Did the edgy import only cult always exist? Even back when the systems were coming out?
This guy I met at work literally bases his personality around being the dude that only plays Neo Geo, PC Engine and Saturn He has 17 PVMs that just sit there in a giant stack even though he actively only uses two. He posts photos of this stack alongside all these neo geo aes carts he buys onto this discord server which hes always chatting on during break at work. I asked him what his favourite games were and he refused to tell me just saying "I like fighters and shmups". It honestly seems that his focus is just amassing obscure and expensive shit to project a hardcore gamer persona. He told me his girlfriend left him recently because he was loading too much of his money onto his buyee wallet. And ive met others in a very similar camp to him at conventions and online. Did these people always exist or are they a product of the internet?

>>11816917 (OP)
I've never met anyone like irl this but importing was a catalog cottage-industry even before the Internet, so someone must have been buying it.

>>11816917 (OP)
Brainless consumers? Yes, those have always existed and it has nothing to do with imports.
A product of our vapid consumerist culture. People filling the hole left by childhood by hoarding plastic.
If dude really just liked the games and enjoyed collecting he wouldn't feel the need to constantly post photos of his collection (for validation).

>>11816917 (OP)
Being in a PAL region I knew a few people back in the 90's who imported NTSC consoles and games to get a better experience and to play stuff that was never released here.

>>11816917 (OP)
Yeah, loads of people imported games for PCE CD, Saturn, and NEO GEO.

>>11816917 (OP)
There was nothing edgy about it. It was "hey there's this cool game that only came out in japan, let's play it". The smug sense of superiority that came from consuming media others could not was mostly an internet thing.

>>11817019
How did that work with their electrical system and TVs?

>>>11816917 (OP)
> The smug sense of superiority that came from consuming media others could not was mostly an internet thing.

Oh boy you need to check how magazines talked about Rondo of Blood back in the day.

>>11819030
This is also the reason why the "dracula X is a port of Rondo" meme started
I think OP is making up stuff though, that girlfriend part seems extremely convenient for a collector hate thread.
Anyway, I got a Saturn back in the 90s and played japanese games thanks to piracy, same for PS1.
I even had an adapter to use japanese N64 carts too.
I didn't even feel special or anything, I was just a kid who loved video games.

>>11816917 (OP)
the pvm/saturn faggots only appeared around 2015. No one gave a fuck about saturn or PVMs before then. Saturn sold like 3% as many consoles as genesis and didn't exist until hipsters latched onto it later

>>11816917 (OP)
Check out the old usenet forum posts, people have always been in the know and importing shit
Sorry to hear about your imaginary friend

>>11819025
tl;dr: just use a power brick for your region and RGB SCART cables.
>electrical systems
If the console has an external power brick (which most retro consoles do) all you need to do is use a power brick made for your region with the same output voltage and plug.
>TVs?
This is trickier, but only slightly. European TVs generally have at least one RGB SCART port since, in 1980, France made it mandatory for TVs sold there to have one.
A PAL TV will display a 60hz signal without issue if sent through RGB SCART.
NTSC composite video will often display in black and white on a PAL TV, although I've heard some later high-end PAL CRTs display it properly.
Either way, if you were into imports you were likely also aware of these issues and probably got RGB SCART cables for your consoles.

>>11819025
Pretty easily, I had a chipped PS1 and a SCART cable. Now I just have a JP PS1 with step down transformer. Some people seem to really think with PAL you were using some type of unwieldy and cumbersome type of TV technology, the reality is you were just using a TV. Turn it on, watch the pictures. Any technical stuff was for companies to deal with.

Die Hard Game Fan Magazine -- published by Die Hard Game Club, seller of imported Japanese games -- made sure Americans knew how cool it was to import Japanese games

>>11816917 (OP)
He sounds like an interesting guy
The most interesting thing my coworkers could tell me about their lives is how often they cheat on their wives

>>11816917 (OP)
I guess so. I didn't know any but Joe from Game Sack is that guy and has the receipts to back it up so to speak