Vintage game stores

Gallstaff

Established Member
I've been toying with this idea but does anyone think that if there was a place that sold just vintage games like from the eighties and early ninties would sell? I think it would. THey could also sell old toys and music as well. I dunno but I really think that a vintage game store would do well with the older (and some younger) gamers. What do you guys think?
 
yeah, but it would be hard to make a good profit and keeping a good inventory at the same time

it would be hard to compete with eBay
 
We have a local store that sells more than just vintage games. They are what Funcoland use to be. They have from X-Box all the way back to Atari 2600. And their prices are real reasonable. They also do DVD, LD, VHS, CD, etc. Slong with many other misc things. When theyfirst opened, they were real small and only had used things. As their business grew, they bought more new. They eventually bought out a couple of other local stores. They do great business. The owners told me they are looking at opening another shop in the next year.
 
so funcoland used to be something different before they were bought out by gamestop? Or wait... how does that work I don't understand.
 
Funcoland and Software Ect. used to be 2 different stores, then they merged or where bought out, whatever, and they all turned/are turning into Gamestop which is owned by Barnes and Noble. Funcoland used to have a fantastic website with up-to-date prices and endless resources, now the gamestop website is expanding but still, in my opinon doesn't compare. You used to be able to walk into a funcoland and grab a list that looked like a stock spread sheet to find all the current prices, now they just stamp the price right on the game/accessory and it is usually outdated and not the correct price.

Games always used to be behind the counter so there was an easy way for them to check for the availabilty of a game and they were kept in good order. Now snes, nes, and genesis games are in bins in the middle of the store, where every 3yr old can grab it, throw it on the ground, and then an uncareing parent can just place it any old where not in alphabetical order. Inventory ,on the old games, is taken what seems once a month so they don't even know what games are stocked at the moment for the older systems.....

My local funcolands have fallen to crap for older merchandise
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that's weird was software etcetera bought out recently because our software etc. just turned into a gamestop like 2 months ago. And then what's the deal with EB? Doesn't gamestop own that too?
 
Unless your in a small town. there are usually places that deal in old gaming and computer SW. Check out places like used book stores, many have expanded to include SW and games. I will say this one good thing about Phoenix, AZ (where I now live), there is a whole chain (7 stores) that deals only with vintage games and even the hardware needed to play them. Keep an eye on Goodwill and other thrift stores also. I picked up a SuperNes yesterday with all the cables anf controllers for $9.00. You can usually find games as well. Last week I foung a Magnovox Odessey II for $1.99 w/controllers. You just need to be patient and persistant.
 
Originally posted by Gallstaff@Mar 9, 2003 @ 08:07 PM

um ok... but what about eb?

EB has the same affilations with gameinformer and runs some joint sales/coupons but it seems they still are seperate from the gamestop franchise, although they seem to be identical in store layout and prices...not to mention there price tags look exactly the same on their merchandise...who knows what the deal is that went down.
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Planet Games used to be a really cool used video game store, there were three of them around the Twin Cities.

The old location used to have this huge 55in projection TV sitting in the middle of the store with a nice chair and all the systems hooked up to it, and when you wanted to try out a game you got to try it out in style. They were the only place I know of left in MN that still had Sega CD and 32x games.

Then all of a sudden this winter they were bought out by EBgames. And the store just looks like a gamestop now. It completely lost all of the atmosphere. It used to feel like a cozy friendly vintage game shop. Now it feels all commercialized. You can just smell the Sony and MS. And all the Sega CD and 32x stock just disappeared. When I went in there last month I had to listen to the kid behind the counter talking kinky on his cellphone to his girlfriend the whole time.

Funcoland used to be awesome back in the day. All the people who worked there knew me. They'd all say hi when I came in, and chat about new things that might interest me. I'd ask for recommendations, since they knew what I'd already bought and liked, and most of the time their recommendations were great. They used to have a special list of the "under 5$ games", back in the NES days. I'd always be able to get a couple NES games for under 5$. Yeah, and the spreadsheet listing prices for all the games was great, and it came out new every month. I'd always take my pricesheet with me when I went garage saleing so I'd know whether I was getting a deal or not, or I could use it to talk people down on their video games. (the only problem was they had a bad habbit of listing games that never existed or were never released. It was annoying because I'd come in every week asking if this cool sounding game was in yet and it never was).

Ever since the PS2 era, funco went down the drain. All the unpopular vintage stock just disappeared. The used prices never go down. Sometimes the used price at funco was more expensive than the new price at best buy. The friendly people and atmosphere disappeared.

The only good thing as that all the genesis stock started going for really cheap, which is actually what started me buying games again. I'd never bought most of the cool games just becuase it's insane to pay 30 to 60$ for a video game.

Planet games was still good even after funco died. They moved to the new up-and-comming shopping area last year, and I discovered them again. The second time I went in there, the guy remembered my name already, and remembered what I bought. It was great, it felt like the old funco years. But as I mentioned, once it got bought out by EBgames, down the drain :
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:.
 
Yeah i used to love going over that funco price list.

I'd highlight all the games I wished I had.

It was great for dreaming
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This is how the connection works.

Software Etc/Babage's/Gamestop was started by a couple of guys in I believe the Twin Cities. When the video game industry died in the early to mid 90s it was bought by Barnes and Noble.

Around 2000 Barnes and Noble purchased Funcoland. It was so the could have stores in "urban" settings. As most of there stores are located in shopping malls. In reality it was to diminish there competion.

