An Intro to Daiso’s The Game Series (Trump 1, Nekomata Tanteisha, Nyanpoline, TechnoSylph: vsys gaiden)

Today's post is the start of a new series about something a little different: a dive into Daiso's The Game Series, a hyper-budget collection of CD-ROM games. Daiso is one of Japan's largest chains of ¥100 shops. They sell a little bit of everything: housewares, kitchenwares, small grocery items... and, for a time, video games. For a good chunk of the 2000s, Daiso had its own line of CD-ROM games for Windows that it sold on its shelves the same way it sold its other own-brand goods. Other stores had budget game sections too, of course, but Daiso's line manages to be different compared to the discount section at your Wal-Marts of the world. For one thing, these were Daiso's own-brand games the same way they sold their own-brand goods: they weren't buying cheap discs from other discount publishers, they were actually publishing all of these games themselves. They were also undercutting every other discount game rack in the country by selling their games for the hyper-budget price of ¥100…