Do you remember your first visit to a video game store?

[Robert Newbie]

Remember the good old days? I just did, so I made this topic.

I just remembered my first visit to FuncoLand. With all the rows of game boxes, it was a real sight. Back then, everything was kept in the back or locked away. You usually had to take a slip to the front and pay before you got to gaze upon the box itself. All right, it doesn't make for a good story, but it's a nice memory for me.

What about YOU?

 

[JustABadger]

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[SylverReZ]

First game store I've been to was Toys-R-Us. I remember when they used to have 360 and Wii kiosks.

 

[Robert Newbie]

"Hi I'd like to buy Spyro on PS1"

"Holy shit a talking badger"

All right, you're already ruining my beautiful and engaging topic. Please return to the lush open grasslands of the plains and prairies.

 

[JustABadger]

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[jkm81]

Broo, back in EL Salvador 2008-2009 maybe, i spent 15 dollars in a fmcb ps2 memory card, courtesy of my cousin, he knew a guy, $10 for the mc and $5 for the installation. I went months without using it, one day, i was with my mon shopping in downtown Usulutan, when i saw a man selling pirated ps2 games for $5 each, i begged my mon to my me one (worst decision ever, since $5 was a lot during that time and our economic weren't that great, we were broke.) i got a ben 10 game that i only played once.

Later, I change school, i was in ninth grade. i went to a cyber cafe to do some homework and when i enter i saw tons of posters numbered from 1-x in each, they were ps2 front cover. they were on the walls and on the ceiling ( they filled the whole room).you only needed to ask for the number you wanted and it was burned in a couple of minutes. it took me a couple of week to save enough money to buy a game ( i only got $0.50 to buy lunch for school for each day and the game costed $3 each). ended buying Jak X since i had the collection CIB. i still have the game and it works. Great memories broo

 

[Tri-Z]

I used to love going to toys r us back in Nes times and they had the flaps of box covers and lift to see the back of them. Then would grab a ticket that was at each cover and turn it in at front of store where had a caged in area with a drop down window and give them the ticket and they’d grab the game. My friend has a huge collection of those flaps of the box arts from toy r us. I don’t remember what systems my local toys r us used that setup but a pic online below of dif store shows GameCube

 

[CallmeBerto]

Barely; must have been around 4-5 years old and my Dad took me to some random "game store" to buy a game for my birthday. I don't remember its name but I do know that I got SNES Cool Spot. Its a pretty fun game but I found it extremely hard to beat even on easy.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I remember it well. There aren't any game stores in my home town (we had a GameStop for a while but it closed down, this was long before that) but one time I went out of town I visited a game store that had USA imports. They had Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire months before EUR release and I wanted them so badly, but of course they were way overpriced and I was a broke kid. So I left with empty hands, wondering about what could have been.

 

[Exnor]

Yep. I was 11 i think. Saw Sonic on the Mega Drive and fell in love with that blue thing running around on a screen.

 

[Robert Newbie]

You usually had to take a slip to the front and pay before you got to gaze upon the box itself.

I used to love going to toys r us back in Nes times and they had the flaps of box covers and lift to see the back of them. Then would grab a ticket that was at each cover and turn it in at front of store where had a caged in area with a drop down window and give them the ticket and they’d grab the game.

Yesss, you remember! This is what I was trying to say in the OP. You'd grab the slip and take it to the front to purchase. They really did have a secure area for these things back in the day.

Now that I think about it, other places (maybe Kmart?) had the actual console boxes out in the open. I vaguely remember the Sega CD stuff behind glass, and I really admired that Sonic CD case. I really did wonder how much more epic the game was compared to the Genesis ones.

I still think this thing's cool and colorful.

Post automatically merged: Sep 5, 2024

Broo, back in EL Salvador 2008-2009 maybe, i spent 15 dollars in a fmcb ps2 memory card, courtesy of my cousin, he knew a guy, $10 for the mc and $5 for the installation. I went months without using it, one day, i was with my mon shopping in downtown Usulutan, when i saw a man selling pirated ps2 games for $5 each, i begged my mon to my me one (worst decision ever, since $5 was a lot during that time and our economic weren't that great, we were broke.) i got a ben 10 game that i only played once.

