Video Game Shopping - Pre-Internet

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CC09LawAg
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11:57a, 6/6/25
How many of you remember the days of wandering the aisle at Best Buy and just browsing and having to make decisions on the box art without all of the resources we have available today for research?

What are some of your worst buys? Your most surprising?

I got Neverwinter Knights solely because of the box and got it on a whim and played the hell out of that game as a kid. Led to me buying a lot more games in that genre that I really enjoyed.

Trying to think of some of the worst buys - I remember getting some pretty terrible Power Rangers games.
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jr15aggie
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2:08p, 6/6/25
AG
That was never me because I was the guy that had a Nintendo Power subscription! There was some serious research put into my game purchases as a read and re-read the articles on upcoming games. As the years went along I eventually converted to EGM and other magazines that covered all the different consoles.

I think getting a new gaming magazine was almost as exciting as playing games back then. The anticipation of new games and new consoles and the way it was all presented in printed form... good stuff!

Long story short... I always knew exactly what game I was going to buy when the time came. But it was still fun to just look and read all the game boxes while your mom was shopping for girl products at Wal-Mart!!!

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double aught
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2:13p, 6/6/25
AG
I had no idea of what The Legend of Zelda was about when I was a little kid. I just saw the gold box that looked different than all the other Nintendo games at Walmart. That was enough for 8 year old me. Took it home and started exploring, having no clue what to do at first.
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Rocag
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2:45p, 6/6/25
AG
I'd risk going in blind on a rented game, but usually not buying one. I never had the money to waste on that.

One of my favorite gaming memories of the old days: I found a copy of Super Metroid at a random booth in Canton several weeks before it was supposed to be released in stores. That was an instant buy and still one of my favorite games.
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Head Ninja In Charge
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2:53p, 6/6/25
AG
Electronic Gaming Monthly guided and saved many of us.
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danieljustin06
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3:03p, 6/6/25
AG
Probably the most memorable buy based off of box art was Mega Man X and StarCraft. Played the heck of them.
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aezmvp
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In reply to double aught • 3:22p, 6/6/25
double aught said:
I had no idea of what The Legend of Zelda was about when I was a little kid. I just saw the gold box that looked different than all the other Nintendo games at Walmart. That was enough for 8 year old me. Took it home and started exploring, having no clue what to do at first.
It's dangerous to go alone!
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AtlAg05
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3:37p, 6/6/25
AG
I remember renting NES/SNES games from the local Tom Thumb grocery store. I can't remember if it was a garage sale, or maybe renting, ET on Atari. Glad that wasn't at full price!

I wish I could remember how I learned about Warcraft 2, but that one of the first big PC games I got. Had to look it up, Dec '95
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KidDoc
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3:59p, 6/6/25
AG
I had a sub to PC gaming for a LONG time. For a while it came with a CD-ROM with demos.

As far as misses none leap into mind for me. I'm sure there are some out there just lost in the fog of time.

I looked up some lists of flops in the 90s and I never bought any of those.
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techno-ag
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4:06p, 6/6/25
AG
Floppy Joe's.
Pro College Station Convention Center
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Lathspell
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4:07p, 6/6/25
AG
Browsing and randomly buying a full game?! You guys must have been rich.

Now, I do remember the joy of getting to go to Blockbuster to rent a game. My step brothers and I would always beg for my dad to take us to Blockbuster on Fridays. When he decided to let us, it was always such a fun weekend. And hell, every game was fun to play. I didn't follow what certain game devs were doing. Unless I heard about a game from friends at school, we'd just eye-shop until we saw a cover that looked cool.

I really miss Blockbuster...
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KidDoc
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In reply to techno-ag • 4:20p, 6/6/25
AG
techno-ag said:
Floppy Joe's.
Dang that is a blast from the past! I still remember buying Civ 3 there when I was at A&M. Dang near got me in trouble with Calc 2!

One more turn...
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Ghost of Bisbee
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5:26p, 6/6/25
AG
Worst buy was definitely Superman 64 on N64. Box art looked badass behind the glass case and I got absolutely hoodwinked lol

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aggie4231
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6:11p, 6/6/25
AG
I remember buying a couple games in the NES days (I was in elementary school) at Walmart or on base at the PX. I think I paid $42 on base for a nes game. Other than that, most of the games I owned were Christmas/birthday gifts. The majority of the games I played were Blockbuster rentals, which usually meant I didn't have to do chores, because mom wanted me to play as much as possible so the money spent wasn't wasted (we usually did rentals once maybe twice a month).
TAMUG'04 Marine Fisheries.
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Head Ninja In Charge
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6:37p, 6/6/25
AG
The Pizza Hut demo desk with Metal Gear Solid on it took over our school like a plague. So many copies exchanged hands that semester. Not sure if any of y'all experienced the same thing.
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MW03
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6:37p, 6/6/25
AG
"MOM! I'M RUNNING OVER TO ELECTRONICS BOUTIQUE!"

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FDXAg
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6:37p, 6/6/25
AG
One of my fondest members as a kid was roaming the video game section in Toys R Us and getting that printed piece of paper of the game I wanted and taking it to the counter to exchange it for the actual game.
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MW03
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6:38p, 6/6/25
AG
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CC09LawAg
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In reply to Head Ninja In Charge • 6:56p, 6/6/25
Man I totally forgot about the demo discs!

