How is your town with retro gaming?

[HatefulGravey]

The only classic game store in my area closed more than 10 years ago. According to one of the employees I ran into after the closing I was one of the best customers and while I visited often I purchased little as they had little I didn't already have. They were mostly an NES store. 

 

There are no classic arcade games in the area save the ones in my living room. They could use some love at this point, but I feel the need to update them growing in myself so it is really just a matter of time. 

 

If I ever hit a large lotto winning my plan is to open a classic arcade. Mostly I know it would lose money and would have to have enough of it to be ok with that. I know of no other classic gamers in my area so the best I could hope for would be the people looking for something novel to do that day. It would be a dream come true though.

 

The yard sale/ flea market scene dried up ages ago. The people that have classic games at the flea market are the kind that want big money for what they have and so always have more than enough to go around. No one is buying from them. 

 

I would love to have a good store near by, but it just isn't in the cards. 

[Keatah]

2 hours ago, HatefulGravey said:

There are no classic arcade games in the area save the ones in my living room. They could use some love at this point, but I feel the need to update them growing in myself so it is really just a matter of time. 

Cabs or consoles?

[zylon]

Other than people coming by to look or rob, a retro place wouldn't have much purpose here, just SE of Atlanta. Oldest anyone seems to have, is a 360. A few remember Genesis, and later. My original Xbox is a jaw-dropping wonder to most I encounter, and my old Sega G3 must have been from Tut's tomb. When I lived northside in Kennesaw, there was a great place, but I believe it closed due to being robbed repeatedly.

I'll admit I wouldn't be much help to a place, other than occasional cords or something. I have just about all I really want or would actually play. Only stuff I still buy, is multicarts and similar.  

2600- Unocart and few originals

5200- Atarimax flashcart and few originals

C64- couple multicarts, and plenty of my old disks

XEGS- 5 Atarimax 8mb flashcarts, holding everything I'd even attempt to play

Genesis- 6-pak cart and shoebox of cheap repros, everything else I liked is on the 360 collection disk

xbox and 360- still have a stack of games for those, though the OG one is just my giant emulator machine really. Only one game I have for it, isn't 360 playable.

[BawesomeBurf]

We have a couple of Retro shops in my area. Seems to be hit or miss on whether they have anything cool in stock. Although I haven't been to any in the past few years since I switched to mostly emulation. Goodwills and yard sales are a total bust here because of the resellers swooping everything up. Best deal I ever found at Goodwill was Tony Hawk 2 on PS1 that also had the disc for Tony Hawk 3 inside.

[Keatah]

I wanna see an emulator shop. Be s'cool! Just go in there with your computer and they update everything for you. Offer subscriptions to the service $99.95 for 4 comprehensive updates a year, includes discounts on new hardware upgrades and tune-ups. Minor repairs and fixes free too. Whoot!

[Keatah]

56 minutes ago, BawesomeBurf said:

We have a couple of Retro shops in my area. Seems to be hit or miss on whether they have anything cool in stock. Although I haven't been to any in the past few years since I switched to mostly emulation.

Hope emulation continues to work out for you. It's really the way forward.

 

56 minutes ago, BawesomeBurf said:

Goodwills and yard sales are a total bust here because of the resellers swooping everything up. Best deal I ever found at Goodwill was Tony Hawk 2 on PS1 that also had the disc for Tony Hawk 3 inside.

Same here since 2005-2008. I just find power connectors and adapters and cables. And none of it is classic gaming related either.

 

Classic gaming and vintage computing is supposed (last time I checked) to be a relaxing hobby. Especially in the wintertime when you can cozy up in the den. Sit my ass on atariage or read books and magazines or play for real. Not run around to store after store after store to dig through stuff that was dug through before!

[Keatah]

On 1/9/2023 at 10:35 AM, zylon said:

Other than people coming by to look or rob, a retro place wouldn't have much purpose here, just SE of Atlanta. Oldest anyone seems to have, is a 360. A few remember Genesis, and later. My original Xbox is a jaw-dropping wonder to most I encounter, and my old Sega G3 must have been from Tut's tomb. When I lived northside in Kennesaw, there was a great place, but I believe it closed due to being robbed repeatedly.

A municipality not far from where I'm at says no videogame stores due to crime potential.

 

On 1/9/2023 at 10:35 AM, zylon said:

I'll admit I wouldn't be much help to a place, other than occasional cords or something. I have just about all I really want or would actually play. Only stuff I still buy, is multicarts and similar.  

2600- Unocart and few originals

5200- Atarimax flashcart and few originals

C64- couple multicarts, and plenty of my old disks

XEGS- 5 Atarimax 8mb flashcarts, holding everything I'd even attempt to play

Genesis- 6-pak cart and shoebox of cheap repros, everything else I liked is on the 360 collection disk

xbox and 360- still have a stack of games for those, though the OG one is just my giant emulator machine really. Only one game I have for it, isn't 360 playable.

