jawa asks... Where have you bought games from over the years?

Last edited by jawa_ on Tue Jan 16, 2024 1:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Where have you bought games from over the years?

Videogames have, of course, been around for many years now and there sure have been lots of places to buy them from.

Take a look over the options listed - going right back to the 1980s! - and select all of those that you have purchased from. Please do share your memories of the places and any others that you recall purchasing games at, too!

Missing Gameplay (I think it was Gameplay!), a company that used to advertise at the back of N64 Magazine and the like. Pretty sure they were always a pound or two cheaper than everyone else and would usually arrive a day earlier than the release date!

Tomous wrote:Missing Gameplay (I think it was Gameplay!), a company that used to advertise at the back of N64 Magazine and the like...

Great shout, Tom - I could recall the company whilst compiling the options but couldn't think of the name! Now added. I *think* they were bought out by a huge company... BT or something, IIRC?

I remember picking up Deuteros on ST from Boots back in the day. The main store in Nottingham city centre used to have quite a good range around that time.

And special reserve actually had a store in Stapleford near Notts, used to go in there all time around 97.

What was the place where you could import Animal Crossing on GC fairly easily? NGC Mag used to run ads for it, if I remember rightly.

Herdanos wrote:What was the place where you could import Animal Crossing on GC fairly easily? NGC Mag used to run ads for it, if I remember rightly.

I think I got my Australian copy from Play-Asia or maybe that Canadian site (VGC?)

Nearly all of the options apply! The Black Crystal for ZX81 was from a local newsagent. I think Leamington had the very first Future Zone, and I’d have bought the likes of Powermonger for Mega Drive there, before the chain was converted to Electronics Boutique (a name I hated at the time but now look back at fondly).

Early days it was probably HMV mainly, then GAME and the odd one from Dixons and WH Smith. Pretty sure I got F-Zero X, Star Wars Rogue Squadron and Zelda OOT from HMV, and Dixon's had a great price for DK64 with Expansion pack.

My first move into postal/internet was with gameplay. First two games I got from them were Smash Bros and Jet Force Gemini.

They were great for getting you games a day or two before release. Burnout 3, Star Wars Battlefront, Outrun 2, Halo 2 and Doom 3 were all pre-ordered from there.

After that I wasn't as bothered about getting games on release so most of them came from Play.com when they hit the £17/£18 mark.

Been digital since 2015 when I first got an Xbox one.

Digital only for many years now.

PC - Steam only (or CDKeys for cheaper keys)
And then each consoles own storefronts

Gameplay.com and Play.com were the go to back in the day though!

In the early early days it was spectrum tapes from a Newsagent chain called something like Lewis Measons or something I think it got swallowed up by Martin Mcolls... and boots

16bit days was a mix of Game, Electronics Boutique, Virgin Megastores and my own little local indy called Games World.

Tomous wrote:Missing Gameplay (I think it was Gameplay!), a company that used to advertise at the back of N64 Magazine and the like. Pretty sure they were always a pound or two cheaper than everyone else and would usually arrive a day earlier than the release date!

Nothing more exciting than getting my mum to phone up and preorder a game from gameplay, then it arriving a day or two before release :wub:

OrangeRKN wrote:
Tomous wrote:Missing Gameplay (I think it was Gameplay!), a company that used to advertise at the back of N64 Magazine and the like. Pretty sure they were always a pound or two cheaper than everyone else and would usually arrive a day earlier than the release date!

Nothing more exciting than getting my mum to phone up and preorder a game from gameplay, then it arriving a day or two before release

28 years old he was

Jenuall wrote:
OrangeRKN wrote:
Tomous wrote:Missing Gameplay (I think it was Gameplay!), a company that used to advertise at the back of N64 Magazine and the like. Pretty sure they were always a pound or two cheaper than everyone else and would usually arrive a day earlier than the release date!

Nothing more exciting than getting my mum to phone up and preorder a game from gameplay, then it arriving a day or two before release

28 years old he was

And then he got OFF the bus! Aahhhhhhh

In the ‘90s it was Electronics Boutique, Virgin Megastores (loved the industrial vibe to this place), HMV, WHSmith, Woolworths, Comet, Argos, PC World, Blockbuster and Gameplay - though by 1998 onwards it was mostly Gameplay due to the price and the games actually being sealed. I did quite like Blockbuster as you could rent the game with them and then if you wanted to purchase it they’d then take the price of the rental off. Saw all the comicstrip adverts but never used CEX, and I don’t recall using GameStation either. Toys R Us possibly, but I remember the big cardboard price signs with a description of the game more than I do actually purchasing anything there. Didn’t you have to take the big laminate to the till?

GAME was never in my area until much later when they rebranded all the EB stores.

Into the 2000’s it was Play.com (when they could dodge the tax), The Hut (FREE BOXERS WITH DISCOUNTED FIFA must surely rank up there as one of the most ludicrous yet brilliant promotions ever), Amazon and the supermarkets.

These days it’s PlayStation Store, Apple Store, Amazon, eBay, Argos, HMV online and Smyths.

Though I’ll always remember Gameplay as having the best customer service team in the history of retail alongside Silver Vision (the WWF Home video distributor) as they knew exactly what you were talking about because they were into it just as much as you were.

Most physical games I bought from The Game Collection, digital wise I mostly use Nintendo eshop but I’m now also buying from Steam since getting a Deck

all over the place, Game, EB, GS, Amazon, Nintendo's store etc

Early on (Master System and Gameboy) I'd get games from literally anywhere I could afford them with pocket money, mostly Makro (my mum was one of the managers at the Sheffield branch and got staff discount) but I got others from Toys R Us, Beatties and a small local computer repair place that also sold games.

16-bit/32 bit era (MD, Saturn, PS1) was mostly the same but I'd also buy from GAME, EB and various supermarkets.

Then (Dreamcast onwards) I bought stuff almost entirely online (Gameplay, Amazon, Play and VG+ for imported GBA, DS and PSP games.. I also bought a fair bit from Gamestation when my brother worked there (20% staff discount).

Nowadays it's entirely digital (Steam, GoG and Green Man Gaming mostly).

I miss the 8-bit computer days when you seemed to be able to find a basket of game cassettes in basically any store you went into. I picked up loads of £2/3 games by sifting through these back in the day :wub:

I always used to enjoy shopping around the high street for games to find the best deals, especially checking out the stores that would often have demo units setup to try things - crazy the amount of floorspace that used to be dedicated to games during the 90s/early 00s

Electronic's Boutique and GAME probably got the most money out of me over the years, but I probably picked something up from most high street stores at one point or another - Virgin/Zavvy, HMV, Dixons/Currys, Woolies etc.

Now I'm largely digital, with the odd physical game bought as a gift for the kids, usually courtesy of Bezos unfortunately :dread:

News agent in the early to mid 80's, flaky as fudge.

Electronics Boutique - the glory days :wub:

jawa asks... Where have you bought games from over the years?

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