Any memories of the old shops we used to visit?

[Matt Van Dam]

In my youth it was all about two places;

- Console Concepts (Newcastle under Lyme) for Import console goodness;
- OcUK for all my PC Hardware needs.

Having both of these on my doorstep as a kid was a curse and a blessing

I've recently done a couple of shows for the Retro Gaming Discussion Show podcast about Console Concepts and the late 80's/early 90's grey import scene. Easily found via google if you'd like a listen.

 

[Decado3960]

In the 80's i would use Woolworths in N-U-L for C64 and Spectrum games. We had an older guy visit our council estate with a red VW camper van. The back was filled with Atari/mega drive games for rent, £1 week i think, he rented meccano sets as well.

When i brought my first Amiga 500 possibly 88-89, we went to the YMCA in Hanley once a week and spent the whole evening copying games with D-Copy & X-Copy i think at one point i had 4 external drives on my Amiga just to speed up the process so my mates could have a copy too. We used buy a sleeve of 50 floppy's a month easily. I think at some point we got kicked out of the YMCA and moved to a pub on Biddulph Road. I honestly don't remember buying an Amiga game from a store. I still have plenty of originals in the loft, so they must have come from some where.

 

[cee-S-dee]

16-Bit World Bull Street West Bromwich. My dad would drop me off every Saturday and i would spend pretty much all day there. The place was amazing. Import everything (SNES,MD,NEO GEO,PC Engine) They had arcades upstairs. They would rent Import games, i was the first customer to rent out Starfox (Starwing) with the special converter for the SNES. It was owned by two ladies from what I recall and they always made sure I was OK as I was a young teenager at the time.

I miss that place.

 

[FortuitousFluke]

We had two awesome shops in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. I can't remember the name of one of them but it opened during the PS1 era and was solely a gameshop, I think it was an indie and run by people who clearly loved gaming, they used to hold release day events and stuff. I remember a 14 year old me being very happy with the Lara Croft model they hired.

The other was a store called Ace Computers, they mainly dealt in parts and accessories but they had a second hand PC shelf which was where I picked up my first copy of Daggerfall back in the day.

Earlier than that I used to drag my mum and dad to neighbouring towns that had cash converters stores so I could browse the second hand games, could never afford to pay for new ones. I still trawl through CEX and alike looking for bargains.

I also vividly remember renting games from blockbuster video. I used to become a right pest when somebody hadn't returned the game I wanted on time. I'd pop in every other day to see if it was there.

 

[fatiain]

The nearest city during my youth was Peterborough.

Peterborough was my knocking ground as well during the 90s.

Another Peterborian here.

There was an independent computer place up near the hospital, iirc it was called "Logic Sales", I went in there one Saturday to buy Pole Position for my C64 as I'd saved up the £9.99. The bloke in there offered me a dodgy copy for a fiver.

There was another independent place in the Midgate centre whose name I can't remember, I bought my Competition Pro joystick in there. I miss that joystick

 

[DEL 707]

Pretty sure I posted this in another thread and someone knew the shop.



Found this underneath the sleeve of a game I bought off Ebay.

 

[Vengance]

Wasn't Ritz the old name for Blockbuster?

 

[Hades]

Wasn't Ritz the old name for Blockbuster?

Ritz was a separate company in competition with Blockbuster. I think Blockbuster eventually bought the remnants of the Ritz company.

 

[MOOGLEYS]

I got my C64 stuff from Rumbelows in Sittingbourne Kent. They used to have a decent selection.....

 

[Vengance]

Ritz was a separate company in competition with Blockbuster. I think Blockbuster eventually bought the remnants of the Ritz company.

That would make sense, as we used to use a ritz card at blockbuster.

 

[I kill Bunnies]

I used to spend hours perusing the C64 tape rack upstairs at a computer store in Newark that is (I suspect after googling for it just now) long gone.

 

[spudbynight]

The OP brought back memories of Boots for me. It is amazing to think how big into computers they used to be. I remember as a child going into the Boots in the Whitgift Centre in Croydon. This was split over two floors. The basement was essentially a specialist computer retailer. They carried a huge range of machines and software. Anytime you went in they always had about 10-15 machines setup and loaded with software (normally games). They didn’t just carry the major machines, they also stocked all sorts of machines that failed in the market place. It was amazing just how many machines were launched in the 80s.

The other thing I remember was buying budget games in various shops. There was a bookshop I used to go into. I used to love the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks. They also had a display at the cash register of Mastertronic games for £1.99. These were games you couldn’t read reviews on. All you could base your buying decision on was the sleeve. They were a great pocket money gobbler. I remember loads of places had similar displays. Pretty much every small newsagent or sweet shop used to carry them.

