As a 16-17 year old, it was VERY incredible. Spent many hours at the Garland/Dallas location playing the game demos, checking out the boxes and boxes of computer software, watching cute girls do the karaoke booth, grabbing lunch at the McDonalds, and chatting with fellow nerds who were doing the same.
This was such an amazing store. It was a personal tragedy to me that the Fry''s that took over closed during the pandemic. Even if it was a different store, I could see the original in my memory.
This is the store that got me obsessed with the whole home theater surround sound situation, I remember the first AC-3 receiver they had was a Kenwood model for $2000, I got my first PS1 there when it launched and remember them hosting a car audio competition. Really miss this place, it was gone too fast!
There's something really interesting looking back at this as a '98 baby and vintage tech enthusiast who cut their teeth on a Packard Bell computer running Windows 95. It's interesting how there seemed to be a big emphasis on the futurism of technology. It's interesting how a lot of the things people take for granted nowadays, that only a select few (including myself) are still curious to learn more about, were such exciting new things. I don't think you can find a TV smaller than 27 inches at the store if you really wanted to. You'd have to order online. The closest thing would probably be a monitor. We truly are living in the world of home theatre. I'm sad that I was born too late to step in an Incredible Universe. If only just to fraternize with other nerds and take in the variety of it all.
Absolutely loved working here, even if listening to Jurassic Park's dinosaurs trumpeting all day for months on end via Bose AC3 at high volume did wear thin. Most of the movies they screened didn't bother me that bad but that one I grew to hate lol. Aside from that every day felt like you were trying to sell stuff in the middle of a big party, with all the concerts, karaoke, people playing games and wandering around with food and balloons lol
I can't believe how soon this came and went . My Dad bought me a Panasonic 3DO from here and I loved the day my Dad took me here . He helped build this place and so I got a shirt that had a small logo on the front and on the back it read "I helped build the Universe ". It was and still is the greatest electronic store I've ever been too . Every time I past it on 270 , I wish they would make a comeback !!!
I know exactly what you mean. You still can't miss that building from the freeway. I think it's a furniture store or something now. Very sad. The electronics boom of the mid-90s was a one-of-a-kind moment in history that'll never come again, and failed experiment that it was, Incredible Universe was like the crown jewel of the era.
Incredible Universe, 1994, Sacramento, California. They were playing Speed on all their TV's. As a 9 year old I stood their and waited to see when Keanu Reeves pushed the old terrorist man's head up in the subway if they would censor his head coming off, they did not. To my pleasant surprise, no censoring, they showing a fucking decapitaiton scene inside this store. From there I was hooked. All the video game demos from SNES, Gameboy, Game Gear, and even the Atari Jaguar: Alien Vs. Predator demo had me tripping balls at that age. A technological orgasm at this place, oh how I miss it.
Incredible Universe was like going to the circus. They had everything. Lot of fun and energy. My Mom took us there when we'd visit. Eventually I lived with her. And In 1995 I remember going to the back and seeing Star Wars playing on Laserdisc on a tube TV. I was blown away how amazing it looked! It looked like a totally different movie. I was used to watching it on VHS with washed out colors. But here it was perfect, space was super black and the stars so bright. The colors were amazing. At first I bought a really nice Sony VCR, but I eventually had to save up and get a laserdisc player (those things were dang expensive). I also loved hanging out in the home theater rooms and watching parts of movies. I remember watchin Casper, the sound mix on that movie and sound quality is incredible. Especially in surround sound. I remember when DVD came out, there was only a few DVD's on the shelf until eventually it grew to a massive section of DVD's. I never liked DVD much though. The sound quality was bad on those. They would downmix everything. And the bitrate was horribly horribly low on the sound. I always missed laserdisc. I'm happy with blu-ray though. I had a few DVD's but mostly skipped it. I had one of the first DVD players made, made by Toshiba. My Mom stills has it and they use it for CD's. I also remember they were blasting Rush Chronicles CD's at the front where you walk in and had it sitting out displayed. I sat and listened for some time, and was hooked and bought the CD set. When I had finally got my Laserdisc player and before I got a bigger TV I remember watching Indiana Jones on my little 19 inch tube TV. It was crazy how insanely good it looked. It was so clear and sharp and the shadows so good it looked 3D! I've yet to get that same look from any new TV or format. The depth, shadows, and sharpness from a small tube TV is out of this world. And it looked so clean I was almost laughing how fake the temple set looked, you could tell it was in a studio! Then one day they shut it down to remodel. I was really excited to see what it was going to look like. Then it opened up and I ran in all excited for this new "Fry's" place. But that soon led to disappointment. They ripped out the heart of Incredible Universe. All the joy was gone. Just shelving stacked high row after row. Sterile and no personality. I ran back to my favorite spot in the Home Theater rooms. They were all shut down at first I think. Everything ripped out. Eventually they half heartedly threw some gear in there. But it was never the same. Although through the years I had some good memories of Fry's. But now they are almost dead and gone too.
