SAN ANTONIO -- A.J. Martinez gets to wake up and do what he loves. 

What You Need To Know


  • A.J. and Raven Martinez operate San Antonio's Propaganda Palace 

  • Store specializes in vintage video games and consoles 

  • Store has seen record business in the past few months

  • Owners hopeful other small businesses will recover

“Time to make the donuts,” Martinez says.

Martinez isn’t making donuts or any pastries; rather, he’s selling nostalgia. 

“Back in the mid-80s, when CDs fist started showing up, nobody wanted vinyl anymore, and I could go to a garage sale and buy an entire crate of records for 20 bucks,” Martinez. says. “Or I could go to a Sam Goody and buy one CD for that much.” 

His CD and vinyl record catalog is quite impressive, but he’s most known for his vintage game store, Propaganda Palace. 

A.J. Martinez straightens a shelf at his vintage game store, Propaganda Palace, in this image from July 2020. (Jose Arredondo/Spectrum News)

In the mid-70s his father would spend his days in downtown San Antonio trying to convince television shops to carry Pong systems.

“And I was this 3-year-old that got to play on his sample when he wasn’t busy working with it, and I fell in love with gaming. I started collecting gaming stuff,” Martinez says. “I’ve been amassing this stuff since I was 3. Literally I’m 48 now, so it’s been 45 years.”

His motivation for running his owning game store came from the global financial crisis in 2007, as well as his wife, Raven Martinez. 

The pandemic has hit local businesses extremely hard, but Propaganda is enjoying its highest grossing months this year. 

Raven Martinez appears at Propaganda Palace in this image from July 2020. (Jose Arredondo/Spectrum News)

Newer game consoles such as the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and the Nintendo Switch are sold out, which means business is booming for this vintage spot. 

“So if they can’t get their hands on the new one at the price they are wanting to pay, they can get a Switch at $500 used when they are $300 new,” Martinez says. “So they kind of end up saying let’s go get a retro machine.” 

For nearly 13 years Martinez has been selling those retro machines as well as repairing them.  

“We pride ourselves a lot on our controllers because the sticks are usually broken when people sell them to me, but I take them apart and rebuild them,” Martinez said, holding a Nintendo 64 controller. 

A.J. and Raven Martinez give customers an opportunity to test the games out to make sure that they are working. For the Playstation 2 (PS2) lovers, the couple will bring out three types of discs and hand the patrons the controllers for a test drive. 

Propaganda is about to have another high grossing month, but all Raven Martinez can think about are the other business that are struggling 

“The fact that we’ve been okay has been nice but you want everybody to do just as well,” she said. “So I’m hoping that one day it will be like that.” 

For that reason alone, A.J. and Raven are grateful. 

“I’m the luckiest guy in the world. I get to do something for a living that I would’ve done for free except they want to pay me to do it,” A.J. Martinez said. “And I get to do it every day for the rest of my life.” 

Raven Martinez assists a customer at Propaganda Palace in San Antonio in this image from July 2020. (Jose Arredondo/Spectrum News)