Episode 43: The Good Old Days of Gaming: The Video Store Experience 🎮

Shawn (@thatmarinokid), Olive (@thatgamerolive), Shane (@shakenn88), and Sean (@Sean.ze.barber) gather around the table at the GameVerse Pub for Episode 43 as we kick off a brand-new series: The Good Old Days of Gaming! 🍺🎮

In this first nostalgic episode, we're taking a trip back to The Video Store Experience, a time when renting games was an event, weekends meant browsing endless shelves, and finding the game you wanted before someone else did felt like winning the lottery 👀

The crew shares their favourite memories of growing up with video stores, from browsing the aisles and judging games by their cover art to bringing home that one rental you couldn't wait to play. We also talk about the excitement of discovering hidden gems, reading game manuals on the ride home, and why those experiences just don't exist in today's digital world 😄

📼 Browsing the shelves for your next game
🎮 Weekend game rentals with friends and family
🍿 The unforgettable atmosphere of the video store era

Whether you grew up renting games every weekend or you're curious about what gaming was like before digital downloads, this episode is packed with nostalgia, great stories, and plenty of laughs along the way 🍻

🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts
📺 Full video available on YouTube
🔗 https://linktr.ee/gameversepub
👍 Don't forget to like, subscribe, and share with your fellow gamers!

🎶 Special thanks to Angelica Jones for the intro (Crispy Bill) and outro (Let It Slide) music
 🌐 https://angelicajones.ca

#gameversepub #gaming #gamers #gamingpodcast #thegoodolddaysofgaming #videostore #blockbuster #retrogaming #nostalgia #gamingmemories #videostoreexperience #podcast

Thank you so much for listening!! Please follow us on all our socials: https://linktr.ee/gameversepub

Transcript

SPEAKER_10 0:00

Hey everybody.

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Hi, friends.

SPEAKER_03 0:02

Hey guys.

SPEAKER_10 0:03

Yeah. Yes. Let's go. Let's go. Welcome to Game Verse Pub. Uh we are here today for a very special episode. Am I right?

SPEAKER_06 0:14

Yep.

SPEAKER_10 0:15

Very special. Yeah. Because today we're going to talk about well, we're starting a new series called The Good Old Days of Gaming. And our first episode on that is uh all about the video store experience. So we're 90s kids, right? Yep. Yep. Right? Everybody's 90s. Pretty much the same. Uh we're 90s kids and uh we got to live that. Nobody will ever live that again. That's true. And we get to relive it tonight as best as we can. Sweet. Yeah. I want to hear your stories. Uh I want to share mine. I want to just dive into this nostalgia, even if it might be a little sad. Oh. Because um, as I was discussing with you yesterday, um, unfortunately, that was the best time of gaming, and it's over. We will never get to see that time again. Even if we have great games and it's still good gaming times, it's never gonna be the same.

SPEAKER_05 1:05

It's true.

SPEAKER_10 1:05

No, no. So uh to that, I'll start with the introductions. We got olive. That's loud.

SPEAKER_05 1:16

It's supposed to be.

SPEAKER_10 1:17

Yeah, olive part of the furniture over here now.

SPEAKER_05 1:20

Olive's here.

SPEAKER_10 1:21

Uh we got uh Sean Zabarber. Let's go. And we've got somebody that comes uh more and more and more and more. Glad to have you here, buddy. Shane. Yeah, Shane baby. Here to have a good time, yeah. Of course, as always. And you have a special role today. Yeah. Would you like to talk about it? I've got beers.

SPEAKER_08 1:44

Oh beer guy coming. I'm the beer guy. Yeah, the acting beer guy. That's awesome. Very perched. Happy to provide yeah, had a long day today. It was a very long day. Big day at work. Yeah, yeah. I'm starving and I'm thirsty. Oh, there you go. Uh-oh. There you go.

SPEAKER_04 1:59

Gotta feed the man.

SPEAKER_08 2:00

Oh, what's this?

SPEAKER_04 2:01

Oh, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

So we're going back in time even a little further before the game rental time that we're going to talk about. This was just arcade times. This is yeah, more Space Invader. Awesome. That's cute. Yeah, it is nice. It's a taller can than usual, too. Yeah, 20% more. I didn't notice that when I bought it. I'm sure you did. Yeah, yeah, sure.

SPEAKER_01 2:23

You didn't read the can, you just looked at the picture. He did not know. No. Did not know.

SPEAKER_10 2:31

No. What I like about this Shane is that, yeah, it is before the era, but in our the good old days of gaming uh segment, at some point we could even do an arcades days. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:42

We didn't live it like it was like the I mean there was a small spot in Pembroke that where I grew up. It was attached to the the movie theater. Yeah. And that was that was it was movie theater.

SPEAKER_10 2:53

Yeah, movie theater arcades were a thing, but like you know, the arcade places where people would show up, like terminated to there. But I but I want to talk about it. I want to know.

SPEAKER_08 3:03

House of Targ is amazing. House of Targ.

SPEAKER_10 3:04

Yeah, that's cool. In Ottawa.

SPEAKER_02 3:06

Yeah, yeah. Alright, so what are we drinking, Shane? So we got uh Space Invader, Juicy IPA from Amsterdam uh brewery. Nice, damn good beer. Right. Yeah, good Amsterdam. They're right there. Um that's uh Toronto. They've got a few uh good beers, uh, Amsterdam, Bone Shaker. I've had that one quite a few times. Uh this it's my first time with the uh Space Invader, so um this damn juicy beer is a cosmic blast of out of this world citrus hops. The sky is the limit for those who aren't afraid to look up. Defend yourself from this non-stop invasion of flavor. That's so cool. Don't be afraid to look up because I'm so tall.

SPEAKER_05 3:47

Maybe they were trying to tell you something. Don't be afraid to look up because there's 20% more in here. Don't be don't be afraid to look up and read.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

When I saw this in the beer store, I thought it was an optical illusion because I thought it was just calling me out and just seemed to be bigger. There was nice lighting behind it and everything. Yeah, well, right.

SPEAKER_10 4:06

Shane, uh, really appreciate it. Thank you very much. And let's go. Guys and gal, let's get a crack.

SPEAKER_06 4:15

Oh, that's noise.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

Love that sound. Once it hits your lips, it's just so good, too.

SPEAKER_06 4:22

Yeah? Once it hits your lips, huh?

SPEAKER_01 4:25

Once it hits your lips.

SPEAKER_02 4:27

Talking about old school.

SPEAKER_10 4:30

Like uh blowing in uh a cartridge before putting it back into Nintendo. You're not supposed to do that. I know. We all do. It still works. It still works. I guess that could be one of the topics that maybe.

SPEAKER_02 4:42

Well, that's where I learned to blow.

SPEAKER_05 4:48

Isn't that where we all learn to blow?

SPEAKER_10 4:51

Are you done? Uh you still got some leftover. Hey, everybody, thank you very much for showing up. Um, it's a great hot day with a cold beverage. Cheers, everybody. Let's have a good episode.

SPEAKER_03 5:13

Oh, that's good.

SPEAKER_02 5:14

Yeah. That went slow motion for me. I just thought of all the beers falling on these games.

SPEAKER_05 5:20

I think that's why we were all a little careful this time. You two were like, yeah, this time.

SPEAKER_00 5:24

You were careful? Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 5:26

Yeah. I keep saying one day they're just gonna break it. Oh, not today. Not today. Not today. It's not gonna be funny. Yeah. It'll get some views though. Yeah, but I don't want the. Probably from all the crying. It ruins my beer. Brand games. Games. Yeah. Alright. So, the good old days of gaming, the video store experience. I thought that was a fitting title because um at this point, um I was thinking, I wish I could uh have um I could have made my kids live the video store experience. Sure. They'll never live it. They live it by me talking about it. You know, when we go to the old uh near Pravigo where they're the old blockbuster building uh used to be, I talk about that and and and stories are where the video tron tron used to be. Um but they'll never live it.

SPEAKER_05 6:16

So about the same time the dinosaurs were roaming around. Yeah, give or take a few years.

SPEAKER_10 6:21

At least little foot in the game. Yeah, exactly. Um but uh they heard my stories uh uh uh so so so much, and uh I'll share some today, but I really I couldn't wait to hear about yours to get to you know, you know what was your uh experience of going to the store and I like if you can, if you want, to start with the beginning, right? So what was the feel because I remember the feeling I had when I was at home knowing I would go to the video store. You know, there was a feeling to know you would go and then you'd get there, and that so just what if somebody wants to start the story and walk us through what it was like for you to go go there.

