/vr/ - Retro Games

>WA
What's it like being a hipster?

>Game Craze
>Had a more laid back, casual feel than the national chains
>Had arcades set up
>Had popular consoles on display
>Let you try out games on the display consoles
>Fantastic return policy
>Fair prices
>Still exists today
>Business has only grown and expanded

Thanks anon, it's nice to remind how lucky I am.

>>2371081
Feels like flannel and coffee, man

I can't believe this place still exists. I myself haven't set foot in that city in ten years. But yeah, this is a shop in the hood where you sell your stolen shit. They have been selling used games at least as far as I can recall (1990), and was the first place I knew that did that. This was awesome when i was a kid, to get NES/Genesis/SNES games for $10-$20 at the most allowed me to play a lot more games than I would have otherwise. Last time I was there was about 2003 or 4... they still had a big cabinet stacked high with NES games and I bought about 20 then.

>>2371085
Doesn't sound so bad.

>>2371083
I was in WNY for a short while in the mid 2000s, nice to see they're still going.

>>2371071
Anytime my mom went to target she let me spend the whole time in the electronics sections playing the SNES and Saturn gamedisplays.

I bet she even waited a little longer at times just so I could play them more.

A little later there was a walmart that opened up that actually sold PC games, and was the first place to have a Nintendo 64 display. We got stuff like Jill of the Jungle, Castle of the Winds and blockman, and when the Virtual boy tanked, we picked up the store display one for 40 bucks.

About 3 or 4 years later, our county finally got a funcoland.

>>2371102
>target
>walmart
>retro games
What? Where do you live?

>>2371112
We're talking about people's youth, where these retro consoles were, if not state-of-the-art, quite impressive.

>>2371112
...they sold current games when /vr/ was current. You know they weren't always retro, right?

>>2371118
>>2371117
I'm not talking about now kids. Target and walmart didn't really carry games back then.

>>2371126
Alright, I guess not Wal-Mart, totally unsure about Target, but definitely department stores.
Toys 'R Us did, but that's not quite like the others.
When I saw those names I just assumed department stores, not those specifically.

>>2371129
I mean they had them but they weren't major sellers like they are now. Idk about target.

KayBee, ToysRus, and funcoland were pretty huge. Electronic Boutique a bit later.

It was called "Computers and Games"

It was in a tiny seedy strip mall next to a gun store and a self-service car wash. I bought lots of used games there, and even their new stuff was usually a few bucks less than MSRP you had to pay at all the chain stores.

>>2371126
A target opened up in my hometown in the mid 90s and was one of the main places I bought games growing up. They had an N64 display which was the first time I ever played goldeneye, and they also had a demo virtual boy there which remains to this day the only time I've actually played a virtual boy. The amount of money I spent on GBA games at that target must have been ridiculous.

>>2371141
Interesting because on the east coast anywhere that wasn't kaybee or toysrus didn't have anything. Big chain wise.

>>2371146
East Coaster here (Jersey, so as East Coast as it gets). What time period are you talking about? I remember back in the early 90s they sold vidya at K-Mart, at Sears, at local now-dead but then-large chains like Caldor. Also EBs in the malls. And yes, KB and TRU too.

>>2371150
Not saying they didn't have them. When I went there they didn't have much of a selection. Basically just the consoles and few games.
NY here.

>>2371154
Yes, most of those places had limited selections. I remember in the Playstation/Saturn era the Sears in the mall making a push to sell more games though, installing demo stations and stocking a lot more.

>>2371141
>>2371150
>>2371131

Like I said at the end of >>2371102, My county didn't have any specialty games stores until around 2000 or so.

It's a west coast suburb, so there weren't a lot of small specialty stores besides a comic shop that didn't sell games. The walmart and Target might have had large electronic sections because the country was commuting distance from Silicon valley.

>>2371083
>Eastview Mall

WNY represeeeeent! I've been to quite a few of them. Usually have good experiences with them. There's one that opened up in Macedon less than a year ago, and it's definitely the best one. The guy who runs it is super chill, and they have a Virtual On machine. Bought a recapped Game Gear with a great screen.

My worst experience was when I called the Canandaigua Game Craze and asked if they had Sega CDs and they said yes. When I went there, they didn't actually have any, because they thought I meant, like, CD games made by Sega.

Up. Any more tales?

>>2371234
I've gotten good deals and had good experiences in all the Game Craze's I've been in. Except the one on East Ave, which is down the street from where I live - sadly.

Famcom video games. Hoooo boy this place.

