What became of your Amiga 'shop'? - Page 4

TCD · 12 July 2010, 13:15

Oberhausen is octopus city

Anyway, my Amiga shop just stopped selling Amiga games. It was a slow, creeping death... Got some PC games there afterwards, but it just wasn't the same anymore.

viddi · 12 July 2010, 13:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by tero

but i don't know which one octopus-city is

i'm in the nothing of the deep dark woods of Sauerland

Oberhausen! Did you miss all this lovely Kraken stuff?

BTW, "my" Amiga shop in Duisburg (Multimedia Corner) is still there.
PC only of course and a Quelle shop...oh dear.

tero · 12 July 2010, 13:25

In Balve we have two little shop's
one for business/network stuff and one for everything else
they still have floppydiscs but else is linux/win only

sometimes i'm in M'Gladbach, i may should do a trip to oberhausen to see the kraken

prowler · 12 July 2010, 20:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by viddi

BTW, "my" Amiga shop in Duisburg (Multimedia Corner) is still there.

Hey, I visited Duisburg a while ago and I saw no Amiga shop!

Quote:

Originally Posted by viddi

PC only of course and a Quelle shop...oh dear.

You had me quite stunned for a minute there, until I saw the next part.

alewis · 14 July 2010, 12:53

Not too sure where to start, there have been a few.

1988-1991, Germany.
A small shop in "Markt Passage", in Iserlohn. It is/was a camera/photo shop, but the owner had an A2000 in there and expansion boards such as the 2088XT board (400DM at the time.) He did interest free credit, I bought a 1081s monitor on tab. Only place I ever saw a Phillips 8852, slobber slobber, sat atop an A1000.

Only other "local" stuff was mail order ;-)

1991-1993, south of England

16/32 Computers in Rochester, 1991-1993/4. I'd help Nick out at the various weekend Computer Fair type shows, and then of course the biggies at Earls Court, Olympia, and NEC. 16/32 still seem to be going, but mainly for legacy Atari stuff - well, Nick was an Atari man at heart. I was off-sick for 6months, and spent almost every day in there whilst on crutches.

CPU Computor (spelt right!). Local shop in Chatham, covered Amiga, PC, Console. Helped them out with PD stuff and they'd buy me hardware :-) Closed down in 1994? Can't remember the guys name, we nick-named him "big nose". Good bloke, terrible business man. Shame.

Sillica - knew couple of the guys from there via ICPUG, who were also 'scene' members (Carl). Never bought owt though.

Diamond Computers, in Poole. Used to use that when "home".

1993 -> Escom shop in Ripon (hahahaha), but my "local" shop was Eyetech, about 50minutes away. Alan was a personal friend.

Non Amiga, but C= related.
1977 - Stage 1 Computers, Bournemouth. All things PET. I think the company lives on. TiCH'77 ;-)
1979 - South Coast Business Machines / South Coast Computers. PET/CBM/C64. Still going, I gather, but providing IT services to solicitors.

Mid-80s - cant remember the name of the place, but it's moto was "low cost solutions" and did PC/64 PD stuff. Run by a Gary someone.

Another one that was 64/Amiga related, and cannot remember the name, located in Winton, Bournemouth. One of the more technically knowledgeable people, (David someone?). Whenever I was on leave I'd pop in. The shop itself was very easy to miss, even though located on a corner towards the less busy, lower end of town.

JuvUK · 14 July 2010, 13:25

my local miggy store is now an Early Learning Centre

Baboon · 14 July 2010, 14:39

One of my local amiga shops in Plymouth is still there. Its called Computerbase and now has another branch in the city centre... but alas no amiga bits anymore and just everything pc.

My other amiga shop (where back in the day I bought my A500's 1mb upgrade, my midi sampler 'AMAS' and also countless games etc) has now turned into a women's beauty products shop.

