This is what a coin-operated NES looks like
While it's not unusual to be loved by anyone for hotels to include video game services, Japan used to do it arcade-style with coin-operated consoles (like the one shown above). 100 JPY (approximately $1 USD) would net you 10-15 minutes with a Famicom (NES), which means you'd have to lay down about $2 or $3 to for a satisfactory amount of this blogger's hotel staple, Punch-Out!!. The Super Famicom (SNES), though, was a bit more coin-hungry, and the $1 equivalent would only last five minutes -- yikes. Still, we're sure that if we visited Japan during the magical time that these boxes were hooked-up to hotel TVs, we would have let go of a few coins for some quick bouts of Mario and such.
[Via Kotaku]
[Via Kotaku]






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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Nushio (NDF - Blue) @ Apr 18th 2008 11:07PM
Wow. For 5 bucks, I can get Punchout on the Virtual Console.
Suddenly, the games available feel ever so slightly cheaper, though I still hate their DRM.
THE WICKER MAN (BWF) (GT: Dalek Prime) @ Apr 19th 2008 12:22AM
Owwy wowy.
Brento @ Apr 19th 2008 7:01AM
Here in American motels there are far better alternatives to spend your $9.99 for entertainment on the television set than videogames.
James @ Apr 21st 2008 11:37AM
Yeah, but in Japan they're stuck with this, because with what you're talking about they're required by law to blur out the good parts =-)
Uh, not that I'd know anything about that... uh, heh.
Kokomadeta @ Apr 19th 2008 10:55AM
Sega did the same thing with the Saturn. It had a seven-disc changer in it. They also had airline gamegears and/or master systems. Possibly Genesis too. The hotel unit Saturns can go for a pretty penny at online auction.
Shadow31 @ Apr 19th 2008 11:46AM
So which is it? 10 minutes or 15 minutes? Or does it time out at a random interval between the two?
KaBob799 @ Apr 20th 2008 1:07AM
I'm guessing it depends on the hotel on how long it was.