Did you ever see a "holy Grail" cart at a store back in the time?

[Vlad]

I've always wondered if titles such as the first 4 Metal Slug , BTG/NTM or Pulstar were sold at physical stores (not meaning Gamestop or EBGames or whatever their European counterparts were, but those that had a strong import section) at the time they were released (mid 90's to early 2000's)...

Or were they usually purchased from specialised dealers via mail order?

 

[roker]

Don't know about "store" , but yeah, I saw that dude from Canada making a Kizuna Euro cart.

I wish I would have had him print a few for me.

 

[Neo Alec]

I've always wondered if titles such as the first 4 Metal Slug , BTG/NTM or Pulstar were sold at physical stores (not meaning Gamestop or EBGames or whatever their European counterparts were, but those that had a strong import section) at the time they were released (mid 90's to early 2000's)...

Or were they usually purchased from specialised dealers via mail order?

I assumed you meant Japanese stores, because by the time all of those games came out it was all mail order only in the US, and I think other Western countries too. About the latter half of the 90's on, these were boutique items you had to special order.

Edit: I think I misread your post. You said "not Gamestop." I don't think I've seen anything. I haven't spent much time in game stores outside of the 90's.

 

[NeoSneth]

Not really. The closest is probably the early days of Pink Gorilla. Otherwise, I've been almost exclusively online.

 

[HellioN]

There were two local stores that had NEO•GEO games on the shelf.
Both shops were pretty awesome.
Every NEO•GEO game was a holy Grail to me back in the day.

 

[GohanX]

I’ve never seen any Neo games in a store outside of very early stuff like Fatal Fury and Super Spy. Even back in the day most of it was special order only. One store near me had a Japanese Kof 98 for a while.

 

[terry.330]

Yeah there were only 2 or 3 stores around here that even had Neo-Geo stuff and they were mainly rental only. They could special order stuff and ccasionally you'd see a random game or two or system bundle for sale used.

The only store around that actually stocked that kind of stuff was a store called Incredible Universe, which had literally everything, even Laseractive. It was nuts.

But all that stuff was gone by the time I owned a Neo in the late 90's.

 

[Tarma]

Locally to where I grew up there was an import games shop that occasionally had Neo Geo CD hardware (CDZ & CD), but never any games.

To see AES games on the shelf I had to go to London - I remember briefly going into CEX's dedicated, and very short-lived, import/retro game shop near Warren St tube station and they had a cabinet full of AES games, but I don't recall what was actually on sale.
The CEX store in Rathbone Place stocked Neo CD stuff until they fucked all the import gaming stuff off and went current gen only.

Then there was Raven Games in Kent - they imported Neo stuff from launch through to the Playmore era as I recall - bought my original Metal Slug 3 from there, and they always had a few of the more common titles on display, including some Euro/English stuff. I think I had KoF '97 US from there, before deciding Japanese inserts were the way to go.

Ah... different times, for sure.

 

[Ralfakick]

Games N Gadgets (EB Before EB) had Magician Lord, Baseball Stars, and Nam in the beginning but that was it I saw for a while till I bought myAES and KOF 94 off of someone.

If I saw anything back then it was the Saturn imports like Metal Slug and KOF 97, had to order from NCSX for anything outside of that.

I got my US Aerofighters 2 from McVans video games and some carts like Karnovs Revenge from Game Dude, I can’t imagine having a store like that near me back then, best I could do was World Heroes 2 and Football Frenzy from the Game Gallery in Upper Darby, PA around here.

About 10 or so years ago I did come across Metal Slug X AES in Lancaster and Game Junkie in the area had Sengoku 3 and SNK vs Capcom AES but that was later of course.

 

[Heinz]

I never saw anything neo related in stores when it was current, bit too young for that and besides as far as I know it didn't have much in the way of market penetration here. That said we did have a game store that had a home system along with lots of other gear which was on display. I tried to buy it once but the guy said it wasn't for sale

 

[Neo Alec]

I bought my AESes and NGCD system from the same local used import shop in the latter half of the 90's.

 

[wyo]

I didn't see any new games in UK retail stores. AFAIK, it was all mail order. There was a mail order place in Leeds that would accept walk-in customers. They stocked new and used homecarts. One time I took a copy of Art of Fighting in to see if I could trade it in. They had someone on the phone looking for one but they were out of stock so I sold it to them on the spot. It was fun just hanging around there. The phones were constantly ringing with orders like a stock trading place.

 

[Vlad]

So, basically seems that the big games from 95 onwards could only be bought via mail order (except in Japan)

 

[Technos]

The one and only time I ever saw a Neo Geo home system as a kid was at Lionel Play World, on display. That was also the only time I ever saw a Turbografx 16 in person before goobing online, years later. These systems were stuff you saw in GamePro and were stunned by the prices for. The internet shrunk the world.

