Oldschool Videogames is in Temple Terrace, nestled in a little shopping center called “56th University Center.” It’s north of Fowler, but if you hit Fletcher, you’ve gone too far. Anyway, it’s the kind of place that’s easy to miss, but a delightful discovery to make. I honestly wasn’t very excited about it at first. I assumed it was just another R.U. Game (not that there’s anything wrong with that). The first thing you notice that really sets it apart from those other shops that sell vintage games are the cut out displays in the window. These aren’t for upcoming Wii-U and XBox One games, like you might see at the front of a GameStop. This is a fucking Crystal Chronicles display, straight out of 2004! I guess that’s not that old. Oh shit, that’s like, 10 years old… wow.
I won’t spoil any more of these little nuggets of nostalgia that are waiting here for you to enjoy, because you should really go enjoy them. If you do nothing but look at the displays, it will still be a good time. But not only does this shop owner collect awesome video game promotional art, he also collects games in the original packaging, and some systems in the original packaging as well (but they might be display only… I couldn’t tell). A good amount of the games that are for sale here are in their original boxes, which is just amazing to see. Especially for the really old systems like Atari, NES, etc. I could have browsed all day in there just looking at old box art and reading the old game descriptions. The owner mentioned that his preference for collecting games is to have them in the original packaging, so that’s how he wanted to sell them in his shop. He’s just living the video game collector’s dream.
The shelves are well stocked with vintage games – possibly the most variety of old games I’ve seen at a shop. He has some games for newer console too, but really, you want to come here for the old stuff. There’s a TV set up on the left-hand wall with a bunch of consoles hooked up to it. I assume you can try out some of the games there. There were at least 10 or so consoles here, like Atari, Sega, NES, SNES, Game Cube, Wii, XBOX 360 and PS2. There are a few consoles and accessories out for sale and some video game toys in a glass display that seem to be for sale as well. There’s a lot of video game stuff displayed and it’s a little bit hard to really say how much of these things are actually for sale and how much is just to make the shop look cool.
I worry about little shops like this not making it. It’s not in the greatest location; it’s in a spot that’s easy to miss. But if there’s any game shop that I’ve come across that I’d really like to see succeed, it’s probably this place. It really deserves it. It’s doing something special. Visit it, buy things, and keep it going. I haven’t finished reading all the boxes yet!
Oldschool Videogames is located at 12635 56th Street in Temple Terrace.
Open Monday through Friday 11am-7pm, Saturday 12pm-7pm, and Sunday 12pm-5pm.
