Store chains you miss that went out of business?

There used to be a video game rental place called Videots and I liked it because it was the first place that I knew that was a strictly video game store. It was primarly a video game rental place but they also sold new and used games and rented out systems as well during the transition into the 32 bit era. The only thing that really bugged me was I once traded in a Sega Cd with Popful Mail and about 6 other games and everything was complete with box and instructions for less than $30 and I used that to get Tekken for Playstation. I still shake my head at that deal but this was before ebay and all of these places where you can find out how scarce a game is and how sought after they are and all that so old games were just old games that the stores were taking a gamble on as well. They only had the locals to unload these things on so they both sold things for quite cheap but bought things for quite cheap as well.


I also remember my local mall (Serramonte) had a stand, much like a sunglasss, jewelry, or cellphone stand that you see in malls today that was a video game store and they had t.v monitors on three sides of it each hooked up to a system playing various games. I remember when Final Fight first came out for the SNES and there were a bunch of kids huddled around that game and there would be some old NES game two monitors down that no one bothered to play anymore. I remember I got Super Mario Bros 2 there and Street Fighter 2 there as well. Obviously it closed down then turned into a standard mall store under the name "Captron" which was cool because it had some point system where you earned points with each purchase that you could use towards stuff in the store and that lasted about 4 -5 years or so and that place is now a Gamestop and it sucks balls.
 
[quote name='GizmoGC']Toys R US and paper slips for video games. Remember when all the consoles were in glass display cases? Good times.[/QUOTE]


Oh man I used to love the systems in the glass cases. You were able to see the systems you didn't have in the the flesh just to see that there were no tags for it.
 
[quote name='floormat']What I miss is

Aladdins Castle. 6 copies of street fighter II. Around 200 games per location It was crazy. Now in a town of 300,000 people there is like 2 or 3 places you might call an arcade and they only have about 25 games each. sniff.

Hot and Now. Some of the best burgers at a fair price.



I wonder what happened to these 2. I suspect Aladdins just disapeared cause home consoles pretty much took over but hot and now¿?[/quote]

We had an Aladdins Castle in our mall, it had.. maybe 20 games max... most sucked. 5 of the 20 where Skeeball, which I love the game but still. Another 10 where ticket games, final 5 where arcade games.
 
[quote name='bigdaddybruce44']constantly have to wait a few minutes when the story is empty, because the double-digit moron is playing Guitar Hero.[/quote]

Yea, thats nothing new around here.

BUT I CAN 1-UP YOU ON THAT!

Not only was lardass playing Guitar Hero, and sucking at it, I wanted a PS3 (Yea, amazing huh?) and he LOCKED HIS KEYS IN THE BACK ROOM so he COULDN'T get me my damn PURCHASE! >_> Some people just... ugh.
 
I miss my Funcoland. When I was younger back in my NES Colellecting days, I used to have my mother drag me all acorss the state practically to every Funcoland imaginable looking for deals (Thanks Ma!). It was easily one of my most exciting memories as a kid since that place literally was like a hidden gem. You never knew when you would stumble upon that copy of Tengen Tetris or Flintstones 2. I'll never forget the time I went in there and found almost half the AVE collection complete in box. Funcoland also helped me make a mint in my early eBay days, I used to flip valuable games on there all the time and make a goldmine. I got out of NES collecting right at the peak, once I pretty much reached the point where I had every common game, and all that was left was the obscure stuff that was either too expensive or really hard to find. I think I had damn near 500+ games at the end, which I ended up putting on eBay and making around 800 bucks total. I still have a small collection of maybe around 100 of my most favorite games, but I really do miss those days with all my heart.

It's unfortunate that Gamestop doesn't see fit to at least allow their stand alone stores to dedicate at least a small area of the store to classic titles, and still allow people to trade them in. It's definitely an untapped market, especially now that all that stuff is retro cool.

Funcoland also doesn't really get the credit it deserves for being the originator of the trade in your used games and get raped by our trade in values, business model, that Gamestop thrives on now. If someone someday writes a book or an article about the history of Video Game retail, Funcoland definitely needs to be a large part of it, as they were the originators.
 
[quote name='floormat']What I miss is

Aladdins Castle. 6 copies of street fighter II. Around 200 games per location It was crazy. Now in a town of 300,000 people there is like 2 or 3 places you might call an arcade and they only have about 25 games each. sniff.

Hot and Now. Some of the best burgers at a fair price.



I wonder what happened to these 2. I suspect Aladdins just disapeared cause home consoles pretty much took over but hot and now¿?[/quote]
Aladdin's Castle still technically exists, but the entire chain was acquired by Namco and so some of them may have had their names changed to Namco Cybertainment or some such. The mall in my area lost the Aladdin's Castle, but managed to acquire a Tilt.

