Best Buy Express vending machines at airports across the United States now contain an item that is unusual for a vending machine. Video games! It's all DS games currently, but one can have hope that this would spread for other platforms too.

For gamers who travel, handheld systems like the Nintendo DS and the PlayStation Portable are lifesavers. A boring, lengthy flight is the perfect excuse for a focused gaming session. But what if you forgot to bring your handheld of choice? Well, that's what vending machines are for.

Spotted at Atlanta International Airport, these Best Buy Express vending machines offer a wide variety of electronics for travelers, including digital cameras and headphones. The most interesting thing to us over here at OT? The inclusion of a DS system, as well as a number of games. This particular machine featured the likes of Guitar Hero: On Tour, Mario Kart DS, Brain Age 2, and LEGO Batman.
| More
News story attached to:
Additional sources:
Images about this story:
Latest comment:
Most recently commented on by on Jan 14, 2009
Register as a member to subscribe comments.
  • 6
    Disillusioned Jan 4, 09
    Wow it would be great if that thing started to malfunction and spit out two things at once =D
    • 0
      Shadow of Death Jan 6, 09
      That's be sweet. If nothing else, you could resell the copy XD
  • 0
    Gamer128 Jan 4, 09
    I remember something like this for PsP's at an airport I went to.
  • 0
    xxxRockerxxx Jan 4, 09
    This is pretty neat. Glad that, and for airport I might add, they don't make the prices higher than they should be.
  • 1
    Spurs_Rule_And_Rock Jan 4, 09
    I want one of those vending machines to go with the others at my school!
  • 2
    HisServant77 Jan 4, 09
    Wow, as crazy as that is . . . I think I like it better than being on the shelves and all that. Haha, so long as it doesn't eat your $30-$60! I think it'd be a bit worse than the $1 that gets eaten by the normal ones!
  • 0
    Gamesta100 Jan 4, 09
    That would be great if I still had to go on a plane every year.
  • 0
    Capn Droid Jan 4, 09
    This is such an amazing idea. If you're going on an airplane for several hours, might as well get a portable video game before you leave the port. Awesome.
  • 2
    Dark Arcanine Jan 4, 09
    There was a vending machine with a line of DS games at my local game. Suffice to say yes, I did give the machine a good kicking.
  • 0
    Atomic Jan 5, 09
    A very ingenious idea. As long as it gives me a few extra games from a malfunction, I'll be happy. Too bad it's not in Australia yet.
  • 0
    Archangel Jan 5, 09
    Huh, that's interesting. Great idea though. I'd love to be able to pick up a quick game just before going on an airplane. Would make the travel so much faster.
  • 0
    Murray3 Jan 5, 09
    It makes sense to have it DS only, it's the only 7th gen platform that isn't region locked!
    • 0
      StarJet Jan 5, 09
      Why does everyone forget the PSP?
      It's also region free and is portable. I've heard that PS3 games are also region free, but I don't know whether it's actually true.
      • 0
        Spurs_Rule_And_Rock Jan 5, 09
        How about a PSP vending machine. That'd be awesome too. I'm not sure it's region free but i hope so.
  • 0
    DragoniteBallZ Jan 6, 09
    Haha I've seen those before. They do have PSPs in those Best Buy machines too. It seems strange but I guess why not? Haha I was actually thinking of buying an iPod from one of those machines when I passed one by once.
    • 0
      Spurs_Rule_And_Rock Jan 6, 09
      LOL! Imagine this

      Friend: Wow AN iPod TOUCH!
      DragoniteBallZ: I know!
      Friend: Where on earth did you get that from?
      DragoniteBallZ: A vending machine
      Friend: WHAT?
  • 0
    The Hero Hartmut Jan 6, 09
    I smiled. Whoever came up with this concept is nothing short of a genius. The whole 'region-free' part just makes it that much sweeter.
  • 0
    Murray3 Jan 8, 09
    Best Part: From what I've seen... NO SHOVELWARE!
  • 0
    Spurs_Rule_And_Rock Jan 10, 09
    Oh i just had a great idea. You know some vending machines can spit out two of the same thing at once?
  • 0
    Tiger of Wu Jan 10, 09
    It's a great idea, yes. But I prefer sliced bread.
    • 3
      Murray3 Jan 12, 09
      *cough*Slicedbreadfanboy*cough*
      • 0
        Tiger of Wu Jan 12, 09
        SHut UP!!!!!! Sliced Bread is pwnzors, DS is for teh lozers
        SliCED BRead R 1337!