I used to visit this store all the time back when I used to live in Miami, I still remember the layout and how big it was. I haven't been to Miami in 4 years but the building was still there off 826.
I remember the Sacramento store back when I was probably ten, so 1994/1995 or so. We were too far to drive there often, but that place was pretty cool.
I was born and raised in Sacramento! I lived right next to incredible universe. It was soo awesome. I ended up working there when it was turned into Fry's electronics. Incredible universe was way way waaaay cooler 👍😊
Mer too, my dad and I remember around that time in 94 and 95 I was probably 4 or 5 we would get our electronic needs there. It sucks that it became an Frys electronics after. the nostalgia, the 90s were special
If IU could have partnered with Apple in the 90s, they may have not only survived, but prospered. But back in the early 90s, Apple was basically dead. The iMac and Steve Jobs brought them back to life.
One of these opened 5 minutes from my house in the 90's. I remember walking in looking up at the amazing black ceiling made to look like outer space complete with sparkling stars. And when my brother and I spotted the McDonalds inside, we lost it! We asked mom buy us lunch, and we always wanted to go back and play. I remember the day care center in the front. Then it turned into a Fry's and now even they aren't doing well. I understand things come and go, empires rise and fall, but seeing malls and stores from my childhood close makes me a little sad. Weird! I wonder if people will get sick of Amazon and want to actually go out to shop. Maybe not, its so convenient...
It was a pretty rad place to shoplift from back in the day. I got a gameboy, a sega gamegear and a bunch of games, and a gameboy color all for free back in the day. I remember I somehow missed one of the electronic tags on that gameboy color and it set of the alarm on my way out! I almost shit myself and made a run for it!!!
Brings back memories of spending Saturday afternoons at the IU in Sacramento. I recall their Tower Records-sized music and movie section as well as the center stage where a salesman blasted T.Rex's roars from "Jurassic Park" on a home theater system. I can see why the chain didn't last long, the overhead costs were huge and there was too much competition from Best Buy and Circuit City.
Thanks for posting this video! My girlfriend and I at were at Dave and Busters this past Saturday. As we were leaving and walking outside I remembered the building next door used to be an Incredible Universe! I miss that place screw Best Buy.
Janick Goudeau I am only familiar with the one in Doral (at the time NW Miami). I don't believe they had one in Broward. The one in Doral was restored by a private owner several years back, but now they tore it down! www.google.com/search?q=AAAA+universe&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari&dlnr=1&sei=RCA8W7TMA6PP5gLvmYWwAw#activetab=owners&dlnr=1&fid=0x88d9b977cb04b175:0x3077e71456041056&fpstate=luuv&imagekey=!1e10!2sAF1QipNmke6BAW74s5c1vfSPs4vuCnCZL_nDpNtj1f4q&viewerState=ga
This company was so 1337 as indicated by the length of this video. Not sure why no one has noticed this yet. Loved this place when I was younger, but this is what happens when you grow big too fast.
