One of the things I most enjoy about reading gaming magazines like Dragon is looking at the advertisements. They're a terrific window on the past, not merely the past of the wider hobby but more specifically of my own personal history with it. Consider this two-page advertisement that appeared in issue #90 (October 1984). (Apologies for the smallness of the image below; I'll soon zoom in on a part of it that's relevant to my post.)
The advertisement is for miniature paints sold by The Armory, a Baltimore, Maryland-based manufacturer, distributor, and importer of RPG products. I have very fond memories of visiting their storefront and warehouse on a couple of occasions when I was a teenager. The warehouse was a warren, filled with rows and rows of shelves among which my friends and I would wander, peering into random boxes to see what treasures they might hold.
What struck me about this ad is that its second page includes a listing of the "fine hobby & game stores" in the United States that sold Armory paints. Perhaps because The Armory was itself located in Maryland, there are a significant number of stores in the same state. Here they are:
I remember several of these stores from personal experience of them. The Ship Shop was located not far from the State House and focused primarily on miniatures and wargames, though they also sold some RPGs. A friend of mine worked there during the two years I attended St. John's College. I've talked about The Compleat Strategist before, as well as What's Your Game. Both were located in Baltimore City proper, so I only ever shopped at them when I was visiting my grandparents. I sadly never got to go to the Barbarian Bookshop – great name! – but I know Dream Wizards quite well. When I lived in Washington, DC, I could take the Metro to Twinbrook station to reach it. Of all the stores on this list that I patronized, it's the only one that definitely still exists.
I find it fascinating the way that, for so many of us in this hobby, our memories are closely tied to the stores where we purchased our games, dice, and miniatures. In part, I think, that's because, in the past, RPGs, even at the height of their first faddishness, weren't available everywhere. Often, you had to travel to out of the way places to find what you were looking for. It was almost an adventure to get hold of this stuff, especially if, like me, you were young and your knowledge of the world beyond your immediate neighborhood was limited. Good times!
It wasn’t just the adventure, it was the community. I grew up in a very small town, and could only get D&D stuff through mail order first, and then, because we’d introduced D&D to our cousins whose parents owned a five-and-dime, through them (with a family discount!). When I moved to college, there was a dedicated game store and a game store/comic shop. When we went to those stores, it wasn’t just to browse the new stuff, it was to connect with each other (we always went as a group) and with other gamers. Nothing major, just butting in on conversations or being butted in on about something we were talking about.
ReplyDeleteThe same occurred when I graduated and moved out to San Diego; we continued to visit Game Towne (sp) in Old Town as a group, for the same reasons and the same experience. It was sad watching that experience slowly degrade as fantasy gaming fell out of fashion and (a) fewer and fewer conversations were to be had, which meant that (b) the shelf space devoted to fantasy gaming slowly shrank in favor of board games and (mostly kid’s) puzzles.
I roamed through the Armory warehouse a number of times. I visited Barbarian Books and Dream Wizards many times, too. Good times. :)
ReplyDeleteI loved the adverts in White Dwarf, but for some reason there were few places to buy RPG products in Scotland for most of the 80s, only a section of the Virgin Megastore in Glasgow.
ReplyDeleteI think that the decline of hobby shops generally (model kits, trains, comics, records, computers, electronics, knitting as well as games) is a shame. We've gained range and convenience with online shopping, but we've lost browsing, deep knowledge & community.
Similar with hardware shops. I try and support my local hardware shop even although I know that they are 10-15% more expensive. I figure that that 10-15% pays for local employment and keeps the shop open for that one emergency that might crop up one day.
Hobbies and Arts was in the old open air Wheaton Plaza. They had a lot of plastic models and a fair number of Traveller books. Barbarian Books truly resonates with me; I went to high school in Wheaton and was a huge fan of comic books. I was in there several days a week and maintained a pull list for a while.
ReplyDeleteDream Wizards was my FLGS as a boy. It’s still close to Rockville Pike just not in Congressional Plaza anymore. Many good memories. First time I ever played Warhammer 40k was at Dream Wizards back room in 1992 or so.
ReplyDeleteOh, and Dream Wizards goes without saying as I grew up in Rockville.
ReplyDeleteDream Wizards put out a staple bound, grey newsprint catalog in the early 90s with a list of everything they sold. Including miniatures with lots of pictures. It must have been quite the undertaking. Sure wish I could find a copy of that.
