* Previously appeared in Kakumei magazine (July 2002)
** Previously appeared in the Shoujocon 2002 Guide to New York City
4 West 33rd Street
Jim Hanley's Universe
New York, NY 10001
212-268-7088
http://www.JHUniverse.com
B/D/F/N/Q/R/S/W to 34th Street, 1/2/3 to Penn Station
I love this place. I could say sheer perfection, but that would be stretching it. Comics heaven is a good way to describe it, though I personally don't recommend a name change. It's everything a good comics shop should be. They carry everything. Check your Previews catalogue, you'll find it on these shelves. Can't find something? Ask the staff and they can help, whether it means pointing you in the right direction or digging through stacks in their basement. Don't know what to read? They can recommend some good books. Just being in this place is a breath of fresh air. It's clean, brightly lit, all the kids' stuff is in the front and the porn in the back. You can take your significant other, children, or parents there without being embarrassed by your hobby. But there's no time to be ashamed in JHU, as this place is always full of interesting people, including all brands of geek and even some creators. Check it out on a Friday night, you'll be surprised who you run into. I like to just be there and see who wanders in next. And sometimes I buy something. As I said, comics heaven. - KN
200 West 40th Street 2nd Floor
Midtown Comics
New York, NY
212-302-8192
http://www.midtowncomics.com
A/C/E/N/Q/R/S/W/1/2/3/7 to Times Square, B/D/F to 42nd Street
Tucked away on the second floor, you will find the small door squeezed in next to the subway entrance; this obscurity lends the place an air of uniqueness that makes it special for comic fans. Climb the stairs and find yourself in a large, somewhat empty room, reminiscent of a convention not-quite-full. T-shirt racks on one side, the back issue bins in the middle and a wall of new stuff from all ends of the spectrum. Their collection is rather impressive, old issues galore of mainstream titles and even a few of the alternative. Their prices are reasonable, and they even offer credit for regular customers. Midtown is a cozy little hideaway for businessmen and tourists, and a good place for old-time comics fans. - KN
New York, NY 10003 6 to Astor Place, N/R to 8th Street |
Brooklyn, NY 11201 M/N/R/2/3/4/5 to Court Street-Borough Hall |
New York, NY 10007 1/2/3 to Chambers Street |
15 Elizabeth Street
Elizabeth Center/"Elizabeth Street Mall"
New York, NY
J/M/N/Q/R/W/Z/6 to Canal Street
You can walk on Elizabeth Street a hundred times and never notice this place. Just a storefront, next door to the NYPD 5th Precinct, it's not really noticable, either. But if you know where it is, and what it is, the place almost equals heaven. A bank of escalators leads down into the basement: a warren of small stores and passageways. Half sell Chinese cosmetics, statues, bits of jewelry. The other half sell videogames. Aside from Main Street, in Queens, this is the single greatest concentration of import videogame places in NYC. You can, of course, find the American-released games here, too, but why bother. You can find the same games, cheaper, and with a decent return policy, at Toys 'R Us or Software Etc., or wherever. But if you need an actual untranslated game, straight from Japan, here's your place. Other cubicles stock "fansubbed" videos of anime and Asian movies, which can't really be bought anywhere else. Yet others have piles and piles of Japanese models of anime robots, and action figures. Elizabeth Street Mall, the name by which it's commonly known, is an obscure place, granted, and very much a niche-filling one, but there really are no better places in the U.S. for that one elusive copy of the latest dating simulator game, straight from Japan and pricetag in yen still attached. - MK
6 St. Mark's Place
Kim's Video
212-505-0311
6 to Astor Place, N/R to 8th Street
A three-story shrine to cult media in the heart of Greenwich Village, Kim's is the place to go for all your weird and obscure movie or music needs. The ground level is a dark haven for used CDs both rare and common, but the upper levels are where the store really stands out. The second floor houses the DVD and video sales, and the selection includes imports from Asia and the U.K. in addition to the cult stuff produced here in the states. Fansubs are also to be bought, though they can be found cheaper less than twenty blocks south in Chinatown. Third floor is rentals, abundant with titles you'll never find in your local Blockbuster. - KN
11 East 33rd Street
The Compleat Strategist
New York, NY 10016
212-685-3880
6 to 33rd Street, B/D/F/N/Q/R/V/W to 34th Street
Remember the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, when they put the Ark away in that huge warehouse with all those other boxes? If you encounter this small storefront tucked away in a rather non-descript building, and dare to open the door, you may find yourself suddenly reminded of it. Shoppers will find themselves dwarfed by wall-to-wall shelves of gamebooks, figurines, dice, and even traditional board games. This is place to find that obscure sourcebook that went out of print back in junior-high school, or a little die-cast Saxon to complete your campaign. I admit to not being a gamer persay, but still enjoy browsing through their massive collection of board games. This place is just cool by sheer intimidation. - KN
New York, NY 10003 212-979-7678 www.gamestop.com N/R to 8th Street, A/C/E/F/V to West 4th Street |
New York, NY 10001 212-967-9070 www.gamestop.com B/D/F/N/Q/R/V/W to 34th Street |
