Any PCB Shops left in Tokyo Japan?

[hedorah]

Going to Japan next week, been almost 5 years since my last visit and I was wondering if there are any PCB shops left in Tokyo besides Mak? Gfront and Try seem to be gone? Any others that exist thats open to the public?

[SuperDeadite]

Beep does PCB sales, but it's just an extra for them so selection is small. Cool shop to visit either way though.

[JBueno MD]

The Surugaya that's next to BEEP in Akiba also carries a few PCBs and arcade related stuff.

[parodius]

The Surugaya that's next to BEEP in Akiba also carries a few PCBs and arcade related stuff.

Surugaya has surprisingly a fair amount of PCBs, actually. Not cheap though, make sure to ask for tax refund as they will do it for you, while most of the other shops don't (Mandarake does as well but doesn't carry arcade stuff).

Besides those yeah, only Mak remains, AFAIK.

[Pointman]

I wonder how MAK copes in the new arcade scene in Japan. There seems to be very few game centres now that cater to old style games, with many games being in the tens of thousands. I imagine that is why GFront and Try went under. Does MAK cater more to the collector nowadays? Their shop is too small to house a Star Wars Battle Pod cabinet for sale.

[SuperDeadite]

I'd be careful of buying PCBs from Suruguya. They basically have no idea what they are doing. I even had a Japanese friend that they were going to hire as their English speaker when they opened up overseas sales on their website (which they shut down 2 weeks later cause they couldn't handle it), but he turned down the job cause the place was an absolute clusterfuck of a company. Many years ago I bought an X68000 off their website, it was listed as Monitor included. When the system arrived there was no monitor. I sent them a polite email, they apologized and said they forgot to ship it. XD They fixed the issue, but how the fuck do you forget about something as large as a 15'' CRT? And with PCBs, there is a lot more that can go wrong. Consider them a last resort kind of place. I've had a lot of good deals from them over the years, but they are a different world then a fantastic shop like Mak or Beep.

[llaoyllakcuf]

G-Front & Try are still around, both shops are active on twitter and regularly update their stock.

https://twitter.com/gfront
https://twitter.com/gfront_shop
http://gfront.hornet.co.jp/itemlist2016/

https://twitter.com/PCBSHOP_TRY
http://www.try-inc.co.jp/pcb_shop/kakaku.htm

Apparently G-Front relocated to another building in Tokyo. I'm not certain but you might have to call them in advance before visiting. No idea about Try though.


Edit: there's also a very small place (like just one counter) that opened up last year called KVC lab.

https://kvc.jp
https://twitter.com/KVClab

[hedorah]

Excellent!

Thanks for all the replies, definitely still shops out there I just clearly wasn't looking hard enough.

[parodius]

Apparently G-Front relocated to another building in Tokyo. I'm not certain but you might have to call them in advance before visiting. No idea about Try though.

Oh yeah, I was talking about brick-and-mortar shops.
The new G-Front office is really just that, an office, I've actually been there with a Japanese acquaintance in august '18 : the guy from G-Front opened the door, gave us his business card (still have it somewhere) and told us they handle sales exclusively online now.
I had a glimpse at what it looked like inside but we weren't invited to come in, and it would have involved us removing our shoes and wearing slippers like the guy did.
Don't waste your time trying to go there, I don't think they even have any of their stock at this location, and I'm not sure how they get new stock.

[parodius]

I'd be careful of buying PCBs from Suruguya. They basically have no idea what they are doing.

I've bought a couple of pretty expensive PCBs (that I couldn't find anywhere else) from their shop in Akiba, and while I can't speak for their online services, you can actually see what you're buying, and everything went quite smoothly for me .
They are not specialized in PCBs though, so they will not offer to show/check the working game there, unlike MAK/Try/G-Front would do, as they don't even have a supergun setup in the shop.
They will reassure you that's it's been tested before being wrapped and put on display.

Haven't bought any PCB from Beep but I wouldn't be surprised if they had a supergun setup behind the counter to test them, I don't remember.
Actually I did buy a junk (=non working/to repair) PCB from them, but for obvious reasons they didn't offer to show it running.

[egg_sanwich]

G front is still around, I visited last fall. They don’t really do retail though, but if you go to the address listed on their site/google and knock on the door he might let you in.

I checked out their inventory online beforehand and just asked for what I wanted. He had no problem letting me in and selling it to me.

[parodius]

Oh Ok, then I guess we turned our heels too fast.
Definitely not as customer friendly as a regular shop though.

[tommyb]

Can confirm that BEEP! has a supergun behind the counter. I picked up an ESPG2 full kit from there in July and basically everyone in the store dropped what they were doing to help package it and test it. He was willing to play it as far as I wanted him to in order to prove that it was in working order. Very pleasant purchasing experience.

[tommyb]

I wonder how MAK copes in the new arcade scene in Japan. There seems to be very few game centres now that cater to old style games, with many games being in the tens of thousands. I imagine that is why GFront and Try went under. Does MAK cater more to the collector nowadays? Their shop is too small to house a Star Wars Battle Pod cabinet for sale.

Mak's selection and store setup seemed very geared to collectors. They even had a lot of PS4/XB1/XB360 arcade sticks and accessories to get PCBs working at home.

[JBueno MD]

Can confirm that BEEP! has a supergun behind the counter. I picked up an ESPG2 full kit from there in July and basically everyone in the store dropped what they were doing to help package it and test it. He was willing to play it as far as I wanted him to in order to prove that it was in working order. Very pleasant purchasing experience.

Awesome. Wanted to pick a Galuda 2 kit too, but I only found the PCB last time I went in February. Going again next month, hope I can get it now.