And this is where the 'worst of times' of this column's opening sentence kicks in. Until the advent of the Mega Drive or, more accurately, the preceding Master System, consumers had by and large bought their games from independent computer stores. These indies, as they were called, hated the fact that games kept coming back with tape loading errors or bad boot sectors on floppies, but they could cope with it. Every store had its own techie who could align cassette decks so that even games that wouldn't load would work like magic, once the deck had been given a swift adjustment. As a result, these indies became very successful, with many opening up their own mini-chains in the early '90s.

But seven years ago this week news broke that six of these chains had all hit tough times at the same time and were going out of business. Although no two businesses are identical, the reason they were all going through a bad patch, ironically, could be blamed on the success of the Mega Drive. No longer did the indies 'own' the market in their area. Although they still sold shedloads of cartridge games, as they had all embraced the new format, they made around 25 per cent less profit on each item compared to a game that came on a tape or floppy disk. Overheads were no longer being covered by the profits they made on software.

As the year wore on, other indie mini-chains also hit tough times, as did many, many solus indie businesses. People who had spent 10 years behind the counter of a computer shop, building a business, suddenly found themselves driving taxis or working in DIY stores. The ones that survived this culling were those that drastically reduced their overheads or changed their business model so they weren't so reliant on cartridge software, with many giving up on games altogether and becoming 'serious' PC dealers.

Since then, PlayStation has given the whole market a huge boost and now, once again, there are a number of indie mini-chains spread throughout the country, happily co-existing with the High Street multiples. These days the indies are leaner, meaner and keener than their predecessors, having learned, either anecdotally or first hand, from the bitter experiences of others. So, a sort of happy ending for once.