PAL gamers, assert your revenge.

Went through a phase in my teenage years of importing a bunch of stuff.
Sega Saturn, PlayStation 2, Panasonic GameCube Q, and GamePark GP32 along with several games for each. Half my PS2 collection is imported JP region games.

Edit: Come to think of it, I’ve imported some more recent games as well. Usually when an Asian release is a better value than a U.S. release, such as the Bayonetta Switch releases.

Absolutely, but given my articles on here that's not entirely surprising. And for a period of time I didn't need to import at all having lived in Japan. But I have also imported games from Canada and the USA in the past as well.

I became aware of import gaming through Super Play and there were tons of ads in those magazines from companies that practically only sold import (or as it was more often known then as grey importing). It wasn't until the PlayStation that I actually got in on importing from Japan and North America as I only ever owned 3 Super Nintendo games back in the day, yeah, sucks to be me but I had to buy everything with my own money, no parents buying me stuff beyond the SNES itself for Christmas.

My first import title was Konami's Gokujou Parodius Da! Deluxe Pack SLPS-00002. An odd one because it was sold in the UK but I guess I had my reasons and I very much doubt it had anything to do with NTSC vs PAL and probably everything to do with cost.

It's now at the point where almost the majority of my collection is non European/UK. Even the Switch stuff.

Does this refer to just when the games are relatively new, or do 30 year old secondhand cartridges also count?

I didn't import any game at the time, but my best friend imported some japanese Super Famicom anime games that we played on a daily basis a lot. Mainly Ranma ½: Chougi Rambuhen and Sailor Moon SuperS: Zenin Sanka!! Shuyaku Soudatsusen.

Technically, all the importing I've done is fairly recently. I've picked up a handful of homebrew games, that originated outside of my region (US). Mostly through kickstarter, so they don't technically count...

But two concrete examples are me tracking down a Japanese title I had played on a PlayStation Underground demo disc ages ago. Turned out to be Shadow Tower, a title worth a few hundred easy here in the US... but like, $30 for the import. Well I had played the Japanese demo, right? Import it is!

The next one was just as the ridiculous US tariffs were closing doors - the company selling Changeable Guardian Estique was ending shipping to the US, and reading reviews, I wanted a copy and bought one just before they closed the window.

I've got a handful of other imported titles, but they were all sourced locally.

I imported Ninja Gaiden 2 Black for PS5 because there was no physical version in my region. I imported Shuten Order (Kyodan) as well, and it was stolen off my doorstep.

Only game I ever imported was Short Peace on PS3, play-asia had a good sale and it was very cheap.

I started with One Piece Kaizoku Musou on PS3 (before the official localization), and still import from time to time to this day.

I imported games, but its not like Nintendo and SEGA made that easy for most of their consoles.

No. Just didn't have the resources back when I might have wanted to. And if I want to play an import nowadays, Everdrives, ODEs, and MiSTer make it pretty trivial.

I did have one friend as a kid whose entire family was really into video games and would import games frequently. I remember playing the Japenese import of Rockman 3 (Mega Man 3) at his house and being fascinated by the tiny Famicom cartridge and the adapter used to make it work on the NES.

Not to be the pedant, but "Have you ever imported a video game in your life?" isn't the same as buying an import game from a UK store?

I bought a couple of import SNES games in the UK but didn't actually import a game till Okami on Switch, as the Japanese cart was the only physical version available.

I think importing games in the US, ordering a game from Japan for example, was definitely a rarity for the average kid in the 80s/90s. I drooled over screenshots in Gamefan but never ordered one(or had the money to order)or knew anyone that imported games from Japan. Once you get outside of the big cities of America, I feel like it was pretty rare to see imports in a shop, ordering them even more so, unless your parents were well off.

As stated above, there should be a distinction between buying new or second hand at a specialty shop VS actually importing an item from another region of the world. I think buying imports in the US, especially in a big city like NYC or LA was probably pretty common but actually "importing" was a niche within a niche in the US at least.

Typically fighting games. The first was SFII on Super Famicom. But I also had the KoFs and SF Alphas on PlayStation, Saturn and Dreamcast.

In the 16-bit days, though, it was definitely niche - typically because a new import SNES game would run you £80-£100, or more for the most sought-after releases. And that's before you deal with convincing parents to send cheques overseas, or to your local shady bedroom importer.

In the PS2 era, I had an NTSC console, so most of my games were imports. Then I had a JPN Cube for a bit, so same deal. Around this time is when it became much more commonplace, with the advent of the internet and eBay.

Yes in the earlier days of Pokemon games as it took forever after the North American releases for the games to arrive in Europe so importing the already translated English versions made sense. I think Diamond and pearl were the last ones that took so long to release in Europe as after that they tended to release around the same time. It also helped that the systems were region free. Other than that the only other game was Persona 5 on PS3 because the north American version was cheaper to buy new than a used PAL version at the time.

Speaking only from my experience in the US during the 90s, the popular video game media was very in-region and demand for import games was rather niche. Nintendo Power, EGM, GamePro, and countless other popular U.S. magazines would rarely mention import games. Between the magazines and what was carried at retailers, these were the primary ways people learned about what was out there. So it wasn’t until the internet arrived that people like me even grasped the possibility.

A couple of Saturn titles, Bubble Symphony being one. Most of my TaitoEgret II mini titles.. but other than that not really.

I imported my first Game Boy Advance with SMB2/USA back in the day. Also imported various DS games and a 3DS.