I say count it in the thread anyway, since it (like most arcades) is a shadow of its former glory.
 
[quote name='Pi573']Aladdin's Castle still technically exists, but the entire chain was acquired by Namco and so some of them may have had their names changed to Namco Cybertainment or some such. The mall in my area lost the Aladdin's Castle, but managed to acquire a Tilt.

I say count it in the thread anyway, since it (like most arcades) is a shadow of its former glory.[/quote]

Some people claim that the Arcade Market in this country died when Home Consoles became equal in power and technology to their arcade counter parts, but that's a lot of BS, because the industry still thrives in Japan, and they have all the same video games we do. What killed Arcades in this country is when the industry as a whole decided to shift away from video games, which were large, expensive, and less lucrative, and towards redepmtion games, which were smaller, much more profitable, and just a better business model for arcade owners. Why keep putting in fighting games when eventually only the best of players will hog the machine anyways, and will eventually get skilled enough to play for hours on end for only fifty cents or a dollar. This is why towards the mid and late 90's, you saw fewer and fewer arcades invest in new games, while the number of Skee Ball, light stopper, and other ticket dispensing games tripled. Unfortunately people caught onto the ticket scam, and the majority of FYE and Namco owned arcades went out of business by the end of the decade.

Even now however, if you ever go into a Casino, Dave and Busters, or Chuck E. Cheese type establishment, it's still 90% redemption games. You can fit three or four skee balls in the same space as one DDR or sit down racer, and run a dozen people through the skee ball game in the same time it would take one person to play an entire game of DDR. Oh, and don't get me started on Dave and Busters Points Card system, that's an even bigger scam then the ticket redemption, it just fools you into forgetting that each game of Mario Kart GP is costing you $1.75
 
[quote name='Proto Man']Funcoland was awesome before it turned into Gamestop. I miss the paper sales price lists :([/quote]

Ditto! The paper sales/trade price list rocked!
 
[quote name='floormat']What I miss is

Aladdins Castle. 6 copies of street fighter II. Around 200 games per location It was crazy. Now in a town of 300,000 people there is like 2 or 3 places you might call an arcade and they only have about 25 games each. sniff.

Hot and Now. Some of the best burgers at a fair price.



I wonder what happened to these 2. I suspect Aladdins just disapeared cause home consoles pretty much took over but hot and now¿?[/quote]

I wanted to say something about Hot N Now as well, we had one here and it was great. There are still like 8 left. I think there are 7 in Michigan and 1 in Missouri. Most closed down because the company went bankrupt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_%27n_Now
 
Rhino Games, I know some of their prices were horrible and their staff was ridiculously stupid but the fact that they would comp you up to a new release game if you traded in a game that was worth over 10 dollars. That's the only reason I missed that store.
 
Locally, I died a little inside when Game Express went out of business. The location in Carle Place was excellent and was pretty much one of the non-NYC locations in which you could walk in, find a plethora of import games, hardware, soundtracks, art books, and everything else when your only other option was ordering from ads in the back of EGM and Gamefan. The prices were high but there was nary a Son May CD in sight and they were all about offering everything you could imagine, even if the prices were MSRP. They started going balls-up after 2000, getting rid of their ~amazing~ employees, all of their imports, raising their prices, and trying to sell whatever schlock would move in the store (ie: mobile phone kiosks, etc).

Honestly, save for one or two other local chains, it was the best gamer help I've ever seen. The staff ran VHS tapes of their game runthroughs from the other night for kicks and in order to sell unique games that wouldn't move otherwise. They were pushing Radiant Silvergun and Bangai-o with a passion, along with plenty of quirky other titles. What great people, really.


Otherwise...the loss of Funcoland was huge when it came to getting older games. It was one of the few bastions here where you walk into a store, see 80% preowned items and none of them looked like garbage (unlike other chains as of late). The prices were a bit much but, hey, all things considered most were still sickeningly reasonable. That and, lord, it legitimized "sell us your old stuff!" around here in a period where people went "USED IS CRAP!!!!".

I miss A&S and Sterns, but that's mostly because I'm growing really fucking tired of all of Federated's department stores pretty much being the same damned thing unless a store is a flagship or it's on the other side of the country. I guess now I can also toss in L.S. Ayres, Kaufmann's, Lord & Taylor, Robertson May, and a load of others in there, too. Crap.

Also, WAAAAAY back in local gaming, I remember Captron in the LI area. It wasn't much to write home about but damn, what a great place. Considering it was a gaming store in a large mall kiosk you would think it would be shite but their setup was pretty much like going to a mini Nintendo World Championship. Walk in, NES games behind the counter (Master System as well), and you can browse the titles and try out some of the latest ones on about seven or eight demo kiosks for as long as you wanted. For the late 80's, that was like a dream come true to pretty much every kid who walked in there. They moved a hell of a lot of product that way, too. They died out early on in the SNES era but they were excellent for their time.
 