ElectroBlaster · 15 July 2010, 18:57

Google maps and streetview are brilliant so I shall use it to show everybody what I can remember about the good old days when the amiga and other 8bit and 16bit machines were ruling the roost

I live in Exeter, Devon. I shall start with a shop called "The Games Cupboard" which was one of the earliest places where I started looking for games and drooling over their brand new atari st and amiga. A freind of mine started his own second games shop in their basement called "Sparks" and later went on to start up F1 Licenceware on the amiga. Those where the days lol, it later became Arthur daylis secondhand emporium and now appears to be a private dwelling?:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...123.95,,0,9.76

Next up is the place "Sparks" moved into when they needed better premises. I reckon this place was the pinnacle of their second hand game empire. It looked really professional and was slap bang next to a rather hip restaurant where alot of fit ladies would frequent. The shop was down the bottom of the main entrance into the arcade, on the right hand side. Sparks would later loose the place and end up back in the basement of the games cupboard:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...313.58,,0,3.96

Accross the road would host another second hand games shop called "Lucia Software" I forgot when this one appeared but I do remember it started life as a market stall along the high street. It was ok but I didnt really like how it was run. It now houses what appears to be a clothes shop proudly boasting nhs wigs lol:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...,0.043945&z=15

On on we go on this tour of... retroness or whatever you want to call it lol

.
Who here remembers "Brian Fowler Computers"?... Well yes he was Exeter's amiga outlet. I dont have alot to say about this chap other than he was a very grumpy bloke indeed!, this was around near the end of the amigas commercial life so maybe thats why he was so downbeat? This is the chap that had a pile of custom amiga 1200's in 5 1/4 bay format made by a company called "Index Amiga Corp" I tried in vain to get one off him but the sod decided to throw one on the floor and stamp on it rather than take my money. I guess he was doing me some favour or something? I dont know lol. The problem is now I have forgotten exactly where he was based? it along this street on the right hand side afaik:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...,0.000687&z=21

Next along we have "Minerva Computers". All I can remember about this place was it seemed very upmarket and posh and downright expensive! They had a snobbery regarding the amiga so never had anything for sale, annoying tbh. On streetview its the shop behind the trash van blocking its view:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...,0.000687&z=21

Next we have "Escom" yay lol. I remember when they re-launched the A1200 and proudly had it setup doing nothing

. I lusted after one so bad I would make a habit of going in there after work and annoying the staff lol. I cant get a direct view of the premises but where muck'donalds is, its a couple shops down on the side if I remember correctly?:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...,0.000687&z=21

Moving on I vaguely remember an early shop stacked to the rafters with 8bit computers and games. I just cannot remember the name of it and racking my brain to remember where it was exactly... it could be Kents Jewellers or even Pizza hut... I just cant remember

I bought a few c64 tape games, one that sticks in my mind was Creatures, brilliant game that lol:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...,0.000687&z=21

Lastly we have "Computer Workbench". A small shop selling pc parts and at first amiga, atari etc until things started winding down on that front. They had quite a treasure trove of bits in there and bought quite alot if it until one day the supplies dried up

then one day the shop closed never to re-open:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...,0.000687&z=21

Well thats all I can remember of the old computer shop days. There might have been more I just dont remember due to old age I guess lol

What would be a blast is to root around in my storage and fish out old reciepts and price stickers etc!

Baboon · 16 July 2010, 09:21

@ElectroBlaster: Hey you are just up the road from me!

I can't remember the names of the shops in Exeter but back in the day I remember fairly frequently making the small trip upto Exeter to purchase amiga games (and also acidhouse & rave vinyl from a few of the good record shops there lol).

Good times.

dreamkatcha · 16 July 2010, 22:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by sneeker

Bought my amiga from Diamond computers, 1022 Stockport Rd, Levenshume Manchester...
Its a blue shuttered up shop now.Clicky

That name is a blast from the past! That's where I got mine from too.

I remember going back to them when one of my game disks became infected with a virus. They sold me an anti-virus tool and I went home and ran it on every single disk I owned in case it had spread... destroying the boot blocks in the process rendering them useless.

You'd have thought they might have mentioned that you can't run these programs on game disks wouldn't you?, especially considering I was a clueless 10 year old. I wasn't exactly Mr Popular in my house that day to put it lightly.

My local computer shop was called The Exchange at the time. It was based on Church Road, Urmston and it's now a PC shop. The owner was a one man band selling games and accessories for all the popular platforms including Amiga as well as other electronics like hi-fis and TVs.

rockersuke · 17 July 2010, 02:32

Wow! I thought my good old First Amiga shop had died lon ago... but was totally wrong... It's still there! The "Centro Mail" at Santa María de la Cabeza 1, close to Atocha square and train station in the center of Madrid.

Clicky

That's not all, even when the chain it belonged to changed its name to "GAME" (yeah, quite original

) this local retains its "Centro Mail" logo from the early 90's. As expected, it only sells modern PC games and consoles stuff nowadays...

