Days gone by: Buying games blind

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BoneSnapDeez
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Re: Days gone by: Buying games blind

Post by BoneSnapDeez »

I think we retro collectors still make blind purchases these days. I will buy any Atari game I find in the wild whether or not I am familiar with it.

Back in the day once I found a publisher I liked I stuck with it. For instance, I went through a spell where I would buy any Squaresoft game. I also ranked Konami and Capcom very highly, along with any first-party Nintendo titles.
prfsnl_gmr wrote:I did, however, purchase AD&D: Heroes of the Lance (NES) based exclusively on my enjoyment of the first book in that series, which was a huge, huge mistake...
:lol:

Have you played the SMS port yet?
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prfsnl_gmr
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Re: Days gone by: Buying games blind

Post by prfsnl_gmr »

BoneSnapDeez wrote:
prfsnl_gmr wrote:I did, however, purchase AD&D: Heroes of the Lance (NES) based exclusively on my enjoyment of the first book in that series, which was a huge, huge mistake...
:lol:

Have you played the SMS port yet?
NO! (...and I never will! I was so excited to play that game, and so deeply disappointed when I finally did...)

Convincing my grandmother to purchase a copy of Zanac for me because I liked the cover art turned out pretty well, however...
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Ack
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Re: Days gone by: Buying games blind

Post by Ack »

BoneSnapDeez wrote:I think we retro collectors still make blind purchases these days. I will buy any Atari game I find in the wild whether or not I am familiar with it.
At this point, I don't. But then I'm a librarian, so I research pretty much everything anyway.
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ZeroAX
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Re: Days gone by: Buying games blind

Post by ZeroAX »

I made many blind purchases but they were all first party Nintendo titles so I never got burned :P.

Closest to getting burned as a kid was Virtua Fighter 2 and Toy Story on the Mega Drive, they weren't bad games mind you, just nowhere near as good as the plethora of amazing games I had bought to the point for both the Mega Drive and Game Boy.
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ExedExes
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Re: Days gone by: Buying games blind

Post by ExedExes »

My only burns were of the rental sort. I carefully researched all game purchases as well as requests to purchase to people who could get them for me. I had 4 game magazine subscriptions in the 90s.

Worst rental? Super Double Dragon. Took that back after only playing it once and re-rented Super Smash TV.
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Tanooki
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Re: Days gone by: Buying games blind

Post by Tanooki »

Actually I think we still do buy games blind depending on how one goes into buying a game. Look how sadly way too often we find a situation where you trust online reviews, and then the game sucks but it got all propped up heavily in previews and reviews as gods gift to gaming. Reviews often are bought and paid for entirely or somewhat though influence from name sake designers to buying ad space. Even IGN among a few others now do like 1-3mo later look back reviews on stuff or a year later and you see those 9s and 10s turn into 6s and 7s griping about what people were bitching about days or less into buying it on places like gamefaqs calling out pro reviewers.

Back in the day sure that still happened I'm sure with a game here or there since all the magazines were company made propaganda mixed with truth, and then you had the print version of the sham going on now where cash made for bigger scores. I find one difference I saw was that the 8/16bit era images on the back of the box were pretty honest about what you'd see in the game as well as a general list of things to expect. The stuff now is renders or suggestive pretty angles that don't say much and the backs with a line or two then a bunch of review scores play smoke and mirrors too. I brought plenty of stuff blind in those eras and I almost never bought a turd between that and Nintendo Power. In the age of 3D, lies and hype online I've had bought far more stuff that just wasn't that fun, not total crap but nothing I'd care to finish I get bored of.
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darsparx
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Re: Days gone by: Buying games blind

Post by darsparx »

Dang even as a 20 yr old i remembering asking my parents to buy so many different games for me blindly. Especially all throughout the gba era(and I mean up until you couldn't buy it at gamestop anymore) until I got a cell phone that could browse the web. First party games generally were great buys and I never seemed to go wrong but dang were there some bad nuts in the bunch. Advance Guardian heroes was one, I mean I knew I was getting myself into a beat 'em up but geez were the controls horrible...on the other hand it did turn out well for me with golden sun, demi kids, mega man battle network, the summon night spin offs we got in the states and a few others....
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jvalentine98
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Re: Days gone by: Buying games blind

Post by jvalentine98 »

Here's the worst part about going to a retailer and buying a game blind: you're stuck with it, or you're going to get screwed if you trade it.

Wal-Mart, Target etc don't let you get a refund on an open game, and you can only exchange for the same game. Obviously trading gets you maybe half of the price you paid. If money ain't a thing, it's not the end of the world, but even still you could have done something better with it. It's never a good feeling
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darsparx
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Re: Days gone by: Buying games blind

Post by darsparx »

Yeah the only thing that helps now is demos. Man am I glad those finally stopped being trapped in the confines of a retail store. So nice to download a demo try a game out(if a publisher is nice enough to do so) and decide whether or not to buy it then...
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BoneSnapDeez
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Re: Days gone by: Buying games blind

Post by BoneSnapDeez »

Ack wrote:
BoneSnapDeez wrote:I think we retro collectors still make blind purchases these days. I will buy any Atari game I find in the wild whether or not I am familiar with it.
At this point, I don't. But then I'm a librarian, so I research pretty much everything anyway.
Well you mostly collect SNES, right?

You don't really stumble upon bins of $1 SNES games like you do with Atari. Wouldn't that be awesome though?
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