{"id":1078,"date":"2017-10-21T11:39:56","date_gmt":"2017-10-21T10:39:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1078"},"modified":"2017-10-21T11:40:12","modified_gmt":"2017-10-21T10:40:12","slug":"electronic-shops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/electronic-shops\/","title":{"rendered":"Electronic shops I used to hang out in as a kid, ranked by their selection of computer games at the time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As a child, I spent a lot of my time here &#8211;<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1079\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/CR_RW_2660_Queensgate_Centre_Harlow_picture_26_p6_600x446.jpg?resize=394%2C293\" alt=\"\" width=\"394\" height=\"293\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/CR_RW_2660_Queensgate_Centre_Harlow_picture_26_p6_600x446.jpg?w=600&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/CR_RW_2660_Queensgate_Centre_Harlow_picture_26_p6_600x446.jpg?resize=300%2C223&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 394px) 100vw, 394px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s the Queensgate Centre in central Harlow. A little off-road retail park near the station, with everything a family could need for a solid day of retail therapy. There was a Pizza Hut, a Burger King, a garden centre, clothes shops, and even a cinema.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-1080\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/large.jpg?resize=422%2C287\" alt=\"\" width=\"422\" height=\"287\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/large.jpg?w=640&amp;ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/large.jpg?resize=300%2C204&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 422px) 100vw, 422px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Just look at that. Look how grey and depressing it is. Look at the angular 90s cars. Look at how all the stores were basically just warehouses with signs. But then look at the logo peeking in at the right there, a shining light of hope and attraction. A world of hope and dreams. A PC World.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"616\" height=\"347\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Jt9uBQdVSME?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-GB&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>There was something about an electronics superstore that really appealed to me. This was the 90s, and technology was still new and exciting. We had a Windows 95 PC at home, and I&#8217;d spent hours just messing around on Paint, playing Chip&#8217;s Challenge, or messing around with screensavers. So for a child like me, a whole &#8216;world&#8217; of this stuff was just heaven.<\/p>\n<p>It was a place where the promises of tomorrow were always on sale. The newest processors boasted about their incredible speeds. Rows of Soundblaster soundcards enticed you with the latest in crystal clear audio. And then there were the games.<\/p>\n<p>I loved games. I still love games. Computer games are probably my favourite thing in life. Most of the games I played were borrowed from Bishop&#8217;s Stortford library, where I&#8217;d rent and re-rent LucasArts adventure game classics like Monkey Island and Full Throttle. As a child without a steady income, hanging out in the aisles of game shops was a transcendent experience &#8211; seeing everything I could ever want, but not being able to have any of it.<\/p>\n<p>But it wasn&#8217;t just PC World. Here&#8217;s a full ranking of all those wonderful secret grottos that I spent weekends wandering through.<\/p>\n<h6><strong>5. Tempo<\/strong><\/h6>\n<p>Whatever happened to Tempo? They had the BEST jingle at the time &#8211; &#8220;<em>Don&#8217;t sign on the dotted line until you talk to Tempo!&#8221;<\/em>. I guess they couldn&#8217;t handle the competition from the other stores as they don&#8217;t exist anymore, and they didn&#8217;t offer an overwhelmingly impressive array of games. I&#8217;ve go have a look while my parents went to check out a fridge or something, but I&#8217;d often quickly run out. They did a lot of rubbish software too, 3D garden planners or budget trackers, that kind of useless stuff. I also recall the computer stuff being in some weird upstairs area too.<\/p>\n<h6><strong>4. Comet<\/strong><\/h6>\n<p>Is Comet still around? In my head it was always very similar to Currys &#8211; maybe they merged or something. In any case, they had a decent offering of games to check out, though I remember the aisles being quite narrow and dark. I bought a boxed copy of\u00a0<em>The Curse of Monkey Island\u00a0<\/em>here, and it&#8217;s one of my favourite games ever.<\/p>\n<h6><strong>3. Currys<\/strong><\/h6>\n<p>Completing the Holy Trinity of homogenous electronic stores, I can&#8217;t remember much about our Currys. Of the above three, this is the only one that still remains in the Harlow Queensgate Centre, so they must be doing something right. Average games-wise but pretty solid on the electronics front. I think they were one of the few ones that generally had a playable console available, which is a must for any decent games store.