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Interview: Keeping it retro and modern with Kingdom Games

How this local business is keeping retro gaming alive.

Donovan Erskine

February 19, 2020 6:32 AM

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With the industry fastly moving towards a more digital landscape, physical media is becoming less relevant. As a result of this, retro games have become harder than ever to get a hold of. Kingdom Games, a locally owned shop in Lakeport California is helping to preserve these titles by making them accessible and available. 

Our own Greg Burke caught up with Tony Pearce, the owner of Kingdom Games to talk about his shop. With brick and mortar game stores becoming a thing of the past, many gamers are turning to digital and online formats to acquire their games. This gets tricky when it comes to retro games, as players have no choice but to turn to third-party sellers online. This is a big draw for Kingdom Games. People can still walk into a physical store and get eyes on the product, rather than purchasing a used NES online and crossing their fingers that it actually works. 

Kingdom Games ran into this problem themselves when stocking up on inventory for their store. “Don’t buy used stuff online, it’s going to be broken”, Pearce said. A large portion of Kingdom Games’ inventory comes from folks that come into the shop to sell their old games and hardware. Pearce knows that there is a lot of competition in the world of reselling, so Kingdom Games tries to over at least 20% more than their biggest competitors.

The interview above dives further into the business of retro games and preservation. If you’re interested in what Kingdom Games is doing, consider visiting their eBay store or Facebook page. Subscribe to Shacknews and GamerHubTV on YouTube for more exclusive interviews.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a young journalist from Maryland, who likes to game. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge Scream nerd and film fanatic that will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_