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[muddy]

My mate used to work in the mail order dept and run the web site of CEX. Grabbed a few great bargains through timely "heads-up" emails off him

Console Concepts, PC Engine Supplies, Raven Games and a fav, Preston Games!

[HC_O]

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[donpepperoni]

Used to use Special Reserve all the time in the 90's. They had some great prices on games compared to most high-street stores. Shame they went belly up in the end, but I guess there is no place for a mail order business once you have the internet.

[Colin]

None of those places compare to the modern day dodgy ebay seller, dealing under different user names, buying stuff with other peoples accounts and bidding up their own auctions. Gizmo's are the future.

[Family Fry]

Good old CA Games and G-Force for me as a growing lad in Glasgow.
Fond memories like playing Ernest Evans in CA Games and G-Force having all the Neo Geo carts and PC Engine cards on full display, also later few Neo Geo arcades, Windjammers 2player VS
Bought my first import from wee store think it was called The Micro Computer Shop, game was Hellfire JPN on MD, will never forget that.
Later on used Lee at VGI as well, top bloke who got me some great stuff, Raven Games and few others that I can't remember, CA and G-Force will always have special place in my heart.

[HC_O]

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[JazzFunk]

My Acorn Electron was bought from Laskys in Leeds, which was in the same section of shops (on Bond Street) where the old Leeds CEX used to be, and I also remember getting a dusty Spectrum cassette copy of 'Back To Skool' from there.

When I got bought my PC Engine, it was from a place that used to advertise in the back of C&VG, 'PC Engine Services' I think they were called. Took ages to get the console by mail order, but it arrived eventually. Ordered 'Drunken Master' (The Kung Fu), Dragon Spirit and Chan & Chan, only got the first two titles, my mum rang/wrote to them complaining, but Chan & Chan never arrived, I think the company had already gone bust. Bit of a pisser, that.

I also used to get C64/Speccy games from one of those C&VG advertisers (possibly Castle Computers???) that used to do great value bundle deals on older games, I used them loads and never had a problem, always got great bargains, swollen jiffy bags fecund with cheap cassettes, it was bloody excellent.

In terms of actual walk-in shops, I used to visit Microbyte and The Computer Store a lot, got quite a few games from there, plus there was a nice little non-chain games shop in Pontefract that got lots of custom from me, think it's a PC shop now. I also used to get loads of games from this weird little Asian shop called 'Bensim's Bazaar', near Blackpool's Central Pier, they had this little games bit that had lots of weird and wonderful, lesser-seen titles for the 8-bits, I remember getting C64 Pastfinder from there (great game).

Aaaah, a sad old man reminiscing, someone please pop a cap in my dome before the tears start flowing....!

[^Katsu]

If I remember correctly their main thing was TV and Video Recorder rentals,
the idea of renting a TV or Video now just seems bizarre.

You could rent pretty much anything from TV, VCR's, HiFi, and large White goods, but this was the side line aspect which later became Radio Rentals.
Sales were the main aim of the Rumbelows stores, I recall selling numerouse nice TV setups via PAPER credit agreements the scenes as we passed into the age of cpu agreements epic

I loved being able to play the UK games the second we got them tho or just playing a game and being paid to do so Another positive was seeing the failures of the Jaguar, Lynx, and numerous others LIVE in the flesh, even if it was a bad thing in some cases

[JazzFunk]

^I remember Rumbelows! When they were closing down in late '94/early '95 I managed to bag both a cheap CD32 and Mega-CD 2, plus a copy of Final Fight CD for like £2.47 or summat. Prior to that, I remember buying a cheap MD Saitek pad from there, very sturdy in feel and lovely in the hands but played too 'angularly'. I remember Rumbelows being pretty ****e for games and stuff, always a few quid higher than Currys/Dixons/Comet et al, I was kinda glad when they went bust.

F*ck me, I remember my mum renting out this big, wood-encased telly for 6/7 years(!) She must've paid the cost price of it thrice over.

Aaaaah, The 80s.

[importaku]

In terms of actual walk-in shops, I used to visit Microbyte

THIS ^

I loved Microbyte in leeds, Imports everywhere in that tiny little shop (super famicom, gamegear, megadrive, gameboy), it's the place that got me into buying imports, my first ever game was rockman world on gameboy, then the delights of getting them to special order me ganbare goemon on gameboy only to be told again & again that i wouldn't be able to play it because it's all in japanese, yeah still bought it & yes i completed it too hehe.

As fond as he memories are i prefer how things have developed, hooray for the internet & normal import game prices.

[JazzFunk]

^I'm hazarding a guess that you may remember that games shop in Leeds market circa 1990-1993? It was on the street leading down to the police station, last time I went in it, ayear or so back, it was a Chinese pound shop. Back in 1990, I used to get new, cheapish Amiga games from there, it was the only place I managed to get hold of Ranx (though it turned out to be crap).

They used to get Jap MD games in there, always at decent prices and always minty, I remember in late 1991 when I got minty new Jap MD copies of Alien Storm, Shadow Dancer and Granada X, all for a bit cheaper than the ads in C&VG!

Yeah, as trading-in starting to catch on, the standard of that shop inevitably declined, but when it was ace, it was *ace*.

[Btang84]

BTW was a while since I went here, it may not be there anymore, thought I'd better say just in case anyone goes up there.

The place (x-electrical) is still there, I see it fairly often when I'm in Kingston. I used to buy some import GBA games from them, Golden Sun was a notable one.

[speedlolita]

Yeah, I visit X-Electrical fairly regularly.

They've barely got any import stuff now - nowhere near as good as they used to be.

[Fastware]

Tokyo Joe and Dream Machines, I did get a load of PC Engine games from Console Concepts when they were having a clearout. Mail order was so exciting, send off the cheque and then wait, wait wait.. Just when you thought it was lost the game would arrive.

[Geoff D]

Used to visit the Videogamecentre in Bournemouth & Software Box in Poole - very exciting visits they were too.

Mail order, I can't remember the names of any shops, but I ordered through adverts in Mean Machines.