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Post by Xeogred on Dec 3, 2020 16:53:57 GMT -5
Inspired by a brief discussion in the December Club Retro thread right now.
I think I'm one of the younger users here, but still from the 80's and lived the 90's. Blockbuster, Toy's R Us, Movie Gallery, FuncoLand, mom' pop shops... before the era of the internet, if it weren't for word or mouth and or digging through magazines, the only thing you had go off with a game was often just the box!
Were there any games you pulled off the shelf and gave a shot, which turned out to be a surprise smash hit for you?
Or rather, what were the biggest regrets?
Honestly, this was still somewhat of a thing for me even in the early 2000's when I was already well versed with the internet and all. But that was the wild west days and you still couldn't dig up info on some obscure stuff sometimes. Now I'm not saying Deus Ex is obscure at all, but I'm pretty sure I bought that game based off of one section in a single page from a magazine with a screenshot or two, then saw the game (PS2 version) on a shelf somewhere. Granted I wasn't too up on PC gaming at the time and maybe the game got all the coverage there. But it felt like fate that I crossed paths with it on the PS2 initially.
I live in the midwest, so there's several Vintage Stock's around (hope they survive the pandemic). That's where I still did some "blind buy's" near the end of its era and when I was a teen with some money to spend every once and while. Project EDEN was another one from that era where I just looked at the box and was like, hey I love sci-fi, I'm getting this. And it was awesome.
I don't think this totally counts since I was a little older, actually working with way more money to spend (still living at home), and a simple man, but I randomly bought this one day out with a bunch of friends and immediately regretted it when I got home to play it.  |
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Post by Chainsaw Bilqis on Dec 3, 2020 21:36:56 GMT -5
As I mentioned in that thread, I never actually had many true "blind buys" during the era when it was probably most common (and rewarding), because even without internet I kept my face in gaming magazines constantly throughout that era. Plus with rental stores, I often could try out games before I bought them (and there was also a game store nearby me that let you test out games, even Atari Jaguar games haha, before you bought anything).
So, for me blind buy purchases did not really happen until the PS2 era and onward (which is when the concept of blind buys probably became less common for people haha, thanks to the internet). I had become disillusioned with the magazine and internet gaming press and just stopped paying attention to that stuff altogether. There was a game store near where I was located at the time and when I was bored I would just walk over there to see if there was anything interesting looking just based on the boxes. I ended up buying way too many PS2 titles I never put much time in haha, but not because they were bad, I am still going through them very slowly. Hmm, I would say the best so far was Shadow of Rome, which I had bought years ago and only played seriously last year. So it was a "hidden gem" for me over many years haha, but its thanks to the blind buy back then that I eventually got to it. I will look through the rest of my PS2, DS era games and pick a few other nice blind buy titles.
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Post by Ex on Dec 3, 2020 22:00:15 GMT -5
Were there any games you pulled off the shelf and gave a shot, which turned out to be a surprise smash hit for you? My days of blind buys were from the late '80s to the mid '00s. Something like 1988-2005. Usually these were games I found in bargain bins, discount shelves, sub-$20 stuff worth taking a risk on. Granted as a teenager in the '90s, $20 was still a fair chunk of change. ($20 in 1995 inflated is about $35 in 2020!) Top 5 blind buys that rocked my world: Worst 5 blind buys that wasted my money and time: |
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Post by Sarge on Dec 3, 2020 22:50:50 GMT -5
So I didn't have a whole lot of blind buys back in the day. When you have a bunch of Nintendo magazines and books, you tend to stay away from the absolute garbage. That being said, I certainly bought some games that ended up being disappointing...  GamePro, you lied to me. This game wasn't great. At all. (It's not utter trash - my brother finished it - but it definitely didn't deserve that ridiculously high rating.  A true blind buy, back when I first got my XBOX and it was on sale in Toys 'R' Us. Ugh. Terrible purchase.  Found this one at a yard sale. Didn't know much about it, but I didn't have many games and was desperate. Once again, not the worst thing I've played, but not great either.  I thought the game looked cool. It wasn't. The end. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2020 18:09:30 GMT -5
I largely had decent luck with purchases, but they were rarely blind buys. I did a lot of renting and played games at friends' houses. But I do remember buying two very different games at a garage sale back in 96 or so. For background purposes, I fell in love with Super Nintendo RPGs back in the mid-90s. I had played the original Zelda years prior, but only played LttP in 96. Afterward I went to Secret of Mana and then Final Fantasy II. So imagine the joy I felt when I came across Final Fantasy Mystic Quest for $5! Cha-ching, right!? They also had Kirby's Dream Course, and while I wasn't a Kirby fan, it was also $5 so I snatched it as well.
