Seek to find a real photo at former Atari Store !

[Magic Knight]

Silica Shop still owe me a copy of F-15 Strike Eagle. Back in '87 they cashed my cheque but never sent the item. (Guy on the phone said so himself)

 

As i was only 13 at the time, i wasnt savvy enough to push through the excuses to why they hadnt processed the order, yet managed to take my pocket money.

 

Still fuming to this day....

[Tezz]

I know how you feel, In the 90's I paid by cheque (the only time I ever did) to a mail order supplier for over £500 for a 17" Ilyama multisync monitor for my towered Amiga. They cashed it, strung me along saying delivery will be delayed a couple of weeks, the firm then went under. The liquidators had numerous creditors so I had to buy another one elsewhere.

[Caterpiggle]

Hello SIO99

 

Thank you for inform me about retro story in your time. I am looking foward to hear and see from you whatever you are ready.

[atari8warez]

I know how you feel, In the 90's I paid by cheque (the only time I ever did) to a mail order supplier for over £500 for a 17" Ilyama multisync monitor for my towered Amiga. They cashed it, strung me along saying delivery will be delayed a couple of weeks, the firm then went under. The liquidators had numerous creditors so I had to buy another one elsewhere.

 

Not exactly the same subject but oh if you guys feel bad take a solace in knowing that it sounds very much like my last job, not only I lost my compensation but also had to pay about 2K to a lawyer to recover it from my company which went under, only to learn that I was not a big enough creditor. Not to mention those company shares I held...... arghhh

 

One good thing that came out of it though....I started working independently since that day and never looked back.

Edited March 14, 2013 by atari8warez

[mimo]

I can't begin to tell you how much I wanted to visit this UK store back in 1985 but I was 11 and 50 miles from Birmingham :-)

 

Compumart in Leicester was closer and I wondered what the store looked like, but again, never got to go there.

 

Where was compumart located? I was a regular visitor to Leicester city center, and I remember quite a few independent computer stores, but not the names. My regular haunt was Mays computers on churchgate. I bought their ex demo 800 and 130xe last year, before the went bust at the start of this year .

There was Also a couple of shops on Charles street near the police station. One was a crummydore specialist, but I did buy an St from them. Also a BBC/acorn/dragon dealer on London road opposite the train station

 

Most of the retailers had computers as a side line and were tv,music,electrical stores primarily.

There was Also cross keys video store in blaby, you could rent disc's, carts or tapes for a week. Got lots of software that way.

Later I found telegames at kilby bridge, loads of old systems and software, but I just went to have a look as I was not interested in actually playing Atari at the time (late 90s) now I wish I had bought the bloody lot!

Edited March 14, 2013 by mimo

[13matt]

I visited the midland Atari shop in the UK quite a few times. It was really hard to get to tho and there was nowhere to park nearby.

[Mclaneinc]

Wow, retro bump or what...

 

I'm still looking for a picture of Silica Shop in Kent, the last time I went there it was PC place still as Silica but was just sterile and clean, the way it was with the Atari's was fun and fresh...

 

I remember just before Silica in Tottenham Court road died, most of the stock was being sold out of the back of the shop by certain members of staff, one actually ran a certain very famous pirate BBS at the time, made loads of cash from people paying subs to him.

 

Spotty horrible little git he was...

 

Silica also had a shop in side a major chain on Tottenham Court Road, it was the first time I met Noel Daniel from Futureware (Sidewinder which I reviewed for Atari User and also made a separate game with all new levels called Raid over Libya, see, I could code a little..) who along with others did a Uridium clone called Thunderfox. There also was another Dev in Silica called Errol who did an ST shoot em up under the banner of Exocet Software called Foundation's Waste, it was a pretty dire shooter but they got it published so one up to them..

 

Lol, just found one of my old posts from 2012, its sort of says all the above with better details..

 

http://atariage.com/forums/topic/206167-atari-memories-well-uk-anyway/?do=findComment&comment=2653805

Edited March 9, 2015 by Mclaneinc

[TheNameOfTheGame]

Used to go to Mid-Cities Comp Soft on Flower Street in Bellflower CA when I lived in Los Angeles.

 

One of the few places in the 90s that I could go in and find Atari software on the shelves.

 

Found the building on Google Maps, but now it is JJ's Jumpers and Party Rentals.

 

Edited March 9, 2015 by TheNameOfTheGame

[Kyle22]

I remember a store called "DeBug Bytes" in Indiana, PA. Operated by Stephen R. Jones. I have searched for him, and got his wife Penny's phone number. I called her tonight, and (hopefully) got the correct number. I left a message. I hope she calls me back.

 

I loved that store, and I probably bugged Steve really bad when I was a teenager

 

I hope I got the correct number, and Steve will call me. I want to tell him about all the great things we're doing with Atari now

[TheNameOfTheGame]

Yes, and he might have some cool pictures of the store. That would rock!

[Muzz73]

J.J.'s Jumpers and... wait, is that guy taking a leak?!

[Kyle22]

No good on that phone number... I'll report back if I find anything definite.

[FastRobPlus]

J.J.'s Jumpers and... wait, is that guy taking a leak?!

 

He probably saw the Google van coming down the street. I think they get a lot of this sort of thing.

This last summer we stripped the paint from our house and began to put the new paint on just as the van passed. So in the pic our house looks like one of those abandoned ones in Detroit.

[Caterpiggle]

I do remember, there a few former "3rd party" Atari Stores in some states, like in NE Philly PA, Dearborn, MI, across the border of DC, north of Ill. Yes, in Stevens Park,MD. Only ONE that is officially Atari Store was in Jacksonville, FL when I was teenager.

[ilaskey]

I have vague memories of some oddball shop that I think was Spanish owned that was upstairs in a building down Regent Street in London. They used to advertise during the ST era and seemed to do mainly high end stuff. I did visit one time but the door was closed and no one around.

[Level42]

I made my parents drive up to The Silica Shop during our second summer holiday in the UK. It was more or less on the route anyway.. I did the navigation.Think it was 84/85. loved it but had no cash for some serious new hardware or software and my parents weren't the kind to like give me anything just like that (which isn't a complaint, in fact better this than being spoilt).

 

Later that same holiday I visited an Atari specilised store in London which to my utter surprise had an ST, the very first I ever saw, I had read about it but didn't expect it to be there, IIRC that shop was somewhere upstairs...the ST still had the OS from floppy and it bombed like crazy and there were close to no apps they could show, but the whole mouse point and click thing was impressive enough

 

Telekoder was -the- local Atari specialized store in Rotterdam but I had always had a love/hate relation with it.

 

No one took pictures of "unimportant" stuff like that BITD, you shot 2 rolls of 36 pics Max for a two weeks holiday and that was it. Costs was the major factor !

 

I totally envy seeing people who have pictures of themselves from BITD when they got their 2600 or were working/playing on there Atari 8 bit computer.......

Edited March 18, 2015 by Level42