How is your town with retro gaming?

[guitarmas]

Hey everyone!

 

I'm in the Asheville area of NC. I keep seeing quite a few collectors on Youtube that go to conventions along with having a good number of local game stores.

There's one place here called Orbit DVD. It's a decent size place. They specialize in all kinds of media. 

There's another place but it's about 35 minutes away. I can go on eBay and find games there. It's cheaper online but I do really wish there were more stores like that locally.

 

Is your area seriously needing more brick and mortar video game stores like me?

 

Thanks! 🙂

 

Edited December 26, 2022 by guitarmas
Punctuation

[Razzie.P]

Nothing really in my town.  There's a rumor that this one dude has way too much retro crap hoarded up.  But I suspect that dude is me 

 

 

Just outside of our town is a slimy ass reseller that makes a living hitting up all the yard sales, thrift stores, etc, buying up stuff to jack up the price.

 

 

 

[Keatah]

FWIW: as an emulator enthusiast I've single-handedly got most of the village moving in that direction. Those in my part of town have downsized or rightsized vintage stuff to only the most important/sentimental/nostalgic pieces. And everything else is picked up with SFFPC, MiSTer, or R-Pi. Everyone loves it because so much burden and clutter has simply evaporated.

 

35 minutes ago, Razzie.P said:

Just outside of our town is a slimy ass reseller that makes a living hitting up all the yard sales, thrift stores, etc, buying up stuff to jack up the price.

One of my side goals is to make life difficult for such re-sellers. For those of us keeping our sentimental favorites I do my absolute best by getting them only to buy replacement/maintenance parts for it. And ebay is good enough to fill that.

 

1 hour ago, guitarmas said:

Is your area seriously needing more brick and mortar video game stores like me?

There's a gamestop some 15 miles away in a strip-mall. Living in a rural-like setting I'm not sure we need or could even minimally support a physical videogame store. Purposeful weekly or monthly trips to the more busy parts of the county would seem to be more than adequate nowadays.

[MrMaddog]

There's only one barcade in the area, a couple used game stores that only sell Nintendo & Sega carts along with 7th gen games and a single GameStop for last gen stuff.

 

And that's why I only have digital downloads and emulation, officer...

 

[Keatah]

I've noted that the Sega and Nintendo crowd is less demanding of perfection and overall goodness than the early Atari/Intellivision/Colecovision gang. This state of affairs lets stores dealing with later generation consoles to exist and get away with stuff. Also means less stuff is thrown out for being sub-standard. The S & N crowd tolerates junk better. If that bothers you then convince me otherwise.

 

  

1 hour ago, MrMaddog said:

There's only one barcade in the area..

Imma good hour or more away from any significant gaming establishment like Galloping Ghost or Underground Retrocade. Dave & Busters is about the same. And while Level 257 / Pac-Man Entertainment / Enterrium are closer. The tedium of arriving at the mall and getting a parking space easily nullifies travel-time savings.

 

There's closer places that'll have perhaps 3 or 5 machines. But I'm definitely not making any special trips for such setups.

 

Going out and making a night of stuffing tokens in machines and swiping cards is no longer interesting. Hasn't been in over 20 years.

Edited December 27, 2022 by Keatah

[Razzie.P]

26 minutes ago, Keatah said:

 The S & N crowd tolerates junk better. If that bothers you then convince me otherwise.

 

Doesn't bother me, but I'm not sure I understand what yer saying, though.  You mean they're more willing to buy stuff that doesn't work properly, shabby condition, etc?

[Keatah]

4 minutes ago, Razzie.P said:

You mean they're more willing to buy stuff that doesn't work properly, shabby condition, etc?

Yes. More tolerant of cartridges with sharpie markings. More tolerant of wonky controllers that may need disassembly and cleaning. More willing to work on things with intermittent connectors and such.

 

I'm that way with PC parts except when I'm not. Some things are strictly utilitarian for me - can be janky and drooled on. And othertimes I expect it to be factory-fresh.

[fiddlepaddle]

I've noticed in the last couple of years, it's harder for second hand video game shops to find stuff to sell. Some shops have moved to other media or even toys, or only deal in high-demand items for their bread and butter.

Used to be that Yard/garage sales were where people passed on a system and games to the next kid down the road that wanted to play. Now it seems that they are stalked by opportunistic resellers who could care less about the fun of the games themselves and focus on arbitrage, often taking advantage of clueless sellers.

One guy can't monopolize all the yard sales in an area; it just takes too much time. So often somebody with money hires flunkies to spread out and buy whatever they can real early in the morning, and then they put the valuable stuff up for auction; it's pure business.

The physical game store owner really doesn't have much of a chance anymore without paying good money for inventory to sell, and they evolve into a pawn shop.

[Steven Pendleton]

Best in the world. That's why I live here.

