Memories of The Cyberdrome Crystal Maze game experience

We played The Crystal Maze game at the CC2000 tenpin bowling & entertainment, near Narbeth in Wales back in 2009.

The Crystal Maze was a staple part TV diet during my childhood and teenage years, and it would've been brilliant to go on the show.

During our minigolfing road-trip around the Welsh coast in 2009 we took a break from playing Crazy Golf to visit the Oakwood Indoor Family Entertainment Centre - where we entered The Crystal Maze!

At that time it was the last remaining example of the 'Cyberdrome Crystal Maze' games in the UK. Sadly it closed for good in June 2010. It would've been brilliant to return for a few more games there.

The Cyberdrome Crystal Maze was absolutely superb to play. We think more of them should have been built back in the day. There were only ever eight built - five in the UK, two in Japan, and one in Dubai.

Just like the TV show, games were played in four themed zones - Aztec, Futuristic, Medieval, and Ocean. But unlike the TV show players were guided around the maze by Merlin - a computerised Maze Master.

We managed to win six of the nine games we played, and in the Crystal Dome itself we collected 103 Gold and 28 Silver 'tokens' for a grand total of 75. So we didn't win the "super-duper" prize. However, we were first on the leaderboard for the day and got "1st of 1" printed on our souvenir certificate!

At that time the Cyberdrome Crystal Maze was the closest you could get to playing the real Crystal Maze. Now you can play The Crystal Maze LIVE Experience in London and Manchester. The Manchester venue is so close to us that we really ought to get a team together for a game there!

Photos of The Cyberdrome Crystal Maze in Tenby (2009).

Being set a task by Merlin

Aztec Zone

Futuristic Zone

Medieval Zone

Ocean Zone

The Cyberdrome Crystal Maze in 2009

The Cyberdrome Crystal Maze in 2009

The Cyberdrome Crystal Maze in 2009

The Cyberdrome Crystal Maze in 2009

The Cyberdrome Crystal Maze in 2009

The Cyberdrome Crystal Maze in 2009

The Cyberdrome Crystal Maze in 2009

The Cyberdrome Crystal Maze in 2009

Inside the Crystal Dome ready to 'collect' some prize tokens

The Cyberdrome Crystal Maze

Playing The Crystal Maze game at CC2000, near Narbeth, Wales.

The Cyberdrome Crystal Maze in 2009

Challenge TV are showing repeats of The Crystal Maze every weekday evening at 6pm and I'm addicted to watching it. It was a staple of my childhood and teenage years, and it would've been brilliant to go on the show. Perhaps I should apply if and when a new series is made.

Rewatching the show has reminded me of our holiday around the Welsh coast in 2009 when we took a break from playing Crazy Golf to visit the Oakwood Indoor Family Entertainment Centre - where we entered The Crystal Maze!

At that time it was the last remaining Cyberdrome Crystal Maze game in the UK. Sadly it closed for good in June 2010. It would've been brilliant to return for a few more games there.

The Cyberdrome Crystal Maze was absolutely awesome to play. More of them should have been built back in the day. There were a total of eight built - five in the UK, two in Japan, and one in Dubai.

Just like the TV show, games were played in four themed zones - Aztec, Futuristic, Medieval, and Ocean. But unlike the TV show players were guided around the maze by Merlin - a computerised Maze Master.

Being set a task by Merlin

Aztec Zone

Futuristic Zone

Medieval Zone

Ocean Zone

We managed to win six of the nine games we played, and in the Crystal Dome itself we collected 103 Gold and 28 Silver 'tokens' for a grand total of 75. So we didn't win the "super-duper" prize, but we were first on the leaderboard for the day and got 1st of 1 on our souvenir certificate!

Inside the Crystal Dome

At that time the Cyberdrome Crystal Maze was the closest you could get to playing the real Crystal Maze. Now you can play The Crystal Maze LIVE Experience in London and Manchester. The Manchester venue is so close, we really ought to get a team together for a game there.

Photos of The Cyberdrome Crystal Maze in Tenby

The Cyberdrome Crystal Maze in 2009

The Cyberdrome Crystal Maze in 2009

The Cyberdrome Crystal Maze in 2009

The Cyberdrome Crystal Maze in 2009

The Cyberdrome Crystal Maze in 2009

The Cyberdrome Crystal Maze in 2009

The Cyberdrome Crystal Maze in 2009

The Cyberdrome Crystal Maze in 2009

Adventure Golf at Jimmy G's amusement arcade in Leysdown

A new Adventure Golf course is planned for Leysdown-on-Sea, Isle of Sheppey.

The new adventure golf course at Jimmy G’s Amusements on The Promenade in Leysdown will be created as part of a refurbishment of the amusement arcade.

Visit the Jimmy G's Amusements website for more information.

