Arcades

[QualityChimp]

Three arcades in three days!

Bit of a cheat as I didn't play anything at Tenpin, Walsall as I was just picking my son up from bowling.
There's a few games to play, but it's mainly tickets and racers.

Then I met up with teddymeow at High Score in Farnborough.
Bit of a mixed bag, to be honest. It has potential, but it's a bit lacking.
For example they had House of the Dead III (the shotgun one) didn't reload properly, Time Crisis had one gun that wasn't calibrated and the other didn't shoot, Batman Pinball was silent and Guitar Hero Arcade was a bit quiet and I don't think it was calibrated because I kept missing notes. I could just be crap at it, but I played it a lot earlier in the year (GH3 = Arcade) and the fact other cabs weren't working made me suspicious.

However, it was about £10 for the hour and it absolutely flew past with loads of variety and games for people of all ages, even younger kids.
Teddy trounced me at Dance Dance Revolution, but we both probably enjoyed Monster Eye 2, which was hilariously scripted, but lots of fun fighting off giant gorillas at a theme park and kaiju angler fish at an aquarium.
Men in Black Was rrrrubbish. Rambo and Terminator were decent, but didn't grip beyond one credit, even on freeplay (although you always get FOMO in a freeplay arcade).

Then I went to Woking with the family and we popped into Woking Superbowl, on the Sunday for half an hour. Mainly played stuff with my daughter to win tickets, but I couldn't convince her to play the Spongebob coinpusher, which I love. They had some other games like that twin gun Mission: Impossible game, Aliens Armageddon, Mario Kart DX, OutRun 2 and Jurassic Park.

So nothing phenomenal, but I do love the raucous noise of an arcade!

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[QualityChimp]

Chief Coffee in Chiswick.

https://www.chief-coffee.com/japanese-arcade

[CMcK]

I'm going to London soon can anyone recommend any arcades near Camden?

[wakka]

Really want to check that Chief Coffee out, it's just a bit inconveniently placed for me. I know fuse has been.

There aren't really any arcades in Camden specifically CMcK but Camden is pretty close to central/West End. In the West End there's an NQ64 (chain of barcades, you might be already familiar as there are ones across the UK) and also a pretty old school joint called Las Vegas, which has slot machines up top and games in the basement. In the latter you'll find a grab bag of stuff from Korean dancing games to Initial D to 'Nostalgia' (the piano Bemani game) plus I think a recent Tekken, a Bishi Bashi, and air hockey and stuff. It's small and busy.

There is also Funland/Vega which is probably the closest to where you'll be in Camden. Funland is an arcade but mostly focused on those kid-oriented type of modern machines, Crossy Road and ticket machines and stuff. Vega is hidden in its basement down some stairs (ask the staff in Funland if you can't find where to go as it's pretty obscure). It's basically a bit of a Bemani dungeon. Pretty rough and ready environs with Japanese imported music games only. Generally inhabited by the type of hardcore folks who bring their earphones to plug in for an extended sesh. It's sort of a nerdy sweatbox

Here are some details of all the above for your perusal:

N64 Soho (inc list of games)
N64 Shoreditch (also not that far from Camden - inc list of games)
Las Vegas (no list of games)
Vega (inc list of games)

[wakka]

Here are some details of all the above for your perusal:

N64 Soho (inc list of games)
N64 Shoreditch (also not that far from Camden - inc list of games)
Las Vegas (no list of games)
Vega (inc list of games)

EDIT: Had to do this as a separate post as it didn't like me editing my original one for whatever reason

[fuse]

The main site is bemani-focused, but Zenius-I-Vanisher has a pretty good user-maintained database of arcade locations and what's in there. There's a few spots in Camden now but most of them barely qualify as arcades and are pretty underwhelming, however you're in a reasonable part of town to make the trek to FreePlayCity (games list here) and that is absolutely where I'd recommend stopping by. Had to do a bit of a dig, but this was the post I made when I visited - it is still very much catered to rhythm gamers, but there's a few other nice bits too away from this. While Camden is hardly short for alternative boozers, I would double down on that recommendation to stop by New River Studios for a pint while if you do go by FPC.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Here are some details of all the above for your perusal:

N64 Soho (inc list of games)
N64 Shoreditch (also not that far from Camden - inc list of games)
Las Vegas (no list of games)
Vega (inc list of games)

EDIT: Had to do this as a separate post as it didn't like me editing my original one for whatever reason

I think you'll find it's NQ64, not N64!

[wakka]

The main site is bemani-focused, but Zenius-I-Vanisher has a pretty good user-maintained database of arcade locations and what's in there. There's a few spots in Camden now but most of them barely qualify as arcades and are pretty underwhelming, however you're in a reasonable part of town to make the trek to FreePlayCity (games list here) and that is absolutely where I'd recommend stopping by. Had to do a bit of a dig, but this was the post I made when I visited - it is still very much catered to rhythm gamers, but there's a few other nice bits too away from this. While Camden is hardly short for alternative boozers, I would double down on that recommendation to stop by New River Studios for a pint while if you do go by FPC.

Great shout I always forget FreePlayCity cos I'm too lazy to make the journey haha. Didn't know there was a non-zero amount of arcade machines in Camden now either.

