Tribute to Western City Hobby Shop (R.I.P.)

[fcgamer | 4,729]

I'm taking a break from my usual find page to make this post, as it's a bittersweet one. 

Earlier this week I received news that the so-called "dust shop" was closing down. From one point of view, it didn't really matter anymore, since it had been picked to the bone, anyways. On the other hand, I've known the shopkeeper for a 1/3 of my life, and have had many fond memories there.

From what I gather, the dust shop was initially opened likely sometime in the 80s, and it was a chain of shops. There were about three of these shops where I reside, one near where @OptOut lives, and a few scattered sporadically in the north and south of the island. From shop stickers found on pre-owned games, I can confirm only the existence of the three shops in my area, or perhaps a fourth if one of the locations wasn't just the one shop changing address.

The shop in its prime must have been what I dreamed of as a child, if it's current state could give us a glimpse into the past.

I found the shop around 2012, sometime shortly after moving to Taiwan. I was living in the countryside then, and had decided to take a bus up into the city that Saturday, just to look around. I really didn't know the place and had no objective, but I just wanted to get out of the apartment.

This day was different though, as I ended up walking around in the old section of town, and by 7pm my thoughts started going towards taking the bus back home. For whatever reason, I continued exploring the area near the bus station and I ended up in the "dust shop", a hobby and model shop.

As I first walked in the door, I saw nothing of particular interest, but then I spied a pile of bootleg Famicom cartridges scattered on the floor in the corner. There were hundreds of games - garden variety bootlegs, multicarts, Taiwanense originals, Mario hacks, etc. There were even some boxes Sachen games! Slightly over sat a large pile of Game Boy games, some Sega stuff (including porn titles). Everything was dirt cheap too back then, about $3 a game. I bought as much as I could, and then returned numerous times over the next few months. When my brother came to visit that year, we made sure to hit up that shop too. We also paid a visit to one of the south east Asian buildings (where the locals don't even dare to go), so my brother and I could buy Mountain Dew - Taiwan didn't officially get Mt Dew until 2016, so we were drinking the Philippines stuff!

I'd continue to go to that shop monthly, over the years, and if I noticed "new" items appearing on the shelves, I'd realise that the boss was going through his old stock and then I'd try to hit it up twice a month, so I could scoop up all the goodies he unearthed.

At this point I was still living in the countryside, it took about an hour to get to that shop, by bus. In the years that would follow, I had befriended the owner. He said that back in the 90s he had even travelled to Argentina, it was likely due to the whole bootleg toy thing.

From the first trip onwards, my brother would always request to visit the shop when he came to see me. As I mentioned earlier, the ride to the shop was long, so we'd each grab a can or two of Heineken and then just sit in the very back of the bus, talking and drinking, until it was time to get off. At this point the owner decided to get into making mango ice for a snack, so he'd always make us one when we visited.

As things finally started to dry up, the owner offered to take me across the street so that I could rummage through his "stock". I was only able to access this mythical place twice, and one was when I made a quick stop at the shop before heading byo the airport, so I didn't have room to fill up on goodies.

By 2016, things really dried up at the dust shop. This would be the same year that I met @OptOut, and I'd introduce him to the place sometime later.

This out the spark back into the dust shop, as we'd always stop by there if he came up to my area to game hunt. Then one day, when he came over, we decided to try to visit the mythical storage I had accessed previously. So I asked the boss about it, and although he didn't take us there, he gave us unfettered access to the whole third floor of his shop! While digging out games, we also had to fight silver fish, an unbearable heat, and all the clothes that his wife had hanging upstairs. And let's not get into the filth up there!

Although I've picked that shop clean years ago, in terms of my primary collecting focus, I'd usually stop by a few times a year to say hi to the shopkeeper and to look around. I'm really sad to see this shop go, even though it's been in a state of decay for several years now. 

I made one final visit tonight, let's see what I got...

Edited July 9, 2021 by fcgamer

[fcgamer | 4,729]

Here's what I grabbed tonight from the shop, not gonna say what I paid but I think I did alright.

