How long did you spend in game shops?

[mga73]

I have been playing games now for over 30 years, just wondered if it was only me but as a young lad i would happily go to my local game shop and be in there for at least 5 hours checking out the games and trying to decide which game i wanted,also trying to remember the good reviews in crash magazine this was twice weekly for years they must have thought i was crackers,can any one beat my record for longest time spent in a early eighties to early nineties game shops?

[tachi]

I used to spend a few hours in Games Inc in Plymouth as the owner had a C64 setup and you could try the games first and I remember playing Spitting Image for a good 2 or so hours with other patrons.
Big difference from an average 5 minutes these days...

[The Laird]

I have been playing games now for over 30 years, just wondered if it was only me but as a young lad i would happily go to my local game shop and be in there for at least 5 hours checking out the games and trying to decide which game i wanted,also trying to remember the good reviews in crash magazine this was twice weekly for years they must have thought i was crackers,can any one beat my record for longest time spent in a early eighties to early nineties game shops?

Dunno about that long but I would quite regularly spend over an hour in many of my local game shops looking at games for just about every system or playing on what was on demo.

[Vyothric]

Not long. If I was in a game shop it was because I had something specific to buy. I didn't have money to be browsing around.

The only time I spent ages in a game shop was when I was playing Ocarina of Time in Virgin Megastores.

[mlucifersam]

Me and my mates would go in to town at least 2 times a week, sometimes 4 or 5 and hang out in Northants Computer Centre after school. We got to know all the staff and almost all of us worked there at some point or another. This would be between 1985 and 1987. We all had Spectrums but would garner a nose at the Commodore stuff and we all as good as ignored the Amstrad.

It would be exciting scanning the shelves looking for the new releases and matching up the cassette inlay with a preview or screenshot you'd seen in Crash. Sometimes seeing the game on the shelf would be the 1st time you'd seen the game artwork. Some Saturdays we could quite easily hang out for up to 4 hours. It could have been longer be that would be just admitting I was TOO much of a geek back then!

[Joey]

Can remember a friend and I spending about 2 hours reading the Final Fantasy 7 guide In Virgin megastore, finding out all the tips and secrets.

[mga73]

That true everybody nowadays are no longer than 5minutes in game etc...

[kiwimike]

I used to spend a few hours in Games Inc in Plymouth as the owner had a C64 setup and you could try the games first and I remember playing Spitting Image for a good 2 or so hours with other patrons.
Big difference from an average 5 minutes these days...

About the same with me. I daresay if I hung around that long now I'd look a bit pervy with all the kids in there

[sscott]

A little while, usually in a place called Chips in Darlington (which some forum members know of). They would trial ST and Amiga games for me, buying games with my pocket money was a big deal back then.

[IronMaidenRule]

Probably the longest I ever spent was an hour or so, over consecutive days in Gamestation, Coventry. I was on work experience at the time and they had a little stand with the Neo Geo Pocket Colour setup, it was just the perfect thing for killing time on my lunch break. Really enjoyed the console and now own one thanks to Nokgod, was too poor to buy one at the time.

[psj3809]

Think if someones in a shop for 4 or 5 hours they should get thrown out ! Remember all the kids in the 80's being cheeky (and maybe now) where they use WHSmiths as a library and basically stand there for hours in the way reading a magazine from start-end !

To be fair some of the shops in the 80's were cool as there were so many computers all set up for you to type 10 PRINT "DIXONS IS ****"; 20 GOTO 10 and run that !

But even as a kid i never spent tons of hours in them, the second i got hold of that game i was dying for i was rushing back to play it

[Morkin]

I don't recall spending that long in them as I very rarely bought new games. It was usually in & out within 5 minutes.

[thebear]

as little time as possible as if I hang about that one game i went in there for turns into 5 or 6 by the time I get to the counter!

[kiwimike]

Me and my mates would go in to town at least 2 times a week, sometimes 4 or 5 and hang out in Northants Computer Centre after school. We got to know all the staff and almost all of us worked there at some point or another. This would be between 1985 and 1987. We all had Spectrums but would garner a nose at the Commodore stuff and we all as good as ignored the Amstrad.

It would be exciting scanning the shelves looking for the new releases and matching up the cassette inlay with a preview or screenshot you'd seen in Crash. Sometimes seeing the game on the shelf would be the 1st time you'd seen the game artwork. Some Saturdays we could quite easily hang out for up to 4 hours. It could have been longer be that would be just admitting I was TOO much of a geek back then!

Similiar to us, we had a mate from our group that had an after school job demonstrating/selling computers for a local store, and the rest of us would use it as a hang out. Thinking back I'm surprised the store put up with it...but I guess it made the computer section (it was primarily a bookstore) look always busy.

[slacey1070]

When I worked in the Micro Shop mid/late 80s, we'd have regulars who would come in, chat, look at the new releases, play them on machines they didn't own etc.

I seem to remember Mercenary generated a fair bit of interest when that was released, as did the Atari ST, when the bloke I worked with set his own machine up in the shop . . . .

In many ways it was like a youth club! Should have branched out into soft drinks!

Happy (simple) days . . . .