How many of you have rented a game console?

I know this idea may seem foreign to some of the people in the gamespot community but how many of you had to rent whole videogame systems back in the day? How many of you were even aware of such a thing at the time?

I never put too much thought into this until a conversation a friend and I recently were having brought it up. To say it jogged a few old memories was a bit of an understatement.

I remember during the early-mid 90s when a wave of more powerful systems were introduced to market, all with coinciding;y expensive price tags. During the early to mid 90s the go to consoles for pretty much everyone I knew was exactly what most here would expect. Supernintendo and sega genesis. There were a few hardened gamers still duking it out on the now “old” and “archaic” NES but if you were into games you HAD to have one of the newer systems.

Imagine everyone’s surprise when the emergence of the sega Saturn (I’m bypassing the sega cd and 32 x) and the playstation arrived. In addition to these powerhouses a whole slew/bj of other manufacturers decided it would be worth their time and investment to ride the coattails of the newest and latest money making industry. It wasn’t long before we all started seeing things like the JAGUAR or the now defunct Panasonic 3DO popping up in videogame magazines, boasting about their increased graphics. (There were a bunch of others that seemed to be flooding the market as well, all with the hope of grabbing gamer’s hard earned dollars.)

I remember as a little ninja looking at all of these consoles. “Woooowww” I thought. The graphics blew the super NES and Genesis out of the water. BUT… they were also, what seemed like to a kid, 1,000,000 times more expensive. The only way you got your hands on one of them was if you were trying it out in a videogame store or were fortunate to have a friend who’s parents splurged on such an expensive gift for them.

It was soon after that rental stores like Blockbuster (Yes young gamers, an actual physical building you would go to and rent actual physical copies of movies and games lol.) got the hint and started offering whole consoles for rent.

I remember my cousin renting the Sega Saturn and going over to his house. The first time my eyes landed on the crudely shaped polygons of a male fighter in virtua fighter I was just blown away. “It looks incredible” I thought. Needless to say we played it all night. However, if it wasn’t for services like that I would never have had a glimpse into the future of gaming.

How many of you out there have had a similar story? Renting a machine you couldn’t afford at the time if at all else just to get a glimpse of what was to come.

-VIDEOGAME NINJA APPROVED-

I don't have time to read the wall of text.

But I rented consoles from Hollywood Video, back around the turn of the millenia. Dreamcast and NFL 2k Baby!

I never paid money though...it was a work perk (I worked there)

Wasn't aware you could rent them. :/

Never, actually.

@demi0227_basic: NFL 2k lol. I remember sega dreamcast had some of the best critically acclaimed sports game at the time, maybe even ever. Amazing machine.

-VIDEOGAME NINJA APPROVED-

Was aware but never did it.

Yeah, their games were better than ea (Football/Basketball, which I guess still continues to this day.) I remember EA bought rights to the NFL, after which I dropped out of football so hard. I played ball in high school/college, and loved playing 2k because it "felt" right compared to Madden (Like Forza "feels" right when you drive cars).

I was so mad...I vowed to never buy Madden. Now...11+ years on, I don't even follow football irl because I was so mad about it. lol...

Anyways...yeah, going high with Randy Moss or Getting 5+ sacks a game on pro difficulty with John Randal (Vikings fan) was so great back then.

Not only am I old enough to have rented a NES, we also had to rent a VCR when renting movies (early on at least)!

I never rented one myself personally but some friends of mine would sometimes rent the original PlayStation back in the day and we'd all spend the weekend playing it.

A buddy of mine rented a Jaguar once for his birthday party when we were like 12 years old.

I rented a Sega CD when it came out with Sonic. That same buddy rented Sega CD later on as well.

Good times.

Yes. Back in college, my roommate and I rented a Playstation. It was just released that year and we rented 2 games with it. Primal Carnage and Demolition Derby. The latter we had a lot of fun with, was the first game I ever played that had damage physics. I also liked how you could mark the camera to where you wanted on the track so during replays, the camera would move to those points.

Later on, I ended up getting an N64 but after 007 and a few other greats, I saw the trailer to FF 7. Jaw dropped I ran to Hills dept store and forced them to take my money. Had a lot of fun on that system. in the 8 and 16 bit days, I rented most all of my games but systems was a pain because you also had to put down a $50 or $100 deposit ( I forget which). Could only keep it for a couple of days and it was kind of expensive to rent ..at least I recall thinking it was.

That said, I do remember when you could rent Neo Geo's and certain Hotel's actually had them hooked up in some of the rooms. "Color TV, HBO and Neo Geo" lol

Same here , i think that last time i heard rent a console was back when Blockbuster was still around

When the N64 released in Japan a gaming store near me had imported it and had it on display showing Mario 64. I begged my parents to rent it. It was an $600 insurance payment+$50 a day rental (I think around there).

Best rental ever made. Game was everything I hoped it'd be.

Sweet mother of Shigeru Miyamota, $600!!!! That's absolutely INSANE, especially when you consider that the year must have been around 1996. Give both your parents a hug, they must obviously love you lol.

-VIDEOGAME NINJA APPROVED-

Yup, I was very lucky. :) I think the guy's were expecting the system to be ripped off, and I can't say I blame them.

I havent. That's not a thing you can do where I'm from but it would be very cool. I'd like to try a console before buying one.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, lmfao. For the love of Hyrule, I would never have thought that they would be offering services like that back then for videogame consoles. That must have been 1985 right? And the VCR comment lol, how many people in the Gamespot community even know what one is? LOL.

-VIDEOGAME NINJA APPROVED-

Rented Turbo Graphix 16, Genesis, N64 & PS1. I still remember the PS1 coming in a briefcase with foam cut out to fit all the pieces perfectly.

@videogameninja: These comments remind me how darn old I am.....

I loved getting the VCR to watch movies. Came in this huge hard-side case with the foam cut out to fit the player. Top loading VCR at that. Seemed like it weighed about 100 lbs. I remember my dad getting mad at me once because I forgot to rewind the movie before returning and the fee was like another day rental. We bought one of those dedicated rewinders after that.

I remember renting out a Sega Master System to play the Ghostbusters game back in the day.

I also used to rent out Star Wing and Donkey Kong Country 3, come to think of it.

lol , top loading vcrs? isent that called a betamax.