Today we drove from Katoomba to Dubbo via Orange, and the total trip took about 6 hours (including charging stop) and I took nary a photo! So instead, today I’ll showcase a few interesting items I saw at antique shops these past two days…

Typewriters are a surprisingly common items at antique shops here, but this one in particular caught my eye due to the Kmart badge on it. The tag identifies it as a ‘Nakajima’ brand device from the 1970s and says it’s been restored and tested. In other words, you could write a book with it!

I know even without opening the box that this would have the thinnest of gameplay and contain fragile paper game pieces and a near-generic board. But licensed games like this one always catch my eye, and remind me of how undemanding we were as fans back in the ancient age.

Even though this was a common style back in the early 1980s, this one reminded me a lot of the devices that Bernard and I had as kids. This one appeared to be in extraordinary condition, but it didn’t say whether it actually worked or not.

I’ve never seen a Commodore 64 game for sale at an antique (or retro game) store in the USA, so it’s always a treat to see them here. But $75 for this? It was part of a larger collection of (mostly PC) Microprose games, all of which seemed overpriced.

I was tempted by these Japanese phone cards, but the store was a bit fancy and they didn’t have a price so I moved on. Years ago when I went to the stamp show while I was here there were also Japanese phone card vendors so it seems collecting these this was a (niche I’m sure) hobby in Australia at some point.

The store had three different sets of these, all labeled at $150 and the red one described as ‘incomplete’. The price was outrageous for the condition, but I would have liked to see inside regardless. Perhaps I should have asked?

I don’t remember ever seeing anything like this when I was young. Like most of the world, Australia no longer broadcasts analogue TV signals so this would be useless for TV viewing, but it very likely has an RF connector on the back so could work as a portable monitor for a retro game system. As a child, something like this would have been the dream!

This is the English version of a Japanese fantasy board game from 1986. The game asks players to survive a haunted house and apparently plays like a simplified version of Talisman. It has a beautiful big board, hundreds of tokens and cards and a large plastic spinner with an evil face on it.

The copy at the antique store wasn’t in perfect condition, and the spinner was extremely dirty, but had I seen this in America I would have been tempted even without knowing it was complete. Since the store hadn’t been able to verify that yet, it wasn’t yet priced or on sale.