Oriental 188 Shopping Arcade

While wanchai computer center is a place of fond childhood memory, this is my new found love. Located right next to where i work before, 188 is the place solely dedicated to high tech stuffs, animé and manga related items and most importantly video games!
Since I could only play games on the computer, I could not fully appreciate what joy it would be for a hardcore gamer who has multiple consoles at home to see shops after shops selling games for playstation, xbox or wii.
Nonetheless, I was beaming with glee when I see vintage taiwanese games that was sold ages ago still available in some of the shops; i was surrounded by fond memories and excitement. Since many of those games come in series, I was so tempted to buy the entire series home and play them one by one!
Yes, i know~ this rush of jubilee is only for nerds and geeks, yet i believe there’s a nerd in every single one of us; come to 188 and let the video games revive the geek lie within you!

Geeks and nerds might better understand my enthusiasm when I say there is a building with four stories dedicated to computer and video games in Wan Chai. If they haven’t heard of it before they may even be skeptical, I was. However, the skepticism was blown away in the first minute of my first visit to the computer centre, commonly known as ‘188’.
It’s about a ten minute walk the from Wan Chai mtr along Wan Chai road, not a deterrence in the least. When I first set foot in the place, some twelve years ago now, it was filled with copy games, shady characters, and darting glances. Over the years, for better or worse, 188 has cleaned up its act. Now the numerous shops sell the real thing. I don’t know if there is a division between floors, if there is it is not obvious as each floor has a bit of everything. Game consoles, computer games, video games, both new and second hand, and accessories for the consoles. I’ll go out on a limb and say that buying things from here is safe as long as you keep the receipt. With the fakes and shady characters gone so to has those trying to cheat young naïve nerds. Mixed in there is a fair amount of adult stores that make me wonder, is there a correlation between gamers and people that purchase from adult stores? Some mysterious are better left unsolved.
However, my most recent visits are to the ground floor where they have a printing station that can print almost anything on anything. Pretty amazing. As age has crept up on me my visits are more to do with work than pleasure. I still pop up to the floors above to see what new Playstation is around, or which computer game is sending the younger generations mad with loss of sleep.