| Imports
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New
Imports / DC / NGPC
Some may moan and others will groan that another mindless shooter has
hit the market but believe you me, there is a sizable fan base out there that gobbles
these things up. Gunbird 2 for Dreamcast is now in stock and pre-orders
will ship today. The addition of Vampire Saviour's Morrigan to the cast of characters
provides interesting foil. Also available today is Metal Slug 2nd Mission
for fans of side scrolling shoot 'em ups. Unfortunately, it appears that an Asian version
of this game was not manufactured and we have the Japanese version in stock with the
laminated cardboard container. Please re-confirm your pre-order for this game. If an Asian
version is produced with the plastic clamshell, we will update this information but the
"nice packaging" appears to be a thing of the past. |
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Restock
A variety of restock has been added to our inventory this week. Items
that are not already listed on the on-line store will be added in the next couple of days.
Some examples of the restock are listed below: |
| Playstation
Import Restock |
| Alundra 2 |
Sony |
US$49 |
| Arc the Lad 3 |
Sony |
US$49 |
| Chocobo Dungeon 2 LE |
Square |
US$49 |
| Dew Prism |
Square |
US$49 |
| Dino Crisis |
Capcom |
US$29 |
| Fatal Fury Wild Ambition |
SNK |
US$39 |
| Final Fantasy VIII |
Square |
US$65 |
| Meremanoid |
Xing |
US$49 |
| Metal Gear Solid LE |
Konami |
US$80 |
| Parappa the Rapper |
Sony |
US$39 |
| Silent Bomber |
Bandai |
US$49 |
| Star Ixiom |
Sony |
US$49 |
| Vib-Ribbon |
Sony |
US$49 |
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| Imports
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Marvel vs Capcom 2 Delayed
Capcom has delayed the release of MvC2 from March 23 to March 30. All
pre-orders will shift over to the new date. NCS notes that most Capcom releases are
available to distribution in Japan a few days before the official street date so this
delay may be negligible. |
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PS2 Magic Gate Problematic
Vendors in Japan and Asia have notified NCS of numerous issues with
the Playstation 2 8M memory card. It appears that playing Ridge Racer V will cause
corruption of the card data which in turn destroys the DVD drivers that are loaded onto
the card. DVD functionality is thus removed from the PS2 and the user will have to re-load
the DVD drivers onto the 8M card. Sony have issued an official recall of the PS2 memory
card in Japan.
Other problems reported to NCS over the past 48 hours include
"skippy" DVD playback where the sound skips intermittently when watching a movie
on the PS2. The DVD drivers also appear to have problems recognizing Japanese region 2
DVDs as valid media, and rejects attempts at playback. Finally, double sided, dual layer
DVDs require numerous attempts before the PS2 will accept the disc or perform the layer
switch. As such, any PS2 units that NCS imports this week will contain a defective PS2
memory card that will need to be returned to our vendors. If the problem is more severe
and somehow related to the actual PS2 hardware, NCS will not offer the
console for sale until all issues are resolved. At this time however, the problems appear
to be limited to the memory card and DVD drivers.
More limited are reports of problems with the PS2 overheating and
"freezing" after a certain amount of time. Looks like we'll have to do what we
did with the Japanese DC launch where every unit had to be tested and
validated for integrity before shipping... |
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Poochi
Update
NCS appreciates the feedback on Poochi. This item is tentatively
priced at US$40 but we'll provide more details in the next couple of weeks if we decide to
import this item. Note that Poochi cannot compare to the robotics and equipment found in
Sony's $2500 Aibo but Poochi should be good for some light-hearted fare and provide man
with a miniature "best friend"....
Links are provided below to Aibo and Poochi |
| http://www.world.sony.com/Electronics/aibo/index.html |
| http://poo-chi.segatoys.co.jp |
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