Photos of old computer shops...

[5MinuteRetro]

Inspired by the well-worn image of Just Micro on the ZX-Blue Plaques thread, I wondered how many photos we had (or can find) of our childhood computer-shop haunts? Might be good to create an archive of them here.

I'll kick off with a couple of Viking Computers, 2a Ardney Rise, Norwich. I worked here for a while back in the 1980s, but was also a customer as kid before that. Getting a job here at about age 17/18 felt like being given the keys to the candy shop, and to an extent it was: plenty of gaming was done inside and at home, thanks to free access to thousands of titles.

The first shot is of the outside of the shop, shortly after a refurbishment (which is why it looks all shiny), so probably around 1988/9:



The second is from inside, and again after the refurb. It looks rather more business-like than the interior that it replaced, but home computers remained a key part of the operation (you can see Amstrad CPCs in the foreground). I've blanked out the faces as I don't know if those in the photo would want their fizzogs posted here:



The third is also from inside, but upstairs in the workshop, and not open to the public. This photo makes the workshop look small, but it was actually a lot bigger -- half of the whole of the upstairs. Repairs were a sizeable percentage of the business. The person in the foreground, repairing the Commodore 64, is to this day a close friend!



I do have some pre-refurb photos somewhere, but I'll be buggered if I can find them right now. However, they're probably a better representation of how I remember the shop, even if this was how it ended up. I think it stumbled on until around 1998/1999. Certainly, by the early 2000s it was gone. The building is still there, though, and has hosted a variety of small businesses since, including some tech businesses.

*** UPDATE! ***

So I've just found two photos from before the refurbishment. These are dated Christmas 1987, which I believe to be correct. This is how I like to remember Viking Computers -- all lurid orange fittings, higgledy-piggledy shelving overflowing with stock and a bunch of young men (we were all men) getting high on the Christmas spirit. Man, where did those 33 years go?!





(And yes, the army of faceless Santas is rather alarming. Sorry about that!)

[p13z]

This is quite beautifully nostalgic.
I'm going to have nightmares about gangs of blackout Santas though.

[5MinuteRetro]

I'm bumping this because... I want to see photos of your favourite computer shops of old! Outside or inside, but particularly inside. Surely I can't be the only one who finds these fascinating?

(If this thread fails to get traction for second time I promise to slink away to lick my wounds in private.)

[PeterJ]

When I lived in Bognor Regis as a child, my friend and I (Jan) would take the train the West Worthing and go to this computer shop that specialised in Atari 8Bit machines. I was of course into my Spectrum, but still used to buy Page6 magazine (which was always a good read).

I have searched for old photos online, but am unable to find anything. Sorry...

[akeley]

I really like the idea behind this thread and your photos too. That shop doesn't look like much from outside but inside is quite well stocked and organised (and you all look dapper too

Unfortunately I don't have any surviving photos, not even from the shop I myself worked in during the late 90s.

[1024MAK]

I'm bumping this because... I want to see photos of your favourite computer shops of old! Outside or inside, but particularly inside. Surely I can't be the only one who finds these fascinating?

Yes and yes...!

However, back in the 1980s less of us had cameras (I didn’t), and even those who did, are not likely to have taken it shopping...

Mark

[MarkRJones1970]

Northants Computer Centre that was situated on Abington Square, Northampton between 1986 and closed around the mid 2000s

Front of shop in 1990




Front of shop in 2001


Inside the shop 1990








Upstairs in the offices 1990




and where the customers computers were fixed 1990

[PeteProdge]

Northants Computer Centre that was situated on Abington Square, Northampton between 1986 and closed around the mid 2000s

Ah, next door to The Racehorse (now The Black Prince), a rockers' pub that sometimes has comic/novel writer Alan Moore drink in it, oh and some guy from Wellingborough* has done the occasional comedy gig there. Northants Computer Centre is now a Subway.

Northants Computer Centre has relocated (either that, or a totally new company with the same name) to Market Harborough, a lovely Northamptonshire to... oh, it's in Leicestershire, but still carries the 'Northants' name.

I can't remember the name of it, might have even been another branch of Northants Computer Centre, but there definitely was a great computer shop down at the bottom of College Street, which is where my Spectrum +2 ended up for repairs when the rewind button would snap off the tape deck (happened about 3 or 4 times). They'd regular feature breakthroughs in computing, like some PCs showing greyscale digitised photos on the monitors! People would stop and stare at the windows showing a very slow slideshow of these images, it was like nothing we'd seen before. Nowadays it'd be "meh, so what?". The site became a night club at some point.

