How was it?I heard shopping back in retro was more about spontaneous purchases rather than planned ones. Is it true pre-ordering wasn't as common back then?
stop with these useless, utterly pointless threads.
>>12722151You would go to the game isle at Toys R Us and grab a paper slip for the game you wanted, then cry like a little bitch when you went to the counter and they came back saying they didn't have that game in stock anymore. It was great.
>>12722157>stop talking retro on retro board>>12722151Yeah I don't really remember ever pre-ordering. It definitely was a thing, but not as common as it is today.
>>12722162Stop remembering the old world.Start accepting the new world.
i dont even remember preordering being a thing until the 2000s. but that mightve been because i wasnt old enough to have a job in the 90s. my only source of information about games were magazines, tv commercials, or video game stores.
>>12722168It was a thing, but less standarized/homogenized than it is now.Most of the times it meant just telling your local shop guy to keep you a copy and pay a little in advance.There weren't huge pre-order campaigns with collector limited shit all the time.Crazy but today people preorder digital games and they just wait until the timer onntje screen reaches 00:00 in order to be able to download it.
>>12722168the only retro game I ever preordered was San Andreas. I remember there being a huge line on release day at EB Games
>>12722151You went to storeYou grabbed gameYou went home
>>12722180The 2000s aren't truly retro.I know what this board's 2020 new rules say, but...
>>12722157Would this board be better if nobody posted?
>>12722162More like stop asking these retarded questions that a simple google search can answer for you, are you a fucking zoomer or something?>>12722191Discuss retro games, not "WHAT WAS LIFE BACK THEN LIKE?! OHH DID YOU GO TO A STORE AND BUY A GAME?!!! HOLY SHIT!!!"
>>12722219people talk about quite a few things that are a derivative of retro games and how they relate to them (shaders, scalers, arcades, culture, ect) if you have a problem with it apply to do it for free or you can just fuck off you assmad retard
>>12722151My local mall had 4 buisnesses that sold games and each one was a drastically different vibeJC Penny >had a wierd half-empty corner register by the back door >game selecion was all watered down family friendly stuff or last years stuff that didnt sell after christmas>They had an original super gameboy kiosk up and running until 1999 >got to play earthworm jim there>the last place i saw the original Pokemon red/blue for sale>Place was almost always empty for some odd reason EB games>always fucking packed>the golden age of consumersism>3-5 demo kiosks running constantly, lines for each one>was there on NDS launch day and it was pandemonium>you could also play pandemonium on the NGAGE kioskKB toys>loved to scam the elderly into getting games no one wantedPar-mar Pharamcy? Some absurdly large pharamcy cant remember the name of>arcade themed rental store inside with huge posters and lots of neon lighting>great vibes>no one cared if you read the giant wall of magazines which is how I stayed up to date until the internet took over
Stop askingStart accepting
We had magazines so we knew generally what was shovelware and what wasn't. It wasn't like I stood there poring over every box and taking chances on random games - truth be told, I was a kid, the most I could do is recommend my parents buy me something or say "nah" if they randomly picked one that was going to suck.It was just going to a store, it wasn't that exciting.>>12722219What did you want? Another Zelda thread? Another Nights thread? Another console war thread? Another thread where "good game, ackshually, bad?" Another CRT thread? Another thread where all the posts are "lookin good," "reddit," "didn't play the game," or "botpost ree?"This is more /vr/ related than CRT threads.When I don't like a topic, I just go to other threads. You can, too. You can also make your own threads to show everyone how it's done.
>>12722238>KB toys>>loved to scam the elderly into getting games no one wantedspot onthey had R-Zone and Tiger Game Com on display for years well past when they were released and not wanted
>>12722151>I heard shopping back in retro was more about spontaneous purchases rather than planned ones.For casuals? Spontaneous.For "gamers"? Planned carefully months in advance with massive amounts of anticipation and hype.
>>12722181If you were a filthy casual.If you read game magazines you followed the news on a title for sometimes years before finally getting your hands on it.
spontaneous buys were more for when you had ~$20 to burn and bought some random bullshit, probably from a bin. i bought a lot of pc games in boxes that way
>>12722253>For "gamers"? Planned carefully months in advance with massive amounts of anticipation and hype.Depends if you happened to have the right magazines at the right time, but many times some great games were surprises for many people.Remember, internet wasn't what it is today.I found a lot of great games by trying out different games at the game storeNot to mention, not all games had to be brand-new. Lots of games didn't have proper advertisement or weren't popular as they are now after 30 years of curation and youtube hidden gem vids
They told us to stop remembering the old world.But I remember the shelves.The CRT glow. The magazines. The games you weren't looking for.You didn't know what you were going to find.That was the point.Now everything is waiting for you before you arrive.Except the dream.The dream still chooses who finds it.Midnight.HN
>>12722151Moron
>>12722290Why?
I only ever had birthday and christmas money, so could only get 2 games a year until I found out about used games. It's not all that different than it is now, there was just no pressure to get a membership or pre order. You went in the store, found a game, paid for it and left with it.
What about late night pre-launch stuff?I don't really remember that during the 90s myself, in fact the first time I remember something like that was during the early 00s, with stuff like ps2 and harry potter
>>12722303There weren't really launches, cause there weren't really release dates, stores got games when they got games.
>>12722305There were some specific launch dates in some places, like Sonic 2 and 3 I think got a set release date, and then there was Dreamcast's famous 9.9.99 american launch. But yeah for the most part, you knew a game was about to get released, but the day was uncertain.Pretty sure there's discussion about the exact release date of the NES, with some states getting it first
>>12722303What you would do is know when a game is supposed to be released, then call around to every store in the area until you found one that had actually put it out, and then beg your parents to drive you there, or drive there yourself if you were old enough. Occasionally, stores broke release dates and put out games several days or even a week early. It was pretty common for people who mail ordered games to get them a day or two before the store release date.
