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#1
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Harder series to complete: Nippon Columbia or Tokuma Japan?
Both Nippon Columbia and Tokuma Japan produced a series of old classic VGM albums, many of which are difficult to find. The albums for each series in question are below.
Of these two series, which one do folks think is the hardest one to assemble a complete set? Nippon Columbia CA-3393 Super Mario Brothers 1. 2. 3. -Hop! Step! Jump!- CA-3838 Super Mario Land CA-4378 F1 Triple Battle CA-4377 Fire Pro Wrestling Combination Tag CA-4473 Famicom Graffiti: Nintendo Cartridge Edition CA-4474 Famicom Graffiti: Nintendo Disk Card Edition CA-4549 Chikudenya Toubei: Hiroku Kubikiri Yakata CA-4706 Takeda Shingen COCA-6327 Game Boy Graffiti COCA-6648 Insector X COCA-6675 Fire Emblem ~Character Theme Collection~ COCA-6839 Famicle Parodic 2 COCA-6840 Shiten-Myooh COCA-6898 Vasteel COCA-6969~70 Game Music Graffiti COCA-7049 Dragon Tail Tokuma Japan TKCA-30068 Takeda Shingen 2 TKCA-30069 Cyber Core TKCA-30096 Sindibad: Chitei no Daimakyuu TKCA-30097 Devil Crash / Alien Crush TKCA-30155 Teketeke! Asmik-kun World TKCA-30156 CD Technopolis Vol.1, PC Game Music Collection TKCA-30276 Gorby no Pipeline Daisakusen TKCA-30298 Blue Almanac TKCA-30378 Chachamaru Game Music TKCA-30377 Masaya Omnibus: Langrisser, Gynoug & Head Buster TKCA-30391 Fire Pro Wrestling 2nd Bout TKCA-30392 Chaos World TKCA-30516 F-ZERO Last edited by Rrolack; Jun 7, 2018 at 08:07 PM. |
#2
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That's a tough one. Each one would come down to toughest single album to get. Of the Columbia ones, Famicle Parodic 2 is the one that notoriously hard to find. You'd also probably have a tough time finding Fire Pro Wrestling Combination Tag and Insector X. The others strike me as being potentially expensive (especially Super Mario Land and Chikudenya Toubei), but not necessarily hard to find. I am missing 7 of that set.
As for the Tokuma collection, they all seem to be really hard to find. I've been buying VGM for almost 20 years, and I've never seen an auction for Chachamaru Game Music or Fire Pro Wrestling 2nd Bout (not that I have been continually looking). I got 5 of these albums in one lot about 10 years ago, and was fortunate to find another forum member selling a few others. F-Zero is readily available, and CD Technopolis and Masaya Omnibus are probably the next easiest ones in that set to find, but the others are a beast. I won an auction for Devil's Crush once, and the seller never shipped it. I think it took about a year to find another copy. At this point, the only one I'm missing is F-Zero, but some of my copies are incomplete. So, I'd say it's easiest to get an almost compete set of the Columbia albums. For the totally complete set, I'd say it's probably equally difficult because Famicle Parodic 2 and Chachamaru Game Music are both so difficult to find. |
#3
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Crash, that all sounds mostly in line with my experience.
If I were to score the difficulty of finding each album out of 10, where 1 is easiest and 10 is hardest, I'd probably score them as I have below. Interestingly people talk about Chachamaru and Famicle Parodic 2 as being outrageously hard to find, but don't really talk about Dragon Tail, which I'd say is similarly elusive. 1/10 F-ZERO 2/10 Famicom Graffiti: Nintendo Disk Card Edition Fire Emblem ~Character Theme Collection~ 3/10 Super Mario Brothers 1. 2. 3. -Hop! Step! Jump!- CD Technopolis Vol.1, PC Game Music Collection Super Mario Land 4/10 Famicom Graffiti: Nintendo Disk Card Edition Masaya Omnibus: Langrisser, Gynoug & Head Buster 5/10 Devil Crash / Alien Crush Blue Almanac 6/10 F1 Triple Battle Shiten-Myooh Vasteel Cyber Core Game Boy Graffiti Sindibad: Chitei no Daimakyuu 7/10 Game Music Graffiti Chikudenya Toubei: Hiroku Kubikiri Yakata Gorby no Pipeline Daisakusen 8/10 Insector X Fire Pro Wrestling Combination Tag Takeda Shingen 2 Chaos World 9/10 Teketeke! Asmik-kun World Fire Pro Wrestling 2nd Bout Takeda Shingen 10/10 Famicle Parodic 2 Dragon Tail Chachamaru Game Music Last edited by Rrolack; Jul 1, 2018 at 11:42 AM. |
#4
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I'd say the difficulty of acquiring each set is enough to scare most people away. In fact, if just 5 people at this site wanted to make complete sets of those, I'd say 4 of those 5 people would never succeed, no matter how hard they tried (there aren't enough copies out there). But I'm talking about people not living in Japan. All of my experiences are based on using the internet to acquire this stuff.
