Off to London this weekend, where's the Retro shops?

[Wil]

There was a sense of wonder going into places like Shenanka in TCR in London and browsing through the latest PC Engine and Game Boy imports that I just don't get from the web. Give me back the shops but not the extortionate prices. £70 for SFC Super R-Type fer chrissakes! What was I thinking!

[Montario]

Independant games shops in the Uk as a whole are pretty much fawked thanks to game and t'internets. I read there's some decent retro shops in Paris of all places tho, cos the PC engine was really rather popular apparently. Back in '03, i took a trip to Tokyo and languished in the glory of the retro shops there. Been told it ain't quite the same these days tho.

Shopping in the UK in general is awful now imho, unless you want a new mobile (that does the same **** your old one does anyway but is a different colour) and want to drink some overpriced sugared brownwater.

[merf]

not to forget not only were CEX shops dirty, rude overpriced etc they always stunk of body odour from both staff and customer alike. still loved them in that golden age though along with Shekana in Wood Green.

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

I remember the CEX on Whitfield St well. Back in the days of Mark Starkey and Eoin McLaren working downstairs in retro.

Used to pop down there maybe once a month and pick up some new SFC or PCE games.

Eventually ended up selling them all my SFC collection just before Nintendo threatened them with the whole 'You sell imports and we'll screw you over' thing.

[SharkSkin-Man]

I remember the CEX on Whitfield St well. Back in the days of Mark Starkey and Eoin McLaren working downstairs in retro.

That was Rathbone Place, Whitfield Street was one floor. The remaining Retro stuff moved into the Rathbone basement when Whitfield was closed.

[Cauterize]

I visited a small shop dealign in games, cds and dvds near Portobello Market (on the main street you come out on from the underground) that had quite a few retro games.
I bought quite a few Sega Saturn imports there last year...

And also check Portobello Market too, scored a SNES with games too!

Sorry my description is very vague, it was a good year ago now... I was travelling with a very annoying person who prevented me from enjoying the trip! Happy times!

[jnm23]

There used to be a nice retro shop in Hendon, not sure if it's still there. Sold them my old C64 games for ?12! They had a lot of Hucards

Anyone remember Dax in North Finchley. People from my school would go there to play SNES and Neo Geo, but obviously never buy anything. They lasted about 6 months

[aubtin]

There's Computer Games Exchange in Notting Hill Gate but there's piss all there these days.

[chaoticjelly]

Where's Whitfield Street? is that London?

[Max P.]

Miss many of those old shops too, as mentioned the CEX downstairs and the seperate retro store - oggling stuff in the windows was always fun.

There was another shop briefly in Soho square too - not really retro as such but they had a few bits. TCR was always fun back then - Mega Drives and PC Engines tucked away in little places - still remember many firsts in TCR. First time seeing the N64 and Mario, the Play Station and Ridge Racer. SFC games and Jap mags in that Japanese shop near Trafalger Square.

But most of all, there were so many excellent arcades in W1 full of proper games and dodgy characters...

[SharkSkin-Man]

Where's Whitfield Street? is that London?

Yeah, round the corner from Warren Street tube station.

[Arashikage]

I only went to the CEX retro store the once but it was a grand experience. I remember shaking my head in disbelief for the ?70 asking price for a Metal Slug X poster they had. Who would have thought that so many years later I would cough up over a hundred beans for a Mushihimesama arcade poster.....I will never learn.

It had closed the next time I went to London and everything moved to Rathbone. It was a damn shame they had that flood.

[Mayhem]

There used to be a nice retro shop in Hendon, not sure if it's still there. Sold them my old C64 games for ?12! They had a lot of Hucards

That was Jason Moore's Retro Games shop, and yeah I "took" advantage of some crazy trade in prices to grab myself some cash and use it against some of the C64 stock he had. He's gone mail order now, he sold the shop years back presumably because he wasn't making enough money to cover the expenses.

[Spooky Mulder]

CEX Retro in Whitfield Street was a superb store ... It was run by a guy called Graham (can't remember his surname), there was also a guy called Ash Parkin (blonde hair) and another chap called Barry (again, can't recall surname).

Graham later opened Retro X near Hammersmith and Barry worked with him, but unfortunately, this was fairly short lived. Real shame as they obtained some nice stuff for me

I seem to recall that Graham helped run annual retro shows around the country ... not sure what happened to him though.

[Decider-VT]

Was the Whitfield Street CEX the one with all of the consoles behind that perspex corridor? If so, I remember seeing a Nomad and a PC Engine running for the first time in there. I used to go there fairly regularly for NES and Virtual Boy games when I could afford them as a teenager.