ReplyDeleteGod, yes, that massive catalogue. I'm amazed how many DC-area readers James has. I grew up in downtown DC and used to make pilgrimage out to Dream Wizards every few months with my friends and brothers, riding the Metro out to nearly the end of the line and walking along that stretch of highway, then down the automobile ramp to the back side of that little strip mall -- I can see the inside of that store as if I were standing in it. A cave heaped with treasures, and me with my $10 or $12 or $20 burning a hole in my pocket. Thanks for the nostalgia trip, James!
DeleteAh! That unlocked a memory. I got a copy of that catalogue while my family was living outside Philadelphia in the late 80s. It was wonderful.
DeleteIndeed, it was an adventure getting to the store and much treasure waited there. In our early teens, my friends and I every month walked three miles through forest and foreign neighborhoods to reach Craft Corner in Dale City VA where they stocked all things Airfix and D&D along with conventional arts and crafts. Once I got a license, I drove to Springfield Mall instead. The shelves were always full of great games and colorful gemstone dice glittered under glass counters. That was the landscape from 1981 through 1997, then Al Gore invented the internet and the rest is history.
ReplyDelete"Al Gore....." reminds me of something that I find myself concerned anout from time to time.
DeleteMore than 20y ago I worked in nuclear decommissioning and one of the challenges that that industry had was how to keep reliable records for long (really long, centuries long) periods of time. The answer from what I recall was a special kind of insect- and fire-proof paper to be kept in fire-proof filing cabinets in a rock and concrete bunker. Sounds very much like a future dungeon
With the coming of computers and the Internet we've dematerialised our records and the sharing of knowledge between people is now via computer and less by physical demonstration. Data recovery becomes difficult because of obsolescence.
I worry what archaeology our successors will find and what does it say about us?
"Data recovery becomes difficult because of obsolescence...what archaeology our successors will find." Fascinating, overlapping issues, sounds like Gamma World!
DeleteReminds me of the computer code manual that appears at the end of Hiero's Journey. If it had been digital-only, the future would have been lost!
DeleteI found my White Box OD&D set new on the shelf at What's Your Game in the later '80s.
ReplyDeletePatowmack Toys on that list was one of the centers of my childhood, and 100% where my friends and I discovered D&D, Metagaming and Steve Jackson Microgames, The Fantasy Trip, and Traveller.
ReplyDeleteWhen I moved to Atlanta in the early 80's there was a great game shop called "The Sword of the Phoenix." You could buy D&D reference books (PHB, DMG, MM, etc.), campaign modules, Ral Partha miniatures, and dragon dice, among other items. It was a small shop, but it was like a wonderland. Lasted almost 30 years before closing in 2005.
ReplyDeleteAll the game stores of my youth are long dead and gone, even the mall stores that dabbled in games to supplement their primary business of (respectively) toys, toys, and bikes. Even the much newer hybrid game/comic/book/model stores I worked at through the 90s and Oughts are vanished. One of my ex-bosses re-opened a new shop after a bankruptcy and lengthy hiatus, but the two businesses really only shared an owner, their styles being very different.
ReplyDeleteIn elementary and Jr. High, book stores were my access point for D&D. I can't remember the name, but a long gone bookstore on Maine St. Keokuk, Iowa was my early gaming Mecca. Then in high school, we started going to the Quincy Hobby Shop in Quincy, IL. It's still running. I took my boys there a couple of years ago. In college, it was Comic Quest in Evansville, IN. I think it may still be running, but I'm not 100%. Good times there, but I bought more comics and MtG cards than RPG stuff. I do miss the feeling of searching the shelves, talking to strangers about our interests, and all that.
ReplyDeleteStar Realm. That was the place to go in Omaha, NE in the 80s and early 90s. There was another store, The Dragon's Lair, but for me it was Star Realm. They had it all: RPGs, wargames, models, books, sci-fi and fantasy movie memorabilia, comics, etc. They even had the fabled "back room" to run games. it was less of a room and more of a small open area between the stock room and bathrooms. Bill and Sandy Grush really took care of their store an patrons, because it was a family run store and they treated us like extensions of their own family. There were weekends when I'd get there before they opened on Saturday, spend the weekend with my friends at their house gaming, and not get home until Sunday afternoon! Those years from '82-'89 were some of the best.
ReplyDelete