SPEAKER_05 6:59

I feel like it was always magical going into like a Blockbuster where you go through like even to go out, you know, you have to go through the metal detectors or whatever they were, and you're like this is this is serious, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Um, but I also thought it was so magical like going in there, but then when you get to your games and it's like not there, you're like son of a bitch.

SPEAKER_03 7:19

You gotta pick something else. Yeah, you just gotta pick up the case. Especially when you have something in the game. You've already gone all the way, you have to pick something else.

SPEAKER_05 7:25

Yeah, especially when you have something in mind already, and then your parents are like, Well, we came here not for nothing, you know?

SPEAKER_10 7:31

This game, Sean, is exactly the you have to pick something else game that I remember in my in my life. So I didn't go to the the store to to get Bugs Bunny Rabbit Rampage, but I remember going I remember going there, wasn't I don't remember what I wanted to get, but it wasn't it wasn't there. But I got that. Um this I bought recently because it reminded me of that exact time. So that's why I want to mention, yeah, you didn't always get what you wanted, but hey, still was a great game and got me to want to play it yourself. Oh nice, put that on a t-shirt.

SPEAKER_02 8:08

Maybe in a song, too.

SPEAKER_10 8:11

So yeah. Don't leave it hangs.

SPEAKER_05 8:16

We only love to you about that.

SPEAKER_10 8:18

You do this with somebody, what did you say? And then you like hold hands. I like it. I like it.

SPEAKER_05 8:26

Is that magical? It's a news, yeah. It was walked into Blockbuster.

SPEAKER_03 8:30

So I never had a blockbuster. Okay. Oh. I had a small gas station that we went to. I grew up in Pembroke. So the the the distance in between things was quite I feel like I can envision it. It's a long drive. Like it's not something a kid could walk, okay, you know. So mom and dad had to drive. Mom and dad, it was an event, and we would, you know, go up and down, we'd pick a movie, a VHS, yeah, and go get a NES or SNES at the time. Yeah. Um, and you know, same thing. Like you go you go there, the the gas station has like 20 things to choose from, and it's like, uh, all the good stuff. SimCity's gone again. You know, someone deleted my save the last time. I know my city's not gonna be there. But yeah, it was a very different experience.

SPEAKER_05 9:17

But you didn't so you didn't have more options because there was less people?

SPEAKER_03 9:20

There was very little options. Eventually the PlayStation came out, and then we we started seeing them pack more stuff, but yeah, there was no interesting.

SPEAKER_10 9:29

In a way, the lack of options is kind of what I'm I want to get back to now because the other day I was on I had my my my Steam Deck. Sorry, joking here. I had my Steam Deck and I had like I don't know 10 games already downloaded on it. But every time I went to play, I didn't know what I wanted to play. So you know what I did? I deleted all the games. I can't wait.

SPEAKER_04 9:48

Oh, we talked about that this week, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 9:50

Yeah, I I kept one because I can't like it's too much. So maybe being there and having a less to choose from got me.

SPEAKER_03 9:56

It made you choose different things, made you try new things for sure, yeah. Otherwise, you you know you have the same problem we have today, which is 300 games, 10 have been played, you know.

SPEAKER_05 10:06

Yeah, so yeah, it's true.

SPEAKER_10 10:08

The library, too many games, too many games, too little time. Yeah. Look at us like being uh too many games, my wallet's too small for my 50s, and my diamonds are too tight.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

No, it time is precious, so don't cry about it.

SPEAKER_10 10:23

Yeah, exactly. I feel that's what we do, the the the 90s kids right now. We're just complaining about how good we have it.

SPEAKER_03 10:30

Yeah, but the thing is, we really did have it that good. Like the games, you you went to the store, you picked a game, there was no patches to download. There was no you got home, and by the time you've gone through that manual, you know how to play the game. Yeah, and you just the manual?

SPEAKER_08 10:46

Yes, you went through the manual? Of course I did. Yeah, so that's what I wanted.

SPEAKER_03 10:50

So you you're a manual reading. I was looking at the pictures, I read what things do, and if they had it, right? I mean, look at it, it's it's a 20-minute drive home. No, maybe it's a 15-minute. I had plenty of time. Yeah, and not get nauseous. So I'm just sitting there like, oh my god, I can't wait to anticipation was there.

SPEAKER_05 11:07

So I was like, it's not as bad as now where you have to like load, yeah, sign in. It was just put it in.

SPEAKER_03 11:13

What game was it? You have to pay extra for a digital manual.

SPEAKER_05 11:17

What?

SPEAKER_03 11:17

What game was that? Yeah, it was like part of the bonus content. Like, no.

SPEAKER_05 11:22

It's a bonus. Bonus is a new map. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 11:27

It's like the the back in the day, GTA 3. I remember it came with the huge map I had to put on my wall to get to know that map. Yeah, it's you don't even get a disc anymore. Let's not get on that discussion. Yeah, yeah. That's another episode. That's a whole other episode. That's a whole other thing. Right, right. You were talking about something interesting earlier when we were setting up all this chaotic uh table of games. Chaos. Which which Olive uh, for the record did not agree with doing too much.

SPEAKER_05 11:52

This is too much for me. Yeah. I wanted it to be nice. Can you alphabetize it? No, no, no. That's I don't need to alphabet, it's just it's chaotic for me. Because you just want them lined up.

SPEAKER_10 12:01

Yeah, but then putting him up, you can't see you can you only see the first row.

SPEAKER_04 12:05

You can't just like No, not even lined up.

SPEAKER_03 12:07

We'll take a picture, right? Top view.

SPEAKER_10 12:10

I got a picture, sorry.

SPEAKER_02 12:11

But what you were saying is when you you brought out this cartridge, right? Right, right. The memory cards, that changes the game, right? When uh this your save is stuck on a cassette.

SPEAKER_03 12:21

So here's the thing I got a PlayStation, but I never got a memory card. No, what? Yeah, that's the worst. Parents didn't know. They didn't know that's fair. So you set slot wit for we don't know. We just don't know. Oh my god. Let me pull up the old Google machine there. You know, dial up internet. Uh everybody's gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

And then someone gets on the phone. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_10 12:41

So, but what you were saying is that when you we rented, let's say you rent uh uh even a Nintendo 64 game. Well, if you have your playthrough on there and you bring it back to the store, next time you play, most likely your your game save is not gone. You're hoping, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:57

But if you had a memory card, yeah, that changed things. So uh as of like the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation, did the first PlayStation have a memory card? Yeah, okay, because I didn't have PlayStation one, only PS2. Um yeah, no, I I just remember that being a big thing, hoping to get my game and having my file still there intact. Did it ever happen? Did you ever get back to your game that was still there?

SPEAKER_10 13:23

Yeah, Pembroke, maybe yeah, at a good old gas station. You had an understanding. I'm bringing it back, but if God forbid my game's not back and it's switched and you get the the three letters of the person that's the worst thing was like SimCity was the main one.

SPEAKER_03 13:39

Okay, so that's I'd like I got good at the game. My cities were massive and like flourishing, and then this other like guy, this Muppet, has like train trails all over, like and cities, like all I'm like, what is this? You destroyed my city for this.

SPEAKER_10 13:56

That's funny. Did it still have the names where you put three letters? Yeah, I think AA beats you, and you're like, Yeah, yeah. At least find a cool name if you're gonna beat me.

SPEAKER_00 14:06

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 14:07

Uh I was mad. Good times. It was good times, actually. I uh I didn't mind being upset about it because I had to start over. Yeah, the replayability was there, you know. It you didn't need the DLC.

SPEAKER_10 14:18

So is that the your favorite your first game that you ever beat, right? It was uh Kyle Petis.

SPEAKER_08 14:24

Kyle Petties. No fear No Fear Racing. Did did you rent it or is it a game you owned? It was something I rented.

SPEAKER_10 14:30

No way. So in Sean's player profile, which was episode Oh man, it's only something. That's great. It was 13, and uh, and but that was one of your questions. Which is the first game you ever beat? And uh that was it. So that was part of this story.