I would suspect that if one had the financial means to stay in Japan for an extended period and hire some help, it would be possible to greatly increase the chances of completing those sets. Most of us here are creating a definition of rarity based on using the internet. Not many people here have experience searching for these albums, in person, in Japan. Is it really worth it to complete those sets? No, it's not. Some of those albums are stinkers and not really worth the effort. Some of them are decent and worth listening to, but the effort needed to acquire them is hard to justify. Not matter what, no matter how bad some of them are, it is an accomplishment to find them, simply due to the enormous amount of time it takes. It's self-satisfaction taken to extreme levels. EDIT: I think both sets are equally voracious in terms of time consumption. Either set is going to push you to the limits of what you can tolerate.
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#5
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Here's my rating of each album.
Exceptional = Far better than average, worth the price and time. Decent = Average, has some good tracks. Might be better off downloading. Stinker = Not worth it. Find a way to download. Nippon Columbia CA-3393 Super Mario Brothers 1. 2. 3. -Hop! Step! Jump!- [Exceptional] CA-3838 Super Mario Land [Decent] CA-4378 F1 Triple Battle [Exceptional] CA-4377 Fire Pro Wrestling Combination Tag [Exceptional] CA-4473 Famicom Graffiti: Nintendo Cartridge Edition [Decent] CA-4474 Famicom Graffiti: Nintendo Disk Card Edition [Decent] CA-4549 Chikudenya Toubei: Hiroku Kubikiri Yakata [Exceptional] CA-4706 Takeda Shingen [Decent] COCA-6327 Game Boy Graffiti [Decent] COCA-6648 Insector X [Exceptional] COCA-6675 Fire Emblem ~Character Theme Collection~ [Decent] COCA-6839 Famicle Parodic 2 [Stinker] COCA-6840 Shiten-Myooh [Decent] COCA-6898 Vasteel [Exceptional] COCA-6969~70 Game Music Graffiti [Decent] COCA-7049 Dragon Tail [Stinker] Tokuma Japan TKCA-30068 Takeda Shingen 2 [Decent] TKCA-30069 Cyber Core [Exceptional] TKCA-30096 Sindibad: Chitei no Daimakyuu [Exceptional] TKCA-30097 Devil Crash / Alien Crush [Decent] TKCA-30155 Teketeke! Asmik-kun World [Stinker] TKCA-30156 CD Technopolis Vol.1, PC Game Music Collection [Decent] TKCA-30276 Gorby no Pipeline Daisakusen [Stinker] TKCA-30298 Blue Almanac [Decent] TKCA-30378 Chachamaru Game Music [Decent] TKCA-30377 Masaya Omnibus: Langrisser, Gynoug & Head Buster [Decent] TKCA-30391 Fire Pro Wrestling 2nd Bout [Decent] TKCA-30392 Chaos World [Decent] TKCA-30516 F-ZERO [Exceptional] If I could only choose one Nippon Columbia album to have, it would be Insector X. As for Tokuma Japan, I would choose F-ZERO. It would tear me up to forever lose Cyber Core and Sindibad, but F-ZERO is better.
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#6
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Didn't know people thought about collecting whole series like this. I just buy what I like to listen to. Only one of these I have is F-Zero and there's only two or three others here I'd even want to get.
