Category: Time

Newsagents

Let’s return to Charlestown Square, circa 198x. They hadn’t even started absorbing ‘Hilltop Plaza’ yet, and the ‘northeast exit’ (which no longer even exists in it’s then form) near Best & Less led out onto a sun-bleached concrete walkway around a Newsagent. That’s where I bought so many copies of Zzap64 and Commodure User and Smash Hits and even an issue or two of Warlock and Proteus. I can even remember where the magazines were in the store, and the exact path (clockwise) I’d walk around the enormous displays to choose what I wanted. This was before Lotto, and the place was dedicated to print media, was absolutely wallpapered with racks of magazines from all over the world, and had that exquisite ‘Australia newsagent smell’ that would take me right back were I to smell it now. It’s long, long gone now, living only in my memory. Has the age of the newsagent itself also passed?

These days, when I ‘go shopping’ (which is rarer than ever), I tend to visit a very specific set of shops: game shops, hobby shops, bookstores etc. There was once a time where newsagents was always included in this list. I remember as a youth, during the strolls down hunter street or the occasional day trips to Sydney, I would never walk past a newsagent without going in and (usually) buying something. As far back as I can recall there were magazines I would always buy, and even if the latest issue wasn’t available the newsagent was always a reliable place to grab a cheap drink, chocolate bar or bag of lollies.

When I came to America there was a lot of culture shock (“Why does bread taste so weird?”, “Why is everything so sweet?” are two I remember) and I can still recall being surprised by the lack of traditional newsagents. Magazines were of course sold, but the biggest racks were in grocery stores and paled in size to the average Australia newsagent. We occasionally visited a dedicated magazine shop in Rochester that had a massive selection, but it seemed wrong that the magazines I knew were still in print (mostly UK magazines) were mostly unavailable in my local shops.

Then the internet came along and changed the magazine industry forever. People stopped reading printed magazines, the number of available titles contracted, and as a result the magazine-sellers closed. Magazine racks in shops here in the USA diminished or disappeared entirely – my local grocery store for instance no longer sells any except for a small selection of gossip rags at the register. I used to still buy mags I was interested in at the bookstore Borders, but eventually it closed as well, and for a time things looked grim.

Thankfully Barnes & Noble stepped up, and (about a decade ago) our local one added an enormous magazine section that has served me well ever since. There’s endless talk of them closing and/or getting out of the magazine business (since almost all the mags they sell are imported from the UK) but so far, so good. It’s not the same as a newsagent though, and I sorely miss the type of shop I remember from my youth. Which is why I loved visiting Australia every year and going into the newsagents for a bit of nostalgia.

For about the last decade business was getting difficult for the Australian newsagent. Readership of magazines had declined, and it was becoming cost-prohibitive to import magazines from the UK and USA. Many newsagents were turning into gift shops or simply lottery vendors, and the magazine racks seemed smaller every time I visited the country. Then along came covid and it hit the humble local Australian newsagent like a juggernaut. When I was there last year I walked to three trusty newsagents only to find all of them were gone, and the few that remained barely sold any magazines. In the year since I have read about many closures, including a 100+ year old newsagent in South Australia (believed to have been the countries oldest) and a 60+ year old one in Newcastle. Apparently closures were accelerated in the last year by several Australian newspapers canceling their print versions, but the end result is that entire communities now have nowhere to buy magazines.

When newsagents are gone magazines will follow, which to this avid reader is a sad thing. But much like the vinyl renaissance I’ve read of upturns in the sale of books and even ‘dumb’ phones, and suggestions of the younger generations wishing to spend less time online. I hope that one day this leads to a magazine renaissance. Until then I suppose I’ll be content with memories of the newsagents of my youth, and my monthly B&N ‘magazine run’.

We all occasionally wonder about what we’d do if we could travel back in time, and I have said many times if I could step into 198x the first shop I’d go into would very likely be a newsagent. I’ll take this one step further and say it would be that exact newsagent I described in the opening of this entry. I wonder if they’ll have the latest issue of C+VG…?