SPEAKER_03 14:49

That was part of the story. Ah, cool. So my two like my two favorite childhood games was Diablo 1, which came out on PlayStation 1 as well, and Cal Pettis. So again, with the no memory card, I was renting this game, Diablo, of all things, with no memory card, playing it basically hardcore at the age of like nine. I'm just like you die, and it was like the most heart-wrenching thing ever. It was like no, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 15:16

Was it like a thing where you'd like go back and when you it was like due to be returned and rent it right after so no one else would like pick it up?

SPEAKER_03 15:23

Um I don't remember that. No, but it we would try, we'd absolutely try. Like, mom, we gotta go with a video store, you know. Right now, yeah, it's it's uh school just ended, mom.

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Let's go. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_08 15:36

What was the name of that uh store you went to Kluche Service Center?

SPEAKER_03 15:39

Is it still there? It is, but it's not under Kluches anymore. No, okay. But it's still a gas station and uh they don't rent anything anymore. They don't rent anything, there's like tackle and okay country stuff.

SPEAKER_10 15:51

Nice all right.

SPEAKER_07 15:51

Well, thanks for sharing.

SPEAKER_10 15:52

Yeah, um as a kid, me was Videotron and there was a bit of blockbuster in there, but what about you?

SPEAKER_02 15:59

Yeah, Orleans. Okay. So um in the uh Gendarc uh plaza with the white rose, um, it was uh Roger's video, and before that it was not another video store that I which one I think I missed, right? Not another one, yeah, no, and uh yeah, so that was the main one. There was uh nearby, there was also a blockbuster just a little further away down the hill.

SPEAKER_05 16:27

Uh did you have to walk up both ways in the snow? No, no, three feet of snow.

SPEAKER_02 16:33

I got snow in your pajamas. It was in the baby seat in the back. Pajamas had the floor.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 16:41

West Coast Videos. You guys and uh Jumbo Video was another one. Jumbo, yeah, I remember that one.

SPEAKER_05 16:50

Was it big to have a lot of video games?

SPEAKER_02 16:52

Jumbo was Oh, it was, yeah?

SPEAKER_05 16:54

It was jumbo.

SPEAKER_02 16:55

Elephant size, yeah. It was jumbo.

SPEAKER_10 16:57

That's where the experience where you rented games.

SPEAKER_02 17:00

No.

SPEAKER_10 17:01

What the hell are you talking about? Okay, late stage, late stage. Okay, get one or two. Go rent your games. Rogers video. What I want to know is the Rogers uh video store. How diff how different was it or how similar was it to when to what we knew here in Quebec on the video channel or the Blockbuster or whatever? Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 17:20

Well, I didn't experience what you guys had, so I can't say the differences, but no, but if you say what your experience was, I'll be able to tell you what the differences are. There's a big stark difference right there.

SPEAKER_05 17:32

You want to come in, beep, beep, beep, beep It was only only way out.

SPEAKER_02 17:36

Yeah. So my first experience was actually not going to the store, really was coming back home. Okay, to my brother like being in the window with a video game.

SPEAKER_05 17:46

Oh, I love it.

SPEAKER_02 17:47

Like showing like I went to the store with dad without you. I came back with this, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 17:52

Because dad being a firefighter had some time off, would be at home and then maybe Pistol Pete cool as the name is and as the things he did and the cowboy things, he was a firefighter. Yeah, you need him on the pot.

SPEAKER_02 18:07

Cool pistol Pete. Yeah, okay, sorry. So I would come back home and would see my brother in the window waiting with the game, or yeah, we'd see what he picked out. So it took a while for it to be a good game, evidently. Like three or four.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

Stupid one again.

SPEAKER_03 18:25

Now, did you and your brother get along? Yeah, yeah. So you guys found like common ground with video games? We did a bit. Yeah. Me and my sister did not. Okay, interesting. Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 18:35

Yeah, we we liked a lot of the same games, but he got really good at a certain type of game, and I felt like I can keep up. Oh, and that's cool. Older brother, younger brother. Oh, then why weren't you the guy going to the video store? I was gonna ask because, okay, so I would have been in uh kindergarten, he would have been in junior kindergarten, and they were doing half days. Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 18:59

It was a half the host and pistol Pete has favorites.

SPEAKER_02 19:02

Yeah, no, no. Come on, Pistol.

unknown 19:05

Wow.

SPEAKER_05 19:07

We found out your secret.

SPEAKER_02 19:09

Yeah. Eventually, you know, we all made it out together. Yeah, that's weird about that experience. Yeah, yeah. Just looking at the wall of video games, Roger's video, back then they had a lot of games. Nice. Uh, there was a wall. Everything seemed big back then, too. Like if I was to go back now. Yeah, you could reach the top.

SPEAKER_01 19:29

I still can't.

SPEAKER_02 19:30

This is like four four years old would have been the first experience as you remember. Four or four or five. Four or five, yeah. That's crazy. Well, that's when yeah, no, yeah, yeah. I got some memories of yeah, some moments might be due to pictures and you just remember whatever. But yeah, no.

SPEAKER_10 19:48

So getting in there, um the the wall of games and all that stuff, what I remember being the the most attractive part of it was the Nintendo 64 um cases. And I wish I had one here today to to just to display uh there's a Sega one here, but that's ASMR. I didn't even Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 20:07

Oh yeah, just for the listen, just for this Right.

SPEAKER_02 20:10

Don't forget Oh here.

SPEAKER_05 20:14

Wait. Yeah, sorry. I I had to stop here to do it just because it's like it's a sound, you know?

SPEAKER_10 20:24

Yeah, this is what does it for you? Yeah, I love it.

SPEAKER_05 20:26

I love that sound. Um it just brings us back.

SPEAKER_10 20:29

It does, it does, right back in the nostalgia world. But there's something about the Nintendo 64 boxes specifically. They were big, the colors were popping. Every game, even if it was a shitty game, looked like it was an awesome game for Nintendo 64. Yeah, of course, marketing hit its peak at Nintendo 64, I think.

SPEAKER_03 20:50

Yeah, I agree. They they really had uh like all the commercials that got went with it. Like uh I still remember like the South Park one. I really wanted to get that game. My sister had I think my sister had the 64. I had the PlayStation. I don't yeah, she must have had the 64. I I never played the PlaySt uh the the Nintendo very much. I got uh the PS1, so that's where Seattle came from. Yeah, Resident Evil was terrifying. Oh yeah. I was way too young to be playing that. Really?

SPEAKER_05 21:19

I think we were uh very young to be playing a lot of games that we've played, honestly.

SPEAKER_03 21:23

Yeah, yeah. Friends with older brothers or whatever. Not even that was for me. But the thing was, like, renting like as a kid, I liked the kind of zombie stuff, but then like renting a game and like oh this looks cool. You bring it home and you're just like absolutely terrified. Like it's a stormy, rainy night out here in the basement playing this zombie game, and yeah, that was what I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_05 21:45

Like the it's the covers, they just they get you.

SPEAKER_10 21:48

Yeah, yeah. The covers get you, but everything when you when you walk in and tell me if it was like that at maybe Cluches Pitstop. Yeah, whatever it's clues. Um or Rogers Center. Um or Jumbotron. I don't know what. Get in there, and first of all, it smells like pop popcorn. It's a smell, yeah. It smells like popcorn. Pretty much every time. No, no, free popcorn. It smelled like gas. No free popcorn at the gas station.

SPEAKER_03 22:15

No. It smelled like toilet. No, it smelled like gasoline.

SPEAKER_08 22:21

It just kind of had this car smell. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 22:24

That's fair. That's fair. It's a gas station. Makes sense.

SPEAKER_10 22:26

But in classic video stores, uh, you worked at Blockbuster, right? Okay. Did they make popcorn for and give it for free? No. That's a good thing. Video Tron had it. Yeah. Video Tron had it, and you had these little white bags, and when you rented it, they give it to every kid that I think Jumbo did it as well.

SPEAKER_02 22:40

Jumbo did it, West Coast did it.

SPEAKER_05 22:42

They knew they knew how what they were doing. They knew what they were doing.

SPEAKER_02 22:45

Rogers did it up to a certain point.

SPEAKER_10 22:46

It's so cheap, and it was a selling point. Why go to someplace that's right there that doesn't give you free shit? Yeah. Then go to right there.

SPEAKER_02 22:55

Well they sold they had the candy bar, right?