 

[darkgen]

Some of those budget games were better than the full priced ones! Dizzy, Feud, The curse of Sherwood!

 

[spudbynight]

Yes, some were great. The thing is you had no way of knowing. Some were beyond awful.

 

[bushmins]

Ramsoft in Rochdale.

There was a shop called Romsoft in Romsey. It was also down a back alley and had a bit of an illegal thing going on. I don't really remember what else he sold but all I ever bought was 20 blank disks for £10 (several times), which was a very good price. I also remember seeing X copy III in there as well.

Most of my games for the C64 were bought at my local news agent for between 99p and £2.99. Also remember a shop called Ultima in Southampton East Street. I remember playing Duck Hunt upstairs in Southampton Boots. Also remember buying a Spectrum in Tandys in what was the East Street Shopping centre. Mind you the Spectrum never worked, even after changing it several times, ended up with the C64.

My very first memory of a 'games' shop was a TV repair shop, no idea where it was. I was probably about 5 or 6. He had an early aliens game running on a tiny TV screen.

What I find very odd is that I don't generally pay more than £10 for games now a days. Back during the Amiga days I would pay about £20. Most of that would be through a company called Premier Mail Order, that would advertise in Amiga mags.

 

[nobla]

I love this thread. I have loads of fond early gaming memories. I remember Ultima on the corner in east street and going upstairs in Boots in Southampton. Going down to WH Smith and buying Uridium on the Spectrum, also seeing the Atari ST for the first time there. We used to have a place in Southampton called Compucade, a kind of predecessor to the Internet Cafe. They had a room full of Amiga 1000s and Atari STs that you could play games on by the hour. They had 16 Atari STs all linked up by midi ports and we used to play a networked game in teams called Midi Maze (which was an early FPS where all the players were smiley balls). Used to play in a league. I also spent a couple of years working part time in Game in the Bargate shopping centre. Happy days!

 

[Mucky_Pup]

Can remember going into the original Grainger Games in the Grainger Market few times, and Beatties which sold a few games in Eldon Square, and the Metrocentre. My dad signed up to Special Reserve as well and we got a copy of the 1st Half Life for 99p or something.

 

[Mrjamehs]

I loved seeing the Atari 400 and 800 in computerama in Stafford. They also had an oric 1. Think I bought spectrum games and returned them because they were terrible. Over the road was a training place that sold apple 2’s and dragon 32’s. I had a dragon. Later I used to go to a market in Epsom to buy import Super Nintendo games for ridiculous prices. Loved super Star Wars. There was a shop in Newcastle Hill computers. It smelled really nice! Bought my first PC. A 386 25hz or something. And played Tetris. The owner’s brother was a bit dodgy! Tried to sell me his car and side-business which I think was mainly de-fragging hard drives! I also remember seeing the first lucasarts point and click games in GAME in Leeds where my friend worked.
Thank you.

 

[Ravenger]

I started off working in computer shops, the first one was one that sold Atari computers mainly, but also branched out to sell others including C64, Sord M5, Spectravideo, and even the Mattel Aquarius. They also sold consoles and games like the Atari VCS, Intellivision, Vectrex and Colecovision.
I remember when MB games decided to discontinue the Vectrex and we sold them and the games all off really cheaply, but as I was on a really low salary I still couldn't afford to buy one. I wish I'd been able to as they were ace and worth quite a bit today!
I then got a job in a different shop for more money and access to trade prices on games, which was great. They sold all the popular micros and software, including Spectrums, Amstrad CPCs and C64. I used to enjoy chatting with the customers and showing them the latest games.

I also remember as a school kid going into the local computer shop to look at ZX81 software (as that was the only computer I could afford at the time), and of course WH Smiths who had a large selection of software for the machine.

I can also recall going to some very early computer fairs and shows and seeing the early games on Orics, Spectrums and later the C64.

What amazing times they were. New computers and games being released all the time. Amazing creativity.

 

[jennidc]

I remember a toy model shop in Stafford that had a computer and games section. It's where my Spectrum 48k and manic miner was purchased.

Cannock also had a good games shop it was where I first tried an Atari Jaguar.

In the Amiga years I used to drive me and a mate from Rugeley to Bilston Market to buy very cheap games.

I used to take my Amiga to Trentham Gardens computer club which should have been named xcopy world. I remember the last one I went to someone bought in a PS1 with wipeout. It was the first time I'd tried or seen a playstation needless to say my mind was blown. It would be many years until I got one though I stuck with the amiga1200 for many years adding a 4mb accelerator, CDROM via squirrel and a 80mb hard drive and a canon bj10 printer. Right up until I built my first pc powerhouse a p150 over clocked to 166mhz