There was an independent store in Erie called Endless Entertainment. They had everything for classic gamers. Of course they went under and it was probably their fault for calling it ENDLESS Entertainment. That and some of their prices on rare games were too high. Like highest amount a game would go for on ebay, plus ten dollars.
 
[quote name='E_G_Man']I wanted to say something about Hot N Now as well, we had one here and it was great. There are still like 8 left. I think there are 7 in Michigan and 1 in Missouri. Most closed down because the company went bankrupt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_%27n_Now[/quote]
We had one in town that closed in November/December in 07. I never went there.

Edit so im not doubleposting -

[quote name='Pi573']Aladdin's Castle still technically exists, but the entire chain was acquired by Namco and so some of them may have had their names changed to Namco Cybertainment or some such. The mall in my area lost the Aladdin's Castle, but managed to acquire a Tilt.

I say count it in the thread anyway, since it (like most arcades) is a shadow of its former glory.[/quote]

We actually had a Tilt in this mall until recently. I think it closed when Regal Cinemas did.
 
Rhino.

I was friends with the local manager.. still am, but he's moved a few states away now. I did their "trade two, get one free" so many freakin' times. They let me do it and pay $10 for a 360 game.

When the 360's first came in, he let me in the back and pick up the box and hold it. It was an amazing moment. Sigh.. if only some game stores were that cool now.
 
So sorry, HumanSnatcher. I did a search, but like always, I think I used the wrong terms to check for similar threads. If a mod wants to consolidate this thread into yours, so be it. But, with how many similar threads we get in an average week, I think two of the same can survive and co-exist.

Oh and I can't believe I didn't mention PharMor. They were great, cheaper prices than many 'drug stores' on many items and the one near us had a nice game rental section. It was a shame to see them go. Saddest part is, the store they were in is STILL unleased since their demise.

I also remember 'The Wiz', but only got a chance to experience their pricing from a stand they set up at Woodstock in 1994. I can't imagine they faired too well there, since they tried putting up alarms to prevent people from walking off with half their stuff, but the alarms were almost constantly going off for most of the week the concert was going on. I would think quite alot of merchandise 'walked off' during that week.

I can't believe I also forgot about 'The Wall', which was one of the stores I admittedly bent the rules at. I used to keep at least ONE of their guarantee stickers unused and sitting on the plastic wrap from one of my tapes or cds and then slap it on a cd or tape I got from another shop and get a different copy. Unfortunately, that must've been the earliest instance of me doing the ol' 'WalMart return trick'(aka return fraud).

I'm sure I wasn't alone though.

I remember many of the other chains people have mentioned in here and can't believe I didn't recall seeing that Woolworth's changed into Foot Locker from the wikipedia article about the store.
 
I remember Rax. There was one near Mall 205 in the Portland area when I was a kid, and I went there with my mom a few times. Those alligator cups kind of creeped me out, but not enough to keep me from drinking from them. After they closed, the building was vacant for a while before a Tony Roma's opened in it. After they closed, Hooters moved in. They just recently closed and left the building vacant again.

There's a few Hot & Now's left in Michigan and one in Wisconsin - all independently owned. If you want to read about their history, there's a nice read here. Interestingly, one of the MI stores has a MySpace profile if you want to look for that - unfortunately, it doesn't have much beyond the menu. Those cheap burgers and fries were awesome. Coffee People bought several former Hot & Now buildings when they closed. Starbucks recently purchased Coffee People and converted them into drive-through Starbucks locations.

How many of you in the NW have heard of Skipper's (fast food seafood chain) going out of business? IIRC, there's a few franchised/independently owned stores left, most (if not all) in Washington, and someone has the rights to sell canned clam chowder under the Skipper's name), but beyond that, they're gone. My mom used to take us there pretty often when I was a kid.

I have some Montgomery Ward memories too. My mom got my first Nintendo there. I got an awesome TV/VCR combo from the Mall 205 store when they went out of business. My mom has it now and it still works great.

Sam Goody was just another overpriced mall chain to me, but every now and then they had some decent clearances.

Finally, I'll mention EBGames before GameStop took over. They weren't that much better but they had better sales and game clearances (and who can forget the morning update?).
 
[quote name='floormat']What I miss is

Aladdins Castle. 6 copies of street fighter II. Around 200 games per location It was crazy. Now in a town of 300,000 people there is like 2 or 3 places you might call an arcade and they only have about 25 games each. sniff.

Hot and Now. Some of the best burgers at a fair price.