 

[yagamikun]

Similar to the rest - I saw a Neo Geo and the US launch line up (Nam, Baseball Stars, Magician Lord) once in a physical store back in the 90's at Babbage's around the time when the console launched, but after that it was an SNK Ghost Town where I grew up. We didn't even have many MVS machines in our arcades.

When I was 16 and finally had a job in the later half of the 90's, I was able to buy my home cart system. After that, it was all mail order. Game Dude, NCSX, eventually here at the Neo-Store. GameFan magazine and their West Coast import game store ads were more enticing than the actual "journalistic" contents of the magazine. lol

 

[StevenK]

The one and only time I ever saw a Neo Geo home system as a kid was at Lionel Play World, on display. That was also the only time I ever saw a Turbografx 16 in person before goobing online, years later. These systems were stuff you saw in GamePro and were stunned by the prices for. The internet shrunk the world.

Useless Bay - that's a great name for a bay.

Everyday is a school day.

 

[games_sk]

Locally to where I grew up there was an import games shop that occasionally had Neo Geo CD hardware (CDZ & CD), but never any games.

To see AES games on the shelf I had to go to London - I remember briefly going into CEX's dedicated, and very short-lived, import/retro game shop near Warren St tube station and they had a cabinet full of AES games, but I don't recall what was actually on sale.
The CEX store in Rathbone Place stocked Neo CD stuff until they fucked all the import gaming stuff off and went current gen only.

Then there was Raven Games in Kent - they imported Neo stuff from launch through to the Playmore era as I recall - bought my original Metal Slug 3 from there, and they always had a few of the more common titles on display, including some Euro/English stuff. I think I had KoF '97 US from there, before deciding Japanese inserts were the way to go.

Ah... different times, for sure.

I went to these stores back in the day too! I bought complete boxed Neo Geo CDZ (£295) and white boxed Neo Geo Home Cart consoles (£250) from the CEX retro store before they closed it.

From the Rathbone Place store, my brother bought Garou MOTW (£550) and the sales person shouted "We sold Garou!!!". Everyone looked at us...

 

[Tarma]

I went to these stores back in the day too! I bought complete boxed Neo Geo CDZ (£295) and white boxed Neo Geo Home Cart consoles (£250) from the CEX retro store before they closed it.

From the Rathbone Place store, my brother bought Garou MOTW (£550) and the sales person shouted "We sold Garou!!!". Everyone looked at us...

I really wish I could remember what was on display in CEX's retro store, because there were a lot of AES games in that cabinet, and I mean a lot. I only went once, then the next time I was in London, about 12 months later, it was gone, just leaving the Rathbone Place store (in that part of London... I know they had branches all around greater London).

 

[LoneSage]

My whole life I never saw Neo-Geo in a store.

I have a very, very faint memory of seeing Splatterhouse for the TG16 at a store, once. That's exotic as it got.

I bought one or two Japanese Saturn games at Babbage's even before I owned a Saturn. One of them was Outlaws of the Lost Dynasty by Data East. Must have been 2004?

Yeah, internet made the world smaller, that's an understatement.

 

[Hattori Hanzo]

Screenshots in video game mags were enough to get me hyped in the early 90s.
My parents bought me Fatal Fury for the SNES. It didn't get any closer for me.

 

[madmanjock]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen Neo Geo stuff for sale in a shop in the UK with my own eyes. I did chance upon a Neo Geo CDZ on cash generators online (a pawnshop) which was a rare find, and that’s the console I have to this day.

There is a place near Ayr that sells Neo stuff but it’s nowhere close to where I live so I’ve never been. https://www.forgottenworlds.co.uk/

Japan of course, was another story. Lots of Neo stuff even in the regular 2nd hand video game shops.

 

[neo_mao]

First place I saw Neo games in the wild was Babbages. They used to keep the Neo games on a shelf behind the registers. I remember which ones they had because I asked the guys working there to see the back of every box. All early stuff.

One time I remember one guy was getting annoyed and asked are you going to buy any of these games…but his coworker was like it’s cool bro, and proceeded to talk all hype about the system for like and hour while I fondled the Neo boxes.

At the time I thought he was the coolest adult in the world…but looking back dude was kinda creepy because I was like 10 years old.

 

[madmanjock]

He was ready to give you insert marks

 

[NGT]

Toys R Us had neo stuff. We looked at it through the glass case, and then went around the corner and bought NES games. I didn't get into neo stuff until I met Jorge in the early 2000's. Most of my neo stuff was bought here.

 

[LoneSage]

At the time I thought he was the coolest adult in the world…but looking back dude was kinda creepy because I was like 10 years old.

Lil homie lived in a time before internet message boards, he was just excited to talk about Neo to a fellow fan, don't take his sunshine away