SPEAKER_05 22:58

Oh god, the best part. The candy section. The display.

SPEAKER_10 23:02

You had to go through a maze of candy sections to finally get to the counter.

SPEAKER_05 23:11

Like the the the the the lineup where you go like buy like rent out your game, that's where like all the good shit is. Yeah. What?

SPEAKER_02 23:21

The kids say peak now for the peak. That was the summit like of all the good shit right there. That was peak candy spot.

SPEAKER_05 23:31

Yeah. Oh the choices.

SPEAKER_02 23:34

The good old times.

SPEAKER_10 23:36

But the so the feel I always go back to the feeling of walking in. I was a video trend guy. Um and walking in there and was like, oh, I don't want to leave. I'm already there and I don't want to leave. There's too many things I want to do because it wasn't just games. There was movies. Yeah. There was the slowly walking by the adult section. Oh the perv comes out and leaves the door open.

SPEAKER_02 24:05

A little too long. Oh yeah. The beated curtain.

SPEAKER_05 24:09

And like there was like a there was like a like a hum to it, you know, like there's like noises everywhere. Always a movie playing. Always a movie playing something.

SPEAKER_07 24:18

Well, I just got the the spoiler, so never mind that movie.

SPEAKER_05 24:21

So there's always like a background of like some noise that is just like comforting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:26

That was when I went rented Aliens as well. That's when I became a big alien movie fan. I rented that with Diablo or Sim City or whatever. Those are my two main ones. Kyle Petty, obviously. Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 24:39

Yeah. Uh they were so fun, man. Just um, I remember very specifically, and I don't know it's not games thing, but it was still part of the video store experience. Jackie Chan movies. Oh, yeah. Like you'd go to the sec section for Jackie Chan movies, and it was like, which one have I not seen or did I want to see again? And it was boom. Or all the Adam Sandler movies together with Billy Madison and all that. Big Elmore, yeah. Yeah. So so but just tap it in. Just tap it in tapping.

SPEAKER_00 25:05

Tap tap room.

SPEAKER_10 25:07

Yeah. Um and in Video Tron, they added the microplay at some point. That was a little later in the uh in uh the teenage years. Okay. So the microplay was um was a little section within Video Tron. Kind of, I think, like when Walmart had McDonald's attached to it. So Microplay was kind of its thing, and it was uh bug in my drink, sorry. Oh no.

SPEAKER_02 25:29

Like to buy used games, right?

SPEAKER_10 25:31

Made me step on it. Yeah. Sorry, no, but they so microplay was very specific for games, but they were there uh when uh it was it was discs. There weren't cartridges anymore.

SPEAKER_05 25:45

Yes, so it was in the back corner. Yeah, it was in the back corner.

SPEAKER_10 25:48

And then at the end before it burned, it came to the front. Before it burned. I don't remember it burning. So in the Glenwood Plaza, you didn't know? Oh at some point, that whole plaza went on fire. And all of Elmer was on the I was there, it was right on the other side of Princepal, right where the McDonald's is. Yeah, and we were all watching the whole plaza. Crazy, yeah. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_05 26:08

That was because my dentist was up there, yeah. I was a lot speaking. Wait, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_10 26:13

Okay, so yeah, it's so it was crazy, and even like once it was all set and done, Videotron was right on the corner where it's uh Scotiabank now. Yep. And uh you could walk on the side, and I'd see like Xbox games like half burnt. They're always there, there. I even went there, there was they said you can't go, but um Rebel. I'm a rebel.

SPEAKER_09 26:34

Without a cause. Yeah. I'm what the average uh person would call a bad boy.

SPEAKER_00 26:40

Watch out, guys.

SPEAKER_09 26:41

Yeah, so bad boys don't say bad boy.

SPEAKER_10 26:48

But um bad man. What I was prominents. Um but yeah, walking past that was was odd, but yeah, it was odd because it was everybody saw their the main parts of their city just burn.

SPEAKER_05 27:06

It's like your childhood.

SPEAKER_10 27:08

And it was the end of the for me in Elmer, it was the end of that era. Blockbuster closed, yeah, and this is was all that was left of going there and renting games, it burned down, they never got it back. It was like, oh well, it's the end of that. So they opened a little video trans store, but it was just for sales and stuff and services. So yeah, for us, it like it what year was that? Oh my god, now that I think about it, never thought about it this way. For Elmer people, it all ended with a big burn. It did. This era of video store ended with a big burn. We never saw video store again. That's true. What year was it though?

SPEAKER_05 27:43

Taking us way back there, sorry.

SPEAKER_03 27:44

Yeah, like a search 2010-ish. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 27:51

Maybe.

SPEAKER_10 27:52

Because that's when I moved to Ottawa, and that's whenever I I remember seeing blockbusters and renting here and there, but like 21-year-old acquitted in $30 million Elmer Mall fire. Oh what? Yeah, so it was uh Glasgow Plenwood fire in 2005.

SPEAKER_05 28:12

Wow. Okay. 2005. Hey, good time. I thought it was waiting for the five. No, no, it can be 2005 because I've been in there when there was my husband, and we've been together since 2007.

SPEAKER_10 28:24

Yeah. But the new one, not the old Plaza Glenwood Elmer uh that was burned. Yeah, it was crazy. Anyways, we think of Xbox. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:35

Xbox was the the top console at the time.

SPEAKER_10 28:39

It was near the to the time when uh the the church burned. Yep. Like it like in uh short time span through time span, yeah, and apparently there was rumors it was the same guy, and like I never knew what it happened. Yeah, but rumors. But yeah, so it literally saw this era burn. Oh my god, I never that's crazy. I need to have a drink, guys. Could you talk about the experience in in Blockbuster? Because Blockbuster is like the main thing, right? So you made a whole TV show about it, right?

SPEAKER_03 29:11

The last Blockbuster.

SPEAKER_04 29:12

Oh, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 29:13

Did you saw that? Yeah, it was a TV show. I've never seen it, I heard about it, but I never seen about it. It's actually pretty good.

SPEAKER_05 29:20

Yeah, it's cool. Yeah, no, I worked at Blockbuster. Um, that was quite the experience. Um but yeah, there it was it wasn't as big as Video Troll.

SPEAKER_10 29:31

I find it was like still a pretty big deal over there.

SPEAKER_05 29:33

Yeah, but I thought it was more like movies than games, honestly. Um but um I was pregnant at the time and I would rent Sims roller coaster non-stop.

SPEAKER_06 29:44

Sims roller coaster or roller coaster tycoon? No. Sims Roller Coaster.

SPEAKER_05 29:48

A roller coaster tycoon, maybe?

SPEAKER_06 29:50

No, they had a Sims roller coaster.

SPEAKER_02 29:52

They had a Sims roller coaster.

SPEAKER_05 29:54

I play that non-stop. Like that's the one I would always rent. So when it was time to bring it back, I'd just like re-rent it. Like, no, it's mine. Um yeah, it was uh interesting play uh working there.

SPEAKER_02 30:05

Is it just Sim Coaster?

SPEAKER_10 30:07

Sims Sky Sky High Roller Coaster Sims Sims Roaring Heights?

SPEAKER_05 30:14

And I think it was on PlayStation. We've had a few different things. PlayStation one, two, one or two. Sims Roller Coaster, yeah, okay. But I didn't really rent like games just because um like we just always got them. And then for PlayStation One, when we got PlayStation One, we had a a neighbor who was like super nerdy. Yeah, and he burned so many games. We've had like hundreds of games like that he would just burn, so we never had to burn.

SPEAKER_02 30:42

You were able to burn like uh speaking of burning, the great burnings.

SPEAKER_05 30:47

Yeah, you were able to burn like video games. Show himself like not again, not again, so we we we got um we were we were able to get like games just like that, so we never really had to like go and rent anything. Um but I have to say that people would rent more movies than games. She's part of the problem.

unknown 31:11

Yes.

SPEAKER_10 31:12

I just realized I didn't do the hydration part of the beginning. The most important part is Hydration!

SPEAKER_02 31:22

Whang Wow Man, alright.

SPEAKER_10 31:27

Hey, who's thirsty? Jesus, can't believe I've forgotten. Weird. Sorry I interrupted you.

SPEAKER_00 31:31

Okay, that's okay.

