Where did they all go??

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by GrimmHatter, Oct 2, 2008.

Remove all ads!
Support Terra-Arcanum:

GOG.com

PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!
  1. GrimmHatter

    GrimmHatter Active Member

    Messages:
    1,274
    Likes Received:
    0
    Joined:
    Dec 27, 2006
    I'll admit it. I'm an impulse gamer/shopper. When I get the itch to play a game I don't have, I run out to the mall the next day and buy it (usually used if the new version is >$40). I recently dug out my old Playstation, but my back library is so dwindled from trading old games in I thought I'd never play again to fund newer, next gen/PC games over the years.

    I remember walking into an EBGames or GameStop years ago and seeing rack after rack of used PS1 games priced for a measly $5 or $10 in a desparate attempt of the store to cash in on as much as they could on a dying generation of software. I'd flip through nonchalantly, laughing to myself at the memories (some good some not so good) of some of the titles I saw. Then I'd make my way over to the Xbox or PS2 or PC shelves with more serious intentions.

    But now that I'm into nostalgic gaming again, as the mood tends to hit me from time to time, I'm left with a desire to play the games I traded in all those years ago and then snobbishly turned my nose up at when I'd glanced at them in the bargain bins.

    For instance, right now, I'm seriously jonesing for a play through of Tecmo's Deception. Sure I could sit at home and slug it out with another guy/girl in my same situation over an Ebay auction for it, or look for the cheapest, used copy on Amazon and then wait 10-14 business days for it to be mailed to me, but like I said...I'm an impulse gamer/shopper and I'd like to hold a copy in my hands as soon as possible. On a whim, more out of curiosity than desperation, I dropped in to the local store at the mall hoping to see that same bin of used PS1 games I saw back in the day and scoffed at, but alas, it's nothing but a memory now. I tried the local GameStops and EBGames (yeah I know they're basically the same thing these days) but to no avail. On the car ride home, an interesting thought hit me. Those old, used-game bins were jammed full back then with PS1 games, Sega Saturn games, Sega Dreamcast games, etc. The stores couldn't give them away let alone make one cent off of them.

    I recall the days when the Saturn, 64, and PS were the hip, trendy, new consoles and stores went through the same ordeal with surplus after surplus of used Super NES games that clogged the shelves. Then the same thing happened with the generation after that when the Xbox's and PS2's and Gamecubes started hitting store shelves. Now, I'm not just talking one shelf with 15 copies of Madden '99 and Crash Bandicoot. I'm talking hundreds of disc cases lining the shelves, stuffed so full you couldn't pull one out without knocking 10 more off the shelf. And I'm talking every title you can think of. Hell, back then, you wouldn't be too hard pressed to find a couple copies of Symphony of the Night in stores, used, for $10.

    Anyway, in a nutshell.....that thought that entered my head yesterday as I drove home with an empty pang in my chest and a yearning for days-gone-by is this: Where the fuck did they all go??? Like I said, there were hundreds of these games jammed on store shelves and stuffed in bins. And that's just the stores in my small-town area. I can't imagine what the backstock of used PS1 games looked like in stores across the country. I would think GameStop/EB/SoftwareEtc/RhinoGames would've tried to get as much for them as they could. I read that sometimes, when stores close (like during a merger or move) the backstock is packed up and sent to corporate factories. What then? They just sit in a warehouse collecting dust? I've searched on EBgames.com and GameStop.com (again basically mirror images of each other), and found no trace of ANY used PS1 games. So obviously they've given up on making any effort to get rid of them. How much of a hassle would it be to just list them on their website and then forget about them until some schmuck, like myself, comes along and says "Oh hey, I remember game XYZ. I oughtta try to grab another copy of it and play it again." Or you'd think corporate would put someone in charge of selling them all on Ebay or Amazon or something.

    So.....yeah. Here I am now, waiting for a copy of Tecmo's Deception that won't get here for another 2 weeks. And by then I probably won't feel like playing it anymore. This is killing me.
     
  2. Grossenschwamm

    Grossenschwamm Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    7,630
    Likes Received:
    4
    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2006
    Odd you should bring up Tecmo's Deception. I remember playing through that game four years ago with a friend...we'd alternate between levels. You're right about the PS1 games, though. They HAVE to be somewhere, unless they were donated to the nearest material reclamation center, i.e. recycling plant/ trash dump. I can see mountains of glittering cd's in my mind's eye. Nowadays when I look for older games, I check Craig's List or Amazon. I tried getting a copy of Final Fantasy 7 online from some gaming website. That and a dreamcast game where you take the role of an evolving organism on an alien planet. Long story short, I waited a fucking month for both titles, and then I called the site asking what the hell was up with my late arrivals. They had backordered each game without telling me, and I told them to keep my orders active for a month after that...I never got FF7 or Seventh Cross Evolution.
     
  3. DarkFool

    DarkFool Nemesis of the Ancients

    Messages:
    4,006
    Likes Received:
    5
    Joined:
    Jan 28, 2005
    Meh, knowing Gamestop/EBGames (same owner, I believe), they're probably running the auctions you're buying for 2+ times the price they'd've gotten for them otc.
     
