/vr/ - Retro Games

>>10638684
Probably get killed in a drive-by shooting because I lived in a crime ridden shithole in 2001

>>10638684
>you are underage, your parents grimace while you trade your 65usd game carts\discs for 7usd in store credit + blast your money on the next game that probably sucks even more

>>10638684
It wasn't 2001, it was more like 1995-1996, but I traded in a bunch of SNES games for store credit so I could get Final Fantasy III/VI, there were some games I traded in I later regretted selling, like Super Adventure Island, Buster Busts Loose and the Super Star Wars games, but I eventually bought them back.

>>10638684
>what happens next?
i look thru the snes bin for any le hidden gems but find nothing but bullshit

Look through the bins and shelves of used games. Pick up some random cheap crap like Dynowarz or Friday the 13th.

>>10638714
Do you still have that cart?

>>10638684
I bought Earthbound before it was a lot, still have the cart. The end.

Did anyone ask the FuncoLand cashier if the game was good?

Or bring up two games and ask the cashier to tell you which game was better? And then buy the better game?

I bought Chrono trigger from funcoland as a child. Made me wonder why we didn't buy every game used. Playstation cds quickly changed that concept.

Also playing a strangers saved file is kino.

Buy dozens of copies of Zelda for 25 cents
Buy tons of copies of SNES and N64 games that are under a dollar
Buy every copy of Earthbound and Chrono Trigger

... oh wait, we're not supposed to have future knowledge?

>enter FuncoLand
>buy video game
I only remember visiting it once right before the Gamestop acquisition, kind of shitty timing. I think I got Sonic & Knuckles for PC.

>>10638684
Bang the qt behind the counter.

Somewhere around that time I went in a Gateway computer store and saw Windows XP for the first time. Then afterward my mom took me to FuncoLand and bought me the South Park game on N64, which was $9.99 used.

>>10638684
buy saturn games for 99 cents

>>10638770
I do actually, yeah.

>>10638684
FuncoLand was like being in heaven for a 10 year old back in the 90s. You could do a lot of damage in there with $10. A lot of NES games cost literal pocket change.

The only problem is I would sometimes annoy the clerks who were already surly Gen Xers because of the way the store was set up. The carts were all lined up along the wall behind the counter in those multicolored FuncoLand slip cases. I would have the flyer in hand with games marked off and have to one by one ask them if they had said game. They'd huff about it but what was I supposed to do? The carts are all smushed together and I can't read the top labels from six feet away. Eventually they started putting more stuff on the floor but in those early days the floor space was mostly empty with the walls being used for systems set up to test the products.

I over pay for a SNES game asking for 60 bucks with no manual. Yeah let that sink in modern faggots.

I remember being pissed as a kid because they took over the Aladdin's Castle location next to me.

>>10638684
I kill some seemingly random employee. Years later /vr/ flourishes because a shitposting tripfag wasn't there to shit it up.

>>10638684
>enter funcoland, 2001
>stop 9/11 from happening

>>10638684
>what happens next?
>mom can i-
>no

I started collecting NES games in the late 90s. People bitched about Funco because of the staff and the lack of manuals and boxes but I thought the place was a paradise. Most stores had a huge inventory of games and it cannot be understated how cheap they were at the time. NOBODY wanted NES games except for a handful of collectors.
The store was cool, mine had some directors chairs at the front of the store labeled “FOR MOM” and there were multiple demo stations and the clerks would let you test anything out before you bought it.
I remember I used to go over the monthly price lists like I was reading the WSJ or something. You could sort of make out the labels of the NES games behind the counter but not always. I would hold up the line for several minutes while inquiring about NES games “hey do you have Crystalis? No? Uhh what about Whomp’Em? Gilligan’s Island?”
The clerks hated me but I remember one guy who kind of looked like Dante Hicks sliding my requested copy of Kung Fu across the counter, tapping it with his finger and saying “great game.” I had never felt so validated.
They eventually got bought by GameStop and the NES selection dwindled. The day the music died for me was some time in 2002 when all the NES games behind the counter were relaxed by marketing displays for PS2 games.
Collecting was so fun at this era. Every Funco felt like a treasure hunt. The store at its height is one of those things that will never be replicated.

I get pressured by an employee into buying a cartridge cleaning kit that I never use.

>>10638764
this
I remember them having huge bins full of NES, SNES and Genesis games
it was amazing

>>10640931
Are you from NJ? I think we may have been to the same FuncoLand.

>>10639757
>Earthbound 24.99
yep, that's what I got it for. guess it was 99' actually.

>>10641519
Nope, Indiana. But we had 3 within driving distance and I even went to a couple in Ohio while visiting family. They all had the same setup mostly though some were bigger than others.

1999, walk in, buy used Chrono Trigger cart for 60 American dollars + tip. Receive free Game Informer subscription as well.

>>10640931
Some old NES site would post user submitted (and very fake sounding) stories about people messing with Funco employees. My favorite was a guy saying his buddy took a "gigantic steaming shit" on the counter after he had the employee go to the back room to look for the manual to a game.

>>10640801
thank you for thinking of us and doing what really needed to be done, hypothetical time traveler

>>10639614
>Hi, /vr/!

>>10642000
Yes.

>>10641475
Yeah. Encouraged you to pick up random shit you'd never have bought otherwise because it was just a couple bucks

>>10641585
Ah, the clerk you mentioned reminded me of someone I knew who worked there, right down to liking Kung Fu. I guess it's not a surprise that it would attract a certain type of person to the job. Back then it wasn't like GameStop is now, where it's a general retail job. Pre-GameStop FuncoLand was a bit more niche.

>>10641995
>hypothetical
lol. You're taking to the Great Mouse Larper King, kiddo. I literally went back in time and made optical mice appear a decade before they did in the original timeline, just to piss off an angry little child. I could totally go back and erase shitposters like funcoland fuckboy or prince twoballs from history.

I sell all my games pennies on the dollar

The only FuncoLand around here was an even more cluttered, disorganized mess before it became a Gamestop, but at least all that clutter was used games instead of Funko Pops and licensed Monopoly sets.