Microplay Gaming, Glasgow

http://www.microplaygaming.com/

Hey dudes.

I've never been big on gaming, but an old school good friend of mine is about to open this store in the old Missing Records shop on Oswald St, Im off to sneak a peak tonight, if there's any questions I should ask him over the next week fire them in here.

Im not exactly sure what goes on, I think there's loads of PC's and servers and shit and you just well, play games? Like a big LAN party? Like we used to do with DOOM on school lunchbreaks?!

Im not sure when it opens, will post back on how its looking when I get home!

[Crystal Mighty]

Hah I'm not going out to get my ass kicked in public

[poprock]

Good luck to ’em.

Apparently Nintendo and Sony are both planning to set up wi–fi points in game stores for DS and PSP users respectively to stand in the shops and play demos of forthcoming games. Sony call the ability Game Sharing, not sure what Ninty call it. I can’t really imagine it being a great idea — put them in cafés, pubs, and gaming centres like this one, and I’d expect it to work out better.

[Posh]

Go big Frasey boy!

Originally Posted by Toe

Im not exactly sure what goes on, I think there's loads of PC's and servers and shit and you just well, play games? Like a big LAN party? Like we used to do with DOOM on school lunchbreaks?!

We spent school lunch breaks writing gay pornography in order to frame the kids we didn't like and force them to move school, dude.

[poprock]

You had Doom at school. How young are you? We played a QBasic game called Gorillas where you threw atomic bananas at each other by typing in the angle and strength of throw, in 16 radiant colours.

Hah! It’s freeware, and it’s here.

[PapaZeb]

We played text-based games in school back at Battlefield Primary...christ...85-86ish. No wonder I turned out the way I am, whole classroom crowded around one another yelling "type LOOK" "type USE ROPE"

[poprock]

Heh. I was talking about sixth form there … we had Elite running on our BBC Micro at school before being old enough to be let near the five PCs in the fancy room. And Chuckie Egg.

Remember Oregon Trail?
“Rob has died of dysentry.” Arse!

[Zero]

I think this should be pretty successful. There are tons of them in Australia (mainly full of Japanese kids). I guess it'll be mainly used by people who can't afford a high-spec PC or broadband at home.

I think Scapegoat talked about setting one up ages ago.

[PapaZeb]

There's very very little profit margin in LAN stores, it's rough. Gotta keep the employees to minimum, charge a fair amount for time and access, and keep all software licensed (the licensing and upgrading basically kills 'em - which can be noted in the book A Big Boy Did It And Ran Away, which bases a LAN gaming store on Victoria Road just across from the Queens Park Cafe - which closes due to licensing and upgrading)

if yer gonna run it on the DL with no software licenses...tut-tut, but you'll make some profit.

There's about 20places here in Vegas I can name of, that tend to close and get bought by folks on a near 6-month routine. The only thing I can suggest adding to the games selection would probably be RTSs like StarCraft or WarCraft III - those are *very* popular amongst folks willing to spend 1-2quid an hour to play a computer all day long.

[Rev Scapegoat]

I was trying to get "gaming nights" put on in EasyEverything, and I did consider trying to set up an actual LAN venue - But the costs of rent and gear proved exremely prohibitive.


Will check this one out for sure though.

[Quiz Bhoy]

You had computers at primary???? Christ we only got BBC Micros at Secondary School!

Guys, I was in tonight, it's looking fuckin sweet. They've been up and down the country at various centres already, and are pretty confident this is gonna be kick ass.

Actually, it's advertised as the biggest gaming centre in the uk, cause its got 32 pc's, think the closest other has 28.

ANYWAY, he's asked me for some advice, to speak to folk in the know, the kids if you will.

Im gonna help him sort some promotions, flyer the catty unders, game fests, online, get folk in.

I'm totally shattered tonight, but I'll type some shit up here tomorrow.

I suggested a launch night for the likes of forumers on here, like they do in hairdressers etc, with some champagne and shit, get our game on!

Will update tomorrow, but seriously, Im quite proud, it's looking really really good.

[Posh]

Originally Posted by Poprock

You had Doom at school. How young are you?

I dunno. How old are you?

In all seriousness, Doom 2 came out 11 years ago. How could I not have been playing it in high school?

Here Posh, I jumped in to see the place last night, its looking good! (it's nout to do with Fraser btw, it's Andy!)

God, I remember it became a novelty, I remember going between the music department and the computing department at lunchtimes. Basically wherever the chicks were at the time.

Ah the good old RISC OS, amazing haha!

[UncleDave]

Originally Posted by Posh

I dunno. How old are you?

In all seriousness, Doom 2 came out 11 years ago. How could I not have been playing it in high school?

11 years ago, I was in my final year at university. I blame computer games for my 3rd class honours.

Cheers!