#SNESDrunk just posted a video on YouTube talking about renting games and specially about #RiggedRental practices (making games harder for different markets to prevent them from being finished in one rental session), and that brought back some memories I should probably add to my own FiXato's Gaming Memories blog post

So, till I've merged it into an updated #blog post on #FiXatoBlog, here's the (mostly) unedited #YouTube comment:

Renting games sure is something of a love-hate thing for me. :)
We most commonly rented from a Videoland store at Plein 1945 in IJmuiden, which probably had the biggest collection, and perhaps the best prices as they were a nationwide chain. Though sometimes we rented from a smaller videostore, Pavillion in IJmuiden I think it was, which sometimes had more unique titles. Vague memories of a third store in Velserhof, but I think that was only briefly during the GameBoy period. I remember getting that GB Snake Rattle 'n Roll spin-off from that one. Balls hard in my memory, but there was something enticing about playing it. Probably the music and fairly unique concept.
IIRC we mostly rented either over the weekend, or from Wednesday till Friday. Sometimes a single game, especially if it was an RPG, or another big title we knew was good and would keep us occupied, (and then we might've rented it for the entire week), but we usually made use of their 3 games for 3 days deal (I think it was 1 game for a week for 15 Dutch guilders, or 3 for 3 days for 7,50 NLD? might've been the other way around, but those are numbers that seem to pop up in my memory).
Having 3 games usually made it a bit easier with picking. My older brother and I usually could pick a game each, and then had to decide together on what the third one would be; or sometimes my mother might've picked, because she liked playing quite some games herself —not just Tetris or puzzle games, but she especially liked RPGs— and playing games with her is one of those memories I'll cherish forever. Anyway, another thing of picking 3 games was also that if you made bad choices, there usually was one or two in there that was good.
Games usually came in VHS boxes with either special inserts, or the VHS holder tabs broken off, and with either a plastic sealed cut up game box used as cover insert, a black and white blown-up copy of the front and back covers, or just a plain white sheet with the title printed or scribbled on.
By default you didn't get a manual with it, though if you explicitly asked for it, they'd look and if they still had it, would include it. I guess too many of them just got lost or ruined by careless renters. As pointed out in the video, this indeed sometimes made games extra challenging. You also would miss out on some background lore because of it. But there also was that sense of achievement of finishing a game, or at least figuring it out, without one.
Living in the Netherlands also meant that US and Japan import games were a thing, and you'd need a converter/adapter to be able to play them on your PAL system. Though this only was a thing for us with renting SNES titles. I don't think it was a thing with GameBoy titles, and I'm having a hard time remembering if renting N64 titles was still a thing? Hmm, yes, that must've been a thing still, because I remember playing Wave Race 64, and Diddy Kong Racing, but never actually getting either. I also have a vague memory of renting the actual N64 unit. Anyways, I don't think they had imported N64 games though.
Anyway, imported SNES games also meant you had to rent a converter, which I guess was an additional easy extra markup fee for them. Sometimes they gave you an adaptor though that wasn't quite compatible due to stricter region lockout systems, which meant a trip back to the store; though later on they did start marking games if they needed a specific converter. Eventually I got my own Action Replay 3 (maybe even a 2 already before that?), which would work with just about anything.

I also remember popping into the Videoland store after school while waiting for the bus if I'd missed the connexion (as it would only go once ever half hour), and just browse through the titles, to see if they had something new, and hope a title I was looking forward to, would still be there come next Wednesday or Friday.
Later on, when SNES was on its way out, I'd also browse through their stack of ex-rentals. Mostly crap games, but I also got some decent scores through that such as a cheap Gradius 3. That's actually something I was hoping SNES Drunk would touch on: ex-rentals.
Quite a large part of my collection, at least all the imports, came through ex-rentals. I remember a videostore in Nijverdal selling off just about their entire store of SNES titles for something like 15 NLD (less than 7.50 EUR) or less a title, and later one wishing I'd bought more at the time... Same with a videostore in Noord- or Zuid-Scharwoude, which had a massive collection of RPGs especially. Unfortunately that store wasn't really easy to get to by myself, and my dad didn't really feel like going back there just for that I guess. I should've made it a trip out with just my mum instead. ;)

#hashtags I regularly use:

• #FiXatoCreative a collection of all my creative outlets. I usually combine these with one of the following:
• #FiXatoPaints for my physical media paintings and #FiXatoPaintsDigitally for my digital ones.
• #FiXatoDraws drawings made with other materials than paint. Distinction is not always very clear cut, and I may use them interchangeably.
• #FiXatoWrites for my writing activities
• #FiXatoFoto as well as #photography and #dailyPhoto for photographs I've taken.

Then there's also these other topics that interest me:

• #FiXatoCodes and #coding (which is perhaps better used as a profile filter: FiXato's #coding posts)
• #FiXatoStreams for my posts about my #livestreaming activities.
• #FiXatoBlog for posts I would like to expand to full blog posts at a later point, or for posts about the development of said blog.
• #MSX and #MSX2 for posts about the MSX #homecomputer from the 80s.
• #FiXatoFood for food I eat and/or make
• #pun and #puns for the puns I make

#WhoAmI #MyProfile #MyHashtags

I've updated my #Gemini #GemPod / #GemLog: gemini://fixato.org/

Its content is now converted from source asciidocs with the aforementioned rewrite of my #GeminiTools conversion pipeline.

I think all the posts look about the same, but if you see something off, please let me know!

#FiXatoBlog #coding #blog

Right, let's see if I can convert my blog post from 2013 (!) about Gaming Memories to #AsciiDoc tonight, so I can generate a #GemText file for my #GemLog from it.

#blog #FiXatoBlog

Inspired by @benhamill's #WolfShirtWednesday post, here's a snapshot of me wearing my #SonataArctica #wolf #tshirt.

#DailyPhoto #contentWarnings: #selfie, no direct eye-contact from me, as I'm looking towards the banner on the wall behind me, but the wizard drawn on it does kind of look directly at the camera.
And I guess the metal horn hand-sign?

#wolf #wolves #beard #selfies #FiXato #FiXatoBlog

(repost because the (long) image description didn't seem to have gone through from mobile...)