While visiting a friend in Portland Oregon for about a week, I discovered a few cool and fun places to checkout.
First I discovered the Valhalla of game stores, Guardian Games. Guardian Games is Awesome; I believe the biggest store I’ve seen in my time, and I’m no spring chicken. It’s over 10,000 square feet and currently employs 16 people. The place holds thousands of games. There are board games, card games, tabletop roleplaying games, video games, used and new games of all variety. It is a gamer’s heaven.
You might be thinking it’s an exaggeration to call it the Valhalla of game stores. But let me just say the place is not only huge with lots of glorious games, but there is beer, pizza, and yes even girls there as well. So if you happen to be in the Portland area, give it a shot. http://www.ggportland.com
Astoria
Anyone remember that movie that starred Sean Astin and Corey Feldman in the ’80s called The Goonies? It was and still is a fun flick! Well about an hour and 45 minutes away from Portland is the town where the movie was filmed, Astoria. It’s a beautiful small town situated next to the Columbia River –a freaking huge river by the way. While there with some friends, I found this nice little game store called Purple Cow Toys. At first glance I thought the store was a plush doll store and one of my good buddies, Justin, wanted to go in. So we forced my reluctant friend, Joshua, to join us. He so didn’t want to be caught dead there, that is, until he entered the store. Once we dragged him into the store we found a place full of games and cute-fun knickknacks. The store owner, Katie Murray–a kind-friendly soul—allows her customers to feel right at home.
For a little shop, one can get lost in the minutia of objects to examine. For example, the guys and I were totally exploring all the cool stuff in there, from such things as bubble pipes to nostalgic action figures, like Corey Feldman from the Goonies. While exploring the store we were greeted by a friendly store employee, Ashlee, who knew more about games than us three super-nerds. Thus I discovered that the store is not just a store for kids; there are games there that adults can enjoy as well. Upon leaving I bought Munchkin: Loot Letter—check out my review here—and had an eager desire to buy Sneaky Cards: Play It Forward but unfortunately they were sold out. Nevertheless, Ashlee promised to have more in stock later. My overall impression: Awesome little game store! We’ll call Purple Cow Toys, Li’l-Valhalla.
So as if discovering Li’l-Valhalla wasn’t cool enough that day, I asked Ashlee if she knew of any local comic book stores. She sent us on the path to a shop just two blocks away. There I found a time machine! “Yeah right,” you say. No really I did–see the picture of me and the TARDIS.
Well, apparently the machine took me back to the ’80s, or maybe it was the scarf. Anyhow, yes there were comic books there, but there were also old video games there as well. You remember them right? The ones where you use quarters… In this place of time warping, I saw Joust, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Street Fighter, Dragon’s Lair (yeah that crazy cartoon game), and numerous other old school video game goodness! To my amazement, there was also a small twenty-first century time bubble where I saw kids playing some strange new video games, such as Witcher III.
Perhaps the greatest part about this arcade was that it appeared to me as a SAFE hangout for kids! Let’s just put it this way, back in the early ’90s, I hated working security at the arcade in my hometown. But this place was different; the kids at the ARC Arcade were polite and courteous. On second thought, maybe they were just respecting the elderly-old goof offs…
Sometime after my time warp adventure, I returned to 2016 in Portland, Oregon—keep in mind, some might argue Portland is stuck in a ’90s time bubble: consider the show Portlandia. There, my friend Justin and I discovered a secret basement comic book shop called Future Dreams. The shop was located in a basement under a metal warehouse building. Discovering this place kind of felt like finding a cool rave–at least from a geek’s perspective. To my joy, the place was packed with comics (new and old), collectibles, old books, and a few old-school RPGs. Not going to mention what’s there, I’m hoping to return and buy it all for myself Mwahahaha… As fun and awesome as it was to be in this shop, I have to admit, I felt a little claustrophobic in there, being that it was a basement packed with many flammable objects (paper products).
Ending my adventures in the Portland area, I discovered another game store in Portland: Games Workshop. If you’re a table-top gamer and/or like to buy and paint miniatures, this is your place. And the owner there paints his miniatures beautifully!
Well that’s it for now, friends. I’ll keep you updated as I travel time and space to bring you the best in Geekdom throughout the cosmos!
Adam Lee
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