Last week, a group of pugnacious Reddit traders banded together to short squeeze the stock of many a sports fan’s favorite childhood store, GameStop. The stock has fallen sharply in recent days, but the conversation has still piqued the Student Life Sports staff’s interest. For years, GameStop and its assortment of sports content have fueled endless imagination, so our staffers reflected on their own memories of the legendary store and the video games they bought there.

via Creative Commons / JJBers

‘Armed with hundreds upon hundreds of quarters’ — Josh Shapiro, Senior Sports Editor

In NCAA Football 11, I quarterbacked the Northwestern Wildcats to the BCS championship game, winning a Heisman to boot. And though I struggled to crack the mound in Little League, MLB The Show proved I was a bona fide pitching star. As I grew older, though, GameStop slowly faded from the consciousness of me and so many other teens. Its stock followed suit. 

For me, GameStop was very much a special-occasion store. After years of saving up—armed with hundreds upon hundreds of quarters—I would waltz into the Stamford GameStop and proudly select my brand new PlayStation. After birthdays, I would bask in the glory of the newest NBA 2K game. Though GameStock’s rise has made me nostalgic and hungry to relive my younger years, it’s also fueled a new set of passions. Following the rapid rise of its stock, I decided to create my own Robinhood account. For better or worse, I shed my long-held apprehension for anything and everything finance-related and jumped headfirst into the markets. Now, looking back with an almost comical perspective, I can say with confidence that no store has made a lengthier impact on my life.

How a game released in 2007 still holds up today — Grady Nance, Staff Writer

My fondest video game memories are the countless hours I spent violently swinging a Wii remote around my basement, so aside from Wii Sports (the undisputed champion of the entire console), Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games will always hold a special place in my heart. I remember it being one of my first big purchases with my own money after saving up for months, and Nintendo’s promise of an engaging gaming experience rings true. In its dozens of events, players are challenged not to just press buttons but move around and participate in the competition as their favorite Nintendo or Sega character. Granted, some of the events were busts (I’m looking at you, triple jump), but for a game released in 2007, the gameplay holds up remarkably well—my favorites include trampoline, table tennis and the hammer throw, which resulted in more than one projectile controller in its time. And, of course, we cannot forget Dr. Eggman and his absolute mockery of a human body performing Olympic-level stunts to a T. With GameStop poised to start a revolution, it seems an appropriate time to revisit this classic.

Refuge from the rain and a place to escape the routines of life — Matthew Friedman, Associate Editor

When I was in middle school, my bus stop to head home in the afternoon was just down the street from a GameStop. My friend and I would walk in once school was done and browse the shelves. Ostensibly, I was waiting for the bus. But I would actually let one bus pass after another, telling myself repeatedly that my homework could wait and that my sister wouldn’t steal all of the snacks if I just caught the next bus. My friend once started roping me into a racing game I had never played before, and even after I had played it before it still always felt like it was my first time. But he stuck with me, and I have fond memories of waiting out thunderstorms in the dimly lit corners of that GameStop. I’ve never been the world’s biggest video game aficionado, but I still remember my glee at opening a package for Hanukkah that year to find MLB 2K8 for the Wii. It was 2011 or 2012 by that point, but I had played the 2008 version at a friend’s house that fall and fallen in love, refusing to have my fascination ruined by some so-called “update” to the game in later versions. I’d stand for hours in front of my family’s television, whizzing endless sequences of fastballs, curves, sliders and changeups by the animated hitters who never stood a chance. I have no clue what will happen to GameStop in the coming days and weeks, but I am grateful to the investors of Reddit for using the opportunity to tear down hedge fund managers as a reminder of a simpler, happier time in our lives.

‘I was willing to extort my father to buy a game I already had’ — Dorian DeBose, Senior Sports Editor

NCAA Football 14 is the greatest video game ever made. I spent entire days building my favorite schools in dynasties. The Kansas University of our reality have been cellar-dwellers for the last decade. But the KU Jayhawks of MY universe won seven national championships in a row and produced four consecutive Heisman-winning quarterbacks. When the game first came out, my dad bought it, which made him my favorite parent for a month. But I wanted to have the game (on PlayStation—this is an important detail) at my mother’s house as well. My dad refused to buy another copy of the game for me. At the Microsoft store in Oak Park Mall, they used to have Madden tournaments with a gift card as a reward. The week my dad decided not to get me NCAA 14, I entered the Madden Tournament, beat him in the final, then issued an ultimatum: My dad would either buy me NCAA 14 in exchange for the gift card or I would take the gift card and trade it to GameStop for half its value, leaving just enough for me to purchase the game myself. That’s how good NCAA 14 was—I was willing to extort my father to buy a game I already had. And I’d do it again. 

Another story of a dad meddling in video games — Nate Ackerman, Contributing Writer

My best moments playing video games came from my middle school Madden Ultimate Team in Madden 15. I knew the game was terrible, as pretty much every Madden game since 2010 has been, and there were game-breaking bugs and exploits left and right. But from the second that I picked up Madden 15 off the shelves at GameStop with my dad, it was one of the best bonding experiences we ever had. It started off as a gift for me, as I always wanted to build my team to compete with my friends. One weekend, that all changed. I came home from tennis practice to see that some of the solo challenges on my account were finished, and I knew that I hadn’t done them. After very little interrogation, I found out that my dad had taken to signing into my account and playing with my team. Soon enough, it became our shared team. On weekdays, I came home to play online games and try to buy player cards as cheap as possible, and on weekends, my dad and I would trade off quarters playing with our team. Among my friend group, he officially became the cool dad. So yes, the mechanics of Madden 15 were a sorry excuse for physics, and GameStop did try to force me about 17 separate times to buy a Power-Up Rewards card, but both the game and the store it came from hold a special place in my heart.