SPEAKER_10 31:32

Jeez. So there was a lot of of uh, you know, there was the the the eras, and you saw it evolved with the cartridges, then went to the CDs, and then it went to uh still CDs, but um PlayStation 3 Xbox uh uh level of CDs, and that was different. So it for me it was in three tiers that I saw it before it crumbled down. Um but in Blockbuster, I remember, yeah, it was a video trend guy, but Blockbuster had a special thing that they did. They rented consoles.

SPEAKER_00 32:02

I don't remember that. Yeah, maybe not when I was working there.

SPEAKER_10 32:05

They rented consoles because I remember renting a Game Boy color, yeah, and it was uh a Pokemon Yellow.

SPEAKER_05 32:11

Oh, I don't well, I've never rented out a console, so maybe it would be stopped by the time I got there. They stopped. But we uh Video Trol, I would rent games there, and I loved going through the games. Games okay, yeah, yeah. I would love going through the game section, and I could like stay there for hours just like looking at literally everything. But I remember going to Video Troll. I think that was the best place for games to be honest. It was, and then you have like the the setup where you can like try whatever's playing at the moment.

SPEAKER_10 32:35

Yeah, those setups, every kid in there would be like, okay, I'm like Is it my turn yet? Then your mom's like, okay, it's time to go. Oh, but I need it. My turn is hogging it.

SPEAKER_05 32:46

Yeah. So yeah, definitely. But you could you could buy consoles at Video Troll.

SPEAKER_10 32:53

Could buy them, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 32:55

Well, I don't know if you were able to rent them at Videotrol, but I remember you could.

SPEAKER_10 33:03

That's where I exchanged my PlayStation 3 to get my four.

unknown 33:05

You exchanged it.

SPEAKER_10 33:06

Yeah. Well, honestly, I I think it was a very like being being a young guy without money, right? Like, if I wanted a PlayStation 4, 4, it gave I remember it giving me like something decent for it. Like I had a decent beat.

SPEAKER_05 33:23

Was your ears broken?

SPEAKER_08 33:25

No, it was it was one of the fats.

SPEAKER_05 33:27

Oh, okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 33:29

And we don't say that word.

SPEAKER_05 33:30

That is discriminating against the PlayStation's name. Plus sized PlayStation. Aww. So sad. Here it is. It's like, oh, you've got one of these, $20. Yeah, pretty much.

SPEAKER_03 33:46

But hindsight is the fact that you could put your own like OS in it. Like it turned out to be like looking on eBay's eBay now, like that thing's like a thousand dollar players. We still have ours. Oh, do you? Yeah, we have. But you updated it, you've probably updated it.

SPEAKER_05 34:01

Um not sure. If you did, you probably don't have the kept all of our PlayStations. I um I might not have the one in two.

SPEAKER_03 34:09

I think the two we gave to like it was the one with uh all the SD cards slots.

SPEAKER_05 34:14

I don't remember.

SPEAKER_03 34:16

It was like one of the first fats.

SPEAKER_05 34:18

I think ours might be a fatty patati one, too.

SPEAKER_03 34:22

Oh okay, okay.

SPEAKER_10 34:23

The chunky monkey. Let's talk about the bad stuff, guys. The bad stuff, having to return. Was there late fees at Cluche's?

SPEAKER_08 34:34

Absolutely. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_05 34:36

It's 250.

SPEAKER_03 34:37

Yeah. Yeah, oh yeah. Were you good? My parents were peeved when I'd be like, I'm not telling them I have the game still. They figured it out pretty quickly. There was like Cluchese is calling them like, hey, you haven't brought this back in a while.

SPEAKER_00 34:52

Shut what do you mean?

SPEAKER_10 34:56

Yeah, uh, good times. Yeah. Um, did you ever try to bargain? It wasn't just for games, it was for movies, too video. I was too young.

SPEAKER_02 35:06

Bargain for that, bargain for the game.

SPEAKER_10 35:08

No, no, bargain for not having to pay $30 late fees. Really? Yeah, because then you'd go to rent something else and be like, yeah, fine, you can rent this, but you have to, but you need to pay the $30 late fee. I'm like, you guys could have called. Yeah, it says here we called five times.

SPEAKER_05 35:24

It's so embarrassing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 35:25

And you're poor.

SPEAKER_05 35:26

Like you're you're you're you're a young teenager.

SPEAKER_10 35:28

I remember that literally saying, like, come on.

SPEAKER_05 35:30

And they would hold it too and be like, sorry, but you have to pay your late fee before we can give it to you. And you're like, before you can leave the metal detector section.

SPEAKER_10 35:38

It's right there. Just give it to me.

SPEAKER_00 35:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 35:42

The late fees. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:44

So is it an issue for you? No, not really. Maybe once or twice, but nothing. He was a good boy. Yeah. Well, so which you have like three or five-day rentals, seven-day rentals? It could be a seven-day for us. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 35:59

It was like you get it on the Saturday, you carry it over to you gotta bring it back by the next one. At like noon or something stupid. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. The noon. I just got started at noon.

SPEAKER_10 36:08

Like I think for movies it was it was more of the the three-day to the I remember for movies, for movies that the that, but for games, it was always there's no point of getting a game for three days. No, it's minimum seven days for a game, right?

SPEAKER_03 36:23

Yeah, I think I'm wrong, right? I'm fairly certain Al Patty's No Fear Racing was in had to stay in my place for a while. I remember like coming back from school and having it still.

SPEAKER_04 36:36

So there's no way you could play a game.

SPEAKER_03 36:37

Did you have a little fear playing it? Uh yeah, because if you shifted down too fast, you'd do a barrel roll and catch fire. What? Yeah, there was there was that's scary. That is very scary.

SPEAKER_05 36:48

A lot of fire topic. Yeah, just put it on an automatic.

SPEAKER_03 36:52

It's slower. Oh, geez.

SPEAKER_02 36:54

Yeah, even back then.

SPEAKER_03 36:56

Back then, yeah, yeah. They they knew what they were doing when they're doing the coding. So learning that these days. I mean, these days I could have put a DCT in it and it would have been fine, but you know, what's a DCT? Dual clutch transmission. Okay.

SPEAKER_05 37:10

I was gonna say that. I knew you were.

SPEAKER_08 37:13

What the phrase, what's a DCT?

SPEAKER_10 37:16

Yeah. Nice, nice.

SPEAKER_03 37:21

But yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_08 37:21

Uh there was a little fear.

SPEAKER_05 37:23

A little fear. That's fair.

SPEAKER_10 37:24

No fear racing. Okay. It was a lie. Um so if we were to go back in time, yeah. Okay, we're going back in time.

SPEAKER_03 37:35

Please take me.

SPEAKER_10 37:36

Yeah, would you do it? Of course we're we're stuck in the nostalgia. New kids were like, what? Like, no, I want my games right now. Like, it's very convenient. It's like TV, right? You don't have the TV guide and the have to be there at the same hour. Yeah. It's very convenient now with games and TV. But would we really go back if we're being honest with each other?

SPEAKER_03 37:56

I I think I would change a pace, eh? It look at how many times have you spent money on a game and did absolutely nothing with it?

SPEAKER_05 38:05

You can also, all that money you spent on it, you can buy exactly the backlog.

SPEAKER_08 38:10

They mean the backlog?

SPEAKER_03 38:12

Yeah, the backlog.

SPEAKER_10 38:13

Yeah, too many times. Like the other day, I had a friend suggest that I download or buy a it was three dollars on special. It was a game called Observation or something.

SPEAKER_05 38:22

Oh I think I know that game.

SPEAKER_10 38:24

Yeah, and I don't know if I'll ever play, but it's in the backlog.

SPEAKER_05 38:27

It's in the backlog for me, too. We won't say who told us to play it.

SPEAKER_10 38:31

No, we won't say.

SPEAKER_03 38:34

It's a great game, guys. Play it. Please play it.

SPEAKER_05 38:36

Three dollars.

SPEAKER_03 38:37

Three dollars. Just spend it.

SPEAKER_07 38:40

Maybe it's not unspecial anymore. It should be. It should be. That's it.

SPEAKER_02 38:43

Yeah, because that's how bad it is. If I could rent it, maybe. If we could rent it, yeah. If it's gonna get it. Check it out.

SPEAKER_05 38:54

But does anyone remember playing video games inside of your dent at your dentist?

