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Trouble ahoy for games?

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    #32
    Guy:Incognito
    Registered Users Posts: 38,247 ✭✭✭✭Guy:Incognito


    Gradius wrote: »
    Virgin megastars was fantastic. Never understood why they closed, more than likely rent as well.



    Probably because there was more of this than buying
    o1s1n wrote: »
    I really miss Virgin Megastore on the quays, was a golden era of browsing media content in person.
    Gradius wrote: »

    It's very strange. I remember the likes of virgin megastores on the quays in Dublin which was brilliant just to browse around,



    Did Gamestop not announce a few months ago that stores were going?


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    #33
    Gradius
    Registered Users Posts: 1,224 ✭✭✭Gradius


    o1s1n wrote: »
    They actually took the GameCube from you??

    That shop was Game Zone I'm fairly sure. I think it closed about ten years ago.

    Yeah that rings a bell. It got to stuck in customs and they wanted another wedge on top to release it, so the shop owner swallowed the cost and I just left it with him. Didn't lose any money at all.

    They had a really good selection of the very latest stuff from Japan, it was cool to see what would pop up, everything from virtual boys to Panasonic Q's and the software as well of course :)


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    #34
    Gradius
    Registered Users Posts: 1,224 ✭✭✭Gradius


    Guy:Incognito wrote: »
    Probably because there was more of this than buying







    Did Gamestop not announce a few months ago that stores were going?

    Oh virgin megastore got more than a fair share of money out of me, got the megadrive brand spanking new out of there and millions of games. Literally millions.


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    #35
    CiDeRmAn
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 34,528 CMod ✭✭✭✭CiDeRmAn


    Gameszone was there under the bridge, but that's gone nearly 20 years.
    The brother of the guy who ran that runs Bookmart & GameSexChange, which changed location to just down the street and is still in business, selling everything from college books to Atari/Sega and Sony/Nintendo.
    I used to spend a good deal of time and money in both shops, would still go to the latter only I'm never around there anymore and... well... ebay...


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    #36
    Optimus Prime
    Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 5,381 Mod ✭✭✭✭Optimus Prime


    I bought my Commodore 64 in PEATs at the back of the Ilac centre. I can still remember going in to get it. The light gun pack.


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    #37
    CiDeRmAn
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 34,528 CMod ✭✭✭✭CiDeRmAn


    Those of a certain age will have also done their gaming shopping downstairs in Easons as well as upstairs in Clerys!
    Counting those shillings to buy something for my Spectrum...


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    #38
    o1s1n
    Registered Users Posts: 34,429 ✭✭✭✭o1s1n
    Master of the Universe


    How about Dun Laoghaire market on the weekends? I used to go to a lad in a leather jacket down the back who was selling comics, always remember walking passed a massive stall at the front selling c64 and Spectrum tapes.


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    #39
    Andrew76
    Moderators, Computer Games Moderators Posts: 10,102 Mod ✭✭✭✭Andrew76


    Lemming wrote: »
    A familiar circuit :D

    You're forgetting the Virgin Games centre on Dawson st; became Electronics Boutique when Virgin closed it.



    Brownie points if you remember Forbidden Planet being on Dawson st. before it moved to the quays. Throw in Third Place comics (used to be beside the Foggy Dew; now in Dundrum) and Sub City comics on the other end of Wicklow st. to Tower Records

    Forbidden Planet Dawson St when it had the wooden floor down the back and a decent select of VHS Anime. Also bought a book there about the alien films which was to become my first tattoo. Soon as it left Dawson St it was dead to me. :)

    Along with all the shops mentioned above I would’ve went into most of the arcades too. Amusement City on D’Olier St was my main base though, mainly because 1c on Aliens only cost 10p. Good ole days when £1.10 would get me a return feeder ticket for bus+dart into town and back.

    As good as those days were though, I’d rarely buy physical games anymore let alone go into an actual shop to do so. I’m happy out going digital these days.


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    #40
    CiDeRmAn
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Computer Games Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 34,528 CMod ✭✭✭✭CiDeRmAn


    I don't know Andrew,
    I've extremely fond memories of working in Gamesworld on the run up to Christmas, from 96-99, and the sheer chaotic fun of it all, place on Liffey St packed with customers trying to get the big thing that year for their kids, or themselves, from Ocarina of Time to a Gameboy Color, from a Playstation to a copy of Goldeneye.
    It all went rather corporate after that, with Gamestop making all the stores the same, but for a little while it was a lovely place to be, even when I wasn't working there, just hanging out, talking games, walking past those copies of those games that I really shouldn't have walked past... given their eventual value!


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    #41
    RGARDINR
    Registered Users Posts: 1,941 ✭✭✭RGARDINR


    Lemming wrote: »
    A familiar circuit :D

    You're forgetting the Virgin Games centre on Dawson st; became Electronics Boutique when Virgin closed it.



