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[Mikey Jr.]

I'm serious.

I dunno. Something about having 100000 movies at my fingertip has caused me to watch less movies. I remember me and my family would go every Friday night to blockbuster and pick out a movie for us. Then Saturday night we'd all watch together. If I was lucky, my mom would let me get a game too.

It was exciting getting the car and going to Blockbuster with my family.

Maybe I'm alone in this. Maybe I'm just an old man now wanting to go back to that time.

But I'd love if Blockbuster came back, with bluray movies and games, at GOOD prices. I'd pay $6 for a blu ray rental. $20 for a brand new game rental.
Yeah I know. Maybe financially it doesn't make sense. $6 for a movie? For $12 you can get a netflix sub or whatever.

I just kinda want that whole experience back. Anyone else like me?

Or do you guys love the digital future?

 

[Artoris]

I'm serious.

I dunno. Something about having 100000 movies at my fingertip has caused me to watch less movies. I remember me and my family would go every Friday night to blockbuster and pick out a movie for us. Then Saturday night we'd all watch together. If I was lucky, my mom would let me get a game too.

It was exciting getting the car and going to Blockbuster with my family.

Maybe I'm alone in this. Maybe I'm just an old man now wanting to go back to that time.

But I'd love if Blockbuster came back, with bluray movies and games, at GOOD prices. I'd pay $6 for a blu ray rental. $20 for a brand new game rental.
Yeah I know. Maybe financially it doesn't make sense. $6 for a movie? For $12 you can get a netflix sub or whatever.

I just kinda want that whole experience back. Anyone else like me?

Or do you guys love the digital future?

I can always go out and get some takeaway and then watch the film on the net

 

[BennyBlanco]

There was definitely something special about going to a store and renting stuff. Theres a pretty good documentary about the 1 remaining Blockbuster Video in the world called The Last Blockbuster. There’s no going back now because streaming is just so convenient but I feel the same way. It’s just a ton of really shitty content with a few gems here and there.

 

[jshackles]

There are still a few local mom-and-pop place in my area that rent movies. One place has the newer releases and whatnot. Another is a vintage/retro place that goes heavy on the nostalgia and mostly rents VHS tapes and old NES cartridges.

Nobody goes to either place - they're perpetually empty.

 

[eddie4]

Yeah, I remember going and renting SNES, PS, and N64 games and grabbing a movie; Then going to the grocery store and getting some snacks. Fun times, now everything is just so instant, it's kinda boring.

 

[Lasha]

I have nostalgia for visiting the rental store. Many of my best childhood memories are tied to the experience. I have no desire to go back since streaming and gamepass provide the same utility without the inconvenience.

 

[Supple]

I don't miss Blockbuster. I do miss mom and pop video stores though.

 

[Darchaos]

Still remember when my dad came home with a suitcase and in it was a Nintendo 8-Bit system. This was in the middle of the 80:ths and the Console was actually put in a black suitcase, atleast here in Sweden, when you rented them. The games was Super Mario(of Course) and i think if i remember corectly Ice Climber. I know that later on when he hired again a of month later on he brought back Ice Hockey, and i loved to try and find the perfect mix of small-bigger-biggest in youre line-up

 

[Badlucktroll]

I miss the atmosphere of video stores. Did you know that Suncoast Motion Picture Company still exists in certain malls? There are a few left. They survived.

 

[AlteredForms]

Just going to leave this right here.

 

[pauljeremiah]

I would love to have a video store in my area like this:

 

[AJUMP23]

I can watch more and have access to more at the press of a button now. Blockbuster could have bought Netflix. But they were too shortsighted.

I think there is still one blockbuster in Oregon.

 

[Kev Kev]

I remember where all the different sections were in my Blockbuster. Horror movies, video games, new releases, etc. I even remember that drop off slot thing, and I would watch it go all the way down on to the padded bottom every time. Blockbuster was a good time.

 

[GMCamaro]

Just speaking for myself, but if somehow rental stores like Blockbuster came back I would definitely NOT use them. They had a captive audience back then as the only way to see movies at home was to rent them (unless you had unlimited cash to buy every film you wanted to watch). I still remember the unglamorous side of renting all too well.

