game rental stores of years gone by.

[kenomac78]

so  while we are waxing nostalgic on  old TZD flyers and toys r us overstock on other threads, it had me thinking.  there was once a store in my town which had a movie and game rental area, which they also had a large amount of TG16 games.

it was part of a somewhat very long strip mall which on the other end had a short lived toystore, which carried tg16 until its closing in 1991. so this rental place had all game formats from 1990 and 1991, but what was cool is that when that store closed down they continued to rent out the tg16 and tg-cd games. as a result i was able to play just about every game put out from 89-91.  the rental place inside the store closed down some time in 1996 and what happened to all those games is unknown, they never sold them, it all just closed one day.

it was however the ONLY store i have ever seen in my life where tg16 games were rented.  most stores of the time were strictly NES and only touched the genesis after it had really taken off. it was good to see at least one place that rented our games. i have never seen a store rent out sega cd, 3do, jaguar, neogeo or imports.
by the time ps1 saturn and n64 had come about, only places such as hollywood or blockbuster were renting  anymore, and it sucks the fun out of it knowing what mainstrean selection from a big corporation is going to get you. of course by then used games were more prevalent and often cheaper than 1 or 2 rents so screw em ayways.

this was in the pittsburgh, pa. area. robinson township. the store was called phar-mor. but since i have not lived there for many years i cant say if it still opeates, but they quit renting in 95 or 96

so does anyone else have stories to share. where and when? i would like to hear them.

[Joe Redifer]

Here in Denver Colorado (recognized around the entire world as the most awesomest city evar) we had 3 stores that rented out TurboGrafx-16 games.  I had memberships at each store, by the way.  I shall review them below.

Buy-Back Games
Buy-Back was the first place I ever signed up to rent games at since they rented Sega Master System games.  It is also the oldest "games only" store.  I rented every game I could and continued to do so well into the Saturn years.  They rented games for Genesis, Sega CD, TurboGrafx-16, SNES, PlayStation, Saturn and 32X.  They did not rent TurboGrafx-16 CD-ROM games from what I recall.  Late in the Saturn era (note that I do not say "Playstation era" since the Saturn was better) Buy-Back decided to start sucking ass and no longer rent games.  They are still around today and sell new and used games along with used DVDs.  They have a selection of used Sega Master System games all the way up to the Wii, which is the most recent system released.  Buy-Back doesn't have much that is interesting anymore.

Power Play Games
Shortly after the Genesis came out, some dude called Lou Halboth or some shit like that decided to open a few game stores.  They dealt with the normal new and used games and rented out Genesis, TurboGrafx, NES (I think), and SNES games.  They also rented out Japanese Mega Drive games and that kicked TONS of ass.  I remember going to school and telling my friends how much better I was than they were since I was able to play games that hadn't been released in the US yet.  Power Play was always a cool place since they had these imports for rent (and new ones for sale).  They did not rent Turbo CD games, but the manager of the store (whom I'm still friends with) let me a borrow a few from the used case for free.  Lou got a divorce and Power Play Games (sometimes referred to as "Powerfully Gay Games") went away.  Lou started some sort of weird franchise of stores called "Game Force" which still exist today.  The several Game Force stores have nothing to do with each other and many are quite lame, though there is a great one in Boulder, Colorado.  I think Lou spends most of his days trying to suck as much as possible.

Games Exchange
This little store rented Genesis, Turbo, NES and SNES games as well as sold the prerequisite new and used games.  I didn't go there very often as the selection wasn't that great and I think they charges $1.50 to rent games, which was 50 cents more than the other stores.  Due to my lack of patronage, Games Exchange went out of business fairly quickly.

I hope you enjoyed my stories, dammit!

[MrFulci]

I made a few posts on this board that refer to rental stores. This is from http://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=2293.msg26306#msg26306 :

- Some places rented the Turbo Grafx. The only place I recall encountering it was Video Nation, in Seabrook, Maryland. There is a post around here of someone who bought a game that had a manual with that store's sticker on it, hhahaha. Originated from me.

Most of the TG-16 there didn't rent much. They had 2 systems with hard palstic cases for rent. I also recall the store had a poster on the wall, that was a combination of words and pictures. I = Eyeball picture, etc. It was an advertisement that basically said rent X amountffo games, rent the system for X Price. And the catch at the bottom was, "It will (Picture of a person with a leaf blower) you away!".

Unique poster.

That store also rented NES, which it did for a while before it carried Turbo Grafx. Later on it carried a few Genesis and Super Nintendo titles. Though, the place focused on "general" videos and porn for the most part.

I never rented games from the store, however when it changed owners, and names, the Turbo Grafx stuff left the shelves!. By the mid 90's, it wasn't moving. It took up space where videos and such could be. I enquired about what happened with them, and was told they were boxed up. Many of the games found a home with me, and some years after that, with others!

Another from http://www.pcenginefx.com/forums/index.php?topic=695.msg8586#msg8586 :

Vrolokus, your blog was pretty funny int hat the manual for Order of the Griffon originated from me. It's circulated quite a bit over the years. I never sold to Bullseye directly.

I sold OOTG with the game, box, and manual. People out there are swapping parts.

Any games that sport a Video Nation sticker are good. They were not rented much (Some probably not at all). I picked up those games around 1996 or so from the back room of the video store when they were removed from the store shelves due to taking up space (not renting). I received many duplicates, and at least half of the TG-16 US collection from that store.

All of the duplicates from that store I sold on ebay, the last went up for sale 2004. Many games and booklets I was able to remove the stickers from with no noticeable marks.

Don't be too cautious about TG-16 games form rental stores, chances are they may not have been played much.

