The Video Game Critic

Gosh darn, you're right. I just went went through our action figures for the first time in maybe 20 years, lol. There's a who's who of basically everyone, from Jesse "The Body" Ventura to Randy "Macho Man" Savage. But no Hulk Hogan. Well, we have him, but only a mini one. I think one of our friends had a life size one.

I am from Montana originally, and we didn't have any "major" gaming outlets in the small city I was in. Thus, the big retail chain at the time (prior to Walmart) was Gibson's Discount Store. I remember looking at the Intellivision display and seeing Donkey Kong on it, drooling. Yes, those WERE the days!!!

Man, I was just thinking about Funcoland the other day. That was a great place. I remember getting their print-ad in the mail (pre-internet) and loading up on their $5 and below games. I really wish they were still around. I found a physical store for them once, and used to spend a lot of time and $$ there. When Gamestop bought them out they clearanced out everything up SNES and then hiked up all the prices on everything else. What a shame. Not really a fan of Gamestop.

As a kid, we used to go to Service Merchandise. Everything was behind glass, so it was like a museum. You pulled a ticket for what you wanted, and then it would come down a conveyor belt. I loved that place because they had all the latest tech and toys out to look at.

Then there was always the JC Penney toy catalog. I remember my mom let me pick out Mario Brothers for the 2600 from the catalog. We went to pick it up at the store and they were out-of-stock so she bought me Crystal Castles instead.

BRE Software in Fresno, CA. was the used game store that I went to in the early 90's. They were very popular. They even put advertisements in magazines.

My dad would often rent me Genesis games from BRE for $1 on the way home from work. I got to try a lot of different games that way.

The worst memory of game buying was when my mom wanted to stop at a clothing store or something on the way out after she had bought me that NES game. I almost had the instruction manual memorized by the time I got home.

When I was a kid I remember buying a $9 cartridge at a local music store in a local mall (which I could walk to). It was supposed to be Atlantis, but when I put it in, it was Cosmic Ark! So I took it back to the store. The guy behind the counter said I could trade it in for another, and he didn't care which one! So I picked out Robot Tank which had a $36 price tag on it! Let me tell you - I felt like I was committing highway robbery when I left that store!

And let's not forget the magical experience of buying games from Toys R Us. You would basically look at a wall that had the covers/backs of all the game. You took a ticket, and had to pay for the game before you even go it. Then they would call for the manager who would enter this locked glass booth in the front of the store containing wall-to-wall games. It was every kid's dream to somehow infiltrate that magical room.

I remember the glass cases at TRU. My dad took me there for my birthday to get a Gameboy when it came out. I remember waiting by the case drooling over it. Then he told my I couldn't get it and got me an Atari Lynx instead. Said it was a better system for the money. While I agree, at the time it was, I never met anyone that ever had one. All my friend's had gameboys.

Toys R Us, that was my first experience buying video games in the 80s. I would get so excited when they got the game from the room. Growing up in the NES era was the best.

jon wrote:Growing up in the NES era was the best.

Yes. Makes me appreciate what we have now. MLB 15 The Show is about 64,000 times the size of NES Baseball.

I'll take the NES's baseball library by far over any console, period, even if Baseball wasn't that good. I think going to stores all through the 80s was awesome, but it reached an apex in 1993-1994. That was the best era. I remember a poster noting how cool it was going to Electronic's Boutique in '93 when everyone had a console out. Going to computer stores to check out the latest games was so awesome. Literally a couple years later everything had changed and so many companies went out of business or had financial difficulties. I think everything until the mid 90's was the golden age of gaming and video game retailers.