The Games Room

Someone who saw this on Twitter told me that the street (and the shop) had been used as a set for the film version of Gaiman's Stardust. Photos here:

www.flickr.com/photos/martinrp/sets/72157600333332635/

Elm Hill is also in an episode of Lovejoy, which is far cooler obvs

What is it with wayward longtimers popping back in lately?

I am lucky that 5 of the 6 games stores that I have been a regular customer of are still going with 3 still in their original location. It is weird that they all served different purposes for me (2 got me into gaming, one was near my school, one got me in to miniatures, and 2 have gaming space and organised play).

MattDP wrote: Someone who saw this on Twitter told me that the street (and the shop) had been used as a set for the film version of Gaiman's Stardust. Photos here:

www.flickr.com/photos/martinrp/sets/72157600333332635/

I love that movie. Right up there with Princess Bride for me.

Yeah Claire Danes is great in that

Thank you for this article! I lived in Norwich back in 2002. Reading this brought back my memories of the City and Elm Hill especially where I used to go to a bookshop. Unfortunately, I must have ignored the Games Room as I was not into board games back then. What a pity! Have you forwarded this article to Duncan somehow?

Rombrandt wrote: Thank you for this article! I lived in Norwich back in 2002. Reading this brought back my memories of the City and Elm Hill especially where I used to go to a bookshop. Unfortunately, I must have ignored the Games Room as I was not into board games back then. What a pity! Have you forwarded this article to Duncan somehow?

Thanks for letting me know - so glad you enjoyed it.

I have indeed sent the article on to Duncan via Facebook.

Shellhead wrote: ...

When I got into rpgs in my teens, I went to The Boardroom for all my shopping. Jerry (Gerry?) Hunter was friendly and knowledgeable about his products, but always left me with the impression that he didn't actually play any of these games. Maybe he was a closet war gamer. During my first year on the school newspaper, I interviewed him for a story about D&D, about a year before it became a big cultural phenomenon. Eventually a hippie woman started a competing store (The Game Preserve), in a converted cottage on a hill in the hipster section of town. Her cats wandered about the store. Her location was more convenient for me, but I still gave some of my business to Jerry.

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I'm pretty sure Jerry was either a wargamer or historical miniatures player if he played anything at all. There are now four Game Preserve stores about Indiana. The one here in Bloomington has a storefront on the square and a couple of gaming rooms in the basement of the building they are in. They sometimes rent other rooms in the building if they are having a larger gaming event. They do GW, Magic, Battletech, and Clix stuff mostly.

Common Room Games is the other store currently in town. They have about nine or so gaming tables in the store area and a couple of private rooms you can rent. The private rooms are where our gang meets once a month for miniatures gaming.

Superb article, summing up exactly my experience and feelings about The Games Room. I was a regular there plying my Magic card trades. It was when Duncan's father was still in charge. I wonder what happened to some of the other names like Steve Danell.

Steve, the bloke who wasn't from Norfolk.