SPEAKER_06 38:59

What? Okay, that's very specific. Would you want to talk to us about it?

SPEAKER_10 39:03

I do. I do. Okay, I go.

SPEAKER_05 39:05

But it's it's funny because it was on top of video with Hall. Yeah. Dentist, where it burnt down. But they had Sonic and I think Donkey Kong. But I was always like on Sonic, and then knowing you, like, they call your name like, oh, you're up next to the dentist. You're like, oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 39:20

So there were two consoles.

SPEAKER_10 39:22

Yep. Okay, there was not Sonic and Donkey Kong. Things are not adding up to the other.

SPEAKER_05 39:27

Yeah, no, no, there's two consoles for like kids to share, obviously. But like as soon as we got there, I'd like to jump onto Sonic and start playing, and then you'd be like, it's your turn. I was like, oh, I'm not even done. Like the most insulting thing is to be called to go see the dentist because you're like you're in the middle of playing a game. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 39:47

Um, I'd like to share a story. Do it. The story of one of the games I remember the most renting uh repeatedly was Harvest Moon 64.

SPEAKER_03 39:56

Interesting. Oh, one of my sister's main game was Harvest Moon S N E S. Okay. Yeah. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_10 40:04

Uh a lot of Stardew Valley is based on that version of the game. Yeah. Yeah. Um but Harvest Moon 64 was to me awesome, and that's where I learned what the Game Shark Game Shark is. Right? And and because that's because at the time you had uh cheatcc.com to get all your cheats and stuff, but some you know some games did that that didn't work. But the Game Shark did way more than that. It was a complete hack. And I and I remember that's the first time that I realized, yeah, Game Shark's fun, and and cheating in games is really fun. But it got me to stop playing the game.

SPEAKER_06 40:44

Oh, yeah, that's yeah.

SPEAKER_10 40:46

I remember renting it for that that last time I rented it is the same time I rented with it the Game Shark, and I got like infinite money, but it made everything irrelevant. Yeah, I didn't need to do anything. There was no point of playing the game, like, oh, oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:06

It's not like having an infinite ammo cheat. It was like you get everything, get everything. There the grind is no you know, like that that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_10 41:14

If the game is about the grind and you take away the grind, there's no game. There's no point, yeah. Right? It's like uh we were talking the other day about uh the other day, like yesterday, about no man's sky. Okay, right? And no man's in in No Man's Sky, I was telling it's too much of a grind right now. I'm not in the mood for a grind. Yeah. But I could play creative, but there's no point. Like the I want to earn my way of knowing where you know, so one day I'll want to live the grind, but you don't want to get it all given to you. There's no point then of playing into a sound. I agree. Kind of well, it's true. Say says the girl who plays only creative on Minecraft.

SPEAKER_05 41:51

But it's because I love to just build and I spend I love building like underground, underwater, under everything. Like I just could build, I rebuild all the time.

SPEAKER_03 42:02

No Man's Sky would be really good. You'd probably thoroughly enjoy that.

SPEAKER_05 42:04

Um creative, maybe. Yeah, I'm creative. I just like want to like chill and not have to like worry about other people, monsters. I just want to like build. I like get lost in it and like it just I don't think she'd like No Man's Sky.

SPEAKER_07 42:18

No Man's Sky is an adult version of a game. Yeah. But whatever.

SPEAKER_00 42:23

The monsters are an adult Minecraft, right?

SPEAKER_10 42:26

Isn't it? Uh no. Except unless I'm about building uh specifically, but it's about exploration, sandbox.

SPEAKER_05 42:32

My husband's played it. I've watched him play it. I don't think it's something like you're right. I don't think it's something I don't know if I would get into it.

SPEAKER_03 42:38

You can build like completely fully automated cities and stuff like that where you don't have to touch anything and have it do the thing, you know, like thrive. Yeah, thrive. That's the word. Yeah, yeah. But it's less boxy? Less boxy, yes. It's less dicey looking. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 43:04

But I love Minecraft.

SPEAKER_03 43:06

I can't do it. No, I spent hours on Minecraft.

SPEAKER_05 43:08

Yeah, me too. It's easy. Oh, it's too easy.

SPEAKER_10 43:11

It's very easy, and and then but I I think Minecraft is fun. Uh for me, it was a little funner when I did just the survival because then when I built something, it's because I earned it. Yeah. Like there was a there was a um a reason to do those tunnels and just mine and just get the resources to build the castle versus just building the castle, right?

SPEAKER_03 43:33

That was like SimCity for me when I was you know, unlocking the train station or unlocking bigger police departments and stuff like that. Yeah, it's so satisfying.

SPEAKER_08 43:43

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But back to the video store experience. Yeah. Back to the video store experience.

SPEAKER_02 43:49

Harvest Moon was a big one for you. Huge.

SPEAKER_10 43:52

Yeah. Yeah. Huge. It's the only one I remember uh renting repeatedly. And for some reason, I remember Battle Tanks as well. And I bought it recently. A lot of the games I bought are based on what I rented when I was a kid that I didn't bought lately, I mean, are games that I rented as a kid and that I'm just buying because I never got to buy them as a kid. I just rented them and now I want to.

SPEAKER_05 44:12

So is it something like you'd bring back and like re-rent right away? Or like you had to put it back on the shelf and come back another day to re-rent it?

SPEAKER_10 44:20

Well, some of them, some of them you just rented because the games you did want were there.

SPEAKER_05 44:25

And I remember Harvest Moon.

SPEAKER_10 44:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 44:28

That one, would you just re-rent over and over again and not put it back on the shelf?

SPEAKER_10 44:33

Uh no. No, I don't always have to put it back. Yeah, yeah. But Conqueror's Bad Fur Day, my mom didn't want to my mom didn't want to let me rent it. I she had to rent it, right? She said no, I never got to play it to this day. Yeah. Oh, well. Great, great game. Maybe it's great game.

SPEAKER_02 44:50

Like, yeah. Or an oblivious game. He probably said no a bunch of times, but there was a poop monster boss. Yes. Yeah. That's a good one. I there's a lot of bad words. I missed so much as a kid.

SPEAKER_01 45:06

I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_02 45:07

There's a great multiplayer.

SPEAKER_03 45:08

You've played it by now, right?

SPEAKER_01 45:10

He said, just said no. No, I've never played it.

SPEAKER_03 45:12

Okay. I didn't realize like you never played it back then, but you still haven't played it. I still haven't played it. Okay.

SPEAKER_10 45:18

I tried to play it the other day, but the introduction was so long, and I and I was limited, and I was so I'm like, okay, no, so I'll say I'll play one, but I still haven't played it.

SPEAKER_11 45:27

YouTube, just YouTube. No, I want to play it. No, play it, play it, play it. I want to play with other people. It's you can multiplayer, right? Like rare. No.

SPEAKER_02 45:36

Is it multiplayer? I don't remember. Yes, there's a multiplayer component to the game. You just have to lock it. There's a bunch of it. Yeah, I forget about that. But there's a bunch of different games. There's one where it's literally one player plays the sniper, the other is storming the beach. It's kind of like a real. Let's play tonight. It's uh my brother and I, we played this a ton. Oh, yeah. Uh yeah, he he would like to rent that and then uh he could rent it from you. I remember he probably bought that himself.

SPEAKER_05 46:10

Shane's video store.

SPEAKER_03 46:11

I remember this uh Real Monsters cartoon. Yeah, yeah. It was a good cartoon. Nickelodeon, eh?

SPEAKER_10 46:17

That name's awesome.

SPEAKER_08 46:18

It is awesome. Did you ever play? I did.

SPEAKER_10 46:20

Because you you go through three different characters, right? And you depending on where you're going and what you have to do or face, you just you know which character to use. Yep. Right. So that's pretty yeah, that's pretty funny.

SPEAKER_03 46:32

I love the guy that was just like this with the eyeballs. Yeah, yeah. That's the guy with slingshots super far. Yeah, he's my favorite.

SPEAKER_10 46:39

There's the there's the big, big uh stubby one with the he takes off his eyeball. Yeah. Alright. And he's the one for you to kind of see what's if you want to you don't want to go sort of jump in the dark. So you you take this guy's eyeball, that's his trick, and then this the small rabbit guy takes the long one at like a golf club and smacks the eyeball, and the eyeball goes further where you can just for you to be able to see what's going on. Okay, I know what I'm going into. Yeah, it's funny. Again, one of the ones that uh that I rented and I liked and that was my sister's rent.