Later, I change school, i was in ninth grade. i went to a cyber cafe to do some homework and when i enter i saw tons of posters numbered from 1-x in each, they were ps2 front cover. they were on the walls and on the ceiling ( they filled the whole room).you only needed to ask for the number you wanted and it was burned in a couple of minutes. it took me a couple of week to save enough money to buy a game ( i only got $0.50 to buy lunch for school for each day and the game costed $3 each). ended buying Jak X since i had the collection CIB. i still have the game and it works. Great memories broo

Sorry for the inevitable auto-merge, but I find these stories interesting. In the US (at least where I've lived), you'd be hardpressed to find outfits like these, but the thought of someone having a shop that literally burns your order on demand is really fascinating to me.

 

[hippy dave]

No, I don't remember the first time, my memory isn't clear enough that far back. I've managed to think my way back to the earliest store I can remember going to tho, it was one of the shops in the tiny village I lived in that sold various things, including at that time it had a few racks of games on tape for the popular 8-bit home computers at the time (Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC - we had the latter). I think they may have all been the budget games (£1.99 at the beginning, then £2.99 then £3.99 later) as opposed to full-price games (£9.99 then more later), tho I'm not certain. They would take orders to get you a particular game in if they didn't have it, I remember at one point asking them to get the first Dizzy game as we were fans of the later games in the series, but they couldn't get it, they came back with Fantasy World Dizzy, the third game, which we already owned.

 

[Aergisgeist]

I remember the enjoyment of renting PS2 games at Blockbuster with my dad. Super fun times, Toys R Us was probably the first place though where you actually bought primarily games I can remember

 

[DinohScene]

I think the N64 was just out at that point...
Don't exactly remember it anymore.

 

[duwen]

I don't specifically remember my first visit to a games store... but that's mainly because back when I was a kid in the late 70's video games were a new phenomenon - toy shops, and some department stores, stocked Atari 2600, Vectrex, Colecovision, etc, consoles and carts. There really weren't specific game stores until the early 80's - and here in the UK they were specifically for home micro software, such as Sinclair and Commodore software. It took until the 90's before the likes of Electronics Boutique and Game surfaced in the high street.

 

[Jayro]

It was actually K.B. Toys, but they had such a HUGE video game selection, it might as well have been a game store.

 

[AncientBoi]

Fry's Electronics [till they shut down ], then GameStop [whom also shut down ], then Online Stores [],
Then:

........................................................

 

[Faust03]

I dunno if this counts or not but I do remember renting sonic heroes at this video store when I was a kid

 

[Robert Newbie]

I dunno if this counts or not but I do remember renting sonic heroes at this video store when I was a kidView attachment 457014

Some locations sold a handful of games, so it counts. Your post actually reminded me that I found some good deals on a few PS2 games back in the day. For whatever reason, they priced games way lower than the competition. That's how I picked up KH2 when it was still fairly new.

 

[nWo]

Well, I, sadly, can't remember the first time. I live in Mexico, that on itself does says it all but also, not only that, I live in Veracruz, which is a city in Mexico. And, even more, I live in a little town called "Huatusco", which is a small town in Veracruz and as you can imagine, things here are just almost as if we lived in the wilds. There is no mall, there aren't big stores, there isn't almost anything in here just the basic, nothing-to-write-home-about things.

The closest "small" city should be about a couple of hours through a full of wilderness road. So, it is very hard to get to a normal place.

It is very quiet and peaceful here, but by no means it is a thriving place.

When I go to those cities, I of course visit the game stores, but here sadly there hasn't been one in all the town's history.

This small description is just to tell you that the vast majority of you have it more "lucky" or accesible, so, enjoy! Live the moment, visit those damn cool malls and stores, and when you do, think of me, and send me a cheer on your mind.