Honestly it's really remarkable the resurgence in arcades in the last ten years.

Nu-Eclipse you are quite right lol

[CMcK]

Thanks for the tips lads.

[QualityChimp]

Thanks for the tips lads.

I'm looking for the photojournal!

PRO TIP: Don't talk to anyone in London, it freaks them out.

[CMcK]

I'm from north of the North so not sure that applies!

[QualityChimp]

Sorry (not sorry) for the photo dump, but on Sunday, I visited Retro Realm in Walsall in the West Midlands:

https://www.theretrorealm.co.uk/

This is the brainchild of local retro enthusiast, Craig Turner, and the local people who've made the excellent Revival Retro Events games show.
They've been trying to get this up and running for months now, missing that summer opening by months as they had to collate some extra cabs and pass all the fire regulations and so on.

It's important to remember that I visited on the second day of opening, so there were a fair few cabs turned off, but it shows what potential there is.
Once a few more are operational, it'll be even better, but it's already fantastic and I can't believe something like this is on my doorstep.

You can book time slots on the fly, if they're available, or get monthly passes with the number of visits affecting the price.
I got the "Pinky" package, which is for 1 adult and child for 2 visits a month for 3 months. So we can visit twice in Dec, twice in Jan and twice in Feb.

I'm from the area, but if you're visiting, it's not far off the M6, plenty of parking nearby and it's near the entertainment complex so there's loads of other things nearby like Ninja Warrior, Bowling, The Light Cinema, Escape Rooms, art gallery and so on, if you were making a day of it. There's food in the arcade, but also Burger King, Costa, Nando's, Pizza Express and so on in walking distance.

As you first walk in, Solid Snake greets you and there's a dining area with Donkey Kong barrel booths, plus some pinball tables (I think you had to pay to play these), Game Cube and PC Engine and a few other bits like SF figures for sale.

Theming is great, with loads of cool artwork on the wall, including a selfie spot to make it look like you're in SFII.
The main arcade is darker, with no natural light, which is how I like my arcades, but it's easy to lose track of time!

There are a couple of stalls, one selling artwork and another selling retro games and Craig's book. These weren't open on the day I visited, but there are some retro gems on sale.

the first half of the arcade has some of the larger custom cabs and there are some real beauts here!
There's a row of racers, including Daytona and The Fast and The Furious.
Our faves were Mach Storm (the dome screen cab) and Dariusburst Ex Chronicles.
Once the other cabs are on, there'll be a nice mix like Ikaruga, Final Furlong 2, Rambo and Silent Scope Fortune Hunter.

The other half is full of classic stand-up cabs. There's a mix of original cabs, generic cabs, some candy cabs and a few Pandora ones.
I was in my element here, with some of my faves: TNMT, Simpsons, Splatterhouse, Robocop, Bad Dudes, Crude Buster, Pac-Land, Double Dragon and Tekken 3.
A couple of cabs had issues like the 2p on the candy running Marvel Super Heroes didn't jump and the Tekken 3 buttons were mixed up (making muscle-memory combos impossible!), but I think anything like this will get looked at because the people running it love the games.

There's a small room at the back of room 1 with some consoles running and a Sunset Riders cab.
Behind the other room is another section with consoles and Wii Sports set up with nice Sonic theming and sofas to chill on.

There were loads of staff, greeting, serving, helping and cleaning the cabs, so it feels a professional venture.

Only other suggestion I'd have is to have a few cabs that are friendly with younger kids. I don't think there's much, arcade-wise for my 8yo daughter, for example, and people are going to want to bring families as it's not trying to be just like Arcade Club, for example.

More cabs need to be on and a few buttons need to be checked.

Other than that, this was great.

I can't wait to go back and will possibly work my way through the Darius levels and all the missions on Mach Storm, which was a real thrill and normally a few quid to play.

Entrance and dining area:






Theming;



Retro stall:


Unique cab room:













Stand-up cab room:


























Console room 1:





Console room 2:

[hudson]

So cool, Chimp. Thanks for the images.

Some very impressive stuff! Never seen an Ikaruga cab. Looks nice. Dariusburst cabs!

[wakka]

That looks brilliant. Really good mix of modern and retro. Like Hudson I have never actually seen an Ikaruga cab before, even in a photo.

That dome-shaped game is interesting. I remember when I visited Japan in 2008 that style of cab was plentiful, all containing a mecha-themed game (might have been Gundam), but it was fairly indecipherable to play without being able to read Japanese.

[QualityChimp]

If you're in this thread, I knew you'd love loads of pics!

Yeah, I can't wait to try out that Ikaruga cab, although I think it needs stools when it's running?

The Mach Storm dome screen is a proper arcade experience and I loved it.
It's a lot like Ace/Air Combat, but slightly more on rails, but that's fine because you're flying through bridges or under collapsing skyscrapers.
You then get a bonus mission to shoot as many aircraft as possible, with kills extending time.

Darius was really cool! The cab was all Japanese but the game itself had loads of English prompts, so soon sussed out what was happening.
It's not quite Gradius V, but it's a real spectacle to play, with red lights flashing when A GIANT BOSS IS APPROACHING!