Ouch, all those memories coming at once...

--

Photon · 18 July 2010, 16:02

Chara' Data kept on for a few years, going more and more towards PCs and then shut down. Now there's a store there selling iron stoves/heaters I believe.

Leffmann · 19 July 2010, 00:10

M.A.S.T turned into a shop for art supplies: http://kartor.eniro.se/m/pB55p

and Datalätt became Fashion City, catering to all your needs for special occasion clothing! http://kartor.eniro.se/m/pB5ge

Hewitson · 19 July 2010, 07:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by SailorSat

Stan's previously owned Amigas! (nevermind *gg*)

Do they accept credit notes from the storekeeper?

chiark · 19 July 2010, 13:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by sneeker

Bought my amiga from Diamond computers, 1022 Stockport Rd, Levenshume Manchester...
Its a blue shuttered up shop now.Clicky

I ran that shop for a day in 1991

, along with a guy from Diamond in Glasgow (I think)... The owner of LHC was getting married and invited all his managers, so he sent me - the saturday boy - up to Manchester to run the shop for a day. Was really good fun, and a great experience for a 17 year old

RMK · 20 July 2010, 00:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by asm1

Mine (Was an Acorn User back in the day) was one of "The Computer Depot" stores. 205 Buchanan Street, Glasgow. Not sure if they were a "Scotland only" chain. They did All 8/16/32 bit machines: Miggies, ST's, Arcs and it sold a lot of games and other software as well. Was on 2 levels IIRC. Now of course long gone

I remember that store!!! There was also Comcal, just round the corner which used to sell loads of Amiga kit. They are still there infact. I may go in and ask if they have any old unsold relics and see what they say.

Skope · 27 July 2010, 19:34

I used to live in gothenburg.se back then and I went to several stores. From what I can remember now these were (in somewhat chronological order):

USR Data - Located in the Nordstan mall, closed a long time ago (early 90's I think. It's now a Phone House to the best of my knowledge.

Westium Data - Located next to the Heden field. I think it's still there as a PC shop these days.

Datalätt - Located on Backaplan. I think this one is also still in business as a PC shop. Last time I was in there (must have been ~10 years ago) I copped a couple of Amiga games from the bargain bin. They were cheap as shit and made my day. (:

Delikatess Data - Resided in an industrial complex and I went there for their piss cheap disks. I don't think they're still there. If I'm not mistaken, The Baron of Def Jam fame used to work there.

GGS Data - Located in the basement of the owners house. Still active and peddling Amiga gear. I buy my disks from him these days, although they are not piss cheap anymore. (:

EDIT: Upon reading the thread properly I noticed Leffman saying Datalätt is closed. (:

laffer · 27 July 2010, 22:53

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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..

I live near Bryne (Lyefjell)

Quote:

Originally Posted by kriz

I remeber the first shop they had in Bryne

That's the exact shop I meant!

18 September 2010, 02:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by chiark

I ran that shop for a day in 1991

, along with a guy from Diamond in Glasgow (I think)... The owner of LHC was getting married and invited all his managers, so he sent me - the saturday boy - up to Manchester to run the shop for a day. Was really good fun, and a great experience for a 17 year old

Hmmm... that might have been me. We went to the Hacienda.

pintcat · 18 September 2010, 12:40

Mine was a big department store called Karstadt which is well known here in Germany and also still exists (but of course doesn't sell Amigas anymore).

27 July 2010, 19:34	#77
Skope Protracker Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: 8364 Posts: 381	I used to live in gothenburg.se back then and I went to several stores. From what I can remember now these were (in somewhat chronological order): USR Data - Located in the Nordstan mall, closed a long time ago (early 90's I think. It's now a Phone House to the best of my knowledge. Westium Data - Located next to the Heden field. I think it's still there as a PC shop these days. Datalätt - Located on Backaplan. I think this one is also still in business as a PC shop. Last time I was in there (must have been ~10 years ago) I copped a couple of Amiga games from the bargain bin. They were cheap as shit and made my day. (: Delikatess Data - Resided in an industrial complex and I went there for their piss cheap disks. I don't think they're still there. If I'm not mistaken, The Baron of Def Jam fame used to work there. GGS Data - Located in the basement of the owners house. Still active and peddling Amiga gear. I buy my disks from him these days, although they are not piss cheap anymore. (: EDIT: Upon reading the thread properly I noticed Leffman saying Datalätt is closed. (: Last edited by Skope; 28 July 2010 at 08:06.

