I am on my 10th year of co-promoting the Video Games Summit in Illinois (http://avc.atari-users.net/VGS/)  and I have met and worked with many vendors of Retro gaming.  I also have been to many video game conferences and met a lot of great people who have companies that buy, sell, and/or repair retro video games.  I thought this would be a great place to promote and describe some great places to access some of their services.  Each place I have written about has given me their permission to promote their site and would be happy to hear from gamers all over.   This community is strongly based on friends and social media to spread the word and keep the retro gaming world alive.

Located in Fenton, MO. Trade-N-Games is a great place to find a huge inventory of retro games and systems.   With great prices and hard to find items, this retro site is a perfect place to visit to fill your collection need or just a game or system you are looking for at a reasonable price.  Ranging from Atari to PlayStation, this site has it all.   You can search by brand, new arrivals, specials, and best sellers.  If your budget is tight you can search items by price.   Trade-N-Games accepts PayPal and MasterCard and Visa.  Jason Brassard of Trade-N-Games welcomes you to shop around and help fill your retro needs if you are in the Missouri area and visit the store.   You can visit the site at www.tradengames.com.

Dan Loosen, one of the co-founders of the Midwest Gaming Classic gaming trade show (www.midwestgamingclassic.com) featuring everything from vendors, tournaments, guest speakers and lots more.  When Dan is not working hard to get this yearly event running, he, along with Gary Heil, is also the co-owner of an online store that offers a wide variety of games, accessories, and systems for the vintage player.    The GOAT Store is an online business where you will find almost anything you are looking for and if you can’t find it they may have a way to get it for you.   Atari, Nintendo, Sega, and
others are available to purchase.  You can also get some collectables you may have a hard time finding or do not want to pay a lot on EBay, such as action figures and DVD/CDs.  See Dan at the Midwest Gaming Classic this April or visit his online store at www.goatstore.com

One of the coolest ideas that I have heard about recently is a company that will send you games for your collection that you are missing.   Video Games Monthly is an online subscription base site that will find games on your collection list that you do not have and ship them directly to your house.   You can receive from 3 games to 10 games a month depending on the subscription you purchase.  From a wide range of Systems for the 1980s up to the games of the 2000’s.  Video Games Monthly does the best to get you the game you want in the best condition possible.   You will never get duplicate games when you get your package delivered.  They have a great inventory system that will keep track of games you receive and games you have for your collection already.     I highly recommend this for the collector who doesn’t want to search thrift stores and Auction sites for your gaming needs.   You can subscribe at www.videogamesmonthly.com.

David Flemming of Packrat Video Games hosts a cool website of vintage homebrew games made for the Atari 2600, Vectrex and the Magnavox Odyssey 2.  You can choose a list of games that are available upon request and shipped out to your home.   Each game has colorful pictures of the game as well as a full description of the gameplay.  The best thing about PackRat is that if you have an idea and can write a game yourself, PackRat will manufacture the cartridge with your permission.  They will do the label design and printing as well as the manual design and printing if that is what you request.   They can also do DVD production and distribution for any ideas you may have to offer.  Other items PackRat Games can produce are custom stickers and mousepads.    If you are interested in this one of a kind website, please visit www.packratvg.com.

Founded in 1999, J2Games is one of the largest online gaming sites around.   It has a wide variety of games from Atari to Xbox One.  With Free Shipping to anywhere in the United States, you can find most items you’re looking for delivered to your home.   Not only does this site carry game and systems, but also other video game related material such as board games, collectable figures, and accessories.  The website is good and locating the hard to find games as well as games by platforms.    Jay Fennimore of J2Games is happy to discuss anything game related if you contact him.   If you are in the New Jersey area, you can visit the shop as well in the Collingwood Marketplace in Farmingdale, NJ.  Jay and his staff love discussing anything video game related.  You can visit the online store at www.J2games.com.

Looking for those retro pixelated characters you crave.  Allie Fishman is the perfect person to design and create your retro characters.   She can be seen at local video game conferences selling her creations and displaying her creativity in the pixel world.   Allie can be found on Instagram and loves giving gamers the creation they are looking for.   You can contact Allie at https://www.instagram.com/_pixelated.pixie_/

If console gaming is not your cup of tea and you are a pinball fan, then Brad Baker is the perfect person to visit.   His virtual pinball company can recreate all the great pinball games on a digital platform.   Located in Cincinnati, Ohio, this website is very unique and one of the only ones to offer such a platform in the industry.   You can custom design your pinball needs with your favorite games on a single machine.   Some cabinets can hold up to 500 games.  This will make for a good range of games without filling up your house or garage.    The website can answer all the questions you may have in their FAQ section.   You can also view a video of an unboxing to know how easy the setup is and how simple it is to create.  There are many dealer locations across the U.S. to get you the cabinet you need in a timely manner.   Brad was seen on Season 7 of the ABC show “Shark Tank”.  To get more information and to contact Brad you can visit the site at www.virtualpinball.com

When it comes to Retro, Kyle Goewert of JustGoVintage has the perfect one stop shop.   Not only does he have over 1500 video games on his shelf, but other retro items as well such as Movies, Legos, and Clothing.  When it comes to retro video games, this site has a massive collection to choose from.  Click the System you need and a list of games for sale are available at a reasonable price.   Free Shipping is available on orders over $30.00.   Check out the best sellers list on the side of the website to see what is hot at that time.   A search bar at the top of the site is accessible to easily find the exact item if available. A number of items for each category is listed as well to see the wide variety of what is in stock.   To contact Kyle and his staff and to browse the shop, please visit www.JustGoVintage.com

Todd Friedman (386 Posts)

Todd Friedman is heavily involved in the retro gaming community and has co-promoted the Video Game Summit in Chicago, IL for the past 16 years. He also has published 2 books and written for various different gaming magazines including Old School Gamer.