Computer shops in and around Leeds from the past.

majorhoundii · Post by **majorhoundii** » Sat 09 Nov, 2013 6:51 pm

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idai79 · Post by **idai79** » Sat 08 Feb, 2014 5:57 pm

I use to work in microbyte leeds

spainboy · Post by **spainboy** » Thu 20 Feb, 2014 8:01 pm

This was my saturday with my mate at the time back in about 1984.We used to get the 71 bus from Moortown into Leeds on a saturday morning when I was 12. Get off at Vicar Lane and walk upto the first (and the best) computer shop in The County Arcade called Microbyte. Reason we loved it as they always had the latest games loaded up on the screens and let the kids take the joystick and play it. I always remember a massive gathering of kids waiting to play,no one ever seemed to buy anything. We then walked up to Briggate through County arcade,turn right and there was Virgin Records,downstairs was the games section,another half an hour in there for me and my friend whilst he looked for new commodore 64 games and I looked at new ZX Spectrum games and also a free read of the computer mags. The next port of call was the Computer Store in Burtons arcade (where Trinity Arcade is now). I actually later worked in this shop full time when I was 18 and I always remember them installing a full size arcade driving game called Hard Drivin.After a year of doing this on most saturdays we got wind of a new computer shop opening,a stall in the indoor market,owner was called Derek and we got friendly with him and he let us play all the latest games for as long as we wanted. this soon became our favourite place to go. One day we turned up and he had gone as quick as he had arrived.After a few hours in town and now getting bored we would walk all the way to sheepscar to Micro power which is the big building with the clock where there is now a sort of bus terminal and a taxi rank. It was always a bit rubbish in here but we would always walk 1 mile from Leeds to visit this store before home. Finally time to catch the bus. A 10 minute walk to the bottom of Scott Hall Road (opposite where the BMW/Mini garage is now) and stand outside the old Brays Bakery factory (now volvo) getting our 15p ready to catch the bus back home.Saturdays were brilliant!!

Leodian · Post by **Leodian** » Thu 20 Feb, 2014 8:21 pm

When passing on Boar Lane a little over a week back I noticed a shop that was being converted into a men's clothing shop. The fading old Apple name and two apple icons caught my eye then, when the place still had a blue exterior colour. I did not have my camera then but did on February 18 2014 when I took the photo. The shop is between Toni & Guy and the Mint shops and I think has long been unused. If it ever was an Apple store I don't recall it so I wonder if anyone recalls if it was or was it ever a computer shop?

Leodian · Post by **Leodian** » Thu 20 Feb, 2014 8:26 pm

This is taken from Google Earth and shows the location of the then blue fronted shop in an October 2012 view. It does not seem to show the Apple name and apple icons but they may have been covered then.

jonleeds · Post by **jonleeds** » Thu 20 Feb, 2014 8:31 pm

Thanks Spainboy, thats the name I was looking for 'The Computer Store' that used to be at the bottom of the Travellators. I can remember I once bought a Citizen Dot Matrix printer from there. Like yourself and hundreds of others myself and my friends would follow a similar routine on Saturdays which involved touring the computer stores. Another favorite was Makro as they had a massive software collection for multiple computers as well as the hardware already powered up. We'd get the bus to near Elland Road then walk the mile or so under the Lowfields row tunnel then down Gelderd Road to get there. The staff werent bothered about us stood playing for hours, sometimes I'd buy the odd game as they had some good offers and I'd use my mums's works Makro card. Micropower at the bottom of Sheepscar was a bit lame as they mainly sold BBC Micro / Master and Acorn Electron computers - remember the MicroVitec Cub monitors with the bubble screens? They were manufactured a few miles away in Bradford. Apart from at school I didnt know anyone who had a BBC Micro or Master as they were fantastically expensive and the games were rather geeky and poorly designed, apart from 'Elite', Repton, Castle Quest and a few others. I did find myself snapping up loads of BBC Micro / Masters along with all the peripherals and software about 10-15 years ago as lots of schools were either throwing them out or selling them off at next to nothing prices. I went to a school jumble sale in Thorner and bought 10 BBC Micro computers with monitors and 2 BBC Masters plus monitors along with crates after crate of software, joysticks, miscellaneous peripherals including Modems / Digitisers / Robotic Turtles for LOGO programming etc plus hundreds of manuals / programming books, BeeBug user fanzines, magazines and BBC Computers for Schools Educational materials. There must have been over £10,000 worth of equipment at its original retail value. What did I pay for this booty that nobody wanted and it was still there at the end of the jumble sale? £16.50 - Un-be-lie-va-ble! Although I think the school just wanted rid of it and I was doing them a favour taking it away otherwise they'd have had to hire a skip to chuck it in which would have cost them. I've managed to dispose of most of the BBC stuff over the past decade and turned my £16 investment into over a grands worth of profit and everyone who bought a BBC Micro etc from me has been chuffed to bits to get one of their own as they all remember them from school. Plus the computers all had 'Property of Thorner School' and the Leeds postcode painted on them in white enamel paint, but some people see that as patina and a mark of provenance to use antique trade jargon.