*Maybe* with a slightly tweaked business model, like an arcade/restaurant/retail area, or something. A lot of mega stores tried in the late 90s/early 2000s but that massive floor space is a huge drag on profits. Hypermart and Mars Music are two that come to mind.
9:00 I have those exact Bose speakers! I run them off my 1972 Marantz Reciever for my vinyl collection and it sounds better than any other speaker in the house!
Home theater was expensive as all hell! A receiver was like 400 bucks at the time! 🤣🤣🤣🤣 but it was the 90's we ain't give a shit about money back then.
There was at least one on Long Island, not sure where it was though. Broadway Mall had a big electronics store in the late 90's, not sure which store it was though.
Nez Scott it was something so much greater. They would have cars on the showroom floor furniture a small format radio shacks and even a McDonalds on the premise.
ArtistCornerLive wow. I just pull some chairs out of a DAVE&BUSTERS IN DULUTH GA and seen a newspaper ad when that location first open here in 99 and they said thats what use to be at that building DAVE& BUSTERS IS AT NOW. So I never heard of INCREDIBLE UNIVERSE SO I HAD TO GOOGLE IT. LOL IM FROM BAMA SO WE DIDNT HAVE THIS BACK IN THE 90'S.
Worked as a manager at both places, and Circuit was like a flyweight compared to IU being Mike Tyson lol. Easily 2-3 times the size, and had a giant rotunda with a sound stage where they would sometimes have concerts and live bands, they had Karaoke booths, places for people to hang out and playtest video games, an in store daycare center, food court and a lot more going on. It wasn't just a store, it was like a big party going on where people also sold electronics. People would literally sit and hang out in the home theatre area on sofas eating popcorn and watching movies lol.
As a 16-17 year old, it was VERY incredible. Spent many hours at the Garland/Dallas location playing the game demos, checking out the boxes and boxes of computer software, watching cute girls do the karaoke booth, grabbing lunch at the McDonalds, and chatting with fellow nerds who were doing the same.
This was such an amazing store. It was a personal tragedy to me that the Fry''s that took over closed during the pandemic. Even if it was a different store, I could see the original in my memory.
LOL the one in Wilsonville Oregon had a Pizza Hut instead of a McDonald’s.
Come back!!! Save us from these lame mundane and bland stores!!!!
holy crap a 27" tv!? I'm not made of money
Bahahhahahahaha!
Dang, I could only afford a 14", way to rub in my financial limitations. 😢
for reference im using a 120" now lol and sitting 6.5 ft away. truly a home theater.
so rad
Didn't expect to see you here lol
They should have relaunched as a movie theater.
God, I miss this place. One opened close to me back in 1994 but closed in early 97. I used to go there almost every week to play the video games.
Lia Smazik the one in my city was taken over by Frys electronic
Michael Frye many were. Frys purchased some of their assets
This is the store that got me obsessed with the whole home theater surround sound situation, I remember the first AC-3 receiver they had was a Kenwood model for $2000, I got my first PS1 there when it launched and remember them hosting a car audio competition. Really miss this place, it was gone too fast!
@@MichaVelli1983 I'm from Utah so we didn't have Fry's. A car dealership got ours. XD
SNES games in the kid's playroom? :O That's what I got to do! Always begged my dad to take his time shopping. XD
Ah the days of Virtual Boy demos and Dolby Pro Logic surround sound receivers!:) I did used to love browsing around in the Dallas IU
There's something really interesting looking back at this as a '98 baby and vintage tech enthusiast who cut their teeth on a Packard Bell computer running Windows 95. It's interesting how there seemed to be a big emphasis on the futurism of technology. It's interesting how a lot of the things people take for granted nowadays, that only a select few (including myself) are still curious to learn more about, were such exciting new things. I don't think you can find a TV smaller than 27 inches at the store if you really wanted to. You'd have to order online. The closest thing would probably be a monitor. We truly are living in the world of home theatre.
