INSIDE THE VAULT #1 JANUARY 2025

Yes, one and all, welcome to the first edition of "Inside The Vault", the online monthly newsletter that takes you within the walls (and lone gate!) of Nick D's Video Game Vault!

This has been a concept for many years that is finally being executed, and we sure hope you enjoy it!

I don't want to draw this out any longer, but say sit back, relax, and enjoy our very first edition!

Additionally, we want to say thank you for your support and patronage as in a few weeks we begin our 12th year in business!

Without further ado, GAME ON!

~Nick D

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The story of Nick D's Video Game Vault began long before we first opened our doors in the Sugarman's Flea Market in Eynon on January 29th, 2013. Truthfully it began in the mind and heart of our beloved owner, Nick DeMarco. 

As a child of the 80s and 90s, video games were a huge part of his life growing up and for better or worse, created these lasting memories within him, playing video games with friends and family, growing up with visions and sounds that would stick with him throughout the years.

Nick would obtain way more education than one person should ever need (the joke of having two Masters Degrees in case one breaks down still hits hard), and while Nick did get to write about these games he loves so much, perhaps it wasn't the final step, the big dream.

Yes, on January 29th, 2013, we opened our tiny doors inside a flea market, first as a member of The Gathering Place, and then in our own purple booth, complete with a door and window, imagine that!

Whenever our owner is asked about the why in opening this business, especially from those who went to college with him not expecting this to be where he'd be, Nick always speaks on the landscape of retro video game stores in the area. "There's not many, and little options are not good for the community. I simply wanted to give them another." 

In obtaining these items and offering them at a fair price, word began to spread, and soon we would outgrow the tiny walls of the flea market, all the while Nick was trying to get himself into some line of work that would bring him some kind of lasting joy, as obviously flea markets are only open on the weekends. However, it wouldn't take long for Nick to realize that THIS is what he should be doing, full time, and the process of moving out of the flea market to our own brick and mortar store would begin!

Originally slated for just outside of Dunmore Corners, Nick D's Video Game Vault would have to make an abrupt pivot, and end up just a bit further up the road from The Sugarman's Flea Market in the WSK Plaza.

Truthfully, was it the best location for our store? Maybe not. We had our struggles being a bit further off the road, in a place a lot of locals looked at as a bandit highway "all the way up there past da Eynon? Aint it just trees?" 

One thing was for certain, even on slow days, we built connections and continued to show our passion and appreciation of the shared nostalgia or "retro goodness" as our owner calls it, to everyone who stepped foot in our doors.

Alas, as things tend to happen with us, we outgrew even that spot. Friends who had stores at The Marketplace At Steamtown kept asking us, kept telling us, that we needed to at least consider moving operations there. With slower days becoming more and more frequent in our WSK Plaza location, we had meetings in January 2019 for that very reason.

Keep in mind that Nick also had a fondness, a sweet spot if you will, for the formerly named Steamtown Mall, as many people who were teenagers during the years of the then mall's heyday, remembering when buildings were knocked down on television to make way for the mall. It was an event!

We opened in The Marketplace At Steamtown in April 2019, and we've been here ever since. While it can be difficult and somewhat discouraging to hear that there are those learning of the existence of actual stores in the building when we've been here close to 6 years now, we continue to do what we've always known to do, and that is provide a service we feel you can't get anywhere else. 

This year will be one of transition for us, but we believe in what we're doing because of your unwavering loyalty and support, Vault fans. We aim to do good by you, to continue the tradition of shared nostalgia, that grade A retro goodness as its been called. Thank you for sticking by us all these years. 

This business, this newsletter, this experience, it is all for you.

GAME ON!

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Sooo, what games are being played or recommended by our staff this month? Glad you asked!

Nick D

1)Kaboom! (Atari 2600)

2)Legend Of Zelda: Collector's Edition (Gamecube)

3)Rescue: The Embassy Mission (NES)

Joey P

1)Saints Row: The Third (PS3)

2)Injustice 2 (Xbox One)

3)Batman: Arkham Origins (PS3)

Kathy

1)Pokemon Stadium (N64)

2)Spyro The Dragon (PS1)

3)Super Mario Bros 3 (NES)

Joe A

1)Darkwing Duck (NES)

2)Conker's Bad Fur Day (N64)

3)Resident Evil 4 (Wii)

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A Runaway Five Of What Ifs!

You know, we like to think that if you really, really, REALLY love video games like we do, chances are you also enjoy knowing the history of video games, the ins and outs, the things that could have happened, maybe nearly did, but didn't. These are little bits of information we freely share with our loyal customers who, like us, like to know the little stories surrounding some of their favorite games or consoles. 

Here are a five of our favorite ones!

The Atari Nintendo Entertainment System Nearly Happened

Crazy, right? 1983 may be infamously remembered more for the year when the North American video game market crashed on itself from oversaturation, some companies getting involved in personal computers, and overall just a thought that the market was untouchable, when it was always very, very fragile, but could you really blame companies like Atari? Up to that point they had it all, so much so that a deal to sell the Famicom here in the United States under the Atari banner nearly, NEARLY happened. Imagine what the landscape of video games would be today had that occurred. 

The Super Nintendo Playstation

This one is becoming pretty well known by many, but for many years, decades even, it was nearly considered an urban myth, just chatter at recess in school, but an actual prototype of the Super Nintendo Playstation, a disc drive for underneath the Super Famicom does indeed exist! 

