As a team that spends all our time playing, writing, and talking about retro games, we know the value of a great retro game store. They’re the lifeblood of the retro gaming scene; seeing consoles and games on the internet is one thing, but having the chance to actually hold boxed games, to play arcade cabinets, to discover consoles that they never knew existed and see them actually playing on CRT TVs – that’s the kind of experience which really makes a difference and leaves customers wanting more.
We love spending time in retro game shops, which is why the team has made it our mission to traverse the UK to discover the best stores dedicated to retro media, the hidden hoards of gaming brilliance and little-known shops that are championing the N64, the Atari 2600, the PS1, the Colecovision, and all the other home and handheld consoles which have impacted the retro gaming scene across the globe.
This mission is so important to us that we’ve started our very own series on YouTube, ‘The Retroad Show‘. We’re visiting our favourite stores and discovering new ones along the way to highlight the hard work of business owners all over the country, collectors who go the extra mile to bring the community new and exciting stock which keeps our spirits light and our wallets lighter.
We’ll be updating this list regularly with more content and videos as our travels to every corner of the United Kingdom ensue, but for now, here are five of the best retro game shops in the UK for you to add to your bucket list of places to visit!
Table of Contents
1. Forgotten Worlds, Stewarton
Forgotten Worlds is undoubtedly the biggest retro game shop in the UK. Situated around twenty-five minutes from Glasgow, it’s a bona fide treasure trove of retro games, consoles, peripherals, and much more. I was blown away by the sheer size of this place and the unfathomable amount of retro games and consoles, with every nook and cranny packed to the rafters with rare games, amazing finds, and boxed goodies that made us never want to leave.
One of the best bits about Forgotten Worlds is the fact that you feel like you’re on a massive treasure hunt whenever you set off to search through the store. It’s incredibly well organised, with rows upon rows of boxes filled with games from all regions for browsers to peruse through, as well as dexions stacked with boxed consoles, and playable machines to get hands-on with games – it’s truly a retro gamer’s paradise.
Move a boxed Nintendo 64 and there’s another hidden gem from Japan sitting behind it. Forgotten Worlds has one of the best collections of rare and notoriously hard-to-find games both collected and traded in by customers throughout the United Kingdom on their gaming pilgrimages to the store. For 90s kids like us, seeing Star Wars Toys, action figures, and other collectibles that I had forgotten even existed brought so many memories back that made the experience even more special.
Allan McCluskey and his team live and breathe retro gaming; they create a sense of nostalgia like no other and do it all with a helpful attitude (and snacks) that makes you feel valued from the moment you enter the door. Check out our feature-length YouTube video above to fully experience everything that Forgotten Worlds has to offer, or take a look at our official article on the store!
2. Retro-Sect, Tewkesbury
The first stop on our Retroad Show YouTube series took us to Tewkesbury to a shop you might not have heard of but should definitely visit. It’s called Retro-Sect, and it’s a little bit of a secret haven that Owner Ben has worked hard to curate over the years.
Split between a love of vintage cars and retro games, it’s a paradise for nostalgia hunters everywhere. Ben loves chatting with customers about all things retro too; I might not have had the chance to go into a vinyl store and speak to the guys behind the counter when I was younger like my parents did, but it’s the same kind of feel – chatting with someone with a real passion for their business never gets old, and it’s refreshing to have someone like Ben to chat with about the collection he’s worked so tirelessly to build for his customers.
No stranger to Facebook Marketplace and eBay, Ben has spent countless hours scouring the web, trading with customers, and spreading his net far and wide to provide ‘something for everyone’, or in our case and if I had my way ‘everything for us’. There are some incredibly sought-after items in Retro-Sect too. When chatting with Ben, he told us that there’s a R.O.B. Robot NES Deluxe Set with a £650 price tag and a Pink Panther game from Tiger Electronic that launched in Italy which is an extremely rare find. Coincidentally, my Dad is from Napoli and his nickname was the Pink Panther when he was a kid, so I was be very tempted to grab that for his Christmas present.
Rare figurines, exciting peripherals; searching through the shelves of Ben’s store makes me think of the Elves at Santa’s workshop preparing to bring presents to me in the 90s! And Ben mirrors that feeling by including his own retro games in a display behind the counter too including his very own Tetris cartridge! Take a look at our very first episode of the Retroad Show above to virtually visit Ben’s store with us, and you can read an interview we made with Ben in our original Retro-Sect article!
3. Sore Thumb Retro Games, York
Sore Thumb Retro Games in York is my local retro game shop, and it’s one of the most exciting places I’ve ever visited. I’ve been telling Brandon about it for a long time now as I live in York, so disguised as a trip to visit me and some friends up North, he came to spend the day with Store Manager Liam and the team and quickly forgot that me and his other friends existed.