I'm sad that I was born too late to step in an Incredible Universe. If only just to fraternize with other nerds and take in the variety of it all.
Absolutely loved working here, even if listening to Jurassic Park's dinosaurs trumpeting all day for months on end via Bose AC3 at high volume did wear thin. Most of the movies they screened didn't bother me that bad but that one I grew to hate lol. Aside from that every day felt like you were trying to sell stuff in the middle of a big party, with all the concerts, karaoke, people playing games and wandering around with food and balloons lol
I can't believe how soon this came and went . My Dad bought me a Panasonic 3DO from here and I loved the day my Dad took me here . He helped build this place and so I got a shirt that had a small logo on the front and on the back it read "I helped build the Universe ". It was and still is the greatest electronic store I've ever been too . Every time I past it on 270 , I wish they would make a comeback !!!
RetrOhio working there was totally Incredible im glad so many have vreat memories of this place.
This place opened before its time. If they would had opened in early 2000s they would have been great for these tech age kids.
Incredible Universe was only possible in the 90's.
I played every SNES and Sega CD game ever made there.
I know exactly what you mean. You still can't miss that building from the freeway. I think it's a furniture store or something now. Very sad. The electronics boom of the mid-90s was a one-of-a-kind moment in history that'll never come again, and failed experiment that it was, Incredible Universe was like the crown jewel of the era.
Jurassic Park on Laserdisc?! 2 for $16?! How In the world did they keep them on the shelves? ...
Incredible Universe, 1994, Sacramento, California. They were playing Speed on all their TV's. As a 9 year old I stood their and waited to see when Keanu Reeves pushed the old terrorist man's head up in the subway if they would censor his head coming off, they did not. To my pleasant surprise, no censoring, they showing a fucking decapitaiton scene inside this store. From there I was hooked. All the video game demos from SNES, Gameboy, Game Gear, and even the Atari Jaguar: Alien Vs. Predator demo had me tripping balls at that age. A technological orgasm at this place, oh how I miss it.
Oh shit, we both shopped at the same store in the same year!
@@ironwill100 Visited the Houston Store in August 1995. Saw Saturn for the first time and Windows 95!!!
Thank god he explained to me how to use a VCR. How did I live all this time without that knowledge?
Incredible Universe was like going to the circus. They had everything. Lot of fun and energy. My Mom took us there when we'd visit. Eventually I lived with her. And In 1995 I remember going to the back and seeing Star Wars playing on Laserdisc on a tube TV. I was blown away how amazing it looked! It looked like a totally different movie. I was used to watching it on VHS with washed out colors. But here it was perfect, space was super black and the stars so bright. The colors were amazing. At first I bought a really nice Sony VCR, but I eventually had to save up and get a laserdisc player (those things were dang expensive). I also loved hanging out in the home theater rooms and watching parts of movies. I remember watchin Casper, the sound mix on that movie and sound quality is incredible. Especially in surround sound. I remember when DVD came out, there was only a few DVD's on the shelf until eventually it grew to a massive section of DVD's. I never liked DVD much though. The sound quality was bad on those. They would downmix everything. And the bitrate was horribly horribly low on the sound. I always missed laserdisc. I'm happy with blu-ray though. I had a few DVD's but mostly skipped it. I had one of the first DVD players made, made by Toshiba. My Mom stills has it and they use it for CD's.
I also remember they were blasting Rush Chronicles CD's at the front where you walk in and had it sitting out displayed. I sat and listened for some time, and was hooked and bought the CD set. When I had finally got my Laserdisc player and before I got a bigger TV I remember watching Indiana Jones on my little 19 inch tube TV. It was crazy how insanely good it looked. It was so clear and sharp and the shadows so good it looked 3D! I've yet to get that same look from any new TV or format. The depth, shadows, and sharpness from a small tube TV is out of this world. And it looked so clean I was almost laughing how fake the temple set looked, you could tell it was in a studio!