The legend goes that while Sony was willing to do this for Nintendo, Nintendo did not want Sony's name on the product, and in the 11th hour decided to pull out of their agreement, signing instead with Sony's rival Phillips, causing an enraged, but prepared Sony, to then expand on that hardware, giving us the Sony Playstation, with an advertising campaign led by the same man who wasn't pulling any punches during the 16 bit wars on Sega's side. Nintendo, in the end, was "blessed" with some of the worst games for their Mario and Legend Of Zelda franchises on the ill fated Phillips Cd-i. 

Why Expansion Paks? Well..

While many gamers, especially those with a nostalgic fondness for the Nintendo 64, know that the Expansion Pak was necessary to allow a few titles to process and store memory better, they don't all know why. Why were games like Donkey Kong 64 and Perfect Dark largely sold with these expansion paks in box? 

Yes, the Nintendo 64, in Japan, did have a disc drive! Of course, not a very good one, as seemingly Nintendo didn't quite figure out some of the issues plaguing them from the Famicom Disk System, and to be short, the disc drive was HIGHLY problematic and unreliable, making it an easy decision for Nintendo to scrap it entirely when their system reached North America. However, since games like Perfect Dark and Donkey Kong 64 were initially made on discs, they needed to create something so that they could run off of their cartridges smoothly. Enter more RAM, if you will, on the Expansion Pak!

What Do You Mean The Market Was Oversaturated?

Today in 2025, you can go to Gamestop, Walmart, Target, or Best Buy, and get yourself a physical copy of a game. You can also buy games from the comfort of your home and have them downloaded to your console of choice digitally. All that said, there are certainly places in this world where you cannot get a video game, not now, and not ever.

In the early 80s the resounding BOOM of video games, while more than a fad, was largely looked at by the media at the time as such. Still, companies were raking in such huge dividends while doing all they could to get their products onto very, very crowded shelves, and that meant video games were going to start showing up in places one wouldn't expect to find them to buy.

Want a full tank of gas and the latest Atari 2600 game? How about your favorite Intellivision title in your shopping cart with a dozen eggs and a loaf of bread? In the 80s this wasn't just a reality, it was the norm!

Nintendo Power Was Scary!

Not really, or at least, just one particular issue. The second issue of Nintendo Power features Castlevania's beloved hero, Simon Belmont, holding the severed head of Count Dracula, complete with ominous red glowing eyes. Countless parents complained to Nintendo how this particular issue's cover was giving their kids nightmares! We know, at a time when The Monster Squad was making us believe movie monsters were real, it was easy to think somewhere in our room Simon Belmont was holding that severed head with glowing eyes, showing it to us even though we didn't wanna see it!

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Is Conker's Bad Fur Day on the Nintendo 64 Still Fun To Play In 2025?

Picture it, La Plume, Keystone College, 2003..

While our esteemed owner considers himself a viable fan of all things Nintendo, when the Nintendo 64 came to be in the mid 90s, he was one of the many put off by it. The odd shaped controller, the continued use of cartridges when CDs were the hip, cool thing. This started the 20 year estrangement from Nintendo, as Nick D would hitch his sails to the mighty Sony Playstation, and not look back for many, many moons.

Still, during his early college years, Nick was privy to being a roommate with a man who happened to have a soft spot for the Nintendo 64, making it where both a Playstation 2 and the Nintendo 64 would inhabit the dorm, the latter becoming a weekly staple for multiplayer carnage on a little game you may have heard of, Conker's Bad Fur Day.

However, the question remains, is Conker's Bad Fur Day, with its ever increasing price tag, still as fun to play as it was all those years ago?

Fortunately for you, Nick D got to step back in time as it were, and experience this game once more with a fresh pair of eyes.

Here are the end results:

Pros:

Conker's Bad Fur Day still plays like a game that you would assuredly think could and would get canceled in 2025, or at least like something that still makes you feel you shouldn't be playing it out in the open. The jokes still pack a punch, even the severely outdated ones.

The nostalgia factor is still off the charts, perhaps one might say even above such beloved Nintendo 64 titles as Goldeneye 007 and Banjo-Kazooie. The opening sequence with the Rare logo still gets you going.

Like Goldeneye 007, the multiplayer mode in this game, complete with cheat codes, is the shiny penny within this game, the one thing that has aged well, and continues to be consistently fun.

Cons:

In 2001, it was a lot easier to ignore the wonky camera angles in Nintendo 64 games, in 2025, not so much.

While the game is largely colorful and vibrant, there are some areas that are muddled and kinda chunky, those moments when the game shows its age.

The single player mode is still obscenely difficult in areas, and still isn't the calling card of this title, not even on the same playing field as the multiplayer mode.

In Conclusion:

In many ways, Conker's Bad Fur Day hasn't changed in the fun department, but perhaps the little nuances here and there in the negative that weren't as noticeable or unacceptable in the early 2000s are now glaringly apparent. Still, if the question is if Conker's Bad Fur Day is fun in 2025, the answer is a resounding YES.

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MUCH THANKS, VERY THANKS!

A sincere thank you to all of you from all of us at Nick D's Video Game Vault!

We hope you enjoyed this first issue of our monthly newsletter!

Join us in February for our next issue, featuring some of what you've seen here, but also some new and exciting pieces for you to enjoy!

Until then, be well, and as always...

GAME ON!