I´ve started to visit thrift stores again on a regular basis. And although they generally have very paltry games sections, I did encounter a game last weekend that I bought online and haven’t yet played since picking it up: Dragon Age Origins: Awakening. I would have rather picked it up in the store than online, and not only because it was cheaper. It’s just cool to buy something in an actual store.

The games that they often do have are these Denda games of which I know nothing about. I do see them being offered en masse on the local online marketplace also, so there are a lot of them. Wikipedia tells me that they are sold by a Dutch publisher and that there have been published 1300 (!) different ones of for Windows and Nintendo DS, as well as online games. They are mostly search-and-find games, puzzle games, and card games I gather. Games don’t get more casual than that I guess. They are almost just as annoying as all the Skylander figurines that flood the usual sections of the online marketplace I frequent.

Anyway, back to my latest thrift store visit. I always see if they have nice books, CDs, movies or electronics. And this time didn’t disappoint. I picked up a special edition of The Usual Suspects on DVD. A movie I like to watch again on my Sony Trinitron.

In the electronics section I was very surprised to find the first HiFi system I had as a kid. The same Philips FCD185 I bought last year! This one was a bit worse for wear than the one I got, but I was still tempted to pick it up, because the speakers looked in prime condition and the faceplate of one of my speakers has broken off. I didn’t though, because I can easily glue the faceplate back on again, and I have to stop lugging things into my home. I did however ask if I could have the little puck thingy that keeps records with a big hole in the middle in place, which was missing from mine, as well as the little plastic protector for the needle. So, that’s a nice improvement.

While I’m on the subject of lugging things into the home, I have to admit to doing just that, because I bought a VHS player. I got rid of my tapes and deck probably about 20 years ago and now I have one in the house again. I almost bought the same Panasonic that my dad had back in the day, but that deal fell through. And I can’t remember which make or model I myself had. This one is a very modest Daewoo. But it plays just fine. I watched the only tape that I have at the moment, the one that comes with Daemonsgate. The quality was very good on my old tv.

Now I’m thinking about which movies I would like to have on tape. Maybe one of my favorites: Groundhog Day. Or Alien. This will give a new impulse to my visits to thrift stores. I can visit a few that I’ve been to before. Although in two of those, the VHS tapes are all displayed very high up. They’re more for decoration than for selling I guess. I wonder when the last time was that anyone actually bought on of those.