Caterpiggle Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 I had been visited the REAL Atari Officially Store in Jacksonville, FL in 1986 or 1987 (Not sure which year) once. My question is DOES ANYONE ever took a real photo at the front Atari Officially Store anywhere in America and the rest of the world ! I wish I SHOULD HAVE TOOK A PICTURE in 35 mm camera in the old day ! I wasn't thinking enough ! I never forget that Atari Store in (which mall ? ) at Jacksonville, FL. Really beautiful & design inside Atari Store in the mall. NEVER FORGET THAT DAY ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted June 23, 2012 Share Posted June 23, 2012 I hope you don't mind me tagging on to your thread, instead I'm asking for anyone who has in store pics of Silica Shop in Kent UK during its hey day..? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caterpiggle Posted June 23, 2012 Author Share Posted June 23, 2012 Is that "Silca Shop" officially Atari Business Store with Atari Logo at the front store in hey day ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macgoo Posted June 24, 2012 Share Posted June 24, 2012 Initially it was VCS + A8 only I think but the did sell Amiga and ST later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted June 24, 2012 Share Posted June 24, 2012 Is that "Silca Shop" officially Atari Business Store with Atari Logo at the front store in hey day ? It was not an official Atari store but I do think they had a logo up on the front. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted June 24, 2012 Share Posted June 24, 2012 Initially it was VCS + A8 only I think but the did sell Amiga and ST later. Yes they went on to sell ST's Amiga and PC's, sadly the business took a down turn when they found out some staff were selling stuff out of the back of the store for themselves, a certain well known sysop of the day being one of them. After that they reformed in Hatherly road and tried to turn it into a PC business company but it didn't last that long afaik. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+rdemming Posted June 24, 2012 Share Posted June 24, 2012 Yes they went on to sell ST's Amiga and PC's, sadly the business took a down turn when they found out some staff were selling stuff out of the back of the store for themselves, a certain well known sysop of the day being one of them. After that they reformed in Hatherly road and tried to turn it into a PC business company but it didn't last that long afaik. A reboot?: http://www.thesilicashop.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted June 24, 2012 Share Posted June 24, 2012 (edited) Doubt it, seems to be a side arm of a family owned business although they have a sideline of cheap games. Nice find though and thanks for looking. Silica Shop in Kent was one of those places you would have loved to have a video recorder there and then taking a snap shot of the start of home computers, I don't care what machine you loved it was just the noise and brimming excitement of what was going to be put on next, it was so new and electric. People packed out the shop every saturady, the crescendo of arcade beeps and blobs along with an 810 loading somewhere in the shop....Truly magic.. It would be like a time capsule for games to enjoy and for older folk like me who was there at the very start with links in it. This wasn't like a new console is today or another new game this was THE batch of FIRST games on computers on those various systems....The very start of all this on a wide scale way. Precious times... Sadly Silica London proved a bit of a let down for me, Although it had Noel Daniel working there and programming stuff, Eroll who wrote a game called Foundations Waste on the ST (ported to the Miggy later) and the afore mentioned VERY naughty sys op of the main UK warez BBS the shop itself seemed disinfected and hospital like. There was no excitement, folks sort of stood around machines manily fellow warez folk trying to get free creds on the BBS with customers just looking lost if you ask me. Carmel remembers the London store too so I'd like to hear what he thought of it, I just found it bland and even worse when they moved across the road into Selfridges. There was no fun or excitement there. By then most people had been going to Software City which was a few streets away in the same shop that is now Computer Exchange. The atmosphere in there was more upbeat but again saturdays were just meets for warez guys trading with the shop staff. Sigh....Such good days and such bad days... Edited June 24, 2012 by Mclaneinc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caterpiggle Posted June 25, 2012 Author Share Posted June 25, 2012 No photo available in hey days ? yes, in 35 mm camera. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 No photo available in hey days ? yes, in 35 mm camera. Where Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GroovyBee Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 Are there any Silica Shop articles in the computer magazines that were around back in the day? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 There's plenty of catalogues but I don't remember ever seeing an article on the company ever. Not in Atari User for sure.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GroovyBee Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 I have vague memories of at least one of their catalogues having a picture of the shop front. But maybe thats not what you want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mclaneinc Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 It would do as a good start, but yes, more looking for an inside pic as it was. But if you see the outside pic then please post it thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GroovyBee Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 I haven't seen my Silica Catalogues in a very long time. They were probably thrown out years ago . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marius Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 In the Netherlands we had a nice store called "Goto 66" in Gouda and "Goto 10" in Alphen a/d Rijn. Those numbers were related to the actual address of these stores. I wished I had a picture of Goto 66 too... have fond memories of that shop. It was all ATARI! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