  4. Vorak

    Vorak Administrator Staff Member

    Messages:
    5,828
    Likes Received:
    21
    Joined:
    Sep 15, 2003
    I read in something (Empire magazine I think, but it was a long time ago) that the major game store chains keep them for so long and then basically tell Sony, Nintendo, etc to come and take it off their hands so they can free up the space to push newer products. From there they are pretty much sent straight to the nearest recycling centre to by shredded.

    Some smaller chains and independent stores keep everything on the basis that it will sell eventually, a Game Traders not far from me currently has 3 SNES systems sitting on the shelf for $19.95 each. Also not long ago I went to 'Revolve' wich is a place that basically goes through garbage to find things that may be worth selling and they had a pile of the original PlayStations that must have had about 100 or so consoles in it for $5.00 a pop.
     
  5. Dark Elf

    Dark Elf Administrator Staff Member

    Messages:
    10,796
    Media:
    34
    Likes Received:
    164
    Joined:
    Feb 6, 2002
    Are those mint SNES consoles?

    If games like Actraiser, Illusion of Gaia, Final Fantasy VI and Secret of Mana are among the games for sale I'd consider paying you for getting it to me. Damn, imagine the nostalgia.
     
  6. Vorak

    Vorak Administrator Staff Member

    Messages:
    5,828
    Likes Received:
    21
    Joined:
    Sep 15, 2003
    The consoles were traded in over a decade ago when the previous owners bought N64s and the store owners are to stubborn to just throw the things out. Now if memory serves the 'region coding' in a SNES is actually hardware based, they just changed a few things about the shape of the cartridge to stop overseas games from being imported, however I THINK that Australian games are the same as European games so if I spot any of the above I'll contact you (my list of people who want things is quite long but I always eventually find what I want, rroyo has a fabric map of Arcanum in the mail as we speak).

    I actually still have my old SNES and have just had to buy new cables because the old ones have vanished, it scares me to think how many weeks I wasted playing my brothers in Mario Karts and Killer Instinct on that thing (yeah, my early taste in games is nothing to brag about). Although last time I was at Game Traders they had a copy of Shaq-Fu and even I wouldn't touch that one.
     
  7. Philes

    Philes Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    1,663
    Likes Received:
    39
    Joined:
    Aug 22, 2006
    Shaq-fu might be worth getting just because of the bad/awful/hilariousness of it all.
     
  8. Grossenschwamm

    Grossenschwamm Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    7,630
    Likes Received:
    4
    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2006
    Alright, here's the truth about Shaq-Fu;
    It's just as awful as you think it'll be, but that's exactly why you need to play it. It's a major learning experience, and the best part is that it shows American Capitalism at its worst. The game was made during a time when people thought Shaq was awesome just because he's a little over 7 feet tall and wears a size 23 shoe. They pushed his rap albums, put him in some movies, and then dropped him into a videogame.
     
  9. DarkUnderlord

    DarkUnderlord Administrator Staff Member

    Messages:
    4,315
    Likes Received:
    5
    Joined:
    Nov 10, 2001
    Do you admit. I am a very controversial player / PC. When I'm itching to play the game, I do not, go shopping the next day to buy it (usually, if you use a new version of "40 U.S. dollars). Recently, dug out of my old games, but I went back to the library to reduce the trade in old games, I never again to restore the funds to update, the next generation / PC games for many years.

    I remember that EBGames in the game, or a few years, take care of Rack, Rack and PS1 games for the paltry price of $ 5 or $ 10 to despair, and they can keep cash on a new generation of die Software. I would like to rearrange the indifference, with a smile on your memory (albeit good, some not so well) some books to read. Then, I would like my way more than the Microsoft Xbox or PS2 or PC on the shelves with more serious intentions.

    At this time, however, nostalgic games again because emotions tend to hit me, I just hope to play games all such transactions, after a few years ago, and then open the snobbishly my nose when I saw them refuse to negotiate on their man.

    For example, it is now, I'm seriously jonesing to play with fraud and Tecmo. Of course, can sit at home and slug with the other person / I am the same girl in a situation of the auction, or looking for the cheapest, for copies of the Amazon, and then wait 10-14 days to mail me, but as I said ... I am a very controversial player / Shopping and want one of my hands, as soon as possible. On a whim, out of curiosity more than despair, I fell in the local bill would like to keep that bin using the PS1 games that I saw during the day, and laugh, but, unfortunately, this is only a memory now. I tried the local GameStops and EBGames (Yes, I know that it is essentially the same, these days) but not exploited. On the train to go home, interesting ideas hit me. This is an old, used game boxes were sealed at the time with PS1 games, games, Sega Saturn, Sega Dreamcast games that they can not leave the store, let alone for about 1 minute.

    I remember the days when the Saturn, 64 years, PS and the hip, trendy, new video game store and went through the same test, while the remaining surplus for Super NES games, connect to the shelves. Then the same happened to a generation where the PS2 and Xbox and Nintendo started to hit store shelves. Now is not the only say 15 Madden'99 ready and Crash Bandicoot. I said that hundreds of cases a CD investment supermarket shelves, so you can not put into full training is not knocking 10 finished products. And I said, every title you can think of. Goddamn it, and then return here will be very difficult to find one or two copies of the Symphony Night at the store, use, for $ 10.

