EDITOR’S NOTE: The Times-Call’s series Take Two revisits people we have written about in the past year. Take Two stories will run on Mondays.

LONGMONT — When Stonebridge Games closed in downtown Longmont in the spring of 2012, many fans of fantasy and sci-fi gaming were concerned they wouldn’t have a place to go.

So a few months later, two of those fans — James Smith and his partner, Catherine Rivera — opened their own store.

“It’s been great,” said Smith, whose Atomic Goblin Games opened a year ago this month. “The community has really embraced us. Even today, a year in, I still have people coming in saying, ‘This is the first time I’ve been into your store.'”

Like Stonebridge was, Atomic Goblin has become a hub for gamers, not just to come in and buy product but to participate in the store’s many gaming nights.

Atomic Goblin Games Location: 1801 Hover St. (next to Subway) Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday; noon to 5 p.m. Sunday Telephone: 720-684-6074 Website: atomicgoblingames.com

“We definitely know that we pull people in from Boulder pretty regularly,” said Smith. “For some of our tournaments, we’ve had people from as far as Cheyenne down to south Denver.”

The biggest draws are the card games, with Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon and Yugioh being the three biggest, Smith said.

“Those are the biggest events that we do,” he said. “But then we (also) do miniatures, we do Star Wars and Star Trek miniatures.”

Also popular are the role-playing books. Pathfinder is No. 1 in that field today, Smith said, but the standard-bearer, Dungeons & Dragons, is still very popular.

“It’s awesome to think that the thing I started off with as a kid, that I was passionate about … now you see kids come in with their parents and they say, ‘I started off on Dungeons & Dragons and now I want to get them involved,'” Smith said.

Since it opened, his store has added more small games such as Zombie Dice, and has also added accessories, he said.

And Rivera, whom he describes as his life partner and “the yin to my yang,” isn’t the only female gamer out there.

About one- third of the game-day crowds for Pokemon and Yughio are women, Smith said, and the small female figurines sell out a lot faster than the male figurines.

He also sees more 20s- and 30s-aged customers than he used to, he said, and more families. Gaming, he said, isn’t just for geeks anymore.

“It’s come a long way,” Smith said. “Gaming has become a lot more family-oriented, where everyone comes to the table and plays.”

Tony Kindelspire can be reached at 303-684-5291 or at tkindelspire@times-call.com.