I never really got to go to arcades as a kid. Occasionally if I went on a bowling party or something I’d get to go in the attached one but I never had cash, and if I was ever there with my parents they’d only let me do the air hockey kinds of games and not actual arcade games.
Once watched two of my class mates spend about £20 playing through a Jurassic Park light gun game on a ferry during a school trip which looked like the most fun thing in the world.
I’ve seen that there’s a place called Arcade Club in Bury of all places (with other branches in Leeds and Blackpool) that looks like it has amazing collections, including loads of obscure Japanese shooting games I’m desperate to play. Anyone been? Is it as fun as it looks?
Anyway, regale me with your own stories of arcade fun.
Price always proved a barrier in the UK - £1 a go when we had a console at home really rankled my parents… and fair play really.
When on family holiday in Corfu though, there was a great arcade in Sidari where it shook out to around 10-15p a go. Nothing cutting edge, by Metal Slug, plenty of old-school shooters, bubble bobble and a tonne of other great stuff. Happy memories. Bet it’s not there any more.
You’re right about price. A quid a go is a lot, compared to a quarter as your standard price in the US. I think in Japan the standard price is 100 yen which is about 60p.
Have played time crisis about 5 times ever, and a few racing games (sega rally?) but it was always a quid a go, and then it only lasts 2 minutes because you can’t afford to play enough to get good enough to get past level 1.
Having said that, there was a youth centre attached to school that had a football arcade game that I think was 20p. Was amazing. Have never seen the game anywhere else before or since, and can’t remember what it was called. (this would have been 1995-98)
I remember going to Sega World when I was a kid. My main arcade-relevant memory though (and this wasn’t really an arcade so much as a little room in a hotel where they had some games and that) is when my parents gave me, my sibling and my cousins some change to play some of said games. Spent it all on a Rocky and Bullwinkle pinball machine and lost within the space of like a minute
Can still hear the absolute ire in my sibling’s voice.
“Rocky and Bullwinkle pinball.”
A few years back went to some absolutely amazing ones in Japan that my sister in law knew in her home town. Massive luigi mansions thing that you sat in with hoover light guns and a house of the dead thing where cold air blew on you. Just incredible fun
One of my in-laws has a proper old school pinball machine in their basement, I’ve played it a few times and come to the conclusion that I’m shit at pinball and don’t enjoy it.
Go to them quite often, did it for my birthday last year. There’s one here with a DDR dance machine that was broken a couple of summers ago so we could dance on them for free all summer. A beautiful memory
Went to an arcade last year and there were a couple of guys probably mid 20s - 30s, seemed pretty coked up, were playing Mario Kart and shouting insanely loud and smashing the shit out of the machine when they won/lost. Chill dudes it’s Mario Kart!
St Andrews uni had a games room with some deece arcade games in it. I got very good at Crazy Taxi (was on the high score table) and Police Trainer and could eke my quid out for a long time
There’s a retro arcade opening in Belfast, their hours are limited at the moment but looking forward to going when the hype dies down a bit. They’ve featured Street Fighter 2, Metal Slug, Point Blank, Tim Crisis, House of the Dead on their Instagram and they charge £20 for 4 hours which seems pretty good
I went here once. I had a chunk of time to kill, and everything - from the weird creepy old funfair animatronics to the video games was 25c a go. I so I turned a $10 bill into quarters, and spent the bulk of it t trying to complete Silent Scope. Got as far as the last level
There’s a couple of retro arcade bars that have opened up here. Went to Four Quarters in January or February maybe, they were doing a pizza deal for the local restaurant week. Ended up spending five hours (!!) in there. Time just folded away. Cool place though - has both arcade machines and consoles set up for free play. Got some NBA Jam in
