Video Rental Store Memories

[stealthrush]

While services like Netflix, Hulu, and Redbox are infinitely more convenient and affordable, I have a huge soft spot for the bygone era of Video Rental Stores. I grew up with these places, as I'm sure many people on this site did and some of my fondest memories growing up involve going out and renting a movie and/or video game. I'm curious to hear other people's experiences and best memories of going to their local Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, or independent rental store and renting movies and games.

When I was still in a cradle my parents would visit the local video-rental store. They would rent 1-game or movie per week. When I was a young child we visited Blockbuster Video, another rental store to rent for decades to come. Eventually went to other local rental shops to play obscure titles Blockbuster didn't offer. Awesome time and memories.

[telly]

My brother and I would rent a few PS2 games from Blockbuster I think. I remember renting Klonoa 2, while my brother rented games like Freakstyle, Mercenaries and Ace Combat 4

[maximo310]

By the time I could start renting stuff from Blockbuster, their stock was already dwindling pretty bad. The only stuff I remember getting was Sonic Generations and Street Fighter X Tekken.

Gamefly and Redbox aren't worth it in my opinion for renting/buying stuff(especially Redbox and the whole disc-stealing fisaco that's currently ongoing.)

[kamikazekeeg]

By the time I could start renting stuff from Blockbuster, their stock was already dwindling pretty bad. The only stuff I remember getting was Sonic Generations and Street Fighter X Tekken.

Gamefly and Redbox aren't worth it in my opinion for renting/buying stuff(especially Redbox and the whole disc-stealing fisaco that's currently ongoing.)

Oh right, there's something about people just like scanning the discs and putting fake papers inside to cheat the scanner?  I haven't seen any of that myself.  I keep using Redbox because it's so cheap.  It's how I played Uncharted 4, because I had no interest in owning it.  Good game, but not something I'd ever likely replay.

[maximo310]

By the time I could start renting stuff from Blockbuster, their stock was already dwindling pretty bad. The only stuff I remember getting was Sonic Generations and Street Fighter X Tekken.

Gamefly and Redbox aren't worth it in my opinion for renting/buying stuff(especially Redbox and the whole disc-stealing fisaco that's currently ongoing.)

Oh right, there's something about people just like scanning the discs and putting fake papers inside to cheat the scanner?  I haven't seen any of that myself.  I keep using Redbox because it's so cheap.  It's how I played Uncharted 4, because I had no interest in owning it.  Good game, but not something I'd ever likely replay.

What happens is this:
1. Person rents out a Redbox game/games and uses a pre-paid gift card( to prevent charges).
2.  Person scrapes off Redbox labels off the disc and puts a replacement disc/ with the Redbox barcode on it.
3. Person returns replacement disc to the Redbox kiosk.
 The result of this is usually that people trade the game discs to Gamestop for money, while Redbox users can't enjoy renting out said game.  The security systems in the Redbox systems are pretty poor in picking off returned fake discs, and I haven't seen the company really do much to address the issue. So that's why the Redbox near me only seems to have 5 or less games per system.

I'd use Redbox more often if they had a way better selection, but my method right now is just GS pre-owned because of the 7 day return and refund period.

[kamikazekeeg]

I gotcha, yeah I don't use Redbox often, only once in awhile on rentals I don't have a lot of interest in.  Usually I get new stuff right away too, so less chance for shenanigans.  Purely for new stuff to since they don't have much of a selection.  Anything else I'll either buy on Blu-Ray/DVD or see if it's on Amazon Prime or Netflix.

[azure]

I remember fondly renting games from the video store in my town. Still friends with the owner to this day, he's a big horror fan.

[Warmsignal]

Most of my memories took place at location called Video-Ville, at a shopping plaza about 5 minutes from my house. But also, there was always Blockbuster in town. I still run across Nintendo games with the Video-Ville branding on them to this day. Most of the games I rented from there as a kid were NES and SNES. Bobble Bobble, Monster Truck Rally, Contra, Snow Brothers, Stunt Track FX, Mr. Nutz, Super Punch-Out, and I'm sure the list goes on. This place always provided a photo-copied manual because so many went missing.

I wasn't really into movies, never really have been. It was mostly games that I rented. It seems like I rented more N64 and PS1 games from Blockbuster. Probably because they stocked more copies of popular titles. I still remember that anxiety of waiting to see if there were any copies left to rent when you'd go in the store and check behind the display card. I actually discovered a lot of games of that era through Blockbuster rentals.

I don't know about anyone else here, but I can still recall the "smell" of our blockbuster store. It was kind of an odd smell, but it was always there, maybe it was all the plastic? Idk, that always sticks in my mind.

Nowadays, I don't rent games. I have enough money and enough judgement, that if I want a game, I'll just buy it. Because who knows when I'll set aside the time to play it? Ironically, the only DVD kiosk I've ever rented from, was a Blockbuster Kiosk, shortly before they too went out.

[madmax]

I remember a small rental place about 5 minute walk from my friends house, they had N64 and PS2 games there. Some games we rented so many times that we could have just bought it...