Multicarts and anniversary compilations are becoming more and more popular when compared against accumulating RubberMaids and walls of individual cartridges. I see them as solutions that fit between OG hardware and full-on emulation. Multicarts give advantages from both camps.

[BawesomeBurf]

Emulation has been working out great. Finally got around to making upgrades to my crappy Acer PC, so I can now do PS2 and DS. Those 2 always had issues before.

[CapitanClassic]

2 hours ago, Keatah said:

I wanna see an emulator shop. Be s'cool! Just go in there with your computer and they update everything for you. Offer subscriptions to the service $99.95 for 4 comprehensive updates a year, includes discounts on new hardware upgrades and tune-ups. Minor repairs and fixes free too. Whoot!

I would love to see this too, but it would require a change to copyright without the interference of Disney. If the original copyright (1790 Act)  term was in place (28 years, 14 years + 14 year renewal), then anything before 1995 would be in the public domain and free to put on an emulation box configured by a store for customers.

 

Even if the 1831 Act were in place, it would only be 42 years (28+14 years), so everything before 1981. 

 

It wasn't until Disney went nuts in 1976, that they thought 120 years seems reasonable. If a anything,  with the rapid advances in technology and explosion of creative works, copyrights should be getting shorter, not longer. But until we put all Disney lawyers on the bottom of the ocean,  I would be happy with the 28 year limit.

Edited January 14, 2023 by CapitanClassic

[zylon]

5 hours ago, Keatah said:

 

Multicarts and anniversary compilations are becoming more and more popular when compared against accumulating RubberMaids and walls of individual cartridges. I see them as solutions that fit between OG hardware and full-on emulation. Multicarts give advantages from both camps.

I emulate SMS, GB, GBA, INTV, Lynx, NGC, GG, NES, and SNES, completely. If there's only a few titles I really would play, I see no point in wasting my space.  I'm only getting older, and less able or willing, to lug around tons of stuff. I don't really program anymore, and mostly play arcade-like single screen games, often single load variety. Otherwise, I kept machines that had some attachments for me, or that playing just wasn't the same, via emulation. Atari 8-bits emulate great, but I still have my first un-modded 600xl around. With a packed unocart, it loads up instantly for a quick play fix. C64 I've had almost the longest, and it has the biggest selection of stuff, and covers that old time loading and fussing, just fine. Genesis and 2600 also straddle that line. Everything else, runs just fine with often better controllers, via my modded Xbox, and Dell XP laptop. Sit on the floor, and it's 1987 again, lol.

[HatefulGravey]

On 1/8/2023 at 11:04 PM, Keatah said:

Cabs or consoles?

I have a MAME and a Donkey Kong Jr cab in the living room.

[Tanooki]

Things have gone belly up post Christmas around here.  Far less is appearing up on facebook and other local choices online currently, and the little that do the prices are high enough you have to wonder if someone is hoping to pay off a bookie or their crack dealer.  I'm glad I've gone the route of checking a few places in my general area of town I'm usually in because while it may be slow, it's at least semi-consistent whether it's cheap goods or not.  It's just gone mentally ill at the private seller level, and also as bad with buyers too.  Whatever you put up, they refuse to pay more than 1/2, even if your price is already lower than the cranks and what people get paid online after all the fees and bs.  I just don't get it, but things have gone that wrong now.

[Keatah]

In the early days the videogame and electronics and kitbuilding hobbies were about the hobby and learning and exploring the new artforms.

 

Today it is feels and seems to be little more then a vehicle for making some sort of profit. Too businessy. Too commercialized and commoditized. Too many inexperienced sellers with a me-too bandwagon mentality looking to simply cash in on nostalgia and sentimentality.

 

I'm sure it's always been like that for other things. But just more disheartening to see the wheel go full circle on hobbies near and dear to 'ya. I even see it right here on AA very directly and not hidden. I'll leave it to you to discover those.

[Tanooki]

I know I'm being dramatic using the 90% thing probably (I hope) but it feels like for all the garbage interested now, @Keatah you're right, it's about the money to these greedy mindless chads who get all aggressive, pushy, demanding, whining and rude, won't pay more than 1/2 what you ask even if ask is way under types.  Ask most of them, they'll know fuck all about anything they're buying other than the opening paragraph on the wikipedia if that.  It's VGPC payout, point blank.  And if it's not that payout, it's the coin baiting panhandlers on video copying each other in desperate equal grabs for money and attention.  They don't give a shit, other than if that shit is money.  I miss how it was, not just cheap, I mean normal inflation I'd have understood, because true real rares always were notably higher.  It's the mystery, exploration, risk of trying something out and getting into it, or trading it out for another.  It was fun, a long run for decades, now ruined by scum.