Then one day they shut it down to remodel. I was really excited to see what it was going to look like. Then it opened up and I ran in all excited for this new "Fry's" place. But that soon led to disappointment. They ripped out the heart of Incredible Universe. All the joy was gone. Just shelving stacked high row after row. Sterile and no personality. I ran back to my favorite spot in the Home Theater rooms. They were all shut down at first I think. Everything ripped out. Eventually they half heartedly threw some gear in there. But it was never the same. Although through the years I had some good memories of Fry's. But now they are almost dead and gone too.
Wow! Thanks for sharing this was truly an incredible place.
4:35 "chances are very good that you already own a VCR" as the audio cuts in and out, I don't miss the old days.
I used to visit this store all the time back when I used to live in Miami, I still remember the layout and how big it was. I haven't been to Miami in 4 years but the building was still there off 826.
I used to go to the one in Miami also as a kid, great memories
Comparable to Nebraska Furniture Mart's "Mega Mart" in the 90s and early 2000s.
Bringing back the 90's for me, DAMN!
I remember the Sacramento store back when I was probably ten, so 1994/1995 or so. We were too far to drive there often, but that place was pretty cool.
RisenHellFire god damn bro pogs! Fuck the memories. I haven't heard the word in ages!!
I was born and raised in Sacramento! I lived right next to incredible universe. It was soo awesome. I ended up working there when it was turned into Fry's electronics. Incredible universe was way way waaaay cooler 👍😊
Mer too, my dad and I remember around that time in 94 and 95 I was probably 4 or 5 we would get our electronic needs there. It sucks that it became an Frys electronics after. the nostalgia, the 90s were special
If IU could have partnered with Apple in the 90s, they may have not only survived, but prospered. But back in the early 90s, Apple was basically dead. The iMac and Steve Jobs brought them back to life.
One of these opened 5 minutes from my house in the 90's. I remember walking in looking up at the amazing black ceiling made to look like outer space complete with sparkling stars. And when my brother and I spotted the McDonalds inside, we lost it! We asked mom buy us lunch, and we always wanted to go back and play. I remember the day care center in the front. Then it turned into a Fry's and now even they aren't doing well. I understand things come and go, empires rise and fall, but seeing malls and stores from my childhood close makes me a little sad. Weird! I wonder if people will get sick of Amazon and want to actually go out to shop. Maybe not, its so convenient...
It was a pretty rad place to shoplift from back in the day. I got a gameboy, a sega gamegear and a bunch of games, and a gameboy color all for free back in the day. I remember I somehow missed one of the electronic tags on that gameboy color and it set of the alarm on my way out! I almost shit myself and made a run for it!!!
Lmao! Thanks for sharing.
Brings back memories of spending Saturday afternoons at the IU in Sacramento. I recall their Tower Records-sized music and movie section as well as the center stage where a salesman blasted T.Rex's roars from "Jurassic Park" on a home theater system. I can see why the chain didn't last long, the overhead costs were huge and there was too much competition from Best Buy and Circuit City.
Thanks for posting this video! My girlfriend and I at were at Dave and Busters this past Saturday. As we were leaving and walking outside I remembered the building next door used to be an Incredible Universe! I miss that place screw Best Buy.
Chris614 it truly was a special place.
Chris614 in Florida.. Broward county?
Janick Goudeau I am only familiar with the one in Doral (at the time NW Miami). I don't believe they had one in Broward. The one in Doral was restored by a private owner several years back, but now they tore it down!
www.google.com/search?q=AAAA+universe&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari&dlnr=1&sei=RCA8W7TMA6PP5gLvmYWwAw#activetab=owners&dlnr=1&fid=0x88d9b977cb04b175:0x3077e71456041056&fpstate=luuv&imagekey=!1e10!2sAF1QipNmke6BAW74s5c1vfSPs4vuCnCZL_nDpNtj1f4q&viewerState=ga
I sold sound equipment here. Lol.
