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It can't be said enough how insane FuncoLand was when it opened

halo117

halo117

Member
Jan 6, 2018
157
What a great thread, I wasn't ready for so much nostalgia to hit me from all sides. :'(

I first heard of FuncoLand and Babbages through overhearing a conversation between two kids on the school bus in middle school. He described it as the "best toy store ever" and that was enough for me to find the nearest one and go with my entire family. Amazing experience and is the first video game shop I ever went into...possibly why I am a gamer today. Funny enough, I got a job at GameStop a few years after that/
 
TheSpaceBetween

TheSpaceBetween

Member
Jan 11, 2018
9,653
Yeah. The Funcoland by me turned into a Gamestop eventually (did they buy them out?). It was awesome though, as you said, how they had the TV's and consoles out and you could try out anything you wanted before buying. Good times.
 
SilverArrow20XX

SilverArrow20XX

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,453
kdzw08x.jpg


I forgot Funcoland existed. I didn't go that often. By the time I had money to buy things myself, Gamestop had just taken over most other stores like Babbages.
 
LQX

LQX

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
1,871
I used to salivate over FuncoLand ads as everything was so cheap but the only one near me was ridiculously far and I had to take like two buses then walk like 10 minutes to get to it, finally me and a friend decided to go on the two bus ride then long walk journey and it did not disappoint. Also, my friend met his girlfriend there. I was so damn jealous, she was beautiful and they were banging with me in the other room within days.
 
Cipherr

Cipherr

Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,426
I fucking loved funcoland. But they are lowkey responsible for my diminished library over those years. I would trade in like crazy to obtain other games.

Their kiosks where they would let you try damn near any game for any amount of time was amazing.

It got a little rough at the end of their lifespan though when they were hawking that Game Informer subscription alongside 50 fucking CD laser lense cleaners for your consoles..... but still.
 
GillianSeed79

GillianSeed79

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,371
Funcoland, Babbages and Software, ETC. were the trifecta of cool game stores. Funcoland was great for finding retro stuff before retro gaming was huge.
 

Deleted member 18407

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
3,607
Seeing the prices of stuff like Stadium Events, Little Samson, and Hagane on that list makes me wonder how many copies of those games they ever actually saw and sold.

I always associate Funcoland with Braindead 13. There were large cutout stands advertising the game when I was able to visit Funcoland on a trip to the Mall of America. Great store. I have a little more nostalgia for a store called Tiger Play that was in Fargo when I was a kid. I distinctly remember buying Chiller on NES from that store and then realizing that I couldn't play that in front of my parents when I played it at home, heh.
 
Fisty

Fisty

Member
Oct 25, 2017
20,214
Closest I had when I was a kid was a Babbages at the mall, eventually we moved to a town with a Toys R Us only, but it's not quite the same as a dedicated shop. I remember picking up Subterrania. Funcoland was the mythological place you only saw in game mags as far as I was aware, I'm sure it was pretty much the same as Babbages but I always wanted to check it out. I hardly ever got any games that didn't come from a second-hand bookstore or something anyway lol
 
Linkhero1

Linkhero1

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,154
Bay Area
I miss this place lol. I couldn't believe they had every console setup with a full game ready to play at the store. They literally had everything at the time.
 
Like the hat?

Like the hat?

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,572
I used to love those price lists. I only recently discovered what the hell "big nose caveman" and "big nose freaks" were.
 
Damaniel

Damaniel

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
6,535
Portland, OR
$8 for Little Samson.

Sadly, I never had the chance to go to a FuncoLand while they were open. I probably would have never left.
 
skeezx

skeezx

Member
Oct 27, 2017
20,131
i remember in jr. high my friends and i called it "fuckoland" and i bought a $5 copy of Goonies 2 from there once

those are my memories of fuckoland. sorry i meant to say fuckoland
 
shintoki

shintoki

Member
Oct 25, 2017
15,089
Was the shit. They had one right by Toys R Us, Best Buy, and Circuit City... as a kid, you could spent a day between them all
 
PeakPointMatrix

PeakPointMatrix

Member
Oct 25, 2017
19,047
Funcoland was the first place I saw Sonic Adventure running on a Dreamcast. One of those memories you never forget. That damn whale man.
 
WhoaIsThatMars

WhoaIsThatMars

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,557
湘南
Man, I miss just being able to take home their "newspaper" that had all the values of every game they carried. I'd look at that thing for hours lol
 
Handicapped Duck

Handicapped Duck

▲ Legend ▲
Avenger
May 20, 2018
13,661
Ponds
Now that's a name I haven't heard in a long time...Ah the memories. I got my copy of Donkey Kong Land 2 from FuncoLand, what a great store it was.
 
HanSoloCup

HanSoloCup

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,638
Richmond, VA
Used to travel around 45 minutes to get to one as a kid. Still remember being able to pop a game in, try it out, and then purchase it for cheap. It was the best!
 
Forkball

Forkball

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,941
My first trip to Funcoland I got Kirby Pinball and Metroid II, my first exposure to either franchise.

Mine didn't really have absurdly low prices, but they did carry games you propbably wouldn't see elsewhere.
 
