Manchester's Golden Days

[xtremeboat]

Only been in Manchester for around a year and half but great to hear about how things used to be

[MatWoods]

"Cooplys News" wasnt it?

i used to read the porno mags in there, you know

.....I used to buy them there - a lot more fun when you can take them home!!!

ANYWAY,

Back to the matter in hand (oooh errrr missus) - there were loads of good newsagents, The old Aleef's opposite the Odeon (got the Sould Edge isue of Gamefna there on a sunny Sunday evening) was my absolute favourite - there is still one there but it has been totally revamped and moved a few doors down.

I used to love getting the new EGM or Gamefan and then hitting the arcade to try out the new tips - SF II Zero - Bison and Akuma - that was FUN!

[Predatorxs]

I wasnt saying they were bad guys (more Dell and Rodney than the Crays!), they supplied me with some quality memories and me n my mate were on great terms with them. I still have my SNES disk drive with couple of hundred games somewhere

Hey Davek22, i didn't mean anything like that, they were alittle dodgy but in a good way.

Also on the outside of the corn exchange the other gaming shop (in the basement) was that Gametech on Fennel St? i could never remember the name, but i would always nip in after ringo's and try before you buy! lol over on the right hand side, i'd play but only paid a few times! lol

I remember when they first got SFC street fighter II they were sellin it for £120 just for the game, and the weekend i dropped in the new Mean Machines was out and it had the championship cheat for SF2.. Ahhh dems was the days!

PS. Jushin-Thunder-Liger I Also visited that newsagents (alot), i liked it especially for it's 2 door exit, and the guy would always be lookin over to see what mags you'd reach for! mmmmmm Playboy specials, lingerie! i don't mind if i do! mmmmmm! Nice!

..Mike

[MatWoods]

Hey Davek22, i didn't mean anything like that, they were alittle dodgy but in a good way.

Also on the outside of the corn exchange the other gaming shop (in the basement) was that Gametech on Fennel St? i could never remember the name, but i would always nip in after ringo's and try before you buy! lol over on the right hand side, i'd play but only paid a few times! lol

I remember when they first got SFC street fighter II they were sellin it for £120 just for the game, and the weekend i dropped in the new Mean Machines was out and it had the championship cheat for SF2.. Ahhh dems was the days!

PS. Jushin-Thunder-Liger I Also visited that newsagents (alot), i liked it especially for it's 2 door exit, and the guy would always be lookin over to see what mags you'd reach for! mmmmmm Playboy specials, lingerie! i don't mind if i do! mmmmmm! Nice!

..Mike

Yep that was Gametech and boy do I remember THAT weekend - I ended up having to go to a small indie in Sheffield (where I had just finished Uni) to get my SFII and a copy of Mean Machines, after spending a Monday morning scrabling around Manchester all sold out - I seem to remember Microbyte were asking ?170 and I would have paid it had they got one in!

Gametech had it runnig on one of those Phillips monitors you used to use for the Amiga, in RGB, strecthed to remove the borders, and boy did it look GOOD!!!!!

I remember plugging the cart in and the first time I heard 'Hadoken' at HOME I was in heaven.

Boy did we hammer SFII for the rest of the summer!

[davek22]

Yep that was Gametech and boy do I remember THAT weekend - I ended up having to go to a small indie in Sheffield (where I had just finished Uni) to get my SFII and a copy of Mean Machines, after spending a Monday morning scrabling around Manchester all sold out - I seem to remember Microbyte were asking ?170 and I would have paid it had they got one in!

This got me trying to remember where the hell I got mine from! I remember getting it home and remember playing it solid the whole day but I cant rememeber where the hell I got it! Pretty sure it was from the corn exchange but not Ringo's. There were a couple of other dealers in there who occassionally had some import stuff. I think there was a guy who had a table set up with stuff but no shop (vague memories coming back!).
I remember Microbyte now!! What was the other games shop/cash generator type place that was down at the end where the computer shop is now? I bought my Atari Jag from there!

[MatWoods]

!).
What was the other games shop/cash generator type place that was down at the end where the computer shop is now? I bought my Atari Jag from there!

Can't rememebr the name but the guy called Angus who worked there certainly knew his consoles - I bought and sold a few things there myself around 94/95.

