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Post by ffilz on Sept 27, 2016 17:59:50 GMT -6
By far my favorite hobby store was definitely Excalibur Hobbies in Arlington MA (later Malden MA). That is where I was introduced to Glenn Blacow and invited to the basement to watch some WWII Naval Miniatures gaming.
Second favorite was The Complete Strategist in Boston MA (I don't know if this was originally affiliated with The Complete Strategist in New York NY, it definitely was later).
Another good one was The Games People Play in Cambridge MA (though they often jacked their prices).
I had a couple favorites in College in the Albany/Schenectady NY area. One was primarily a place that hosted bridge games, but they had a wall of RPG products and sometimes had open RPG play (never actually played there). There was also a toy store that had a nice RPG section in the basement.
Frank
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Post by archersix on Sept 27, 2016 19:15:32 GMT -6
Waay back in the day, like the late 70's. There was a hardware store in downtown Springfield, Illinois called Black & Company. This was an old school hardware store, with worn hardwood floors and buckets of nails the whole shebang. What set it apart from other places to buy shingles and faucets was that right smack in the middle of the place was a hobby shop.
There were giant radio controlled airplanes hanging from the ceiling, D&D books of all stripes. They even had a really good selection of Judge's Guild stuff(at the time I wasn't aware of their importance, or that their headquarters were only about 30 miles down Highway 36 in Decatur). I bought my first minis and paint sets there, Grenadier, of course!
As I remember though, it wasn't too long before gaming stuff began to be sold at Waldenbooks and Toys r Us and places like that. First, Black's hobby shop dwindled, and then the old Hardware store moved and did away with that aspect entirely.
It was a really cool place at the time.
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Post by grodog on Sept 27, 2016 22:23:12 GMT -6
Allied Hobbies in the Deptford Mall (and also in The Bourse Building or The Gallery in Philly) was great, but I bought most of my D&D stuff at Cherry Hill Books, in the Cherry Hill Mall, in South Jersey; Cherry Hill was also the site of Gen Con East 1.
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Post by religon on Sept 28, 2016 5:06:14 GMT -6
I bought much of my old stuff at Waldenbooks, Hungate's Hobbies and a Raleigh NC comic shop Foundation's Edge.
Foundation's Edge was the most fun with the eclectic staff. Hungate's had the best selection. Waldenbooks was the most prolific of the stores and had a discount program.
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Post by Vile Traveller on Sept 28, 2016 6:09:09 GMT -6
I bought the big three (D&D, RuneQuest, and Traveller) at Diceman's in Dublin. After that it was chainstores in the UK, first Taylor & McKenna (later became Beatties), and Virgin Games Store.
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Post by tkdco2 on Sept 28, 2016 13:28:23 GMT -6
There weren't too many hobby stores in my area when I was growing up. However, I used to go to Game Gallery in the late '80s - mid '90s during my college years and beyond. They closed down (at least in the San Francisco Bay Area) aby the late 1990s. I still miss that store.
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Post by Mushgnome on Sept 28, 2016 14:10:36 GMT -6
When I was starting out in the hobby, Toys R Us carried the full AD&D line. +1 to Excalibur Hobby in Maahlden!!  |
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Post by simrion on Sept 28, 2016 14:51:21 GMT -6
In the thread that started this one (The year I started playing D&D) Campaign HQ was mentioned. First Hobby Store I ever visited in Rochester, NY. Dingy wood floors, haphazard layout but an amazing place to my uninitiated 13 year old self! Then I discovered Crazy Egor...wall-to-wall shelves loaded with plastic milk crates loaded with bagged and boarded gaming goodness. I'd spend hours digging through his stash even though I could have asked and he'd locate an item in a moments notice. It was a sincere pleasure for me to dig through his treasure trove LOL. Other outlets carried D&D and other games briefly, KayBee, Winkin Blinkin & Nod (local toy shop,) even a craft store called Ben Franklins. My fondest memory was saving my allowance and hiking in a snowstorm to a tiny toy store in Irondiquoit, next to the Great Great House of Guitars, to buy my very first Players Handbook!
