Today, I was  thinking about some of the stores I use to frequent years ago. Any of you guys have any favorite stores or stories of years past?

Well, when I first decided to check out this D&D thing I went to a place called Simulations (Perth, Western Australia). It was down a little alley and up a flight of stairs that weren't for the infirm or elderly.

Barry, who wore shorts with a belt and long socks (this was 1980),  talked me out of buying the brown box and sold me the blue book version instead. As he predicted, I was in about a week later buying the Monster Manual.

I saw a lot of Simulations over the next few years, because I used to go there Saturday afternoons to play. It was a place that was extremely friendly to wargamers and roleplayers and the cross-over types.

Unfortunately, Barry and the other partner Doug fell out somehow, and Barry disappeared. I still don't know what he did afterwards, but Simulations fell upon evil times. A couple of other RPG-focused stores sprang up in Perth when the Vampire thing happened, and eventually Doug sold the business and it moved into a plastic and glass storefront in a swish arcade.

I'd kind of given up going into game stores at the time, as I was playing exclusively from games I already had everything for. But every so often I would go sadly into Tactics, the #2 store. I rarely went into Simulations, but whenever I did they didn't seem to be doing very good business. Finally Simulations closed up and Tactics was the only game in town.

Several years later, I was going down the street when I saw a new storefront: Valhalla Games. I went in and lo and behold, there was old Doug, large as life behind the counter with a benign, vague smile. And there was his wife Coralie and his two daughters who I'd last seen as toddlers (and one was looking pretty cute too). Coralie actually recognised me and said in a voice cracking with emotion "Look, Doug. It's one of the old...."

So there you go. As far as I know Valhalla Games is still going strong. It offers a wide variety of stuff and doesn't put all its eggs in the RPG basket.

The San Francisco Bay Area had some really great stores in the 70's and 80's. You had Gambit Games in Berkeley and San Francisco. Another store on Geary st that had these  dinner booths that you could sit and game all day in. The original Games of Berkeley with it's circular class counter showcasing all their figures. But by far the coolest game store ever was Multiuniversal Trading Co. in Concord, Ca, run by none other then  Mr.Arduin himself.

 Damm, I really miss those days at times...

My FLGS when I lived in Los Angeles was the Last Grenadier.  The used to have two locations, one in Burbank and one in Northridge.  I lived in Glendale, so the Burbank store was close and my primary one.  Every once in a while I would make the drive out to Northridge because they had different stock and vibe.  The Burbank location has gone through three or four moves that I have seen.  It's heyday was when it was in the Burbank open mall, before they opened it up to the street.

Occasionally, I would make the drive out to Aero Hobbies in Santa Monica, CA.  There were a couple of stores in Eagle Rock, CA. on Colorado Blvd.  One of them eventually closed down, but one remains.  It's closer to Rosemead, and further up Colorado past the Eagle Rock Community College.  I cannot remember the name of it right now.  Sometimes, I would drive up to Eagle Rock and that store.

I don't have a FLGS near me, or at least none that I have found.  There is a used books and record store called the Black & Read in Arvada, CO.  They have a large used RPG section, which satisfies my cheapness and collecting urges.

I too liked The Last Grenadier  when they had the store next to the mall. Their open gaming room  that was down in the basement  and was just the coolest.

Games Plus in Mount Prospect, IL. Now THAT'S a game store.

Lord Hobie

Quote from: mrk;293738I too liked The Last Grenadier  when they had the store next to the mall. Their open gaming room  that was down in the basement  and was just the coolest.

Right on!  You know the Last Grenadier too.  Some of my fondest gaming memories are at that store.  I ran my 1st AD&D DragonLance game from that basement.  I used to work across the way at the used bookstore Book City.

I bought my first D&D stuff (for myself) at a head shop they had in a mall in Valley Stream New York. They had like.. stereo parts, turntables needles, bongs, velvet posters, black lights, macrame, incense, and .. (wait for it) Basic D&D boxed sets, and some of the monochrome cover AD&D modules. This was the late 70s-1980.

I also got some Judges Guild stuff from back when Kevin Siembieda was doing art for them, because when I started playing Palladium in 1990 or so, I wrote him a letter and he mentioned it, and I went back and looked and there it was.. I can't remember what it was, but it was supposed to be a picture of Stirges, and they had re-named them as blood birds or something. I remember that.

When I moved to Texas I didn't see any head shops for a while but the D&D stuff was behind the hobby counter at Michaels. Michaels is a craft store. There was a guy that worked there with one crippled leg and he knew everything there was to know about building plastic tank and rocket models.. and they also had D&D stuff for sale. I mostly got adventures there. I remember buying SPI's Dragonquest and Universe when they came out, and getting some Ral Partha miniatures.

I bought Gamma World and Boot Hill there as well, and we used to run Gamma World during the summers.

I bought my first set of dice beyond the crap set you get with the boxed set there as well.

Quote from: mrk;293727... Multiuniversal Trading Co. in Concord, Ca, run by none other then  Mr.Arduin himself....

Dang! My grandmother use to live in Concord and I would visit her every other summer or so. Wish I know about this store then!

The venerable Game Preserve in Fresno, CA.

Serving gamers for nearly three decades. There is so much stuff in there that you occasionaly come across an old gem that has long been out of print.

The Source in Minneapolis is awesome. Great store, open gaming area, comics, memorabilia. Well worth the stop.

When I was a kid back in the 80s, we lived about 1/2 hour from Akron, OH and there was a story in downtown Akron that we went to sometimes called "The Little Shop of War".  I haven't been back to Akron in a long time, so I don't know whether its still there.

Bonnie Brae, In Englewood, Colorado. In the early days when we drove up for Ghengis Con (back when they held it at the University of Denver) in Denver every year it was a mandatory shopping stop. Still going strong...

Sadly, none of the hobby shops, or comic book stores, from the early days, survived in Colorado Springs.

I've been visiting Attactix in Aurora, Colorado for over a decade now. Great shop. No specific memories surrounding it - other than discovering, much to my joy, that I lived just blocks away from a great shop.

Seanchai

Quote from: GameDaddy;293822Bonnie Brae, In Englewood, Colorado. In the early days when we drove up for Ghengis Con (back when they held it at the University of Denver) in Denver every year it was a mandatory shopping stop. Still going strong...

Yes! Although I think it's more organized these days, last time I visited, there wasn't as much awesome out of print stuff. I used to go there every once and a while just to see what treasures I could find...

Quote from: GameDaddy;293822Sadly, none of the hobby shops, or comic book stores, from the early days, survived in Colorado Springs.

When I lived out in the country, there was one downtown that I visited. Had a chess piece in the logo, I think.

Seanchai