independent videogame stores

[hell10n]

The only 1 Indie shop I had fond memories of was 5th Dimension in Swansea!!

It started up in the early 90's & was known as The Cartridge Club to begin with. They had a huuuuuuge choice of MD,MS,SNES,PC & import stuff too, & they started doing trade ins way b4 GAME & Gamestation ever did. They gave u a good price for your trade ins too.

The staff were a mixture but most of them were really cool. There was a guy there called Martin I think & he always had a smile on his face & was really friendly. Over the years they still kept up with the latest stuff & were my 1st stop when it came to getting what I wanted, & Martin was still there beaming as ever, until about 99 when the big boys (GAME & GS) took over. Then I saw that they just couldnt compete anymore. I used to pop in everytime I was in Swansea & there was Martin happy as ever & although I wasnt such a regular customer he & I still remained good buddys. With him it was more a "hey, I havent seen u for a while. What u been up to mate?" kinda friendship & not just about games.

Anyway, I went to Swansea 1 day last year....................& they'd gone!! No warning. Nothing!!. Now theres some ****ty telesales Co renting the floor.

I think that Indies are the way they are because they just dont have the money that the big Co's have to market themselves or to buy in bulk therefore saving money meaning u pay less.
Its like a Corner shop. The prices are higher than a Supremarket because its a shop owner with very little funds so he has to buy less, but has to bump the price up in order to make a good enough profit to survive.

R.I.P 5th Dimension. U will be & are sadly missed!!

[JazzFunk]

For those in the West Yorkshire area, there's a decent indie shop in Pontefract, tucked away down a street just off the main precinct, called 'Console Yourself' (I think). They don't do many imports but have great deals on pre-owned stuff (buy 2 get 1 free) and have a smallish selection of cheap MD/SNES/N64/DC/PS1 stuff in as well as 4 or 5 XBox setup at the back of the shop where people can play multiplayer on Halo 2 and stuff. The staff are decent and you get a good rate of exchange, and they also seem to get in the more obscure PS2 PAL releases on new release. And the shop doesn't stink of piss/mould/ganja/BO like a lot of indies I've been in in the past.


There's also another bigger indie shop in Pontefract but its prices/trade-in prices seem to reflect how much rent the owners must be paying so it's best avoided. Lots of stuff in there, mind, and lots of movie/gaming figures/collectibles etc.

Pontefract's Choices video shop also has loads of new/pre-owned games at well-cheap prices at the moment.

[MikeRox]

both game shops in Brighouse are independant, Console Magic is a bit pappy but he gives good trade in prices, a new shop has recently opened called Ninja Games though on the main highstreet and I was very impressed when I went in there, best game shop I've been in for a while anyway, even sold import DS and PSP releases for reasonable prices. They also had 6 Master System games for a tenner and 3 for 2 on Mega Drive games etc. Appears to be the best game shop in my immediate area in West Yorkshire anyway, everywhere in Huddersfield is ass.

[JazzFunk]

There's a Ninja Games in Wakefield, too. They've got loads of stuff crammed into a very small space. I've never tested them out so don't know what the service/staff are like. They have got a decent selection of MD games and have had Phantasy Star 2 for cheap there on quite a few occasions.

[toy_brain]

I wonder if Granger Games counts as an Indie? because they aractually pretty big in the North-East, with at least 4 or 5 shops in the area.
Games are usually only a couple quid more expensive than play.com (or sometimes exactly the same price) and they often get stock in a day or so early. They do import USA handheald games too, as well as the odd Australian/Irish PAL game (basically anything that dosent require a machine to be modded to play).
Customer service is...... functional. The staff at the Gateshead Metrocentre shop usually seem pretty cheerful, but the place is too busy to try and start a conversation. The Newcastle shop staff are basically 'you give money, we give game' which isnt great, but as they seem to be constantly busy as well I'm not gonna complain.
Never had a problem returning faulty games either.
Good selection of old PSone games too - they put stickers on the inside of the CD cover though, that might annoy collectors.
The main bad thing about Granger Games is that they have killed off almost all other Indie stores around, apart from......