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Post by ffilz on Sept 28, 2016 16:24:37 GMT -6
In the thread that started this one (The year I started playing D&D) Campaign HQ was mentioned. First Hobby Store I ever visited in Rochester, NY. Dingy wood floors, haphazard layout but an amazing place to my uninitiated 13 year old self! Then I discovered Crazy Egor...wall-to-wall shelves loaded with plastic milk crates loaded with bagged and boarded gaming goodness. I'd spend hours digging through his stash even though I could have asked and he'd locate an item in a moments notice. It was a sincere pleasure for me to dig through his treasure trove LOL. Other outlets carried D&D and other games briefly, KayBee, Winkin Blinkin & Nod (local toy shop,) even a craft store called Ben Franklins. My fondest memory was saving my allowance and hiking in a snowstorm to a tiny toy store in Irondiquoit, next to the Great Great House of Guitars, to buy my very first Players Handbook! I think Crazy Egor brought some of his stash to some of the conventions. I've certainly heard the name before, but never shopped in Rochester NY... Frank |
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Post by scottenkainen on Sept 28, 2016 16:28:39 GMT -6
The first time I ever saw a D&D book for sale was the Monster Manual, at K-Mart. The first book I ever bought myself was the Fiend Folio, at Kay-Bee Toys. It was several more years before I ever saw a hobby store carry them, and several years past that before I ever saw my first gaming store. I believe Games Plus was around in Mt. Prospect by then, but my family never went to Mt. Prospect, so I didn't discover it until later.
Iron Tower was a nice mid-sized game store in Schaumburg in the '90s. I wish they were still around.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 28, 2016 16:34:41 GMT -6
Wow! Long time since I've been around! Too long...
First place I knew was City Wide Hobby Shop in Parkville, Maryland. Loved that place! There were a few here-today-gone-tomorrow places over the years when CW went under, and I do not recall the names at all. I used to get some stuff at Alternate Worlds in Cockeysville in the mid-90s (it is still open today), and I used to go to the one and only Armory in Pikesville (remember the ads in Dragon?) during the late 80s into the 90s until they went OOB.
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Post by ffilz on Sept 28, 2016 16:58:57 GMT -6
I should have also added the Toy/Hobby store I first saw D&D at in 1976 (though didn't buy it there or then, I bought Tractics instead). It was in the same plaza as the Marshalls in Bedford MA. Looks like Marshalls is still there, and looks like there is still some kind of toy store, but I don't think it's the original one. Before I found Excalibur Hobbies, it was one of my favorite stores. I bought tons of HO scale model train and WWII stuff there as well as at least a few miniatures rule sets (I think that's where I bought the Donald Featherstone book I used to have and Angriff from).
But over time, Excalibur Hobbies definitely became my favorite. They had oodles of lead miniatures. Plus, it was easy to stop in there on my way in to MIT to game (well, I usually stopped at The Complete Strategist also, but parking there and getting back to Cambridge was annoying - I never figured out how to make a U-Turn on Mass Ave...). Both stores were also right on the bus route between home and MIT (well, taking the bus to Complete Strategist meant going PAST MIT - I would then walk back to MIT because the 3 buses an hour schedule was so unpredictable I could almost always walk back faster than waiting for the bus). The Games People Play was also easy to duck into being just outside Harvard Square (though once I was driving I stopped there much less often).
What was amazing was the Malden store though, a huge store just filled with miniatures and models (and several racks of RPGs and board games). Looks like it's no more, though the owner's son has a new store that from the pics looks just as amazing (Hobby Bunker), just a few doors down from where the Excalibur Hobbies store was.
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EdOWar
Level 5 Thaumaturgist
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Post by EdOWar on Sept 28, 2016 18:45:06 GMT -6
Last Grenadier in Burbank, CA, during my college years. Comics & Comix at the Fairfield (CA) mall during my high school years. Local hobby store in Napa before that (I forget what it was called then).
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Post by scalydemon on Sept 28, 2016 18:53:10 GMT -6
Alcove Hobbies in Royal Oak MI was the place of my youthful wonder and eater of my allowance and lawn mowing $$. Sadly it is no more..  |
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Post by Finarvyn on Sept 29, 2016 4:37:30 GMT -6
My favorite game store from the 1970's was probably the Judges Guild shoppe in Decatur. They had a lot of JG products, of course, but also a regular selection of other gaming materials as well. I typically got to visit there once a year or so, after collecting lawnmowing money all summer.
Another favorite was the Dungeon Hobby Store in Lake Geneva, but I only got to visit that one once. That's where I bought my copy of Metamorphosis Alpha.
