Retro news too small for its own thread

[Tobal]

Gamepass added 'Retro Classics' to the library, and after giving a it ago for it bit it is a rejigged xbox branded antstream app, mostly full of terrible 2600 games, DOS classics like Zork and for some reason the Psone version of Mechwarrior2. There is a very noticeable lag to everything (could be streaming?), avoid.

[Hirst]

For reasons I can’t explain well, I decided to write a lengthy (and very weird) article about how I used to trade Mega Drive games down the market and dumped it on here: https://bleedingcart.neocities.org/swapshop

I haven’t done any writing for absolutely years so apologies for any incoherence. This all stemmed from me being fed up of the Internet being full of boilerplate stories of middle-class Americans getting a NES for Christmas, so now we’ve got a version out there more along the lines of Kes/Our Day Out/Threads (1984). If you get a few mins, have a read. Didn’t want to do a topic about it but thought it was worth sticking it on here for the nostalgia.

[wakka]

I enjoyed that! It was well written! You should stop describing things as pathetic and doing yourself down though, it's more fun to read when you don't

We never really had a market stall scene near me, so I was entirely loyal to Electronics Boutique's generous trade policies. The branch near me felt genuinely cool at the time though...they'd have import machines in to demo, and the staff were all really enthusiastic gamers and v friendly.

Did you find when you were a kid you were sometimes a bit too keen to trade stuff away, though? I sometimes feel that I was too much about being 'on to the next thing' when there were def games I should have stuck with for longer...

[egparadigm]

My God, Geocities is still a thing? I remember setting up my first website there in maybe 1998.

I will check out the article, thanks for the link!

[Hirst]

I enjoyed that! It was well written! You should stop describing things as pathetic and doing yourself down though, it's more fun to read when you don't

We never really had a market stall scene near me, so I was entirely loyal to Electronics Boutique's generous trade policies. The branch near me felt genuinely cool at the time though...they'd have import machines in to demo, and the staff were all really enthusiastic gamers and v friendly.

Did you find when you were a kid you were sometimes a bit too keen to trade stuff away, though? I sometimes feel that I was too much about being 'on to the next thing' when there were def games I should have stuck with for longer...

I’ve always been self-deprecating, but noted! It did feel a bit self-indulgent as an article so probably that, but if people read it maybe not so much.

Yeah out of those hundreds of trades we did there’s definitely some of them that were repeats - either as I’d traded it away too hastily or because when you had a game that was worth decent money you’d be trading like mad whilst it was still worth something! Some games I traded away at £30 I’d be waiting for them to hit £15 so I could pick them up again on the way down.

Nowadays my MD collection is tiny, maybe a dozen games (plus a few of the new releases). I can’t really bring myself to pay more than something cost new to buy it used, but honestly the only ones I really regret not still having are Splatterhouse: Part II, Story of Thor and Rolling Thunder 2. Did have some games that are now £300+ pass through my hands, my mate had Mega Man: The Wily Wars which is £400-odd now (we didn’t actually reckon much to it - it was good but nothing special).

[CMcK]

Thanks for the article Hirst. There was a swap cart in my local shopping centre during the MD/SNES era and it’s how I acquired most of the games I played until I started working full time. The stall just survived into the 32bit era but was eventually canned by threats from Sony but given the stall owner was a bit of a Del Boy that may not be true!

[Hirst]

Cheers! I think all of the outdoor stalls around here folded by late 1998, have to wonder whether other ones existed in different places or if it wasn’t very widespread. These weird little gaming ecosystems are really interesting to me, but barely mentioned.

Reminds me that there was (very briefly) a shop on the outskirts of town that did rentals of cartridges, they didn’t last long - have to wonder whether the companies stepped in or if the business just folded from being quiet. It was in a bit of a daft place and used to smell strongly of damp. It’s a sandwich shop now, might go in and ask them if I can still lend Mercs for a quid.

