What's new

Where a shop publishes its shipping rates, its copies in stock on a game page now say what it charges to post them and any free shipping threshold. Choose urban, rural or Auckland once and the page remembers it.

Our first monthly roundup is on the blog: what turned up at New Zealand shops in October, what came back into stock, and how the imports and complete in box shelves stand.

The hardware pages can now be sorted by price, by newest listed or by name, and narrowed to a price band, alongside the console and shop filters. On a phone, Clear all in the filter panel now takes effect straight away.

When a shop adds a large batch of listings in one night, the Restocked shelf no longer shows them as restocks. It keeps to copies that sold out and came back, or that turned up a few at a time.

If the site has saved you a trip, you can now chip in a one-off or monthly amount through Ko-fi from the Support page, linked at the foot of every page. It buys no perks or extra features.

Each game on a console page now shows its price range across the shops we read lately, and you can narrow the page by price and by the letter a title starts with.

On a game page, copies in stock at shops we've read lately come first. A copy at a shop we couldn't recheck says the day we last saw it.

A handful of games that still had two pages under the same name, like Batman: Arkham Asylum and Golden Axe, now have one page each with all their copies on it, and the old page address takes you there.

Going to The Retro Event in Manukau this November? Our preview on the blog covers the essentials and the homework to do before you hit the stalls.

Where two different games share a name and a year, like the Master System and Mega Drive Sonic the Hedgehog, each page title now names the console the game was made for.

Where an Appleby Games listing’s title did not name the game clearly, we now read the game from the shop’s own description, so more of its copies show on the right game page.

Controllers, memory cards, cables, chargers and consoles from Appleby Games now show on the hardware pages, beside the other shops’ hardware.

Where to buy retro games in New Zealand walks through the independent shops we read, and PAL, NTSC-U and NTSC-J explains the region codes and how a game page shows an imported copy. Both are on the blog.

When we have not been able to read a shop lately, a game’s page now says when we last checked that shop’s copies instead of calling them in stock, and leaves them out of its in-stock count and price range.

Every shop page now lists what that shop has in stock on each platform, with a link straight to those games, and the city pages do the same for each shop’s busiest platforms.

The trail of links at the top of every page now starts with Home, so you can get back to the front page from anywhere in one tap.

Where two or more New Zealand shops have a game in stock, its page now shows the range they are asking today, from the lowest price to the highest.

Overkill Games’ stock is now read each night, alongside the other New Zealand shops we cover.

Where Overkill Games lists a bonus for pre-ordering a game, that game’s page now shows it beside Overkill’s copy.

A copy a shop says is from a region the game was not released in now sits in its own group on the game page, instead of under a release it is not.

The site menu now opens by maker, then console, with consoles, controllers and accessories in their own Hardware section.

When you filter a search on a phone, a platform or shop that would show nothing is now greyed out instead of leading to an empty page.

Consoles, controllers and other hardware that New Zealand shops have in stock now have their own pages.

The site now has a blog, with guides for collectors buying games in New Zealand.

A stock alert can now watch a game on any platform, in any region or just one.

The platform chips on the home page now open that platform’s own page, showing what’s in stock there.

Retro Realm Games’ stock is now read each night, alongside the other New Zealand shops we cover.

On a game’s page, leave an email address (no account needed) and we’ll tell you when a copy turns up in the condition you chose, once or every time. At most one email a day, each with an unsubscribe link.

A copy a shop lists as a steelbook can now carry a Steelbook label on its row on the game page.

Each shop’s own price now shows beside its copy, with the earlier price when a copy has been marked down. On a platform page, a game in stock shows the lowest price a shop has it for.

A reference for physical video games in New Zealand, with stock from New Zealand shops read every night.