New sponsor: HyperMind, for all your gaming needs!

The Knight Shift is proud to welcome a new advertiser, and if you've been a longtime reader you'll already know something about HyperMind.

A positivalutely abundawonderful game store in Burlington, North Carolina, owners Nick and Denise Shepherd have established a place that draws loyal customers from as far away as Virginia, Raleigh/Durham and Winston-Salem.  And by "games" we're talking about the old-fashioned stuff that doesn't require batteries or a specialized console... but does require you to play with others and have fun.

Whether you're looking for time-honored pastimes like Monopoly and Risk, or new classics such as The Settlers of Catan, HyperMind has something for everyone.  They also stock a healthy amount of miniatures-based games (including my current drug of choice, X-Wing Miniatures).  One of the biggest sellers is perennial favorite Magic: The Gathering.  And HyperMind goes all-out to provide for its devoted players, with an ample stockpile of cards (just about every kind of current booster pack you can think of) and a huge room serving as a place of casual play and weekly tournaments.  Role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons are also a favorite.  If they don't have it on shelves, the folks at HyperMind will gladly order it for you.

Serving the Triad area since 2006, HyperMind is an experience that you will want to return to again and again.  Stop by today, and discover the fun!

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Tammy Tuesday this week is a hyper dog

Tammy found herself last week at one of my favorite places: HyperMind in nearby Burlington!  So while the place was packed with people playing Magic: The Gathering, Settlers of Cataan and several other games there was this cute lil' miniature dachshund running up and down the store.  I think everyone stopped what they were doing to give her a pat on the head or a tummy rub and a lucky few even got their faces licked!

Here's Tammy with HyperMind's owner and manager Denise...

Tammy is getting to travel around quite often lately. I'll be sure to photographically document her exploits and post them here in the future :-)

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HyperMind is doing some charity events this holiday season!

I was at HyperMind in Burlington a few nights ago, my now-familiar haunt on many Thursday evenings (and a few other times during the week) and I got my butt handed to me twice during a coupl'a rousing games of Monsterpocalypse and... ahhh THAT'S BESIDE THE POINT!! :-P

Anyway, this very fine friendly local game store that I have written about much in the past year is doing some groovy charity events this month for the Marine Corps Toys for Tots and Loaves & Fishes Christian Food Ministry! This weekend there's a YuGiOh Tournament and next weekend it's a Magic: The Gathering tourney. The buy-in is to bring items of non-perishable food and while you're there you can donate to the Toys for Tots box.

HyperMind is at 3396 S. Church Street in Burlington, North Carolina. Their phone number is 336-584-1760 and you can find plenty more information on the store's website at hypermindonline.com. Bring some food and toys and yer playin' cards and get ready to have fun for a good cause!

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Wanna meet the proprietor of THE KNIGHT SHIFT in person?!

I'm planning on being at HyperMind in Burlington, North Carolina tomorrow for most of the day, doing videography for their big Monsterpocalypse store-wide event but also gonna finally play this game for the first time ever. Here's the promo video that I made for it (which is also in the Top Ten for the Monsterpocapalooza contest!)...

Anyhoo, the festivities start at 9 a.m. at HyperMind, located at 3396 South Church Street in Burlington, North Carolina. It's a family-run store with great atmosphere and good people always stopping by to play Monsterpocalypse, Magic: The Gathering, Star Wars Miniatures, Dungeons & Dragons and just about everything else :-)

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HyperMind's video for the Monsterpocalypse contest makes the Top Ten!

Two weeks ago I let y'all know about a promotional video that I worked on for HyperMind, that groovy game store in Burlington. The video was for HyperMind's big Monsterpocalypse day this coming Saturday, and was also an entry in that game's Monsterpocapalooza mega-event going on this summer.

Well, the votes have been tallied and our lil' video has made it into the Top Ten! There wound up being about 22 entries altogether. We are very thankful to be in one of the top spots, and we wish to thank everyone who voted for us!

Here it is again if you haven't seen it yet...

Again, thank you to all who watched and rated our video. The final winner will be announced on July 31st... and we'll be keeping our fingers crossed 'til then! :-)

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Promo video for the MONSTERPOCAPALOOZA event at HyperMind!

So for the past several days I've been engulfed in Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects and whatnot. Hard at work for some good friends: HyperMind in Burlington (click here for the first write-up I did about 'em). Well, among the very popular games that HyperMind carries is Monsterpocalypse, and this summer its publisher Privateer Press is having a mondo ginormous event called Monsterpocapalooza. As part of the festivities leading up to the release of a new add-on for the game is a contest where game stores are invited to make a promo video for their Monsterpocalypse events.