I wonder what happened to these 2. I suspect Aladdins just disapeared cause home consoles pretty much took over but hot and now¿?[/QUOTE]

Hot and now... forgot about them, their gimmick was hamburgers, fries, drinks,,, all 39 cents each... we had one of them where I lived, it was about 20 minutes away, but I could round up some friends and we'd all eat comfortably on a few bucks each



[quote name='shortshire']Rhino Games, I know some of their prices were horrible and their staff was ridiculously stupid but the fact that they would comp you up to a new release game if you traded in a game that was worth over 10 dollars. That's the only reason I missed that store.[/QUOTE]

It was two games worth 10 in trade value there for one new game 49.99 or less. The staff at mine were great though. If they had been a national store, we would have had threads 100 pages long devoted to exploiting the trade 2 for one deal... although a few of us devoted Rhino devotees did start a thread about it years ago
 
It's always interesting reading about store chains that I never knew about when I was younger. I remember going to an Aladdin's Castle only once and thought it was possibly the best arcade ever. That was when I was still very young though, so it was likely when they still had more arcade games. Come to think of it, I might even still have some of their tokens from that one and only visit I ever made there....I'll need to look for where I think they might be to see if I do.

Everyone mentioning the Rax cups has really piqued my curiosity, but I wasn't able to find any pics of them. What exactly did they look like?
 
[quote name='JJSP']I think the store is still there for anyone near the area, but they've changed their name to "The Exchange".
[/quote] the store is still there and now called the exchange. i believe they got sued over the name because someone had already owned it and they still operate to this day. the prices at the exchange is never the same. they usually go either by amazon or ebay prices. generally crappy selection for games. they do alot of bundles for older consoles before the ps1 era.

theres alot of stores i do miss. but none better than the Games Express on 33rd St in NYC. at that time, it was the only store i knew that carried pretty much everything. the sales people are always down to earth and actually knows the games that they sell.

EB Games. Bought alot of games from various stores around NYC. They were so much better than Gamestop now.. why settle for something worse? maybe they didnt see it coming.

the stores around where i live are also missed. i loved them because sometimes you could just name your price and normally you'd pay cash so they wont charge you tax :). there are still stores that does this to this day.
the stores that i dont miss are: Sam Goody, Funcoland, The Wiz. SG was overpriced and thank god for the MP3 revolution that they went out of business. i bought many cds from them. Funcoland was a horrible store. you cant see the games they're selling, they're always behind the registers and if you wanted a used game, you'd have to read their monthly circular which is like a classified ads. i never bought any games from there. Electronique Boutique was much better. I dont think the Wiz needs explanation. they need to stay out of business. cable vision was stupid to buy that corporation.
 
[quote name='HumanSnatcher']Anyone remember Kids R Us? They were a kids clothing store obviously run by Toys R Us[/QUOTE]
Kids R Us had obscenely expensive and overpriced clothing when it really wasn't all that special.

And I remember Bradlees, but that place was ghetto.
 
[quote name='Yokihana']Same here. I loved Funcoland, then one day they were gone and in its place was a gamestop.[/QUOTE]
Same here. Funcoland was fantastic, friendly, awesome, great prices, loved the little print catalogue of sale prices.

Then Gamestop came. And the whole neighborhood went to hell.


Also, all the old record stores and used CD stores. Tower Records and such.
 
[quote name='Yokihana']Same here. I loved Funcoland, then one day they were gone and in its place was a gamestop.[/QUOTE]
Same here. Funcoland was fantastic, friendly, awesome, great prices, loved the little print catalogue of sale prices.

Then Gamestop came. And the whole neighborhood went to hell.
 
Don't know if anyone mentioned it yet since I didn't read every post but I remember Nichols from back in the day and I even still remember the sound the automatic doors would make when you'd go in lol. I remember buying my first NES at Nichols and shopping for many a toys from the 80s at Nichols, Gobots being one that sticks out in my mind.

Stores I remember that were already mentioned.

Woolworths - Before Walmart existed Woolworths was a department store with fish dying left and right in it's pet department :D I think I do recall somebody else refering to Woolworths and the pet section in this thread. I remember buying NES games at Woolworth also only games in particular that I can recall buying from Woolworths being Double Dragon & Final Fantasy. I also remember the caferteria do you remember what it was called IATCAG or anyone else as I seem to recall it having a different name although it was connected to Woolworth and was obviously a part of it.

Hills - I still remember this being the first place I played Super Mario Bros. at before the NES came out as it was the first place around me that I can recall that had the arcade cabinet for SMB in the snack bar part of coarse :) When this store closed down back around 97 I did get in on a few clearance games.

I forgot about Rax until reading about it in this thread, we used to have one around my area too makes me want to have a roast beat sandwich just thinking about it :)

I should also note for what it's worth my TRU still has the ticket system/systems in a glass case setup for everything with $20 or less games on the floor in those plastic calm shells. The ticket system can be such a PITA but it has played to my advantage before if they don't have a ticket up but do still have a game in the security booth at clearance time.
 
