Retro Store Visit: Joe's Classic Video Games - Rock Hill, SC

One of the things I like to do most when I travel is to search out and visit local video game stores. I'm surprised at how many I've been able to find (and visit) all over North and South Carolina where I work and live. While some of my visits have been better than others, it's still fun to always come back to the blog and share my thoughts and opinions of said stores.

Right in my backyard of Rock Hill, SC is a really cool store located in historic downtown, Joe's Classic Video Games. What sets this store apart from the others I've visited is the fact that they also refurbish and sell arcade machines. It's always fun visiting their store because you'll never know what cabinets you'll run across. On my latest visit they had a very nice Neo Geo cab that had the 1 in 161 MVS cart installed for $899. I also spied a very nice Dynamite Cop and original Rolling Thunder cabinets.

While their presence on the web may not be as slick as other sites operated by retro game stores, you can easily check on what arcade machines they currently have available for sale as well as machines they are currently working on.

In addition to arcade games, they of course have a wide selection of games for systems ranging from the Atari 2600 and Sears Intellivision to more modern systems like PS3 (and everything in between!). They also carry consoles, including clone consoles like the Retro Duo as well as supplies. I had my girls with me on my recent trip so I wasn't able to take photos of the store, but I'll make sure to do that the next time I pay them a visit. Look for a future post.

On this visit I walked out of the store with several baseball games. If you read my previous post on the Famicom Baseball game, then you'll know I've been in a baseball kick so the games that I usually don't notice were the games I was looking for on this particular visit.

It's nice to be able to walk into a local store and have so many choices. This haul is a pretty good representation of the different platforms that Joe's has to choose from. Also a nice thing about the shop are the prices. Most of the prices are very reasonable, though there have been times where I've found copies of the same game that are price differently. Sometimes I can't tell why when other times I think they are priced different due to the overall condition of the cart, sticker, booklet, etc. I personally like this touch as there are times I'm willing to pay a few dollars more if the game is in better condition.

All but two games in my haul were baseball games, so if you don't care for baseball then check out Super Puyo Puyo for the Super Famicom. My oldest daughter was helping me go through their surprisingly large selection of SFC games and Super Puyo Puyo caught her eye. I told her it was a color matching puzzle game and she asked me if it was anything like some of the games she plays on her tablet. I told her "yes" and she asked if we could get it. Priced at a reasonable $6 I let her add it to the stack. Another genre that I really enjoy and often look for is pinball. I don't often look through Playstation 1 games, but my girls were flipping through them and I saw KISS Pinball. I've actually been looking for this game since I learned of it's existence so I was very happy to find this. 

On the baseball front, Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball for the Sega Saturn was stuck away at the bottom of a small stack of Saturn games in their display case. It was only $5 and it was complete (with the foam block!). The jewel case was beat up, but aren't most Saturn cases when you find them in the wild? For the Sega Genesis I found two games, Cal Ripken, Jr. Baseball and R.B.I. Baseball '94. The first was missing it's instruction bootlet, but the latter came complete. Both were cheap. I also grabbed a loose copy of Cal Ripken, Jr. Baseball for the Super Nintendo since it was like $2. It'll be fun comparing these two games to see if one is better than the other. The lone NES game is Major League Baseball and the loose Genesis cart is World Series Baseball. I don't normally buy loose Genesis carts, but it was a only $1 and I figured I may be able to make my own case using The Cover Project.

All-in-all this is a great shop and has a feel that other shops I've visited just don't have. Great selection of games (and more) and even if you aren't in the market to buy yourself a full size arcade machine, it's still cool to check out their selection in person. If you ever find yourself in the area I urge you to stop by downtown Rock Hill, SC and pay Joe's Classic Video Games a visit.