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Post by simrion on Sept 29, 2016 8:06:11 GMT -6
In the thread that started this one (The year I started playing D&D) Campaign HQ was mentioned. First Hobby Store I ever visited in Rochester, NY. Dingy wood floors, haphazard layout but an amazing place to my uninitiated 13 year old self! Then I discovered Crazy Egor...wall-to-wall shelves loaded with plastic milk crates loaded with bagged and boarded gaming goodness. I'd spend hours digging through his stash even though I could have asked and he'd locate an item in a moments notice. It was a sincere pleasure for me to dig through his treasure trove LOL. Other outlets carried D&D and other games briefly, KayBee, Winkin Blinkin & Nod (local toy shop,) even a craft store called Ben Franklins. My fondest memory was saving my allowance and hiking in a snowstorm to a tiny toy store in Irondiquoit, next to the Great Great House of Guitars, to buy my very first Players Handbook! I think Crazy Egor brought some of his stash to some of the conventions. I've certainly heard the name before, but never shopped in Rochester NY... Frank Yes, Egor used to be very active in the GameCon circuit. Sadly he's dropped out of the resale market except for Ebay, due to age and health related reasons. He sold his old location years ago to another outfit that still carries RPGs but also tons of Euro games, CCGs, wargames and of all things, disc golf supplies. They used to have an active PvP computer gaming lounge but have since shut that down. CCGs seem to be the biggest hit at the store (Millennium Games.) i watched a kid who couldn't have been more than 13 plunk down $100 on a single MtG card. Wish I had that kind of discretionary income at that age. |
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Post by thorswulf on Sept 29, 2016 10:30:42 GMT -6
Wow, this brings back very pleasant memories! The first game store I ever went into was this little hole in the wall place next to Bayview Market in downtown Coos Bay. I don't even remember the name! The shop folded fairly quickly, and only a gravel parking lot remains today. But the first "ooh-ah" game store was Gandalf's Den in the Atrium building in downtown Eugene, Oregon. They had a glass case with Ral Partha miniatures displayed-and I was hooked. Sadly the business was forced to close due to a lawsuit with the Tolkien estate over the name (Not really a surprise), but as of the 1990's there was still an old billboard with an ad for the store out on West 11th street for it.
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Post by archersix on Sept 29, 2016 17:01:52 GMT -6
My favorite game store from the 1970's was probably the Judges Guild shoppe in Decatur. They had a lot of JG products, of course, but also a regular selection of other gaming materials as well. I typically got to visit there once a year or so, after collecting lawnmowing money all summer. Another favorite was the Dungeon Hobby Store in Lake Geneva, but I only got to visit that one once. That's where I bought my copy of Metamorphosis Alpha. You're from Central Illinois? |
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Post by ritt on Sept 29, 2016 19:50:21 GMT -6
ILLINOIS! Woot! Glad to see other gamers from the land of the Tully Monster.
Most of the really eclectic, cool, rare, or weird items in my game/toy collection didn't come from any "Store", per say, but from either the auction or dealer's tables at QuinCon, the tiny-yet-very-energetic regional con held each summer in Quincy, Il. Truly a goblin market, in the best sense of the term.
The exception to this is my set of Iraqi toy soldiers, a gift from a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend in Army Intelligence.
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Post by mrmanowar on Sept 29, 2016 20:42:48 GMT -6
For me it was a small bookstore called "Bunny Books" in Ashland, WI where I bought my first books, dice and visited as often as I could. It was a 45 minute drive and I couldn't drive when I first played D&D so I was a willing passenger to any and all going that way to take me there so I could buy D&D product.
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Post by makofan on Sept 30, 2016 13:43:12 GMT -6
A roommate of mine owned a hobby store called "Imperiums to Order" in downtown Kitchener, Ontario (Canada). I spent all of my extra money there - awesome place
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Post by simrion on Sept 30, 2016 14:03:45 GMT -6
I remember visiting a game store in Toronto...The Pirates Booty or something like that. All the employees dressed as pirates and although everything was priced you were supposed to haggle with the sales people for a cheaper price! I picked up The Traveller Book there. What an experience ;-)
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Post by MormonYoYoMan on Sept 30, 2016 15:29:17 GMT -6
There was always Hobby World in OKC, which old friend Ronald J. Frantz managed and I did some part time work. Remind me to tell you about the visits we got from false Christians who insisted the games were possessed.
