Any memories of the old shops we used to visit?

EB was absolutely rad. They were right around the corner from Game and then when they bought EB they had two shops within a stone's throw from each other. I have fond memories of playing them and a couple of independent places off against each other when trading in games :D
 
Going to school in Chelmsford I used to visit Special Reserve often too.

They also had a branch closer to me in Basildon (festival leisure park) for a short time I think. That was where I bought several PS2s, lots of games and a little PC stuff before I really got into PC gaming, partly due to seeing what they had on display there.

If my memory serves I think I ended up working with one of their ex staff later on when I worked in PC sales/repairs (local business).
 
I remember back before Game even existed. There was a store in my town called Computer Genius, it was amazing to see a shop dedicated to computers and games... before this it was buying games from John Menzies, Littlewoods and other odd ball retailers. Computer Genius was great, the guys that ran it were enthusiasts and knew their stuff, they had computers setup in store so you could try before you buy. I distinctly remember trying out Myth there (think it was on C64 - an epic game for it's time) on a quiet evening, playing through it and chatting with the staff. Good times.
I even got my first PC from them, a Pentium 2-266!
They eventually moved over to console games and more or less dropped the computer side of things in the mid-90s (aside from a shelve for PC games), which was a shame, but with hindsight I guess that's just how the market went.
 
GGizmo said:
The shops I remember buying my computers/games from are either closed up many years ago or no longer sell computer related things. I'll write these in chronological order.

Boots.

At one time Boots used to sell computers and games. They had quite a big selection. The computer section would cover about 4 or 5 isles in the store which they put in one section. My parents had bought me a C64 for my 12th birthday from Boots. It was a batman themed game pack. The good thing about Boots selling that kinda thing was whenever I had to go out with my parents shopping they could take me to Boots and leave me in that section for a couple of hours!

WHSmith

My memories of this store are mainly about computer magazines. They stocked nearly every computer or console magazine you could imagine. Some of the magazines were thick with a lot to read. People used to stand in front of the magazines rack and be half reading them. So everyone was moving around each other and reaching for their favourite magazine. Reading computer magazines was how I learned to read. The store also used to stock some games in a different area. It used to be near the music section. It wasnt a big area and if I was looking for games that would be the last place I'd look. But if I happened to be in there buying a magazine I would often drift to the back of the store too.

Vudata in Ashton-under-lyne.

I don't know how I found this shop as I don't even live in Tameside. But I remember buying my Amiga 500 from there. It was an independent shop on Stamford Street. I think in its time it moved further up too. But in the early days I remember my dad taking me to the computer shop on Saturdays, the highlight of my weekend. I looked out of the window and seeing people literally backed up to the door. The first place they had it was nearly always very busy. They would have the walls stacked with games boxes from the small budget titles (£0.99p to £3.99) to the bigger boxes that were usually £15 upwards. Each wall of the shop was filled with games for all the different systems, From the C64 and Spectrum games, to the Amiga and the Atari. Towards the back of the shop were games for systems that didn't have a big range. BBC, Macs and PC's.

The funny thing was how quiet it would be even with so many people in the shop. Normally you'd hear the computers, usually an Atari or Amiga in demo mode blasting out tunes that made you want to look, even when trying to jockey for position to reach to see the latest games on the shelves.

When I was older and was attending a nearby college I was going to do a 2 week work experience there. But sadly it was cut short as they were shutting up shop.

Ramsoft in Rochdale.

The other shop that holds memories for me was a little shop at the top of Drake Street in Rochdale. Another hidden away shop and I'm not sure how I found it. I was older by this time and was well in to the Amiga scene. It was nearly entirely focused on the Amiga and Atari. I remember the people who worked there seemed like a group of friends. That was the first time I saw X-Copy in action, as they would be sat at computers doing all kinds of things while the customers looked around. It was only a small shop but whenever any new game was due to be released they would always have it. I think thats were I bought the CD32 console. I only remember having a couple of games with it and can't remember going to back to buy any games for it as Commodore was in collapse by then.

Ok, thats my probably long winded memories. Does anyone else have any memories of back in the day of buying their first computer or consoles, and the shops we used to go to?
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Vudata!!! I lived about 10 minutes down the road from here. You're correct, they did move up the road at some point into a larger premises but if I recall correctly they weren't around for too much longer after this. A few years ago the original shop, having been through several new owners was having a refurb, I was driving past and the original wooden sign was up against the wall. I went back later in a van with the hope of acquiring it but sadly it had been destroyed and skipped.

If you remember Vudata, you may also recall Dukinfield Consoles? I got my Super Famicom from there and then the N64. I remember the fun and games of trying to work out all the controls and menus as everything was in Japanese. Great times.
 
Beatties in Newcastle, absolutely loved the place. They sold games and consoles, model kits/paints etc, all sorts of quirky gadget and hobbyist type stuff. It was a treasure trove for a kid, loved going in to just to browse around even when I had no money to spend.

I remember they had one of those big old VR setups once, there was a queue of kids from outside the shop waiting to have a go, this was back in the 90's.

Used to love the Green Market in town too, absolutely wonderful place with a lot of different stalls, there was a game shop I used to regular trade stuff I'd finished on the PS1/N64. Absolute travesty that they knocked it down, put a ton of people out of business, and replaced it with more soulless "shopping mall" by extending Eldon square, there's yet another Tesco and Poundland there now along with a bunch of generic women's clothes shops, or at least that's how it was last I was in the area.
 
