For a lot of us titos and titas who grew up in the ’90s, buying the latest game was a stretch. A new console was an even bigger ask. That’s where the rentahan came in. With ₱10 to ₱20, you could play The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening on a TV, jump through paintings in Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo 64, or build an army in Warcraft II at a PC shop.
Once your turn was over, you still had a story to take home. You could tell your siblings about the boss you finally beat or swap tips with your classmates on Monday. These are the rental shops I remember from growing up in Quezon City.
The 1990s: Family Computer, PlayStation, and Early PC Shops
I grew up with several rental shops around Sta. Mesa Heights in Quezon City. Each shop had its own lineup. Sometimes the game I wanted was close to home. Other times, I’d find it at one of the malls.
My First Rentahan
The first rentahan I tried in the early ’90s had Super Mario Bros. 3, Ice Climber, and Balloon Fight. I went for Pac-Man on the NES. The setup was simple. You chose a game, paid for time on the shop’s console, and sat down in front of its TV. The controller was ready to go.
Pac-Man was a good fit for a short turn. You could get straight to the maze, clear the dots, and try to stay ahead of the ghosts. A power pellet gave you a few seconds to turn the chase around. If you cleared a board with time to spare, you could try the next one before it was someone else’s turn.
The Third Floor of Virra Mall
The third floor of Virra Mall in Greenhills had several rental shops in the early ’90s. I went there for Family Computer and Super Famicom games. Virra Mall was also one of the places I knew for Sega Genesis rentals. The other was a shop in Harrison Plaza. A Genesis was harder to come by at the shops in my neighborhood.
Later, I found a shop on that same floor that rented out a 3DO. That’s where I got to play the Yu Yu Hakusho fighting game. It was my first encounter with the series. By the time the anime aired on Philippine TV, I already knew the name from a game I’d played in Greenhills.
1-Up and Loys in Sta. Mesa Heights
The two shops I remember best in Sta. Mesa Heights were 1-Up and Loys. 1-Up was in a building at the corner of Retiro Street and D. Tuazon. Loys was also on Retiro, near the Original Pares Mami House. Both were close to home, so I had two places in the neighborhood to look for Super Nintendo games.
What made those shops stand out was the Super UFO. It let them load Super Nintendo games from floppy disks. The disks took up little room, so a shop could keep a long list of games on hand. Between 1-Up and Loys, it seemed like I could find just about anything in the SNES library.
When the PlayStation Took Over
By the mid-’90s, the original PlayStation was showing up at more of the rental shops I knew. The games I remember seeing most were Tekken, Battle Arena Toshinden, and Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22. All three worked well for a quick versus match. A friend could pick up the second controller and get a few rounds in with you.
As pirated PlayStation discs became easier to find, more of the shops I knew made the PS1 their main system. Some retired their older consoles and switched entirely to PlayStation rentals. Even in Greenhills, where I’d been able to try several consoles on the same floor, it got harder to find a Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis to play.
The First PC Shops I Remember
As the ’90s wound down, PC rental shops started showing up. The early games I remember were Warcraft II, Command & Conquer, Red Alert, and Duke Nukem. The strategy games alone could fill a session. You could spend your time gathering resources, building a base, and putting together an army before taking on the other side.
After Half-Life came out in 1998, deathmatch became a big draw. The shop’s local network, or LAN, linked the PCs. You could play against someone a few seats away, each on your own screen. A group of friends could all join the same match. That was the setup the shops already had when Counter-Strike took off.
The 2000s: Counter-Strike, DotA, and the Switch to PCs
In the 2000s, a busy computer shop could have one group playing Counter-Strike and another starting a DotA match. If you came in with your barkada, you were looking for enough free PCs to get everyone into the game.
Playing Counter-Strike Over LAN
Counter-Strike started as a Half-Life mod in 1999. By the early 2000s, it was one of the games I saw people come to computer shops for. It fit right in at the shops that already ran Half-Life over LAN. A friend could take the next PC and join your side, or you could split your barkada between the two teams.
On a bomb map, one player could plant or defuse while the others covered them. If you needed backup, a teammate could hear you from a few seats away. If you were out early, you could watch your teammates finish the round. You’d get another shot as soon as the next one started.
How DotA Started in Warcraft III
Warcraft III came out in 2002, and its custom maps gave us more to play. The one I remember catching on at computer shops was Defense of the Ancients, or DotA. Each player controlled a hero. As the match went on, you leveled up, bought items, and worked with your team to destroy the Ancient in the other team’s base.
A shop with enough PCs could seat both teams in the same room. You could call out for help in your lane and your teammate would hear you right away. A close match could run right up to the end of your rental time. That was when someone might ask the attendant for a few more minutes so the group could finish.
When PlayStation Rentals Switched to PCs
Some of the PlayStation rentals I knew started adding computers. A few switched to PC rentals entirely. I’d seen a version of that in the ’90s, when shops made room for the PlayStation by putting away their Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis consoles. This time, Counter-Strike and DotA were drawing people to the computers.
As broadband became more affordable, the shops could rent out the same PCs for local matches, online games, and internet access. You might see a group playing DotA and someone checking email at the next station. By then, when someone talked about going to the rentahan, a computer shop could be the place they had in mind.
What I Miss About the Rentahan
These days, I see far fewer computer rental shops around Quezon City. With faster mobile internet, you can play the kinds of games we used to go to a PC shop for, from team shooters to games like DotA. On a touchscreen, your thumbs do the work of the mouse and keyboard.
When I think about the rentahan, I go back to my first turn at Pac-Man and the days when a Counter-Strike match could get a whole barkada in the same room. I miss being able to turn to the person beside me after a round and talk about what just happened.