Situated on Gillygate and incredibly close to York Minster, York Art Gallery, and York St. John University, it’s one of the city’s shops that should certainly be on every visitor’s ‘must-see’ list. The sense of retro nostalgia hits you as you enter the door, with N64 and SNES games to your left and an area filled with more SEGA consoles and games than you could even begin to imagine on your right. It’s the gigantic wall of PlayStation games that still takes my breath away, however, with even more titles hidden away under the table ready to take their place once sold.
The store’s owner, Lee, makes regular trips to Japan to bring back exclusive games and consoles, giving gamers in the UK a chance to own items they would never have dreamed of being able to add to their collections. The boxed Virtual Boy Console, SG-1000, and Dreamcast pictured above aren’t all this store has to offer when it comes to rare finds either. In the cabinets spread around Sore Thumb, you’ll find extremely rare PS2 games like Rule of Rose and Kuon, Pokémon cards, boxed NES games, and so much more.
Lee prides himself on stocking the best media and hardware for his customers, and his passion for retro gaming shows. It’s so easy to spend hours in this shop, and the team are happy to chat to you about all things retro while you’re browsing. If you spend a certain amount (which remains a secret that can only be revealed once in the shop) then you’ll get to wear the Sore Thumb ‘Big Hitter Championship belt’ to show off how much of a retro game master you are! Look out for the Sore Thumb episode of the Retroad Show coming soon!
4. Super Tomato, Cardiff
Wales isn’t just one of the most beautiful parts of the United Kingdom; it’s also home to a retro games shop that entices players from all over the country to discover the exciting finds that owner Tom brings back from Japan. He travels out multiple times a year, regularly restocking his shop with products that many of us never even knew existed.
This shop might look tiny compared to Forgotten Worlds, but Tom certainly makes use of every inch of space he can, stocking limited edition and exclusive consoles, a Game Boy Pocket Sonar which blew my mind, and other Japanese exclusives such as a gold Bomberman CoroCoro cartridge for the SNES that you can see in the thumbnail of our store walk-around below. It’s the stuff that dreams are made of, especially for retro games writers like me, and you really get a sense of awe and wonder when you enter the room. It’s a place where reminiscing is highly inevitable and encouraged by Tom, a man who has had to be proactive to change and adapt in order to keep Retro Gaming alive in Wales.
Tom is happy just for people to walk in through the door and not even buy anything; that’s the sign of someone who has endless passion for their craft. I know I’ve said this throughout this article, but these shops have made this list for the dedication their teams put into championing the retro space, and we’re so lucky to be able to visit places where retro media is so prevalent in this day and age as well as having a platform to be able to spread the word about them through the community!
Considering Super Tomato is just a 5-10 walk out of Cardiff city centre, there really is no excuse not to pop inside and say hello to Tom if you’re in the area. Check out the episode of the Retroad Show above to get a feel of what it’s like inside or have a look at our article for more information!
5. Retro Games HQ, Swindon
I can remember Brandon nipping over to Swindon to speak to Pete, the owner of Retro Games HQ back in 2020 before a global pandemic locked the world down, and all he could talk about was how we had to go back there one day to do some more filming. He’s 100% right; this store set within Holmes Music is based on Pete’s lifelong love of Retro Gaming, and it certainly shows.
You can’t artificially recreate a love of Retro Gaming; it comes from Christmasses spent opening Donkey Kong 64 boxes and playing Spyro the Dragon in your new Toy Story pyjamas. For Pete, it began in the 70s and eventually led to working with handheld and tabletop games in the family shop. It’s something that he’s grown up around his entire life, and the sheer volume of media inside (as well as the multiple copies of Wind Waker that made me very happy on our last visit) means you’ll be staring at the cabinets longingly for hours on end.
With a mission statement of ‘if we haven’t got it, we can get it’ on the website, Retro Games HQ really does provide a headquarters for people on a mission to find the best and greatest items from retro gaming history. With CRT TVs, an Xbox 360 promotional cabinet, and an arcade cabinet area for players to relive the glory days of the gaming arcade, there’s no chance of getting bored while hanging out with Pete.
Pete doesn’t just stop at offering to get you whatever game you’re after either – Retro Games HQ repairs old discs, cartridges, and consoles too. They’re not just selling retro games, but they’re also making sure old media lives to see another day even when it’s on its last legs. We salute Pete for everything he’s done and continues to do within the retro space, and we urge anyone who is passing through Swindon to take a trip to Faringdon Road to pay him a visit!