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There was a shop near my parents house where we used to rent n64 games, it was something like £5 for 2/3 nights from memory...often more for the latest titles, I remember going in there on a Friday night with the anticipation of finding the game you wanted to rent or going out empty handed!
 
Countcussy said:
Growing up in Sheffield with a C64, the ONLY place to go on a Saturday morning was Just Micro on Carver street, the original home of Gremlin Graphics. They used to have early demos of upcoming projects. Was such a welcoming and fun place to be.
Micro fun at Hillsborough was also great, and used to stock less mainstream stuff, and would take specific orders.
Electronics Boutique also became a must visit, from where I bought the Action Replay cartridge.
Used to regularly buy Cassettes from WHSmith's and Boots for my ahem, backups. :D

Looking back, with the cheap bus fare at the time (2p !!), I used to travel all over the city for my gaming fix.

Once I had my Amiga, it was EB, Game, and a Virgin branded shop. And a company called Gemsoft right in the centre for repairs and hardware.
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Managed to find a picture ! Above the shop was the Gremlin Graphics offices (Monty On the Run, Potty Pidgeon etc) the entrance was further up Carver Street but when you were in the shop you could hear them testing games above you and quite often the ceiling would vibrate with the sound of game testing.

MH1W9Lm.jpeg
 
There used to be a good little independent shop in Bolton called Peek & Poke that I used to rent ZX Spectrum games from. I used to copy them and return. I bought a little hardware gadget from one of ads at the back of Crash magazine that used to remove any of the copy prevention.
 
Electronics Boutique (before it became Game). Remember the one in Enfield with the N64 station.

Also Woolworths interestingly enough, pretty sure I bought Mario Tennis 64 from there.
 
Flibster said:
One Step Beyond in Norwich is one that sticks in my memory. Dark, cramped and filled with stuff. Great place. Now long gone. :(
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My Friends dad owned that, used to go there from time to time as a kid, I remember first trying the N64 controllers there and falling in love with them. He's a nice guy, we play coop games together on steam. I think he had the time of his life on consoles as a kid :)
 
Can anyone remember a shop (maybe national) that were here in Newcastle?

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They used to sell PC components and I remember buying a Pace internal PCI modem from them probably around 97 or 98. That was the first time I performed a y sort of upgrade on a PC.
 
I sed to buy my speccy games from the John Menzies round the corner from me, take them home and copy them and return it. How they never clicked on Ill never know.
 
Silent Bob said:
I have fond memories of visiting Lakeside shopping centre in the 90's. I remember going to GAME, Future Zone (before it turned into EB) and a few over computer stores.
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Jeez future zone!

I remember that one, silver looking face as the logo? I did my work experience for 2 week at school in Swindon EB. Was a brilliant time and loved it! I was there when the original V-Rally was released. Interesting seeing release day from the other side of the counter!

Left the at the end of it with a boxed starfox SNES console, Saturn virtual cop and gun pack and a load of games lol. Expensive work experience :P
 
We had a huge Beatties in Swindon, remember buying loads of games from there on the ground floor and the whole upstairs was scalextric and Tamiya radio control hobby centre.....glory days!

They also had one of the first HUGE Virtual reality machines in there when they came out as a mini tech expo for a bit (just looked it up, was the "Virtuality" VR system....AI even knew!)
 
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My first ever work experience as a teenager was in Cestrian Software in Chester, where I could sell Amiga and ST games. They kept me on at weekends afterwards, and I could by my games with some discount. Was happy as a pig in....

I loved coming home and opening the boxes and reading the manuals and studying the maps.
 
For me, it was SRS Microsystems at the top of Watford high street.
They're still around, but moved to Chesham and are purely a camera shop now. They used to have racks and racks of games for things like Commodore, Amiga, Atari and Speccy, and had all the different magazines for whatever system you had. Each month I used to get a copy of Your Sinclair plus a game cassette or two from the shelves.
 
Man this thread takes me back, I remember picking up Magic Carpet, Tie Fighter etc and other big box games in WHSmiths, Boots and Woolworths, and also remember well Special Reserve (was a member for many years, used to buy quite a few N64 bits from them)
Then there was of course Game, Gamestation, Electronics Boutique, Beatties (pretty sure I got OG Tamagotchi and Barcode Battler - if anyone remembers that, from there!) Eplay and many others.
The high street and raw retail pool has really homogenised over where things were 20-30 years ago...

@Werewolf - saw your mention of the shop in Shenley Church End, I remember it, but can't for the life of me remember what it was called!
 
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In Sheffield they was a few shops called Whizzkids - I used to rent games, and eventually buy from them as i got older. The feel you had going to these places were amazing, pure excitement!

Another one I'll always remember was buying Ultima Online from GAME (When they were good) my reward card number was like 00000000000101. :) Later purchased a voodoo banshee card, great times.
 
On my bmx with mates in the 80’s, I would pop into a newsagent and find cassette games by the till for £1.99 for C64, Spectrum etc. Some great finds.

Erol Computers Walthamstow was great. First big purchase there, I got frightmare on speccy for around £8. Only thing was the game would glitch when you reached level of “dream” which made it unplayable.

Boots in Ilford was crazy, the whole shabang there even Rob for the Nes was there. I could spend hours there if I had the chance. I had a speccy 128+3, what a bad choice. +2 would have been ok but I the Amstrad and c64 had the best looking games at that time.
 
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