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12 July 2010, 13:15	#61
TCD HOL/FTP busy bee Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Germany Age: 46 Posts: 31,771	Oberhausen is octopus city Anyway, my Amiga shop just stopped selling Amiga games. It was a slow, creeping death... Got some PC games there afterwards, but it just wasn't the same anymore.

12 July 2010, 13:25	#63
tero Registered User Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: M'Gladbach Age: 46 Posts: 621	In Balve we have two little shop's one for business/network stuff and one for everything else they still have floppydiscs but else is linux/win only sometimes i'm in M'Gladbach, i may should do a trip to oberhausen to see the kraken

14 July 2010, 12:53	#65
alewis Monochrome and 8 bit Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Underbarrow, Gods Country Age: 57 Posts: 600	Not too sure where to start, there have been a few. 1988-1991, Germany. A small shop in "Markt Passage", in Iserlohn. It is/was a camera/photo shop, but the owner had an A2000 in there and expansion boards such as the 2088XT board (400DM at the time.) He did interest free credit, I bought a 1081s monitor on tab. Only place I ever saw a Phillips 8852, slobber slobber, sat atop an A1000. Only other "local" stuff was mail order ;-) 1991-1993, south of England 16/32 Computers in Rochester, 1991-1993/4. I'd help Nick out at the various weekend Computer Fair type shows, and then of course the biggies at Earls Court, Olympia, and NEC. 16/32 still seem to be going, but mainly for legacy Atari stuff - well, Nick was an Atari man at heart. I was off-sick for 6months, and spent almost every day in there whilst on crutches. CPU Computor (spelt right!). Local shop in Chatham, covered Amiga, PC, Console. Helped them out with PD stuff and they'd buy me hardware :-) Closed down in 1994? Can't remember the guys name, we nick-named him "big nose". Good bloke, terrible business man. Shame. Sillica - knew couple of the guys from there via ICPUG, who were also 'scene' members (Carl). Never bought owt though. Diamond Computers, in Poole. Used to use that when "home". 1993 -> Escom shop in Ripon (hahahaha), but my "local" shop was Eyetech, about 50minutes away. Alan was a personal friend. Non Amiga, but C= related. 1977 - Stage 1 Computers, Bournemouth. All things PET. I think the company lives on. TiCH'77 ;-) 1979 - South Coast Business Machines / South Coast Computers. PET/CBM/C64. Still going, I gather, but providing IT services to solicitors. Mid-80s - cant remember the name of the place, but it's moto was "low cost solutions" and did PC/64 PD stuff. Run by a Gary someone. Another one that was 64/Amiga related, and cannot remember the name, located in Winton, Bournemouth. One of the more technically knowledgeable people, (David someone?). Whenever I was on leave I'd pop in. The shop itself was very easy to miss, even though located on a corner towards the less busy, lower end of town.

14 July 2010, 13:25	#66
JuvUK Registered User Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Cheltenham/UK Age: 52 Posts: 312	my local miggy store is now an Early Learning Centre

14 July 2010, 14:39	#67
Baboon Moon Monkey Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Plymouth, Devon Posts: 419	One of my local amiga shops in Plymouth is still there. Its called Computerbase and now has another branch in the city centre... but alas no amiga bits anymore and just everything pc. My other amiga shop (where back in the day I bought my A500's 1mb upgrade, my midi sampler 'AMAS' and also countless games etc) has now turned into a women's beauty products shop.

