Kataban Blog
Field notes on product codes, secondhand shops, proxy services and everything else that stands between you and the game you want.
A complete English and Korean fan translation patch for Sega's long-unlocalized Mega Drive RPG Surging Aura launched July 28, 2026. Here's the game's story and where to find an original cartridge.
Capcom's Ghosts 'n Goblins reached the Famicom on June 13, 1986, ported by Micronics and widely considered harder than the arcade original. What the cartridge is, and the product code (CAP-MK) that finds it.
Terra Cresta hit the Famicom on September 27, 1986 — forty years ago this month. Most Western fans know only the 1990 NES port. Here's what the original cartridge has, and the product code (NBF-TC) that finds it.
Chou Aniki (1992) is Japan's definitive "baka-ge" — a deliberately absurd cult classic. Here's its story, and three more cult classics cut from the same cloth, with product codes to find real copies.
Winning Entertainment Group has announced a full remake of 1990's Final Mission (S.C.A.T. in the West), developed by TENGO PROJECT and playable at Tokyo Game Show 2026.
Before Capcom's biggest September releases, meet the TV screenwriter whose rewrite of Resident Evil 2 and studio Flagship reshaped how game stories get told.
Before Street Fighter II, there was a doodle at a dull meeting, a bug that made fireballs nearly impossible to throw, and a warehouse of unsold cabinets. Part 1 of a five-part series on how the 1987 arcade original was made.
The original 1987 Street Fighter arcade game had pressure-sensitive punch pads that hurt players' hands. Its replacement six-button layout, and Ryu's name, still shape the series today.
The Binding Blade, The Blazing Blade and The Sacred Stones — the three Game Boy Advance Fire Emblem games, why the West got the middle one first, and the product codes for finding Japanese cartridges today.
Konami's Ganbare Goemon ran to roughly thirty games and barely half a dozen left Japan. What the name means, which entries stayed Japanese, and the product codes for finding the cartridges today.
Onimusha: Warlords launched Capcom's samurai-action series on the PlayStation 2 in 2001. Here's the product code, what to check on a listing, and where to buy the Japanese original.
CAVE's bullet-hell classic got a new Steam release on August 27. Here are the four original Japanese releases the DoDonPachi series is built on, with product codes.
Type a Western title. Get the Japanese name, the cartridge code printed on the spine, and links to the shops that have it.
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