Yeah, I didn’t know Blockbuster was still around either
Dish Network announced that they’ll be closing all the 300 or so remaining corporate-owned Blockbuster retail locations in the United States by January 2014. They’ll be shutting down the DVD mail service middle of December too.
While these retail stores will be closing, Dish will continue the Blockbusters @Home service, which gives customers premium TV channels and on demand movie streaming services.
When the news broke, people on Twitter shared stories of their fondest memory from Blockbuster. I shared this one on Twitter:
Blockbuster memory: Dad yelling at me after he tried to lie about a return due date and I corrected him in front of clerk. Stupid DKC 2
— Hamza Aziz (@CTZ) November 6, 2013
But I just remembered another one, back in 1994 when they held the World Game Championship series. I wonder if that counted as the first eSport? Anyway, I remember being super excited to enter and knew I would kick-ass in the first game: Donkey Kong Country. Well, unbeknownst to my dumb 9-year-old brain, the tournament was all speed run based. But instead I played DKC like I normally would, going for all the secret rooms instead of just rushing to the end.
Oh well, I got a pretty sweet deck of Marvel cards as a prize just for trying that I still own to this day. I’m pretty sure I even still hung on to that magazine that Blockbuster was giving away promoting the tournament too.
Blockbuster may not mean much to many of you kids that didn’t grow up with it, but it sure was something special to those of us that did. This user blog by kona that we shared earlier in the year will give you a pretty great idea why this is a bittersweet farewell to the former king of video and games.
