With a booth at PAX East, Sudden Impact offers a lot of retro gaming wares.
If you have gone to PAX East previous years, you may be aware of a gaming store in the Greater Boston area know as Sudden Impact. Along with their booth at PAX, Sudden Impact is located in Winthrop Massachusetts. Besides current video games and gaming systems, the store specializes in retro video games. As a reader of this site, a location such as this may appeal to you, so even if you can’t go there, you can still experience the store vicariously through this feature.
I have visited the store multiple times over the past year to purchase items such as an N64, a GameCube, Pilotwings 64, and Super Mario Sunshine. Their collection of gaming goods goes far deeper though with available games and systems going as far back as the Atari 2600. While most anything can be found online these days, nothing on the Internet provides the same surreal experience as walking into a store in 2014 to see never opened SNES systems, in box, and ready to be played.
Sudden Impact opened in 2009, and is named after the Clint Eastwood spaghetti western of the same name. The owner, Dom Cerulli, decided to get into the retro gaming business after 32 years in the auto retail business. After the last 18 years spent as a manager of a large Toyota dealership, he got the idea to open a video game store after walking by an empty storefront while recovering from a back injury which occurred while he was working. It was the perfect time to act on a new venture because he recently lost his job. Dom is no stranger to video games due to his interest in the art in games. He is also an artist and still uses his skills in order to make custom gift cards and store window murals.
Upon opening the store, Dom would receive trash bags of no longer wanted old games and systems. At the time he was selling N64 systems for around $20. Today, items are acquired through many means, be it customers looking to sell or trade, and from other stores including a retro gaming store in Alabama that closed. This store closing, excitingly, enabled Sudden Impact to stock up on copies of Shantae for the Game Boy Color.
Prices range greatly depending on condition and rarity. While everything is guaranteed to play, there are some items that are available new in box that you wouldn’t expect. Specifically a R.O.B. in its original box, never opened. You can even find Virtual Boy systems, boxed Philips CD-i consoles, and Powergloves, which are indeed “so bad.” Other collectibles are also available. I personally love the store’s Kirby and Pikmin merchandise. Customers can also find items from less expected games, like Conker’s Bad Fur Day.
As previously mentioned, Sudden Impact will be having a booth at PAX East 2014. If you can’t check it out there, you can also check out the website here.