[Fatal Phantasy]

For reasons I can’t explain well, I decided to write a lengthy (and very weird) article about how I used to trade Mega Drive games down the market and dumped it on here: https://bleedingcart.neocities.org/swapshop

I haven’t done any writing for absolutely years so apologies for any incoherence. This all stemmed from me being fed up of the Internet being full of boilerplate stories of middle-class Americans getting a NES for Christmas, so now we’ve got a version out there more along the lines of Kes/Our Day Out/Threads (1984). If you get a few mins, have a read. Didn’t want to do a topic about it but thought it was worth sticking it on here for the nostalgia.

Hello Hirst,

Long time lurker / first time poster. I finally signed up to the site because I wanted to thank you for writing such a brilliant article which reminded me so much of my own experiences trying to play as many Megadrive games as possible as a working class (sorry, let me correct that - poor!) kid in a Northern British town. There was just so much of my childhood in there!

Definitely agree with the mantra of your website, no disrespect to our American friends but there is definitely the space and need for the particular UK video gaming story of the 1990s to be chronicled.

I was in South Yorkshire in the early 1990s and we had a regional variation on the games exchanging services where they'd post classified adverts in the local papers and you'd just call them, arrange an exchange (vaguely remember the "like for like" fee being £3) and they'd actually come round to your house to facilitate the swap! Most didn't even want to check the games worked, although I remember my mum was genuinely offended when a new exchanger we tried (he turned up in biker leathers so lets call him "Biker Man") insisted on coming inside and checking that whatever game I happened to be trading with him worked. My mum said we weren't allowed to use that games exchanger ever again, but I got a copy of Thunderforce 4 out of the deal, so it was worth her ire!

Anyway, thanks again, keep up the good work mate, I'm sure there are more stories to be told.

[Hirst]

Hello Hirst,

Long time lurker / first time poster. I finally signed up to the site because I wanted to thank you for writing such a brilliant article which reminded me so much of my own experiences trying to play as many Megadrive games as possible as a working class (sorry, let me correct that - poor!) kid in a Northern British town. There was just so much of my childhood in there!

Aw cheers mate, genuinely made my day that did - I'm glad my experiences resonate with you enough to comment! The classified ad swap deal sounds brilliant, reminds me of when people would offer up swaps in the magazines and do it by post. I wouldn't have dared do it, imagine sending your games off and never hearing anything ever again (I think that happened to somebody off here back in the day?).

As a way of showing thanks, I can give you one a special anecdote involving Sheffield. In early 1999, I picked up the Metal Gear Solid demo that was on the Official PlayStation Magazine. Fantastic demo, really generous as I recall, about 30 minutes of gameplay! However, both the demo and the accompanying magazine really pushed how much you needed the Dual Shock pad to get the full experience. I did have my eye on the Dual Shock (as they'd pushed it really hard with Gran Turismo), but it was this demo that convinced me to pick it up. As chance would have it, my folks were off to Meadowhall the next day in the car. For less local readers, it's a large shopping centre opposite the cooling towers from Threads (sadly nuked). Anyway, I decided to tag along - would be a change as I didn't get to go there often as it was a pain to do it on the bus/train, I could get my Dual Shock pad. Sorted.

So we get to Meadowhall, which is slightly regionally different to what I'm used to, because Thurstons the Baker is apparently called 'Greggs' there. Huh! It'll never catch on. They also had a branch of Game, which I was familiar with but wasn't my usual chain - I think the only one I knew at the time other than Meadowhall was in Leeds city centre. Anyway, I go in there and pick up a Dual Shock in black, for some reason it was a couple of pounds cheaper than the (admittedly cooler) transparent skeleton ones. I've saved two quid, I'll get something to eat with the difference. So I go over to The Coca-Cola Oasis, their long-discontinued original name for the food court (that I still use in 2025 because it winds up my missus). Over to McDonalds, burger/fries/drink for £1.99. Got my pad, got a bite to eat, what a great day! Can't see this causing me any problems in about 20 years time!