My Collection: Nintendo 64

As a followup to the SNES, Nintendo released the Nintendo 64 (N64) in Japan in mid 1996, and in the rest of the world in 1997. Even at the time it was an unusual choice for the system to use cartridges for games (when the industry was moving to discs), and this ultimately doomed the console to lose in the market against the PlayStation.

I got my N64 early, since I had befriended the guy who ran the game company I would in time write reviews for, and he brought me back one from Japan in 1996. I had exactly one game for it, Super Mario 64, but this was such a groundbreaking and important game that it hardly mattered. I played it nonstop.

When the US version was released nine months later, I had to modify mine to play American games. Luckily this was a trivial process (I had to open the system and remove a piece of plastic) and I then had an N64 that could play games from anywhere in the world. Despite this I only ever bought one other Japanese game – Sin and Punishment – which was also fittingly the last N64 game I ever bought (in 2002).

As I mentioned this was a system hamstrung by the choice of cartridges. It was technically competent and had a great controller – the first true analogue controller for a home console in fact – but gaming was maturing from simple 2D graphics and games needed far more data storage. Publishers faced the choice of inexpensive CDs for PlayStation versus expensive cartridges for N64 and it’s unsurprising the discs won. As a result the N64 was the last non-handheld console to use cartridges until they returned for the Switch over 20 years later.

I only ever bought about 25 N64 games, and traded many of them in in the early 00’s when EB Games offered too-good-to-refuse prices. My remaining collection is above. Despite the small number of games there were some true classics on the system, including Mario 64 and Ocarina of Time, which is a wonderful Zelda game that pioneered many advancements that countless games utilize today such as lock-on targeting and a user-controlled camera.

Ultimately though this system must be remembered as a failure which lost Nintendo control of the industry. It’s followup – the GameCube – didn’t do well either, and it wasn’t until the phenomenal success of the Wii that they would return to the top of the market. I loved the N64 when it was the current system (I always preferred it to the PlayStation), but in retrospect it’s unquestionably my least nostalgic Nintendo console.

Which is one reason why I’m now saying goodbye to mine. I’m about to sell another large chunk of my collection, and will this time say goodbye to my NES, SNES, N64 and GameCube games (and hardware). Lots of memories will go with it all, but the time (and price) is right and I feel comfortable parting with it. I hope the next owners get as much joy from the games as I have over the years 🙂

My Collection: SNES

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) was released in Japan in 1990 and worldwide starting in 1991. In those days, still in Australia, I knew about the SNES but was content playing NES and PC games. It wasn’t until shortly after I arrived in America (in 1993) that I bought my SNES.

These days this system is renowned for a large library of high quality games. In particular it heralded the arrival or best installments in many famous series including F-Zero, Mario Kart, Castlevania and Metroid. The first (and only!) Mario game on the console – Super Mario World – is considered to be one of the best platform games ever made, and the system includes many famous and beloved RPGs in its library.

In time I would buy 35 games for the system, most of which are shown above. For several years the SNES and Game Boy were my only consoles, and I have very fond memories of long nights playing epic RPGs such as Final Fantasy 6 (one of my favorite games of all time) or Wizardry 5.

Games were expensive in those days! The above game cost me $74.99, which is about $150 today! I recall I used to save up for games and treasured every one I got 🙂

Due to the quality of the library, the large amount of RPGs, and the fragility of the cardboard boxes the games were sold in, the SNES has become arguably the most collectible console. Some games have skyrocketed in value, and very rare ones are bought and sold these days for thousands of dollars. If you wanted to collect a full library of SNES games today, you’d need very deep pockets.

I don’t have any of the super rare ones, but a few of mine are worth a tiny fortune these days. The above game, Chrono Trigger, is probably worth ten times what I paid for it in 1995, or possibly even more since I’ve kept mine in pristine condition!

For me the legacy of the SNES are the very happy memories it has given me. This was the system that really got me into console gaming. The system that hooked me on Japanese RPGs. And the system that inspired me to start my fanzine which eventually led to a job (of sorts) playing and reviewing games. The SNES represents the foundation of one of my personal stories, and for that reason will always remain special to me.