Phar-Mor, I don't remember much about the store because I was only like 12 when it went out of business. Mine has a video rental store inside and they would always have games for like 5 - 10 bucks used.I remember I got Super Mario 3 there for 5 bucks about 4 months after it came out.
 
Aladdin's castle is basically dead now..

I recently heard there are less than 100 Namco owned arcades left. In case you don't know Namco owns Aladdin's castle now, some other names of the arcades are Cyberstation and Time-out (I think). Basically Namco is pulling out of malls because their arcades don't make any money, so if you have a Namco-owned arcade near you that doesn't suck (very rare) better enjoy it while it lasts. If you have a Namco owned arcade near you likely its filled with nothing but broken arcade machines that you don't even want to play simply because no Namco arcade has any in-house people to repair games. They are also known for leaving machines broken in the arcades for months at a time or even longer.

The big one here when I was younger was Major Magics, it was basically the same thing as a CEC but with a Marching band theme instead of the big rat.
 
[quote name='SaraAB']Aladdin's castle is basically dead now..

I recently heard there are less than 100 Namco owned arcades left. In case you don't know Namco owns Aladdin's castle now, some other names of the arcades are Cyberstation and Time-out (I think). Basically Namco is pulling out of malls because their arcades don't make any money, so if you have a Namco-owned arcade near you that doesn't suck (very rare) better enjoy it while it lasts. If you have a Namco owned arcade near you likely its filled with nothing but broken arcade machines that you don't even want to play simply because no Namco arcade has any in-house people to repair games. They are also known for leaving machines broken in the arcades for months at a time or even longer.

The big one here when I was younger was Major Magics, it was basically the same thing as a CEC but with a Marching band theme instead of the big rat.[/QUOTE]

Time-Out is the other one. There used to be 2 at my old local mall back in the 90s. Then the one on the second floor became a "family friendly" looking place by making itself all bright on the inside, and taking out all of the fighting games, and other high violence games. That left only the one on the first floor for that. But that one soon moved to a much smaller space than it had been previously, and a little bit later closed entirely. Now I think there's a golf store or something there. The one on the second floor is still there, and the same as it's been ever since it lost its "dark" look. But I wouldn't be surprised if it went away soon due to the fading interest in arcades.
 
Waldensoftware - I reserved my Playstion and two games, NBA Jam Tournament Edition and Battle Arena Toshinden there. I remember grinning from ear to ear when I picked mine up on release day...
 
[quote name='Crashxxx']Waldensoftware - I reserved my Playstion and two games, NBA Jam Tournament Edition and Battle Arena Toshinden there. I remember grinning from ear to ear when I picked mine up on release day...[/QUOTE]


I remember Walden Software. That is where I bought my Playstation as well. I remember my PS had a sound problem and I went there on the last day of my 7 days on my receipt and I was able to exchange it without no problem and they even had another system in stock even when the system was only out for about two months. I also remember when they were clearancing out Sega Saturn games I was able to pick up one of the Darius games and another top down plane shooter for $8 each. They were pretty good with their trade in prices too.
 
[quote name='GizmoGC']Toys R US and paper slips for video games. Remember when all the consoles were in glass display cases? Good times.[/QUOTE]


My TRU *still* does this. Why in God's name anyone would miss it is beyond me. You're never sure if something is really out of stock or if some bozo just snatched all the tickets. And they take forever to put new games out, because they have to make tickets first.
 
Aladdin's Castle was a great arcade chain back when I was a kid in the 80's. They would have some games I'd always gravitate towards as soon as I went in there, even though I was horrible at them. For example, Skate Or Die, those damned bees would get me EVERY TIME.

I also miss the one local amusement park we had here, since I would almost always spend $5-10 on Rampage EVERY weekend as a kid. I was and still AM so addicted to that game. I can play it on a classic game compilation for HOURS without realizing it.

We had Kaufmann's stores around here and Hess stores(not the gas station though, although we also had those around here but don't any longer as well). And, while I'm not sure if it was a national chain or not, we also had Pomeroy's stores at at least 2 of the malls here.
 
EB Games before the merger was great. The Babbage's around me (didn't have any Gamestop's before the merger) were a coin-flip. Some were good, others were crap. I remember the Paducah, KY mall had EB Games and Babbage's litterally right next to each other (may have been 1 or 2 stores between them.) I don't ever recall having a bad experience at an EB Games, while at Babbage's I saw/heard them all the time.

I remember specifically the EB Games in Marion, IL. I bought lots of stuff there through grade school and high school and was one of their best customers. I was also the first person to reserve a PS2 there (Dec. 1999 after IGN published a story during Christmas Break about it saying it was in EB's system to pre-order.) The manager had to read her email to see I wasn't BSing.)