>run by a guy named Loki
>whole shop reeked of smoke
>also a video rental shop, mostly anime and Asian porn
>had the most amazing selection of import and retro shit
>DDR machine in the back
>pretty sure he also sold weed out of the shop

I miss it though

>>2371083
>>2371234
>>2372517

i love when the wny fellas come out, i'm victorbro.
just moved to fairport, though

>>2371234
>they didn't actually have any
had a similar experience at the eastview mall game craze. i called asking if they had genesis model 2 av cables, they said yes. got there and they didn't have any, i asked why the guy on the phone lied and they couldn't tell me who it was or why.... there was only two employees in the store.

haven't been back.

maybe i'll check out the macedon one. the goodwill in macedon is tits, i've gotten tons of nes and psx games and controllers for super cheap. FFVII for 4.99, all spiros and crashs for 2.99 each. black labels.

pic is from victor goodwill, which hasn't had any video games other than ps2 sport games in months and months.

>be 13
>have a N64
>love the crap out of the AKI/THQ wrestling games, also enjoy War Zone
>parents don't want me watching wrestling or playing wrestling games
>thanks for wasting your money, mom & dad!
>sister's firend's dad who's from India opens up a rental store in the neighborhood
>holy shit is this place small
>holy shit it has wrestling games
>still 13
>no ID
>ask high school-age store clerk what it would take to get a rental card
>"We need to know who you are and what your address is, age doesn't matter"
>have student card with my face on it
>go home and find mail with my name on it
>scrounge up $3 in change
>get a rental card, rent Revenge
>on a school night

I bet my parents thought I was not asking for rentals from Blockbuster out of spite. They found out the truth eventually, but by that time the ban was lifted. One time my dad walking in on me playing a copy of War Zone, but I was able to think quickly enough to say that I borrowed it from a friend. Joke's on him, because back then I had no friends;_;.

In my day we didn't have video game stores. Just Toys R Us and shit like that.

It was called Best Buy. Remember when Best Buy was good? The video game section was in the dead-center of the store. There were nine fuck-massive CRTs stacked together to make one uber-massive display, with a giant plastic Mario to one side, and Sonic on the other. The CRTs had a Super NES hooked up and the whole store could watch you play Donkey Kong Country 2 (Later on the N64 got hooked up to it, where I remember playing Rogue Squadron). There was cozy dark gray carpeting, and rows upon rows of wire-trim shelving units packed to the brim with games of all consoles. There were a couple other demo consoles to play other than the uber-massive CRT unit, including the Virtual Boy at one point. (For all the shit the virtual boy gets now, there was ALWAYS a line to play that thing). For both the 4th and 5th generations of consoles, that was the happiest place on earth for me.

But I also got to watch Best Buy decline. That same store is still open, but it is but a husk of its former glory. Now they try, and fail, to emulate Apple stores what with wooden tables everywhere and sterile blue & white hues accosting the eye. The video game section is, at best, 4 shortened aisles. The Wii U gets no love, with just a single display segment dedicated to it. Xbox and PS4 aisles offer games I could get on Steam for half price or more. You can be sure a good 25% of any give part of the game section lays empty, or with single copies of certain titles hanging meekly off the protruding rods. But amongst the sea of neglect, an entire stretch of one aisle is packed to the hilt with Skylanders, Disney Universe, and Amiibos. What the fuck happened to video games, man? :(

>>2371154
I dunno about that anon. I grew up in North Florida in the 90's, got most of my games in Jacksonville at Walmarts or Kaybee Toys(RIP). They usually had a pretty big selection, even if a large chunk of it was the licensed stuff. Really most of the stores I used to shop at have actually reduced the size of their game aisle, usually to make room for more cellphone stuff and DVD's.

>>2374000
OMG dude are you talking about Famcom in the Seattle area? There was one in Redmond and one near Kenmore, right? Turned out Loki was selling drugs, much harder than weed, btw. Famcom was a drug-front. Loki apparently found out they were onto him and flew to Europe the night before they raided the store. No joke, I had some co-workers that used to work there, they'd see coke lines on the cabinets in the back.

>>2374085
Yep, in Redmond. I bought a lot of games there. I don't think it was always that way, I remember going there when I was maybe 10 and it was much cleaner, and there was a girl working there who I never saw again.

Redmond has had a fair share of local game shops that aren't around anymore, like game corner in the OP pic. That place was rad, especially the last few years it was open when they turned the back of the shop into an arcade.

>>2371071
We didn't have one, anon.