Does anybody rent old school games?

[Anthony1]

When it comes to renting games, most people have two major choices. Blockbuster and Hollywood Video. But these two places mostly just rent the current console games. Like XBOX, PS2, GameCube and Advance. Some still have a small selection of PS1 titles.

But if you are interested in renting a Saturn game, or Jaguar game, you are out of luck.


Now, one might say, "Why would you want to rent a Saturn game, or a Jaguar game? Just buy it!".

Well, to some degree this is true. Usually renting a game costs 3 bucks or more. Like at Hollywood Video, you can rent alot of PSone games, but it costs $4.99 for 5 days or whatever. For that price, you might as well buy the PSone game.

But there are certian games that have extremely high valuations, and it would be cool to be able to rent them and check them out, and see what all the fuss is about, without having to cough up serious dough.

For example, there are lots of import games for the various systems, that go for big time bucks. Like Radiant Silvergun for example. Alot of us would like to check out Radiant Silvergun, and see what the hype is all about, but we simply don't have the $150.00 required to obtain one.

In such a case, being able to rent Old School games would be a cool deal. Plus I would have to imagine, that the price that would be charged to rent these games would be less than the normal rental fee at Blockbuster or Hollywood Video.

I know that there are alot of online places that rent games, and they have a monthly plan for renting games, but all of these places, seem to focus exclusively on only the latest games. Not any of the old school games.

Does anybody know anybody that rents old school games, as well as new ones?

What kinds of prices do they charge to rent them?

[Cmosfm]

Only problem with that would be game collectors like us who arent so honest who will rent the game and never return it. Or be semi-honest, rent it, tell them you lost it and pay for it because they cant charge the "going eBay price" for a saturn game...most they will be able to charge would be retail price for when the game was released.

And as for the game case thats just sitting ove rthere on the shelf for the game you just rented and dont plan on returning. Do you know how easy it is to slip the book and back out of those and stick it in your pocket?

The idea SOUNDS good, but really wouldnt work. Id have to say If I could rent, lose & pay a low price for a rare game....I just might do it.

[Anthony1]

Only problem with that would be game collectors like us who arent so honest who will rent the game and never return it. Or be semi-honest, rent it, tell them you lost it and pay for it because they cant charge the "going eBay price" for a saturn game...most they will be able to charge would be retail price for when the game was released.

And as for the game case thats just sitting ove rthere on the shelf for the game you just rented and dont plan on returning. Do you know how easy it is to slip the book and back out of those and stick it in your pocket?

The idea SOUNDS good, but really wouldnt work. Id have to say If I could rent, lose & pay a low price for a rare game....I just might do it.

There is a way around that. If you rent Radiant Silvergun and never return it, then you credit card gets charged 150 bucks. When you are looking at the list of games to rent, in parenthesis, it should have the amount your credit card would be charged if you never return it. They could set the price at whatever amount they want.

[MarioAllStar2600]

its 6 bucks to rent a game near me. It sucks, and the local blockbuster threw out all the stuff from beforen Playstation (but they threw out dreamcast).

[hydr0x]

There is a way around that. If you rent Radiant Silvergun and never return it, then you credit card gets charged 150 bucks. When you are looking at the list of games to rent, in parenthesis, it should have the amount your credit card would be charged if you never return it. They could set the price at whatever amount they want.

ehm i'm not sure, but i think this could be against the law, i can't imagine the law allows so high fines for not returning something...

[Qixmaster]

bad idea to rent old school games and what not. Do you see the way people take care of rentals? You'd have to be a complete jackass if you were to rent out radient silver gun. Honestly, i believe it wouldn't work, which is why there is no one doing it. In most cases, people who rent games mainly want to play the new games. I couldn't imagine NES games flying off the shelves when dollar day came along at my local video store. Just what i think.... other opinions?

[digitalpress]

There is a way around that. If you rent Radiant Silvergun and never return it, then you credit card gets charged 150 bucks. When you are looking at the list of games to rent, in parenthesis, it should have the amount your credit card would be charged if you never return it. They could set the price at whatever amount they want.

Even if that were the case (which would turn me off of the idea entirely, personally), what if you scratch or otherwise "not permanently damage" the game? What if you've ruined the $150 collector price but the game is still playable?

[Cmosfm]

Rented games get treated like crap, you other guys are right. So if they were rented out at 3.00 a pop for a 3 day period...thats 50 times at a span of 150 days at strangers houses that will treat it like crap.

