The 1980s Computer & Video Game Shopping Experience | Retro Dreams 

"How could you ever throw away something like this".... This comment hit me hard. I got rid of all my big box DOS/win9x games from the 80s and 90s in 2008. I was a bit of a hoarder growing up and after I moved abroad for work I stored all my old stuff stored at my parent's house. However, eventually, they wanted the space so I had to reduce my 20-something boxes of crap down to just 5. So the game boxes, discs, manuals, maps, CDs, DVDs all got trashed. At the time I was kind of happy to be over my hoarder phase and I figured as I had digital copies of everything, I wouldn't miss it. I was very wrong. All the sierra, ssi, origin, microprose, interplay, Westwood , sirtech & lucasarts classics and so many more gones. Now I look back at the photos I took that day and the regret is strong. Even if the discs no longer worked, I would just love to be able to read through the manuals and look through all the boxart again because as a kid that stuff was almost as important as the games themselves. The lesson that was learned; don't throw away your memories.

I remember that "holy crap, it's out!" feeling in the 1980s and 1990s when walking into my local Babbage's software store. The rows dedicated to different machines: Commodore 64, Amiga, Apple II, IBM compatibles, etc. I also played and loved F-19 stealth fighter. It was probably my first flight simulator. Even though its sequel, F-117A was a better game from a design standpoint, it just wasn't as much fun for me. I had this same experience with Red Baron in 1990. The sequels, Red Baron II and Red Baron 3D, were technologically superior in every single way, yet... the fun factor just wasn't there for some reason. I still have my F-19 box, Red Baron box, and Wing Commander box, all of them with their respective manuals. My wife and I also have our combined collection of Sierra Online and LucasArts adventure games.

I'm so happy to grow up in 80s90s. The best year's. In my life ❤

I rode my bike from my dad's business a mile or so down the road and popped into the small computer store in our small, rural town. They had a PC setup with the demo of Alone In The Dark. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. 3D Graphics. Environment interaction. Hitchcocky camera angles. I raced my bike back to my dad's shop and told him I had just seen the most incredible thing on the planet. After work he came with me and we brought the game home. Thanks, Dad.

I am 55, and this Gen will never know the awesomeness of holding those unique boxes, opening them, and just looking through the booklets.. man I miss those days.

Ah yes, great times! Thanks for the memories!

So happy to have grown up in this era, it'll never be as fun.

feels good to hear how good you felt in the stores then . .idid too..

That was a golden age !

2.16 yes the classic Sega System, some people insist that it was never called that

Everything I owned was either used or pirated. That was the market in my country of birth. Until a relatively rich friend started buying imported original MicroProse games like Red Storm Rising. I felt like I could operate a submarine after reading that manual. It even came with a keyboard layout for controls. I played hundreds if not thousands of games on C64 but I realized I could never appreciate a game enough until I got my hands on a comprehensive, physical copy.

Golden times indeed. Here in Poland we didn't get proper big boxed original games since there were no copyright laws untill early 1994 IIRC, so pirated copies were literally sold in stores without those awesome boxes and sometimes with printed out short version of the manual. I started collecting big boxed PC games since 1995 and have gathered pretty nice set, mostly flight simulators. I hunted for all those older ones I couldn't get as a kid and they truly are something special - all those goodies - maps, manuals and other items. Half the fun was playing the game, the other half was reading the manuals. I also have that F-19 release, along with many other titles from Microprose like its sequel - F-117 Stealth Fighter 2.0, F-15 Strike Eagle 2 and 3, Gunship 2000, F-14 Fleet Defebder, 1942 Pacific Air War, and much, much more. Today's gaming has lost that aspect - and it's not nostalgia talking.

Gold times! My dad bought a Msx I think in 1989.

The feels. The video was great but the standout for me were the actual store pictures. In my area, we didn't have such massively stocked computer stores, but I did travel to the US east coast during summers and whenever we'd go out shopping...it looked like that!

Great video and indeed what a time it was. We had the advantage living in an area in Europe where different countries were all so close by and I always managed to squeeze in a casual visit when we went on vacation to other places in Europe. I remember how divers it was even between countries, but have the best memories from Germany and their Amiga games. Great times, which has moved on with time. Though I wish I could let my kids experience what I did back then.

Thank you for the memories! I remember the first time i went into out local shop! I played frogger on a vic20 on black and white screen!

Love that clip of flipping through the page of Tilt magazine on top of a CPC 464 at 0:30!

fun for the french pictures & issues

0:58 whoa is that Woodfield?

The mic sweeping left to right constantly makes this pretty unbearable to watch on headphones.

LIAN LI LANCOOL EVO 219

Man I would give everything to go back to that time and do it all lever again. I’m 50 now… I was a kid right in the middle of this era…. Almost makes me teary eyed to see how fked the world is now, yeah technology is just awesome and I love my Microsoft Flight Simulator today but I would trade it ALL for my Nintendo 8-bit, Zelda, Kid Icarus, Metroid and how it felt playing them for the first time

I remember my first year of U of Michigan with my VGA PC in the dorm playing LHX ATTACK chopper… I was the fkn man, it ran so great, I was 17 in 1990… If I could take a pill and go back again I would right now