Greentext

Just America's stupid date format.

That’s not the future it’s 26th March 2001.

Did you try flying to Japan to exchange it?

Not unrealistic at all. I traded someone a shiny blastoise for one with a broken screen that still worked fine. Still think I got the better end of that deal.

Im happy for this fake person

Its odd what becomes a core memory to an 8 year old.

To this day i know exactly where my first Gameboy color was bought. I even know the street name off the cuff, not the number tho.

Not as unlikely as you think i would say

I do. Especially when I was young. This was 2002, so it's probably the same store he went to all the time to browse. (Assuming this is real, of course).

My dmg was a gift from my father when i was 12.

I bought my snes from gamesworld. The wii from ebgames. The switch from catch.

I got my 2600 on ebay

I don't know where the consoles my parents bought me were from, because they were always surprise gifts. But I sure as hell remember where the ones I bought with my own money were from, where a I bought a few particularly important to me games, and where I used to browse with my parents. Not address off the top of my head but I could pretty easily look most up now, or even years ago with the internet.

Kirby's Dreamland 3 was from a discount bin at the Walmart where my family lived until I was 8. Death and Return of Superman for the SNES was from the video rental store we used to frequent after we moved, when they started selling off their old SNES games. Lots of games from one particular Gamestop in between the grocery store and the movie theater. Midnight release of Smash Bros Brawl there. Got a used N64 and some games for it there during the early 360 era too. PSP and some games for it was my first "real" purchase completely with my own money (no birthday or christmas gift money towards it) and was done at a Gamestop in the corner of a local mall. Moved 8 hours away with a GF and picked up Aladin, Starfox, and Super Metroid for the SNES for prices that would now be robbery from a local retro games store before the collectors started getting into retro games (still haven't checked if they're legit or repros, and I should because that store sold a few romhacks on physical cartridge from a different display area in the store). Moved back with my folks after a rough break up. Bubsy 3d from a new store that sells all sorts of used stuff out of what used to be an old Border's book store where I had previously been to for a midnight Harry Potter release (cut me some slack I was like 10 for the Potter and it was long before any of the drama). Switch from a Gamestop in the town where my wife grew up.

Yes, I wish I remembered more important stuff, but I think people have forgotten what buying video games was like in the "old days". You had word of mouth, experience with previous games in the series, cart and box art, and maybe a review from a gaming magazine to go off of. So it was an experience. Unless you were one of those kids that was going out to buy a brand new game, you used to actually browse and decide. It was a big deal because you'd get maybe one new game for 6 months at a time. I used to strecth things by trying to get a few used games instead of just one new one. Sometimes you got a flop, like when I bought Croc and Croc 2 because they looked fun and I liked the humor on the back of the box. Not bad games, but I already had experienced Crash Bandicoot 2 and Spyro 3. Early 3D platformer controls like Croc just weren't my thing by that point.

In some ways I miss it. On the other hand, I have a lot less "meh" games hanging around now.

"Fun" fact I just remembered. Shortly after I graduated high school, a former classmate of mine became the manager of the Gamestop I used to go to the most. While I was out failing out of university, 4chan's /v/ideogames board started the "meme" of prank calling Gamestops and finding increasingly roundabout ways to ask if they had Battletoads. This former classmate of mine had a total crashout when his store got hit and ended up rage dumping on Facebook, where he had his employment listed publicly. Eventually he started posting the numbers they were getting the calls from trying to get people to spam call back. Cost him his job.

They are not. They are region free.

No. A random game shop