<\/p>\n<h6><strong>2. Toys R Us<\/strong><\/h6>\n<p>Not necessarily an electronics store, but it still did games very well. A large section of the shop was dedicated to games, and it was so beautifully presented. The games were all kept in brightly-lit white display cases, which you&#8217;d walk along and inspect. Instead of picking up any physical product, you&#8217;d simply retrieve a little slip for the game you wanted &#8211; a shopping experience almost gamified in itself. After checkout you&#8217;d proceed to a little separate desk, give the slip to the person, who&#8217;d disappear and return with a wonderful little gift that was all yours. I got so many games this way, and the slow, complex experience is deeply-rooted in my subconscious. Chucking \u00a340 down on a game on Steam can&#8217;t replicate any of this. Give me a little yellow slip any day.<\/p>\n<h6><strong>1. PC World<\/strong><\/h6>\n<p>The undisputed master. Everything in-store was geared towards selling electronics and games. The gaming section was enormous and flowed across multiple aisles. And these were the latest and greatest in gaming. Games that you&#8217;d need a new computer to play. Games that would only play on\u00a0<em>Windows 98<\/em>. Games that had more than 256 colours.\u00a0<strong>3D<\/strong> games.<\/p>\n<p>You could probably buy every single game I saw then today for in total less than \u00a320, but at the time it was some unattainable zenith of aspiration. I remember finally getting a double-pack of The Sims and its first expansion\u00a0<em>Livin&#8217; It Up<\/em> and it just making my whole year.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Honourable mentions:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>WH Smith.<\/em> Yes, WH Smith the stationers. For some reason, the one in Harlow town centre had loads of games (I think they still do in most places). And since there was always a reason to go into WH Smith I&#8217;d always manage to fit in a quick look-see. It was good mostly just to check out what new was out, rather than buying stuff. But still fun.<\/li>\n<li><em>Office World.<\/em> Now overtaken by the more popular Staples, but Office World carried a decent selection of games too. I remember us getting our Windows 98 PC from there,<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I know this is a really specific form of nostalgia, and it&#8217;s pretty self-indulgent for me to write about it. But this genuinely was a staple of my childhood and it&#8217;s something I&#8217;ve lost as an adult. I can just get whatever I want now that I have money. My enormous Steam backlog is a realisation of that bright-eyed kid&#8217;s dream of owning every game ever. But I&#8217;ll miss those times when this was all out of reach. The best games always live in our imagination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a child, I spent a lot of my time here &#8211; It&#8217;s the Queensgate Centre in central Harlow. A little off-road retail park near the station, with everything a family could need for a solid day of retail therapy. There was a Pizza Hut, a Burger King, a garden centre, clothes shops, and even [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[394],"tags":[396,79,83,395],"class_list":["post-1078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nostalgia","tag-childhood","tag-games","tag-gaming","tag-nostalgia","has-post-thumbnail","fallback-thumbnail"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Electronic shops I used to hang out in as a kid, ranked by their selection of computer games at the time<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/electronic-shops\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Electronic shops I used to hang out in as a kid, ranked by their selection of computer games at the time\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As a child, I spent a lot of my time here &#8211; It&#8217;s the Queensgate Centre in central Harlow. 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It should be obvious what I'm talking about. But in case you're not aware, I'm super annoyed about this\u00a0Black Friday thing you're suddenly doing. \"Black Friday\" is a retail 'holiday' of dubious legitimacy, wherein on the Friday\u00a0following Thanksgiving shops will do big sales.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;shopping&quot;","block_context":{"text":"shopping","link":"https:\/\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/category\/shopping\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/photo-1580828343064-fde4fc206bc6.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/photo-1580828343064-fde4fc206bc6.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/photo-1580828343064-fde4fc206bc6.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/photo-1580828343064-fde4fc206bc6.