[Keatah]

In any case I'm happy to have grown up in the golden age and innocent days. The golden age when creativity and exploration of a new medium was done for the sake of doing something nice. But it of course (like everything else) devolved into profit-making and licensing agreements. The innocent days of when business was something that grown-ups did. Something I wouldn't have to deal with for another 20 or 30 years when I grew up myself. Just buy cartridges, McDonald's, and couple of magazines!

 

All this reselling that happens at thrift shops, yard sales, garage sales, and those county fairs, is just more of the same. Just on a lower-class, lower-demographics, scale. The movement of games, controllers, consoles, and associated accessories is all about profit. Devoid of any special experience for either side. The seller mindlessly scours the town for material. The buyer mills about searching for nostalgia and sentimentality - two things that are hard to come by when trying to create an experience. Both states of mind don't work on-demand. They take time to brew.

[Reaperman]

New Orleans' wide variety of used video game stores have all closed up shop--except the gamestops, somehow... But across the lake in Covington is a 2nd and Charles, which is a used book chain with a solid selection of games going well into pre-NES. I got my vectrex there for $75. Granted it's 20+ miles away, so I only get out there about once every couple years. (that's actually a long way away here)

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I suppose I could summarize the rest of my knowledge of gaming in the NOLA area, for anybody stumbling in off of a web search:

 

Naturally with a lot of bars, we've got at least 3 chain barcades:

• Barcadia - some bar chain that's firmly in hipster territory. I got the stink eye when I coined in during their Instagram-photo dinnertime. Haven't been back. The atmosphere did get more tolerable later on in the night, but I just don't wax my mustache enough for that place.
• Emporium Arcade - Another barcade chain, but in a much less pretentious area, with better customers, still a chain. But it's only been open since October 2022 and close to half their games were down for neglect in nov/dec of the same year. I had fun, will probably go back. Don't tell them, but they're my source for arcade tokens for the home arcade. 🤣
• Dave & Busters - I've never been, since don't think those have many video games. 

Arcades:

• Sea Cave arcade - Went there once, was mostly or all emulation. blue-elf/pandora-box grade. May have had a real ms pacman, (I couldn't tell) but if so, that looked like the only one. They've had quite some drama since that time I went.
• Pinchurch - Private pinball club, so I've never been. They used to keep a handful of tables at a local greek restaurant, which I intermittently enjoyed. It was nice to see some older tables in maintained condition. That first link focuses more on music shows there, but they also have (this channel) for more pinball kinds of stuff.

Edited January 2, 2023 by Reaperman

[Tanooki]

We have a number of places, nothing much that strictly specializes in it alone or as the primary focus that isn't some chain like gameexchange which moved into town in the last couple of years slowly.  They're here, a couple of half price books stores for over a decade now, and then various other spaces, some decades old like book and music exchange.  And there had been some spaces but they're dying off hard on the flea market spaces too.

 

The only issue though is that there's a hard line in town the last 5 years or so now between being a scumbag outfit and one that's fair and your rare honey hole of sorts too.  I know one honeyhole in town a mom and pop type and I have known the owner in passing for many years, and that place already prices a little below market, somethings are grossly so, and I can get a bit better of a slice due to being a friend of the business and they do games and toys largely.  Yet o nthe other side, we have some recent years new shops that pop up and those are greedy as hell wanting like a 30+% markup over ebay paid, because... convenience?  I refuse to buy or even look in but rarely to see if they'll change the attitude.  Some stores that have been around forever went the greedy as shit route and to my laugh, they've lost more than 1/2 their locations since it drove people off not wanting to get screwed (serves them right.)

 

After that is the national retail circuit with gx, goodwill, and half price.  They're a mixed bag, one well enough worth checking a couple times or more a week ( not good will they're shit now, just go when driving by and have time ) and you can win by the odds just being consistent.  It may take a week or a month plus, but something will come in you want and it will be under online retail while other stuff is full blown market value so it's on a sliding scale.

 

 

Outside take home retail, we have a D&B in town, but also a few other oddball locations too which have various arcade games and ticket spitter stuff, and also a few locals in the area have opened up 80s/90s style arcade/pinball hall/restaurant type places where you can get lost for awhile which is nice.

[Flojomojo]

I know of a few places where I can play real pinball and a few others where I can buy stupidly overpriced SNES cartridges. I no longer yearn for the physical artifacts. The games are what I like, and I can obtain them instantly over the internet. If I get in the mood to collect some plastic, I can find that online, too. 

[Flojomojo]

On 12/26/2022 at 4:45 PM, Keatah said:

FWIW: as an emulator enthusiast I've single-handedly got most of the village moving in that direction. Those in my part of town have downsized or rightsized vintage stuff to only the most important/sentimental/nostalgic pieces. And everything else is picked up with SFFPC, MiSTer, or R-Pi. Everyone loves it because so much burden and clutter has simply evaporated.

