Kay Bee ad November 7 1991

[Buyatari]

Most of the ad is videogames but there are some toys in here as well. Not sure if anyone really cares about the TMNT party wagon or the head droppin action figures but if you want to see those I can scan the non game pages as well.

Some pages were a bit bigger than the scanner so they may look a bit cropped.

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t245/WastingOrpheus/Kaybeead/IMG_0001.jpg

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t245/WastingOrpheus/Kaybeead/IMG_0002.jpg

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t245/WastingOrpheus/Kaybeead/IMG_0003.jpg

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t245/WastingOrpheus/Kaybeead/IMG_0004.jpg

[Drixxel]

Awesome flyer, thanks for sharing this little slice of shopping mall history. I never saw $7.99 Game Boy games at any of the stores around where I grew up, that would have blown my mind. Those Dynasound Power Grips look pretty rad.

[BlastProcessing402]

$20 for Zelda, sweet.

[bb_hood]

River City Ransom is 10$, and Tetris is 35$, that makes a whole lotta sense...

[AcePuppy]

Jeez if only it were today and we knew what the future brought us.

[Collector_Gaming]

shit i got one hell of a expensive collection with those prices!!!! Thanks KB Toys AD from 1991......... BACK TO THE PAST!!!

http://www.myremoteradio.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Doc-Brown.jpg

[DDCecil]

I got Dexterity, Mercenary Force, and Heiankyo Alien that Christmas. Nice to know where my parents got them from and how much they were!

[SpaceHarrier]

Dang, $10 for Air Fortress.. I remember renting it around that time, I'm sure that cost almost half the purchase price! Also, $60 for Strider!! Honestly though, I'd have considered that game worth the price, at the time.

I love perusing old ads and catalogs, thank you Buyatari!

[j_factor]

Odd, I don't remember Game Gear games being $40.

[superfamicast64]

Odd, I don't remember Game Gear games being $40.

I remember Best Buy had the Sonic Game Gear games for about $40 back in the day, but those were it. And note, this was 1996-97, long after the Game Gear's heyday....

[Buyatari]

Ok here is another Kay Bee ad. This one looks like it might still be good.

It says sale starts November 5th and ends November 15th so hey today is the last day !

I might have to pick up a Megaman 4 for $44.99.
I wonder if they will let me do a return on a NHL PA 93 for $54.99

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t245/WastingOrpheus/Kaybeead/IMG_0013.jpg

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t245/WastingOrpheus/Kaybeead/IMG_0014.jpg

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t245/WastingOrpheus/Kaybeead/IMG_0015.jpg

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t245/WastingOrpheus/Kaybeead/IMG_0016.jpg

[Collector_Gaming]

Funny how they write out that the genesis is the ultimate system while the snes is the other system you could get that can play 16 bit games.

[j_factor]

NES was the same price as Genesis and SNES?

[Buyatari]

NES was the same price as Genesis and SNES?

Well the NES for $89.99 comes with Mario 3
The SNES with Mario World is $139.99
The Genesis with Sonic is $119.99

If you want just the SNES or the Genesis system only then they are $89.99

[Flashback2012]

That was a nice little time warp. :)

[SpaceHarrier]

hahahaha I love the pro photo editing on "Adventure Island II I" in that second ad.

[genesisguy]

Nice post! I remember those Batman toys. I think I had the white one.

I also remember in 1991 really wanting a SNES or a Genesis and being somewhat sick of my NES. But in hindsight looking back at those games the NES had some really good titles that year. Some way better than the SNES and Genesis titles in those ads.

[theoakwoody]

NCAA Basketball for SNES. This is like the only game where I've ever figured out a glitch on my own and was able to kick the shit out of the game. The Small Forward on North Carolina will hit 98% of his shots anywhere inside the half court line. I think his name is Davidson. Loved that game.

[skaar]

I like how some of those are still holding value ;)

[leatherrebel5150]

It's interesting how new game prices were so different than. We pretty much have standard prices on new games now ($50 for wii, $60 for xbox and PS3). It is crazy how Bart's Nightmare is $8 more expensive than Mario Kart.

[Buyatari]

Man is that cover to Final Fight creepy. Those two should get a room. This cover has to be up there with Cowboy Kid on NES.

[Famidrive-16]

Wow, those Bondwell pads look terrible.

[chilimac]

So prices haven't changed too much. Consoles are much higher, but games for $50-60, handheld systems for $150 and games for $40.

RPGs were outrages back then though. I remember Babbage's selling Phantasy Star IV for $99, and Shining Force II for $80. I also remember when Strider first came out, Kaybee had it for $70.

Helluva hobby to have when you're a jobless young man, as I was back then. Now I finally have the money, but the games are junk.

[Collector_Gaming]

So prices haven't changed too much. Consoles are much higher, but games for $50-60, handheld systems for $150 and games for $40.

RPGs were outrages back then though. I remember Babbage's selling Phantasy Star IV for $99, and Shining Force II for $80. I also remember when Strider first came out, Kaybee had it for $70.