    Brownie points if you remember Forbidden Planet being on Dawson st. before it moved to the quays. Throw in Third Place comics (used to be beside the Foggy Dew; now in Dundrum) and Sub City comics on the other end of Wicklow st. to Tower Records
    I remember queuing there with my brother in the rain for ages to get an autograph I was super young for doctor Beverly crusher. My brother was a huge star trek fan then I liked it mind you. Ha I remember she said can I get a latee, ha the staff didn't know what to do. Say most didn't even know what a latee was then. No Starbucks etc. then just around the corner.


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    #42
    RGARDINR
    Registered Users Posts: 1,941 ✭✭✭RGARDINR


    sugarman wrote: »
    I remember GameZone alright, used to buy a lot of loose Mega Drive stuff for next to nothing around 2000ish.

    Games exchange was good too and was up until probably 10 years ago when your man started looking online at eBay prices. His prices are off the wall now. Made the RAGE look like a bargain basement.

    Another that I forgot about was Tommys / Bandba when they used to sell games. Mostly in the old small shop that was to the front of Jervis on Henry St before the shopping centre was built ..and then briefly upstairs on the corner of Mary St where it is still today.

    I always kick myself for not buying more of their dead stock clearance when they were getting out of games. They'd heaps of everything but mostly handheld stuff like Game Gear, GAME.COM, Atari Lynx stuff.. I'd say there's still stuff buried in their stock room.

    I remember that Bamba store there as I use to get my amstrad games from there. They had such a bigger selection of commodore 64 games and I was jealous couldn't get them. Prices from 1.99 to about 5.99 use to take me ages to save up for one barely ever got one


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    #43
    Lemming
    Registered Users Posts: 14,148 ✭✭✭✭Lemming


    CiDeRmAn wrote: »
    Gameszone was there under the bridge, but that's gone nearly 20 years.
    The brother of the guy who ran that runs Bookmart & GameSexChange, which changed location to just down the street and is still in business, selling everything from college books to Atari/Sega and Sony/Nintendo.
    I used to spend a good deal of time and money in both shops, would still go to the latter only I'm never around there anymore and... well... ebay...

    I was only in GameZone a handful of times in the 2000s; a lot of the shops past O'Connell St/Henry St & mayyybe Parnell st. were well out of my general radius (being a south-sider .. yaaahhhh :p) so I tended to go there less frequently. Some of the small stand-alone shops spread about Dublin that 'also sold' computer/console games were interesting for browsing for sale/clearance stock over the years too. I remember randomly walking into a games/electronics shop in Ranelagh in the early 2000s with a load of (shrink-wrapped) Sega 32X games in the bargain bucket so I picked up Fifa 96 32X for £1.99; try finding a price like that on ebay for something hanging together with super-glue these days never mind new in box. I can't even remember wtf I was doing in Ranelagh that allowed for browsing of shops given I was usually always passing through to town or back home.

    My most enduring memories though are as a kid scrimping, saving, and/or annoying the sh1t out of the parents and then going down to Mulveys hardware store - that also had an impressive array of home-computing stuff at the front of the shop - in Dundrum to buy budget C64 games (and the occasional full-price game when I got a present of money from a relative), with occasional forays over to the Banba toy shop upstairs in Rathfarnham shopping centre (not to be confused with Nutgrove), and Virgin Megastore when ever my dad would head into town until I was older by which point the Sega megadrive had replace the C64 as my gaming interest.
    Andrew76 wrote: »
    Forbidden Planet Dawson St when it had the wooden floor down the back and a decent select of VHS Anime. Also bought a book there about the alien films which was to become my first tattoo. Soon as it left Dawson St it was dead to me. :)

    I've heard more than a few people comment on FP going quite corporate with their new location on the quays; still didn't stop me from going in though mind, although my deference was always to Third Place comics in later years (John was my fix dealer for all things Transformers; cost more than crack to maintain that fix :p)


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    #44
    Shapey Fiend
    Registered Users Posts: 1,994 ✭✭✭Shapey Fiend


    Game packaging now has very little to recommend it. Physical releases are going to be like vinyl or whatever just a specialty niche.

    I'd expect games as a service to become the standard in the next few years. It won't necessarily be streamed entirely maybe download ala Audible. Then everything will get as devalued and the creators will be at the whims of digital publishers who push some product over others. Maybe there's still enough competition with the various digital storefronts that creatives won't get as screwed as they did by Spotify but it'll happen eventually.


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    #45
    Gradius
    Registered Users Posts: 1,224 ✭✭✭Gradius


    Seems like cex is on the verge of mass closures in the UK.

    It's that domino effect that I'm wondering about, like if the primary source of videogames disappears (like gamestop), then how are secondary sources (like cex) going to pull through?

    Best be on the safe side and start eating people's brains sooner than later


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    #46
    Lemming
    Registered Users Posts: 14,148 ✭✭✭✭Lemming


    Gradius wrote: »
    Seems like cex is on the verge of mass closures in the UK.

    It's that domino effect that I'm wondering about, like if the primary source of videogames disappears (like gamestop), then how are secondary sources (like cex) going to pull through?

