sauromatian wrote:
OD&D (mostly supplements rather than the white box) was definitely present at every toy & game store in early-'80s Houston, including one (The Game Player at Sharpstown Mall) that opened in '79. The mainstream bookstores (B. Dalton & Waldenbooks) carried Chainmail. None of the kids my age played it or OD&D. I always found the references in Dragon Magazine confusing - why would Greyhawk, which everyone knows is a campaign setting, be so important for basic game mechanics?

Holy crap, we were in the same place! Up until the GP opened, Nans in the Galleria and some place called "Parent Teacher Supply" were all there was. We got hold of the OD&D books at Nans, to fill in the tables that weren't covered between Holmes and AD&D until the DMG came out. A lot of people seem to have started with that same Holmes + AD&D PH + some tables from Men & Magic.

sauromatian wrote:What about Chainmail at B. Dalton & Waldenbooks stores through the mid-'80s? Does everyone remember that?

I remember Eldritch Wizardry in with the other D&D stuff at the B. Dalton in the Annapolis Mall in MD about ~1983 or so. A few years later I bought the OD&D OCE set (new, still have it) at a game store in the Inner Harbor shops in Baltimore. OD&D and the supplements were available from TSR's Mail Order Hobby Shop through at least 1990 or so, for about $15 each. I bought Blackmoor (black and white cover version) and Chainmail around '89-90 from them. During this time I was playing AD&D 1E, but what we played was really no different from OD&D + Greyhawk since we didn't use most of the complex AD&D rules (weapon vs AC, weapon speed, complex initiative, etc). I think this comes from starting with the Holmes set and playing without these rules. When I bought the OD&D set I thought "not much different".