Who was lucky enough to have TG16 rentals in your area?

[frozenintears]

I remember in Brooklyn seeing some very small video stores have TG-16 games for rent. Mostly were NES, SNES and Genesis games tho.

[MattJ]

Thought I would resurrect this thread and make a post.
I was thinking about this topic today as I came home from work after I drove past the where the local ‘Mom n’ Pop’ video rental store used to be in town. The thought popped in my head “I wonder if they ever rented out TurboGrafx-16 games?” back when they were open. I used to rent NES titles there all the time as a kid (and practically wore out their copies of Mega Man 3 and 4). I cannot recall ever seeing anything that would have resembled a TG-16 game (I didn’t even know the system existed at the time). They never really had a lot of 16-bit titles, I don’t remember seeing a lot of SNES or Genesis stuff there. They did NES titles on their shelves until around the time they closed in 1997 or 1998. I can remember renting games like Panic Restaurant, Little Samson, and Chip n’ Dale 2 and playing them over the weekend when my cousin already had a N64 and kept raving about 3d games. I would never imagine those NES games would command the values they do now.
It’s cool to read from forum members their stories from seeing stores that did carry Turbo stuff. It must have been neat to have rentals shops that carried that kind of variety!

My copy of Neutopia has a rental shop sticker on the manual and HuCard sleave from “Flagship Video” out of Oxford, PA. Though you’ll notice the item #s don’t match. It makes me wonder what other stuff they carried.  

[NightWolve]

As a kid, I had a "Ken's World of Video" and a mom/pop shop out in the suburbs of Chicago that rented TG-16 games.  These were near my dad when I'd visit him on weekends, so I'd have the chance to rent something for the weekend and try to beat it before my time was up.

[Black Tiger]

I still have at least one TurboChip with "Superior Video" written on the back.

[HailingTheThings]

I just read this thread and cried.

[Gentlegamer]

My local mom and pop rented TG-16.

They rented systems, too. I wish I could go back in time and rent OBEY at least once instead of Genesis.

[InfraMan]

We had a bunch of local mom & pop stores back in the heyday of video rentals, but only one of them (creatively named Video 1) ever carried Turbo stuff. I think I was one of the only people who rented the system and games more than once, because the owner actually contacted me when they decided to stop carrying it, to see if I wanted to buy any of it.

I ended up picking up the TG-16 system and all of the accessories they had, along with most of their games for about $70. He'd even kept the boxes and manuals separate, so that was a really good day for me. It's just too bad they didn't carry CD stuff too...

I still have that original system, even though I don't really use it anymore (region modded DUO-R for the win)... there are so many happy memories attached to it that I just can't bring myself to part with it.

[WoodyXP]

TG-16 was nowhere to be seen in rental stores where I lived (Western, NY).  I don't think many people knew or cared about it. 

[blueraven]

There was a store called VideoMaxx in Madison, WI that was either renting Turbo or Duo games, and they went out of buisness when the LD got replaced by DVD's. I remember the owner in a rage as he was liquidating his inventory.

[MattJ]

I don't even remember seeing Laserdiscs in rental shops. Though I do remember some places having Beta tapes since we had a Beta player and recorder at home, but that was around 1988~89.

[GohanX]

My local place growing up was called Game Masters, and they did indeed have hucard rentals. I don't remember seeing cds other than Fighting Street. I kept hoping they would get a used system in at some point but they never did. Eventually they sold everything off, long before I got a system.

[shawnji]

I lived in Podunk, Arkansas; so the one time I saw a Turbografx was at a mall across the state when we were visiting friends of my parents.  I had no idea it was worth a damn at the time because, although it was a demo unit, some wise guy had put Sherlock Holmes in...  I have a vague memory of poking at it for a couple minutes and then walking away disinterested.  I highly regret it now. 

You'd think I would eventually happen upon one again, given that we'd later move to Hot Springs, where there was an extremely prolific collector / game store owner; but nope, I didn't rediscover the system until I moved to Japan for the 2nd time in 2009.  I couldn't believe that I was still playing NES (and occasionally renting a SNES or Genesis) when I could have been playing games like Ys I&II.  I'd kill to go back in time and be able to experience it when it was new. 

I was the right age, just in the wrong geographic location.

[EvilEvoIX]

In NJ we had every system available for rental.  I myself rented the VB when it came out.  It was at Blockbuster.

[grolt]

I still have at least one TurboChip with "Superior Video" written on the back.

We had a Superior Video way up in Northern Canada where I grew up and they carried TG-16 games. I never really saw any rented out, but they stocked them close to launch and had most of the early library. Up to that point they only carried NES games and must have really bought in big with NEC. After a couple years they liquidated all their games and I picked up the majority of them for $5 a pop. It was my gateway into the system, since I never had a TG back when they were renting the games. I ended up getting World Court Tennis, Deep Blue, Boxy Boy, Fantasy Zone, Ordyne, Davis Cup Tennis and Parasol Stars all from them. Here's a picture of the Superior Video sticker:



Is yours similar?

[Elder]

Never had any rental outlets around me that had Turbo games.  Shame because it would have allowed me to try way more games that way.