In the early 90’s I used to love hitting the thrift stores. Mostly because I love retro video games and people would find these things in their basement and say “Why am I holding on to these?”
Often I would walk into a thrift store and find a hand full of Atari 2600 cartridges at 99¢ each… Good times… Good times…
That was then, this is now … as the saying goes.
Lately I am lucky to find a single game ( before the year 2000), and when I do it’s something like Super Mario Bros for Nintendo… Oh joy!
So what happened? , did people stop giving their stuff away?… did the thrift stores get wise to the value of video games?… are the aliens from space invaders zapping the brains of thrift store employees? … we will never know.
But something has happened and gamers like me need to face the fact, retro games have a market and are making money. Okay, maybe not that much money, but its enough to stop me from getting my 99¢ games. I recall lately at a flea market buying Atari games for around 15 bucks! …like what? Not to mention, YouTube is swimming with game reviewers (Nintendo, Sega, Atari). But is that a bad thing? , maybe not… I am happy to see the modern age breath life into these classics. Sure it makes it harder for me to build my collection, but what the heck? Nothing satisfies me more than playing Atari Pac-man and Donkey Kong with my 6 year old daughter! perhaps there is hope yet.
Brian Pudden