>>12722303first midnight launch i went to was vice city. first time i ever heard of such a thing other than console releases
>>12722163>Start accepting the new world.But im trying to not kill myself.
>>12722168Wind Wanker was the first time i recall ever pre-ordering a game because of the OoT disc you got. Pretty sure they even gave it to you right at preorder, atleast the store i got mine from did.
>>12722151Yeah a lot of the time you would just go to the store and look at the boxes, and pick something based on that. Completely blind going in.
>>12722231>hurr durr tell me what it was like cus i'm a zoomer!!shut the fuck up faggot, go back to fortnite or whatever dogshit your mutant kind is playing. We aren't here to spoonfeed you because you missed out.
>>12722151>Mom can we get this please? Please?
>>12722151is that jet neptune
Good old days when you go to a computer hardware/software shop to buy the just-released Carmageddon, but all the front shelves are packed with golf and pinball big (or rather huge) boxes, while only two Carmageddons are tucked away in the farthest corner.
>>12722463You sound like a zoomer to me. You think knowledge and stories about how people shopped for toys 30 years ago has value. You think it's "spoonfeeding" to talk about your experiences with a hobby that you ostensibly enjoy.What are they going to do with such knowledge? At best make a short-form comedy skit about it.Sometimes people are curious and wonder why something is
>>12722158What were the crime statistics in your area at the time? I could grab the game off of a rack and walk it up to the counter at my toys r us. Late 90s they sectioned off a part of the store by the registers with a one way gate to get into the game area, then by like 2003 they started using the plastic cases, still on a rack. KB Toys and Kmart had a glass case where an employee had to unlock it and hand you the game but you still carried it up to the counter. Funcoland you had to go up to the counter for new games but that was because it was like a shoebox. My dining room or your single wide trailer had more floor space.
>>12722181So you just grabbed a game and left without paying? Not cool, anon.
>>12722151First half of the 90's, see games in a catalog, that was basically your whole games world, none of this hidden gem summer carnival recca stuff.Parents buy a game because it seems popular, like it so get the sequels.See sonic 1 on gamegear, want it on sms later for christmas, its sold out never to be seen again until emulators, if your mind the game no longer exists.See Lotus box for Sega Megadrive and look at the back, looks like the single most impressive game box I've ever seen. Have no concept that its an Amiga port or that computers are used for anything other than dumb educational software.For Christmas 3 or 4 games and a couple during the year. Hear of the Atari Lynx, it costs the same as a Megadrive or Snes.2nd half of the 90's, now there are demo discs on ps1 and pc. Get 1 every so often so probably experience 20 to 30 games a year. Demos like Whacky wheels or Doom have more content than some full cartridge games. See games reviewed but often miss them if you don't them on the first run except for games like Command and Conquer and also you have cheaper budget releases. On ps1 they the platinum games which were way cheaper, start to build of backlog of games that you don't finish. Very late 90's places now sell 2nd hand games, can now get stick stacks of old ps1 games cheap.>>12722247Even if you didn't get every mag everyone knew that stuff like Rise of the Robots was awful.
>>12722585>no uu!!!fuck. off. zoomshit. faggot.>>>/r/eddit
I wonder if people back then brought up the inflation meme if you complained about game prices.
>>12722598Toys R Us and Walmart always had the games locked up. Toys R Us had the paper slip system like the other anon said. Walmart you just had to find an employee with a key to unlock the case like today. Then there were "higher end" stores like Best Buy and Media Play that left all the games out on open shelves.
>>12722151Unless I had played a demo, the Playstation's "Platinum" re-releases were how I could trust a blind purchase.The one that tricked me up the most were PC games, I sadly wasted money on proper shit too often.
>>12722151No, not spontaneous, because games were expensive.
>>12722163No thank you. Even this zoomer/brown riddled board is better than dealing with modern games
>>12722598Rude. My family was upper class with a double wide.
>>12722598Earliest I remember it being a thing was 1990 because I vividly remember picking out paper slips for my Lynx games as a kid and taking them to the counter filled with anxiety that they wouldn't actually have them in stock. I think that's just how Toys R Us did things.
>>12722219Just use your mod powers to delete the thread.
>>12722219You talk like a fag and your shits all retarded.
>>12722691I remember circuit city. Didn’t know about Best Buy until the 2000’s
>>12722463Speak for yourself dummy. I come on here for the meta and history not just the games. This board isn't for you. Go back to phpBB
>>12723570I really liked Media Play when I was a kid. They are out of business now but back in the late 90s/early 00s they were one of the first stores I ever went to that had a massive anime and manga section. Used to ride my bike there all the time as a kid. Remember specifically buying Mechwarriors 2: Mercenaries there for PC and buying the boxed set of Yu Yu Hakusho Spirit Detective Saga
>>12722151>I heard>Is it trueOdds of a child like (You) hearing anything true on the anti-social media that rules your life is less than 0.Also, hilariously ironic post from the impulse preorderer generation
>>12725118>anti-social mediaQRD?
>>12725118>old retard doesn't realize they are on a social media sitemany such cases. you got a map of the nursing home unc?
>>12722151Everything was expensive back then but now it can be even more expensive. I wish I never sold my SNES and games, but whatever, you wince'em and loose'em.
>>12722151You usually rented them first unless it was a big title like zelda or mario. By thw 90s there was a ton of crap titles
You could always ask the information superhighway
>>12727324>you now remember prodigy's Mad Maze
>>12722284I remember too.
