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Post by Mark Jones Junior on Feb 20, 2005 23:24:13 GMT -5
Anyone remember what is was called? We used to frequently go there during our lunch hours to 1) catch up on the new releases and 2) to go (well I did) and see our games on the shelves when they had just come out. Bear in mind I'd just left school, to see a game I'd worked on for sale was still a novelty and an immense thrill!
How long did the shop last for? It taint there anymore.
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Post by Simon Butler on Feb 21, 2005 2:49:06 GMT -5
I can't remember what it was called...but I do know it kept getting shut down because it constantly sold pirates.
I also remember seeing games I had worked on being shown there before they were released...and sometimes even before they were finished.
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Post by Paulie on Feb 21, 2005 8:20:37 GMT -5
That was Microbyte... The chap that used to run the place/work there still works in HMV in manchester.
They were great as they'd always load up any of "the competition" so you could see what you were up against!
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Brian
Junior Member
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Post by Brian on Feb 22, 2005 2:54:47 GMT -5
ahh yess... microbyte..
they ceaned up their act after a while as they couldnt copy console carts.. i probably spend thousands in there on pc engine carts..
also remember going in there on a lunchbreak when thunderforce 3 came out and finishing on my first go at the counter, with no continues!
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paul
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Post by paul on May 10, 2006 5:04:23 GMT -5
There was also another Computer shop in the Arndale called"the computershop",we had the likes of jason Dutton coming in almost every day and one of your testers(cant remember his name) stole one of our refund books and was using it to right himself refunds for Ocean games !!
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Post by Ringostarr on May 13, 2006 14:06:28 GMT -5
What did he look like? I seem to remember i was good at employing people of the criminal fraternity. Someone I can't remember who, drew a cartoon of me interviewing with people lining up outside the door in stripey tops with arrows on and bags slung over their shoulders marked SWAG. Does anyone remember that?
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Post by Paulie on May 15, 2006 5:54:42 GMT -5
Didn't Bill do that in one of the comics?
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Post by Gary on May 15, 2006 6:31:40 GMT -5
Someone I can't remember who, drew a cartoon of me interviewing with people lining up outside the door in stripey tops with arrows on and bags slung over their shoulders marked SWAG. It wasn't a cartoon. It was a photograph. It really happened.
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Post by Ringostarr on May 15, 2006 17:44:34 GMT -5
LOL
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paul
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Post by paul on May 16, 2006 5:42:21 GMT -5
oh,and then he came back and robbed our company stamp so the refunds looked all genuine,gotta hand it to him,thats ingenuity !
I also remember taking on your testers at Laserquest one night.We won but it was a bloody battle as the Ocean guys had a tendancy to run at us full speed with their big metal guns outstretched as to ram us(cheatin feckers)!
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Post by ecnirp on Apr 10, 2007 7:19:53 GMT -5
I remember a few computer shops in Manchester back then, used to do a tour of them showing demo's off we'd written, places like Lasky's, Boots, WH Smith, commodore shop on Oxford rd, computer shop on deansgate, an Apple shop on King St i think??? they did more business machines, though they did have flight simulator running on an early PC in 1984 and we used to watch it in awe !! I was more a BBC boy, so used to hang out in NSC computers on hanging ditch, now gone after the IRA blew the area up, many great memories from the 80's, used to meet up with friends there, Jeff Roskell, Ste Ruddy, Paul Hughes (he was writing MAG MAX on the C64 and just coded the music for a beeb game, think it was Repton??? i remember Ste showing us his boxing game he was writing on the BBC (Fight KO???) - amazing how many programmers came from Wigan??? must be some't in the pies !!!!
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Post by Bill Harbison on Apr 13, 2007 6:08:23 GMT -5
Someone I can't remember who, drew a cartoon of me interviewing with people lining up outside the door in stripey tops with arrows on and bags slung over their shoulders marked SWAG. It wasn't a cartoon. It was a photograph. It really happened.
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Post by Paulie on Apr 17, 2007 14:28:17 GMT -5
Ahhhh hanging ditch - home of Red Rat software... Ste was doing "The Big KO" on the BBC and C64, I had indeed done the music drivers for Repton and (though I'm ashamed to admit it) did do Mag Max on the 64... Jeff Roskell, now that's a name from the past...
As for Wigan - yup its definitely in the pies! You can take Wigan out of the man, but you can't take the man out of Wigan!
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Post by ecnirp on Apr 17, 2007 17:43:54 GMT -5
Good to hear from you Paul, I remember Red Rat software, down the stairs under the coin exchange, selling the Atari stuff, bought my first ST from there with that dirty great big brick of a power supply, before the STFM !!!
A few years later I was back in there when the Madchester music scene was big, in a club called conspiracy, I was managing indie bands back then.
i'm Working now as a SAP Basis consultant in Manchester working on a European rollout, kept in the IT industry, not heard from Jeff since the early 90's, sent him a message through friends reunited a few years ago, but never got anything back.
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Post by gx4000 on Apr 24, 2007 7:08:43 GMT -5
Hello all. Good site. Good forum.
With regards to the shops in the Arndale;
As stated, Tom Backhouse from Microbyte is now the games floor manager at the big HMV. He still has fond memories of his time in the Arndale - you should speak to him if you're ever in. Ask for the short one who used to work in Microbyte.
Microbyte in some form went on to become Team17 didn't it? Or at least some management went there or something.
The Computer Shop closed apart from the original in Eldon Square, Newcastle (but even that's gone now). There was a friendly rivalry between both stores, not least when Centresoft or Microdealer delivered stock to the wrong store and the staff would open it to see what "the others" were selling. Also, the staff at The Computer Shop were always a bit peeved that Microbyte staff didn't have to wear a shirt and tie.
The Computer Shop had a deal with Ocean throughout 1989 (and maybe beyond) with regards to new releases being previewed early. The most notable title was Batman (Movie) which arrived at the shop on the Saturday before it's release and caused many "oohs" and "ahhs" when customers were invited to play it (the C64 version).
Of the staff at The Computer Shop, like Tom at Microbyte, many stayed in the industry to some degree. Paul (can't remember his surname, sorry) went to Psygnosis/Sony and Jason Dutton's mate (who I believe was the fella with the refund book) Brad Burton went to work for Europress for some magazine, where he suffered much ridicule for using phrases like "respekt" in amongst his "streetwise" news, reviews and features articles about nightclub bouncers. And Spectrum games.
Both companies knew their days were numbered when Game appeared in it's original big store, but both soldiered on for a while. Microbyte was the dimly lit meeting ground for low-calibre software Pirates, which often meant that walking in there meant the Commodore Piano Overlay went quiet and everyone turned to look at the stranger. The Computer Shop on the other hand was better lit and probably more friendly, but had the unfortunate look of a modern mobile phone shop or wannabe Dixons. It was all good though, and kept alive today only really by shops like Gamestation - but even that tends to employ too many know-it-all school leavers and graduates who mess around and burp and look down their snooty PS3 noses at anyone who dares to question the concept of joining an online clan or having a MySpace account.
Like the site though. Shame the shop doesn't work.
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