Topic: How to get the rare and expensive NES game Gimmick for £3

Everyone knows about Mr Gimmick, right? The obscure and extremely rare NES game, which is actually really fun and challenging.
So, a few years ago, I purchased Mr Gimmick, for £300 on eBay, and it has quickly become one of my favourite games, and my overall favourite NES game.
Today, I have found out that it is entirely possible to play the game for much, much less!

Basically, there was a line of PS1 games released only in Japan called the "Sunsoft Memorial Series", which was a series of six PS1 games, each containing two classic Sunsoft games. In Sunsoft Memorial Vol.6, one of the games was Gimmick. I've looked around eBay, but it seems like no-one in the world has it. I can find Vol.1, Vol.2, Vol.3, Vol.4 and Vol.5 somewhat easily, but Vol.6 with Gimmick remains an absent enigma.
HOWEVER!
The PSN store on the PlayStation 3 has a section devoted to old PS1 games. While these Sunsoft compilations are not in the English store, they are all there in the Japanese store, for only 500 Yen each! That's around £3 for a bundle containing two classic NES games. Get Vol.6, and you get the cheapest Mr. Gimmick possible.
All you have to do is to create a new PSN account, set the region to Japan and link it to an email address that doesn't already have a PSN account associated with it. Then just put some credit on the account (using the code from a pre-paid card is the easiest way to do this), navigate the Japanese PSN store (search for サンソフト and you'll find it) and then just purchase, download, install and play!

It seems like playing this game on a HDTV has some input lag though... I guess playing an emulated PS1 game that is itself emulating a NES game would indeed cause some lag issues. If you plug the PS3 to a CRT television, however, and it's lag-free and fine.
The other issue is the controls... X is attack and Circle is jump, which I find awkward for a precise platformer... I kinda wish it was instead Square to attack and X to jump, but alas, you can't have everything. It's still very much worth it to get one of the most sought-after games for so cheap!

A few years ago I passed up a copy Sunsoft Memorial 6 for PS1 at $40, next time I saw a copy it was $140.
The other game on the disc is the also-valuable Battle Formula (the far cheaper Super Spy Hunter in the west), which probably explains why it's rare.

Vol. 6 was also released significantly later than the others (November 2002, which was quite late in the PS1's lifetime).

@KingMike Oh I see, that makes sense.
I'll still be keeping my eye out for it on eBay every once in a while. I prefer to have a disk compared to a download, 'cause it's more concrete. I downloaded the game to my PSP in addition to the PS3, but it would only play with the PSP it was originally downloaded to even if I swapped the memory card to a different one. It's most definitely like this to prevent unlimited copying of games. But if something happens to the Japanese PSN account I used to buy it and the game gets deleted from the system somehow, then the game's lost and I'll have to buy it again with a new account. if I have an actual disk, all I need is to be careful not to scratch or lose it.

I never knew any of this. Downloads are so confusing with all the restrictions and everything, especially compared to the simplicity of just owning a thing. The only game download service I'm really familiar with is the Wii and 3DS VC / eShop...and as we all know, these just do a simple download which is tied tied to the machine used to purchase.
Thanks for all the info.

EDIT: I did know about the necessity to use a Japanese card for adding money, I just assumed this was the case because I thought I would need something with Yen written on it rather than anything else. These things are easy to buy online from some sites, you pay and they just send the code via email.

Great. I was thinking about buying a PS3 sometime soon and was wondering if I'd have to deactivate one of my two PSPs first.

Only now realizing I should've been using MediaGo to download the games on my PSP so I keep a local copy on my PC, instead of downloading directly on the PSP. (after trying to download a few 300+ MB games and watching installation fail, after multiple attempts, it got annoying and I tried that as an alternate. On the PSP, they downloaded, but then failed installation, meaning I had to wait for it download the whole thing again, which was like 45 minutes each try (one game). Worked fine after using MediaGo and transferring it to the PSP through USB.)
I don't know if the server was having issues or if it was my PSP just not keeping a stable connection.

So I finally just got around to listening to the Mr. Gimmick (Gimmick!) soundtrack (Famicom version) and wow, it may be one of the greatest video game soundtracks ever! If you never have listened to it and you like 8-bit tunes I suggest you take a listen. I know it has the special sound chip with the Famicom version but I don't have a Famicom and don't ever want one so I couldn't resist and picked up a NTSC repro. There was a guy that put 5 repro's up on eBay today for a pretty decent price and I just bought the last one after only a few hours of being listed.