I remember the PS2 came out on a Thursday, which was bad for me because besides classes I was sports editor of the college paper and we had to have the paper done before 3 p.m. I got the paper done (which included a full page section front on the PS2 launch for the college life section by myself) and skipped my last class so my friend (who is now my roommate) and I could drive up to Marion from Murray and get the stuff and get back before midnight.

I had prepaid for the PS2, 4 controllers, multitap, memory card, and 5 games. My friend bought another game (NHL 01) and traded it to me for an old printer of mine (HP Deskjet 730 which he is still using :lol: ) Now by the time I got there it was between 6-7 p.m. They could have easily sold my stuff to any number of people saying too bad since I wasn't there in the morning, but I was one of their top customers and even though that ended up being my last major purchase there, they kept the stuff for me until I got there. I will always remember that.

I miss Sam Goody just because of where I went to college (Murray, KY) if you wanted anything video game related, your choices were that or Wal-Mart. Anything else was 30 min.-1 hour away (either to Paducah, KY or Clarksville, TN.) I spent a lot of money at Sam Goody through my college years.

The only reason I miss Comp USA (all the STL locations closed in May) is since Fry's is pretty much only on the west coast, Comp USA was the only place to buy computer hardware in the Midwest. Now it's almost exclusively online only. Yes the prices are cheaper, but sometimes it's worth paying a little extra to be able to drive down the road to get something now versus waiting for shipping.
 
I miss the record store chain Moby Disc. It was because of that store that I really became a lifelong music collector. I used to spend hours digging through their crates. The clerks always put on good music, too -- it was through them that I discovered Ornette Coleman, The Roots, and PJ Harvey.

I never thought I'd feel this way but I actually do miss Tower Records. They were hard to beat for sheer selection even if their prices were too high. It was great to have a place where I could walk in, scan any CD in the store, and listen to it at a kiosk.
 
[quote name='Pi573']I miss Montgomery Ward because they had the best Master System and NES kiosks ever. They were on big TVs suspended from the ceiling, and you always felt so small before the mighty, uhh, game kiosks. By the time the chain went out, though, the one here didn't even have games at all. [/quote]

I second this wholeheartedly! I remember spending hours upon hours as a kid at Montgomery Ward playing on those gigantic screens. The teenage clerk in that department was always super nice to me and would help me out with puzzles in Out of this World or teach me combos in Street Fighter II.
 
[quote name='argyle']My TRU *still* does this. Why in God's name anyone would miss it is beyond me. You're never sure if something is really out of stock or if some bozo just snatched all the tickets. And they take forever to put new games out, because they have to make tickets first.[/quote]

I don't know if anyone actually misses them doing it that way, but I know that it brings back a lot of memories of my teenage years, when I really got into gaming. Good times, like when I bought my PlayStation (first console I got solely with my own money), and bad times, like waiting forever for some pre-orders to come in.
 
[quote name='Kapwanil']Also, WAAAAAY back in local gaming, I remember Captron in the LI area. It wasn't much to write home about but damn, what a great place. Considering it was a gaming store in a large mall kiosk you would think it would be shite but their setup was pretty much like going to a mini Nintendo World Championship. Walk in, NES games behind the counter (Master System as well), and you can browse the titles and try out some of the latest ones on about seven or eight demo kiosks for as long as you wanted. For the late 80's, that was like a dream come true to pretty much every kid who walked in there. They moved a hell of a lot of product that way, too. They died out early on in the SNES era but they were excellent for their time.[/quote]

Captron! I remember that they had the coolest window displays ever, with screens stacked up haphazardly, each displaying the attract mode of a different game. Captron totally embodied the big, bright, bold, in-your-face attitude of the 80s, and I loved 'em for it.
 
[quote name='SaraAB']I need to also pay homage to Phar-Mor, they were a pharmacy type store here, no video rental service or anything like that, basically a larger version of a Walgreens or Rite-aid, but when they were closing I got these Strawberry shortcake stickers that they had that were leftover from the 1980's and they were selling them for 25 cents a pack. I still liked SS when they had these so I grabbed one of each of what they had then typical as a kid I stashed them in a drawer and forgot about them. I know the stickers came from phar-mor because thats the name that was on the tag of the stickers, 4 for 1$. The stickers turned out to be from 1984 and I was born in 1981 so there is no way I got them when I was 3 years old. I am figuring I purchased these somewhere in the early or middle 90s which is when I started collecting stuff. This just proves how long some drug store type stores hold onto merchandise..