Below: Rare, never before seen footage of Keatah leading his village towards software piracy and moral decay. You wouldn’t steal a car, would you?

 

[+wongojack]

Dallas (and kinda Ft Worth) is incredible.  I think we are probably the hidden capital of the retro-gaming world (in the Western Hemisphere).  Not only do we have multiple retro game shops (both chains and mom n pop), but we also have the Free Play arcade chain as well as a handful of other arcades that specialize in classic games.  We've also got multiple cons in the area every year AND the National Video Game Museum.  On top of all that, the area is big enough and populated enough that if you are willing to put in the work on Facebook marketplace, Offer Up, Craigslist etc, there are still genuine deals to be found "in the wild."  Sure, the Nintendo stuff gets soaked up fast, but I once got Intellivision Sears Backgammon and Checkers here for like $20.  I bought my Astrocade and Vectrex for criminally low prices, and there is TONS of second-hand retro computer stuff changing hands all the time.

 

I keep trying to tell people that DFW is a destination for retro gamers.  An awesome long weekend would be to come here for the Texas Pinball Festival or the Let's Play gaming Expo (or both).  I think most people would go home having seen more retro game stuff than they have in their entire lives.  I get to experience it every year. 

 

. . . I should go to an arcade today

[Keatah]

4 hours ago, Tanooki said:

Yet o nthe other side, we have some recent years new shops that pop up and those are greedy as hell wanting like a 30+% markup over ebay paid, because... convenience? 

Ebay is ALREADY priced for convenience. Nothing beats point and click and get it at your doorstop.

[+x=usr(1536)]

On 12/26/2022 at 2:44 PM, Razzie.P said:

Just outside of our town is a slimy ass reseller that makes a living hitting up all the yard sales, thrift stores, etc, buying up stuff to jack up the price.

Yeah, that guy is across town from us as well.  There's actually three or four of him, and they fit the stereotype perfectly.

 

We don't really have anything here other than a couple of GameStops that are somehow still in business.  Habitat for Humanity occasionally gets in a system, but the people working there do really smart things like taping the cartridges together with packing tape, then taping them down to the system itself.  Goodwill sells anything of interest online, and nobody seems to donate older systems to the Salvation Army around here.  Our local independent thrift stores expect higher-than-eBay prices for anything electronic, so I generally give them a miss.

[Tanooki]

38 minutes ago, Keatah said:

Ebay is ALREADY priced for convenience. Nothing beats point and click and get it at your doorstop.

I'm aware of that, it was sarcasm against local stores that think THEY are convenient and have a right to charge 30% higher than ebay.  Nothing says convenient than driving 5-30min out of your way, time, gas (money), and effort far beyond some simple mouse clicks and waiting a few days to a week.  I was snarking on what was once such an awesome mom n pop here for decades vhs-dvd-br/vinyl-tape-cd/video games/anime,paper/hardback books.  They've been around I think since the 70s maybe 80s and up until just a few years ago were up to 6 stores, now there are 2 left, 1 1/2 technically, since they shit the bed so bad on one to keep it going (their main one) they had to sell 1/2 the store to a CBD shop to keep it open.  Everything there costs more than most anywhere else, those who don't bother using the internet or their remaining brain cells go in still and keep the 2 locations barely alive and the staff there is aging from 30s into their 40s and 50s+ now since they can't retain new help.  Ask me a decade ago I'd swear anyone should go there and it would stick around, now I would feel good if it closed completely and something less scummy went in there.

 

 

 

On the scummy shark/reseller thing, I think most areas with over probably 50k minimum sized towns/counties have them, and enough of them to make it where real gamers and collectors can't keep up anymore because they likely DO have a life and an actual job so they can't just sit around with their mobile on speed narc to snitch out every posted item.  Few who work can immediately harass any future garage sale posts, etc how others suck and how they pay the most and get the stuff before it hits the street/drive way the next day, or they show up hours early and loom/push to get the goods and go like they're after their next dime bag hit.

 

I gave up on garage sales around 2018-19 as singles were toast and the odds of a community sale still having a hit are minuscule at best.  If I'm bored I'll try the odds on those, but one offs, fat chance.  Last time I tried a one off (with one exception in 2022 but it was unique), one of the largest local reseller started pulling the used car salesman detail on this guys lawn booth with games he had out(it was as a game sale largely) and the ass threw around lots of promises, big deals, big money, moves his arms around, shoved people a bit, distracted the homeowner repeatedly with his phone calculator and other bs and angered the lot of us there.  He won too, the homeowner said he got overwhelmed and couldn't focus on what others said.  He snookered the guy out of thousands of dollars of stuff for well under 1K in front of us.  I pointed the guy out and flat out pointed out what he was up to to others and they got mad, then dogged the dude to his car and the reseller was staring daggers for it which I returned a middle finger smirk...fucking clown.  I felt bad no one kicked his ass because within hours it was up on craigslist for an over ebay premium.  After that I was done with one offs, because that's the guy of losers in this area.

