Retronauts Episode 218: Rental Stores

There's a home video rental place in my city still. Right downtown, even. No clue how he pays the rent. Maybe he owns the building. I enjoy trading Laserdiscs with him from time to time.

Jesse Onland

Isn't there also a rental store on Clinton street?

Elliot Long

Does anyone remember when Blockbuster tried to get into the used game business ala Hollywood Video/Game Crazy and made GameRush by making a quarter of each store a video game selling aisle? I think it literally lasted 6 months before they converted the space back to just the rental video games again, I think I still had $3 store credit from them for trading in a game that even GameStop wouldn't touch.

SilverHairedMiddleAgedTuxedoMask

Regarding the exepsnive VHS tapes that was still a practice through the late 90s.. I remember counting the days until Austin Powers came out on VHS back in 1997 and was absolutely crushed and couldn't believe it was something like $79 to buy a copy on VHS when it came out, meanwhile DVD copies were like $20. Of course I didn't have a DVD player at the time. I eventually bought a used rental VHS copy a couple months later for a decent price.

Justin M

If you're back in Portland I would recommend checking out Movie Madness!

littleterr0r

The best thing about my local blockbuster was the magnificently underpriced previously viewed bin... There would be a rush of excitement as my younger brother and I ran into the store to check what was for sale in that bin. Over the course of 1998 and 1999, we picked up a boxed Earthbound, Shining Force 2 and Final Fantasy Tactics for $2.99 each!

Tunos

I had childhood flashbacks when Jeremy name dropped Hastings. My grandparents would often take me there whenever I visited them in Lubbock. The company folded after bankruptcy a couple of years ago, I think. I have fond memories of that place—they had everything that entertained 14-year old me.

Here in Texas, I would rent games from my local HEB Video Central and also Blockbuster. Many a Friday night I would spend going through various NES and SNES games. A Friday night would be a night out at Pistol Pete's or Peter Piper Pizza, then over to the rental store to rent movies and games and then I would play almost all night.

RoryDropkick

This was a really, really good ep. A couple of thoughts: 1) my parents were weirdly paranoid about renting games for the first year and a half we had an NES. They were utterly convinced that games that had been passed around to dozens of households would somehow destroy the machine. I never understood why they were cool with renting movies but not games. 2) Every time Jeremy name drops Hastings I smile. Their story is fascinating--going into towns too small to get a Barnes and Noble or Best Buy, and being the only game in town for special-ordering books, movies or music. As B&N and Best Buy started moving into smaller cities and internet-based businesses like Amazon eliminated the barrier to acquisition, they couldn't compete and finally folded in I think 2017. But between their superior anime selection and carrying games Blockbuster and Wal-Mart didn't, they were our go-to when we wanted anything that wasn't the biggest movie or game going.

Zachary Adams

I also grew up in Toledo and remember this store. My brothers and I would rent a game a week and while we would usually hoof it the mile or so down the street to Churchill's Video, when we were able to drive, we would go around town to find specific games that some stores just didn't have. Great episode

John Learned

Great show. I rented a game almost every week in the 90s (they were always 7-day rentals at my local store). I played the first few hours of every mediocre RPG on the NES or SNES. Where I lived, buying games remained very expensive for a long time. In the SNES days, they did much smaller print runs. A game would come out for $70, and then it would sell out before it went down in price. It wasn't until Nintendo started its "Player's Choice" series that it became routine to see publishers do additional print runs at a lower price point. Most of my library of NES and SNES games was built from flea markets in the late 90s. I really miss the retro game collecting market of the late 90s and early 2000s. The market was flooded with people (and video stores) selling their cartridge-based games so that they could afford to upgrade to PS1 or PS2, and there weren't a whole lot of other retro gaming enthusiasts who would snap up any great deal they could find.

Dave Dalrymple

Jeremy you asked what killed the video star <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd_lwVsUisI" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd_lwVsUisI</a>

I can't wait to listen! Back in 1987, I used to be able to go to a video rental place that let your rent NES games for $0.97 a night! I'm sure for inflation, that's more like $3, but back then, when you lived by getting quarters, dimes and nickels, that meant a lot!

Steve Martin

Really excited for this.

Normallyretro