[pault2007]

I was just wondering where people bought their 8-bit games from in the 80's and 90's.

I particularly remember two places I went for Spectrum games - an independent shop in town called Software Plus and a house down the road from me, which held a sale of, I presume, the boy who lived there's old games.

I remember coming in from secondary school to find my brother playing Star Raiders, which he'd bought from Software Plus earlier in the day, and trying to memorise the tons of controls.

At the house down the road from me, they were selling games for as little as 50p and I remember buying some adventure game.

The times I agonised over whether to spend £1 on two games or a can of Coke and chocolate bar.

I also remember buying Top Gear for my Amiga from Software Plus - think it cost me a tenner, as it came in a snazzy-looking box.

I honestly can't remember buying games from the big chains e.g. WH Smith but I must've done.

[anchorless]

used to buy most of my games from a shop called "The Computer Store" in Hudds town centre, they had what seemed like billions of Spectrum games on the wall, remember taking over an hour to choose a game once much to the annoyance of my Dad! Occasionally went to Woolies or Boots as they often had game not available at the 'Store

[UKBOY]

Back in the 8 bit days, Boots were good for games, as were Heelas (the Reading store of John Lewis partnership) (used to buy the Ultimate games in there like Jetpac, Lunar Jetman etc).

WHSmith and when on holidays in the South West used to buy from Timothy White.

At about the time Underwurlde and Knight Lore came out HMV opened up a store in Reading that (from memory) ONLY sold games, it wasnt until some time later that they introduced a music department.

[WildeKarde]

John Menzies.

They had a decent sized speccy section and a C64 one, with a shelf or so of amstrad ones.

It then changed to WH Smith and was never the same really.

[Soundwave]

Back in the days of 8 bit computers it was a few places for me...

Boots
Software Plus
WH Smiths
Toys R Us
Canvey Island Market
Pitsea Market

Some of my speccy games still have the boots price tags on & some even have the reciepts...cant believe Golden Axe & Robocop cost me £9.99 back in the day

Once I got my first taste of console gaming then it was all bought from Pitsea Market as they were cheaper & introduced me to import gaming

Neil

[CAS FAN]

My games were generally bought from

Spectrum (a great independant)
Yorcom (another great independant set up by the Spectrum guys)
York Computer Centre (another independant)
Bulmers (2nd hand store selling everything, including 2nd hand games)
Boots
WH Smith
Woolworths

I can't remember 100%,but I think Asda sold games as well.

[Haggler]

In those days you could pick up the latest budget software for c64, speccy, and amstrad from mastertronic and M.A.D, firebird, Rackit and zeppelin games from any local newsagent, they were selling at £1.99 - £2.99 with the M.A.D games a little extra, there was a great independent in my local shopping arcade where i grabbed most of the full price releases for about £9.99 then.

I never forget purchasing tetris (mirrorsoft) for the commodore 64 which was before nintendo got their grubby little hands on the rights to it for £9.99 from that same independent retailer, i thought it was a bit expensive at the time but it was absolutely hammered.

A pixel perfect remake of it is here :-

Classic commodore 64 game remakes freeware downloads

[CAS FAN]

Yeah full proce games tended to range from £5.99 to £14.99 on the whole. A lot of games came in at the £7.99 & £9.99 price tags.

The budget ranges were great (coming in at £1.99 & £2.99 like you say) with the kings being the Codies! Like you say, you could pick them up in loads of outlets, often on those rotating displays (similar to teh ones you get cards on).

[Haggler]

Originally Posted by CAS FAN

with the kings being the Codies!

I never understood everyone's love of the egg, i thought dizzy games were average at best, i had a love of zeppelin's c64 £2.99 budget range myself.

Giddy was the equivalent of dizzy on the amiga, pretty much a direct rip off (different puzzles) and with a different char.

Classic amiga pd games (remade freeware downloads for pc)

Originally Posted by CAS FAN

Like you say, you could pick them up in loads of outlets, often on those rotating displays (similar to teh ones you get cards on).

Yep them rotating stands were the main display, but one newsagents i knew sold them from under the counter at a reduced price, they were real originals though

[CAS FAN]

Originally Posted by Haggler

I never understood everyone's love of the egg, i thought dizzy games were average at best, i had a love of zeppelin's c64 £2.99 budget range myself.

I wasn't a fan of the Dizzy games either to be honest.

I loves the simulator series though and spent many an hour playing...

BMX Simulator
Grand Prix Simulator
Advanced Pinball Simulator
Pro Powerboat Simulator
ATV Simulator

Many (like Pro Powerboat Sim (especially), BMX Sim, GP Sim etc.) were the forerunners of the superb Micro Machines games.

They did a few other games I liked as well. Twin Turbo V8 and Rock star ate my hamster were a couple.

[Bursar]

I got mine from Software Plus, Boots, and WH Smiths mostly. There was also a huge newsagents in the Grafton Centre, pretty much where Boots is now (for the other Cambridge bods) that also used to stock them.