I found them recently and put them on ebay this holiday season and the whole lot of 10 packages of unopened stickers netted me $165 on ebay.[/quote]
I can't believe it took this long to get to Phar-more. My Phar-mor had a rental store. I loved it there. It was the best rental store ever. Cheap, no rather affordable. Long take out times (I think they had it for 7 days). Also, once they closed down, my trips/vacations began to dry up. I used to always have fun to go there on a Thursday or Friday afternoon, stock up on stuff, and just head out to Cali by myself or with some friends. Since then, eh, I don't like Walmart and nothing compares to the experience that i had shopping there. Jesus do I miss that store pretty much above anything else. Probably the only store I would weep for. Phar-mor kicked so much ass. I love their candy section. No store, no store compares to it to this day. They had the greatest mix of novelty or unique items, be it food or otherwise. Not only that, but as I remember it, and this might just be because of the times and before this country went mad with Made in China/importing from China, but Phar-mor had actual things that were quality and made in this COUNTRY! I still have baskets, towels, etc. from them that are still in good condition to this date! To give you a comparison, I just had to buy another plastic storage drawer from Walmart that is made in china because the other one I bought from them just broke.

I also miss Lucky's Super Markets, and not the Lucky's in its current form that Albertsons is trying to bring back. I'm talking about the original. I also miss Sav-ons. The absolute best, most caring, and most thoughtful pharmacy (next to pharmor) that I've ever used or seen. Walgreen's sucks and so does CVS if you do any comparison.

Pharmor
Montgomery Ward (for those that still remember)
Woolworths

^^^^^^^These are true-blue, real American companies. The companies of yore.

Tower Records was great. Loved the one that was on Sunset in Cali and the ones out here. They always had such down to earth people. Fun people (and girls) to talk to, fun girls to pick up on ;), just a great store in general.

EB Games when it was independent and before GS turned into a shithole that I don't like to step into anymore. Doesn't matte which store it is, they all suck now. Crap employees, crap service, crap everything. I also miss the morning update. It used to be a fun reason for me to actually go to bed earlier or at least to get up early. Had fun times talking to CAGs early in the morning and helping out others. There site was awsome and actually was worthwhile for listing if a store had something.

My favorite of the game stores that Gamestop bought would have to be either Funcoland, Babbages, but really would have to be Software Etc. That store was the best next to EB. You could go there, they would give you free stuff that they got that they were supposed to hand out, had a knowledgeable staff, etc. I think I'm the first to mention Software Etc. in this thread. That would be one reason to actually get me to a mall around here.

I also miss Robinson May. Macy's is shit in comparison. Robinson May, ahh...those were the days. I used to work there and knew people that worked there. I used to go with my grandma (RIP) there on the days when they would have clearance sales from 7-12. It was so much fun to do. I got great and expensive suits, shirts, you name it all for cheap prices and then I could extra discounts from the coupons in the newspaper, etc. This was classic coupon collecting and being a real CAG/deal expert before such sites or places existed. I remember signing up for their card a few times to get that extra 10% off. They had class; they had/were quality. They had the brands I liked, which is now a pain to find in one store or to simply find the same amount of quality without just going into a Nike store and being charged an arm and a leg.
 
[quote name='spmahn']Some people claim that the Arcade Market in this country died when Home Consoles became equal in power and technology to their arcade counter parts, but that's a lot of BS, because the industry still thrives in Japan, and they have all the same video games we do. What killed Arcades in this country is when the industry as a whole decided to shift away from video games, which were large, expensive, and less lucrative, and towards redepmtion games, which were smaller, much more profitable, and just a better business model for arcade owners. Why keep putting in fighting games when eventually only the best of players will hog the machine anyways, and will eventually get skilled enough to play for hours on end for only fifty cents or a dollar. This is why towards the mid and late 90's, you saw fewer and fewer arcades invest in new games, while the number of Skee Ball, light stopper, and other ticket dispensing games tripled. Unfortunately people caught onto the ticket scam, and the majority of FYE and Namco owned arcades went out of business by the end of the decade.

Even now however, if you ever go into a Casino, Dave and Busters, or Chuck E. Cheese type establishment, it's still 90% redemption games. You can fit three or four skee balls in the same space as one DDR or sit down racer, and run a dozen people through the skee ball game in the same time it would take one person to play an entire game of DDR. Oh, and don't get me started on Dave and Busters Points Card system, that's an even bigger scam then the ticket redemption, it just fools you into forgetting that each game of Mario Kart GP is costing you $1.75[/quote]

Just thought i'd say great post. Since out here is casino country, basically every casino, whether they be new or slightly older, have an arcade. Some update frequently, but most don't. At least you can come here, go to the new york new york or Circus Circus, and play through all the classic side scrollers, beat em ups, etc. So much fun. They're cheap too Usually only a single quarter. All of them work and some machines are even from the 80s. They have their own in house staffs just to take care of them so each machine works perfectly. Bah, I wish there were more arcades. Thank god that at least out here I can play in Soul Calibur and Tekken tournaments in its proper environment.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']Aladdin's Castle was a great arcade chain back when I was a kid in the 80's. They would have some games I'd always gravitate towards as soon as I went in there, even though I was horrible at them. For example, Skate Or Die, those damned bees would get me EVERY TIME.