Wow save 5%! Sign me up!!
I wonder how every some of those widescreen CRTs where
I played DKC 2 here for the first time
I want to the one on Northgate good times.
It’s not home theatre without laserdisc…
memories.....
damn I remember those purple shirts with the green collars...
13:37 nice
How come he didn’t touch upon the 80” oled screen with Dolby vision? Lol
He thought that was next life technology. 😆
I cant seem to find the ticker symbol for this company's stock. Seems like a solid investment.
$TIU it's no Nasdaq
This company was so 1337 as indicated by the length of this video. Not sure why no one has noticed this yet. Loved this place when I was younger, but this is what happens when you grow big too fast.
This place opened before its time. If they would had opened in early 2000s they would have been great for these tech age kids.
Carlos Ali doubt it. Internet would have killed this place. It was just too much overhead
Lol. No. It was unsustainable.
*Maybe* with a slightly tweaked business model, like an arcade/restaurant/retail area, or something. A lot of mega stores tried in the late 90s/early 2000s but that massive floor space is a huge drag on profits. Hypermart and Mars Music are two that come to mind.
9:00
I have those exact Bose speakers! I run them off my 1972 Marantz Reciever for my vinyl collection and it sounds better than any other speaker in the house!
Home theater was expensive as all hell! A receiver was like 400 bucks at the time!
🤣🤣🤣🤣 but it was the 90's we ain't give a shit about money back then.
IKR I remember them having $600 VCR's also lol
Rear Projection TVs have a shaper image just like in the movie theater.
7:39 Pinnacle speakers!! Is/Was located in Plainview NY, a few miles from me.
There was at least one on Long Island, not sure where it was though. Broadway Mall had a big electronics store in the late 90's, not sure which store it was though.
I think the Incredible Universe I remember visiting as a kid was in Westbury. Pretty sure there was a McDonald's (?) in the store, too.
Anyone recognize the brand 16x9 TV at 10:54?
Supermall, Auburn WA. It existed when I was a kid but I never went inside. It eventually got turned into Sams Club
This place seemed like it opened and closed so fast. guess auburn wasnt the best place to sell high end electronics.
Haha....jokes on you, incredible universe....you went out of business. I'm gonna spend my dollars at circuit city......doh! Never mind. 🙄
Never heard of this but it's a CIRCUIT CITY
Nez Scott it was something so much greater. They would have cars on the showroom floor furniture a small format radio shacks and even a McDonalds on the premise.
ArtistCornerLive wow. I just pull some chairs out of a DAVE&BUSTERS IN DULUTH GA and seen a newspaper ad when that location first open here in 99 and they said thats what use to be at that building DAVE& BUSTERS IS AT NOW. So I never heard of INCREDIBLE UNIVERSE SO I HAD TO GOOGLE IT. LOL IM FROM BAMA SO WE DIDNT HAVE THIS BACK IN THE 90'S.
Wow, I would love to see the newspaper ads. We have a fb page if you can post them. Roll tide :-)
ArtistCornerLive ok and I would have to go back there to D&B but No Roll Tide. It's #WDE🐯 Auburn fan
Worked as a manager at both places, and Circuit was like a flyweight compared to IU being Mike Tyson lol. Easily 2-3 times the size, and had a giant rotunda with a sound stage where they would sometimes have concerts and live bands, they had Karaoke booths, places for people to hang out and playtest video games, an in store daycare center, food court and a lot more going on. It wasn't just a store, it was like a big party going on where people also sold electronics. People would literally sit and hang out in the home theatre area on sofas eating popcorn and watching movies lol.
There is no coupon on the back of my phone for 5% off. What a joke!!