Page 6 - Old School Gamer Magazine Issue #43 FREE Edition

Back in the 1970s, you bought your video games at Sears, which, according to Nolan
Bushnell, “The first three years it was exclusive to them. After that, we opened it up to several other retailers.” You would buy your computer software at an Apple dealer, Radio Shack, or the few other stores that primarily sold computers. Starting in the 1980s, games and computer software companies invaded the malls with specialty stores.
For me in Iowa, I remember B. Dalton Books starting with a computer and video games section in the back of the bookstore at Merle
Hay Mall. It then expanded into a “Software Etc.” store in another part of the mall when the traffic to the back of the store was matching up with the book sales in the front two- thirds of the store.
Around 1987, I saw a sign up at my favorite mall, Valley West in West Des Moines. It was a “Now Hiring” sign for a new store, “Babbage's,” that was due to open later that year. Brad Feingold and I applied and went to work for a manager named Mark and an assistant manager named Alan. We were on the opening staff crew along with some others, and as nerds with computers, we were in heaven! But,
BABBAGE’S, SOFTWARE ETC, AND MORE!
By Ryan Burger
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of course, this all didn’t start in West Des Moines, Iowa. It started in Texas about four years earlier.
Old School Gamer was lucky enough to catch up with Gary M. Kusin, who, along with his partner James McCurry, formed Babbage's in
1983. This is according to Gary, whose book Always Learning: Lessons From Leveling Up, from GameStop to Laura Mercier and Beyond documented his business career. While Wikipedia says 1980, GameStop (the current company) claims 1984 (and celebrated its 40th anniversary in error), while the actual year was 1983.
It began with James and Gary prepping their first store at the Dallas NorthPark Center Mall and having their store grand opening on Memorial Day of 1983. But we are ahead of ourselves, so let's talk about how the ideas came along.