i miss computer stores

Used to go to Bowlers on Trafford park for that computer fair mainly to restock on blank CDR/DVDR as were really cheap for my 'backups' and some blank smart cards for OnDigital :D
 
I used to love going to the computer shops and fairs, my dad used to take me fairs in Croydon, Orpington and Lewisham. (My dad would also enjoy going to the old model shop, beatties and he’d always buy me a model plane and himself, a Hornby train for his railway)

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatties_of_London

I used to enjoy going to a couple of independent shops, one in Sidcup, just off the high street, Petts Wood, just off station square and one in Woolwich. Not to mention what others have said, PC World, WH Smith and Woolworths. Used to get the magazines with the demo games on cassette, used our stereo to copy games and exchange with friends. Had a Spectrum+2, Amiga 500 and then I got my first PC from a UK German startup called Escom in 1995/96 for £703. A 486 DX2 66. As it turns out, it was faulty and they had no replacement stock so they upgraded me to a PC with a CD-ROM drive.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escom_(computer_company)
 
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Nasher said:
PC World is terrible now. Overpriced and don't really have that much useful stock. It's all TV and smart phone rubbish.

There is still a small PC store left in my town, but they are also to expensive.

If you want anything remotely specialist or out of the mainstream you have to order online.
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Were they ever good to start with? The only time I went near one was boxing day and I was desperate for a cable or something or other to get something working. All those Norton Antivirus and useless routers that cost the earth.

I suppose the pre builds with the ever so shiny monitors were worth a look until you noticed all the reflections in them, look cool but can't imagine them being very useful.

Small computer stores were just pants.

Evatron said:
went to my local shopping mall/center and realised how so many media stores are gone now. almost everything is clothes. i remember early 2000 when i would go browse pc world or virgin media and just look through all the random PC games and hardware. bargain bins of software and isles of obscure addon hardware would be interesting to look through for hours. i really miss that. if you want anything like that now you gotta do it online and its just not fun because going out for it felt like an adventure and you might accidentally find some cool stuff. the remaining computer stores now have nothing like that experience.

ok my nostalgia vent is over. thanks for reading.
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Everything is just charity shops now if you can find one thats still open.
 
Used to love going to GAME in the 90s in Belfast, they had a big TV setup running console games, and on the other side of the store a couple of pcs running games like theme hospital. Remember playing that for a good half hour or so one time.


Pc world, always amusing listening to the staff bsing potential customers.
 
Microdirect in Manchester (they have gone bankrupt, not a competitor), used to be good. You could go in and chat to the staff, get good ideas and tips. This was the days pre internet when your only sources of information were magazines, a piece of paper supplied with your hardware or another geek.
 
Back when I was a student I used to go into the OCUK mini shop thing that they (at least used to?) have in Newcastle. Think it was the first time I'd seen a custom loop in action.

Can't remember if you could actually buy anything in there or whether it was just for collections and showing off.
 
Nasher said:
PC World is terrible now. Overpriced and don't really have that much useful stock. It's all TV and smart phone rubbish.

There is still a small PC store left in my town, but they are also to expensive.

If you want anything remotely specialist or out of the mainstream you have to order online.
Click to expand...

It has always been pretty terrible - there used to be a larger one on the edge of the town I lived in back in around 99/00 or so though that had an area with returns, b-grade, etc. priced well down which was always worth a rummage through - managed to get a bunch of network hardware, etc. in basically new condition for like 1/5th the normal price for various projects which was great as a student. Was a lot of people buying stuff not really knowing what they were doing and then returning it back then i.e. cable router for ADSL, etc.
 
Gerard said:
Used to love going to GAME in the 90s in Belfast, they had a big TV setup running console games, and on the other side of the store a couple of pcs running games like theme hospital. Remember playing that for a good half hour or so one time.


Pc world, always amusing listening to the staff bsing potential customers.
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I got banned from my local PC World for informing a couple that the sales rep was trying to flog them a computer that was treble the cost of one they needed.

I'd heard them tell him that they needed just a simple office machine for a home-run business and he was trying to sell them an overpriced top line system & all the usual bloatware like Norton. I was only there because I needed a printer cable and it was Sunday so they were the only ones open.
 
Yoyotech on Windmill Street off Tottenham Court Road. Long gone now, but was used to have real humans that knew what they were talking about. Especially on a Saturday when something had quit/needed replacing in time for my usual Sunday night gaming session.

Gradually stopped using them once I’d built a couple of PCs using here and elsewhere to acquire parts next day.

Hadn’t been up Tottenham Court Road in years until I was out for a beer in Fitzrovia and noticed that it had gone along with almost all of the small computer and phone shops. Even the big Panasonic store had gone.

My local PC World was only ever visited when either my wife or one of my daughter’s told me that the printer was out of ink and they needed to print something for Monday on a Sunday afternoon which resulted in my driving around the North Circular swearing a blue streak.
 
I remember computer fares, but best of all I remember a shop called Novatec (back into your butt grooves mods, not the competitor!). It was a gaming shop down the road from home and they had every system between the late 90s and early 2000s. You could sit there and play for 50p for a couple hours on bit CRT screens with mates or rent games out. They even had PC sections. I miss that place. The owner apparently ran off with a load of money and the place closed up.

There was also a few local internet cafes and PC shops that were really friendly with advice and stuff. Helped me out a bunch of times when I had early PC issues in the 2000s with hardware loans and suchlike as I troubleshot. The current few computer shops that exist are not really computer shops like the old ones were, not by a long shot.... These sell outdated crapware for high prices, and at least one even sells housewares and baby strollers... I mean what is that all about?
 
Similar name with a letter missing and nothing to do with the late 90s store!
 
There was a huge one in Birmingham called Omega Sector. Was a novel business idea. Went nowhere though. Can't help think the maths is tricky to make it work.
 
I used to love going to a shop called Computerworld when I was young in Canterbury. That was probably in the early 90s. That was back when I had an Amiga and I would try out a few of the games that they had in then try to persuade my dad to buy me one. I can't remember much about it other than the games. They possibly had a comic / model section upstairs but I might be making that up. During my teens I was nothing more than a casual console gamer and by the time I got into PC gaming / building (I was a late bloomer) everything worthwhile was online, hence why I'm here.
 
The last hardware i actually bought in store with an independent was an Athlon XP 3200+. Which is why they are nearly all gone I suspect!
 
I used to enjoy going to Electronics Boutique back in the day, and even Staples!

I remember going into Staples in the 90s and out near the front they had PCs on display with the game MDK playing on them. I used to spend a lot of time marvelling at the Pcs there and hoping one day I could own a high spec PC that I could play every game on.

In the early 2000s I also used spend quite a bit of time at my local Internet Cafe, and I would go there purely to play Unreal Tournament 99 and Counter-strike.

Also I really miss the the big cardboard packaging for pc games. I used to sometimes buy a game solely based on the box art alone and found some real gems.

Fun times.
 
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