Save Point
Are you into retro gaming? Have some older games or older game systems that no one else will buy? Then I have just the place for you: The Save Point located in Westminster Mall.
So what is The Save Point about? Well that’s an easy question to answer.
One of the founding 3 members of Save Point, Eric Holniker, said that Save Point is “a multipurpose gaming center” and it “focuses on every aspect of gaming that you don’t see today, especially in a retail environment.”
Having things ranging from various arcade machines to networked Xbox consoles, Save Point hopes to make playing games a bit more social than it is now.
“We are creating a community that sort of existed but it’s coming to the surface in the store,” says Holniker.
Save Point is trying to bring back that time where the whole family or groups of friends would gather around together to play games rather than just be alone in your room and play online with a group of strangers.
All of this started with just three friends, Holniker, Kat Huffman and Rodger Voter. But due to the work schedule, Voter is rarely at the store. You will find Huffman and Holniker there every day though.
Focusing mainly on retro gaming, The Save Point buys and sells games and systems that would fall under that category. This includes the Atari 2600, which came out in 1977. They say they are avoiding the games for the newest generation such as the Xbox 360, Wii and the PS3.
Ever notice the arcade machines in the mall before the store opened? Yup, those were all owned by the people who own Save Point.
Before Save Point, those arcades were moved around to conventions such as Otakon in Baltimore and were placed in the mall when at those locations.
Eventually, they were offered a store location to put all those arcade games in; that expanded to what Save Point is now. Most of the games that they started out with were all owned by Eric and expanded from there.
Eventually, they hope to expand to PC’s and other systems for the LAN and create a genuine LAN store that won’t follow the trend of all the others and fail. But for now, until the store gains more popularity, they state that the Xbox seem to be enough until they are able to get their other ideas rolling.
Due to the nature of the type of games that they sell, the employees at Save Point don’t think that they will get any competition from Game Stop nor do they wish to compete with them.
Now, buying and selling retro games is not all that Save Point does. They also offer networked Xboxes that allow for up to 7 people to come in and play together, for a price of course.
They also said that they hope to have various tournaments either weekly or bi-weekly ranging from a Gears of War 3 tournament to a Dr. Mario tournament.
They are also considering a good grades reward system, where students could bring in their report cards, show their good grades, and receive various rewards for it like a free game time.
The store is open to having people come in and “renting out” the space for personal LAN parties and such.
Save Point is an awesome place to find old games that you happen to be dying to play or just too even go hang out with friends and play. You should definitely stop by and see what’s up. Bring some friends, have a little fun, and relax from all the school work you may have piling up on your desk.
Save Point, where retro gaming comes back to life.