Return to the (Video Game) Castle
I wrote a eulogy back in August of 2010 for Video Game Castle, which is an independently-owned video game store in Chicopee, MA. At the time, I was still living in Arizona and had heard about the closure of the store from a story on Kotaku. I was saddened to read about it, given my personal ties and experiences with the store and its owner.
I had heard through the grapevine that the store had reopened, and one of the benefits of being back home in Massachusetts is to revisit Video Game Castle and see how things are. I ventured over there without thinking to call first, assuming that what I’d heard about the store being open was true. Upon arriving at the address, I was relieved to see an open sign in front of the store. I parked my car in the lot across the street and made my way back towards the Castle for the first time in over two years.
Upon entering the store, the owner acknowledged me and explained his hardships. He told me that he’d read my eulogy piece, which I found to be flattering, and filled me in on what’s been a challenging time for him. He mentioned that nobody followed up on the story about the store’s closure with information about the store reopening and resuming business, which was unfortunate. While the store was closed, a competing shop opened just two doors down… and that store remains open today. It’s interesting to see the competitive dynamic between two stores so close in proximity. I didn’t stop into the other store, but I do admit that it’s a good thing to have two independent stores open, regardless of proximity or reasoning.
After our conversation, I set to what is the best part of visiting Video Game Castle: looking at the varied selection of games that have accumulated over the years. I was happy to see that the NES display case was still intact and had a decent amount of games inside. Sadly, there wasn’t any NES hardware around, but titles like Ninja Gaiden, Super Spike V’Ball, RBI Baseball, and so many others that I loved playing once upon a time stand at the ready if I am able to get another system to play them on.
Complete NES games, boxes and all.
There are still impressive collections of games for the SEGA Genesis and the SNES. There are cabinets for each platform with loose and boxed games included. Far to the rear of the store, a cabinet with SEGA Saturn games waits for interested buyers; in fact, a Saturn console was for sale while I was there and I thought about it briefly. There was even a small number of 3DO games for sale, including Wing Commander III, Sewer Shark, and Twisted. These consoles, along with more recent ones like the PlayStation and Nintendo 64, all have their place in video game history. For me, walking into Video Game Castle and looking around is like being in some sort of museum. I had mentioned to the owner that he should reorganize the basement of the shop and open a console gaming museum of sorts. He chuckled and mentioned that he’d actually sold off a lot of that merchandise since I’d been in there last. I was happy for him that money was made, but jealous that I wasn’t able to buy any of it.
After spending most of the day visiting, I did wind up buying a few PlayStation games:
- WWF Wrestlemania: The Arcade Game: I have a soft spot for Midway arcade games, and this is one that I didn’t own before now. Surprisingly, there’s no game saving or memory card usage… but that’s OK. Dominating with Yokozuna is still a blast, even though I am a bit rusty.
- Bases Loaded ’96 Double Header: I’m not sure why I bought this, aside from seeing the Jaleco name and because the game was complete. It’s obvious how early this game is in the PlayStation life cycle. The players are blocky, the animations are deliberate, and the opening cinematic is unintentionally bad… errr… funny.
- Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey ’98: Long title, I know. Since I don’t have a Nintendo 64 right now, this is as close as I can come to playing a game that I spent tens of hours playing 15 years ago. The sound of awfully compressed and the PlayStation controller layout isn’t intuitive, but I sure get my nostalgia fix for $5.
- Mat Hoffman’s Pro BMX: This game uses the engine from Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, and I played the demo enough to want to own the full game. It feels like a looser version of THPS, with trick animations that unfortunately sometimes take too long to resolve. This isn’t as good as Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX, but is still a solid game.
- Slam ‘n Jam ’96: This is a port of a 3DO game that sadly arrived too late to make any difference for that troubled platform. Crystal Dynamics and Left Field Productions put together a game that seemed to use Konami’s Run ‘n Gun coin-op as its inspiration. The PlayStation port added Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to try and lure players in, but the game never sold well. I liked it on the 3DO, and the PlayStation version was just fine.
Yes, this is still sealed, despite being released 15 years ago.
I’m happy for the owner and for local gamers in this area that Video Game Castle has overcome its challenges and is open for everyone to see. It’s not the most organized store that you’ll ever see, but part of the fun for each visit is to find new things to gaze at. It won’t be around forever, so if you happen to drive through the Chicopee, MA area at some point, I encourage you to stop in and see over three decades of history… much of which is for sale.
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