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#7
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In general, the quality of the arrangements for both of these series are superior. There is something about these albums that make them fun to listen to. At the time, sound hardware was rather primitive, so composers generally leaned towards making catchy, melodic tunes, which makes the music more memorable, and this was before the loudness wars that have resulted in increased dynamic compression. The engineering is fantastic, and if you're listening on a resolving sound system, many of them sound incredible.
The Tokuma albums are an easily identifiable series, since the spines are numbered 1 to 13, so they lend themselves well to collecting. Of the Columbia albums, I like Super Mario Land the best. Insector X has unbelievable engineering, and is very impressive, but I like Super Mario Land's melodies better. I like the Graffiti albums, too, but think there are other albums with the same source material that do as good or better job (Toy Music, Game Boy Music GSM Nintendo 2). As for Tokuma, my favorite is Devil Crash, probably due to nostalgia. Cyber Core and Chaos World are also fantastic. Teketeke Asmik-kun World is an abomination: it's downright unlistenable. |
#8
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The other series that I often associate with these two is the M's Labo series produced by O'Bits. Again, high quality arrangements that put most other albums to shame.
MECG-28001 Double Dragon II ~ The Revenge MECG-28002 V'Ball MECG-28003 Super Mario Bros. Special MECG-28004 Ninja Ryukenden II - Ankoku no Jashin Ken MECG-28005 Nekketsu High School Dodgeball Club Soccer Edition MECG-28006 System Soft Super Simulation Sound Only six albums, so it's easier to get them all, but the Double Dragon and Ninja Ryukenden albums can get pricey. |
#9
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Another series is the Platz series, which is also small:
PLCE-901 TETRIS PLCE-902 Symphonic Synth Suite 46okunen Monogatari -THE Shinkaron- PLCE-903 HATRIS PLCE-904 Might and Magic As for why these are fun to collect, I'm not sure. I see it as a piece of video game history, similar to Nintendo's Game & Watch titles, but less appreciated by the masses. Also, the chase sure is fun. |
#10
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Quote:
My impetus for collecting those was simply to satisfy curiosity. I didn't know if some of them were good or bad, and oftentimes obtaining samples, even low quality mp3 files, was impossible. I had finished the process for finding all of those by 2014 - it had started in 2000. I found almost all of them physically, with the exception of a few Columbia albums, but I did manage to hear them through cd-r trading. The process was hindered by not having correct album titles for some of them. I estimate I could have finished finding all of them by 2004 if I had had correct album titles.
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#11
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I was perusing my dictionary this morning and found two words that explain the market situation surrounding these old albums:
1. oligopoly 2. oligopsony
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#12
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#13
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Very nice Crash. I've managed to find 12 of the 13 albums; still on the lookout for Chachamaru.
Pretty spot on. |
#14
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By the way, if we’re talking about a set which is complete with all obis, then the old G.M.O. series of albums is extremely hard to complete. Many albums in this series are wicked hard to find with the obi. I think it’s because discarding obis was more common in the 1980s tha n in the 1990s.
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#15
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I have now completed a Tokuma Japan set as well. Here is an image. Just missing one obi, but I'm pretty happy with this.
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#16
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Fantastic sets both of you :thumbsup: Definitely a journey to complete either of these classic sets.
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#17
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I'm a little late to the party but still love what I've acquired from the Tokuma series so far. I even ended up with some albums being sealed Though I have to admit the Nippon Columbia albums are much harder to obtain in my oppinion, especially if you want them complete with obi and stickers. Then again I find the T GAME MUSIC series much more collectible since these have been split up in volumes.
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#18
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Wow, a sealed Fire Pro Wrestling 2nd Bout!! That’s the one album I’m still trying to find an obi for.
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#19
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Two more Tokuma albums and finally some Nippon Columbia love Some of these arrangements are truly top-notch, most notably Famicom Graffiti and Sindibad. Looking forward on acquiring more!
