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It’s 1998. It’s Friday night and you just walked into Blockbuster to rent a game for the weekend.

Ignatz Mouse

Ignatz Mouse

Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,741
I had the big name games (MGS,, Crash, Spyro, GT) and even some niche ones (Bushido Blade, still have this disc) But the following would be ideal rentals (and probably were):

Blasto
Colony Wars
MediEval
Gex: Enter the Gecko

I'll add that in 98 I had a lane social life and lots of cash, so I bought a ton and rented even even more. I played a huge swath of the PS1 library.
 
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Mr_Nothin

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
705
Twisted Metal 2
Mega man Legends
Bushido Blade
Musashi Brave Fencer
Coolboarders 2
Jetmoto 2
Goldeneye
Mission Impossible
San Francisco Rush
Metal Gear Solid

Oh sooooo many

edit:

How can I forget aboutthese:
Tekken III
Ocarina of Time
NFL Blitz
Gameday '98
Fuckin Croc
Armored Core
Spyro
 
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srtrestre

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,967
f83c531c06db07b5f34a7d0c542c17c1174b6057_hq.gif
 
GamerJM

GamerJM

Member
Nov 8, 2017
15,615
I was 4 then, but I grew up in a house where a lot of older people frequently came over for sleepovers and rented games from Blockbuster. I remember Super Mario Kart, Bomberman 64, and Goldeneye from like 1996-1999ish (no, I have no idea how I remember these experiences from when I was in preschool). But obviously none of those caught *my* eyes.
 
Lyndis Lorca

Lyndis Lorca

Member
Oct 25, 2017
366
Pre '98 it was Snowboard Kids and Yoshi's Story.

Post '98 it was Pokemon Snap, Snowboard Kids 2, and Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue.
 
Huey

Huey

Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,181
Hmm I was definitely in a phase of buying the ps1 games I wanted, and actually don't recall renting a ton of them. But I definitely rented Gex: Enter the Gecko before eventually buying it. Which is like, a super competent 3D platformer though i doubt its humour would hold up very well.

in retrospect I think a lot of my renting was done on genesis and Saturn.
 
Dreams-Visions

Dreams-Visions

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
41,368
Miami, FL
I'd be walking out with:
  • Descent: Freespace (🐐)
  • Star Craft + SC: Brood War (🐐)
  • Half-Life (🐐)
  • LoZ:OOT (🐐)
  • Parasite Eve
  • SW Rogue Squadron
  • Xenogears
  • Falcon 4.0
  • Unreal
  • Metal Gear Solid
 
hikarutilmitt

hikarutilmitt

Member
Dec 16, 2017
11,409
Pretty sure in 1998 I had rented MGS or SOTN. I didn't rent games a whole lot because, at least not long after senior year started, I had a job and bought anything interesting to me.
 
Teejay

Teejay

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,555
It probably took me a while before getting this, I wasn't a big fan of the cover art (I can't remember how many times I skipped buying or renting it coz of the cover art). I did rent this back then, I think it was 98 too.

f7hzvCu.png
 
Dogui

Dogui

Member
Oct 28, 2017
8,791
Brazil
Teejay said:
It probably took me a while before getting this, I wasn't a big fan of the cover art (I can't remember how many times I skipped buying or renting it coz of the cover art). I did rent this back then, I think it was 98 too.

f7hzvCu.png
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It's funnier when you think it's a super asian name with lots of european characters in the cover.

But that aside, i kinda dig the artwork. American Breath of Fire I/II covers are also kind of awesome in their own way.
 
Teejay

Teejay

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,555
Dogui said:
It's funnier when you think it's a super asian name with lots of european characters in the cover.

But that aside, i kinda dig the artwork. American Breath of Fire I/II covers are also kind of awesome in their own way.
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The character on the Suikoden cover looks like the characters from those direct to video or those tv mini series back then.

BoF 1/2 cover art reminded me of Blackthorne. It was probably the reason why I played it.
 
