Last weekend I went to the quite newly opened "Arcade Club" for the first time. It's run by Andy, joint owner of the New Frontier Arcade. The Arcade Club is one half of a computer shop in Haslingden, Lancashire, and is home to around 20 or so video game cabinets and 9 pinball machines. The games are on rotation to it keeps it fresh. You pay £10 entry and everything is set to free play, you also get a couple of cans of soft drink with admission. There's a solid mix of classics and modern day, including a line of timeless games all in a row: Asteroids, Space Invaders, Robotron 2084, Defender, and Star Wars. Outside of that row there's classics such as Galaxian and Pacman also available to play. There's are candy cabinets and a couple of Sega Naomi's in there for some shooter and fighter action, as well and some more classic looking generic wooden cabinets, which on the night housed games such as Star Force, Shinobi, and Frogger.
The atmosphere was very relaxed, and there was a decent crowd in considering the time of year (3rd January). I met up with a handful of guys I know from the Arcade scene, and we had a good catch up and played a few games. One of the highlights for me was to be taught a few tips on Robotron, so I could finally clear a few waves. I also had a couple of games on DoDonPachi Dai Ou Jou, although I'm still not very good on it, and cannot get past the Stage 3 boss. A game that was new to me was Outzone (1990, Toaplan), it's not a game I've ever come across before, but it was set up in an Astro City, and I had a few games on it. I found it difficult, but definitely a game I could learn the patterns and become good at.
Something that surprised me a little was that there were a handful of pinball players in, (I knew this because I'd seen them at shows etc. before) and there was some friendly competition going on on the Metallica table. Other pinball tables on the night included Judge Dredd, Revenge from Mars, Scared Stiff, and Addams Family. Some of those tables command a very high price in the UK, and it was great to see them all set to free play, without people queuing to use them after you'd had your credit. The Judge Dredd table instantly had me hooked and I had quite a few games on it, although they didn't take long as I am crap at pinball.
It was a great night, and the venue managed to capture a little of the magic of the arcades when they used to function with games in rather than fruit machines and ticket redemption games. The atmosphere was very relaxed and friendly, and there was practically no wait time on any games. The venue is open to anyone and is child friendly, and a few people brought their kids down to see how their parents misspent their youth. It's a night I'll certainly be going back to do again, and I'm already planning to get down again soon.
For details you can find out more about Arcade Club here: http://www.arcade-club.com/
For details on the New Frontier Arcade you can visit their site: http://www.newfrontierarcade.com/