svenski Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 There was a good Atari store in Birmingham at one point, can't remember name of it. Sure there is a photo of it somewhere in one of the old mags. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnBuell Posted June 25, 2012 Share Posted June 25, 2012 Maybe this should be the Memories of Atari Stores thread? The one I remember was MARS Merchandizing in Lombard, IL. I bought a modified Sega light gun from them for my XL, they called it the Martian Phaser (or something like that). Supported the 8bits through the end of the 80s. I think there's a day care where their store was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 I remember Rubber City Atari (not surprisingly in Akron). Definitely do not have any pictures of it, but I fondly remember buying my XM301 modem from there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caterpiggle Posted June 26, 2012 Author Share Posted June 26, 2012 Why wonder everyone of us (included me) does not take a photo , is that because too common to see Atari Stores in those days ??? To Stepen, do you remember you saw the real Atari Logo Trademark outside front of the store in Akron, Ohio ? I believe I visited your home once. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+rdemming Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 Why wonder everyone of us (included me) does not take a photo , is that because too common to see Atari Stores in those days ??? Maybe it was because at those days there were no digital cameras and people brought only their analog cameras when they went on holiday and not when they were going to the Atari store. Also capacity on analog film was limited and prints expensive so why waste a picture on a store front while you could better use it for a picture of your kids. And at that time I was still a kid so I didn't even have a camera. Nowadays I've have a camera in my phone which is always with me and I still don't make pictures of stores Robert Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caterpiggle Posted June 26, 2012 Author Share Posted June 26, 2012 Right , right , right .... But can't help "The wonder why". I even took a digital photo front of Apple Store and Microsoft Store (in Seattle, Washington State, USA) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Stephen Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 Why wonder everyone of us (included me) does not take a photo , is that because too common to see Atari Stores in those days ??? To Stepen, do you remember you saw the real Atari Logo Trademark outside front of the store in Akron, Ohio ? I believe I visited your home once. Sorry - I don't remember what the inside or outside of the store looked like. It was 24 years ago, and I was only there the one time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnBuell Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 Right , right , right .... But can't help "The wonder why". I even took a digital photo front of Apple Store and Microsoft Store (in Seattle, Washington State, USA) That's Apple marketing for you, turning their stores into events. The Woodfield store in Schaumburg, IL was, I think the 3rd to open, and that was just pandemonium. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SIO99 Posted March 8, 2013 Share Posted March 8, 2013 I hope you don't mind me tagging on to your thread, instead I'm asking for anyone who has in store pics of Silica Shop in Kent UK during its hey day..? I haven't got any pics, but I remember it well. I grew up in that area and often walked past the shop, even before first going in. I remember requesting and hearing a demo of the Atari 800XL sound facilities and I know there was lots of Atari 8 bit related stuff in the shop, such as copies of Antic magazine on the shelves. I never noticed anything about warez going on. They also sold various other computers, including the Acorn Electron, probably all the popular ones, and some that hardly anyone else sold. I bought various items from there, as well as trying out computers, but they didn't like you to try or test them out for too long. I remember typing a few listings into an Amstrad CPC464, before an assistant claimed to have "accidentally" turned it off by pressing the monitor switch while standing behind the computer! I'd be surprised if there wasn't an article about it somewhere. The local paper was called The Sidcup Times, and the free distribution paper was The News Shopper, so they may have published something about it. I remember seeing a Silica Shop ad in a local paper advertising the Spectravideo 328 in 1984 or later. It said that the Spectravideo 328 was "fairly new to the UK" and that any buyers could join their Spectravideo users' or owners' club. I was upset by this, because that computer had been made obsolete by the MSX standard, which had also been adopted by Spectravideo. If there are absolutely no photos available, I could try doing some artwork showing what it was like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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