One of my biggest joys in life is exploring unique and wonderful retro game shops from around the world. I have had the pleasure to visit many throughout my career in the games industry, but only recently I have launched a YouTube show called The Retroad Show that does just that, on camera and it’s fully supported by our supporters on Patreon (who receives early access and goodies).
Episode 3 brings a unique tour amongst the biggest retro games shop in the UK, located south of Glasgow in the middle of Scotland’s countryside called Forgotten Worlds.
It was no easy task getting there, I had to get to the airport, fly to Glasgow and then rent a car to get to the store which is located roughly 25 minutes away from the city.
But it’s completely worth it. One of the benefits of being in the middle of nowhere is that you can rent more space for a smaller price, which is what’s destroying a lot of smaller retro game stores that are located in the city centre.
Owner of Forgotten Worlds, Allan McCluskey was kind enough to give us the full tour, alongside an interview discussing how he got started, why he loves it and what the rarest items in the shop are! The best to explore this series is by watching the video below, but hopefully if you prefer reading, then please continue!
The store from the outside looks like any typical shop that’s located in a warehouse, but the magic hits you as soon as you open the door. The ceiling is incredibly high, with large posters hanging in the air, once your eyes hit the floor it’s as if there’s a sea of video games spread across the whole shop floor.
You’ll be greeted by a strong Scottish accent saying “Gumornin” as you walk in, with smiling faces and open arms from their team, ready to assist you with your needs. There’s snacks too should you find yourself lost in the sea of games for hours on end, or arcades and playable machines towards the back if you need a break from scouring the boxes.
What boxes? Well, there’s just so many video games that Allan decided the only way to efficiently organise them is buy placing them in boxes for customers to explore, this also makes it easier for Allan and his team to take his stock to events which he does almost every month.
The boxes fill up a large portion of the store, and the boxes go on for many meters, filled with english, USA and Japanese games, accessories, loose games, manuals, rare table top consoles and more.
Allan and his team source a lot of their Japanese games from Japan, to create a unique store filled with rare and hard to find games. Because he has built up the brand name in Glasgow many of his games are traded in by customers too, making it even easier for him to find stock.
Amongst the boxes of games are 10ft high storage shelves jam-packed with boxed consoles, some incredibly rare and some I have never seen before in my life. There’s limited edition boxed Gamecube consoles, a super rare Coca-Cola Dreamcast, SEGA Saturns, Mega Drive, Japanese consoles, Playdias and other consoles I have never heard of.
It’s the most boxed consoles I have ever seen under one roof, and all are ready for you to touch yourself, inspect the quality or just look at for a sense of nostalgia. There’s even boxed accessories toy, some so limited only a handful were made worldwide.
I found things that I remember as a child, and products I had to ask Allan to explain, for example there’s an old console called the Xavix Port which featured detachable motion controls and accessories such as a baseball bat. It turns out Nintendo copied this console to launch the Nintendo Wii, who knew! Eight developers from the NES worked on it too, it’s an odd machine that I never knew about and has some crazy history.
There’s also unboxed consoles too ranging from old ATARI’s from the 80’s to new limited edition Nintendo Switch consoles and limited edition Evercade VS consoles. The boxed section was certainly one of my favourite areas of the store.
It’s not often you can see such an array of box designs, and it was just a pleasant experience to take a look at all of the unique illustrations and photography from different generations. Comparing Japanese box art to Western box art is fun too, and it’s so obvious that the Japanese have far better design motives than us, especially during the 90’s.
Allan (the store owner) allows you to hold the boxes, take a peak at the backs, move them to find hidden gems stored behind them and to simply enjoy the boxes as you would when they released.
Surrounding the boxed console section you will find a whole bunch of toys too, ranging from action figures to vintage RC cars to collectible PEPSI tops from the 90’s to vintage posters, to modern comics.
There’s also well hidden rummage boxes filled with random toys, accessories, and books for those that like to find a potential bargain, something they also have in Japan. Across the walls you will find large movie posters too which are available to buy, alongside other artwork and signs.
Everywhere you look, you’ll find something unique, possibly modern, possibly retro. There was a section I found simply filled with vintage Star Wars toys. Old lightsabers I remember as a child, or wierd accessories that they launched back in the 90’s which brought back some strong memories.
One of the corners is dedicated to action figures, both new and old. Allan recently had in a huge delivery of vintage Lord of the Rings action figures, which I also remember as a child, it’s stuff like this that unlocks a long fogotten memory that I had to dig deep to resurrect.
If you’re into Transformers, TMNT, POP! figures, anime, Doctor Who and horror toys you’ll be right at home here, there’s hundreds, if not thousands of products that will ignite a smile on your face if you’re an avid action figure collector.
I sat down with store owner Allan McCluskey to ask him a few questions regarding the adventure of opening a store of this calibre.
Allan: “The store has been open for, coming up to four years in October. Initially the store first started as a storage unit, I was selling a lot of my own collection online, and needed somewhere to store it all. I found a warehouse up here in Stewarton (south of Glasgow) and let’s see what happens!”
“In the middle of the store its mostly imported videos games which makes us pretty unique, we try to specialise in whatever we think is cool at the time”, meaning Allan and his team don’t necessarily follow any gaming trends, instead they follow their own curiosity and see what comes in through the door for trade-ins.
“I still have a lot of contacts from Japan when I was collecting, so I buy quite big collections at a time from over there, be it consoles or games. When I was collecting, I was a wee bit of a snob so I only collected boxed and complete games or consoles”.
Once you step away from the never ending flood of games, located on the floor… on the tables… and on the walls, towards the back of the store you will find arcade cabinets and entertainment booths filled with retro and modern machines.
There’s an original PAC-MAN arcade cabinet, semi-modern ALIEN machines with dual weapons and even a STAR WARS pod-racer machine which is the only one in Scotland (although it does like to overheat apparently), most of these are free to play for customers, which makes it a great location to bring the kids should you want to explore the products with no time limit.
Close to that is a refreshments section, with cold beverages, imported sweets and snacks to keep you going should you need refuelling.
It’s obvious that Allan and the team appreciate that the store is located out of the way for most, and are building an area that you can easily spend hours in, hoping that more customers will visit for the morning or afternoon and go away feeling like it was an event or an experience rather than just a normal shop.
It’s one of the last few places in the country that offers this retro gaming experience and it opens up an opporuntiy to look and hold games that you’ll never see again. I highly recommend visiting if you are in Scotland because it’s truly a remarkable experience for gamers.