The disappointment of seeing all the copies of the newest movie all rented out sucked, late fees and replacement fees sucked, just the fact that you had to go back and forth from the store sucked to be honest. Things started getting ridiculous with discs; I remember all too well renting games or movies on disc only to find out they skipped like hell or just didn’t work.

I’d like to walk into an old video rental store and look around, but I know that’s just the nostalgia talking. I’ll never rent again and I’m fine with it.

 

[eddie4]

I think there is still one blockbuster in Oregon.

Yep, the last Blockbuster, in Bend, Oregon.

 

[Laieon]

It's definitely more expensive than a video rental store, but I've started to build a physical movie collection and I'll occasionally pick up something I've never seen if the box art is good enough, just like I would back in the old days. Just picked up the the 4k of Ran, for example, which I've never seen (the only Kirosawa movie I've watched is Seven Samurai... which I also picked up on a whim because the Criterion Collection art for it is gorgeous).

I DEFINITELY agree that having so many options at my fingertips makes me indecisive and ultimately results in me engaging with that material less, which is why I have no interest in something like Game Pass.

 

[mclaren777]

I still have a Netflix disc plan that I've used weekly for over a decade.

 

[Unknown?]

I have nostalgia for visiting the rental store. Many of my best childhood memories are tied to the experience. I have no desire to go back since streaming and gamepass provide the same utility without the inconvenience.

Not really. With subscriptions you pay for a bunch of stuff you never watch.

 

[Celcius]

It was cool back in the day but if they're not going to beat Red Box prices (like $3 per BD rental) then they can stay gone.

 

[AJUMP23]

Yep, the last Blockbuster, in Bend, Oregon.

Has a good documentary.

 

[Lasha]

Not really. With subscriptions you pay for a bunch of stuff you never watch.

Maybe you do. I get more than enough use out of the services I to which I subscribe.

 

[Alex Anderson]

Check out your local library

 

[0neAnd0nly]

Agreed +1,000.

I miss and hate that kids of today/ tomorrow will never experience:

Movie / game rental stores. The feeling of browsing covers, the wall to wall media. Little trinkets up front.

Toys R’ Us (or ANY massive toy store). Even as an adult, there was always something youthful and dreamlike of having so much square footage of toys. As a kid, it’s a surreal experience. Gone.

Indoor Malls at their prime. Lately I have reminisced many times about the 90s and early 2000s mall experience. Especially in the fall / winter. Hoards of carefree people, walking with their families - a buzz and hum of a hodgepodge of voices all around. Clean floors, skylights. Coffee shops roasting constant cups for patrons for virtual chump change (at the time). Home stores, toy stores, game stores, department stores. A small slice of Americana that I don’t think anyone ever knew would someday tank.

I went to my local mall the other day. The change over the last year actually physically hurt me a little. Almost all escalators broken, no sign of repairs. More empty spaces along the halls not being filled. The skylights that once brightened the bustling and beautiful mansion of retail floors, had become old and dirty causing a gloomy haze that now illuminated a barely traversed dirty and littered floor.

Something inside me really did hurt. I am not sure progress has really progressed us at all.

Sad.

 

[SpiceRacz]

I miss it too. We actually had a video store here up until 2016 that carried thousands of videos. You could rent 5 non-new release movies for 5 days for $5. Hell of a deal. I'd easily spend an hour just going down the aisles looking at movies. I discovered so many films I never would have otherwise.

 

[Doom85]

I don’t even use Redbox anymore. I love owning Blu-Rays, but that‘s because I am the only one handling the disc, not some rando who may not know the simplest basics of how to hold the damn thing or to put it back in its case when done and not the floor or a table or such. It was insanely frustrating like a decade ago when my friends and I got Shutter Island through Redbox, we pop the disc in, are enjoying the movie, and then we’re forced to stop and can’t continue the movie 30 minutes in because it keeps messing up and upon inspection of the disc it’s scratched up like a cat went at it. We barely used Redbox after that.

Blockbuster was better in the VHS days because, to my knowledge, you’d have to go out of your way to cause damage to a VHS tape. But now with DVDs and especially BRs, there’s too many chucklefucks out there who can’t wrap their head around something as simple as holding a disc on the edges and not plopping your fucking finger on the disc bottom. To hell with physical renting these days, I want a BR, I’ll buy it, and if I want to rent, I go digital.