First up are some Sega Saturn cards. I'm a sucker for dodgy video game items with Chinese text, so these were a must.

I then grabbed some SFC and Sega bootlegs. Run Saber is one of those SNES games that was never released in Japan for the Super Famicom, which makes that bootleg interesting.

Then there's a Taiwanense second controller for Lethal Enforcers.

I grabbed these two Sega Saturn games as they're new - one to perhaps open one day, the other for the archives.

Then there's some PlayStation stuff. The one is a demo disc, the other two are bootlegs.

I also grabbed some Game Boy bootlegs. I might already have a few of these, I need to double check. I like the way they attempted to "localise" the games by adding Chinese text to the boxes.

And there's two Game Boy multicarts, CIB. There's also a CIB Game Gear multicart.

Speaking of Game Gear, I think I'm jumping in head first towards a full set. I grabbed some bootlegs, but then I also grabbed a TON of licensed releases. These aren't mint, though technically they are brand new.

Finally, I found these two bootleg Mario wallets. I'm keeping one for myself and the other goes to me man @OptOut, if he wants it. It would go nicely with the bootleg shirts he has.

Edited July 8, 2021 by fcgamer

[Mega Tank | 964]

Click bait much? It's a store with memories sure, but don't title it like you lost a relative or friend. Get out of here with this crap title for a store.

 

I legitimately thought @OptOutpassed away with this horrible title.

Edited July 8, 2021 by Mega Tank

[fcgamer | 4,729]

1 minute ago, Mega Tank said:

Click bait much? It's a store with memories sure, but don't title it like you lost a relative or friend. Get out of here with this crap title for a store.

Well actually I did sort of lose a friend, don't think I'll be seeing the kindly shopkeeper much if anytime at all anymore. 

On a different note, you should lighten up a bit. This place meant a lot to a lot of us. If you have a problem, take it to a DM, don't clutter up my thread. 

[Mega Tank | 964]

Just now, fcgamer said:

Well actually I did sort of lose a friend, don't think I'll be seeing the kindly shopkeeper much if anytime at all anymore. 

On a different note, you should lighten up a bit. This place meant a lot to a lot of us. If you have a problem, take it to a DM, don't clutter up my thread. 

See my edit. I thought @OptOutpassed away with such a click bait title.

[fcgamer | 4,729]

5 minutes ago, Mega Tank said:

I legitimately thought @OptOutpassed away with this horrible title.

Well that explains your attitude a bit more, I guess, but posting it in the finder's forum? What did I do then, ransack his house?

[Mega Tank | 964]

1 minute ago, fcgamer said:

Well that explains your attitude a bit more, I guess, but posting it in the finder's forum? What did I do then, ransack his house?

It's been a crap year to throw up a title like that. Edit your title, if not for me, for abyone else that might thnk Opty or an actual friend you has passed away. You know better.

[fcgamer | 4,729]

Just now, Mega Tank said:

It's been a crap year to throw up a title like that. Edit your title, if not for me, for abyone else that might thnk Opty or an actual friend you has passed away. You know better.

Well you know what the most ironic part of the whole situation is? The thread title is actually the opening line to a song I had written, back around March or April (and no that song's not about suicide of anything like that, before someone starts going down that road).

So the title wasn't purposefully clickbaity, neither should there have been any "knowing better" on my part, given the circumstances.

I understand your viewpoint and concerns, but at the same time I feel I and whoever cares about that shop should be able to grieve for it and memorialize it.

[DefaultGen | 5,411]

I still thought Optout was dead. @OptOut give us a sign  

[OptOut | 8,889]

1 minute ago, DefaultGen said:

I still thought Optout was dead. @OptOut give us a sign  

[fcgamer | 4,729]

^^^^That's an imposter 

[Reed Rothchild | 9,546]

RIP Opty.  I'll do my best to fill your void by being a rude asshole.

[YOURTURN | 1,256]

[FenrirZero enters the topic wearing a Hugh Jackman-style tux]

Gosh, it disturbs me to see you fcgamer
Looking so down in the dumps
Every guy here'd love not to be you, fcgamer!
Especially when taking your dumps
There's are others here more admired than you
You're everyone's tolerable guy
Everyone's awed and offended by you
And it's not very hard to see why...