There are six locations in Manhattan, these are two located in popular shopping neighborhoods of Manhattan. Both stores are fairly cramped spaces, but it's only in the 33rd Street store where you'd really care. Perpetually crowded, getting in and out can be a major operation. The register is an island in the dead center, so getting on line is a real hazard at points. Their stock mostly consists of used console games, with a wall dedicated to computer titles. A good swath of floor space is given up to the action figure racks. Software Etc. is generally not afraid to mark down toy merchandise, so if you're looking for figures this is the place to go. The store down on 8th Street has a smaller selection of figures, relegated to a few small racks near the front or the registers. They carry a large selection of new console games in addition to old, as well as the obligatory massive wall o' PC games. The big plus to this branch is that it never really gets too crowded, mostly spillover crowds from St. Mark's Place or the nearby universities. - KN
New York, NY, 10012 212-473-6571 www.ebgames.com N/R to 8th Street, A/C/E/F/V to West 4th Street |
New York, NY 10001 212-564-4156 www.ebgames.com B/D/F/N/Q/R/V/W to 34th Street |
Existing almost as a counterpoint to the Software Etc. branches in NYC are the Electronics Boutiques of the city. Located less than a block from their competition, EB does a few paces around their more visible counterparts. The branch in Manhattan Mall carries a good selection of accessories and used games, despite a very limited space. The major drawback to the store is its miniscule size, the accessible location serving to pack the space with even more eager customers. The back section of the store is also a perpetual mess, stacks of action figures and computer equipment left on the floor in disarray. The store down in the Village is a Bizzaro version of the Midtown branch. A nice open area in the middle, the toys neatly piled into a bin in the back. Usually not very crowded, so browsing is easy and lines are almost non-existent. Because traffic is so light the selection tends to be better as well, making that hard-to-get game not so hard-to-get. - KN
16 St. Mark's Place
Multimedia 1.0
New York, NY 10003
6 to Astor Place, N/R to 8th Street
OK, say you want to buy a PlayStation. Easy enough, just walk to your corner K-Mart or EBX, put down the money, pick up the box. But what if you, being just plain odd, or asleep for the last seven years, want a Genesis or SNES. Even more, what if you, being just REALLY weird, or asleep for the last fifteen, need an Atari 2600 or Intellivision. This is where Multimedia 1.0 comes in. I don't know whether their marquee simply hasn't been changed in that long, or whether it's intended to create the effect, but it proudly lists all of these obscure systems most of us don't *know*, much less remember: Atari 2600, ColecoVision, the TurboGrafx 16. And the thing is, they are actually sold here, along with the games! Otherwise, the inventory is fairly generic, and generally overpriced, but just for those ancient relics alone, the place deserves mention. - MK
9 Mott Street
Chinatown Fair
New York, NY 10013
J/M/Z to Chambers Street, 4/5/6 to Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall
New York City lacks one thing: a proper 25-cents-per-game arcade. There's a couple in Flushing, another one in Bay Terrace - but where the f*ck IS Bay Terrace? Enter Chinatown Arcade - which technically has a name, but is never referred to by it. Looks like it's been there for a while, too. An L-shaped space goes off into the middle of the block, games along all the walls. Most types of game seem to be pretty well-represented - fighters, 2-D shooters, puzzles and light-gun games, with a "classics" section near the front. The gamers are overwhelmingly Asian, probably about 10% black and Hispanic from the nearby projects, an occasional whiteboy. All in a general atmosphere of friendly competition and general happiness - just another one of those places that makes NYC easy to get through when you're feeling like taking hostages and shooting them one by one. Why bother, when you can do same with space aliens, all for a quarter a pop! - MK
36-30 Main Street
Entertainment World
Flushing, NY 11358
7 to Main Street
Amidst the many shops lining Main Street between Roosevelt Ave and Northern Boulevard, there is a small arcade. It won't jump out at you from the street, or even from the sidewalk out front; but all the local gamers know it's there. Its window is often adorned with posters of current or soon-to-be-released movies, preventing much visibility either in or out. Inside however, are arcade machines lining both sides running the gammut from the newest releases to coin-op classics and pinball. Their prices are fair, the newest games ringing in at $0.75/play at most, and classic games offering a couple of extra lives on a single coin. The room is well lit, and with enough room to move around even when the place is at its busiest. They also change their machines every few months, keeping a good rotation of games in at all times. - RM
234 W. 42nd Street
easyEverything
New York, NY
www.easyeverything.com
A/C/E/N/R/S/W/1/2/3/7 to Times Square
Advertising itself at "the world's biggest internet cafe," and sporting
some 800 screens on two levels (and a Fire Department-mandated maximum
occupancy of 755), easyEverything truly is a new breed of internet access
facility. The place is HUGE - a former store or warehouse, and minimalist. to
the extreme. The color scheme is all oranges and whites, with long rows of
flat-screen monitors lining up the wooden partitions, a register and
coffee/snack counter in the front. Open 24 hours, it also presents a rather
interesting pricing schedule: computer time, while costing a minimum of a
dollar, increases or decreases in price depending on how many people are using
the machines. At five in the morning, for example, when there are all of ten
people in the store, a dollar gets you two hours; some six hours earlier,
access time in the packed cafe ran at 20 minutes to the dollar. The spartan
decor - identical wooden chairs, flat screen Samsung monitors, a bare minimum
of software, signify that this is a budget place, primarily for an all
nighter, or at least several hours, rather than a few minutes of leisurely
browsing. Its location, though, is perfect, and all I can say is that
easyEverything is an important addition to New York City's already incredible
night life. - MK
28 Elizabeth Street
J&L Game Trading Inc.