I also miss the one local amusement park we had here, since I would almost always spend $5-10 on Rampage EVERY weekend as a kid. I was and still AM so addicted to that game. I can play it on a classic game compilation for HOURS without realizing it.

We had Kaufmann's stores around here and Hess stores(not the gas station though, although we also had those around here but don't any longer as well). And, while I'm not sure if it was a national chain or not, we also had Pomeroy's stores at at least 2 of the malls here.[/QUOTE]


local amusement park you talking about rocky glen?

the alladins castle i think you are talking about the one where the movies used to be by the viewmont mall was am i right?

WHAT ABOUT TOP DOG MAN??????????????????????? lol
 
Yeah, I definitely miss Rocky Glen, since the closest park is Knoebels or Dorney Park now. Shame really, since I'm sure if we had a local park still, they'd make a killing from families not wanting to go on an hours drive to the nearest 'big park'.

I kinda miss Top Dog, since that's where I first experienced the original Mortal Kombat. They had a pool hall in the old Top Dog on Route 6 now, but their prices are like Arena Billiards were. $10 to play an hour of pool? No thanks.

Getting back to store chains I miss, I kind of miss there being any Acme stores around here. They had really good prices on stuff like blocks of American cheese(I eat a LOT of cheese) and just many things in general. I know they closed down the stores here due to lack of profitability, since I've seen them in Philly area when I've gone down that way.
 
I wound up looking up Rax on Wikipedia. Turns out they're still around, with approximately 30 locations remaining.

I just thought of Newberry's. The Lloyd Center store was the last one in Portland, and that closed in 2001. A Dollar Tree now occupies the first floor of that location.
 
[quote name='HumanSnatcher']Some Phar-Mors did have video rental. Mine did. I remember as a kid going there every Sat and renting 3 NES games for like 3 or 4 bucks. Still remember 2 of the first 3 games I ever rented too; Adventures of Lolo and Top Gun.[/QUOTE]


Word! The Phar-Mor was the bomb! Movie and Video game rental on the cheap! Many an awesome weekend was spent with their rentals!
 
Phar*Mor, of course, it's a shame that the owner was such a sleeze. They would probably still be open if it wasn't for him.

There is Rax in Anderson, IN that I would go to if I can ever find it when I drive through Anderson. And I just found out that there is a Little Ceasars there as well. Man, I haven't seen a LC around the state for years. And to think I thought they went under.

Family Toy Wherehouse was great for me since we never had a TRU and before FTW, we had a toy store called Wherehouse of Toys.

And there was Cub Foods who had a lot better food quality than Wal*Mart does.

And Hills, probably my favorite store of all time.

Always enjoyed Service Merchandise and Spiece, who had good quality sporting clothes and shoes for decent prices.

And of course there was Aladdins Castle and Hooks Drug Store.

Finally there were all of the good video rental stores we had back in time.

Video Connection and then Videoland/Video Update before they were bought out by Movie Gallery.
 
[quote name='DigitalSpace']I wound up looking up Rax on Wikipedia. Turns out they're still around, with approximately 30 locations remaining.

I just thought of Newberry's. The Lloyd Center store was the last one in Portland, and that closed in 2001. A Dollar Tree now occupies the first floor of that location.[/quote]

You don't mean JJ Newberry's by any chance, do you? I ask because the first store and city in which the chain was founded is right near here: Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. Here's a Wikipedia link to the store and its founders information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newberry%27s

I remember the Woolworth's in our downtown having a downstairs 'bargain basement'. It was SO cramped and stuffy down there, even in the wintertime, but you could find great deals down there.

Our downtown had a Kresge's and a Woolworth's and within a mile or two was a McCrory's(which is what Newberry's eventually became). Sadly, all of those have closed, though the Kresge's chain exists today as Kmart if I remember correctly
 
I'm just glad someone else remembered Hill's. There were 2 in Knoxville, TN but apparently I'm the only 26 year old person that remembers them. They didn't close there until I was about 12 or 13.

During it's last days there was an 80% off clearance as they were emptying the store. That's where I picked up Crystalis for NES for $4. Still my favorite classic game. I also picked up a buttload of Beetlejuice toys for those that were interested.

edit:
I also still long for these stores as well:

Camelot
Service Merchandise (their toys were great as a kid)
Gadzooks (before they turned all female clothing)
pretty much any arcade, because what's left ain't much
 
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