Rapscallion

Rapscallion

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,790
We rented games we were curious about, so we rarely rented big releases like OOT or even Banjo Kazooie (those we just bought). That era of renting was mostly for random games, specifically ones on the n64 since we saw that as the most powerful console.

looking at n64 games from 98 I would have definitely rented stuff like Bomberman Hero, Robotron 64, and glover (pretty sure I did in the case of glover).
 
Jawmuncher

Jawmuncher

Crisis Dino
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
38,397
Ibis Island
sthef360 said:
You'd be time traveling then, because the 64 version came out in 99.

My answer was also going to be RE2 (on PS1) anyhow. I was young enough that my parents weren't in the business of buying me M rated games. But I could swing a rental from time to time.
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Someone else brought this up as well,
Jawmuncher said:
Ah. Google said it was 98 but I think it just defaulted to the PS1 release. I figured it seemed off but kept it anyway since it was too perfect not to post lol.
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c0Zm1c

c0Zm1c

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,202
I wasn't console gaming in 1998 but I was in Dixons one late afternoon that year, spotted Half-Life on the shelf and bought it (and Rogue Squadron 3D) based on the glowing review I had recently read in PC Format magazine. Amazing game.
 
MrBS

MrBS

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,225
Okay got google open this time, Tenchu probably got the most hires out of me that year lol
 

Deleted member 17210

User-requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
11,569
So many games to choose from. Einhander was a lot of fun that year.
220px-Einhander.JPG


PersianPrince said:
Any Canadians here that went to Rogers Video instead of Blockbuster?
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I went to both.

I'm curious, did some of you have Saturn games at your local Blockbuster Video or are you just listing rentals in general? I didn't rent at Blockbuster that much. My girlfriend (later wife) worked at Rogers Video in 1998 so I got some free rentals of PS1 and N64 games. Saturn stuff I had to rent from Microplay.

Speevy said:
Who grabbed all the quarters in your home to RUN down the street to rent a game in 1988?

That's right, you young whippersnappers. 1988.

The game could have been anything. It didn't matter.
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1988? Contra on NES for two-player action and Phantasy Star on SMS for single player. The latter was $100 CAD new so I waited until they sold that rental copy to buy it.
 
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dm101

dm101

Member
Nov 13, 2018
2,184
SolVanderlyn said:
What game catches your eye? Is it the cover that sells it? Or did something on the back of the box convince you? Or perhaps you knew about beforehand, arriving in pursuit of a specific game...

I was ten in 98. I should have rented Metal Gear Solid but I was high on JRPG fumes back then and didn't think that "army game" looked cool.

My answer is Parasite Eve. My best friend at the time had been talking about it at school nonstop, so, naturally, I was curious. Still one of my favorite games to this day, and also still a wholly unique game in my opinion. A survival horror RPG hybrid, that's a sequel to a Japanese sci-fi novel, that's also made by Squaresoft in its prime. Now that's a killer cocktail.
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I was 16 at the time. I loved parasite eve and I miss the act of going to blockbuster to get a movie and game for the weekend.
 
Epinephrine

Epinephrine

Member
Oct 27, 2017
842
North Carolina
I wouldn't condone this now, but I certainly did it then: I would have walked in and rented 3 or 4 Playstation games and then gone home to make copies of them so I could toss them onto my spindle of burned PS games. In theory the modchip seemed great, I could get any game I want for the cost of a rental. I practice, I would copy a lot of games and then never spend any actual time playing and enjoying them. I don't support piracy of anything that can be purchased new and/or digitally at this point, but my feelings were much different as a 16/17 year old.
 
Macross

Macross

Member
Nov 5, 2017
694
USA
Blockbuster cost money to rent games.

On the other hand, Electronic's Boutique and Babbage had games to "buy" and return for a full refund within 7 days. So pretty much anything that was new and had multi-player we would buy three or four for the weekend.
 
Nessus

Nessus

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,907
I had stopped renting games by then. I remember renting NES fairly often but I don't know if I ever rented SNES games, even, and never rented N64.
 
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