    Best be on the safe side and start eating people's brains sooner than later

    Are CEX considered a primary source of retro games? I mean, maybe it's just my biases for Sega Megadrive & Dreamcast stuff, but every time I walk into a CEX I am distinctly underwhelmed by what's on offer (if there is anything on offer at all). I would have considered CEX more of a secondary source than anything more, with dedicated indy shops and the expo/fair traders far higher up the proverbial totem pole. Granted it may be a bit hit or miss as to whether or not there are shops within reach for you (and thankfully I have a couple in or near Sheffield), but it's been a bit of an eye-opener to attend some retro game fairs here in the UK; there are "shops" who don't bother with any business outside of the fair circuits, and some who do both that and facebook and/or ebay for trade, with a smaller collection again who also maintain websites for online sales.


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    #47
    Skerries
    Registered Users Posts: 12,304 ✭✭✭✭Skerries


    a lot of places mentioned that I would regularly hit on my Saturday run of town

    Forbidden Planet (both locations, Dawson and then the Quays)
    Alchemist Head (both locations, Temple Bar and then Dame st)
    Twilight Zone (Abbey St Arcade)
    Virgin Megastore
    Computer City (Cathal Brugha st)
    can anyone remember the name of the other video game rental shop on Capel St?
    Then wandering down Talbot St into cheap tat shops picking up crap and the odd gaming find
    Untitled Image




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    #48
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭ [Deleted User]


    Pity about Cex if that were true.

    Eighteen months ago Picked up 8gb i7 Sony Vaio with blue ray DVD player for 380.

    became find of square tallaght and nutgrove branches


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    #49
    Strumms
    Registered Users Posts: 24,807 ✭✭✭✭Strumms


    Argos are selling FIFA20, 27.99, it’s listed at 69.99 in GameStop.

    If there is going to be THAT much of a disparity between them... Argos only charging 40% and still making a profit. Considering the console and accessories is about 300 euro and GameStop are looking for 70 quid for a game, hmmm.


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    #50
    2ndcoming
    Registered Users Posts: 3,569 ✭✭✭2ndcoming


    Gradius wrote: »
    Virgin megastars was fantastic. Never understood why they closed, more than likely rent as well.

    I bought a few things in rage but it was always a good place for a browse at least. They might be reopening in token itself, which could be a brilliant move.

    When Token opened there was that empty lot beside it (now the extended part of Token itself) and I said to myself there could be no better place for a retro games / collectibles / comic book / "nerd stuff" shop.


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    #51
    2ndcoming
    Registered Users Posts: 3,569 ✭✭✭2ndcoming


    Skerries wrote: »
    a lot of places mentioned that I would regularly hit on my Saturday run of town

    Forbidden Planet (both locations, Dawson and then the Quays)
    Alchemist Head (both locations, Temple Bar and then Dame st)
    Twilight Zone (Abbey St Arcade)
    Virgin Megastore
    Computer City (Cathal Brugha st)
    can anyone remember the name of the other video game rental shop on Capel St?
    Then wandering down Talbot St into cheap tat shops picking up crap and the odd gaming find

    Wish I could remember it! They had a good few import MD games, remember getting brought in there and coming out with a Jap copy of Toe Jam & Earl and heading for an ice cream in Fusciardi's (?) next door. Must have been my 8th birthday.

    8 year old me was not as gushing in praise of TJ&E as CVG had been. Nothing is happening, in Japanese. Pretty sure it was returned for Streets of Rage the following Saturday.


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    #52
    o1s1n
    Registered Users Posts: 34,429 ✭✭✭✭o1s1n
    Master of the Universe


    Hah, that's gas about Toejam and Earl.

    I remember my cousin bought a Jap copy of Kinnikuman: Dirty Challenger for the Snes back in the day.

    Was a wrestling game so you'd think it was fairly straightforward. Nope. We spent years trying to figure out how to play it but never did in the end.


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    #53
    80s Synth Pop
    Registered Users Posts: 711 ✭✭✭80s Synth Pop


    2ndcoming wrote: »
    Wish I could remember it! They had a good few import MD games, remember getting brought in there and coming out with a Jap copy of Toe Jam & Earl and heading for an ice cream in Fusciardi's (?) next door. Must have been my 8th birthday.

    8 year old me was not as gushing in praise of TJ&E as CVG had been. Nothing is happening, in Japanese. Pretty sure it was returned for Streets of Rage the following Saturday.




    Premier computers was the name. I used to rent USA NES games for the week. I was probably 9 or 10 at the time and they modded pal consoles for you to disable the region lockout chip. Such a great place back then. It's where the hemp shop is now.


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    #54
    Shapey Fiend
    Registered Users Posts: 1,994 ✭✭✭Shapey Fiend


    I used buy my Mega Drive games in hifi shops circa 1991 and a lot of them had Japanese and American product. I didn't know the difference just knocked the tabs off my MD.

    CEX are sort of a pawn shop so I'd have guessed they'd do well during a recessionary period.


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    #55
    nintendoo
    Closed Accounts Posts: 482 ✭✭nintendoo


    I see CEX have a "drop and go" service now.

    So, initiate selling of stuff online, then drop the stuff off at the door, and they pay the money into your account or email a voucher.

    https://ie.webuy.com/site/blogDetails/?article=tag%3Ablogger.com,1999%3Ablog-1918688228918285001.post-4307521258283683992


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