So anyhoo, here is HyperMind's entry. I thought it would be neat if we spoofed Cloverfield. And it came out pretty good!

Thanks to everyone in the HyperMind extended family for making this video possible! And if you enjoyed their efforts, please feel free to give a high rating on the promo's YouTube page, 'cuz we're hoping to land a huge launch party for the upcoming Monsterpocalypse Series 4: Monsterpocalypse Now!

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HyperMind: Great gaming store serves the Triad area well!

A couple of weeks ago I had to go to Burlington, North Carolina, about thirty minutes away from home here in Reidsville, on a business errand. I wound up with some time to kill and thought I'd drive around my old stompin' grounds, since I lived there for a few years while a student at Elon. The west end of town in particular has grown a lot recently, what with a new Target Supercenter and a Best Buy and a new movie cinema and all kinds of other good places.

Anyway, it was while on south Church Street that I came across HyperMind...

With a name like that, I couldn't resist going in.

It turns out that HyperMind, now at its second and larger location since first opening in 2006, is a game store. And to the best of my recollection, there hasn't been a place like this serving the area since Cosmic Castle on High Point Road in Greensboro, which closed up a number of years ago. I used to go to Cosmic Castle a lot to buy Star Wars Role-Playing Game source books: even though I never played the game itself, I was one of those Star Wars geeks that bought plenty of the background supplements. I'm glad to have now found HyperMind, 'cuz this store has Star Wars RPG stuff out the wazoo!

Or is Dungeons & Dragons - which for years I've called "Bushes & Orcs" since players hardly ever go adventuring into a dungeon or fight a dragon anymore these days - more your speed? HyperMind is amply stocked with the latest Dungeons & Dragons products, from the basic sets on to the advanced campaign settings. Need more of those fancy dice that Dungeons & Dragons and a lot of other pen-and-paper RPGs employ? HyperMind has plenty of those, too! Just about every role-playing game that I've heard of (and plenty that I never knew existed) can be found at HyperMind.

The more traditional board games can be found here also, like Monopoly (including several themed variants, like Transformers and John Deere) and Clue. While I was there I also found a board game version of Starcraft, several zombie-related games (what is it with zombies lately anyway?) and some longstanding classics like Axis & Allies, which if you've never had the pleasure is a game that lets you act out the parts of Patton and Rommel or any other military genius that strikes your fancy, as you re-create the theaters of battle in World War II on your dining room table. The Starcraft game came out a year ago and I'm told that it has an especially strong following

Are you a fan of the HeroClix system games, like Marvel and DC Universe? HyperMind has tons of that also. In fact, when I was there I saw a coupl'a full racks of the DC Universe Arkham Asylum packs, which word on the street is that they're selling out all over the place. HyperMind also carry the Star Wars Miniatures game, which I also haven't had the opportunity to play yet but lots of people tell me it's a very enjoyable pastime. HyperMind also sells Magic: The Gathering and a host of other collectible card games. And if they don't have it in the store, the friendly and knowledgeable sales staff will be more than happy to order it for you, usually delivered in less than a week.

And HyperMind doesn't just provide the games either: toward the back of the store is a large gaming area, set up with lots of tables and chairs. The store is open on several weeknights for people to come in and play their favorite games, be it a card game like Magic: The Gathering or role-playing.

On top of all that fun stuff, HyperMind also features a wide selection of educational games and toys... and I was pleasantly surprised to find some items in the store that I had no idea were still being produced these days, like chemistry sets. And if you're looking for a puzzle to spend some nice leisurely time with or as a gift for someone, HyperMind has you covered there as well.

So what did I get while I was there?

We used to play BattleTech (now known as Classic BattleTech) a lot at the nearby community college when I was getting my associates degree. I've always loved this game and its fictional universe, and now it's growing in popularity even more. So I got the latest version: the Classic BattleTech Introductory Box Set. If anybody reading this is up for a game, write me at theknightshift@gmail.com and we'll work something out! And it's a good thing that HyperMind has lots of miniatures (for BattleTech but also for games like Warhammer 40,000) on sale: I'll probably need 'em as I resupply my Inner Sphere mercenary company :-)

Family-owned and operated, HyperMind (click here for its website) is located at 3396 South Church Street in Burlington, North Carolina. It's practically across the street from West End Cinema, among that group of stores if you're familiar with the Burlington area. I would absolutely recommend checking out HyperMind if you're from anywhere like Raleigh and Winston-Salem and all points in-between. I don't know if there's ever been a place quite like this ever around here: HyperMind is well worth giving your patronage!

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