New Retro Gaming Store Coming To The Triangle

With the Retro Gaming Community booming and gamers wanting to go back to the days when gaming was all about having fun and great gameplay, without the over-reliance on graphics and sound. In the Raleigh/Durham area, there’s a new gaming store in town.

In Wake Forest, NC, Magpie, and Crow will have their grand opening on Saturday, August 19th from Noon-10 PM. The owners, Alec Featherstone and Adele Edwards decided to finally open up a physical store, after years of selling on eBay and at various conventions.

Not only there are video games (both vintage and recent), there are geek memorabilia such as Comic Books, Cards featuring YuGiOh, Beyblade, and Pokémon, DVDs, VHS, Blu-Rays, Toys, and various other vintage memorabilia that take you back to when life was simple.

They even have PC CD-ROM/DOS games in addition to obscure gaming systems such as the Sega Saturn, Neo Geo, Philips CD-I (CD-Interactive), and Sega Master System. Featherstone and Edwards opened this gaming store to share their passions for gaming and nerd culture.

“Alec has done this for much longer,” Edwards stated. She added, “He’s been going to conventions, selling and stuff like that. But, it really comes down to the passion that we have, the community, and the games that we love and that we want to extend that to everyone else.”

Magpie and Crow’s name derived from the idea that two birds “love collecting and hoarding the shiny things.” Edwards reflects on this by explaining, “We like to collect everything and we like to share the things that we like and it’s all over the place. We want to share things with all different people.” Featherstone and Edwards both started this business in Texas, before moving to NC.

“We love it,” Featherstone reflects on Magpie and Crow. Plus, he adds to it by explaining, “It’s a brand that we’ve grown and believed in. It’s something that we do every day. So for us, this is not a trendy situation to make money from the stuff we love. Of course, we have to pay the bills and have the mindset to work in cooperation to stay long term.”

In discussing Magpie and Crow’s plans on giving back to the community, Edwards explains, “Community is a big thing for us and we want to give back by continuing to do tournaments and events throughout the week. We also plan to partner with local charities.” On the arcades, she added, “We have arcade machines that are free to play and you can use the change to donate to local charities each month, to donate the money at the conclusion of the month.”

Featherstone and Edwards relocated to the area from Kentucky. Before that, they lived in Texas. “We moved to the area about seven or eight months ago,” Edwards discussed during her time in NC. She adds, “We just fell in love with it. We visited once and we like the people, the area, the culture, and the community. The nature is very nice and I believe we found our home here.”

Alec Featherstone’s favorite all-time system is the Sega Genesis. He also likes the PlayStation Vita. His favorite games are Kid Chameleon and The Haunting Poulterguy. Reflecting on Genesis, Featherstone claims, “The Genesis is my jam!” On the other hand, Alec Edwards regards the PlayStation 2 as her favorite system of all time, while her favorite current system is the PlayStation 4. On her favorite games, Edwards explains, “Final Fantasy and Fire Emblem are my favorite games ever.” Edward grew up around video games, growing up playing the Sims and Rise of Nations on the PC and Super Mario Bros. on the Original Nintendo.

“Right now, this is about 60 percent of our inventory,” stated Featherstone. He added, “By our grand opening, I’m hoping that I can have at least 80 percent of our inventory ready to go and moving towards the last 20 percent as we open. We’ll get more stuff through trades and buys and stuff like that.”

On August 19th, come on and swing by Magpie and Crow’s Grand Opening. They’re located at 145 Wait Avenue in Downtown Wake Forest! You’ll be pleasantly impressed with the exemplary inventory they have! Their gaming store grand opening is from Noon-10 PM and you wouldn’t want to miss it!