15 July 2010, 18:57	#68
ElectroBlaster Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Exeter, Devon, UK Age: 49 Posts: 1,711	Google maps and streetview are brilliant so I shall use it to show everybody what I can remember about the good old days when the amiga and other 8bit and 16bit machines were ruling the roost I live in Exeter, Devon. I shall start with a shop called "The Games Cupboard" which was one of the earliest places where I started looking for games and drooling over their brand new atari st and amiga. A freind of mine started his own second games shop in their basement called "Sparks" and later went on to start up F1 Licenceware on the amiga. Those where the days lol, it later became Arthur daylis secondhand emporium and now appears to be a private dwelling?: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...123.95,,0,9.76 Next up is the place "Sparks" moved into when they needed better premises. I reckon this place was the pinnacle of their second hand game empire. It looked really professional and was slap bang next to a rather hip restaurant where alot of fit ladies would frequent. The shop was down the bottom of the main entrance into the arcade, on the right hand side. Sparks would later loose the place and end up back in the basement of the games cupboard: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...313.58,,0,3.96 Accross the road would host another second hand games shop called "Lucia Software" I forgot when this one appeared but I do remember it started life as a market stall along the high street. It was ok but I didnt really like how it was run. It now houses what appears to be a clothes shop proudly boasting nhs wigs lol: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...,0.043945&z=15 On on we go on this tour of... retroness or whatever you want to call it lol . Who here remembers "Brian Fowler Computers"?... Well yes he was Exeter's amiga outlet. I dont have alot to say about this chap other than he was a very grumpy bloke indeed!, this was around near the end of the amigas commercial life so maybe thats why he was so downbeat? This is the chap that had a pile of custom amiga 1200's in 5 1/4 bay format made by a company called "Index Amiga Corp" I tried in vain to get one off him but the sod decided to throw one on the floor and stamp on it rather than take my money. I guess he was doing me some favour or something? I dont know lol. The problem is now I have forgotten exactly where he was based? it along this street on the right hand side afaik: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...,0.000687&z=21 Next along we have "Minerva Computers". All I can remember about this place was it seemed very upmarket and posh and downright expensive! They had a snobbery regarding the amiga so never had anything for sale, annoying tbh. On streetview its the shop behind the trash van blocking its view: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...,0.000687&z=21 Next we have "Escom" yay lol. I remember when they re-launched the A1200 and proudly had it setup doing nothing . I lusted after one so bad I would make a habit of going in there after work and annoying the staff lol. I cant get a direct view of the premises but where muck'donalds is, its a couple shops down on the side if I remember correctly?: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...,0.000687&z=21 Moving on I vaguely remember an early shop stacked to the rafters with 8bit computers and games. I just cannot remember the name of it and racking my brain to remember where it was exactly... it could be Kents Jewellers or even Pizza hut... I just cant remember I bought a few c64 tape games, one that sticks in my mind was Creatures, brilliant game that lol: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...,0.000687&z=21 Lastly we have "Computer Workbench". A small shop selling pc parts and at first amiga, atari etc until things started winding down on that front. They had quite a treasure trove of bits in there and bought quite alot if it until one day the supplies dried up then one day the shop closed never to re-open: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&so...,0.000687&z=21 Well thats all I can remember of the old computer shop days. There might have been more I just dont remember due to old age I guess lol What would be a blast is to root around in my storage and fish out old reciepts and price stickers etc!

16 July 2010, 09:21	#69
Baboon Moon Monkey Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Plymouth, Devon Posts: 419	@ElectroBlaster: Hey you are just up the road from me! I can't remember the names of the shops in Exeter but back in the day I remember fairly frequently making the small trip upto Exeter to purchase amiga games (and also acidhouse & rave vinyl from a few of the good record shops there lol). Good times.

17 July 2010, 02:32	#71
rockersuke Registered User Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Madrid / Spain Age: 56 Posts: 258	Wow! I thought my good old First Amiga shop had died lon ago... but was totally wrong... It's still there! The "Centro Mail" at Santa María de la Cabeza 1, close to Atocha square and train station in the center of Madrid. Clicky That's not all, even when the chain it belonged to changed its name to "GAME" (yeah, quite original ) this local retains its "Centro Mail" logo from the early 90's. As expected, it only sells modern PC games and consoles stuff nowadays... Ouch, all those memories coming at once... --

18 July 2010, 16:02	#72
Photon Moderator Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Eksjö / Sweden Posts: 5,639	Chara' Data kept on for a few years, going more and more towards PCs and then shut down. Now there's a store there selling iron stoves/heaters I believe.

19 July 2010, 00:10	#73
Leffmann Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Sweden Posts: 2,269	M.A.S.T turned into a shop for art supplies: http://kartor.eniro.se/m/pB55p and Datalätt became Fashion City, catering to all your needs for special occasion clothing! http://kartor.eniro.se/m/pB5ge

18 September 2010, 12:40	#80
pintcat Registered User Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Berlin/Germany Posts: 226	Mine was a big department store called Karstadt which is well known here in Germany and also still exists (but of course doesn't sell Amigas anymore).

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