[LeeC]

Wow, this is spooky, haven't been on this forum long and I find a post on familiar territory. I used to run the arcade at the top of Oldham St in Manchester... Sunset Strip (I think, it was so long ago and my memory is fading fast ) The guy who actually owned the arcade had 3 altogether. One in Levenshulme on the A6 (Stockport Road which I ran for a while) and one on King Street I think it was in Rochdale (which I also ran for a while). We had a coloured guy working for us, Garth he was called, huge bloke. If we ever wanted the space invaders pinball moving he used to get under it on his hands and knees and just walk round the arcade with it on his back. Those who played it will know how big that machine was, he was a nice bloke but scary at the same time... fantastic moon cresta player too.


Before working there, most of my time was spent in the arcade on Hyde Road near Gorton Market and the one on Old Lane in Openshaw near the old DHSS. They had a missile command with extra cities at 6000 points. Missile command was my game so I would go in about 10 ish, throw 10p in and leave about 4 ish. I never actually got my name on the machine because of the bug on MC. Used to leave it with hundreds of cities spare for some poor kid who thought they had a guaranteed high score... They'd have been there hours trying to lose all those cities.

Those jobs fuelled my gaming desire and I moved into game design back in 1987 and I'm still there now.

[Rankles]

Not quite Manchester, but in Bury around 92-3 there used to be a large stash of import snes games hidden at the back of the large newsagent in the town center (it's now a Forbouys, opposite Game).

I used to get there about 9am every saturday pocket money in hand, it's where I got my Gradius III and some others from. I found it odd back then and still to this day havent quite twigged why the hell it was going on.

Firstly I can't believe there are so many people here from Manchester, and secondly one from my hometown Bury also!

Shame I was only a kid during these arcade days. I had my megadrive, but the only arcades I got to play in were on holiday with my parents. I can remmeber playing SF2 a lot with my sister and Moonwalker.

[MatWoods]

So, it's you who got my pocket money for all those years then!!!

I used to love the 3 screen Taito Ninja game at the back of the arcade which was replaced/swapped with G-Darius.

That place always seemed to get 'shadier' as you went towards the back.

Still, it was the frist place I ever played SF1 with the big bash buttons!!!

You ran a gold mine of memories my friend and my teen years owe a lot to the joys fo Sun spot.

Did you ever dread 'Derby Days', used to see loads of City and United fans chasing each other down from the station and you were on the way!

[koenshaku]

****, how could I have overlooked this thread?

You guys have sent me back twenty years!
Nice to see all the old haunts mentioned, there's ****e all nowadays.

Cheers fellas.

[Concept]

Firstly I can't believe there are so many people here from Manchester, and secondly one from my hometown Bury also!

Shame I was only a kid during these arcade days. I had my megadrive, but the only arcades I got to play in were on holiday with my parents. I can remmeber playing SF2 a lot with my sister and Moonwalker.

I'm from Bury too. They're closing the newsagents opposite GAME, presumably because WH Smith have wiped them out of business inside Millgate (slowly spreading over the town like a virus).

I used to get my gaming magazines from there.

Gamestation occasionally sell imports (or have them mixed) in their retro section. There's a nice pile of available Saturn and Dreamcast games - though nothing too rare. Apart from that though... the gaming situation in Bury is dire.

Victor Wrights on the Rock still sell plenty of second hand games, but unfortunately they've got wise to the retro market and have upped their price to silly levels for a few rare PAL SNES titles... I remember buying two Saturns from that shop which didn't work (the first refusing to load, the second refusing to spin discs).

Apart from those places and GAME, there's an inside market stall that used to be okay, until they decided mobile phones were going to be their core business. I remember buying Wipeout 3 from there.

The gaming situation in Bury was never great... but it's dead on its feet now.

[jim g]

I've been lurking arouynd here for a while and spotted a few people local to the area.

I weas wondering who else remembers;

A recent trip to town made me weep for the lost days - Sunspot Arcade with Ninja Gaiden and Gemini Wings (long gone and changed into a convenience store), the Rossetti Hotel used to be a great Arcade - all the SFs in one way, shape or form over the years.

The arcade on Oxford Road near the kebab place (it burnt down in the end I think), where I got my Gauntlet Arcade machine from - hell, it used to have Robotron in!

And three heady import days of Gametech in Fennel St - Pilot Wings, SFII, Super Star Wars, Assault Suits Valken, Jim who bought so many games for his young kid, Neil who got mugged on leaving the shop once and all the other characters who used to loiter in it cos it was just a great place to waste the day (and a few quid!) - hell, I used to go there when it was Atari World!

