Tagged: second hand videogames
How I lost control, part 1
I honestly can barely stand the Dualshock line of controllers. Hate is too strong a word, but I’m definitely Dualshock-averse. When I want to play a multi-platform game, I’ll nearly always avoid the Playstation consoles: I’ll pick the Saturn port over the PS1, Gamecube or Xbox over PS2, and Wii or Wii U over PS3, purely based on controller preference. Replacing the Dualshock has become my obsession lately, and I’m writing this post to share my journey. If I can help even one person through their own Dualshock nightmare, then it’s been worth it. Continue reading
UK videogame retailers: Games Plus, Sparkhill, Birmingham
Games Plus is easily one of my favourite game shops to visit – and it’s also the least conventional. Like my previous posts on videogame related shops in the UK, I’m going to explain a bit about this shop and my recent experiences there. The first thing to say was that I found this shop by accident. I had heard rumblings of a game shop in Sparkhill, but with no website and Google Streetview not forthcoming, it seemed likely that there was maybe a shop there once upon a time. Continue reading
Not a Videogame Collector
At least that’s what I keep telling myself. In terms of new purchases September and October weren’t so bad, and November was OK, but December amounted to nothing short of an avalanche by my standards. All told, between a stay in Birmingham with its copious videogame retailers and an online import haul, December totaled a whopping 31 games across 6 different platforms, a G-Con lightgun, and 2 consoles (both replacements). Slice that up like a cake and that’s one unique slice of gaming for each and every single day in December. And that’s on top of an already swollen backlog of games. It’s nothing short of madness, is what I’m saying.
Videogame retailers past and present: The Video Gallery, Hornsey Road, London
This is a series of posts dedicated to independent and interesting videogame shops in the UK with a focus on those that sell retro/import games, both those that have perished and those that still survive today. We could always do with tip-offs of new or old places to cover, and would love to get memories or perspectives of the shops featured, so please take the time to comment. With the rise of the internet, dedicated retro videogame retailers are becoming scarcer and harder to find. This series will cover London for the most part since that’s where I’m based but I’m interested in other parts of the UK as well. This first post is a personal reminisce by my partner.
This may seem like an odd place to start a series on videogame retailers, but is it fitting given the current state of videogame retail? It is very tempting to say so, with retail being drowned out by the internet and the second-hand game market dominated by the ubiquitous CeX. But enough of that, here’s The Video Gallery on Hornsey Road, on the outskirts of Islington.
Very Very Gaming 