Ever lent a friend a music cd before? Then that friend lent it to another and you get it back a week later looking like it was put on the concrete and scratched? Its happened to me before more than once and thats only going through 3 hands.

It would be crazy to rent out a rare game, its like taking a endangered species and allowing anyone who pays a few bucks to hit it a couple of times with a baseball bat...eventually it will die, thus making the games THAT much harder to find and usually not getting your full value out of them anyways via rentals.

[Bratwurst]

ehm i'm not sure, but i think this could be against the law, i can't imagine the law allows so high fines for not returning something...

Blockbuster has a few 'rare' VHS movies (mostly those that are not on DVD) that they will charge you 80-90 USD for if they aren't returned. When you sign up with them and get membership cards you agree to those sort of terms in that sense.

As for renting old games.. heh, only in the backwards mom and pop stores will you still find NES carts. Anyone who might be remotely interested in that sort of thing is aware of emulation. Don't get me started on renting out the rare old games.

[Anthony1]

O.K. Bad idea on my part.


I'm sorry. I was a total idiot on this one.

[kai123]

I am sure the idea would work with games that are not worth a ton of money. Besides not to many people would be able to play an import saturn game. So you would only be appealing to a certain group.

[digitalpress]

O.K. Bad idea on my part.


I'm sorry. I was a total idiot on this one.

Hardly a BAD idea. I find it intriguing! There are just a lot of details that would have to be ironed out.

[Cmosfm]

Hardly a BAD idea. I find it intriguing! There are just a lot of details that would have to be ironed out.

Yeah, and most rental places cant handle the process of renting out new games and even older carts without ruining them in the process...Ever bough out the stock of an old rental stores cart games? if yes, then you know what I mean, if no, then its sticker/permanant marker hell!

[Tom61]

Last I checked a local rental store called 'Scottens Video' still rented out a small amount of NES, SNES, and Genesis carts. Same price as renting newer games. They've been around before NES, so these are just he few that keep getting rented and not sold off. They got rid of their Dreamcast stuff though, wish I hadn't missed that (I heard $20 for consoles and $7 for games).

I wish they still had Raiden Project for PSX, but I bet someone pulled what you were talking about earlier. (I was thinking the same thing myself, so I can't really blame them)

[Jorpho]

I suppose the Nintendo vending machines in Japan have the right idea: have people buy flash carts on which they can write older games using a specialized, proprietary machine.

Of course, that can't be done with CD-based systems.

[Querjek]

I suppose the Nintendo vending machines in Japan have the right idea: have people buy flash carts on which they can write older games using a specialized, proprietary machine.

Of course, that can't be done with CD-based systems.

They could, but then piracy would gain 99% of sales.

[oesiii]

Anyone who might be remotely interested in that sort of thing is aware of emulation.

That was my first thought too, heck even the Saturn and Jaguar are getting decent emulation these days. And the PS1 and N64 emulation can be nearly perfect on many games.

But, I don't think it was a bad thought Anthony, just shows your thinking how to play those great old games

[YoshiM]

There are some places by me that still rent some old (like 1990's) games. Plymouth Video in Plymouth, Wisconsin still rents SNES and Sega CD (?!) games along with Playstation, N64 and a handful of DC titles. I think they rent for $2.50 a pop but it's been so long since I rented from them.

A grocery store simply called "The Store" in Howards Grove I believe rents NES & SNES games and I think Sega CD but I'm not 100% on the CD. It's been a while. There is also another rental place somewhere between Green Bay and Wausau that rents NES on up (don't ask me where, I drove passed it going to a wedding). Family Video used to rent SNES games until about a year ago.

That's really it. There MAY be a game store coming into county next year that MAY rent classic games but I'm not 100%. I'll keep all you Wisconsinites posted if more develops.

Now for a classic rental service...as cool as it would be it would just be a pain to do. Trust is one thing, finding a good structured rental fee is another. You'd have to probably set up a pricing tier from dirt commons to fairly uncommon and no real "rares". The tier would go higher for the more uncommon stuff as they ARE difficult to come by. The damage fees would probably have to be either DP pricing or whatever "the market will bear" with proof of the going prices from credible sources (eBay, Amazon, perhaps places like Good Deal Games, etc.).

[GaijinPunch]

Easy enough solution for me. THere's *NO* video game rentals here. You can either buy it, or borrow it. That's it.

[BIGMIKE]

my local gaming station rents anything. but the deal is you have to pay full price for it at take out. the rental fee is only like a buck or two for the week. when you bring it back you get the change. i did that one year when i wanted to check out cool boarders for ps1. paid around 20 for it and never returned it.