Yo. Excellent thread. I have a bunch I can contribute when I get around to it. Also my mind is blown that an SE copy has a Randall Video sticker on it. I know a kid who's grandparents owned that exact rental store and in fact I was actually recently inquiring to them about any leftovers from the rental days. They said they donated a good chunk their old stuff to Goodwill or something like that a while back.
Yo. Excellent thread. I have a bunch I can contribute when I get around to it. Also my mind is blown that an SE copy has a Randall Video sticker on it. I know a kid who's grandparents owned that exact rental store and in fact I was actually recently inquiring to them about any leftovers from the rental days. They said they donated a good chunk their old stuff to Goodwill or something like that a while back.
Would the owner of that SE please post a pic? I just wanna see it! I think I have a Wizardry 2 from that same place.
I tend to not buy games if they have rental stickers on them since they always seem to be on a label. I like excellent condition games but I'd probably keep a Mom & Pop label on a cart if I found one that wasn't effecting any of the game labels. I'll start looking for them.
These were my go to places when I was a kid. I wound up with a few games from each before they disappeared into history.
R/C ProAm NES in the clear case that you rented the game in.,
Al Unser Jr's Turbo racing
Hazel Green Video
14009 Hwy 231/431 N
Hazel Green, AL 35750
Closed in 1993
Super Black Bass SNES,
Lunar Pool NES
CJ' S Video
14881 Hwy 231/431 N
Hazel Green, AL 35750
Closed in 1996
Air Fortress NES,
Wing Commander: The secret missions SNES
State Line Video
3253 Huntsville Hwy
Fayetteville, TN 37334
Closed in 1997 or 98 in that time frame.
Those were indeed good times, made knowing if the game was worth buying that's for sure. Saved me from buying a few bad ones... Can't blame Movie Gallery, didn't get one near any of these places to be competition till late 1996. The others were slowly dying, or gone before it's grand opening... Movie Gallery would have been open in 95, but a large tornado severly damaged the strip mall it opened in before it was finished being built. I also,kind of miss Movie Gallery as well... I bought lots of games, and my first PS3 there as well. Lot of good that extended protection plan would've been, luckily I politely declined! The store closed about 2 months after I got it.
Where I grew up, we had the typical chain rental stores, but my two favorites were small "mom & pop" shops near my house. One was called 2nd Cinema, and honestly, I can't remember the name of the other. I would absolutely love to find an old game with one of those stickers on it. Slim chance of course, but that would be awesome.
2nd Cinema was located in Springfield, IL. I would have to do some digging to find it's old address. Of course it's long gone.
I was the store manager for my local Hollywood Video when they closed in 2010 (funny is I only had the job for 6 months took it to basically close the store as we liquidated out the stock). The game crazy manager pretty much philfered the heck out the stock there (effected my bonus quite a bit) and they fired him so I closed out the game crazy too (I ended up being allowed to buy quite a few games for a $1 so I have a great WII and Gamecube collection as thats what I was playing at the time). The very last day all I had left was the titles no one wanted I mean those D list movies you've never heard of. I was having trouble even selling them for 75 cents. The owner/manager of the very first video rental place in my town came in Rent a Video (they finally closed around 2015) came in and bought the last of my stock I told him I would sell it to him for 25 cents a dvd as long as he took everything. He also bought a lot of the shelving to spruce up his rental place. When I was a kid that is where we went to rent NES games, if we were good that week and did good in school my dad would take us to Rent a Video and we could get a NES game to rent for the weekend. We got talking and he was like yea we only sold are NES stock off like 3 years ago (they still had NES to rent as late as 2007) man I wish I could have gotten in out that sale off. Its the only rental sticker I would keep on a game. That place has a special place in my heart.
