07/01/00

Pat’s Big Fat European Vacation

I’m back from my two-week tour of various parts of Europe, and I have seen the state of their video games. As always, I have commentary.

First, I must say that no matter how I tried, I couldn’t find a video arcade in the countries we visited (Germany, Austria, Italy (Venice), Hungary (Budapest) or Slovakia). The closest I found to an arcade was a tiny game room nestled in the corner of a bowling alley/pool hall in Austria. This "arcade" consisted of a few pinball machines, and both Cruis’n USA and Cruis’n World, and a video poker game.

I did, however, manage to scout out several stores that sold video games, and was able to spend some time snooping through their wares and their gaming mags.

My first big find was a monster electronics store in Austria called, ironically, Saturn. This behemoth shopping mecca filled the entire top floor of a multi-level shopping plaza, and carried all manner of audio, video and of course, gaming merchandise. My first stop was their huge Playstation aisle. I immediately noticed that in Europe, PS jewel cases are cooler than they are in the U.S. They are closer in size to the cases Capcom uses for some of their Japanese titles. I also noticed that European gamers get some really cool stuff that isn’t popping up over here. For example, Konami’s Beatmania is selling for about $60 for the game and one turntable controller. I also noticed, and drooled over, Capcom Generations 1,2 & 3 Collection, for $25. That’s a 3-disc set, with the 1944 series, the Ghouls N’ Ghosts series, and the Street Fighter 2 Collection, bundled together! Unbelievable. Sometimes, I hate American gamers and their mainstream tastes. I also noted a few title changes – Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater is simply Tony Hawk’s Skateboarder, and Street Sk8ter drops the "8" for the obvious reason that "8" isn’t pronounced "ate" in Germany, to become Street Skater. Interestingly, many of the games I saw retained their English titles. Much of the box art is different, with mixed results. Over in the Dreamcast section, I noticed that blue is the signature DC color as opposed to Orange here in the states. DC boxes are blue, and so are the opaque plastic parts on their (also larger and cooler) jewel cases. I didn’t really bother with the small N64 section, except to note that there was nothing exciting going on over there. The biggest surprise in the Saturn store was the Neo Geo Pocket stock. You may have read this over in the Forum already, so skip ahead to the next paragraph if you dislike redundancy. Saturn was clearing out its stock of SNKs failed handheld, selling the system for 200 Austrian Schillings, or about $30. Games were priced in the $10-$15 range. I watched as one kid grabbed 5 systems and multiple copies of several games, probably to sell on eBay or similar web sites. The selection I saw was pretty good, with several SNK fighters available, as well as Metal Slug 1, Pac-Man, Puzzle Bobble Mini, Baseball Stars, Tennis and an RPG.

The next stores I found selling games were a German department store and an Austrian toy store. The department store was much like Sears, and it’s game selection left much to be desired. The toy store had a better selection, but they were similarly overpriced.

I happened upon one small game outlet, similar to Game Hits, which sold used games for all systems. They even had some Neo Geo titles in stock, priced at about $75. I found this shop about a week after I visited Saturn, and I assume that by this point in time, Neo Geo Pocket systems were all but gone in Europe, since this store had an imported American system and a handful of games, priced outrageously high. They were asking for $100 for the system itself, and $50-60 per game! Since I am nowhere near fluent in German, I was unable to tell the clerk that he was an idiot.

That’s about it for the video game side of my adventure. As for the countries themselves, here’s the rundown:

Germany: The people are a lot like Americans – uptight, hurried and sometimes rude. I guess maybe they’re still a little upset that we bombed the hell out of their country 45 years ago.

Austria: Freakishly clean, and pretty much everybody there would go out of his or her way to help you if you looked like you needed it. I’m serious; these are probably the nicest people on the planet. Also, some of the small towns we visited are a skateboarder’s dream. Also, the city of Graz has a couple of really nice Irish pubs, with Guinness that’s nearly up to the standards of a discriminating Irishman. Stay away from the Austrian beer Zipfer, though.

Venice: Dirty and kind of smelly, Venice is just a big tourist trap. You have to go really far into the mazelike streets and tight alleyways if you want to see the true Venice, and by that time, you’re hopelessly lost. The gondola drivers talk on cell phones as they operate their boats. Also, Italians will try to steal from you whenever they can… at least that’s what our driver said.

Budapest: This is a really impressive burg, actually two cities, Buda and Pest, on opposite sides of the Danube River. Lots of tourist traps, but some of the architecture and vistas are breathtaking. Also, in their central park are two sections of the Berlin Wall.

Slovakia: Ironically, the hotel we stayed at in Bratislave was by far the nicest on the whole trip, but the people were stand-offish and the border crossing was a nightmare. Excellent beer, though – the brand Zlaty Bazant is really quite impressive. My sister-in-Law’s boyfriend Denis and I visited an Irish pub here and we drank the Slovakian brew instead of Irish fare… and he’s Irish!

Well, there it is… I went, I saw, I’m glad to be back.

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