10/28/2024, 3:41 PM
i know, before you say it YES, i really am complaining about this. it's been something that's just been driving me nuts lately, and i need to talk about it. without doxxing myself, just know that i live in an area that, while not completely countryside, isn't exactly in the city either. nothing's ever been in reasonable walking distance to my house, but it's probably only a ten minute car drive. specialty stores are a rarity, and that is especially true when it comes to games. you got one option, and it's GameStop. as a former GameStop wageslave, i've got a lot of choice words to say about them, but i'll at least give them this: due to the way their tradein system works, they're the only mainstream retail chain in my area that sells any kind of retro games. but that comes at a cost, it's slim pickin's at GameStop. nevermind the fact that someone has to trade in those old games, GameStop only takes certain retro games to begin with! now, i'm not one of those people who always needs to have the case or the manual or whatever, especially when it comes to Gameboy and DS stuff, as long as the game works i don't mind the condition it's in. but if you do care about that kind of thing, you'll know the horrors of shopping at GameStop for retro games. most of em are missing their cases at this point, especially DS and 3DS, and since the employees don't usually have the hardware to test those older games, 90% of the time it's a gamble on if it'll even work or not.
so, GameStop clearly isn't ideal. what other options are there? i've heard of people all over the country i live in talk about how they've got mom and pop game stores that are full to the brim with old stuff, but i just so happen to live in the exact place where all of those are at least an hour away. one of the only options that's under an hour is (without saying the full name because that'd dox me) VGT, and that's nearly 50 minutes away from my house. VGT's been on my radar since about 2018, and they're pretty good all things considered. their selection is alright, their prices are... FINE. some things are a little unreasonable, i saw Super Mario Land 1 for GameBoy for 25 dollars there. have you seen Super Mario Land 1? i mean, i like that game, but not spend-25-dollars-on-it like it. (that being said i did use some birthday money one year to buy it for myself like an idiot) and don't even get me started on the GameCube prices, those are fucked. plus, in recent years their selection has gotten more and more whatever, often times their Gameboy section is just full of junk, and anytime there's something good, the price is jacked up to an insane amount. the other option i've got for retro games is a place called CCS. instead of being a normal store, CCS is a place where peoplle can set up stalls to sell whatever they wanna sell. you can find all sorts of stuff there, mostly trading cards and collectibles which are pretty whatever to me, sometimes people sell artwork and stickers which is really nice, but those people aren't there all the time, and of course you got the retro game sellers, which is my bread and butter. it's sort of like a convention hall that's open every weekend, it's nice. the selection and prices are usually a lot better than VGT too, since there's usually more than one stall dedicated to videogames. the only issue with CCS is consistency. with VGT, you know videogames are gonna be there, no matter what. with CCS, it's only open on the weekends, and you don't know who's gonna be there each week. still, it's a good option.
and that's it! those are my only specialty store options, which means my remaining options are thrift stores. those are often the last resort, because games are pretty hard to come by, nevertheless good games. i talked about it in my Goodwill review, but often times the only things that end up here are the dregs that no one else wants. you know the drill, old sports games, Wii shovelware, old PC CD-ROMs, like you can find good stuff, but i wouldn't bet on it. and other than those, everywhere i look is just card shops. i'll type "game stores near me" into google maps and tons of things will pop up, and then i go there and it's just trading cards!! like, no! that's not what i asked for! then you got the places that say they sell videogames, but their selection is a tiny section of a bookshelf in the corner of the establishment, and then the games they have are Anthem and Disney Infinity 3.0, game only. this is astonishingly common, believe me.
of course, i know what everyone's been saying for the past 3 paragraphs. "oh mot, you naive demon. why don't you just buy retro games online? that's what everyone else does! hell, that's even what you do, going by the Doubutsu no Mori double pack Thing entry!" well first of all, aren't you the observant little cherub, remembering the Doubutsu no Mori double pack Thing entry. i'm proud of you. second of all, yes, i CAN and HAVE done that, quite a lot. buying second hand games online is by far the easiest way to find retro games in this day and age. but like... uuuuugh, it's got its own set of problems. case #1: shipping! online sellers love hiding high prices in the shipping tax, and it's so annoying to see what you thought was a good deal turn to a ripoff as soon as shipping is added on. plus, that's extra money i wouldn't have to pay if i just got it in person. and speaking of which, the internet is full of liars! every game collector's worst nightmare: the fabled bootleg cartridge. now, i'm not one to look a reproduction cart in the mouth. as a kid, i didn't have a whole lot of money, but i still liked to have the real cartridges, so i would buy a lot of repros. they got the job done, even if they tend to... wear down over time. now though, i do really prefer to have the original cartridges if possible, so it's kind of important to me to have that. plus, if it's a console game like the PS2 or Wii, i really like to have the original case, and so many online sellers will use misleading images on their listings. back in 2019, i bought a fairly affordable copy of 1080 Avalanche on eBay, and got CATFISHED. in the picture, it had the case. it was delivered to me in the cheapest jewel case i think ive ever seen in my life. to be fair, this lead to me getting one of the most unique things in my collection. also in 2019, i bought a copy of the PS2 game SIREN, and i guess it was a copy used for rentals at Blockbuster, because in the jewel case it came in was its original Blockbuster rental sleeve. i wouldn't give that thing up for the world. my third point against online orders that i just don't like waiting for em to come in. sometimes they ship fairly quickly, maybe within a day or two of ordering, but some people just take EONS to ship stuff. and even when it does ship, that doesn't mean it's getting to you soon. i've had times where games take MONTHS to arrive, to the point where i completely forgot i had ordered it. none of these things are an issue with buying games in person, there you don't have to deal with shipping, you can see the games right in front of you, and you get to take em home that day.
and i KNOW i could just emulate games, or play em off a modded console, and i do actually do both of those things a lot. but i've already talked about the importance of playing on original hardware in another entry on this site, and while modded consoles are great for that, i simply just... like having the physical games. picking the game out of a stack, sticking the disc in the console, hearing it whirr as it spins in the drive, and then watching it boot up is an experience you don't get from just picking a game from a list on a hard drive. maybe i just like that kind of esoterica too much, but having the real deal is a part of the experience for me.