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

[Duddyroar]

I got my Nomad from the Whitfield place store.

[Fastware]

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.

Graham Howden and Barry Hitchens. Barry used to post here as MD but got banned for his attitude. He was one of the organisers for that big retro show in London.

Retro X was a good store, but failed to get enough stock in to support the business. That's the problem with all UK retro Stores, never enough stock and rely on trade ins too much. The customers just trade in their junk and will ebay the good stuff themselves.

[Spooky Mulder]

Yeah ... spot on with those surnames Fastware

The show you mention was the Game On exhibition at the Science Museum which ran from Jan-Feb of this year, apparently, Barry was the exhibition consultant.

I believe that Ash Parkin has contributed to Retro Gamer magazine in the past, but not sure what he's up to now.

I always found Graham Howden to be a really nice, polite and knowledgeable chap. He used to run the fanzine Retro Classix, but again, I'm not sure what he's up at the moment.

[Fastware]

I spent far too long (and too much) in Retro X and the original CEX Retro. I know those guys well.

[jnm23]

There was another shop briefly in Soho square too - not really retro as such but they had a few bits.

Yep that was called Beyond Therapy. Remember buying R Types (jap version) there for the PS1 for ?55

[Mayhem]

Retro X was a good store, but failed to get enough stock in to support the business. That's the problem with all UK retro Stores, never enough stock and rely on trade ins too much. The customers just trade in their junk and will ebay the good stuff themselves.

Went there several times, always had something I was after. But true, it is completely opposite in the US, maybe people aren't so clued up? People I know who have their own gaming stores over there seem to get loads of brilliant stuff in trade wise...

[Duddyroar]

I bought a few games from Retro X via ebay, the service was always good and the prices very reasonable. Shame it went under.

CEX retro was in a league of its own though, TBH. The Whitfield place store was a bit remote and out of the way, but it was brilliant. The best thing is it was across the road from CEX's mail order dept and one time I went the guy behind the counter kindly rushed over to pick up a copy of Macross: Do You Remember Love on the Japanese Saturn for me, cos the store didn't have a copy.

I also bought ****loads of Japanese Megadrive games from there, too. I recall seeing them all stacked along the shelves and thinking I'd died and gone to heaven!

To be honest when it moved to the Rathbone Place basement it remained pretty ace, in fact in many ways it was better cos you could trade in your modern stuff upstairs and then head down to the retro section armed with lots of store credit. Again, they had lots of ace Japanese MD stuff in there, as well as some great PCE games, but like all retro stores they were ****ed as soon as the internet (and ebay) started to take over.

[Fastware]

I also bought ****loads of Japanese Megadrive games from there, too. I recall seeing them all stacked along the shelves and thinking I'd died and gone to heaven!

They store up all their retro stock for some time before opening that store and moved stock from Rathbone place to there also. Trouble was that the prices doubled just becuase it moved there. They still took in Jap MD games at the other store so sometime you could get them for the original non retro mark up price.

CEX was fantastic back in the early 90's walls packed with import games at low prices for pre owned. I'd spend hours in there browsing and always came home with a big bag of SNES, MD and PCE games.

To be honest when it moved to the Rathbone Place basement it remained pretty ace, in fact in many ways it was better cos you could trade in your modern stuff upstairs and then head down to the retro section armed with lots of store credit.

You know you could trade in your new stuff and then walk to the retro store and use the credit note? That's what I did.

Once it moved into the basement it was terrible, no space for new hardware and very little stock coming in. The staff were not knowlegeable about anything other than playing King Of Fighters.

Again, they had lots of ace Japanese MD stuff in there, as well as some great PCE games, but like all retro stores they were ****ed as soon as the internet (and ebay) started to take over.

Shame that a retro store here cant work, just too much ebay competition and too hard to get stock.

[Duddyroar]

You know you could trade in your new stuff and then walk to the retro store and use the credit note? That's what I did.

Oh yeah, I know, but it was such a ballache having to walk all that way to Whitfield Place and then back to Rathbone.

I think the basement idea would have worked fine - there was more floorspace than at Whitfield place, for starters - but I think the move came at a time when retro stores were dying and CEX was no exception.

I always considered the prices to be quite good, TBH. Although eBay kills everything when it comes to this kind of thing!

CEX in Birmingham was pretty ace at one point...I got all my PSX/Saturn/N64/Dreamcast imports from there, before it they stopped doing imports...

[SuperDanX]

It wasnt his attitude that got Barry (MD) banned here, he scammed a few members in a dodgy psp deal..

[Duddyroar]

His attitude didn't help, though.

[Beatnik]

Clearly not London, but I was in The Hague (Holland) last year and found an absolutely brilliant retro games shop. Lost of old NES, SNES & GBA games plus a stack of old PC stuff. Really was top notch. Worth a quick train ride if you're ever waiting for a flight at Schiphol, or can't be bothered with yet another trip to the red light district on a Stag weekend in Amsterdam.

I agree on the comment that even the game shops in Japan are changing. I noticed a difference this year compared to my trip in 2004. Places like Akihabara are covered with new modern buildings that concentrate on mainstream electronics and new games only. There are a few great shops like Super Potato, but they can be quite hard to find.

One thing that did make me laugh in Japan was a shop that concentrated on "import" games, full of PAL console releases and European only PC titles.

[t-bone-retro]

Got back from Birmingham today. Nice city centre with a variety of highstreet shops but nothing retro that I could find...However...

The main Gamestation just off new street station typifies everything that is wrong with games shops now IMO though.

Shelves and shelves of full retail price games, nothing faintly interesting or out of the ordinary in sight.

I think the thing I like about retro shops or at least shops that sell retro alongside contempary games is the prospect of finding an unheard of game or one you've been looking for a while at a cheap price!

I feel the same way about independant record shops - everynow and again you can find really ace records that are really cheap, and its like a little car boot sale rummaging through the piles of records for a gem

Whereas in chain stores like Game and Gamestation its just shelves with multiple copies of X game neatly laid out in a line. Its all a rather sterile and uninteresting environment in which to pursue a hobby