Scotterpop

I had both the honor and misfortune of living through this exact scenario. I was a manager for Blockbuster Video for 9 years and went down with the ship when they closed my store in 2011. Digital distribution played a huge role in Blockbuster's eventual downfall, and I really loved that job, so this topic is very near and dear to my heart. I wish you guys the best of luck with this project and I'm really looking forward to seeing the final product.

Quite true, that's a very insightful way to put it. I had no idea when I was starting out that this hobby would become the behemoth that it is today. I was able to build a fairly large collection of games and records for pennies on the dollar compared to today's prices. I could NEVER afford to get into collecting these things now. I pity anyone that's just now getting into it! We were searching for the Reef Store, never realizing that were were already in it. I just wish I could have combined yesterday's prices with today's salary.

RGVC was my first introduction to the world of classic gaming discussion. It was back in '97 or so that I got heavily into collecting and around '99 that I discovered the newsgroup. Back then I couldn't afford an actual PC so I used to dial in on an old WebTV box (remember those?!?). I used to love reading about the scores people would find out in the wild and it used to get me so excited for my day off when I could head out and hit up all the local thrift stores searching for my own personal Holy Grails. I used to get so jealous over some of those brag posts. That was the golden era of game collecting, for sure... before Buy It Now prices, YouTubers and speculators came along and jacked all the prices up to the stratosphere. And say what you will about the Spaceboss, the guy was certainly entertaining! If RGVC were a sitcom, he was its Kramer ; )

And I had the silver one! It was an awesome distraction in the classroom. This was probably around '84 or so when transforming robot toys were all the rage.

And who can forget this righteous rocker from Command & Conquer?

I really dig these demo discs as well, especially the Playstation Underground series. Volume 2 issue 1from '98 is a personal favorite as it features a segment with Mike and the 'bots from MST3K riffing the game demos and it's utterly hilarious. At one point as they're playing PS1 games together, Servo says to Mike "My arms don't even work and I'm doing better than you!" Priceless!

Oh my, that is a sexy beast! And I love the acronym DOES. Because, of course, Nintendon't…

Indeed. No Sumguys and no Mr. Friendly. It is a wondrous and magical place, bestowing its Positive Cart Energy to the truly faithful!

I'll also nominate this great track from Soldiers of Fortune for the Genesis...

Pitfall 2 on the VCS has one of the most ridiculously catchy video game themes I have ever heard...

At the 6:27 mark: "Is the shortage real or are they holding back supplies to increase the mystique?" Hmmm… that sounds AWFULLY familiar…

Hi Albert, can you add me to the list too? Xevious was one of the arcade games I loved to play at the local corner store waaaay back in the day!

Haha, yes! I also had very little interest in gaming until the PS1 came along. But right after I saw one in person and played it, I went to the mall and maxed out my Sears credit card on it (hey, it was the only credit card I had at the time!). It was the first console I ever bought brand new for myself so it will always be fondly remembered.

It's also my understanding that Nintendo's decision to screw them on this venture was because of Sony's ridiculous demands concerning royalties and stakes in Nintendo's IPs. I'm not saying that what Nintendo did was excusable, but apparently Sony was just as shrewd as they were back then. But man, what a come-uppance Sony dealt them with the PS1 & 2! It's very cool to see some pics of this uber-rare console. This thing definitely belongs in a museum because of its historical significance to gaming.

From what I understand they'll only be selling these trades online, not in stores. They plan to roll out the in-store buying program to all locations by the end of the year. Whether or not their resell prices will be fair or outrageous (I'm leaning toward outrageous) remains to be seen. So I would also like to know what experience anyone has had with this program so far.

So is this what happens when he says "You're fired"? Jeez, talk about getting the shaft...

Thanks! Dr. Paul made quite an impression on me as a lad growing up in the Tampa Bay area. I loved his show and would watch it every weekend. He featured some great movies that to this day I've never seen anywhere else like The Flesh Eaters and Matango. Just listened to this and really enjoyed it, thanks for sharing that link! Their critique pretty much nailed the endearing yet frustrating nature of this game. I've never played another game quite like it. If you can look past its glaringly obvious flaws then its an incredibly rewarding experience (and there's only a handful of games I would actually consider an "experience"). And It's got a great soundtrack, which I'm always a sucker for.

Deadly Premonition for the Xbox 360 is a wonderfully weird experience. The whole game has a very Twin Peaks vibe to it. Although it has numerous flaws (terrible controls and some excruciating quick time events), I absolutely could not tear myself away from it.

Seriously, a LOT of negativity toward this thing already! I for one would love to see a new cart-based system enter the market (It's so crazy, it just might work!). I guess I'm just at a point where both the nostalgia factor and the disdain for modern game install/updates/patches creates a desire to just plug it and play it. 16-bit is probably my favorite era of video games and it sounds like this console will definitely cater to that style of gaming. I will certainly be following this as it develops. I just hope they go with the sturdy plastic clamshells and not the flimsy Nintendo-style cardboard boxes for their carts!

I found a Gamecube component video cable in a thrift store a few years back but didn't buy it. The price was 5 bucks. Had absolutely NO IDEA it was so freaking rare and valuable. Man, does that one still burn me...

So if this is a prequel to The New Order then shouldn't it be called Wolfenstein: The Joy Division? Just sayin'...

There will always be a market and a collector base for carts. I just see it eventually becoming more of a niche thing. In the gaming world it seems that everything is moving toward digital distribution and storage. So even optical discs will eventually become irrelevant. Rumors that consoles themselves are in jeopardy of becoming obsolete are already being circulated. I've read that Sony is considering making the next Playstation a download-only machine, if it exists in a physical form at all. There's a Samsung TV coming out this year that plays PS games requiring no extra hardware. So changes are definitely coming. It's not just the format that I worry about disappearing, it's the entire ecosystem of the game/console/used game store(and second-hand market) that I fear will be lost to us collectors over time. Because of this, I can only speculate that the costs of these little plastic and silicon treasures will only go up in the future. So maybe the whole idea of a "video game collector" will become an outdated notion at some point. Just my two cents... what do you guys think?

Excellent work! I particularly like your Poltergeist collage. That cartoon Zelda Rubinstein is awesome... or maybe that's Kim Jong Il... I'm not sure...

I absolutely love the 3DO. My first exposure to this system was at a Montgomery Ward store where I had just started working after high school. I was blown away by how amazing the graphics were for the time. But that $700 price tag... OUCH! The store had a free standing 3DO demo, a CD-I demo, as well as a JVC X-Eye kiosk in the Electric Avenue department which I would play compulsively on my lunch breaks. This would have been in late '94. Those units were eventually replaced by the much more popular PS1 and N64 demos and so those other systems were relegated to console obscurity. But I'll never forget that awesome first impression the graphics and gloriously oversized boxes for the 3DO made on me. I didn't actually own a 3DO until much later, around the year 2000 or so after picking one up in a thrift store. Of course by then the graphics and appeal had aged quite a bit but the playabilty of some of those games was still top notch. It has the best version of Road Rash, for sure. I would also recommend Killing Time (an excellent FPS akin to Wolfenstein), Wing Commander III, Shock Wave, D&D Slayer, Dragon Lore, Alone in the Dark, Gex, Starblade (an excellent space shooter that will really give your thumbs a workout) and Corpse Killer. The system still has an appeal to me that I can't quite explain. One of my favorites to collect for.