Excellent Dreamcast find in major video game retailer.


Note: First off, this little post is about the American game store "Gamestop". However, many of video game chains in Europe have been recently making similar mistakes of not stocking Dreamcast material. Therefore this article can be helpful to anyone. I am sure that anyone who has tried to shop for retro video games has encountered a similar situation (what with the "new gen" crap they have been trying to foist upon gamers).


GameStop.


Stop lying to consumers.


I have asked MANY different branches if they had any Dreamcast stuff left and they all pretty much had the same answer.

"No. Gamestop does not carry any retro games."

"None of our stores have any Dreamcast stuff left."

"There is no store that we sent all our older video games to."

I recently found out this was not true. There ARE some stores that have been sent Dreamcast stuff. I have no idea why gamestop employees wouldn't tell me this. Maybe they just didn't know because:

1. - Managers in local stores want you to shop in their store, not someone else's.

2. - Corporate leaders decided that nobody cares about Dreamcast stuff and didn't bother telling local area stores that certain stores do still carry retro stuff.

3. - There is such poor communication between stores that nobody really knows what the other store have in stock.

Now I have been to Gamestops and EBgames (same corporation) in most of the major cities in Northern and Central NY. Most of them do not have Dreamcast stuff. Every once in awhile they will have some VMU's and the occasional controller. However one store in Syracuse, NY DOES have Dreamcast stuff. ALOT of Dreamcast stuff. A whole damn shelf full. And I got a bunch of it last weekend.

Three bags full! (not all of this was Dreamcast, but the bulk of it was)




The haul included 3 Dreamcast fishing controllers!!!! Only one was first party but the "fission" controllers from Interact work quite nicely.



In addition I got a crapload of VMUS for .25 cents each. Including colored VMUs and the extra memory one. How much is this stuff selling for on Sega parts? New for $29.99???

The best part about all this is that I got all this stuff for less than $20.00. 75% off everything. The manager was happy to clear out shelf space.

This is YEARS after Gamestop stopped selling Dreamcast stuff. So for my European friends who are going through the painful process of Dreamcast merch being pulled off major chain store's shelves, take heart.

It's always worth asking the clerks if they happen to have any Dreamcast stuff left in stock. Or at least to try to ask if any local stores have any backstock of retro video games. You may get lucky.

In other news I managed to snag an Interact lightgun in another store (Game Craze). It's in good shape and it's HUGE. It's really one of the coolest lightguns I have ever used. Of course this the brand that is famous for breaking easily so I am gonna keep my Madcatz brand dual pistols for casual HOD2 or Death Crimson OX blasting (US brand lightguns work with Death Crimson OX...) It's good to know that some stores still support retro gaming and we should all try to support them as much as possible.

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW! You're a lucky man! VMUs for 25cents? I bought in another day from an online store, a third party mem. card with no lcd screen for 3.70$ approximately.. How wonderful... if only I lived in the US.. however, very great post!

Animated AF said...

Two words:

jammy. Git.

Anonymous said...

You're really really lucky

Anonymous said...

whats ur email so i can email u? i am a dreamcast fan, a huge one, wanting u to buy some VMU for me and ship, ill pay of couse, please...?

Caleb said...

Gagaman(n)

Ok I am up on "Git" but you gotta help me out with jammy...?

jammy, adjective
-covered with jam

???


fox-

It's not really luck, it just that I have to travel a bit for my jobs and I stop in the local gameshops to see what they have. The whole point of the article was that if I had listened to the Gamestop employees near me I would have never taken the 5 minutes to check that gamestop. That stuff had been sitting there for awhile.

-Treamcaster

Oh yeah the VMU's were the best part of the find! I had no idea they were still selling for $5 ebay.

Other stores that still officially carry retro stuff still charge alot for VMU's.

Caleb said...

"whats ur email so i can email u? i am a dreamcast fan, a huge one, wanting u to buy some VMU for me and ship, ill pay of couse, please...? "

Dreamcastguy
at
Hotmail.com

I can send you a halfway decent first party VMU. Shoot me an email.

Anonymous said...

Hey hold on a min! I think I wanna do some business here as well.

Add me caleb:

dark_soul_0910@hotmail.com

Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Here in Rome i found only a wideogame shop that sells a few dreamcast games like tomb raider chronicles and chiken run but nothing about hardware. I'll buy everything they have XD

fatherkrishna said...

Jammy means 'lucky' but we've always known the God of gwming has smiled on you Caleb...And hell! You deserve your 'jamminess' Good work fella! :)

Anonymous said...

Ughh in spain i pay about 6 euros per vmu.

fatherkrishna said...

Hey Caleb! Perhaps you can solve a mystery for me! When playing Death Crimson OX I have to move the D Pad to sight my gun... Is this the same with the big gun you pictured in the post? Or can you just point and shoot as you can in HOTD2?

Caleb said...

I guess you have to have an NTSC lightgun to play since I use my lightguns to play that game.

However I have no clue if NTSC lightguns will work on PAL screens so yeah.

Have you tried using a regular controller in port one and using the lightgun in port two? That might work.

Also try just using the lightgun without anything plugged in it.

fatherkrishna said...

I have one of those bad boys you pictured in the post... But I haven't played DC OX with it yet...

I have tried using a regular controller in port 2, in fact you can't set up the game without it..

Guess I'll have to do my own homework... :)

Benjamin Murbach said...

Glad I just found your site. I'm a big Dreamcast fan here in KC. how do i send you photo's? do you have a "send email" area?

anyway yes its hard to find stuff and when it was pulled at all my local ebgames/gamestop a few years back they said they were sending them to other ebgames across the country. ehh

Kevinreloaded.com said...

hey! i almost did the same thing....dammet! i need to ask next week to see if they has anything yo.....


are you willing sell them for cheap?

Kevinreloaded.com said...

sorry 4 double post but....

cool... i like dreamcast....i have a green vmu.... i want the red one?