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/photo-1580828343064-fde4fc206bc6.jpeg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":93,"url":"https:\/\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/my-spotify-playlists\/","url_meta":{"origin":1078,"position":1},"title":"My Spotify playlists are awesome and you should follow them","author":"cookywook","date":"September 25, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I've got a bit of free time, so I thought I'd write something about music. But since I don't really know anything about music history or the current 'scene' I thought I'd instead write about what I\u00a0do know. And that's me. I've spent years curating my own playlists in Spotify.\u00a0They're\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;music&quot;","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":144,"url":"https:\/\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/funny-games\/","url_meta":{"origin":1078,"position":2},"title":"Funny Games","author":"cookywook","date":"November 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"There was some great news this week. GoG.com\u00a0released the first batch of LucasArts games they'd managed to secure the rights to. What's that mean in English? Well, GoG.com is a website that specialises in \"good old games.\" They get the rights to games that you can't buy anywhere\u00a0any more, make\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;video games&quot;","block_context":{"text":"video games","link":"https:\/\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/category\/video-games\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.gamefaqs.net\/screens\/e\/e\/5\/gfs_45323_2_25.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.gamefaqs.net\/screens\/e\/e\/5\/gfs_45323_2_25.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.gamefaqs.net\/screens\/e\/e\/5\/gfs_45323_2_25.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.gamefaqs.net\/screens\/e\/e\/5\/gfs_45323_2_25.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":132,"url":"https:\/\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/cluedo-the-big-bang-theory\/","url_meta":{"origin":1078,"position":3},"title":"Cluedo: The Big Bang Theory","author":"cookywook","date":"November 2, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"So I was in Bruges recently. It's a lovely place, and I saw lots of beautiful things. The best thing I saw, though, was this: Yes, in a Bruges toy shop window was this... thing. It's a version of the board game Cluedo, but based entirely around my least favourite\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;board games&quot;","block_context":{"text":"board games","link":"https:\/\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/category\/board-games\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"2014-10-07 15.14.07-1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/2014-10-07-15.14.07-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/2014-10-07-15.14.07-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/2014-10-07-15.14.07-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/2014-10-07-15.14.07-1.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/2014-10-07-15.14.07-1.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/2014-10-07-15.14.07-1.jpg?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1353,"url":"https:\/\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/the-best-kids-sweets-that-i-can-remember\/","url_meta":{"origin":1078,"position":4},"title":"The best kids sweets that I can remember","author":"cookywook","date":"May 28, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy bank holiday weekend. Let's do this. 1. Zappers These ultra-sour bubblegums were like my favourite thing ever. Seriously, these things could turn your face inside out. They were sweet, and lost their flavour after like five seconds. But they were delicious and I loved them. 2. Campino These were\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;nostalgia&quot;","block_context":{"text":"nostalgia","link":"https:\/\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/category\/nostalgia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Image result for zappers sweets","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.kandyking.co.uk\/ekmps\/shops\/flibackward\/images\/w69-big-sour-zappers-72-p.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1701,"url":"https:\/\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/2019-board-games-reviewed\/","url_meta":{"origin":1078,"position":5},"title":"All the board games I played in 2019, reviewed","author":"cookywook","date":"January 2, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I played a lot of board games in 2019, here's what I thought of them!","rel":"","context":"In &quot;board games&quot;","block_context":{"text":"board games","link":"https:\/\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/category\/board-games\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/4a67f17ed84322ad681063cdf0191055_original.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/4a67f17ed84322ad681063cdf0191055_original.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/4a67f17ed84322ad681063cdf0191055_original.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cookywook.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}