SPEAKER_03 47:13

That was my sister's choice.

SPEAKER_02 47:14

It's funny, like, yeah, siblings and different tastes, and that was like always potentially uh uh uh uh you know there could be a dispute there for us was having to share the console, right?

SPEAKER_03 47:26

Yeah, yeah. Oh god, yeah. Whenever you die, you pass so we'd be sitting there going, die, die, die, die, die. No support whatsoever. You're gonna die. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 47:38

So us it was Spyro and me and my sister, but I'd make her do all like the boss battles and like the voices. Cool. Yeah, she was she's really good at it. Like, she loves Spyro so much. Spyro, yeah. Yeah, but that was our uh never rented it though, because it was burnt.

SPEAKER_02 47:52

Okay, okay, yeah. P.S. Yeah, that's true. There were I used to go over to a buddy's place and a bunch of games, burnt burnt discs.

SPEAKER_03 48:03

Wait a second. That's where I know you for some windows you weren't able to burn any of them.

SPEAKER_05 48:09

Oh no, like my neighbor was like a whiz and IT and because they were like copyright protected. But eventually there was a guard that came in place. Yeah, yeah, because he showed up at my house and he had like a box full just like lasers. Oh my I was like, okay. So I also sleep beans. I um jumped onto Duke Nukem too, which was should not have been playing at that.

SPEAKER_03 48:32

Absolutely you should have. Oh man. On 64?

SPEAKER_05 48:35

No, on PlayStation. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah. I should not have been playing that game at my age, but I did.

SPEAKER_10 48:40

Duke Nukem 64 was the game, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:43

Too much of a 64 factor. Land of the Babes, too. That was a good old PC. PC. Leisure suit Larry.

SPEAKER_10 48:52

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 48:53

Did any of your like your uh rental places have PC games to rent?

SPEAKER_02 48:58

That wasn't was that a thing?

SPEAKER_05 49:00

I don't know. I don't think we didn't have that. No. I'm just wondering. Curious.

SPEAKER_10 49:04

Yeah, I guess. Maybe there was a little section like a corner that we didn't know about. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 49:09

With spider webs and crazy with nerds, no crap. We are nerds.

SPEAKER_10 49:14

We don't say the n-word over here. Yeah. Sorry. It's rude. Yeah. Dropped an N-bomb right there. The nice people. Jesus. That's our audience.

SPEAKER_05 49:21

More computers than me.

SPEAKER_02 49:23

Yeah. Is it is it a bad word though?

SPEAKER_01 49:27

No, it's not.

SPEAKER_02 49:28

It's a tasty treat.

SPEAKER_05 49:30

I don't remind people.

SPEAKER_02 49:31

It is a tasty treat. I honestly don't mind if someone calls it to me. Just the toes.

SPEAKER_10 49:42

Nice. Yeah. Shiny baby. Crunchy. Crazy guy. I like that you're wearing a it reminds me of the uh the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 49:54

I still have the tag. Do I?

SPEAKER_00 49:57

No, no, it's not out. Is my tag out? No, no.

SPEAKER_05 49:59

It's not out. Yeah, we put it in.

SPEAKER_02 50:01

Okay. He's gonna return it. Yeah. I thought that was a sneak. It's just a radical hat. I thought it was pretty 90. 90s.

SPEAKER_05 50:10

It's cute. I like it. Cool.

SPEAKER_02 50:11

Yeah. Everything was like there was a big like surfer. I feel like California sharks were really cool in the 90s. Like all this. The neon. The neon. Yeah. Video game stores. The lights. Dixie cup.

SPEAKER_05 50:26

Oh, the carpets? The carpets? The carpets are always like a couple of things.

SPEAKER_03 50:29

Dixie cups with the jazz. What was it called? Something jazz.

SPEAKER_05 50:32

Huh?

SPEAKER_03 50:34

The design on the jazz cups? Dixie cups. Yay! It was something jazz.

SPEAKER_05 50:39

Like the milkshake cups.

SPEAKER_03 50:40

I just remembered it.

SPEAKER_11 50:42

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_05 50:42

That's what we're talking about. That's for another podcast.

SPEAKER_07 50:44

And movies for sure. Another show.

SPEAKER_05 50:46

And another show. Yeah. We still have another movie.

SPEAKER_03 50:50

Oh, that was a good time. No, man. I don't remember.

SPEAKER_10 50:56

Oh man. I'm pretty proud of myself. I've never watched it, but I don't think I would want to. No. That was the beginning of. Oh, okay. Shit like this is on the internet. Internet's dangerous guy.

SPEAKER_05 51:07

Only friends before only friends. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:09

Yeah. No, I remember rotten.com.

SPEAKER_05 51:12

Oh, I don't know what that is. I was not allowed on the internet.

SPEAKER_03 51:17

I was a little goth kid. That's a good thing. I wanted to see more pictures. You were a goth? You were a goth? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 51:22

Did you wear makeup?

SPEAKER_03 51:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 51:24

Love it. Please tell me your pictures. I do. Love it. Can you send me something?

SPEAKER_03 51:28

I can just show you them.

SPEAKER_05 51:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 51:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_10 51:31

Can we post them? Guys. This video right here. This is so exciting. No, I have to put an image that says no. Right here. You just made me put an image that says no.

SPEAKER_04 51:42

Way too good. Diablo.

SPEAKER_02 51:44

Diablo has a decent goth aesthetic.

SPEAKER_04 51:46

Oh, makes sense now.

SPEAKER_03 51:48

That's part of it, probably. But also like Kane, the legacy of Kane, like I played that. I remember renting that actually. That was a good one. I beat that one.

SPEAKER_05 51:57

I just had a flashback. Do you do you remember there being a um a rental store beside the Quickie in Elmer?

SPEAKER_02 52:05

Oh, the Quickie. Yeah. What was it called?

SPEAKER_05 52:08

I don't remember what it's called, but I used to go there to rent games with one of my friends who lived like down the street. Her mom would give us her mom would give us money and she'd be like, hey, go, so we'd go and walk over and rent like a game and a movie for the night.

SPEAKER_10 52:20

What was it called? I remember the one in the Elmer Mall. Elmer Mall. Um Videos Parchway.

SPEAKER_11 52:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_10 52:29

Yeah, that was a different spot. I remember looking for uh Jackie Chat movies there.

SPEAKER_02 52:33

Okay. Yeah, the the quickie's the spot where I had my late fee. Probably the biggest late. Like $20.

SPEAKER_10 52:42

So you still owe the money? Now it's public. The internal interest on the share.

SPEAKER_05 52:48

It must have been wild. Offer them your hat and your when that one like closed, I was kind of sad because that was like uh a childhood one for sure.

SPEAKER_10 52:59

Because you had like a points card or something?

SPEAKER_05 53:02

Uh I don't remember. It was my friend, so I don't know if she had a point card, but yeah, go. You're excited.

SPEAKER_10 53:07

At Videotron, there was a gumball machine, okay, and every kid would want their parent to put 25 cents, and if you got the blocks, you get a free a free rental. I remember that.

SPEAKER_03 53:18

Yeah, that we do have that. Yeah. Yeah. No, even in blue.

SPEAKER_05 53:22

Nice.

SPEAKER_03 53:22

I'm pretty sure. Plutz, man. Pretty sure.

SPEAKER_05 53:25

Did you ever get it?

SPEAKER_03 53:26

Absolutely not. It was stuck in the very top.

SPEAKER_04 53:31

You know, it's like they put them at the top.

SPEAKER_10 53:34

Not only did you not get the the the winning ball, but you always get the shittiest one. It's always the yellow. Yeah, no one's no one likes yellow.

SPEAKER_01 53:43

No, really the red, if anything.

SPEAKER_09 53:45

Red or blue. Green, even please. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Not yellow. No.

SPEAKER_05 53:50

You're so excited too. Like, I'm gonna care that there's time. You're like, oh.

SPEAKER_10 53:54

Was there that at Blockbuster? No. No, I don't know. Man, Blockbuster sucked.

