Right. I have decided to produce this thread as yesterday my love of arcades was dramatically rekindled on a trip to the Isle Of Wight - but more of that later.
From now on, I am going to attempt to photograph, and write about - anything decent, interesting, unusual, or funny to do with our great British arcades. First up is the IOW - but there should be more gold to follow once I go on my summer hols (to a Haven park in Cornwall with a big old arcade onsite - yesss!). I would love to see others contribute. Get your photos up on this bitch!
Anyways, yesterday, I caught the ferry over to the Isle Of Wight from Lymington. The intention was to spend the day going around some arcades in Sandown, and then go out on the piss in Yarmouth in the evening. It was to be a successful venture all round. I met my mate at Yarmouth, and after a nice drive around the beautiful coastline, we arrived at Sandown. A walk along the front later, and we arrived at our first destination - the Sandown Holiday Entertainment Centre. Operating under a similar "sunshine indoors" motif as Jim Bowen's legendary Phoenix Nights holiday resort, this garish red and white striped (there's no accounting for taste) building is home to weathered little holiday apartments, a dingy looking cafe and snack bar, and around the corner a nightclub called Bogey's ("FRAN COSGRAVE - 23rd JULY").
Most of all though, there is a sizable arcade, with no little faded grandeur about it.
I was disappointed. A Point Blank 2 cab, normally the first thing I would gravitate towards, had the screen at a terrible angle and as a result the gun calibration was all to cock. A Simpsons arcade in it's original 4-player cab - but as you will see from my photo, depressingly it is falling to bits, and the screen resolution was awful. Apart from those two, there were your usual arcade fare (Daytona, Sega Rally, House Of The Dead) but nothing to get me changing notes to plough coins into. We trudged onwards, out of this sad little place, and onwards to the pier. And I am glad we did!
Inside the pier was a huge, sprawling arcade, with a good mixture of new and old. In there (and I have taken loads of pics) were some classics. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - 20p a go. Beast Busters - the old SNK shooter I had last played on a cross channel ferry about 15 years ago - what else would I find? Lucky & Wild - the brilliant Namco Starsky & Hutch style racer; Lethal Enforcers - with the impossibly camp guns; A nice example of a Virtua Fighter cab; the original Soul Calibur; Tekken Tag Tournament; Steel Gunner.....
Then I found the multi-choice cab to die for. Called an Ultracade, I must admit to having never seen one before. But basically this was a nice sit-down affair, with around 100 games available, all exclusively Capcom, Jaleco and Toaplan. This meant I got to play around 20 (time was a factor - could have stayed there all night given the chance) cast in stone classics all whilst sat in the lovely comfy cab, which very handily had an ashtray next to it. Darkstalkers, Captain Commando, Mercs, Rodland, Snow Bros, Eco Fighters, Side Arms, Street Fighter, Knights of The Round, Final Fight, King Of Dragons, Mega Man, Carrier Airwing, Hellfire, Ghouls & Ghosts, Black Tiger......they all got some play from Seany yesterday, and it was ****ing awesome. I would practically kill to own it. Plus, it was a very reasonable four credits for a quid. As a result of this, I left the arcade extremely happy, but not before trying out samurai sword 'em up Namco oddity Mazan. Check out the hilarious warning sticker on it! I then retired to the pub, where I proceeded to get smashed. Between pubs on a crawl I even spotted a trinket shop with a Jap cutesy RPG-tastic name. All in all, a quality day out.
From now on, I am going to attempt to photograph, and write about - anything decent, interesting, unusual, or funny to do with our great British arcades. First up is the IOW - but there should be more gold to follow once I go on my summer hols (to a Haven park in Cornwall with a big old arcade onsite - yesss!). I would love to see others contribute. Get your photos up on this bitch!
Anyways, yesterday, I caught the ferry over to the Isle Of Wight from Lymington. The intention was to spend the day going around some arcades in Sandown, and then go out on the piss in Yarmouth in the evening. It was to be a successful venture all round. I met my mate at Yarmouth, and after a nice drive around the beautiful coastline, we arrived at Sandown. A walk along the front later, and we arrived at our first destination - the Sandown Holiday Entertainment Centre. Operating under a similar "sunshine indoors" motif as Jim Bowen's legendary Phoenix Nights holiday resort, this garish red and white striped (there's no accounting for taste) building is home to weathered little holiday apartments, a dingy looking cafe and snack bar, and around the corner a nightclub called Bogey's ("FRAN COSGRAVE - 23rd JULY").
Most of all though, there is a sizable arcade, with no little faded grandeur about it.
I was disappointed. A Point Blank 2 cab, normally the first thing I would gravitate towards, had the screen at a terrible angle and as a result the gun calibration was all to cock. A Simpsons arcade in it's original 4-player cab - but as you will see from my photo, depressingly it is falling to bits, and the screen resolution was awful. Apart from those two, there were your usual arcade fare (Daytona, Sega Rally, House Of The Dead) but nothing to get me changing notes to plough coins into. We trudged onwards, out of this sad little place, and onwards to the pier. And I am glad we did!
Inside the pier was a huge, sprawling arcade, with a good mixture of new and old. In there (and I have taken loads of pics) were some classics. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - 20p a go. Beast Busters - the old SNK shooter I had last played on a cross channel ferry about 15 years ago - what else would I find? Lucky & Wild - the brilliant Namco Starsky & Hutch style racer; Lethal Enforcers - with the impossibly camp guns; A nice example of a Virtua Fighter cab; the original Soul Calibur; Tekken Tag Tournament; Steel Gunner.....
Then I found the multi-choice cab to die for. Called an Ultracade, I must admit to having never seen one before. But basically this was a nice sit-down affair, with around 100 games available, all exclusively Capcom, Jaleco and Toaplan. This meant I got to play around 20 (time was a factor - could have stayed there all night given the chance) cast in stone classics all whilst sat in the lovely comfy cab, which very handily had an ashtray next to it. Darkstalkers, Captain Commando, Mercs, Rodland, Snow Bros, Eco Fighters, Side Arms, Street Fighter, Knights of The Round, Final Fight, King Of Dragons, Mega Man, Carrier Airwing, Hellfire, Ghouls & Ghosts, Black Tiger......they all got some play from Seany yesterday, and it was ****ing awesome. I would practically kill to own it. Plus, it was a very reasonable four credits for a quid. As a result of this, I left the arcade extremely happy, but not before trying out samurai sword 'em up Namco oddity Mazan. Check out the hilarious warning sticker on it! I then retired to the pub, where I proceeded to get smashed. Between pubs on a crawl I even spotted a trinket shop with a Jap cutesy RPG-tastic name. All in all, a quality day out.
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