Well, sepia toned rant over.....

Bloody hell, memories. I am JIM, the one bought the games for his young kid (and me!), he is now old enoug to buy his own soddin games! And I still spend too much time/money on games, but those were the great days of import gaming......

[MatWoods]

Hi Jim.

Sent you a PM.

Great to hear from you.

Here was me thinking no-one would read this thread and it turns out you have all been lurking here anyway...

Must be good taste in forums or something....

Boy when I think of the things I would buy in Gametech with my wages now, if I had the chance again.

[NemesiS]

I was a regular at Ringos dating back to when he was in the Corn Exchange before it got destroyed in bomb blast. I remember buying SF2 Turbo from him for £80 on the SNES in the heyday. There is still a "Ringos" in town but its not Ringo himself running it any more. The last I heard he did a runner to Hong Kong after scamming 200k from some dealers at Bowlers computer fair!!

ROFL...Ringo did time for big time scamming and pirating. He did go abroad but came back and got his collar felt. He chipped my playstation when he used to have that place in the Colliseum where they sold all the copies. I found him ok but then i used to get on with all the villans, haha. He used to get some quality gaming stuff tho. His place in the Corn exchange was ace tho and full of gaming treasure.

You remember his missus, the blonde one, can't remember her name..Michelle i think..i saw her on shag site years back showing the monty for the lads. Quality. She was a minger tho but actually quite a nice girl when you got to know her. Not via a shag like!!!!

I remember Microbyte on the right hand side as you entered the Arndale from the side.

I used to go in the arcade next to Piccadilly bus station, i always seem to remember that they had a lot of the latest stuff in there and it was always full of Japanese players hammering SF and Tekken.

Remember Sunspot too on the right coming down from the train station and the one where piccadilly 21 used to be..Nobles amusements i think it was.

I also used to go in the one on Oxford road next McDonalds. Thats where i got a mega score on Outrun which I later submitted to C&VG (anyone remember that mag) when i was about 15 or 16 on a school trip to the science & Tech museums.
I remember receiving a letter from C&VG with a certificate saying it was a world record and it was submitted in this little book that they used to publish once or twice a year with the mag. Got my name in it with the score along with loads of other people from all over the place with their scores on different games, i felt about 10 foot tall and my mates thought i was a legend..haha.... My one achievement in life. I seem to remember my score was about 67 million and it was a fcuking flawless run of right, left, right, left with no braking or gear change. I'd love to know what the score is now cos there was another guy that went by the name of PAG that used to get over 60 mill in the arcade in Stockport. We used to be mega competetive with each other both taking the high scores off each other on a weekly basis. They were great days when you used to get crowds of people all trying to watch what was happening on the screen.

Still got the certificate somewhere i think in my parents loft at home. I'll dig it out and post it when i'm back in England.

Funnily enough tho, i saw an outrun arcade game about 4 years ago in an arcade in Matlock when i was there with the missus and had to have a go. Still had the moves tho and managed to finish it with a 20p credit but it seemed a lot harder than i remember. Or are games just easier now?

I vaguely remember the one at grand central, what is on the right hand side facing the pub? That place used to be a war zone at weekends.

NOW THEN - the $64,000 question for you - who remembers the guy who used to come into the shops in Manchester, who jogged everywhere with a rucksack on his back, wore a pair of very tight shorts, chattered on all the time to anyone and bought everything he could get his hands on?

I rememeber him, ginger haired bloke. He lived-lives near my mum and dad in cheadle hulme. Still fcuking runs everywhere now but has a woman in tow . If it's the same dude i saw him when i was last at home at xmas pegging it about in the freezing cold. Man/Cold/Running=FAIL

Heres an ever better $64,000 question. Who remembers the games shop that used to be on Stockport road in Cheadle almost facing the Red Lion pub. I must be going back to almost 1984-85 here. I used to get my speccy and C64 games from there...... JESUS

[MatWoods]

Still see Andy from Gametech (Fennel St, used to be Atari World) regularly and we joke about 'jogging ron', those were some great days - nemesis -we must have passed each other many times in shops or arcades.

Don't remember the Cheadle shop - sed to bus it into Mcr or go to Boots/Smiths in Stockport back around 84/85.

That is the one in Stockport - place is stil a warzone, I avoid it like the plague - but it is kind of hard, as I work in the town hall over the road!!!