Old SNES rentals in the US

[lkermel]

Hi,

I've been living in the US for a few years now (I'm actually French) and I've been surprised to find old Japanese Super Famicom games that seem to have been available for rental... A lot of them are sadly damaged, they come with stickers all over them and retailers usually made two holes at the bottom of the cartridges so they'd fit in a SNES... did the Blockbuster chain (and others) have Super Famicom games available back in ths 90s ?

[ShinobiMan]

Interesting. I don't recall any video rental stores carrying Super Famicom games, but there were some video game shops that sold them. Believe it or not, there was a time when Lame Stop didn't have a monopoly on gaming and independently owned shops thrived. I picked up a number or imports from shops like Game Force and Die Hard Video Games (Austin, TX).

But back to the topic at hand, it seems unlikely that a video rental chain like Blockbuster would knowingly rent Japanese titles. Maybe someone else can shed some light.

[Bojay1997]

Blockbuster didn't, but there were several video game rental chains in Los Angeles that did rent Famicom and Super Famicom games in the 90s. There was a chain called Gameland that had 5-6 locations at one point (now they only have one in Torrance and I don't think they rent anymore) and several smaller chains in Orange County and Los Angeles County that also rented and sold Japanese games and systems.

[The 1 2 P]

I don't ever remember hearing this before but I do remember friends telling me that there was one point in the 90's where EB games actually started selling Japanese import Saturn games. I never saw them there but apparently certain locations sold them.

[ShinobiMan]

I don't ever remember hearing this before but I do remember friends telling me that there was one point in the 90's where EB games actually started selling Japanese import Satrn games. I never saw them there but apparently certain locations sold them.

Actually certain EB Games sold Super Famicom as well. This was a brief period, didn't last long. Most places would have to also sell the necessary boot disc or adapter to plat import games. I miss those days.

[withalligators]

They sure did. Radiant Silvergun for 39.99 in the bargain bin. D&D as well. Konami MSX collection 9.99. good stuff was had in those days.

[Bojay1997]

They sure did. Radiant Silvergun for 39.99 in the bargain bin. D&D as well. Konami MSX collection 9.99. good stuff was had in those days.

I remember seeing those languishing on the shelf of the EB in downtown San Diego for what seemed like a year. Of course, they gutted their games even back then, so it's not like it would have been sealed new or anything.

[tubeway]

Hi, (I'm actually French)

Mods please close this thread, thanks.

[Kid Fenris]

They sure did. Radiant Silvergun for 39.99 in the bargain bin. D&D as well. Konami MSX collection 9.99. good stuff was had in those days.

How quickly did those Saturn imports drop in price? I suppose they didn't turn enough profit for EB Games to routinely stock Japanese titles.


Mods please close this thread, thanks.

Mods, please close the lid of my Duo so it doesn't fill up with roaches (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=130510&).

[Bratwurst]

Oh no Kid Fenris you are on tubeway's shit list for sure now!!

[Soviet Conscript]

Mods, please close the lid of my Duo so it doesn't fill up with roaches (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=130510&).

lol, ok that was funny

but still, those things could have got in there at any point in time, even in very sanitary homes you can have a infestation. unfortunitly they apperently like electromagnatism so duos make a nice home for them. the duo fought back though as evidenced by the mangled bodies i found in the gears.

as for the topic. i never knew anywhere around here that sold or rented anything jp as far as games went. i'm assumeing this was mostly a west coast thing?

[Superman]

Another vote for not knowing of any chains renting import games.

I've never heard of any chains renting Super Famicom or any import games, in general. Even when the respective systems were new, I didn't know of any stores even selling import games. One time I went to Japan town in San Francisco to the rental stores and markets looking for them and they looked at me like I was crazy.

[Smashed Brother]

Mods, please close the lid of my Duo so it doesn't fill up with roaches (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/showthread.php?t=130510&).


*Strokes long imaginary white beard* "Hmmm, I see..."

[tubeway]

Oh no Kid Fenris you are on tubeway's shit list for sure now!!

haha, no, that was funny as hell actually. :)

I don't know how the roaches got in there -- I'm pretty sure it wasn't from my place. The Turboduos were in a warehouse for a few years before I got that one from the lot.

I'm kind of glad I never got the bit to open the case, though... *shudder*

[Soviet Conscript]

haha, no, that was funny as hell actually. :)

I don't know how the roaches got in there -- I'm pretty sure it wasn't from my place. The Turboduos were in a warehouse for a few years before I got that one from the lot.

I'm kind of glad I never got the bit to open the case, though... *shudder*

be glad...be very very glad

[Daria]

Not a rental story, but at one point Target was selling preowned rental games. My dad and I would go there to look at what they had for NES and Game gear. One day I spot a very Japanese looking game gear cartridge, hoping it was an RPG I took a gamble and bought it. Turned out to be a weird sort of rock/paper/scissors type fighting game which I only found out years later was actually Yu Yu Hakusho.

Point being somewhere, someone was renting import game gear games and liquidated their stock to Target.