New York, NY
212-233-3399
J/M/N/Q/R/W/Z/6 to Canal Street
Most consider this to be the best gaming store in New York, and they're probably right. Lots of domestic and import games to be found here, including the expensive deluxe editions that are only sold overseas and most of us only dream about. The store can get pretty crowded, which can be annoying. But it also means that the clerks are generally devoid of any of the condension that often occurs when non-Asians enter a Chinese establishment. The staff is rather pleasant and knowledgeable. - KN
4 Stuyvesant Street
Sunrise Mart
212-598-3040
New York, NY
6 to Astor Place, N/R to 8th Street
Its location on the second floor makes this supermarket easy to miss, but being in the heart of Greenwich Village means that the store is frequented by a great deal of students, reducing the awkwardness of not being Japanese in these situations. These bonuses just add on to a great package: Sunrise Mart carries a large selection of Japanese foods and especially snacks, their prices are cheap to decent, and they are remarkably clean. - KN
37 Mott Street
Aji Ichiban
212-233-7650
J/M/N/Q/R/W/Z/6 to Canal Street
A wonderful little sweet shop specializing in dried fruit, this place is somewhat expensive but they *do* offer FREE samples. - KN
75 Mott Street
Ten Ren Tea and Ginseng Co.
212-349-2286
J/M/N/Q/R/W/Z/6 to Canal Street
Clean, brightly lit, with one of the best selections of tea I've ever seen, on which they usually offer two-for-one specials. The more adventurous might try their tea lessons, training courses offered roughly once a month to those willing to devote the time and money. - KN
7 Mott Street
Kam Kuo
212-349-3097
J/M/N/Q/R/W/Z/6 to Canal Street
One of the many supermarkets lurking on the side streets of Chinatown, this one gets props for being brightly lit, well-stocked, and decently priced. They have a nice wide snack aisle that carries a large variety of candy in addition to the immortal Pocky, as well as lots of dried fruit and chip-relatives. Their location on the edge of the neighborhood allows for easy access without dealing with massive crowds, double bonus for being across the street from the Chinatown Arcade. - KN
233 West 42nd Street
Sanrio Store
212-840-6011
A/C/E/N/Q/R/S/W/1/2/3/7 to Times Square, B/D/F to 42nd Street
A color-coordinated haven of cuteness among the glitz of 42nd Street, the Sanrio Store is worth a look just for the sheer novelty of the thing. Usually crammed full of overpriced merchandise and Asian tourists, this store is almost a twisted mirror image of the many boutiques that litter Chinatown, offering bootlegs of the same merchandise. Oddly enough, the licensed store also carries some of the more quirky inventory, and you may find yourself walking out with a Hello Kitty shower cap. - KN
58 Mott Street
Wah Kue & Co.
New York, NY
212-226-1494
J/M/N/Q/R/W/Z/6 to Canal Street
A rather dark little store that sells a lot of model kits and LEGOs, at a nice discount from the more commercial places like Toys R Us. They take credit cards, which is a plus. Even if you're not planning to spend money it is worth stopping by to look in the windows, which often feature a complex display of completed models from the stock inside. - KN
9 Elizabeth Street
UNET Inc.
New York, NY
212-625-8235
J/M/N/Q/R/W/Z/6 to Canal Street
Less than a stone's throw from Elizabeth Center, this place specializes in stationery and toys. While their selection in those areas is less than stellar, they also sell lots of wall scrolls and laminated posters, so go here for all your decorating needs. - KN