What became of your Amiga 'shop'?

[Djay]

i worked in a privately owned Computer and Video Game shop about 13 years ago (i worked there for 7 years)...

it was called Games House, it is now the Komedia Club

we closed down mainly because Future Zone>Electronics Boutique>Game, opened in the town centre

[T_hairy_bootson]

I did my highschool work experience at a local amiga shop on Sydney Road in Coburg. It was called Kev's computers at the time. The manager Paul had a tricked out a2000 and he would bring it in and set it up. We used to shrinkwrap the games before putting them on the shelves so we got to try them out.

A short time after I finished up Paul took over the business and renamed it "Another World Computers" I assume he liked the name of the game.

It still operates as a computer shop: http://www.anotherworld.com.au/index-lcars.html

Besides that the other two amiga shops I used both closed down. I have no idea what became of either sites. Maxwells in Abbotsford was just about the biggest amiga shop I had ever seen and Heritage Computers in Yarraville did some repairs to my a1000.

[Falcon Flight]

my local Amiga shop was more of a shack.
hardly room to move Amiga bits and pieces everywhere piled to the ceiling
nicest guy ran it, very wise in Amiga.

he gave me credit to buy stuff while i was at uni.

probably the smartest comp dude i ever knew and very generous.

he was an Amiga legend imo
now he's a philanthropist.

[slk486]

Originally Posted by Retroplay

Actually they still carry Amiga products
Clicky.

Wow, I had no idea. Haven't been there in years

[Titler]

Not my first, but the one I remember was Gordon Harwood's in Alfreton; I would pop in often when visiting the second hand store on the street opposite, but I don't recall ever buying anything from them, as they always charged a hefty premium. They used to advertise in various magazines too... and are now an Apple store apparently.

http://www.squaregroup.co.uk/Alfreton_22.php

The layout hasn't changed in all those years though... even the same grey check out counter is still there!

[Yesideez]

I never really had one Amiga shop I used to go to as I lived in a small farming town and had to travel if I wanted anything Amiga or get it mail order, the latter being the case most of the time.

When I moved from north to east Devon I started to shop in Exeter and there were a few shops but now (unfortunately and very sadly) most of them have gone leaving only the large ones like GAME (who I really don't like for several reasons)

So even in a major city we seem to have lost most (if not all) of our small computer shops which is extremely depressing :'(

We had a small computer shop open in Exeter and the bloke in there really did know his stuff and was amazingly helpful but they couldn't cope against PC World and other such stores and they closed. A sad day. When I went in there for an Intel retention bracket the bloke let me have a couple for free. That's how shops should be run - looking after the customers!

[laffer]

I used to look at Amiga games in this little store called Pronet way back.
Never actually bought anything, I was too young to have the money for that.

They went broke eventually, hope it didn't have anything to do with me stealing Space Quest 4 there (I was young and dumb and encouraged by these stupid friends I had back then). Luckily that's the only time I ever stole anything.

[wilshy]

My local was Computer Cavern in Marlow, Buckinghamshire - as featured on Bad Influence way back. To see Violet Berlin in the stores out back, it really was a cavern of retro gaming.

Alas they turned into a generic PC shop. In any case, it was never service with a smile but if you couldn't get something in there it simply wasn't available. Great place.

Judging by their shocking website http://www.computercavern.co.uk/ they may just have a retro section in the shop.

[kriz]

Laffer: Pronet ? Ahh wow my shop also, you are located on the southwest ? I remeber the first shop they had in Bryne then the bigger shop in Stavanger.. They closed in the end of the 90s i think...

I bought all my stuff there, Amiga, games, sticks you name it !!

But chech this for a nostalgia kick: http://www.pro-net.no/ - its the same guys now fixing windows machines..

[dirkies]

places where I went to:

Hirsch & Wolf in Neuwied in Germany, where I bought my 4000/040, and had excellent service and low prices, is still doing PC stuff I see!

Click! in Antwerp/Boom in Belgium (where Nico Francois of Powerpacker fame) used to work), not sure what happened with it (became a gfx shop but then...?), but it had awful unfriendly service and VERY expensive prices.

Had done business with another Amiga shop in Genk (Belgium), not sure, I believe it is Macro-System, but those were total idiots with ripoff prices and non-existent service.

There was still another shop in Germany where I bought my Toccata card, can't remember the name, but were cool folks and cheap too.

Other shops I only did per mail, like Vesalia, never had an issue with those.

