The last Blockbuster in the world is offering nineties-style sleepovers inside the store

midian182

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In a nutshell: In these troubled times, many who were around in the nineties look back on those years with overwhelming nostalgia. And if there’s one thing that symbolizes the decade, it’s Blockbuster video. Thanks to Airbnb, you can relive your youth by having a sleepover in the video store’s last outlet on Earth, which includes access to classic movies and games from the 90s.

Back in March last year, one of the last two Blockbusters in the world, located in Perth, Australia, closed its doors forever, leaving a sole store in Bend, Oregon. It’s teamed up with Airbnb to offer three one-night stays, for up to four people, on September 18, 19, and 20.

Those of us who remember going into Blockbuster on the weekend to rent the latest VHS release, seeing the Pulp Fiction posters on the wall, and buying a ton of overpriced snacks may want to move to Deschutes County for this offer—sadly, it’s only available to residents of the area.

The center of the store has been turned into a sleeping area, complete with a pull-out couch and some very 90s-looking bean bags, pillows, and sheets. You can grab popcorn and other treats, and there’s even a VHS player, though it appears they’ve opted for a large, modern TV, rather than one of the small, low-res monstrosities we used to endure back then.

The listing mentions being able to play video games. It doesn’t say which consoles are available, but it would be nice to experience an all-night GoldenEye 007 multiplayer marathon once again, with a break in the middle to watch The Usual Suspects on tape.

“Over the past few months, we’ve been missing the regular visits from friends, neighbors and tourists from around the world. So, we’re opening our store to three quarantine pods of Deschutes County guests for a socially-distanced movie night, just like those of decades past!” states the listing.

Bookings will go live on August 17th at 1 pm PST. At just $4 per night, expect availability to disappear in seconds.

To celebrate the support given to the last Blockbuster and the Bend community, Airbnb will make a donation to the Humane Society of Central Oregon.

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There is a hotel in Amsterdam that caters to gamers, I believe they have some retro consoles, been a while since I have looked into it.

So here: https://www.arcadehotel.nl/services/service-gaming/

I think at $4 it is too cheap to even bother, surely a loss on electricity and someone hoovering up after.
Has potential to be more. If it's just a teaser to see if there can be more to it then fair enough.
But the timing couldn't be worse in these times with this climate. People should be staying home and killing this virus off, as we are not winning at all.
 
There is literally nothing that could save Blockbuster. But in all fairness, I would love seeing the media consortium to turn around and make an 8K disk, due to its otherwise absurd download size. Then Blockbuster would have a second life.

I don't know when, if ever, we will be able to watch a proper 8K video at home, given that it is 1/2 TB on average for a movie, when in full quality (10/12-bit, HDR1500).
 
$4 per night? Hmmm, are the snacks included?

Seriously, though, looks awesome to me. I'm a bit surprised they stacked the nights back-to-back given the cleaning requirements.
 
It was kinda awesome that you pretty much had to finish whatever you rented, you paid for it... Everyone wasn't on their own little device, although people couldn't shut up either....
 
"It doesn’t say which consoles are available, but it would be nice to experience an all-night GoldenEye 007 multiplayer marathon once again"
Oh man, now THAT takes be back! All-night Goldeneye 007 and California Rush (Rush The Rock) marathons that were made even more fun by Canada's extremely lackadaisical cannabis laws.
 
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