Although it's a small city enclave with fewer than 5,000 people — tucked away in the middle of Denver's metro area — Glendale stands out for its brick-and-mortar stores that have survived the rise of digital shopping and now offer a slice nostalgia from the time before online services like Amazon Prime butted in.
Shoppers can stop by the legendary Glendale Super Target (reportedly the nation's busiest) and even visit Barnes & Noble still for books and random bathroom visits. However, it's a GameStop on Colorado Boulevard that's become the area's pièce de résistance.
Plastered on the windows of one side of the video game store, a Halo 3 mural from 2007 has captured the attention of gamers around the world — with posts online garnering millions of likes and views in recent years.
This Gamestop in Colorado still has the Halo 3 (2007) window mural up. pic.twitter.com/DeqXajxRXC
— cameron (@cameronfromncl) July 17, 2022
"That wallpaper brought back memories of camping out for video games, memories with your friends," explains Oscar Castillo, founder of the online pop-culture platform Modern Notoriety. "Those things don't happen anymore, as games are downloaded now. It's lost in memories."
Castillo and Modern Notoriety are based in Chicago, but that didn't keep him from finding out about the Glendale window mural from a fan of his platform. The mural depicts Master Chief, the main character in the popular military science fiction Halo video game series. Castillo shared pictures of the mural with his Instagram followers in a December 12 post, and it seemed to get nothing but love.
Castillo and Modern Notoriety are based in Chicago, but that didn't keep him from finding out about the Glendale window mural from a fan of his platform. The mural depicts Master Chief, the main character in the popular military science fiction Halo video game series. Castillo shared pictures of the mural with his Instagram followers in a December 12 post, and it seemed to get nothing but love.
"I come here like once a month to pay my respects," Instagram user @cathexiis wrote in reply to the post.
"We used to be a thriving society. Y'all had to be there," joked @gamerhandstv.
"Peak gaming right there," @alejo.rivera0 reminisced.
"We used to be a thriving society. Y'all had to be there," joked @gamerhandstv.
"Peak gaming right there," @alejo.rivera0 reminisced.
The post received more than 91,000 likes and over 1,200 comments, mostly praising the store's commitment to such an iconic video game.
He brought his childhood friend Ben Morlan along with him to the GameStop on Wednesday and posed in front of the mural while Morlan took his picture. Even though Poteet owns a helmet like the one Halo characters wear, he forgot it at his dorm in Missouri, and instead posed with a black Stormtrooper helmet from Star Wars.
"It's Star Wars, I know," Poteet says about his helmet. "I just wanted to be able to get proof of myself being here."
Morlan saw "pictures of this mural floating around on the internet for the past couple of years," he says. "It's cool that there's a remnant from this game when it first came out."
Poteet and Morlan also both saw the IG post by Modern Notoriety celebrating the mural. "I never knew it was here," Morlan says. "Once we found out, it was like, 'We've got to go, right?'"
The first Halo video game came out exclusively for the original Xbox console in 2001, with more than five million copies being sold. More than a dozen sequels have come out since then and the release of Halo 3 in 2007 grossed more than $300 million. Castillo notes how Halo 3 changed gaming at the time and brought a lot of excitement.
"When we shared it, people were very emotional because it brought back memories of their childhood," Castillo says. "It stands out because of the significance of the game, the era, the timing, everything."
The Instagram post reached Brenden Poteet, a college freshman in Columbia, Missouri. After he saw it, he decided to carve out some time from his winter vacation to pay his respects to the mural on Wednesday, December 27.
"Seeing something in person from that time is just awesome," Poteet says. "Halo is like one of the first games I ever played as a little kid. It's one of my favorite gaming franchises ever."
Poteet was born in 2005, making him too young to remember when Halo 3 came out, but his dad "would host these little sessions at his house where he'd be playing Halo with some of his friends," Poteet says.
"As I got older, I got to appreciate Halo more and more for what it actually is and enjoy the story and the lore," he says. "So we came to Glendale to see this awesome piece of gaming history. I found out about it while I was in Missouri, and I told my friends, 'We need to go here.'"
"Seeing something in person from that time is just awesome," Poteet says. "Halo is like one of the first games I ever played as a little kid. It's one of my favorite gaming franchises ever."
Poteet was born in 2005, making him too young to remember when Halo 3 came out, but his dad "would host these little sessions at his house where he'd be playing Halo with some of his friends," Poteet says.
"As I got older, I got to appreciate Halo more and more for what it actually is and enjoy the story and the lore," he says. "So we came to Glendale to see this awesome piece of gaming history. I found out about it while I was in Missouri, and I told my friends, 'We need to go here.'"
Brenden Poteet and Ben Morlan stand outside the Halo 3 window mural of the Glendale GameStop.
Bennito L. Kelty
"It's Star Wars, I know," Poteet says about his helmet. "I just wanted to be able to get proof of myself being here."
Morlan saw "pictures of this mural floating around on the internet for the past couple of years," he says. "It's cool that there's a remnant from this game when it first came out."
Poteet and Morlan also both saw the IG post by Modern Notoriety celebrating the mural. "I never knew it was here," Morlan says. "Once we found out, it was like, 'We've got to go, right?'"
The first Halo video game came out exclusively for the original Xbox console in 2001, with more than five million copies being sold. More than a dozen sequels have come out since then and the release of Halo 3 in 2007 grossed more than $300 million. Castillo notes how Halo 3 changed gaming at the time and brought a lot of excitement.
"In 2007, generations were introduced to a new version of multiplayer within the Halo series. Halo 3 in 2007 was peak gaming to the point of it being part of pop culture," Castillo says. "The music, the roll out, the memories people have of playing with their friends, high school, college, this was something the world was looking forward to."
Employees at the GameStop weren't able to comment to Westword about the mural because of company policy, but they said that the decision to keep it up for over a decade has to do with an expansion of the store.
The Halo mural is on a window that can't be reached from inside the store. A renovation that took place more than a decade ago led to new walls being constructed inside. But instead of tearing down the old walls, the location's owner kept the outer portion of the structure with the window and mural, then built new walls behind it.
The mural is now fading and cracking under the sun, with the inside wall protecting it from being touched up or repainted. Also, one of the window panels is broken — with bits of broken glass still stuck in the sidewalk cracks outside it — and now part of Master Chief's shoulder is missing from the mural.
The Halo mural is on a window that can't be reached from inside the store. A renovation that took place more than a decade ago led to new walls being constructed inside. But instead of tearing down the old walls, the location's owner kept the outer portion of the structure with the window and mural, then built new walls behind it.
The mural is now fading and cracking under the sun, with the inside wall protecting it from being touched up or repainted. Also, one of the window panels is broken — with bits of broken glass still stuck in the sidewalk cracks outside it — and now part of Master Chief's shoulder is missing from the mural.
While the mural seems to be on its last life, Poteet and Morlan are at least grateful that they were able to celebrate their love of the Halo series and come up close to an artifact from video game history, even if 2007 wasn't that long ago.