Helluva hobby to have when you're a jobless young man, as I was back then. Now I finally have the money, but the games are junk.

that was the thing back then.
We didn't have the internet and we didn't have G4 tv... therfore the only you'd get reviews really was buying gaming mags which were few and far between back then.
So those of us who didn't get the mags gambled and the companies knew that so they would market the hell out of the game even if they knew it sucked... it would sell and millions of gamers would be at home going "why u no good game"

[InsaneDavid]

We didn't have the internet and we didn't have G4 tv...

Yeah, there was a lot less disinformation back then!

[Flashback2012]

As a Peanuts/Snoopyholic, I would have totally snapped up that GB Snoopy's Magic Show for $10. ;)

[fergojisan]

I loved seeing the first ad. I started working there about 5 weeks before, and we had a lot of wall space devoted to the NES. The SNES was relegated to a small display case at the end of the cashwrap. I think we only had 3 SNES games when I first started. I thought I might see Lynx games in the flyer, we had some of those in the case with the SNES. The only thing that stands out about the Genesis was the talking Joe Montana football game. We had Game Gear in the corner by the entrance, and we didn't have alarms at the door in those days, and many people used to lean over and help themselves to GG games and run into Fortunoff (including some employees). The manager and 2 assistants were the only ones who were allowed to count the games in the morning. They had to count every single video game every single morning, and then enter them in the computer, along with whatever was missing. It was a rare day when everything was accounted for. I think right after Christmas, we had an endcap filled with U-Forces for 9.99. We had around 30 of those things, but I don't know what happened to them. As for the Turtles stuff, Jesus. We practically had a whole TMNT aisle that Christmas. And I had no idea about any of this shit at the time besides the NES. I started buying toys then, but I don't have anymore of them.

I think I was already gone by the time the second ad came out the following year, but my wife was working in a different store. The SMS 2 and games were closed out that year, and Sarah bought me one with some games for Christmas. Some of the games were more expensive than the system was, I think the system was $14.99 at that point.

Good times, thanks for posting these!

[Emperor Megas]

Funny how they write out that the genesis is the ultimate system while the snes is the other system you could get that can play 16 bit games.Kay Bee knew what was up. :)

[Streetball 21]

NCAA Basketball for SNES. This is like the only game where I've ever figured out a glitch on my own and was able to kick the shit out of the game. The Small Forward on North Carolina will hit 98% of his shots anywhere inside the half court line. I think his name is Davidson. Loved that game.

Lol, I did the same thing, but with Texas Tech. The SF would hit all his three pointers. Haha good times....

[RPG_Fanatic]

So prices haven't changed too much.
RPGs were outrages back then though. I remember Babbage's selling Phantasy Star IV for $99, and Shining Force II for $80. I also remember when Strider first came out, Kaybee had it for $70.

$60 dollars was worth more back then it is now and people still bitch that $60 is to much to pay for a game now days.

[j_factor]

$60 dollars was worth more back then it is now and people still bitch that $60 is to much to pay for a game now days.

It was too much then, too. :p At least back then, you had the option of buying a computer game for half the price (or often less). Now computer games are just as expensive. :(

[Emperor Megas]

$60 dollars was worth more back then it is now and people still bitch that $60 is to much to pay for a game now days.It was expensive back then as well, however there are tons more games flooding the market these days -- the competition for that $60 is far greater now than it was back then. And it's really not the majority that complains, it's mainly those who are more budget conscious, and those who don't feel that they're getting a decent return for their $60 like they did years ago. I fall into both of those camps.

I've replayed some of my older games literally a thousand of times over. I've gotten countless hours of entertainment out of them. Not so with most of the modern games in my collection, however. The modern games that I play now which DO have the replay value of older games (like puzzle games and shoot 'em ups) don't have the same production costs as modern big budget titles, so I wouldn't pay today what I would have BITD for them, and for as much as I enjoy some of the big budget productions, they don't have the replay to put the same sort of time into them, so I don't want to pay $60 for them either.

[Manga4life]

Great idea for a post, it brought back a lot of memories of being a kid and ripping through the Sunday paper to find ad's from places such as Kay-Bee and Toys R Us. At 31 I still rip through the Sunday paper and look at ad's for video games and stuff such as that, it's a yearly tradition I put into place the Sunday after Thanksgiving and all the way through the final Sunday before Christmas.

Sometimes I think the ad's, the magazines, the whole atmosphere of video gaming in the 80's and early 90's sometimes eclipse the actual video games themselves. I know it sounds silly but I'm the kind of person who remember stuff such as this ad and other things revolving around games that aren't just the games themselves, almost as if images and propaganda related to video games stick in my brain as much as playing the games did.

[chilimac]

$60 dollars was worth more back then it is now and people still bitch that $60 is to much to pay for a game now days.

It's too much to pay for today's games because they're boring interactive movies that lack replay value. You play through them once (if that) and never again. They're not bad weekend rentals, but only a fool would buy them for $60.

[j_factor]

They're not bad weekend rentals

And the price of rentals has gone way up, for games that are "cheaper".