Share your memories of closed game stores

[zektor]

The Program Store
Willowbrook Mall, Wayne NJ

This store used to be located directly across from the BK in the mall. More of a computer game store, but also carried console stuff. I remember hanging out with my best friend and going there almost every day. We'd grab some BK, talk about games, and stare at the "Space Ace" demo on the amazing Amiga 500. I finally ended up purchasing an Amiga 500 from them for $700 I think. Best money I had ever spent I remember they used to get all of these great Psyclapse/Psygnosis Amiga titles, along with some not so popular games like "Major Motion" (a Spy Hunter clone with some nice graphics) and others. I really miss those days...

[Steven]

Sadly, I didn't get to say goodbye to two mom and pops which I held near and dear to my heart. One day I came back and they just mysteriously vanished. I actually wrote about some of these stores on my site under a piece called "Memories of Renting"

Actual game store-wise, I miss the Software ETC. store at the mall back in the early-mid 90s. Its ultra-cool blue hue would always draw me in like moths to flame.

[Push Upstairs]

I never got to say goodbye to either the store I worked at or the Game X Change near me.

The store I was at was being closed, but I had to wait a few days to find out if it was going for good or not.

Game X Change I didn't even have a warning. The last time I was in the mood to go peruse their inventory I drove up to see the sign was taken down and note was left on the door.

"We lost our lease and had to close up. Store credit can be redeemed at our other locations...blah blah."

It just hit me hard because it was so sudden. Made me think of all the good memories from that place, buying a cheap Saturn Import cart, getting a sealed "Magic Knight Rayearth" on Saturn, playing "Burnout 3" for the first time.

To the awesome guys who worked there...Vaya con Dios.

[HayakawaKen]

Game World - San Antonio, Texas
Gamefellas - San Antonio, Texas


Game World was started roughly back in 94 IIRC, with the first location off of Pat Booker... I only got to visit that location once, then they moved off of Naco, and opened a second store off of Blanco and a third on Bandera.. they had everything from Atari to the newest PS and Saturn games, and best of all they carried imports for Saturn and PS during the high demand times of both systems. I even got the chance to work at the Blanco location for a brief time before unfortunately getting fired.

The staff there was pretty cool, and was pretty much the same for a good 6-7 years before people started leaving or getting fired. There were plenty of cool people like Don, Adam, Jason, Pete etc. and they always gave good service. The launch of the DC and PS2 systems sort of became a death toll for the stores, as they got less and less customers and EB and Funco started moving in, and finally around 2000-2001, the stores were sold to EB to become EB Game World, which if I recall spread to a few different states. I got to go back to work there in 2002, at the old Bandera location, and worked there for 4 years till it finally closed and moved down the street to Mainland and Gilbeau, at this point EB and Gamestop merged, and the company went to crap.


Gamefellas was another store that was briefly here in SA, being an Austin company, they were around from 2000 to roughly 2003, opening 2 locations, one in North Star and one in Rolling Oaks.. they carried a great deal of games from atari to PS2 and Xbox, but were a bit higher priced.. I don't have too many memories of them, but they were ok, not as good as Game World though... I was glad to see them go as their staff got progressively worse and worse.

[DreamTR]

My first game store I ever went to that I saw that sold USED games was:

NEW FOCUS-Miami, FL

I was working at Publix Super Markets in 1991 on weekends, and I remember when I first set foot in the place, they had a used copy of Startropics complete with box and manual for $27.99. I HAD to have it. Minimum wage had just creeped up to $4.25, so with my 10 hours of work after taxes and two buses later, I was a very excited 15 year old. This place had it all. Famicom and Super Famicom systems and games, Mega Drive, PC Engine stuff, the WORKS. It was only open for a couple of years. Some rumor about them importing more than just games from Japan.

DIEHARD GAME STORES-Miami, CHicago, Los Angeles

I miss this place. THere were a few of these all over the US, and they had an amazing layout and very good import stock. Definitely for the hardcore at the time.

Microplay-Miami, FL
I know this is a Canadian company, but we had ONE Microplay out in Miami (there were a few I saw in Atlanta) and I'll never forget the owner of the place. It was open for about 8-9 years surprisingly, and when I worked there, the guy had a huge issue when a customer came in, asked for a game, it was not there, but since I was moving out of state in a month, I told him I had one available immediately. I went out to my car and sold a loose copy of Final Fantasy II to a guy for $35 (this is 1996) and the owner was pissed at me. Sure, I could have used some better judgment and sold it on my own time, but he expected me to pay him compensation for me selling my own game!!! That always pissed me off. Oh yeah, and when he paid me my paycheck, he just handed it to me in cash with "taxes" taken out mysteriously, but no actual paycheck showing deductions. Nice. A friend of mine worked there for a few years and would not get paid for months at a time. He got a bit pissed and took around 25K in inventory over the years, and even sold burned games over the counter sometimes. Sheesh. They changed the name to MegaPlay and disappeared soon after that, but it was the longest running used game store I had seen in the city.

Windy City Game Exchange-Chicago, IL

Anyone ever frequent this place? It's like shopping at Atari2600.com, except this place had crazy high prices. They had the rarest and BEST selection I had ever seen, but wanted $40-80 for boxed NES games, and hundreds of dollars for all sorts of other stuff in the late 90s. Boy do I wish I picked up that boxed X-Man they had for $400 in the display counter. That was a rip-off then, but I'm willing to pay it now! TOo bad they disappeared...