No one's rude like fcgamer
No one's wit is quick as fcgamer
No one's head's as incredibly thick as fcgamer
For there's no man in this forum half as salty

...Oh wait...

I was supposed to cheer you up, and not do a high production roasting. 

Carry on! 

[Deadeye | 1,596]

R.I.P my eyeballs that we frantically looking for the mention who passed away to no avail.   

Much better with the new title

Edited July 8, 2021 by Deadeye
Ah!

[MegaMan52 | 2,450]

Yeah, I know the feeling...

I started going to this store in 2001. It used to be my go-to store for NES games in the early 2000's, and they used to let me play NES games there (like Mega Man 4 and Pac-Mania) even if I didn't buy. However, they closed last year after 33 years of business. Covid was only part of the problem. The big problem was that, 2 years ago, they moved to a crappy location downtown (shown in this video) which essentially killed the store. Even the owner acknowledged that moving to the newer location was a mistake.

Anyway, nice pickups.

Edited July 8, 2021 by MegaMan52

[Tanooki | 4,936]

Sad. Can slightly relate as I had a situation like that back west cultivated from years of regular visits and buys too. Instead of actual store death the owner as a person died and replaced by pure paranoid hate filled scum. Either way I get it. 
 

amazing stuff though.  Jelly about the Gameboy multi carts as they’re always fun with the surprises found each time. Hopefully more for you and not doubles. 
 

I did pm you the other day about something when you have time.  I’ll need to figure it all out so things can be taken care of one way or the other.  

[Tulpa | 3,510]

7 hours ago, fcgamer said:

Well that explains your attitude a bit more, I guess, but posting it in the finder's forum? What did I do then, ransack his house?

People do accidentally post to the wrong forum, and the front forum page with the latest posts doesn't say which forum the thread is in. Couple that with the news about Taiwan and what not...

Just be glad people care about @OptOut  and you for that matter.

Edited July 8, 2021 by Tulpa

[fcgamer | 4,729]

47 minutes ago, Tulpa said:

Couple that with the news about Taiwan and what not...

While I do genuinely appreciate the concern, I think yesterday we had like 18 cases here, max. Even at its peak, the number of cases for covid per day was no where near places that are currently doing "well" and opening up.

[Hammerfestus | 3,852]

Sorry about your game store.  I want to hear the song though.  Pretty please.

[croagunk | 798]

Nice pickups! Sorry the store is closing. That sucks.

[Dr. Morbis | 2,089]

On 7/8/2021 at 1:49 PM, MegaMan52 said:

Yeah, I know the feeling...

I started going to this store in 2001. It used to be my go-to store for NES games in the early 2000's, and they used to let me play NES games there (like Mega Man 4 and Pac-Mania) even if I didn't buy. However, they closed last year after 33 years of business. Covid was only part of the problem. The big problem was that, 2 years ago, they moved to a crappy location downtown (shown in this video) which essentially killed the store. Even the owner acknowledged that moving to the newer location was a mistake.

Anyway, nice pickups.

HOLY SHIT!  I had no idea you were an Albertan.  I'd been going to Games & Music since 2001 and have had many many good finds over the years.  And up until he retired, I almost always had long conversations with the owner, Glen,  whenever I went there.  In fact, us Calgary folk all called the store "Glens."  Last year when his grandson told me they were moving, I knew they were done, but it's not something you can say to a business-owners face.

Did Glen ever show you his secret stash of games he kept in a closet in the back? Oh man, if you only knew some of the NES CIB's I pulled out of there...

[MegaMan52 | 2,450]

31 minutes ago, Dr. Morbis said:

Did Glen ever show you his secret stash of games he kept in a closet in the back? Oh man, if you only knew some of the NES CIB's I pulled out of there...

No, he never showed me. But I knew there was more to that place than meets the eye.

Also, I sold a GameCube game to a guy a month or two ago who said he used to work in the back at Games Music fixing consoles.

Edited July 10, 2021 by MegaMan52