Wouldn't you know it, though I beat FFMQ, I hated all of it. I hated the lack of random battles (funny how perspectives change!), the 2 party instead of glorious 5 party team (going back to 4 member parties in later FF games was a mistake), the lack of interesting items to get, even the graphics. The whole thing felt so childish. But Kirby's Dream Course was super fun! I'm still not a Kirby fan, but I do like some mini-golf Kirby. To this day, it remains my only Kirby console game.
On the other hand, a fantastic blind buy was Demon's Crest. Up to that point Mega Man X was one of my favorite SNES action games (and remains so), so Demon's Crest was a thrill. After Tolkien and Final Fantasy II, I dove huge into the fantasy setting in the late 90s, and Demon's Crest satisfied that itched. I still have never beat it to completion, which I ought to rectify someday soon, but it remains in my top ten for the SNES nonetheless.
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Post by Sarge on Dec 5, 2020 18:25:39 GMT -5
Demon's Crest is definitely fantastic. It doesn't go into my blind buys because Nintendo Power made absolutely sure I was aware of it. 
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2020 22:06:26 GMT -5
Demon's Crest is definitely fantastic. It doesn't go into my blind buys because Nintendo Power made absolutely sure I was aware of it.
That's fair. I must have seen it in an NP before I got it, but at the time I hadn't remembered. It also came to me second-hand, so it wasn't purely a "blind buy" that way, but I didn't know/didn't realize what I was getting into when I got it, but boy oh boy was I pleasantly surprised. Unlike Mystic Quest...
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Post by Sarge on Dec 5, 2020 22:27:03 GMT -5
I actually didn't mind Mystic Quest at all when I played through it a year or so ago. But I can absolutely see being disappointed (and I was, too!) by it compared to its bigger siblings. I mean, my first SNES game was Final Fantasy III, so big ol' shoes to fill there. Once I took it on its own merits (basically a souped up Game Boy game), I had a good time with it.
Demon's Crest still floors me. I mean, the graphics work alone looks nearly 32-bit.
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Post by Ex on Dec 5, 2020 22:45:15 GMT -5
I largely had decent luck with purchases, but they were rarely blind buys. I should mention, that only like 5% of my video game purchases were blind buys. It was not a habit for me. But there were still times when I would be oblivious to a big name game. Such as not even knowing Dark Forces existed before I bought it. Granted I bought the game in its release year. Finally, after all these years, I've found another Dream Course fan! I love the game too. Especially in two player mode. I think I bought my copy from a video rental store that was doing a liquidation, back in the late '90s. Yes, Demon's Crest is outstanding. It was a blind buy for me, in that I didn't know there was a third sequel in the series. I was familiar with the franchise though. Took a chance that the third sequel would be good. It wasn't good, it was godly. Definitely worth finishing, you should do it man. Just know a good 1/5th of the game content is hidden, you have to do a thing to fight the true final boss and see all the extra content. |
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Post by Deleted on Dec 5, 2020 23:04:02 GMT -5
I largely had decent luck with purchases, but they were rarely blind buys. I should mention, that only like 5% of my video game purchases were blind buys. It was not a habit for me. But there were still times when I would be oblivious to a big name game. Such as not even knowing Dark Forces existed before I bought it. Granted I bought the game in its release year. Finally, after all these years, I've found another Dream Course fan! I love the game too. Especially in two player mode. I think I bought my copy from a video rental store that was doing a liquidation, back in the late '90s. Yes, Demon's Crest is outstanding. It was a blind buy for me, in that I didn't know there was a third sequel in the series. I was familiar with the franchise though. Took a chance that the third sequel would be good. It wasn't good, it was godly. Definitely worth finishing, you should do it man. Just know a good 1/5th of the game content is hidden, you have to do a thing to fight the true final boss and see all the extra content.
I never played KDC two player mode before. I now have something to look forward to once COVID ends. And although I had played and loved (and hated) Ghouls N Ghosts on the Genesis, I hadn't played any of the Gargoyle's Quest games as a kid.
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