Oh the other one I have to mention is I was the Assistant Store manager for Blockbuster (I was actually the last person in both my Hollywood Video and Blockbuster in my town). We were a franchise and the owners were really terrible. They didn't care about games or stocking them. They closed in 2006. At the time obviously ps2 and xbox were the big systems as we closed before the ps3 dropped and even though the xbox360 had dropped before we closed we never carried a single 360 game as far as my recollection goes. But us even getting ps2 or xbox games were rare and very scattered. What we did have was a really good selection of n64 games, and even n64 systems you could rent with a crazy deposit of $300. We rented those games like crazy as the other rental places had moved on from the n64, I remember the mario parties always being rented and a waiting list. I think it would be fun to have a stickered blockbuster game from them. They did not liquidate the store just closed it so all the inventory was sent back to the distributor as they owed a ton of money to the distributor. The drop box was so full the week after they closed (they just stuck a sign on the door that said closed for Easter Sunday as it was Easter when they closed) you could reach in and grab a movie.
Man, I've scraped so many of these off over the years. I don't think I have a single one left. I'm so anal about the cleanliness of my cartridges. I spent hours scraping, peeling, and Goo-Goning those things as well as aerosol deodorant on the sharpie marks for names/inventory numbers.
Now this one's a little different since it's marked with a P.O. box rather than a physical address. Perhaps it was a mail-based video club rather than a B&M store. I used to have some early WWF VHS tapes that were from one of those.
Comments
Homeview Video
529 Main St.
Coshocton, OH 43812
King's Quest V
Spotlight Video
426 Tiffin Ave.
Findlay, Oh 45840
419-422-6609
Movie World
44 E. Water St.
Chillicothe, OH
614-773-6325
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!
Mobile Video
South Bloomfield, OH 43103
Yo. Excellent thread. I have a bunch I can contribute when I get around to it. Also my mind is blown that an SE copy has a Randall Video sticker on it. I know a kid who's grandparents owned that exact rental store and in fact I was actually recently inquiring to them about any leftovers from the rental days. They said they donated a good chunk their old stuff to Goodwill or something like that a while back.
Would the owner of that SE please post a pic? I just wanna see it! I think I have a Wizardry 2 from that same place.
Picture Show
8568 Winton Rd.
Cincinnati, OH 45239
R/C ProAm NES in the clear case that you rented the game in.,
Al Unser Jr's Turbo racing
Hazel Green Video
14009 Hwy 231/431 N
Hazel Green, AL 35750
Closed in 1993
Super Black Bass SNES,
Lunar Pool NES
CJ' S Video
14881 Hwy 231/431 N
Hazel Green, AL 35750
Closed in 1996
Air Fortress NES,
Wing Commander: The secret missions SNES
State Line Video
3253 Huntsville Hwy
Fayetteville, TN 37334
Closed in 1997 or 98 in that time frame.
Those were indeed good times, made knowing if the game was worth buying that's for sure. Saved me from buying a few bad ones... Can't blame Movie Gallery, didn't get one near any of these places to be competition till late 1996. The others were slowly dying, or gone before it's grand opening... Movie Gallery would have been open in 95, but a large tornado severly damaged the strip mall it opened in before it was finished being built. I also,kind of miss Movie Gallery as well... I bought lots of games, and my first PS3 there as well. Lot of good that extended protection plan would've been, luckily I politely declined! The store closed about 2 months after I got it.
Beckett Sound and Video
111 Mill St.
New Lexington, OH 43764
2nd Cinema was located in Springfield, IL. I would have to do some digging to find it's old address. Of course it's long gone.
Show Time Video
90 Wilbren Rd.
New Lexington, OH 43764
342-1150
Classic Family Video
60 Oak Meadow Dr.
Pataskala, OH 43062
614-964-0288
Danny's Family Video
6329 Highway 301 S.
Riverview, FL 33569
813-677-5189
Shooting Range
City Limits Video
904 Lincoln Ave.
Lancaster OH, 43130
654-6009
Major Video
1060 E. Avenue J
Lancaster California
Joint Video Ventures
P.O. Box 7048
Flint MI 48507
810-230-8550
Now this one's a little different since it's marked with a P.O. box rather than a physical address. Perhaps it was a mail-based video club rather than a B&M store. I used to have some early WWF VHS tapes that were from one of those.