Tons of games that I'd play the first level over and over again as a kid.
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jr15aggie
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8:52p, 6/6/25
AG
There was one game I definitely avoided even renting because of the box art..... Mega Man.

That box art was so lame. I was shocked to learn a few years later that the game was a hit.

I can't post an image from my phone but seriously, go look it up. It's like a 6th grader drew it. It's terrible.
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rhutton125
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In reply to danieljustin06 • 9:31p, 6/6/25
AG
danieljustin06 said:
Probably the most memorable buy based off of box art was Mega Man X


I was a huge Mega Man fan, but had no idea Mega Man X existed until my cousin saw it at Blockbuster. Mind was ****ing blown.
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The System
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10:26p, 6/6/25
AG
Good topic!
System: Sega and Sega genesis (mid to late 80s/early 90s.

Best game bought on a whim: Cyberball…robots playing football, how could you not like that. Didn't know anything about it, but it looked cool. Ended up being money well spent.

Most disappointing game: Ghostbusters. I saved up my birthday money and was so pumped to buy it. It sucked ass. And I as poor kid that didn't get many games, it was a kick in the nads.
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FatZilla
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10:30p, 6/6/25
AG
Gaming magazine subscriptions. Looked forward to those every month for the upcoming games and the tip/cheat codes for current games.

Gamestop midnight releases would take hours for a new console or major game. I remember getting there around 11pm and still being way back in lines.

Worst game i ever got stuck with, State of Emergency. Supposed to be a GTA competitor but was terrible. We picked it up from KB toys while on vacation to visit family on recommendation from sales clerk.
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CC09LawAg
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In reply to jr15aggie • 7:51a, 6/7/25
Man it's so funny you mention that - I distinctly remember picking it up and looking at it multiple times at Hollywood Video and thinking about renting it but never pulled the trigger and always went with something else.
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AgsWin2011
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7:58a, 6/7/25
AG
I'm sure I bought and played a lot of games once because they just sucked.

One game I remember being excited for and could never get to work was The Sims (2?) on PS2. My dad took me to Circuit City (I miss a good Circuit City) and I bought it. Took it home, disc wouldn't work. Went back and got a replacement. Same thing. All of my other games worked, so not sure what the deal was. After the third attempt, I took it back and just ended up getting something else.
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YouBet
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8:49a, 6/7/25
AG
Never heard of electronics boutique. It was big, big day in my life though whenever my dad would go to Dallas to get computer parts and accessories. He was a computer consultant back in the day. I can't recall the store but it was basically a Radio Shack kind of feel for PCs.

Don't think it was Babbages although we went there too (maybe it was). Anyway, when he let me go with him I was allowed to buy a game for my Tandy 1000. Basically just like Christmas morning for me.
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jr15aggie
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In reply to CC09LawAg • 2:21p, 6/7/25
AG
CC09LawAg said:
Man it's so funny you mention that - I distinctly remember picking it up and looking at it multiple times at Hollywood Video and thinking about renting it but never pulled the trigger and always went with something else.


Lol, it was so bad! But fast forward ~40 years and I've beaten the original Mega Man and Mega Man X via emulation on my steam deck.

The games are pretty fun. I didn't find them over the top challenging until the very end. That's when the beauty of emulation save states really come in handy. I plan on playing the others at some point.
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howdydamnit04
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3:01p, 6/7/25
AG
I remember my brother and I annoying my dad trying to get him to take us to Randall's to buy RBI baseball but we had to wait until Nolan Ryan broke the strike out record that night.
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Teslag
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8:21p, 6/7/25
AG
Best Buy? lol yall mother ****ers talking about Best Buy?

I got the Atari 2600 version of ET in the early 80's for Christmas. I got all yall beat.
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PeekingDuck
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In reply to Teslag • 9:54p, 6/7/25
AG
God that game was horrible. Pitfall was the bomb though.
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kyledr04
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10:57p, 6/7/25
AG
Renting games from the grocery store was great.
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Ghost of Bisbee
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In reply to YouBet • 1:16a, 6/8/25
AG
YouBet said:
Never heard of electronics boutique. It was big, big day in my life though whenever my dad would go to Dallas to get computer parts and accessories. He was a computer consultant back in the day. I can't recall the store but it was basically a Radio Shack kind of feel for PCs.

Don't think it was Babbages although we went there too (maybe it was). Anyway, when he let me go with him I was allowed to buy a game for my Tandy 1000. Basically just like Christmas morning for me.



Electronics Boutique was pre-EB Games which was before GameStop bought them. They had a big presence in Canada, too.

EB Games was where I bought the only guide I ever purchased, for LoZ Majora's Mask. I could not figure out how to advance in the beach area, where you had to ram the boards underwater as Zora link (like who would have ever thought???)

This was before I knew about the GameFAQs website lol
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A is A
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7:46a, 6/8/25
AG
I was a toys r us kid.
A is A
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FatZilla
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In reply to Ghost of Bisbee • 7:51a, 6/8/25
AG
I had like 4-5 thic prima strategy guides in my game collection until recently lol the one i had for FFX was a godsend back in the day. Those definitely became worthless when gamefaq took off.
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Ghost of Bisbee
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In reply to FatZilla • 8:20a, 6/8/25
AG
Oh yeah, my Majora's Mask guide was a Prima. It was nice
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