Then in 2002 Barnes and Noble "spun off" the Gamestop division, all of the video game stores. They are a seperatly traded company on Wall Street.

Barnes and Noble however still owns Game Informer. They run marketing promotions with both Gamestop and EB. EB is Gamestops main competitor.
 
Game Informer was great, that was the only game magazine I ever subscribed to (well, ok then I guess I have no basis for comparison. And actually I only subscribed because it was endorsed/owned by? funco which I worshipped at the time). I've saved several issues. Some of their great in-depth reviews giving all the secrets and special moves were wonderful. And the GG/codes sections were great, especially since I didn't have the internet back then, so GI was the only place I had to get codes for games.

Game genie really sucked though, because the book it came with only included codes for a small subset of the available games, and it never included the games I owned. And GG had the evil practice of making you pay to get updated books. I don't know why they never came up with a better system to distribute new GG codes.

Actually there was something pretty dumb with GI too. The prize for submitting a GG code was you get a free GG.... but the prize for submitting a regular non-gg code was a t-shirt or something. Isn't this stupid? If you submit a GG code, isn't it likely that you already have a GG? I think the guy who submits a non-gg code/cheat is more likely to not already have a GG, and they are the ones who should get the free GG as a prize. Just my thought.

But I quit GI once they stopped covering genesis/segacd/32x games. Of course I can't blame them, since there weren't any new games to cover anymore. I just had a huge amount of hatred for the video game industry at that time. I loved the genesis/segacd/32x system, and it just upset me to no end that they quit making games for it so fast.

There were definitely plenty enough of people who owned the consoles. All of the stores sold out of 32Xs before christmas. Plently of people who would have worshipped each new game that came out for their old system. But instead of being nice to us, they just screwed us and forced us to drop our old golden systems and go for a new PS or saturn.

But I just said screw them instead. At the time PS came out, PC had finally caught-up with consoles in terms of gaming capabilities. And within a year of PS being out, the PC had drastically surpassed it. 4MB voodoo video cards and 4-axis joysticks provided 100fps 640x480 networked gaming heaven. I was so frustrated at the industry for dumping my favorite systems I never again bought a new console. I just upgraded my PC. And I still haven't boughten a new console, and have no intensions ever to. Instead, I'm picking up all the old genesis/segacd/32x games I never had cheap off ebay. Truthfully, the old games are much more fun than the new ones anyway.

Just look at it now. People are paying 50-300$ for rare old sega games. There is definitely a market for somebody to have kept producing games for the good-ol systems. They had plenty of untapped potential. It's sad. There's definitely a martket for somebody to produce new games for old systems NOW.

Is it easy to get like a 32x dev kit? Do you have to do all the programming in assembly, or do they have like C compilers?
 
Originally posted by Jedi Master Thrash@Mar 10, 2003 @ 05:20 AM

Planet Games used to be a really cool used video game store, there were three of them around the Twin Cities.

The old location used to have this huge 55in projection TV sitting in the middle of the store with a nice chair and all the systems hooked up to it, and when you wanted to try out a game you got to try it out in style. They were the only place I know of left in MN that still had Sega CD and 32x games.


Shit I've been there! Man back a long time ago in like 1992 or so. OH jeeze that shit was fuckin incredable. Man... Man... Crap I want my mommy..
 
Hmm, I find Game Informer to be a pretty lousy magazine. Poorly written, gushes and/or slams too much about certain games,systems, etc. I feel like I'm reading a huge advertisement most of the time. That said, I don't like video game magazines in general, but GI is the worst ,the best ones being EGM and Gamepro (I think Gamepro's gotten better, actually). Me, the best writing on games lies in computer gaming mags. PC Gamer has always been a strong publication, though not as strong as they were in the past. CGW is a good magazine as well. Well, that's my two bits on gaming mags.

We have a place in Omaha called Gamers. There are several chains around the area, but only one really sells the good old vintage stuff. The problem is the place is in poor condition. It feels like going into a dirty basement where some stoned gamer just leaves all his electronic stuff around in piles. But, it's really the only place to get vintage systems (they had a vectrex once) and some decent old games. Damn shame they stopped selling the imports, though...
 
Originally posted by tsumake@Mar 10, 2003 @ 02:14 PM

Hmm, I find Game Informer to be a pretty lousy magazine.


I do to...now. At one time is used to be smaller than the rest of the mags, it didn't have loads of the crap ads inside and only reviewd games which really stood out and they reviewed them short and sweet. Now they have have a million of the hard paper renewal slips inside (compared to the previous 1-2) and half the magazine is adds and crappy games that are reviewed for 3 pages (hence how it's grown double in thickness). It seems everything that has ties with funcoland is going down the drain. oh well, i still hope i get a job there this summer
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there used to be a store here called Video Game Trader. great freakin store. when they opened they were all used items. at the time there were no stores like that in this area (erie,pa). sadly it went out of business after about 2 years. i became really good friends with the manager and him and his employees were some of the smartest game selling people around. its nice to think i used to be able to walk into a game store and not have my intelligence insulted by some 16 year old newbie gamer shoving a game doctor up my ass.

oh and iirc barnes and noble no longer owns the gamestop stores. i worked at the local software etc for 5 years and my buddy is still the manager. i think he said either gamestop bought barnes and noble or they just dropped them. not sure but i know they still get the employee discount at the bookstore.
 
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