 

Had it not gone this way we'd likely not have all these cheap high quality(hah) chinese(hah hah) handhelds from Anbernic and the rest who run this shit spot on up to the PS1/GBA era at least.  It's more viable to buy a $100 handheld, than a singular $100 cart that was $10 5 years ago, because...that's normal.  All our bitchin in here about how bad it is, that's where to lay the blame, the profit and attention hungry pigs who created the storm.  It's best to use what you got, buy little to nothing online, and buy local when it's not crackhead rated, otherwise get an Anbernic or a real system and a flash kit and call it a day.

[jhd]

On 1/17/2023 at 9:42 PM, Tanooki said:

It's just gone mentally ill at the private seller level, and also as bad with buyers too.  Whatever you put up, they refuse to pay more than 1/2, even if your price is already lower than the cranks and what people get paid online after all the fees and bs.  

 

Remember that people are buying items to resell. If someone pays full price then there will be no margin for them.  

 

Some years ago, when downsizing from a house to an apartment, my Mother sold a large quantity of fancy china dishes. The buyer paid her significantly below retail price as otherwise he would not be able to make a profit on the transaction. Ironically, after a few years, the his business ultimately failed -- and he never did sell that china at any price! 

[Keatah]

On 1/18/2023 at 12:31 PM, Tanooki said:

All our bitchin in here about how bad it is, that's where to lay the blame, the profit and attention hungry pigs who created the storm.  It's best to use what you got, buy little to nothing online, and buy local when it's not crackhead rated, otherwise get an Anbernic or a real system and a flash kit and call it a day.

..and all the noise they make. Buncha loudmouths amplified by youtube. In recent times I've tried my best to not associate selling/buying/profit with videogames. Instead just sticking with the games and gameplay and a light flavoring of nostalgia. For the fun. For the challenge. For the aura & atmosphere. Game X or other nonsense selling for $100,000 somehow doesn't impress me much anymore.

[Keatah]

3 hours ago, jhd said:

Remember that people are buying items to resell. If someone pays full price then there will be no margin for them.  

Yes. And my philosophy is I don't give a rat's ass worrying about whether someone will make a profit reselling something. It's their problem. I'm here to get what I can at the lowest possible price.

[Tanooki]

6 hours ago, jhd said:

 

Remember that people are buying items to resell. If someone pays full price then there will be no margin for them.  

 

Some years ago, when downsizing from a house to an apartment, my Mother sold a large quantity of fancy china dishes. The buyer paid her significantly below retail price as otherwise he would not be able to make a profit on the transaction. Ironically, after a few years, the his business ultimately failed -- and he never did sell that china at any price! 

I'm aware, but having periodically shifted from using local online and not around ebay or doubling down over time one thing has been very obvious though.  THere has been an utterly demoralizing and hardcore shift into just scum largely using the local peddler spaces for the most part.  It's become increasingly rare, where it had been like a 50/50 or better chance 5 years ago around here to get a legit keeper bite, to now it's maybe 1 in 10, if that, because you'll get 50% off lowballs and snark, or just ignored outright even if you're like 25-33% off of ebay.  Sadly the buyers have been discouraged and they're just giving up, going to local retail which stupidly is less, or going online and not wasting the effort which is a shame.  Again speaking for around this area for a good 50+mi radius, not elsewhere, mileage obviously varies by the predator to gamer ratio.

 

3 hours ago, Keatah said:

..and all the noise they make. Buncha loudmouths amplified by youtube. In recent times I've tried my best to not associate selling/buying/profit with videogames. Instead just sticking with the games and gameplay and a light flavoring of nostalgia. For the fun. For the challenge. For the aura & atmosphere. Game X or other nonsense selling for $100,000 somehow doesn't impress me much anymore.

Ugh don't get me started as I could go on that a lot.  It all if you find old tracking data to 2011-13 range you can find games that had spikes and largely spikes that lasted and worsened around the dawn of the cinemassacre (no longer a) hidden gems video, to AVGN fake hating on crap, to those game chaser a-holes and those who copied them for hits doing $1 for $100+ dollar flea market and clueless retail store videos laughing about it as it's done or in the parking lot mentality.  It caused a whole bunch of find videoss to copy cat losers shitting the bed ignorantly to get attention while shooting themselves and everyone else in the foot for clicks.  Once that went rotten, the game amped because then clicks turn into coins or patreon coins.  It's awful.

 

I'll watch legit researchers and historians, those who dig... Jeremy Parish(Works videos), Gaming Historian, sharopolis, and a few select others.  I don't want that other filth in my auto-feed.

[atarifan88]

We have quite a few shops that sell retro games, but I'm retired from buying older systems. I've got my older systems converted over to emulation and a Nintendo switch to play the arcade stuff. We do have a 16 bit barcade which is always a trip back in time! Now if they could just get a damn Tron machine in there, I would be set! 😎