8bit bar

If you are a new reader, Dustin and I are nerds. Totally geeks. While hanging out with like-minded friends, one casually mentions a bar in Hiroshima where you can play Nintendo. WHAT?! I've lived here two+ years and never heard of this place! Must. Go. Now.

So we did.

Basement Floor right off Heiwa-dori

We were presented with a Nintendo famicom cartridge console. Nintendo only released this platform in Japan (in my birth year) and it was a huge seller. We got the cartridge system beause we picked out Super Mario Bros to play. They also have the original Famicom to play which uses small floppy discs with a rewritable feature (i.e. you can finally save your progress when Mom calls for chicken nugget consumption). The technology was a decade ahead of general disc-format game consoles. (Side note: the company behind the Final Fantasy franchise almost went bankrupt because their venture in disc-based gaming was a flop. They recovered by releasing their title in cartridge format which went on to sell bajillions...)

A big part of our success with the game was muscle memory. Years of playing as kids meant we remembered all the secrets, knew all the jumps... and died! The Japanese version of Super Mario Bros is different! Muscle memory will do you no good!