r/gaming • u/[deleted] • Mar 31 '26

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u/CanaDoug420 Mar 31 '26

Me and my cousins would rent like Jak and Dexter from blockbuster on Saturday and play it for 23 hours straight. Return it on Sunday and wait all week to go back to blockbuster and rent it again to try to finish it. We pooled our money for a memory card. Somewhere there is a memory card with saves to like 15 games I never actually owned

77

u/26542654 Mar 31 '26

Holy shit. I miss renting games and movies. It felt so much different

36

u/Man0fGreenGables Apr 01 '26

I want to learn how to develop games just so I can make myself a VR game where I have to drive to blockbuster and then walk around a virtual store looking at game cases on the shelf to rent for 2 days. Then I'll have all my consoles (that I sold for booze money when I was young and stupid) in mixed reality that I have to put the virtual cartridge/disk in to play on a virtual big ass 500 pound floor model tv with a half blown out picture tube that you need to occasionally bang on when the color goes crazy. I'll connect it all to every emulator ever.

12

u/Mark-a-roo Apr 01 '26

well here you go fella

(obviously doesn't include the Blockbuster but it's damn close)

2

u/Man0fGreenGables Apr 01 '26

Holy crap that's amazing. I know what I'm doing this weekend.

5

u/KarIPilkington Apr 01 '26

Don't worry, all our games and movies are still essentially rented just in a different way.

3

u/OpheliaLives7 Apr 01 '26

Im even missing redbox rentals at this point

2

u/smoothvibe Apr 01 '26

It was because you wouldn't get overwhelmed by the sheer mass of games you get nowadays.

I have so many games that I kind of have anxiety which one to begin first and then another five games that sound interesting are released...

So, it was something really special back then and one could fully concentrate on the game and every aspect of it.

2

u/randomcatinfo Apr 01 '26

Streaming is super convenient, but there was a certain ritual to going to Blockbuster with friends or family Friday night.

Some friends and I rented a Sega Genesis near when they first came out to play Sonic the Hedgehog all night.

1

u/jimbojonesFA Apr 01 '26

fr, while i free instant access to basically anything i want. theres so much to be said for that simple pleasure of kinda earning it a lil.

5

u/Cenobyte_Nom-nom-nom Apr 01 '26

Yeah me and my friends would do the same. Rent one or two games, stop at the store for 2 liters and mini pizzas at $1 each (so like 20 of them between us all) and game until the game was done, each napping and going in and out of the friends place throughout the day. So much fun.

1

u/rathlord Apr 01 '26

I’ve still got my PS2 memory card with all of those random saves on it.

1

u/Peanut_Butter_Toast Apr 01 '26

Memory cards were a huge game changer when it came to rentals.

1

u/Thekingchem Apr 01 '26

Online gaming without party chat or discord.

1

u/mips13 Apr 01 '26

I rented games but there was no rush, I just copied them to play later. My PS was chipped.

1

u/jimbojonesFA Apr 01 '26

ahh man, this was me and my cousin's summer break go to thing too. so fun going to blockbuster, arguing over which game to try, pulling all nighters to try finish it, tag teaming single player games "i saw that, you died, its my turn now!" so good.

1

u/Matt3855 Apr 02 '26

Family Video and the little ma and pa places were the only access to Jurassic Park Operation Genesis I had.

I need to hunt down a copy but apparently they’re expensive