Blockbuster can come back for those who don’t mind that potential headache, but I won’t be walking through their doors.

 

[ThatStupidLion]

Do i love it no, but as a society were long past that era. what youre reminiscing about is lost to time and will forever be history. Never to be experienced again. pretty sad because you dont know how unique what youre experiencing is until 5-10 years later when life has slowly changed enough to notice its not what it was.

No one knew that it was going to be their last time in a vhs rental place…or at a funcoland buying used NES games…. Etc.

 

[nush]

BRs, there’s too many chucklefucks out there who can’t wrap their head around something as simple as holding a disc on the edges and not plopping your fucking finger on the disc bottom. To hell with physical renting these days, I want a BR, I’ll buy it, and if I want to rent, I go digital.

I learned very fucking quickly not to rent any back catalogue DVDs from Blockbuster for that reason, new releases were OK for say the first week.

However back in the day before the internet when I had a bonus day off it was well spent renting 5 older movies I'd never seen and making a day of it. Good times.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

I just kinda want that whole experience back. Anyone else like me?

Look at vinyl, same idea. The more people push towards the glorious, utilitarian, digital future the more they cling to the physical past.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

I won't lie, in Mexico they had a section From Blockbuster called Gamerush, where they sold used games, I found games like Silent hill 3 or God Hand for ps2 for 10 dollars.

It was like being Indiana Jones and going to faraway places or states across the country looking for rare or hard-to-find video games.

That time was good, but it will never come back.

 

[TransTrender]

I'm actually surprised video game rental isn't more popular...but those rental prices were wild for a while before the end.

 

[Raven117]

It’s nostalgia…. But for a good reason.

There was something special about getting in the car with your buddy and parents on a Friday night, driving down to a blockbuster and renting like 3 movies more the slumber party. Order a pizza. Man, life was good.

We have lost sight of the fact that the act of doing things (Ie the, the journey) is a valuable part of the overall experience. The internet has taken a lot of that away from us.

 

[Mr Blobby]

there's one near my folks place that's been around forever and I go there sometimes when I visit them. Sounds like you also just miss doing stuff with your family.

 

[Pejo]

I still remember winning a videogame championship as a kid at my local Blockbuster for playing Judge Dredd and some other games in like a 2 minute stage rush medley type thing. Then I went to the regional tournament and got annihilated. Was still fun though, and I got like a year of free rentals (limit 1 per week) for being the store champ.

Also, one of my best friends got a job there years later and would hold the new releases when we wanted to see something. Then I'd come pick it up and we'd get his older brother to buy us 40oz and we'd get smashed and watch movies.

Man those were the days.

Anyways, on topic, it was fun to just go and browse the movies when you didn't have anything else to do, especially the lesser known stuff, particularly cheesy horror. I liked Family Video better than Blockbuster though, and they lasted longer as a chain.

 

[Roufianos]

Got huuge nostalgia for my local Blockbuster, which is now a hardware store.

Even just the smell

 

[StueyDuck]

I get a strong feeling if blockbuster was to be a thing again in the US it'd just end in gun fights and brawls these days with the way people conduct themselves now.

Where I am though I have to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised If there's a few dvd rental places still going we backward as shit here

 

[nush]

I won't lie, in Mexico they had a section From Blockbuster called Gamerush, where they sold used games, I found games like Silent hill 3 or God Hand for ps2 for 10 dollars.

It was like being Indiana Jones and going to faraway places or states across the country looking for rare or hard-to-find video games.

That time was good, but it will never come back.

I never told anybody about this, on gaming forums because I didn't want the word to get out. Blockbuster was the place where you could find the rare preowned games and cheaper than dedicated game stores because the staff there didn't know or care about the price of used games. Game collectors wouldn't go there specifically because they didn't think about it.

If you went and looked on a Monday or Tuesday evening when they had processed all the games that had been traded in over the weekend you had a very good chance of finding something good. Especially if you checked all the Blockbuster stores in your area.

Not only that but they would not take out the manuals or bonus discs from the cases on the shop floor of the used games. So for years I didn't pay for Xbox Live because I'd scoop out all the 48 hour codes from the cases as nobody working at Blockbuster cared. Also how I got my Quake 2 disc for 360, without having to buy Quake 4 for example.

Actually, was pretty much the same thing at any video rental chain at the time.

