute magic seeing it run outside of the arcade for the first time. Whilst it did eventually get a PAL release this was back when it would take years for stuff to be released over here.
The first game I’ve ever imported, and probably the first or one of the first game I bought online was Riglord Saga 2 for the Sega Saturn. I played a lot of the first one, Mystaria, and when it became clear that the second one would never get a localisation I started trying to look for ways to get the Japanese release. I thought it wouldn’t be so difficult to play as I knew the mechanisms of the first game really well. But I just couldn’t get through the first battle, couldn’t understand the menus, and so I gave up playing it. Now I’m waiting for a translation that will never come.
The second game I imported, and this time played successfully, was Digital Pinball Necronomicon. Again, I was a fan of the first one (and I still believe them to be the best, most realistic pinball games on any consoles until Pinball FX and Pinball Arcade) while I was not a fan of the theme, I enjoyed having more tables to play on. And then I got Digital Pinball 97, which was a bug fixed release of the original game.
My aunt gave me for Christmas Rockman 2 along with an adapter to play it on my NES as a kid. I never played the NA Mega Man 2 until years later and had no idea there was a difficulty setting.
I think it was probably a rom hack of something back when I was a little kid discovering roms on the internet. My first proper import was as a collector later on as an adult - probably a Famicom with Disk System and Nazo No Murasamejo, AKA The Mysterious Murasame Castle. I really wanted to check it out based on the minigame that was in Nintendo World on Wii U and by that point I was obsessed with only playing on authentic hardware. So I imported it and it was totally worth it.
That’s a great question. I think it would have to be on Saturn as I never imported during the 16-bit era even though I now have a rather large part of my SNES collection in imports due to costs. I think it was probably Radiant Silvergun at a buddy’s house because he imported it at release.
Hope you don’t mind me bumping this old thread because I found the topic very interesting!
The first import game I ever played was probably Moero! Nekketsu Rhythm Damashii Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan 2 on DS. I was obsessed with Elite Beat Agents and had exhausted everything it had to offer me, so I bought Ouendan 2 on Amazon for $50 of my hard-earned money at 16 years old.
Final Fight SFC, because I bought an SFC a few months after its release and I was a big fan of the arcade Final Fight.
Then F-Zero, Super Mario World etc
Import games were hard to get hold of for me before Lik Sang and Play-Asia in the early 2000s.
But being obsessed with Pokemon as a kid, I remember one of my mother’s friends was visiting Japan and she brought back copies of the upcoming Pokemon generations - I’ve still got my Pokemon Silver from back then!
I don’t think I’ll ever have that feeling again of playing through a hotly anticipated game that magazines just weren’t interested in covering in detail.
There were a few handheld-focused magazines at the time, like Planet Game Boy, but this was an era where most magazines weren’t taking handheld gaming seriously, even Edge magazine didn’t review Game Boy or Game Boy Color games.
Pokemon fever was very much a phenomenon in the west by the late 90s (even Saturday morning live children’s TV series leaned into it) so having the opportunity to delve into the next generation of games that no one really knew anything about was, in hindsight, amazing.
Wow! You’ve kept that game in immaculate condition! Respect!
That mention of Lik Sang takes me back… Very useful during the fifth and sixth generations.
I’ve always been open to importing for handhelds due to their region-free nature (with the unfortunate exception of 3DS). Despite that, I think the earliest import game I played was Sin and Punishment.
Hah, that’s respect to my mother, she used to open the Nintendo wrapping from the games from the top with a knife, take the game cartridge out, hand me that, and store the box/manual separately. She understood the importance of the growing hobby which is cool, instead of seeing it as a fad or a waste of time.
Kid me didn’t appreciate it at the time, of course, but I sure do now! I’ll have to post photos of my Pokemon Yellow - while it was open the Nintendo wrapping/seal is still very much intact, which helped protect the box.