        • 2
          Murray3 Jan 13, 09
          But sliced bread has virtually no 1st Party support, no online functions what-so-ever and its only redeming quality is its ham compatibility!
        • 1
          Tiger of Wu Jan 13, 09
          But sliced bread is more advanced and doesn't break as easily. You see, if you stick a DS game into bread it plays fine whereas if you stick a DS into a toaster it breaks. Whilst bread has no online functions, it does retain the exclusive feature of wholemeal goodness, something which Nintendo has never had nor will they ever have.

          It's simple logic
        • 0
          Murray3 Jan 13, 09
          (I wonder how long it'll take before someone forcefully shuts us up)

          I'll give you that bread is by far the greatest compliment to almost any meal, however the lack of an ability to run at even a single frame per second, along with its placing in the food pyramid, makes it a rather timid contender to the DS's great library and almost non-existant slow-down. However, bread uses crust, which most reviewers have placed as a 'love-hate' thing, the DS however, has no such problem.

          And when it comes to retro-support the DS can play every single GBA game ever made, while sliced bread has difficulty becoming normal bread again without the right equipment.

          Plus, bread gets moldy and require storage while the DS is highly portable and won't break unless you have an accident with it...
        • 1
          Tiger of Wu Jan 13, 09
          That's not true. I left a DS in the sun for too long and it started to grow a white mould on it. Whilst there is nothing to disprove this as bird defecation, there is nothing to disprove it as growing mould either, hence I'm right. And true enough Sliced Bread has no backwards compatibility it does have a VERY good range coming out this year, take for example the new crouton recipe. Some say they can't get any better then the originals, but they're just old people reliving the arcade days. I'm offended you even dare speak of the crust issue. Manufacturers solved this problem quite easily by giving knives to cut the crusts off. They gave the option. True, knives don't come with the bread and that leaves people who can't afford accessories to do it themselves and most likely mess the bread up, but there are vigorous talks about having knives come as standard.

          Also, EXCUSE ME

          Okay, let's look at the DS library shall we; Mario, Mario, Sonic, Mario. The only valid game it has is TWEWY and I only think that because a lot of other people do even though I know nothing about the game.
          Whereas Sliced Bread has ham, cheese, baloney, pastrami, chicken... hell, if you want you can mix and match swan and peanut butter. Another thing Sliced Bread has, the ability to adapt. I tried hammering two games into my DS at once. It only made things worse

          Finally I'd like to bring something to everyone's attention. Murray3's mother drank during pregnancy. A lot. Whilst this doesn't prove his points as wrong, it does prove that he as a human being is wrong, therefore Sliced Bread wins and nothing more can be said about it by him or any other DS liker, since your mothers are all alcoholics. Bread FTW!

          (I'm guessing if we carry on like this, not long)
        • 1
          Murray3 Jan 13, 09
          Yes, but on average, each Sliced bread fan only likes 1-5 of the possibities of their sandwhich, where-as a DS owners have a huge to offer for every genre, although it does lack in the FPS genre.

          And looking at these Mario games, we got a couple of sports games, a party game, a 2D platformer, a 3D platformer, an RPG, a racer and a few cross-overs! Sliced bread: About 500 toppings and 300 condiments or sauces, and one optional olive on a toothpick.

          But, when you look at technical things, sliced bread, while wholesome and nutritious, not to mention convenient for one's hands does not add much to the overall bread in general. You could say 'but what about the DS Lite? That's just the DS with more lights!' But that's what it was supposed to be, sliced bread just ended up being the more expensive alternate to your sandwhiches.

          Also, I went to my friend's, who has sliced bread, I wanted mine a little thicker but his was too thin, I brought up before that you can't make it thicker, you'll say to use two slices, but I'm not a millionaire!

          Tiger of Wu was conceived when a hobo sperm factory was hit by an egg truck... The eggs were for squirrels...

          You know, we could make a blog about this, then post it here as a fanboy parody.
        • 1
          Tiger of Wu Jan 14, 09
          You had sliced bread? Sleeping with the enemy?

          I grow weary of your lies. I need not prove anything to you. I am done, Sliced Bread wins, you just haven't enough braincells to conceive its glory. Let me just say this in reply to your arguments; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrjwaqZfjIY&feature=related

          Good day
  • 2
    Livewire_19 Jan 13, 09
    Murray3, Tiger of Wu congratulations on having the best argument EVER! I just can't stop laughing. I'm going to favorite this article just because your comments.
    • 0
      Murray3 Jan 14, 09
      I think I'll post a thread about it in Loungin' we'll see how it goes!
      • 0
        Tiger of Wu Jan 14, 09
        The thread seemed a little self-indulgent... then again, what of this charade hasn't been? It was fun good sir, may our next argument be as silly and pointless as this.

This news story is archived and is closed to comments now.