Funcoland!

Not much time this week for game hunting - so I thought I'd pull out an interesting piece from the collection and write about it for a bit.

Behold! A Funcoland price sheet circa March 1999. For those too young to remember or not blessed to live in a select part of the country, Funcoland was a new/used video game store in the '90s and early 'aughts. I recall the big draw to the store being the row of TV's with systems hooked up, and a store clerk would (begrudgingly) allow you to give whatever game you were 'interested in buying' a quick test drive.

Of course all the Funcoland franchises were bought up by and subsequently transformed into GameStop stores, and the cartridge-based games stopped being sold quite a few years ago. Sadly, most of my original Nintendo collection wound up being traded in to a Funcoland once I reached high school and got a car that required, y'know, gas 'n stuff.

Looking back, the stores were pretty amazing for their time with their walls and racks filled with classic plastic. I guess they got a lot of phone calls from kids or parents wanting to know how much a certain game cost, so to circumvent this (or maybe to let kids save up their allowance money) the stores produced a monthly newspaper-like price sheet for all of their used games.

It's funny (and heartbreaking) to read the prices on the sheet. Most of the games are less than $4, including many that are less than $1. If only I had a time machine and $20...

Here's a quick sample of the 1999 Funcoland Price and the current lowest "Buy it now" price on evil eBay (which should never be used as a guide to what a game is actually worth, but it's convenient for this list):

Bandit Kings of Ancient China - $0.29 ($36.99)

Gun Nac - $1.99 ($29.99)

Flintstones 2 - $6.99 ($249.99)

Pesterminator - $0.29 ($25.19)

Panic Restaurant - $2.49 ($96.99)

Power Blade 2 - $0.79 ($119.99)

Little Samson - $3.99 ($195.89)

Wayne's World - $0.49 ($32.35)

Zombie Nation - $1.99 ($64.99)

and...

STADIUM EVENTS - $0.29 ($39,999)

Don't even get me started on Stadium Events...