[Gentlegamer]

There was an electronics store in a run down mall near me in South Houston, TX (not far from Gilley's) when I was a kid. I don't remember its name . . . it was just "the video store." They had a huge selection of games to rent, and most of my game playing during that era was via rental. Back then, I was able to rent a Genesis console for $20 . . . with no deposit! What's more, I was also able to rent a Super Famicom for the same price before the SNES was released in the US. That's how I first played Super Mario World, Final Fight, F-Zero, and Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts (again, no deposit, and I was around 12 years old!). The rental prices were super cheap and on Wednesdays you could rent 2 for 1.

One day I went in there and most of the games were gone . . . someone had come in and offered the owner a lump sum for all their stuff and he had accepted it. So that was it. I never really rented games again because the major video rental chains were too much of a pain to deal with, too expensive, and had paltry selections of games for rental (sames goes for video cassettes, too).

[Steven]

Game World - San Antonio, Texas
Gamefellas - San Antonio, Texas


Game World was started roughly back in 94 IIRC, with the first location off of Pat Booker... I only got to visit that location once, then they moved off of Naco, and opened a second store off of Blanco and a third on Bandera.. they had everything from Atari to the newest PS and Saturn games, and best of all they carried imports for Saturn and PS during the high demand times of both systems. I even got the chance to work at the Blanco location for a brief time before unfortunately getting fired.

The staff there was pretty cool, and was pretty much the same for a good 6-7 years before people started leaving or getting fired. There were plenty of cool people like Don, Adam, Jason, Pete etc. and they always gave good service. The launch of the DC and PS2 systems sort of became a death toll for the stores, as they got less and less customers and EB and Funco started moving in, and finally around 2000-2001, the stores were sold to EB to become EB Game World, which if I recall spread to a few different states. I got to go back to work there in 2002, at the old Bandera location, and worked there for 4 years till it finally closed and moved down the street to Mainland and Gilbeau, at this point EB and Gamestop merged, and the company went to crap.


Gamefellas was another store that was briefly here in SA, being an Austin company, they were around from 2000 to roughly 2003, opening 2 locations, one in North Star and one in Rolling Oaks.. they carried a great deal of games from atari to PS2 and Xbox, but were a bit higher priced.. I don't have too many memories of them, but they were ok, not as good as Game World though... I was glad to see them go as their staff got progressively worse and worse.

OMG!!! Dude, I might have dealt with you, or at least ordered from you.

Summer of '99 I bought from GameWorld Fighter's History Dynamite (JP Saturn). Maybe you fielded my order, but the store copy came with the 1 MB Ram for $23 I recall. I said I already had the RAM so you guys sold me just the game for $18. This was via mail order. I took a chance on Game World (search engine'd Fighter's History Dynamite one summer night... I remember it arrived 7.4.99! How sad huh)

IN the summer of 2002 I went to the GameFellas at Lakeline Mall (IIRC) when I visited my cousins. I was the guy who that evening bought Night Warriors strategy guide and Impact Racing (Saturn). I remember asking the clerk (maybe it was you?!) if you could set up Impact Racing just so I know it would work.

Anyway, maybe I'm just a raving lunatic, but I have fond memories of those stores. GameFellas was sweet as hell, all sorts of retro goodness, and strategy guide heaven, too.

[HayakawaKen]

OMG!!! Dude, I might have dealt with you, or at least ordered from you.

Summer of '99 I bought from GameWorld Fighter's History Dynamite (JP Saturn). Maybe you fielded my order, but the store copy came with the 1 MB Ram for $23 I recall. I said I already had the RAM so you guys sold me just the game for $18. This was via mail order. I took a chance on Game World (search engine'd Fighter's History Dynamite one summer night... I remember it arrived 7.4.99! How sad huh)

IN the summer of 2002 I went to the GameFellas at Lakeline Mall (IIRC) when I visited my cousins. I was the guy who that evening bought Night Warriors strategy guide and Impact Racing (Saturn). I remember asking the clerk (maybe it was you?!) if you could set up Impact Racing just so I know it would work.

Anyway, maybe I'm just a raving lunatic, but I have fond memories of those stores. GameFellas was sweet as hell, all sorts of retro goodness, and strategy guide heaven, too.

Nah, it wouldn't have been me, that was someone else running the mail-order part of the store, most likely Jason. As for Gamefellas, I worked at the one in North Star Mall in San Antonio, and never really got to go to the Lakeline location, which iirc, is closed along with almost all of them I think excluding the one in Northcross..

[Chuplayer]

and finally around 2000-2001, the stores were sold to EB to become EB Game World, which if I recall spread to a few different states.

The EB on Route 9 in Old Bridge, New Jersey that opened in late 2001/early 2002 originally opened as an EB Game World. It's now EB Games, but for a while after the transition, their doormat still said EB Gameworld.

[Rob2600]

Sticking close to home, the most infamous one for me was Video Dynasty, a movie/game buy/rental store on Main Street in Belleville, NJ. It was open during the 1980's, perhaps making it into the early 90's. It is a frequent gag on my podcast (www.paunchstevenson.com), because of the ridiculously overpriced games and ill mannered owners. One of whom was a dead ringer for AC/DC's Brian Johnson.

Yes, Video Dynasty! Back in 1988-89, the owner was charging over $65 for NES games and $30 for Atari 2600 games. Why?

That store was in the Grand Union strip mall. There was also a tobacco store there where I got my picture taken with Randy "Macho Man" Savage.