Joe Santulli’s Digital Press and I have a long history. Years ago, before I became a professional journalist, I reviewed an early Guilty Gear game for the popular website/message board, which I eventually used as a writing sample to land a job at the now defunct gadget lad mag, Sync. Five years later, I still visit Digit Press the website, but I’d never set foot in the retail outlet – - until very recently. Chris Gampat and I took a day trip to the store to finally checkout the near-legendary store that is a retro gamer’s heaven.

Nestled within the confines of Clifton, New Jersey, Digital Press deftly balances being an oasis for both the retro and modern gamer looking for an exhilarating retail experience that GameStop can’t come close to duplicating. Upon entering the store, three items on the left immediately catch your eye: upright coin-ops. A gaming store that has a mini-arcade? You won’t see that within the big boys’ boxes. The back of the store has a wall of accessories and a small area dedicated to LAN gaming that made Gampat soil his knickers.

Between the back and the entrance you’ll find aisles and display cases stocked with some of the greatest and obscure consoles and games in the hobby’s history. On the hardware front we spotted familiar machines such as the NES, Genesis, Sega CD, Turbo Grafx-16, Turbo Duo, Saturn, Master System, ColecoVision, Commodore 64, Atari 5200, and Intellivision, as well as oddities such as the Pippin and Amiga CD32. There’s even a playable Virtual Boy on display that let us bask in the red, pseudo-3D goodness of Virtual Boy Wario Land.

On the software front, the aisles were filled with carts and discs from years past, but unlike what you’d find in GameStop, many retro games were represented by their original boxes. While browsing the NES section, we found a copy of Tecmo Super Bowl in its original box, and it completely rocked.

Lest you think that Digital Press is a museum for old games, there’s also a  healthy stock of modern titles available, which makes the store a worthy retail place for classic and modern gamers. The establishment also hosts gatherings and tournaments, which elevates it from a simply being a shop to a true community centerpiece. If you live nearby, or are planning to visit the NJ/NY/PA area, consider it a must-see location.

Digital Press
387 Piaget Ave (Route 46 E)
Clifton, NJ 07011
(973) 772-1111