    In other words, he said that ..... In short, I add my head Yesterday I drove home leave pain in my chest and a desire to one day, and reads as follows: Where the hell with it, should we go? As I have already said that they have hundreds of toys stuck on the shelves and hidden in rubbish bins. This small shops in urban areas. I can not imagine what backstock used PS1 games look like warehouses across the country. I think the game / beam / SoftwareEtc / RhinoGames will try them, because they may be. I am so sometimes when you close the store (for example, a merger or mobile) backstock and packages sent to the company's plants. What then? Just sit in a warehouse collecting dust? So I searched EBgames.com GameStop.com (essentially reflects a next time), and found no traces of the use of the PS1 games. So, apparently leaving his efforts to make something of them. Number of problems will be just a list of sites, and then forget about them until the schmuck, like me, this is along the "A, E, I remember a particular game. Oughtta tried to confiscate a copy of the game and from." You might think that someone will be responsible for all sales in the Amazon or eBay or something.

    Ah ..... So yes. Here I am now, pending the Tecmo cheating will not be here for another 2 weeks. And then I think we probably will not play. This is killed.
     
  10. Philes

    Philes Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    1,663
    Likes Received:
    39
    Joined:
    Aug 22, 2006
    So, from what language and back to English again is that DU?

    And what possessed you to think it would be funny to post it in the first place?
     
  11. Dark Elf

    Dark Elf Administrator Staff Member

    Messages:
    10,796
    Media:
    34
    Likes Received:
    164
    Joined:
    Feb 6, 2002
    My guess is that he translated it to German and back again. Had it been a shorter text with something hilarious in it I would have smiled now, but alas I'm not.
     
  12. DarkFool

    DarkFool Nemesis of the Ancients

    Messages:
    4,006
    Likes Received:
    5
    Joined:
    Jan 28, 2005
    Throw it through the super translator matrix?
     
  13. GrimmHatter

    GrimmHatter Active Member

    Messages:
    1,274
    Likes Received:
    0
    Joined:
    Dec 27, 2006
    At least he didn't use those retarded audio voices like before, though Japes' was about spot-on.

    Anyway, I was afraid those ps1 discs had suffered a similar fate as Activision's ET cartridges. But fortunately I recall another store nearby called Cash'N'Culture that deals in older "stuff" like older generation games and He-Man action figures, etc. Maybe someone else has heard of it, maybe not...I don't know if it's a chain of stores or just one. Last time I was there, they had Sega CDs, Saturns, and Dreamcasts for $40. They also had NES's and SNES's and Genesis' for ~ $25 with extra controllers and cables and fairly large selection of used games. It was like last Christmas since I've been in there so I don't know what's left. I'm going to check it out tomorrow after work. Maybe I'll get lucky.
     
  14. DarkFool

    DarkFool Nemesis of the Ancients

    Messages:
    4,006
    Likes Received:
    5
    Joined:
    Jan 28, 2005
    What does a pseudo-junk store have to do with sex?
     
  15. Grossenschwamm

    Grossenschwamm Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    7,630
    Likes Received:
    4
    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2006
    If you play your cards right, everything has to do with sex.
     
  16. GrimmHatter

    GrimmHatter Active Member

    Messages:
    1,274
    Likes Received:
    0
    Joined:
    Dec 27, 2006
    I defy any male or lesbian of the past two generations to tell me they have in no way, shape, or form been sexually influenced by a video game starting with Chun Li in Street Fighter 2 on the SNES. I mean, fast forward a generation and Dead or Alive (an older title that is in stock in this very store in question) literally had an option in the Settings menu to make the female characters' tits bigger and bouncier (praise be to team ninja). One thing leads to another...you have sex. How you get from Point A to Point B is up to you.
     
  17. papa_dog_1999

    papa_dog_1999 Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    1,511
    Media:
    1
    Likes Received:
    27
    Joined:
    Aug 14, 2008
    That's all well and good on the older systems. At least they had a slot for the game cartridge.
    The new systems have CD slots and I think that would be quite a pinch if the CD drawer closed. :eek:


    I know, I know. "Bad dog, bad dog"
     
  18. Vorak

    Vorak Administrator Staff Member

    Messages:
    5,828
    Likes Received:
    21
    Joined:
    Sep 15, 2003
    Thats not so bad, you never saw Xento's thread at the Chaotic Cafe about how making love to your power supply was the best feeling a man could ever have.
     
  19. GrimmHatter

    GrimmHatter Active Member

    Messages:
    1,274
    Likes Received:
    0
    Joined:
    Dec 27, 2006
    Or the exhaust pipe of your pickup truck. I know there's a pic of that on the boards here somewhere.
     
  20. Dark Elf

    Dark Elf Administrator Staff Member

    Messages:
    10,796
    Media:
    34
    Likes Received:
    164
    Joined:
    Feb 6, 2002
    Motorbike. Sheep. Aussie. Win.

    If you're into man-machine perversity though, watch Chobits.
     
Our Host!