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tog
Level 4 Theurgist
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Post by tog on Oct 2, 2016 7:49:39 GMT -6
My fondest memory was saving my allowance and hiking in a snowstorm to a tiny toy store in Irondiquoit, next to the Great Great House of Guitars, to buy my very first Players Handbook! OMG, I think I remember that toy store! I stopped by there once, and don't remember if I bought anything. My usual target was Empire Comics down the block, where I think I bought my boxed Top Secret set and most of my Dragons. |
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tog
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Post by tog on Oct 2, 2016 7:57:24 GMT -6
The first time I ever saw a D&D book for sale was the Monster Manual, at K-Mart. The amazing thing was how many "normal" stores sold D&D stuff. I bought my original Fiend Folio at Sears, and my (sadly & stupidly lost) white box OD&D at Kay-Bee. (Also remember Kay-Bee selling boxed wargames and HO scale tank miniatures?) I LOVE the story upthread about the hobby store in the middle of a hardware store! Hobby stores were where the D&D stuff was before actual game stores took off. |
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tog
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Post by tog on Oct 2, 2016 8:31:23 GMT -6
FLGs I've known? There's been a few...
*Point of Conflict, Fairport, NY, was the first - I have no idea what motivated me to go in & look around but it started something that's still going decades later. Bought Holmes D&D, Alien Space, OGRE, Melee, Wizard, and Metamorphosis: ALPHA there. Tiny store but still had a table up front for gaming. I saw old Dragon and Space Gamer issues there, as well as M.A.R. Barker's War Of Wizards and Metagaming's The Ythri. When they went out of business, I picked up the first two issues of The Strategic Review and the original Fan-Tac Space Marines (with rules for crossing over with D&D!)
*Campaign Headquarters, Rochester, NY, at both its locations; I badgered my father into driving up there one winter, even though I didn't actually know how to get there, so I could buy the Dungeon Master's Guide, which had just come out. When I lived in Irondequoit I often rode my bike up there; crossing Driving Park Gorge was always fun (I have fear of heights and you could see through the "floor"). Bought a LOT of Traveller and Champions stuff there (oh! and my copy of SPI's Outreach!; that's where I first saw Tunnels & Trolls and Runequest but passed them by as too thin. I still remember helping the owner with his karate practice, and when someone called him looking for pogo sticks.
*Compleat Strategist, NYC; the one on 33rd St. Didn't get there as much as I would have liked; once spent maybe a couple hours going through their backstock on the floor looking for old Metagaming micros.
*Men At Arms, Long Island; used to bike there from Mount Sinai and Port Jefferson; that's getting towards the 90s so there wasn't much RPG stuff there as wargaming and Magic cards. I did buy my Talislanta books there, I recall.
*Finally, a little game shop I can't remember the name of in Salt Lake City, UT; I rode the bus out there in 1988 or so and picked up not only Rommel's Panzers but the incredibly rare RPG Witch Hunt.
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Post by mgtremaine on Oct 2, 2016 13:26:00 GMT -6
In San Diego, for me, it was Command Post in Kearny Mesa, that was like Disneyland to me . Later we moved into East County and in High School I worked at Military Emporium in El Cajon. Which was pretty cool really. Learned to paint miniatures from the the owner. Good times.
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Post by dragondaddy on Oct 2, 2016 16:49:39 GMT -6
By far my favorite hobby store was definitely Excalibur Hobbies in Arlington MA (later Malden MA). That is where I was introduced to Glenn Blacow and invited to the basement to watch some WWII Naval Miniatures gaming. Bonnie Brae in Denver. Finally Closed, just last year... Sponsor for Ghenghis Con since Genghis CON I (1979) 3421 S Broadway, Englewood, CO 80113 Compleat Games & Hobbies, located at 326 N. Tejon St, Colorado Springs, Closed Levine's Toy Store 123, West Pikes Peak Avenue, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Closed Mile High Comics on South highway 85-87 where I bought the White Bookset in 1977. That's gone too. Didn't even rate a phonebook entry. Mile High Comics is still in business though, It is the largest retailer of collectible comic books in the United States |
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Post by vladtolenkov on Oct 2, 2016 18:31:10 GMT -6
I started gaming in 1981-82 and there weren't a ton of game stores around. I do remember going into a few hobby stores and being in D&D/TSR heaven, but they all closed within a year or two, and I don't even remember the names of those stores. Mostly, I haunted various bookstores, which had started carrying rpg stuff, and the one game store that lasted in the area: the Game Keeper which was in our local mall. I bought my copies of Call of Cthulhu (2nd edition) and Deluxe Traveller there. They carried quite a few of the hex and counter bookcase games from Avalon Hill as well. I still remember wanting a copy of the Dune game that they had.
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Post by thorswulf on Oct 2, 2016 19:40:31 GMT -6
There is another favorite of mine. The Sentry Box in Calgary, Alberta. Both the old location and the new! Just an absolutely huge place with enough goodies to make your gamer's wee little brain explode with delight!
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