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dazstormretro · 6 years ago

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RIP Blockbuster Video

I thought I would use this opportunity to to say goodbye to a much loved franchise which as a child gave me hundreds if not thousands of hours worth of entertainment. The franchise is of course Blockbuster Video, which was a staple part of my childhood growing up.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog my local Blockbuster was several miles away from my house and so either a lift in my parents car or an hours bus journey was needed in order to partake in its many delights. But before I begin to wax lyrical about the good old days let’s take it back a few years.

In the late 80’s my nearest video store was a small Jack Beanstalk Video which was located on Market Street in my home town. Being only a twenty minute walk from my house this was the perfect place on a weekend to rent cheap movies especially seeing as we didn't yet have Sky TV. I remember some of my favourite VHS titles of the time included the numerous Ernest movies (especially Ernest Saves Christmas which I would rent many times over), the Monster Squad and the Simpsons compilation videos. The shop might have been on the basic side and the number of films limited but my family and I would spend many happy weekends choosing films plus the mandatory sweets to accompany our Saturday nights entertainment from the small tuck shop area.

It was early 1991 when things took a dramatic change, our local Jack Beanstalk began renting video games. This was so amazing. Being a poor thirteen year old with only limited pocket money was no fun when it came to video games. Now for only a couple of pounds I could rent brand new Sega Mega Drive games, and rent I did. Me and my friend Rob must have gone through every title which that shop had to offer and throughout the next year we got to experience a wide range of fantastic games.

Things moved on and by the Summer of 1992 I was a proud owner of a Super Nintendo. It was whilst reading an issue of CVG magazine that I came across an article which stated Blockbuster Video had started to rent SNES games in the UK. Without repeating myself from a previous blog later that day I found myself stood in a recently opened Blockbuster Video. To say the store was impressive was an understatement. This was the Toys R Us of video stores. Compared to my local Jack Beanstalk this place was gigantic. There were shelves upon shelves packed with VHS tapes from floor to ceiling. Instead of three or four copies of each film which I was used to there were several rows of each title. The snack section resembled a cinema food court with fully working popcorn and Mr Slushy machines. The whole store had an energetic buzz about it, and each visit felt like an event which I would look forward to all week.

Of course I wasn’t there to peruse the films or buy popcorn I was there to rent a Super Nintendo game. Finding the games wasn’t hard, turns out there was a whole section dedicated to video games, very exciting for a young teenager at the time. My final choice that afternoon was Zelda: A Link to the Past which would ignite my love for the series from that day forth.

Over the next few years I would often make the long pilgrimage to this Blockbuster store renting such titles as Dead Dance, the Lost Vikings, Rock n Roll racing and Pocky and Rocky 2. On more than one occasion I would go back the following weekend and re-rent the same game hoping my saved data hadn’t been deleted.

With each rental costing only a few quid this was the perfect excuse for me and my friends to try games which we wouldn’t normally play. As most SNES titles often came with a hefty price tag it was only through renting that I played the likes of Ranma 1/2 Part 2 and the Mystical Ninja. And let’s not forget about the wealth of arcade machines which always stood in the entrance waiting to tempt any kid on the way out.

If memory serves me correct it would have been around 1995 when I rented my final SNES game before moving onto the PlayStation. For some reason I don’t remember ever really renting anymore games after that point. Maybe it was due to the fact I was getting older and had less time to play as many games? I would of course continue to rent movies all the way up until it’s demise but for me Blockbusters glory days will always be back in the early to mid 90’s.

I’ll never forget that excitement of walking into a store, being met by the smell of fresh popcorn and scanning the shelves for a new Super Nintendo game knowing I had 48 hours of pure uninterrupted fun ahead. The same can be said for physically renting a movie. In 2019 we are spoilt for choice with streaming services such as Netflix but that experience of spending a good half hour choosing a new movie before loading up with snacks then heading home to bunker down for the evening will never be matched in my opinion.

Unfortunately those days are long gone (unless your lucky enough to live in Oregon where the last functioning Blockbuster still operates). My last visit to a Blockbuster store was back in October 2013 when the company was in its final weeks of business. With only days to go before closing it’s doors forever the store was having a last minute sale, everything must go! Most of the shelves had been stripped bare, the DVD’s had all sold, the popcorn machine empty and the fridges turned off. I remember purchasing a couple of Skylander figures at £3 each and talking to the staff who were generally heartbroken at the closure of this once great organisation. It truly was a sad time and unfortunately a few years later this exact episode would repeat itself with my final Toys R Us visit, it truly felt like a piece of my childhood had died that day.

Blockbuster Video might no longer with us but I will always have those happy nostalgic memories of being a kid back the 90’s, using my pocket money to rent video games and spending my weekends having hours of fun with my friends. Thank you Blockbuster for helping this happen.

#retro gaming #nostalgia #1990s #super nintendo #video games #blockbuster #blockbuster video

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