SolVanderlyn

SolVanderlyn

I love pineapple on pizza!
Member
Oct 28, 2017
13,502
Earth, 21st Century
Great idea for a thread. It amazed me, too. I couldn't believe such a place existed. I used to BEG my dad to bring me there.

There was a local variant in Poughkeepsie, New York called Dragon's Den that was a million times better, if you can believe it. They had imported Pokemon Cards and mint condition SNES games lining the walls and guides and even a D&D section where people played in the back and scheduled Tekken tournaments and staff who were all super into nerdy shit...

The place is still there, in a different location with the same name, but it isn't the same as it was back then. Back then, it was paradise for an 11 year old nerd living in the 90's when places like that hardly existed.
 
mute

mute

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 25, 2017
25,064
My only memory of Funcoland was when one of my friends dragged me over there because they had one of the first demo PS2s in town and he thought Tekken Tag was the coolest shit. At the time I remember not being too impressed, and was pretty content with my Dreamcast.
 
Savinowned

Savinowned

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,260
Nashville, TN
Wow. Too many memories. My favorite was getting a used copy of Pokémon Red, DK Land 2, Super Mario Land, and a few other random games super cheap. I can't remneber the exact prices but that place was so great.

I also remember when my older friend and I went in once and I saw a little flyer that had all the info of the new Microsoft console coming out. My friend was a huge PlayStation fan and I remember him laughing and said he'd never buy an "Xbox", "Such a dumb name." Crazy thinking of the first Microsoft/Sony fanboism back then, especially cuz I have both systems and love em now :D
 
zychi

zychi

Banned
Oct 28, 2017
4,064
Chicago
Your pricing in that image op, has to have been during the n64 years.

I paid $55 for LTTP at Funcoland. It took me allllll summer of cutting mine and my grandparents grass to save up for a snes of my own(my cousins lived walking distance and i would use theirs on the regular but I NEEDED zelda)

I also paid $80 fucking dollars for n64 wwf warzone at release. But paid $49.99 for Gold OOT cartridge at relase Funcoland was so weird price wise.
 
KingDrool

KingDrool

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,462
I worked at the Funco corporate headquarters right up until the GameStop buyout. I absolutely loved that job. The warehouse people were freaking nuts, and it was cool seeing what the Game Informer guys were working on from time to time. Plus we had an NBA Jam arcade cabinet in the lunch room, so that was cool. Spent a lot of time on that sucker.
 
Chucker

Chucker

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,328
Maryland
Sambodianninja said:
Where was this location, if I may ask?
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Annapolis, MD.

Einbroch said:
That was nothing. Best Buy had hundreds and hundreds of pallets full of the game for $5 brand new after it bombed. My brothers and I each bought a copy.
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Yup, I had already rented and beat it from Blockbuster, but I remember picking up When Disaster Strikes by Bustah Rhymes and saw a $5 copy on the way out. Picked it up, wish I still had it.
 

Deleted member 9135

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
5,435
Krejlooc said:
FuncoLand opened in my area just as I was old enough to make my own money, mowing lawns and stuff like that around the neighborhood. I had seen used games for sale before, typically at video rental places or maybe the occasional pawn shop, but nothing like FuncoLand.

I remember how I heard about FuncoLand - it was from a friend who saw an ad in a local newspaper or something. One of their crazy sheets where they'd list the price of tons of games, along with the address. I remember telling my dad about the ad and he flat out not believing me. He thought my friend had pulled a prank on me. A few days later I managed to get the address of the place and my dad and I went looking for it one Saturday. I can even remember the exact location of the store.

It was absolutely amazing. I walked in there with $60 in my pocket and walked out with a stack of games. This was early on in Funcoland's life that they sold me all my shit with game cases, too. That would have been ONE game prior, where at Funcoland I walked out with like 5 games.

There are modern retro gaming stores, and there are of course things like Gamestop, but nothing will ever amaze me as much as Funcoland did. When they closed the location near my house, my dad and I would literally drive all the way across Houston to another location on saturdays. It'd be a day trip, because getting from one side of Houston to the other took so long.

What an awesome store.

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Funcoland at sharpstown mall (rip) was the shit!
 
matimeo

matimeo

UI/UX Game Industry Veteran
Verified
Oct 26, 2017
979
I still miss the papers. I would always grab a few and highlight all the games I wanted. I loved the newspaper format which in my mind as a kid made me feel more adult like lol.
 
nikos

nikos

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,998
New York, NY
My local FuncoLand was gigantic, or at least I remember it that way. Also loved scrolling through those papers for prices. Those were the days.
 
OP
OP

Deleted member 12790

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
24,537
scottbeowulf said:
Anyone in Houston ever go to Gametronix near the galleria back in the day? Playing an imported segacd before it was out here was amazing.
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fuuuuuuuck yeah I did. They used to sell old Sega Master System games in that big glass display near the front. They were the last store to sell Master System software for a long time in Houston.
 
Douche McBaggins The 4th

Douche McBaggins The 4th

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,555
They offered me five cents for a trade in. Me and my friends called them FuckNoLand. I did buy a ton of games there. Pre ordered grandia 2 and skies of arcadia and bought so much good stuff. Trade in values were worse than gamestop though. But i would take them in a heartbeat to tbe shot we have now.
 
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