There'd be a terrible stinking alley - Jeyes Jetty - which we'd use as a short cut to get to College Street from the main town area, it really reeked, looked very grubby, and I wouldn't want to be down there after dark. Ironically enough, it's named after a famous brand of disinfectant.

* = me.

[MarkRJones1970]

"Northants Computer Centre has relocated (either that, or a totally new company with the same name) to Market Harborough, a lovely Northamptonshire to... oh, it's in Leicestershire, but still carries the 'Northants' name."

It's not the same people. The shop shut in 2007 and the owner is semi-retired but also works from his own home.

"I can't remember the name of it, might have even been another branch of Northants Computer Centre, but there definitely was a great computer shop down at the bottom of College Street, which is where my Spectrum +2 ended up for repairs when the rewind button would snap off the tape deck (happened about 3 or 4 times)."

That was a rival shop called 'Serv-U Computers' set up by an ex-staff member of NHCC. I was working there for it's opening. It only lasted a few years. The owner tried to expand and it went wrong.

[MarkRJones1970]

Oh and here's 2 photos from the summer of 1988 taken in NHCC during 1 of my weekends back home while working at Ocean Software. I took the pic of Chris who then grabbed the camera off me & took 1 of me while I was telling him to give me it back! 3rd pic has been brightened so you can see what's in the background a bit easier:

[Morkin]

Love the way most of the small 80s computer shops really crammed things into the space they had. That's compared to the commercially larger modern town centre gaming shops of the 90s/00s.

[5MinuteRetro]

...back in the 1980s less of us had cameras (I didn’t), and even those who did, are not likely to have taken it shopping...
Mark

Ain't that the truth! I fear future generations will have the almost-opposite problem: there are just too many photos now, so finding a particular/favourite shot might become very difficult indeed!

[5MinuteRetro]

Northants Computer Centre that was situated on Abington Square, Northampton between 1986 and closed around the mid 2000s

These are superb! To my mind, this is how all shops should look -- none of this neat-and-tidy nonsense that afflicts modern brands.

(And sorry for slow response... been away on holiday and with limited internet access.)

[5MinuteRetro]

Oh and here's 2 photos from the summer of 1988 taken in NHCC during 1 of my weekends back home while working at Ocean Software. I took the pic of Chris who then grabbed the camera off me & took 1 of me while I was telling him to give me it back! 3rd pic has been brightened so you can see what's in the background a bit easier:

Awesome! Bare fluorescent tubes -- there's not nearly enough bare fluorescent lighting in modern shops!

[5MinuteRetro]

Love the way most of the small 80s computer shops really crammed things into the space they had. That's compared to the commercially larger modern town centre gaming shops of the 90s/00s.

Indeed. One detail that's not clear from my (OP) photos is that none of the displayed cassette/disk boxes contained the respective media. Behind the counter -- one small counter in the original store; and then a big, square horseshoe-shaped mega counter after the refurb -- we had secreted tray after tray of loose tapes and floppies, ordered by format and alphabetically.

The customer would bring their prized title to the counter and thus would begin the scrabble to find the correct contents. Mostly, that went okay, though it usually took a good minute or two to locate the magnetic magic. However, sometimes something had been placed or otherwise fell out of order in our trays: that could mean the customer having to wait (and wait) until it was located, or they slumped off in a huff.

I imagine that's one of the reasons why we ended up trialling this hideous beast, which I'm pretty sure I mentioned in another thread around these parts:

[1024MAK]

I imagine that's one of the reasons why we ended up trialling this hideous beast, which I'm pretty sure I mentioned in another thread around these parts:

And how well did that work?
Especially with copy protected disk software, or unusual disk formats?

Mark

[5MinuteRetro]

And how well did that work?
Especially with copy protected disk software, or unusual disk formats?

Well.. it was a long while ago so memories are hazy, but I don't recall it being either good or popular. It sat on the counter (in the refurbished store, blue livery in OP photos) and had some accompanying point-of-sale promotional materials alongside but it went largely ignored. If I had to guess, it probably lasted three months before the boss ditched it -- and we'd perhaps sold 50 tapes/discs in that time. A tiny fraction of all sales, anyway.

In terms of use, it had some clunky DOS interface where we had to select the customer's chosen title from the electronic catalogue, and then follow the displayed prompt to insert a disk or tape, and the appropriate paper for the B&W insert. It then took several minutes for the production process to complete. It was all a bit of a faff, tbh.

No idea about copy protection but all the content was stored on a hard disk or optical disc, which was periodically updated by a rep who visited the store.

That's about all I can remember!

[1024MAK]

Thanks for your memories

I’m not surprised that duplication machine was not successful. As a customer you don’t really want to be kept waiting for two to five minutes waiting for a tape to get recorded...

Mark