SPEAKER_05 53:57

Yeah, it did. Video Tall was like the place to go. Blockbuster is just like so everywhere and just very commercial. Very, very commercial, very I think it was more movie friendly than it was uh video game friendly. Like I find Videoton had a lot more ton. Yeah, I think that's a good idea. I think they had a lot more like they had a really big game section.

SPEAKER_03 54:17

I don't speak French at all. They had a very big game.

SPEAKER_05 54:20

You don't parlez.

SPEAKER_08 54:21

I don't parlez.

SPEAKER_05 54:23

That's okay. The tron in there, eh? The tron. Yeah. But they had a biggest um video set. What the size counts. They had a very big hard drive.

SPEAKER_10 54:40

Can you stop intimidating my camera?

SPEAKER_02 54:41

Yeah. But but sometimes, like in my experience, I would go to the video store and there was a whole section I couldn't use. So even though it was a big section. There was a whole section being a Nintendo guy, I couldn't use the Sega section. Yeah. Was there even a Sega section? I would try to get over there and have a look.

unknown 55:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 55:03

The Sega section. Yeah. Behind the curtain.

SPEAKER_02 55:06

Because you were curious about what it was like in that section. What are the common games? What are the unique games to the Sega section? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:14

And uh apparently Aladdin for Sega and the SNES were completely different. Really? Interesting. Yeah. One was done by Disney and one was done by a different company.

SPEAKER_04 55:25

Weird. No way.

SPEAKER_03 55:26

And the fact that they were allowed to do that is a good thing.

SPEAKER_10 55:28

I wonder if Lion King was the same thing because I know Lion King was huge on both.

SPEAKER_03 55:32

Lion King was designed to keep you was designed to be a rental. Yeah. You taught me that when I got my haircut one day. Yeah. It was designed to be a rental. The difficulty curve ramped way high once you got to the zebras where you're jumping from the giraffes. Sorry, the giraffes where you're jumping over. That was when the the skill ceiling just the first level is the easiest, and you're told that this is the hardest game in the world.

SPEAKER_10 56:00

Yes. Then you do the first level and you're like, I'm a pro. Yeah. Don't worry, everybody. I got this. The second level, you're like, oh.

SPEAKER_01 56:08

Found it. Second level.

SPEAKER_10 56:10

So we did an episode uh where we uh we uh had spun the wheel and that wheel over here. Yeah. And we got Lion King, and so we we played it, right? And uh I finished the game, but the only way I finished the game is because I I I followed this uh picture. No, no, I didn't. I I I followed uh a YouTube guide that says what to do. That's the same, same but different.

SPEAKER_05 56:32

It's not it's not the shark, it's the YouTube.

SPEAKER_10 56:36

I know, I know, but to me it got me to I at some point you try, you try, you try, try. Okay, well, well fuck. Even with our emulators and the save states, couldn't get shit done. That's amazing. It was a well fucked moment. Because yeah, yeah. Because it's not, it's not, it wasn't a classic side to side. Sometimes you have to go there and there and there. Like it's so but where do you go? What do you do? How do you where do you Did you shed a few tears? Where do you hear a few tears? I did not, but I followed this guy, um uh Ryu. Like I don't know, anyways, but but he's very known and and popular and uh for for playing tough games, and he explains it all. Okay, here do this. Or you know, when you go to grab onto this log, well, the hit box is a little in front of it. So if you try to hit the hitbox where you think it is, you'll always fall. But if you do it right before, you'll get it. So I'm like, that's what I've been like. Yeah, so the game was made to screw you over.

SPEAKER_05 57:37

It's cool to have a YouTuber that's actually playing old games like that.

SPEAKER_10 57:40

But it got me to enjoy the game and play the game. Yeah, it's can can be considered cheating, it'll be for a debate episode at some point when you watch these videos. But it got me to do that, yeah. And also the NES version of Ninja Turtles. I also followed a guide. I'm sure.

SPEAKER_08 57:56

That was a hard one.

SPEAKER_10 57:57

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 57:58

Especially the water level one, like any water level just sucks.

SPEAKER_05 58:02

Yeah, they're turtles, they're supposed to be in the turtle. Right.

SPEAKER_10 58:06

Yeah. Um what what was it in uh Donkey Kong Country? The water levels I loved. Yeah, they had good music. Yeah, the music.

SPEAKER_02 58:14

They had really good music. It was like that's a big part of the video games back then. Like the music.

SPEAKER_10 58:20

And you could just and you could just like press a button and it and and hold the and it just we glide through, but you can't go. But anyways, there was something special about that water level.

SPEAKER_08 58:30

But yeah, that was the only good water level. Because uh I'm pretty sure it's a Donkey Kong Country's water level water level. Hydration in hydration. I'm hydrated. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:42

Oh my god, you're so fired. I know. There we go.

SPEAKER_02 58:47

Yeah, that for me, like video game rentals uh Final Fantasy III in America? No, that's the thing. Awful game to rent. A A always with sable for it. I legit remember having a temper tantrum because my mom wouldn't rent this game for me in the store at like maybe five, five or six years old. And uh I really wanted Final Fantasy. Speaking of good news. Try doing Cecilia. Did you ever get it? Well, not that memory.

SPEAKER_00 59:18

You never played it as well.

SPEAKER_02 59:19

As an adult, as an adult, I got it. Okay, okay. Love it with uh Cecil and company.

SPEAKER_05 59:24

Where you're like, mom, I finally got it, okay? Boom.

SPEAKER_02 59:27

Probably.

SPEAKER_05 59:28

You can't stop me now, maybe in my dreams or something.

SPEAKER_10 59:32

I I never got to put it in her face that I played this because she went away and died. Mothers who selfish mothers who passed away.

SPEAKER_05 59:41

Selfish.

SPEAKER_10 59:42

Jesus. Am I right? Dead Mom Club. Awkward, guys. Because you're making it awkward.

SPEAKER_05 59:51

Exactly. We're allowed to make those jokes now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 59:56

Thank you for being co-host today, Shane. Oh, this is great. Hey guys, there's uh I'm glad we separated these uh these episodes, and I can't wait. Uh after this, we'll have conversations on what could be the fun, fun ones to do in the future. But when it comes to the good old days, it's a nostalgic thing. It's happy, it's it's sad. It's sad in in some ways, but it's gone. Right. But it's sad because it was happy, which I think we're very fortunate to have lived this era. Um, nobody else. No, uh nobody else will and we all lived it in different ways, which is is what I think was awesome. If we all had the same story, well, okay. I mean we kind of did though. We all kind of had the same story. Kind of, but I thought it was pretty cool that you had a small town one, you had a different one. You like I thought that was what was awesome, but in the end, we all kind of lived the same thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:48

Yeah, and I think that's what kind of binds the whole 90s nostalgia is we all had a similar experience.

SPEAKER_10 1:00:54

There was a lot of over. Everything was shared, yeah. So until we started having money and buying fucking adult money, adult money for kids.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:05

Yeah, so eating bologna muck and muck chicken and crab dinner, but I got Zelda games for games, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:12

$110 later.

SPEAKER_09 1:01:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 1:01:14

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:15

Hey Shane, would you like to press this button when we cheers for the outro? Let's do it.

SPEAKER_10 1:01:20

I don't want it to feel that. So as soon as we tap, the big D. The big D you press stop you press on the big D.

SPEAKER_08 1:01:26

Okay. All right? Yeah, yeah, that's the right one. All right.

SPEAKER_10 1:01:30

Let's go. All right, cheers, everybody. Thanks for coming.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:38

Hydration, eh? Hydration!

SPEAKER_04 1:01:40

Hydration!

SPEAKER_05 1:01:42

We did it.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:42

I cannot believe there's too much to say.

SPEAKER_10 1:01:45

I forgot it at the beginning of the episode.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:46

I was like gonna tell you, and I was like panicking, and I was like, and then that went off, and it was just a it was a a whole thing.

SPEAKER_10 1:01:53

Oh, it's crazy. You have to say something. I know I'm so trained as co-host.

SPEAKER_05 1:01:57

You were so into it, I feel bad.

SPEAKER_10 1:02:00

It was it I segue too quickly into the fact that Shane was the beer guy. You did, yeah. It was chain. And by the way, Chain Rubber, I was just so grateful that you were the beer guy.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:10

I didn't even take my tag out of it. I'm so grateful for you. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks. That was just fun. It was fun. This was a good episode.

SPEAKER_09 1:02:18

Yeah.