Gaming at the shop

[Zak]

I did a lot of gaming at shops.

In early eighties where I lived then was a shopping mall and you could play at the Space Invaders arcade automat. I also played with C16 and Sinclair at the shop there. In the centre of the City there was a popular computer store. When the Amiga was on the market, I drove there and played some games at the Amiga 500 they had. I vividly remember playing MadTV for example. It was great that you could play titles and see what they really looked like. When I was still in school, we sometimes went to a local store near the school and played on a Super Nintendo (Mario) and the Gameboy (Tetris 2 players) and also a Sega Megadrive (Sonic The Hedgehog mainly).

Did you waste time at stores gaming?

[Fiery Phoenix]

I used to go to VuData in Ashton-Under-Lyne in Greater Manchester. I have no doubt anyone from or near that area will have gone to that store too.

The original location was the best - opposite a video shop called Jubilee Video (which was awesome also)

They had the games on display in VuData, demo's running, little serving hatch where you could also purchase the latest magazines. Used to go on a Saturday afternoon with my Mum and Dad (plus chips from Golden Medal chippy)

The shop later moved to new premises, still in A-U-L, but it was never the same (and never as busy)

I can remember picking up a few Amiga games from the new location (was mainly C64 at the older one) usually when I got a good school report and was treated to a new game. Picked up Dragon Ninja, Robocop and Fright Night there.

Used to like having a mooch in the gaming shops and they were not an awful lot of independent ones about then. I remember Boots and WH Smith selling games, Tandy stores too (not loads of them in the UK from memory though)

[alexh]

I used to play instore at John Menzies and WHSmith in Preston Lancashire UK.

If you stayed in store too long, the store staff/security used to usher you out, mostly with verbal abuse, sometimes with mild physical violence (i.e. a swat on the head) which I am sure would get you thousands in compensation today

[gimbal]

Playing in the store wasn't really a thing when I was a kid, at least in my neck of the woods. If there was something playable it was usually some kind of Sesame Street educational thing or something. I could just watch the demo reels. Over and over.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by gimbal

Playing in the store wasn't really a thing when I was a kid, at least in my neck of the woods.

Same here. Funnily enough the first time I played Super Mario Bros on the NES was in our local bank. They had a 'kiddie corner' with it and I remember sitting there for at least an hour playing the game

[Anubis]

In early time I did not play in stores, and some of them, like Kaufhause had only demos of the games loaded, for example Striker Commander playing intro loop, Earthsiege II on 486 and North vs. South on 386, while some other just gaming stores had NES, SMS and later SNES and Sega MD with games actually available for play, I just never liked to stay in line to play the games, but I did like watching others do it.

Only games I ever tried in stores, and that was in Comp USA here in states was when I first time saw Duke Nukem 3D and WarCraft 2, both of those I purchased as soon as I purchased first Pentium PC.

[phx]

Yes, sometimes. I liked the early 80s, where the computer section of all big shopping centres displayed their VIC-20, ZX-81, Spectrum, C64, C16, TI-99, Dragon, Schneider-CPC, etc. connected to a monitor or TV for free use.

Even before the beginning of the home computer era (maybe around 1980) the toys section often had some video games, like Atari VCS or Intellivision connected, which was always beleaguered by other children (I remember I never got a controller).

[lesta_smsc]

Currys in Leicester at St George's Retail Park! They had all the latest consoles or free-play if you got a chance! I still remember seeing seeing Mega Drive on there and the 1st time I heard "SEGAAAAAA" - this sound still brings back those fond memories!

[AF2013]

I went to Mircofun(Love that Yellow Shop!) so often, I saw Atari ST, Amiga computer(both of them was next each other) , Megadrive on their desk up running and you can try on machine to see if you like it.

Computer Store had Shadow of the beast Demo running on Amiga which Blow me away and I had get the Amiga Soon which I bought one in 1991

[arcanist]

The Mega Drive in Boots running Sonic the Hedgehog was the bane of my mother's shopping trips. It nearly always had somebody playing on it, but I'd still stop to watch for a few minutes every time we went past.

Never did get a Mega Drive...

[TCD]

Originally Posted by arcanist

Never did get a Mega Drive...

It's never too late

[JohnnyJ]

There were two stores that sold Amigas when I was a teen. The one I visited most was Slipped Disk and they had various machines you could use if you chatted with the desk guys and proved you weren't an idiot.

I remember messing A2000 and A3000s.

[Nobby_UK]

I uesd to play BattleZone (sit down unit)
in the Night Club I frequented.

[gimbal]

You played games... in the night club!? That's next level.

[Anubis]

Originally Posted by Nobby_UK

I uesd to play BattleZone (sit down unit)
in the Night Club I frequented.

woow....



Not asking questions about you playing the game, but night club had arcade games?? It seems we were not visiting the same ones...

[ImmortalA1000]

Hmm they had some in a club I sometimes went to in Barnet (SE England), Hard Drivin' sit down cab was one lol to test if you were too drunk to drive?

The only game I remember playing in the shop was Way of the Exploding Fist on Commodore 64. Got my pocket money, went to the shopping centre with my best friend and saw it in the little electronics store we used to get games from. We asked the owner nicely and he loaded it up for us. We had a few goes and even played 2 player games with his son. I bought the game straight away

[PDrill]

Our local supermarket had quite many computers available to try. Can't remember playing anything but watch from behind when some guys were on an Amstrad CPC coding something. When nobody saw, went to try some DRAW commands (or something, which I saw earlier) and got lines coming on the screen here and there.

My first lines of code!