spainboy · Post by **spainboy** » Fri 21 Feb, 2014 4:42 pm

Wow you got a good return on the BBC computers. I would have paid what you paid and more as well. I mean they are a bit of a collectors item now. The original rubber key ZX Spectrum is going for the same price now as it did back in 1982.I know we have all these consoles now,I even bought myself a PS4 but kids don't seem to be like they did 30 years ago. You dont see loads of kids huddled around a ps4 game in GAME store like they did in microbyte and similar stores of that era.We did go to Makro on a couple of occasions too,but only if my dad was going there especially, we never incorperated it with a city of Leeds computer shop circuit.I went to Makro about 6 months ago for the first time since the 80s. It used to be so hard to get a card back then but I got one just by ringing up. I couldnt believe it when I walked in. We were the only ones in there (except for one man) and it wasnt a patch of what it used to be like. They must have been threatened by Costco as that now is what Makro used to be like. I put the card in the bin when I got home.Cant think of any more computer stores in Leeds that we went to. I think we covered all the shops we used to go to.

jonleeds · Post by **jonleeds** » Fri 21 Feb, 2014 5:54 pm

Yes MicroByte and The Computer Store were probably the main independent computer software and hardware retailers in the 1980s. Additionally larger stores such as Boots, WH Smith and Virgin Records / HMV, Tandy, Woolworths all stocked a range of software on cassette tape and disc plus some hardware and consumables. Since then and through the 1990s to now there has been a bewildering range of retailers big and small who have come and gone catering for PC games / consoles - Game, Software Boutique, Computer Exchange, Computer Warehouse etc with some large companies operating via online sales only. There was a story of a young entrepreneur from Woodhouse I believe who started a highly successful online software retail enterprise which I think he sold out for millions to a larger company. I dont really look for games to buy new myself anymore, I'm too busy doing other things and I dont mind waiting until a couple of years have gone buy when I can pick up these machines and games for a fraction of the price if I want them at all. My latest console is a Playstation 2 for which I paid £20 over 2 years ago which came with 50 games...! I might think about buying a PS3 in about a years time when they too have also tumbled to rock bottom prices.

Leodian · Post by **Leodian** » Fri 21 Feb, 2014 7:15 pm

I wonder if anyone has had any thoughts yet as to what business used the premises that have the faded Apple name and apple icons (see my posts on Feb 20 2014). None of the descriptions in this interesting thread of where computer shops used to be seem to fit the one I am enquiring about. I hoped that the historical imagery facility in Google Street View may have helped but I don't seem to be able to get that facility to work for whatever reason. It may of course never have been a computer shop, but if so it seems odd that the Apple name and apple icons were used. Thanks for any thoughts.

jonleeds · Post by **jonleeds** » Fri 21 Feb, 2014 8:26 pm

Leodian, I dont recall there having been an Apple shop selling computers on Boar Lane in the past. Maybe it was some kind of short lived internet cafe or copy shop? Come to think of it I can remember there was a place close to this location on Boar Lane where I had some cut vinyl letters done about 10 years ago and these places used to like to use Apple Mac computers for desk top publishing and design work.