What happened to this shop?.....

[dan2172]

Up until 4 years ago when I finished uni, I used to visit an import shop in just off Carnaby Street. It was in Lowndes Court and was called Advance Console Entertainment. I was run by a guy called Nick. I have been back since, however when I went there a month or so ago I found out that it has shut down.

Did anyone else on NTSC-uk used to visit ACE? Does anyone know what happened (possibly shut down through Nintendo-esque pressure?) Does anyone know if he has started up elsewhere?

Dan

[Pavey]

I remember that place.
Nick the Bubble his name was.
Quite a nice shop to browse, but a bit steep. Guess the rent round there cant have been cheap.Not sure what happened to them.Think it went around 2yrs ago now.
Going back even further do you remember Dan Shekhana on TCR?
Nick

[mingo]

Thier Lease on the property ran out, last i heard they were looking for another location - that was about 1 year ago. Decent shop if a little overpriced. I remember they were charging like ?120-?130 to put messiah in a PS2.

[dan2172]

Agree. He was always more pricey, but then his workmanship was top notch. He chipped my PS1 and DC, and fully modded my SNES and MD. I've never had any problem with them. He also built me a colour convertor for use with any console (assuming it comes with composite leads), which is great for when new consoles are released and you can't get hold of any RGB leads.

paveynick said "Going back even further do you remember Dan Shekhana on TCR?" I don't remember that one. How long ago was that?

If anyone else knows where Nick may have gone to, let me know.

Cheers

[Pavey]

I worded that question a bit strangely. It was meant to read 'Do you remember,Dan,a place on TCR called Shekhana?'
It was about 15yrs ago as i was doing work experience an TCR, and i would always go to both shops just to hang out in my lunch hour(and marvel at the prices). I ended up buying a 'hot off the press' Super Famicom and SMW with my work experience cash,which set me back ?480-ouch.
It was great around that time,having import shops on the high street, so to speak,where as now its all just looking at pages on my monitor(nostalgic old bastard!)
The thing about ACE was they always had great window displays,showing off thier rarities,and i remember seeing a VCD player in there for PS1 and being amazed.
Happy days!
Nick

[kotatsuneko]

i always preferred their office behind capital radio on tcr.. nick and demitri are excellent people, as was h their old engineer who incidently was a key member of the ps2 design team. he is still in chip design and if you get to know him well, he may well offer you a tip in the occasional start up team for investment. they also could repair or mod almost anything.. even did some master system to 60hz conversions... that weird snes colour enhancement thing was a bit weird tho..

shekana... did you know the shop was named after sheila khan? their family had various business including an arcade on oxford st in the early 80s.. there was a couple of members of staff there who would give huge discounts on import snes games as the cash would go straight in their pockets ^^

[dan2172]

paveynick

I don't remember that one. I wasn't in London at that time but I totally agree that it just isn't as much fun shopping on the net for imports.

Truth be told, I bought one of those PS1 VCD players. Still got it. Works perfectly. Got my Panasonic Q now so no need to use it anymore, but it was very exciting getting it at the time (1997 I seem to remember).

I too am a nostalgic boy. I loved all the kitsch rarities in ACE's window. Brilliant days spent wandering the import shops. (I'll even extend that to the now redundant CEX)

[dan2172]

kotatsuneko - Do you know where Nick and Demitri are now?

[Pavey]

If anyone finds them pls let us know,as they sound like they have the know-how to mod my Q.
Here's hoping.
Nick

[imzu]

Yep, I remember ACE - I last visited late last yeat though. I always remember them being a bit steep and the guy behind the counter as being a bit gruff and always on his mobile like a bit of a geezer.

Anyone remember 'Beyond Therapy' on soho Square? I miss that place. The staff were a whole lot friendlier than CEX Rathbone Place and they had several consoles to playtest on.

[Pavey]

Staff not friendly at CEX Rathbone place! Never! You must have the wrong shop!

[dan2172]

Didn't want to start anything about CEX 'not being friendly'. Just that they, like most import shops, are now becoming more and more redundant due to legal pressures and the wealth of import sites on the net.

I remember Beyond Therapy. They never had the greatest selection of new stuff, but you could find some bargains in there.

[Pavey]

Didn't want to start anything about CEX 'not being friendly'.

Likewise mate,i just wish they'd turn that ****ing music down!

[dan2172]

Yeah man. It always drowns out the tunes on my headphones.

[kotatsuneko]

last time i saw nick n demitri was a few years ago i`m afraid...

beyond therapy was started by ex cex staff, after that rather funny scam..

heres how it went:

the item/price system wasnt properly set up, so staff would get a mate to bring in some useless stock say a b/w gameboy and pay them as much money as they could get away with out of the till, then meet them at lunchtime/after work and split the money.

its well known that cex treats its staff like dirt (graham from the retro shop ended up leaving when they announced they would close it and founded his own retro company, wasnt his fault the location of the shop -the original cex sucked...) so it was no suprise some of the staff ripped a good few thousand quid or more from the company..

there was that time when some idiot from cex paid for (!_) a cd full of pc engine roms and copied it and sold it under the counter for a hundred quid a pop.. made quite a bit of money for a lamer..

after nintendo made a visit or two along with sony, cex no longer became worth visiting imho.

there is an import shop across from tescos side street in tottenham court road, been there for a year or so but its expensive and doesnt have much stock, staff are friendly enough tho i dont give it long..

i quite liked that import shop on oxford st, it was around the time when mario kart came out in japan, great to see the latest games tho i never bought from there.. as you could get snes imports from almost any shop on tcr at the time... despite their embarrasing name, i often used the mail order co whiz kid games as they were fast cheap and friendly..

i wonder if the infamous Ashley is still around? he used to source/sell/distribute stuff from his place in covent garden i think it was, used to have an amiga running out of a jamma rig ^^

this is getting far too nostalgic so erm in short, sorry no havent seen nick n demitri.. you might catch them in The Blue Elephant thai restaurant tho as they were big fans of that place