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[Atticus]

Mainly bought from Chips and Dream Machines throughout the 90s. I remember the day Daytona arrived on import for the Saturn and Dream Machines closed the store to keep the scutters out and savour the experience

[cutmymilk]

I still remember my first Mail Order package. Not sure where it was from but they had an ad in Sega Saturn Magazine. Daytona CCE and Hardcore 4x4 on the Saturn. It came about 20 minutes before I went to school and I managed to squeeze a couple of goes on Daytona before leaving. Was a long day!

Used to order quite a bit from Simply Dreamcast, too.

[Decider-VT]

I used to buy my Spectrum games from the local newsagent, then I moved onto Boots in Wood Green when I started buying NES games. I'd drop into Shekana in Wood Green occasionally but their stuff was a bit too expensive for me.

Eventually I moved on to ordering from Gameplay with my mum's card (and her permission), then I ended up going to places like the retro CEX near Warren Street. I also went to Beyond Therapy in Soho Square when that was open but I stopped going after I had a difference of opinion with the management about the GB Camera and one of them told my friend and I to "stop treating the place like a bloody arcade" after we played on their Saturn pod for a few minutes. Funnily enough one of my friends was working there at the time but I didn't meet him until years later.

[samanosuke]

off topic do indie gaming stores even exsist in London anymore? I know of absolutely none, bar the rather shabby Game Focus...

Not quite London but I'm pretty sure Raven Games are still going:

http://www.ravengames.co.uk/

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

Only ever used two mail order companies back in the day. Dreamware/VGI and KT Konsols up in Thurso.

Locally we had KC Consoles which evolved to Jive Consoles then Loughborough Game Centre.

Telegames was local as well so we also used to make the short trip down there occasionally.

[dvdx2]

aye, those were the days, CEX mail order, CA games, (visited this place 3 times when holidaying in Glasgow), Videogamecentre, next-gen to name a few

When you paid ?60+, boy did you appreciate it!

[Mayhem]

There were a couple of mail order places I can't remember the names of that I used to use in the early days of importing. Try that I might, their names escape me. However that's probably because I didn't get too many things from them, most of my early imports (pre internet days) were done from real shops. I still visit X-Electrical too from time to time, whenever I happen to go into Kingston; I got my PAL PS2 Rez there for £15 so it was good for some games

Aside from that there was a place in Sutton (name also escapes me) and a stall in Epsom covered market. When the market was shut down they moved to a proper shop in the high street but it never quite recovered from that. The market stall was excellent though, lots of decent games for reasonable prices (you were looking at normal European costs for the imports usually) and always an arcade machine or two in the corner. Sure they overcharged for a few popular titles (SF2 Turbo JPN for £80!) but I got a lot of good SFC titles for not so much from them.

On the computer side I got my C64 games mostly from Barkman's in Kingston; at the time they occupied an area inside (what became) the Woolsworth's building on the second floor and had a huge selection of stuff, and where I got a lot of my disk titles from. I could ask them to try getting in games for me that I had a hard time finding. And you could easily try before buying too. When that building was shut (pre conversion) then they moved out to the high street, but again it was never quite the same.

[Wil]

the little shop on Whitfield Street which was the first ever one before it became CEX

Pilot Software was good for US 8bit stuff and the Amiga especially.

How many times have we had this thread yet I still enjoy reading 'em

[Grapple Convoy]

Used to visit the Videogamecentre in Bournemouth & Software Box in Poole - very exciting visits they were too.

Software Box was the tiny 'cupboard' in Poole's Dolphin Centre, I think? Remember that they had another branch in Christchurch (parochial pensionerville) for a while.

Loved the VGS, remember seeing the Sonic 2 (MegaDrive) launch. I'm sure it was even still around until a couple of years ago, possibly 2007. Shame it's gone as it was around a long time, but unfortunately indies are a dying breed.

Do you remember Caltec, down the road from the VGS? Was a Commodore 64 and later Amiga shop. Great little place.

[WildWillyWilson]

Megaware- Sunderland. Fantastic importer in the early 90's who ran by a guy called Colin Chapman from a bedroom in his mams house! Mega Drive, PCE, Neo Geo Super Famicom etc.. the guy had everything. Even had a FunHouse pinball machine in the corner of the room.
He used to take regular trips over to Hong Kong & Japan bringing all sorts of stuff back. Advertised quite regularly in Mean Machines magazine also.

Aah those were the days

[speedlolita]

I still visit X-Electrical too from time to time, whenever I happen to go into Kingston; I got my PAL PS2 Rez there for ?15 so it was good for some games

I got my White Saturn in there, sold as "untested" in the window for ?5!

Was funny because I joked with my friend saying "ha, they'll want about ?50 for that!".

They wanted ?35 for an NES later that week.

[Geoff D]

Software Box was the tiny 'cupboard' in Poole's Dolphin Centre, I think? Remember that they had another branch in Christchurch (parochial pensionerville) for a while.

That was the one - remember seeing Mario 64 running on a Jpn N64 for the first time in there; great memory

Loved the VGS, remember seeing the Sonic 2 (MegaDrive) launch. I'm sure it was even still around until a couple of years ago, possibly 2007. Shame it's gone as it was around a long time, but unfortunately indies are a dying breed.

The Videogamecentre was an awesome mecca for me back in the Snes days - could hang out in there for hours & hours; I remember playing the ownder (Martin?) at Snes SF2. I visited it not long before it closed down & the prices were comical - they were still charging ?60ish for a Jpn SFC Chrono Trigger, that sort of thing

[chocklo]

I grew up in Leeds where there was fairly decent choice. There was The Computer Store in Bond Street, Microbyte in the Victoria Arcade, another shop in Burtons Arcade. If you were willing to venture out of town, Pudsey computers was decent as well. Oh, there was also Big Deal which would occasionally have some decent bundles.

For mail order, can only remember using Raven and i think another one was called Megaware. Megaware was ace for 2nd hand games.

[chocklo]

THIS ^

I loved Microbyte in leeds, Imports everywhere in that tiny little shop (super famicom, gamegear, megadrive, gameboy), it's the place that got me into buying imports, my first ever game was rockman world on gameboy, then the delights of getting them to special order me ganbare goemon on gameboy only to be told again & again that i wouldn't be able to play it because it's all in japanese, yeah still bought it & yes i completed it too hehe.

As fond as he memories are i prefer how things have developed, hooray for the internet & normal import game prices.

i used to walk past that huge 28in tv that they had in the front window.

I was truly amazed by the graphics on insector x and strider on my way to school.

[smouty]

Bought my release Super Famicom and HK N64 from Kart Klub in Aldershot which is still there but in a proper shop now rather than a unit in the marketplace.
Ross records in Waterlooville used to do import carts. I remember bringing back a few US SNES carts including the godawful Rocketeer and trading it in at Ross's for £40+
Also used to look in the original CEX in TCR but the prices were often ridiculous.