Anyway, roll on many years later - about 2019 I'd say. I want to play Outrun 2006: Coast to Coast on the PS2. Pull my machine out, plug the pad in. I get to the screen where it checks your memory card. Press the button - nothing. Restart. Still stuck. Is it my pad? No, test it on my PS1, it's fine. Must be the controller port. Disassemble my PS2 and stare at it, it's all soldered on, oh for... Reluctantly buy a replacement PS2 for £40, plug it in, time for Outrun! Exact same problem. Oh for... agh, I'm absolutely fed up now. Eventually, after substantial Google and head-scratching I realise that I haven't used a standard black PS2 Dual Shock 2. I've used my old - almost identical looking - black PS1 Dual Shock 1. Which coincidentally, do work on most PS2 games (less the pressure sensitivity on the face buttons), but on a handful of games they don't work at all. Outrun 2006: Coast to Coast is one of those games.

In conclusion, saving £2 in 1999 came at a cost of £40 and pointlessly unscrewing my PS2, albeit 20 years later.

[wakka]

A tale as old as time there Hirst lol.

You really did need that Dual Shock for MGS though. Psycho Mantis just wouldn't have been the same without it.

[Baseley09]

Highly enjoying these, the current social media retro gaming discourse seems to revolve around people slightly younger than I talking about n64, gamecube even xbox 360. Xbox effing 360 what even is that.

Great to hear about japanese megadrive games etc.

[Fatal Phantasy]

Aw cheers mate, genuinely made my day that did - I'm glad my experiences resonate with you enough to comment! The classified ad swap deal sounds brilliant, reminds me of when people would offer up swaps in the magazines and do it by post. I wouldn't have dared do it, imagine sending your games off and never hearing anything ever again (I think that happened to somebody off here back in the day?).

As a way of showing thanks, I can give you one a special anecdote involving Sheffield. In early 1999, I picked up the Metal Gear Solid demo that was on the Official PlayStation Magazine. Fantastic demo, really generous as I recall, about 30 minutes of gameplay! However, both the demo and the accompanying magazine really pushed how much you needed the Dual Shock pad to get the full experience. I did have my eye on the Dual Shock (as they'd pushed it really hard with Gran Turismo), but it was this demo that convinced me to pick it up. As chance would have it, my folks were off to Meadowhall the next day in the car. For less local readers, it's a large shopping centre opposite the cooling towers from Threads (sadly nuked). Anyway, I decided to tag along - would be a change as I didn't get to go there often as it was a pain to do it on the bus/train, I could get my Dual Shock pad. Sorted.

So we get to Meadowhall, which is slightly regionally different to what I'm used to, because Thurstons the Baker is apparently called 'Greggs' there. Huh! It'll never catch on. They also had a branch of Game, which I was familiar with but wasn't my usual chain - I think the only one I knew at the time other than Meadowhall was in Leeds city centre. Anyway, I go in there and pick up a Dual Shock in black, for some reason it was a couple of pounds cheaper than the (admittedly cooler) transparent skeleton ones. I've saved two quid, I'll get something to eat with the difference. So I go over to The Coca-Cola Oasis, their long-discontinued original name for the food court (that I still use in 2025 because it winds up my missus). Over to McDonalds, burger/fries/drink for £1.99. Got my pad, got a bite to eat, what a great day! Can't see this causing me any problems in about 20 years time!

Anyway, roll on many years later - about 2019 I'd say. I want to play Outrun 2006: Coast to Coast on the PS2. Pull my machine out, plug the pad in. I get to the screen where it checks your memory card. Press the button - nothing. Restart. Still stuck. Is it my pad? No, test it on my PS1, it's fine. Must be the controller port. Disassemble my PS2 and stare at it, it's all soldered on, oh for... Reluctantly buy a replacement PS2 for £40, plug it in, time for Outrun! Exact same problem. Oh for... agh, I'm absolutely fed up now. Eventually, after substantial Google and head-scratching I realise that I haven't used a standard black PS2 Dual Shock 2. I've used my old - almost identical looking - black PS1 Dual Shock 1. Which coincidentally, do work on most PS2 games (less the pressure sensitivity on the face buttons), but on a handful of games they don't work at all. Outrun 2006: Coast to Coast is one of those games.

In conclusion, saving £2 in 1999 came at a cost of £40 and pointlessly unscrewing my PS2, albeit 20 years later.

Oh dear, a false economy across two decades.

Funnily enough I’ve only been to Meadowhall the once - trip with the college Business Studies class - but I visited that same Game Store and remember buying Duke Nukem for my 486 PC.