A Family Game

SAN ANTONIO, Texas - When entering Propaganda Palace, there are rooms filled with towering stacks of memories lining every surface and wall from floor to ceiling with boxes, cases, cartridges and sleeves of collected sentiments filling nearly every square foot. Light dust speckles glass, the musk of aged paper and dated electronics transports one to the golden age of ones and zeros. The accumulation of wealth in classics filling this store started when the owner was a young boy and his father worked as a factory representative selling products for a small startup company, later known to the world as Atari.
“When people walk in, I see a lot of very wide eyes and open mouths while looking around. It's a wonderful feeling; it’s magical to bring that joy to people,” reminisces the owner of a shop off a busy intersection residing in San Antonio, Texas.
Alejandro Martinez, Jr., also known as AJ, is the owner of a retro video gaming store named Propaganda Palace. AJ runs his business with his wife, Raven Corona, and dad, Alejandro Martinez, Sr., or Alex. The Martinez family each play a hand in repairing and selling pieces of childhood memories back to those who purchase the nostalgia his store provides.
“When I was three, my dad had just gotten hired at Atari. He had this Pong machine I had never seen before,” recalls AJ. “He hooked it up to the TV and we would play this game where a couple of sticks would move up and down. The idea was when the ball would come to your side you would hit it with your stick and get it to bounce on the other side. I had never experienced anything like that before and it was magic.”
AJ started out reading books as a young boy, in an era where video games broke through the entertainment industry and into homes. He lacked connection to the brightly colored pages, but he was able to find that within his love of video games.
The first time he played Pong, he became addicted to the interaction involved in gaming and was instantly attached to the technology, begging his dad to keep the games, lighting the initial spark to his “love affair” with video games that has lasted longer than four decades.
AJ soon filled his childhood bedroom with seemingly endless amounts of what later became classic video games to some and a blast of happy memories to others, from Atari, Sega and Nintendo to PlayStation and Xbox. His collection grew steadily throughout the years and his hobby took on new sizes, which came to a head in 2007, when he and Raven fell upon hard times.
“I got laid off from my job selling medical equipment,” said AJ. “I couldn't find other work. Six weeks went by, Raven came home one night and wanted to talk. She explained that she was concerned about our situation because we'd already used up half of our savings and in another six weeks, we would be dead broke.”
Raven suggested that his collection “didn’t need 50 copies of Zelda” and that while men in his position might sell an extra car or gun collection, he had his collection of games that could become their temporary source of secondary income. It was time to start looking into selling games and consoles on eBay.
“I didn't think anybody was going to buy it,” said AJ. “My whole life I'd collected this stuff that nobody valued except for me and maybe a few hardcore nerds like myself. But to my shock, that was right when retro gaming started taking off as an industry.”
A few months later, AJ found himself selling so much he wondered why he hadn’t started selling years ago. After always collecting only for himself, he found that he was building a viable business. What started exclusively as online sales, evolved into a flea market stand, then into a small mall shop, eventually into the building he has now had for 15 years.
“I've seen the passion that he has when playing video games develop,” said Alex. “It's kind of equated to reading because you get transported to a totally different world, but you actually have visual aids.”
AJ has found his purpose in bringing the experiences and feelings of his childhood, as well as others’, to life. He shared with his dad that he gets paid to do what he loves.
“I truly believe he loves everything about this place,” said Alex. “All I can tell you is; it makes me smile. I feel my life is fulfilled due to the passing of the baton to him.”
(Created during the 2022 Department of the Air Force Storytelling Workshop. Teams had three production days to tell a multimedia story that included a written, photo and video story. Each team of four was led by an Air Force mentor. The workshop hosted 32 attendees and was hosted by the 3d Audiovisual Squadron in San Antonio, Texas.)

[@DarrickBLee]

"We're not living together ... but, we LIVE together." -- The FEELS!

[@bananalegs4185]

AJ has tons of cool stuff