How well do you remember those trips to the toy store?

[Roback]

My favorite store to visit was a local Childworld that was literally three blocks away. It was between Childword and Radio Shack which was also close by. As a matter of fact, that same Radio Shack just recently closed down as part of their restructuring plan. I can remember going to the store to pick out a present for Christmas, snagged a Coleco Quarterback. I hardly ever went to the toystore alone, always with my parents but I guess that was normal as I was around 10-12 years of age. Boy do I wish I had pics of those shelves. Nothing but rows and rows of games.

[mario101]

I remember my fav. store(that I've been to) was the Dollar Tree. I still love going there, they have those cheap L.C.D. games and I hope they are worth some money in 30 years. I still get gifts there as well as energy drinks and mouse traps.
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Emulators are for the non collectors

[blue6demon]

The paradise for me was a Radio Shack, i remember that my parents were bringing me there when i was getting anoying. I know most of the kids were going crazy in there with all the games, but for me it was a soothing place, like a sanctuary. Now they changed their name to The Source, it's almost the same and i still love going there, my girlfriend tells me i'm an overgrown kid each time i get in that store !
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Keep on playing... no matter what !

[Rik]

Wow, Radio Shack... Now there's some memories... I think I spent my childhood there, almost literally. The neighborhood I lived in had a RS on the perimeter, I could get there, by myself, riding my bike. After school, me and a friend of mine would go there and literally stay until they closed. All the employees got to know us (and didn't seem to mind us hanging out all day). It actually reached a point that we would help customers if they were looking at things we knew about (games, computers (the original TRS-80!), electronic components and tubes... remember tubes in TVs/Radios? ). When my friend turned 16, he actually got a job there, and the last time I talked him to was managing his own store... I went to college...

This was back when stores closed on Sundays, and they would do their inventory on Sunday. The manager would let us come in help with the inventory and then play games...

When they got the TRS-80s we introduced ourselves to computer bulletin boards (ahh, the early days of phone phreaking... but that's another story), and since none of us had a computer at home, we'd tie up the RS phone all day calling BBS's... I remember trying to call RS to see if my friend was there. If the number was busy, that usually meant he was.

I was a real nerd in those days... (I guess I still am, but I can hide it better now...)

As for other toy stores: When I was about 13 or so the city started a mini-bus route all around town that would come into the neighborhoods to pick people up and go as far as the Mall... that was the first time me and my friends could get to the mall without the parents. We'd go there and play the game systems at Sears, Target, Montgomery Ward and the mall toy store (Toys By Roy I think it was called...) Those were fun days....

[Lord Thag]

We never had a really good toy store until the late eighties. My brother and I used to like going to Wards or Sears though. They usually had an Atari 2600 kiosk that 'babysat' us while the folks did shopping. We'd spend hours mesmerized by the flickering glow of very pixilated gaming. Good times.

In fact, the only place that carried the tabletops was Radio Shack, which my folks hated. I never found out until after the fact, or I would have been in there begging. My parents were kinda poor in the eighties, but my brother and I did eventually score a coup in '83. My Mom lucked out on a fire sale and netted an Atari 2600 and like TWENTY games for Christmas (the best one ever). We became the envy of the entire block after that.

That was one hell of a Christmas to a kid not used to getting expensive stuff. I remember my brother and I looking over and just staring at the thing in awe. When we saw the stack of games, we just about wet ourselves. Seriously, it would be like getting a 360 and twenty games nowadays. What an awesome day.
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Playin' the world, one game at a time...

[FinEngineer]

A retro handheld game shop in Japan!


Source: http://kotaku.com/gaming/retro-gaming/retro-handheld-jackpot-129125.php

[chriswyatt]

I vaguely remember going to Toys 'R' Us and my parents getting me the Donkey Kong Game & Watch. I actually wanted Mario Bros G&W but my parents insisted that I'd be better off getting Donkey Kong. Shame because Mario Bros. is rarer, but not by much.