[roots.genoa]

On 12/26/2022 at 10:45 PM, Keatah said:

FWIW: as an emulator enthusiast I've single-handedly got most of the village moving in that direction. Those in my part of town have downsized or rightsized vintage stuff to only the most important/sentimental/nostalgic pieces. And everything else is picked up with SFFPC, MiSTer, or R-Pi. Everyone loves it because so much burden and clutter has simply evaporated.

To me it's not "W" a lot, since it's very easy to convince someone emulation is awesome if you don't mention it's illegal by the way. 🙂

[Keatah]

Convincing someone emulators are awesome is much harder than you think. Have to overcome the intimidating PC factor. 
 

For many the flashcart is a middle solution and atariage provides all that’s needed for 2600.

[Keatah]

Internet archive is the next resource as is mamedev and atarimania. These sites offer everything and more to get started.

Edited January 2, 2023 by Keatah

[+thanatos]

Used to have many more retro game shops, now we're down to 3 or 4, one being Vintage Stock, which is a chain.   Not sure why anyone is counting Gamestop - that's barely a game store, I think they only go back one generation for used nowadays, at least around here.

 

Prices are all stupid everywhere, yet I still go browsing, probably just do something on weekends.  I tell my wife I'm going 'nerd antiquing'.  When I see something I might be interested in, I'm kind of in @Keatah mode.  Brain goes "YOU DON'T NEED THAT ANYMORE!" even if it's a fairly cheap loose cart.

 

The hardest things to resist at the V-Stock nowadays is when there are G1 boxed Transformers in the case.... 

 

 

 

 

[RARusk]

12 hours ago, wongojack said:

Dallas (and kinda Ft Worth) is incredible.  I think we are probably the hidden capital of the retro-gaming world (in the Western Hemisphere).  Not only do we have multiple retro game shops (both chains and mom n pop), but we also have the Free Play arcade chain as well as a handful of other arcades that specialize in classic games.  We've also got multiple cons in the area every year AND the National Video Game Museum.  On top of all that, the area is big enough and populated enough that if you are willing to put in the work on Facebook marketplace, Offer Up, Craigslist etc, there are still genuine deals to be found "in the wild."  Sure, the Nintendo stuff gets soaked up fast, but I once got Intellivision Sears Backgammon and Checkers here for like $20.  I bought my Astrocade and Vectrex for criminally low prices, and there is TONS of second-hand retro computer stuff changing hands all the time.

 

I keep trying to tell people that DFW is a destination for retro gamers.  An awesome long weekend would be to come here for the Texas Pinball Festival or the Let's Play gaming Expo (or both).  I think most people would go home having seen more retro game stuff than they have in their entire lives.  I get to experience it every year. 

 

. . . I should go to an arcade today

South Texas here has the Game Over stores (three here in San Antonio and three more in the Austin area) plus at least one GameFellas (Austin), and the Pinballz Arcade (also in Austin). Game Over also hosts the Game Over con every July at the Palmer Convention in downtown Austin every July. San Antonio used to host PAX South until they gave up on us during the pandemic.

[+wongojack]

10 hours ago, RARusk said:

South Texas here has the Game Over stores (three here in San Antonio and three more in the Austin area) plus at least one GameFellas (Austin), and the Pinballz Arcade (also in Austin). Game Over also hosts the Game Over con every July at the Palmer Convention in downtown Austin every July. San Antonio used to host PAX South until they gave up on us during the pandemic.

I hear you, but DFW is on a whole other level.  There's at least 6 different mom n pop shops (retrobution, FX, RGR) if that's your thing, and Free Play Arcade makes Pinballz look pretty week.  Plus, we have Cidercade, Quarter lounge, NVGM and even others.  There's also all the places that have thrown arcade games in the mix next to axe throwing or whatever.  On top of that there's the modern arcade stuff like PinStack, Main Event, Dave and Busters.  Those at least have a few of the new Stern pinball tables these days . . . Two bit Circus, I can't even keep up.

[jhd]

 

There is seemingly very little interest in retrogaming here in Canada, and none anywhere close to where I currently live.

 

There are no game shops (and only one used bookstore) in this city, and no arcade or pinball games (that I am aware of). There are not even any flea markets anymore.

 

The closest specialty game shop is in Montreal (~500 miles away). There are a few stores and occasional swap meets in Southern Ontario, but that is ~900 miles away from here. 

 

I lived in Calgary, Alberta for more than 12 years (a city of about 1.2 million people), there were no independent game stores and only one show in the whole time that I was there.  The only remaining "arcade" was a small handful of pinball games at the airport.