 

[GeekyDad]

Yeah...I too am nostalgic for having some 17-year-old wanker take his sweet ass time logging my movie returns so that I get overcharged. Or ignored for 5-10 minutes at the counter waiting to check out when there's no one else in the store. Those were great days, eh?

 

[Drew1440]

Is there no reason why they can't come back but have the moves stored on USB memory sticks or SD cards? That would solve the whole skipping/damage issue.
I do subscribe to Cinema Paradisio which is a mail DVD/Blu-ray rental service in the UK (Like the original Lovefilm) and whilst it's mostly good you do get the odd scratched disk, which seems to happen more with 4K Blu-ray's, I guess because they're quad layer which makes them more sensitive.

 

[nush]

17-year-old wanker take his sweet ass time logging my movie returns so that I get overcharged.

Of course you put them in the drop box before the store was closed. /s

 

[reksveks]

I am generally a subscription service guy (got like 3 prime video subscription for bfi, mubi and one more thing that escapes me) and then buy if I love the movie if possible. That pattern happens similarly in Gaming.

My physical purchases have decreased in the last but that's cause I am running out of space. I did just import Eva 3.0+1.11.

 

[FunkMiller]

The rose tinted spectacles are strong in this thread.

 

[PapaEmeritus]

To me it's not just that streaming ruined it, but the internet. Most of the fun was going to a video store and picking something purely based on the box, no rotten tomatoes, no ign reviews. Sometimes you found an amazing movie or game, sometimes a dud, but it was kind of fun for that.

 

[Scotty W]

There are loved ones in the glory[2]
Whose dear forms you often miss.
When you close your earthly story,
Will you join them in their bliss?
Will the circle be unbroken
By and by, by and by?
Is a better home awaiting
In the sky, in the sky?
In the joyous days of childhood
Oft they told of wondrous love
Pointed to the dying Saviour;
Now they dwell with Him above.
You remember songs of heaven
Which you sang with childish voice.
Do you love the hymns they taught you,
Or are songs of earth your choice?
You can picture happy gath'rings
Round the fireside long ago,
And you think of tearful partings
When they left you here below.
One by one their seats were emptied.
One by one they went away.
Now the family is parted.
Will it be complete one day?

 

[MikeM]

People like the instant gratification of digital. I prefer the experience of going to stores, browsing and then committing to one movie/game for a weekend.

I obviously do miss the Blockbuster days, especially now that I have kids of my own.

 

[thefool]

I miss it too but its not economically competitive.

 

[Bragr]

There certainly was a charm to it. I still remember the closest video store, the rows of VHS tapes. I always remember checking out the "top 20 new movies" section to see what was out.

I remember we used to rent this decoder thing so we could get american tv channels, so we could watch mike tyson fights.

Renting games was pure adrenaline for me as a kid, every game was a treasure and it was like a holiday when we could rent one over the weekend.

 

[RJMacready73]

At least you Americans had blockbuster, before it came to the UK/Ireland it was mainly small independents which could only afford 1 or 2 copies of the latest movies so you either had to put your name down or you had no mission of renting anything on the new releases section, the first time I went to America and entered a blockbuster I was blown away by the sheer amount of copies of each new release, rows upon rows of a single movie but yeah it's a happy childhood/teen memory of the family going out to pick a movie to watch together and I'd love to replicate it with my kids but closest I come is jumping in the car taking them to the sweetshop letting them go nuts and then selecting a movie on some streaming service to watch together every Saturday so it's now become a Saturday movie night thing to go get snacks and select a flick.

It was a product of its time and simply wouldn't work nowadays

 

[nush]

The rose tinted spectacles are strong in this thread.

Digital storefronts are shit for discovery.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

I miss it too but its not economically competitive.

How many milions pay for the most expensive Netflix subscription to watch 1 or no movies per month? How many people post about ‘scrolling through Netflix and not watching anything’? The number is probably not insignificant.

It’s the same with vinyl - being forced to buy makes you more appreciative of what you have and what you experience.

So it is probably competitive, just not in VC-backed way.

 

[Unknown?]

Maybe you do. I get more than enough use out of the services I to which I subscribe.

Unless you play and watch everything on that service you're still paying for stuff you never use and unless you like everything you're paying for stuff you don't care for too.