Maughan Micro's (also Metrocentre) which has been going for a long time. I mostly use them for import PSP/DS games as they tend to get them in a bit before Granger. Shade more expensive most of the time, but as the shop is quieter and the staff a little more chatty I try and put some custom their way.

[MattyD]

I never much rated Software Box (I was too poor!) but I used to LOVE the Poole Old Town Market. The guy set up with one stall and by the time the market building closed down a few years later, he'd taken over almost the entire ground floor

It was a proper Alladin's cave, all formats, PAL and import, absolutely anything you could possibly imagine was in there somewhere.

Then it all disappeared rather suddenly, almost overnight and in strange circumstances, only for the same guy to reappear several years later running a wicked new shop in Poole called Gamesmart. I know Seany1979 and a few others have been there and liked it too (saw in the Retro purchases thread)

I'm sorry to say I don't much rate the Video Game Centre in Bournemouth though - they stock a good range but they're incredibly over-priced, like a throw-back to the old days when importers would pretty much charge whatever they fancied and get away with it.

[NekoFever]

I frequent the Video Game Centre in Bournemouth and even though I know the staff well I won't buy imports from them because they still charge like ?55 for a new PS2 import (plenty of people go in there and do pay that much, oddly), but I buy all my PAL stuff, my hardware, and most of my DS imports from them. They have a ton of stuff though, so it's always good for a browse and a chat, even if one of the guys in there can be a huge Sony fanboy.

[erhgiez]

Ive found you either get shops that are really cool and very competively priced or like most of them, utter ****e, ds imports for ?35 each, when there are shops like movietyme around there is no excuse

[fuse]

Crikey, it's turning into a Dorset thread, we're all coming out of the woodwork (*cough* should do a meet *cough*)

Its daft that I've lived here this long and I've still never been to VGC - been meaning to for about a decade now but never made the effort. Even back pre-internet boom they were charging way more than every other place that was around / doing mail-order though, cheeky gets.

Poole town market was a bit hit or miss for me - they weren't the first place to go looking for something recent, but they did stock such a massive backlog of oddities, as well as some top bargains. My favourite memory was shortly after Point Blank 2 got a JPN release, someone must've traded it in, but they thought it was the original and only stuck it up for a fiver

[MattyD]

VGC charges way over the odds even on new PAL stuff, especially when you could get it cheaper online. But then I would say that, I'm a border-line pauper who buys most of his stuff pre-owned

[NekoFever]

I used to love the Poole market shop. I rarely bought anything but it was like a little treasure trove that was great to go and look through. They even had piles of old magazines which was good if you had a couple of missing issues.

Dorset meet FTW!!

[MattyD]

The guy still has the same old mags, and all those old strategy guides for CD-ROM adventure games circa 1995, in his new shop

[Salsa Party Animal]

Walsall town centre got 2 indie game shop now, it is not a bad shop. They do import DS games (USA) and friendly staff. Apart from that they can't compete with internet or supermarkets for prices.

[Champloo]

Noticed Game Focus got a mention, remember once going there and it was a nice shop with lot's of imports, prices weren't too bad as far as I remember.

In my old area (North London), I used to go to a shop called Turbo which was great. Had a back room with a few telly's set up were you could try any game and the owner was really friendly, often let me owe him money and what not or gave me money-off. Prices weren't always as cheap as some of the mainstream stores but he was better with trade-in's and had some pretty cheap retro stuff. Also had a decent assistant who was kind enough to lend me many US PS RPG's when I was just getting into them. Great place, I miss it.

[Escape-To-88]

Used to be a great Indie store near me in Farnborough, but like all Indie shops they closed down
I used to work in C.E.X in the 'Glory Days' when they stocked Jap. Saturn stuff etc. We used to have tournaments at weekends, and all sorts of stuff (tear forms in eye!)
I think Game Focus is overpriced and a couple of the staff in there really don't seem to have a clue about videogames.
I also used to go to T.O.R.C software in Feltham they had some bargain U.S and Jap PSX titles when the system first came out.
The only place I can think of now is a nice little shop I know of in South London, but I'm keeping that one to myself (And No it's not Raven Games!)

I think it's a shame these places go out of business, even though the Internet is cheaper. I miss going game hunting, it's just like record hunting and It's great when you find a rarity after a patient wade through shelves of rubbish.