PS: Thanks @Crash for helping me out on some of these, really appreciate it! |
#20
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Finally an update on these awesome arrangement series. Found another Tokuma album and several more Nippon Columbia ones. The air is defo getting thinner now But I won't give up, these are just too satisfying to collect
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#21
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very sexy
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#22
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Thanks! I was a little disappointed from the Super Mario Land arrangement though. It's still good but not as good as Nintendo G.S.M. 2. Masaya, Takeda and the Famicom Graffiti are the best of this bunch imo.
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#23
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If I had to choose, just for collection purposes, I'd get just the ones with Mario and the Famicom/GB covers, which look great next to each other, like some sort of sub-set.
Do they all come with a registration card, or some sort of bonus? I only have CA-4377, bought randomly and turned out to be sealed, so I just leave it be in a drawer. I think of Splatterhouse when I look at the cover. |
#24
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Yeah, the Nintendo soundtracks are well worth getting them. All of the arrangements are great and perhaps the best you can get for the classic games.
Most of the Nippon Columbia CDs include 3 stickers, the obi and a leaflet (no stickers on the Nintendo Game Music Graffiti compilation). The first four entries from Tokuma T Game Music include a registration card. |
#25
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Lo and behold! I managed to grab a copy of Famicle Parodic 2 This one has really good music too in my oppinion. Very varied with great dynamics, however the arrangements are far off from the original music unfortunately. But I won't complain Also very happy about the Suite Yuuyuuki CD. It's not Fujiwara's best arrangement (this price would go to Wizardry) but still very solid.
In regard to the original title of this thread I would say the most difficult series is Nippon Columbia - as tape! After doing quite some extensive research for the accumulated CDs here I never came accross a cassette tape of the same album. These seem to be incredibly rare, like 10 copies each rare If Famicle Parodic 2 is hard to find as CD, it becomes impossible as cassette tape. I didn't find a single tape for sale since starting collecting these series one year ago. If I ever come accross one I'll just buy it for rarity! Also vgmdb doesn't even has pictures for many of them. I just added two more pictures I found on the web (Chikudenya Toubei & Fire Emblem) but that's mostly about it unfortunately For completeness here's the list of the Nippon Columbia tapes CAR-1645 Super Mario Brothers 1. 2. 3. -Hop! Step! Jump!- CAY-1370 Super Mario Land CCL-3008 F1 Triple Battle CCL-3007 Fire Pro Wrestling Combination Tag CCL-3012 Famicom Graffiti: Nintendo Disk Card Edition CCL-3011 Famicom Graffiti: Nintendo Cartridge Edition CCL-3016 Chikudenya Toubei: Hiroku Kubikiri Yakata CCL-3017 Suite Yuuyuuki CCL-3021 Takeda Shingen COTA-1108 Game Boy Graffiti COTA-1274 Insector X COTA-1288 Fire Emblem ~Character Theme Collection~ COTA-1355 Famicle Parodic 2 COTA-1356 Shiten-Myooh COTA-1393 Vasteel COTA-1432 Dragon Tail Last edited by suicider; Apr 27, 2023 at 08:58 PM. |
#26
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I'm still making progress here. Slowly, but I'm getting there Finally found a cassette tape version of the early Tokuma releases. These also seem to be very rare, first one I saw for sale. Therefor I've compiled a list for the Tokuma cassette tapes, some of them aren't even in the db, nor can I confirm the existence for the first two unfortunately.
TKTA-?????? Takeda Shingen 2 TKTA-?????? Cyber Core TKTA-20042 Sindibad: Chitei no Daimakyuu TKTA-20043 Devil Crash / Alien Crush TKTA-20075 Teketeke! Asmik-kun World TKTA-20076 CD Technopolis Vol.1, PC Game Music Collection TKTA-20130 Gorby no Pipeline Daisakusen |
#27
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I'm a little late to notice, but that's some serious luck to have found Famicle Parodic 2 and Yuuyuuki in that condition. In fact, finding Famicle Parodic 2 in any condition takes a lot of luck. I do agree that Wizardry is better than Yuuyuuki, and I've also been slowly warming up to Famicle Parodic 2. I was pretty let down by it at first, but when it comes to audio mastering, it's about the same as other Columbia albums from that time. Even the terrible Dragon Tail is made somewhat tolerable by the quality mastering.
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