RPG Stores You Can Still Go To!

02/05/202002/05/2020alxkdd

One of the unfortunate things about looking at all these vintage shop adverts in White Dwarf is that nearly all of these stores are sadly long gone, meaning we can’t pay them a visit. Now I say nearly, because there’s actually two that still exist, which is quite a testament to what they must be doing.

Firstly Leisure Games in Finchley London is still there, I paid them a visit and it’s a great shop, still stocking role playing games, board games, card games and anything else gaming related.

Leisure Games – Originally at 91 Ballards Lane, Finchley, London, N3. Now at 100 Ballards Lane.

White Dwarf 69 September 1985 Leisure Games WD69 Sep 1985

White Dwarf 74 December 1985 Leisure Games WD74 December 1985

And if you’re in the West End of London then Orcs Nest is such a part of the fabric of Cambridge Circus that it’s impossible to think of it not being there. I must have walked past this store, hundreds, if not thousands of times since the 1980s. It’s packed to the roof with all sorts of games, it’s so great that it’s still there, do pay them a visit if you’re in the area.

Orcs Nest – 6 Earlham Street, West End, London WC2H 9RY

White Dwarf 89 May 1987 Orcs Nest WD89 May 1987

London Comic Book Stores – RPG Action!

30/04/2020alxkdd

Next up in our trip through the White Dwarf shop adverts we take a look at the few comic book shop ads that we came across in the first 100 issues.

Dark They Were And Golden Eyed – 9-12 St. Anne’s Court, London, W1

White Dwarf 2 – August / September 1977 – Back Cover Dark They Were And Golden Eyed WD2 Aug Sep 1977 Back Cover

First up is this one off advert for London’s first comic book store: Dark They Were And Golden Eyed, which appeared on the back cover of the second issue of White Dwarf back in 1977. This is a much more trippy and 1970s style design than their later adverts would evolve into, it’s on a real one off and I’ve never seen this one before. The list of what they stock is also much wider, making it sound more like a counter culture store, which it probably was at the time. I never got to visit this store, but I’ve always been fascinated by it as it was the first of it’s kind in London.

Forbidden Planet – 23 Denmark Street, London, WC2H 8NA

White Dwarf 52, April 1984 Forbidden Planet WD 52 April 1984

This sleek and simplistic advert for Forbidden Planet appear for a few issues in 1984 and highlighted the stores range of role playing games at the time, as well as comics, books, film merchandise and more.

White Dwarf 21 October November 1980 Forbidden Planet WD21 Oct Nov 1980

This earlier Forbidden Planet advert from 1980 highlighted one of the problems with the adverts, so many of them were just huge block of tiny text, I guess the idea was to let people know what each store actually had available, but it makes for an almost impenetrable to look at. This one for the store only appeared in the magazine once.

Coming up tomorrow Role Playing Games go mainstream!

London Games Stores – Part 2

29/04/2020alxkdd

Her’s the second part of our London Role Playing Game store round-up, I’d not hear of any of these stores before I started going through the back issues of White Dwarf magazine, but that all look fun, wish I could have visited all of these back in the day!

Games World – 129 Kings Street, Hammersmith, London, W6 9JG

Games World WD74 December 1985

Minifigs Skytrex – 13 Gillingham Street, London, SW1

Minifigs Skytrex WD12 April May 1979

North London Fantasy Games – Hanway Print Centre, 106 Essex Road, London, N1

North London Fantasy Games WD10 Dec Jan 1978 1979

Rye Stamp & Hobby Shop – 190 Rye Lane, Peckham, London, SE 15

Rye Stamp & Hobby Shop WD24 April May 1981

Space Oddities – Oddities Market, 72/73 Chalk Farm Road, London, NW1

If I could visit just one store featured here it would be this one, just the name of the place and the slightly trippy looking logo makes me think this place would have been a lot of fun.

Space Oddities WD71 Nov 1985

Space Oddities WD73 Jan 1986

Tally Ho Games – 650 High Road, North Finchley, N12

Tally Ho Games WD 1 June July 1977

Tally Ho WD2 Aug Sep 1977

Tally Ho WD8 Aug Sep 1978

Check back tomorrow when we’ll look at how the London comic book stores of the time got in on the role playing game action!

London Games Stores – Part 1

28/04/2020alxkdd 1 Comment

As well as Games Centre and Games Workshop, London had a whole load of other role playing games stores through the 1970s and 1980s, on our hunt through the pages of White Dwarf magazine I found a lot of adverts for long gone shops that I’d never heard of. I never visited any of these stores so I don’t have any real insight into them but the adverts are all fun to read, here’s Part 1 of the other London Games Stores:

Gamers In Exile – 283 Pentonville Road, Kings Cross, London

Very close to the beloved Scala Cinema and Kings Cross was also home to The Duke for many years!

Gamers In Exile WD60 Dec 1984