Renting videogames in the 80s

[Mind Master]

Did anyone else find places back in the early to mid-80s that rented videogames? I used to go to this small electronics store to rent games - for $10 you got two weeks. I remember renting Ms. Pac Man, Mouse Trap, Dolphin, Spider Fighter and Realsports Baseball. Only problem was you never got the instructions. So I never knew that in Dolphin the seagull gave you the power to knock out the squid, and I could never figure out Realsports Baseball at all.

 

Mouse Trap was my fave of that bunch, and a couple of months ago I picked it up off e-bay. Pretty primitive yet somehow addictive to play for score.

[Witchfynde]

There was only one place ever in my area (that I know of) that rented video games back then, but since Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, etc. weren't around back then (since vcr's still cost about $800, and not a whole lot of households had them), renting games was pretty much unheard of, so the place didn't last very long at all, since there weren't a lot of rental places just for movies PERIOD either. Too bad, an idea before it's time...

[Brian R.]

I don't remember being able to rent video games back in the days of the 2600.

 

Maybe it wasn't until the NES and the Genesis that video game rentals got started.

[joeybastard]

My local library started lending 2600 carts sometime around '82-83. You could borrow them for 5 days but after that it $1 a day late fee. Pretty steep for a library in 1982.

[AtariLeaf]

Oh yes, there was a place in Windsor that my friend and I would go to. I remember renting Space Chase. (I don't know why but I like that game). I don't remember how much though. The first time I played Keystone Kapers was a rental as well. Loved it so much I went out and bought. There were others I rented too but I can't remember them but we did rent quite a few back then.

[AtariDude]

I don't remember ever seeing a place that rented Atari games of any kind. The first time I heard about renting games was when Blockbuster started renting Nintendo games.

[PaulEMoz]

There used to be a video shop near me that rented out a limited number of VCS games. They were mostly Imagic games, and my most vivid rental memories are of renting Demon Attack, Cosmic Ark and Miner 2049er.

[sku_u]

There was a videostore near me called Video Ranger that rented VCS games. I believe they cost $4 for 2 days rental. This was in the days when you had to pay for membership to videostores. The store still exists today with the original owner still there.

[SS]

There was this place in my town that was a console arcade. You rented time on one of the machines and then had free pick of any of the hundreds of carts that they had to offer. There were a few 2600s and Colecovisions, an Intellivision, and (perhaps?) an Atari 8bit to choose from. A really sweet place for a kid who loved console gaming but had limited funds in which to buy carts. Of course, the place folded when the crash came. I've often wondered what became of the carts because the owner went bankrupt.

[Mock]

There was a store around here that had this thing where you would buy a blank cart for $30 (it was blue,black, or red) and then you could bring it back any time and get it reprogrammed with any game for $10 and then you kept it as long as you wanted...it was pretty cool....they always had new games and a lot of strange off brand games you never saw on store shelves (around here anyway). I had 2 carts but I can't find them now still lost in my garage somewhere with my Wizard of Wor "Warrior" medal....lol.

 

 

 

Mock

[Dan Iacovelli]

I used to go a local video game store that was in northlake,il

to rent out some games for the 2600.

it was only a bike ride from my old house.

Dan Iacovelli

[Buck]

I cant remeber any rental places for pre-Nintendo, but I THINK that the local library may have had Atari games.

[jhd]

About 1982-'83, one of the very few video rental places in Halifax started renting Atari 2600 games. The cost was C$7/week and they had a fairly large selection to pick from.

 

I remember renting, at least, Star Raiders, Adventure, and Cosmic Ark. Games came with the original boxes and instructions.

 

I sold my Atari 2600 in 1983, so I don't know what happened to this place.

[Video]

Rental places didn't really start renting games around here till the NES came out. I'd imagine because the fact that you could buy most 2600 games for $15-$25 so rental didn't make much sence on the cheap games, but it did make scense on the $50-$80 NES games. Rentals started out at $2 here, and recently went up to $5 (weekly)

[dchavez2]

There was an appliance and furniture rental place here in Indianapolis that also rented Atari VCS carts. I never rented any because my family was too poor for a console back then. The good thing was the old guy would let us play for free nearly everyday.

[Vic George 2K3]

Rental places didn't really start renting games around here till the NES came out.  I'd imagine because the fact that you could buy most 2600 games for $15-$25 so rental didn't make much sence on the cheap games, but it did make scense on the $50-$80 NES games.  Rentals started out at $2 here, and recently went up to $5 (weekly)

 

Video cassette rental places were pretty much in their infancy as well in the early 1980s, seeing that most people ended up buying their first VCR machine around the mid-1980s. Anyway, I honestly agree with that assessment in regards to videogame rentals, since $40 games were pretty much a rare thing in the age of the Atari 2600 and the huge crop of games that came out from 1982 to 1984 ended up being discounted to around $15-20 at the most and $1 at the least, making the pain in the wallet less hurtful. (Then again, being a teenager at a residential school that only gave $1 a week for an allowance and I could get at least $5-10 from my parents every time I went on a home visit, it was still like the Forrest Gump box of chocolates analogy, and I'd be thankful if I even got a game that cost more than $20 for my birthday or Christmas.)

[tyranthraxus]

Well I was young then but I don't recall any pre-NES system having

games for rental. It seemed along the time of NES that video stores

started to become more corporate and less Mom & Pop. And I guess

that meant the stores had extra $$ to spend on video games. I still

remember when it was a big deal for my family to rent a VCR for

the weekend! I also remember how popular NES and Genesis

rentals were for birthdays.

 

John