I only saw TG-16 chips for rent at Video Nation. I never saw CD's for rent there. I THINK I may have seen the chip games for rent somepalce else about 10 years ago, however it was a limited selection. Difficult to say, memory is a bit fuzzy, however I'm pretty sure I saw the square boxes someplace else..

This area (MD/DC area) has had many small Video Rental Shoppes come and go. Most of them are gone now. Nearly all rented Nintendo games. Nearly all the video store I encountered during the time the NES was new and popular rented NES games. There were a few exceptions that only carried VHS though, such as "Cipriano Video". Some even had as few as 20 NES games for rent.

Erols Video (They later offered internet service when they left the video rental business) was the first place I noticed with Nintendo games for rent. Their stores were pretty cool. A bit more pricey than other places, though. They later carried Genesis and SNES stuff. I don't recall any TG-16 stuff. Later I went to a sidewalk sale there and purchased some of their "old" video games (it was early to mid 90's). I only recall Nintendo. I didn't go there as a regular, however I did go in there from time to time and I never noticed any TG-16 stuff. They closed their chains in 1995 or so, and then opened again as an ISP. Someone bought the ISP business from them in 200 or so (I think...)

I saw used TG-16 stuff for sale at a Video Game Exchange in Laurel, Maryland. I recall purchasing Bloody Wolf from them for less than $10. Mid 90's they cleared out all their TG-16 stock.

Another Video Game Exchange I went to when they were clearing out TG-16 stock didn't have much. I was specifically looking for Beyond Shadowgate. TZD had just sold out of it, my procrastination in purchasing it from TZD sent me on a mission for it. I recall an employee in there, told me he had a copy. I asked what the price was on it. He said, "It's not for sale, it's my personal copy, it's at home". I thought that was a bit of a tease...

The LARGEST selection of video games (and video) for rental I ever saw was Channel 3 Video in Laurel, MD. They had franchised out at one point, but the original was in Laurel. HUGE video store. To give you an idea of the size, their final location (moved 3 years prior to closing) is now a furniture store, They had at least 200 SNES, 200 Genesis games. They had Nintendo, however like Erols, in the early to mid 90's they cleared all their stock. A week prior to the sale they had flyers on the counter and such about how starting "X" date all Nintendo games would be selling for $5 a piece! I go there early in the morning (About 5 others were there) and acquired about a dozen titles. They were all complete with box, and a fresh manual (They always rented games with xerox manuals).

I no longer have any of those games though, which sucks. My sister was complaining of a lack of money for car payments about 2001 or so. I gave into the sob story and gave her a mess of video game stuff I thought I would not care for again for her to sell on ebay. HUGE MISTAKE. It was about 50 Nintendo games (many I purchased new), 25 Sega Genesis games, and 15-20 Super nintedo games and a SNES system. I also gave her about 10 TG-16 games and told her she coudl keep HALF of what she made off the TG-16 games, and give me the other half (Glad I didn't give her any more TG stuff). Most TG games were duplicates, however I did give her Dungeon Explorer 2 which I did not have a duplicate for. However, it was one of TZD's last copies, so it was in a generic case with a Xerox manual. So, it wasn't a "big" loss... ANYWAY.


In the quotes above, Video Nation was what became of a Channel Three Video franchise. The folks who took over changed the design (for the better) of the floor, and began to stock more video games for rental. They brought in TG-16 games. I guess they had to decide what 16-bit system to stock, and decided to go with TG-16 over the Genesis. For quite a long time they rented about 50 different NES games, 50 different TG-16 games. Later, before changing owners they added about 10 SNES and 10 Genesis. mid-late 90's another person took over and it became People's Choice Video. I think that owner was the one who removed the TG-16 games from the floor and placed them into a back store room. An awesome find, that was. When I first saw the box of games back there, I was there for about a half hour going through them all. They weren't kept in a "nice" area of the employee area either, they were in an unfinished room near the water heater, conrete floor, etc. hahaha. Only other stuff in that room was furniture, video display, stuff like that. Glad he didn't chuck the TG-16 in the garbage.

That store had thrown out the NES boxes at some point, I think TG-116 had been pulled from the shelves when they did that cleaning.

They closed People's Choice in the laste 90's due to increasing rent and another place offering a bid of sorts for the property (it was part of a strip mall). The owner then opened a franchise location of another video store, it didn't last too long. They started with different stock, all videos now, no games. I'm not sure what happened to all those Nintendo games, I never asked.

Also, referring to Sega CD games. A Blockbuster around here did rent Sega CD. They also rented Virtual Boy games and systems, though that did not last long...\

Also, Children's Palace had a large display of TG-16 stuff at one time. They were a toy store, front of the place looked like a castle. They opened where there used to be a movie theatre. Big place. A Furniture Store is now located where they were. Funny story about them, is they opened NEXT DOOR to a Toys 'R Us. I always thought that was strange. Different shopping centres, but still next door... Anyway, when you walked in the entrance, you had to walk through the video game stuff. It was all those paper claim slips, with the card you flip over tos ee the front and rear of the box. They had TG-16 stuff for sale, and one of those machines playing the TG-16 sales Laser Disc. Next door at Toys 'R Us they also carried Tg-16 stuff, and later in the systems life they had a demo system where you could play whatever game they jammed int here. All I recall playing was Dead Moon, first time I played the game was on that demo system. Sometime after that they remodeled the game section, and that TG-16 demo station was gone after that. About that time TG-16 was fading away, and the selection was made less noticeable before being cleared out in the early-mid 90's.


That's enough for now. Good thread, combining rental stores and Tg-16!

[kenomac78]

childrens palace was a great  store, even times better than toys r us for  game selection, but they were bought out by toys r us's corporation  i believe??  in those days of 8 or so systems  on the market it was great to see each one with its own space, unlike k mart or walmart  that only catered to nintendo (or perhaps were bullied)