[pcut]

I remember my dad buying our amiga 500 when i was a kid from a computer shop inside of Liverpool Central Train Station, it was in big blue class of the 90's box. Got the train home with it

I think its a perfume shop or something now.

[Mad-Matt]

There was a shop called Micropoint in my local town which started out as mainly spectrum/c64/amstrad, and later switched to Amiga/ST/PC, although they did support more stuff if asked.

Amiga stuff always seemed to cost too much (apart from fixed price budget games) so I baught most games from what was Futurezone Zone/Virgin Megastore/EB/Game. I cant remember if Futurezone did c64/spec before hand or if the shop had a previous name.

Amiga hardware I always had to buy through Magazine/Mail order though.

[junkmanuk]

Our PD place wasn't so much a shop as a room above shops. K-RAM computers if anyone knows Bexhill. I bought way too many PD discs in there...

The main computer shop 'Computerware' was turned into something else a few years back, it was never very good when I remember it though

[Graham Humphrey]

We had a shop called One Step Beyond here in Norwich, used to be really good with Amiga stuff and even after the Amiga's commercial death, they still used to sell second-hand games and random floppy disks (usually magazine coverdisks) for a few years. Actually they were pretty good for second-hand stuff generally - bought several PS1 and PS2 games there. Was a really good store and closed for good in 2003 (I think?), after re-opening for a brief time with much less stock, sadly. Now it's an Oxfam shop.

[4pLaY]

Acctualy they are still very much alive! if its the same company? i wouldent feel bad about stealing from them, after all, thats exactly what they did themselfs! they sold pirated copys of games under the counter etc... you can see theyr webpage here: http://www.pro-net.no. They are also now notorious for spamming people with theyr "offers".

Originally Posted by laffer

I used to look at Amiga games in this little store called Pronet way back.
Never actually bought anything, I was too young to have the money for that.

They went broke eventually, hope it didn't have anything to do with me stealing Space Quest 4 there (I was young and dumb and encouraged by these stupid friends I had back then). Luckily that's the only time I ever stole anything.

[Heavy Stylus]

My local Amiga/Atari game shop closed in the late 90's, turned into a 'Big Issue' office for a while, and has now become a block of 'luxury' flats.

:/

[deicidal]

Originally Posted by pcut

I remember my dad buying our amiga 500 when i was a kid from a computer shop inside of Liverpool Central Train Station, it was in big blue class of the 90's box. Got the train home with it

I think its a perfume shop or something now.

I remember that one, it was called bug something or other I think.

[BrooksterMax]

Originally Posted by Graham Humphrey

We had a shop called One Step Beyond here in Norwich, used to be really good with Amiga stuff and even after the Amiga's commercial death, they still used to sell second-hand games and random floppy disks (usually magazine coverdisks) for a few years. Actually they were pretty good for second-hand stuff generally - bought several PS1 and PS2 games there. Was a really good store and closed for good in 2003 (I think?), after re-opening for a brief time with much less stock, sadly. Now it's an Oxfam shop.

It still exists, not in the shop anymore but on the market. If you look somewhere nearer the rear of the market towards city hall in the middle - there it is! It has a market stall with the same old "One Step Beyond" logo. Not quite the same as before - but lots of second hand stuff and retro as well!

[JonSick]

I had a few places. I lived in Walthamstow. There was a guy in the Town Hall car boot sale that had lists of Amiga copies stapled on the inside of Amiga Format and Amiga Action mags. You told him what you wanted, he went and got em from the boot and paid him £1 per disk plus £1. My first useful exposure to mathematical formulae lol.

There was a shop in Walthamstow market which was my main shop. I forget the name, it was opposite the Post Office/Argos/Gardners. I used to buy games I wanted proper, hardware and my blank disks (£5 for ten then!). He used to call us dirty rotten pirates all the time lulz. Also, at the back was the PC section where all the sad and lonely pale ghost kids hung out, wishing they owned a miggy for the, well, software content! Whoa, how the tables have turned!

[Graham Humphrey]

Originally Posted by BrooksterMax

It still exists, not in the shop anymore but on the market. If you look somewhere nearer the rear of the market towards city hall in the middle - there it is! It has a market stall with the same old "One Step Beyond" logo. Not quite the same as before - but lots of second hand stuff and retro as well!

DOH! Of course it does - I haven't been there for ages now. I thought they changed the name to OSG or something like that. But yeah run by the same guy. I may have to take a look there this week, it's been such a long time since I had a look round.