It'll be another course for us to visit on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

Mini Golf at the Palace Fun Centre in Rhyl, Wales

A revisit to the Palace Fun Centre Mini Golf course in Rhyl, North Wales.

We swung by the indoor Mini Golf course at the Palace Fun Centre in Rhyl on our day trip to the seaside resort yesterday.

We last visited the town in December last year.

I played the course on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour in June 2019.

Mini Golf at the Palace Fun Centre in Rhyl

Revisiting the Palace Fun Centre Mini Golf course in Rhyl, North Wales.

Indoor Mini Golf at the Palace Fun Centre in Rhyl

We took a look at the indoor Mini Golf course at the Palace Fun Centre in Rhyl on our day trip to the seaside resort on Saturday.

Indoor Mini Golf at the Palace Fun Centre in Rhyl

Indoor Mini Golf at the Palace Fun Centre in Rhyl

Indoor Mini Golf at the Palace Fun Centre in Rhyl

Indoor Mini Golf at the Palace Fun Centre in Rhyl

Indoor Mini Golf at the Palace Fun Centre in Rhyl

Sign of the pandemic times at the Mini Golf course at the Palace Fun Centre in Rhyl

The course was the 523rd played and 911th visited overall on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour back in June 2019.

The last time either of us were in Rhyl was when I had a day out there in September 2019! Crazy to think as it's one of our most local seaside towns.

Related blog posts:

• Mini Golf courses in Rhyl, Wales
• Rhyl

The 'Simpsons'

This is some of the best worst Simpsons bootleggery I've seen.

Not the best prizes in the world

Wac-Man Crazy Golf

A look at the 'Wac-Man' minigolf hole at Joe Joe Jim's Crazy Crazy Golf course inside Fletcher's Arcade in Cofton Hackett, South Birmingham.

We played Joe Joe Jim's Crazy Crazy Golf course in August 2018. The 9-hole indoor layout was the 829th visited on our Crazy World of Minigolf Tour.

The course at Fletcher's Arcade and game-play has to be seen and experienced to be believed. It really is Crazy Crazy Golf!

Creative Folkestone Triennial to feature Crazy Golf

The Creative Folkestone Triennial art festival will feature a Crazy Golf course.

Folkestone in 2010

Folkestone will play host to the fifth Folkestone Triennial with 20 artworks being set up around the seaside town in Kent.

One of those will be amusement arcade and crazy golf-themed.

The artist genuinefake (Rachel Stella Jenkins) will be setting up a pavilion with an amusement arcade and crazy golf course on the site of the old Rotunda amusement arcades.

The Creative Folkestone Triennial, formerly the Folkestone Triennial, takes place between Saturday 5th September and Sunday 8th November 2020.

Find out more on the Creative Folkestone Triennial website.

It's not the first time that Crazy Golf has been a part of the Folkestone Triennial. The first edition saw the 18 Holes Crazy Golf art installation created by Richard Wilson. This permanent artwork was made using the old Arnold Palmer Putting Course from The Rotunda to resemble three beach huts!

18 Holes Crazy Golf art installation created by Richard Wilson in Folkestone

What a wonderful use of an old minigolf course

A nice view

It was nice to see the old minigolf course used for something as the site of The Rotunda resembled a desolate wasteland when we visited in 2010.

The Rotunda in Folkestone

Arcade Club in Leeds

A visit to Arcade Club in Leeds.

We visited the new Arcade Club venue in Leeds yesterday. What a place!

Earlier this year we visited the original Arcade Club in Bury and were very impressed by the selection of games on offer to play.

Always nice to visit Pac-Land

Once you've paid your entry fee (we paid £16 per adult) you get to play hundreds of games all set on free play.

Three floors of fun

It's an amazing place to spend anything from a few hours to a whole day.

A very small selection of the hundreds of games available to play

As someone who grew up going to arcades in the 80's and 90's it's superb to relive those memories by playing arcade classics like Pac-Land, The New Zealand Story and Bubble Bobble. But I also really like the fact there are games available that I'd only had a glimpse of back in the day, or those that were out of my price range to play.

Pac-Land

One of those was The Last Bounty Hunter, a live-action on-rails LaserDisc light-gun game. Back in the day it would've been one of the expensive 50p or a pound a go games I could only dream of playing. Watching older players pumping the machine full of money while firing away at a selection of bad guys and then seeing the really cheesy cut scenes as the actors die is indelibly burned on my mind like screen burn on a CRT monitor.

The Last Bounty Hunter

I easily got my money's worth by playing The Last Bounty Hunter and managed to get to the third stage. I could've spent more time on it but I had to wander and play other games.

The ground level is home to pinball tables, quirky Japanese import games, old racing and driving games and new arcade machines.

As a big fan of Resident Evil games there was one game I spotted and immediately wanted to play. After waiting for some other players to finish their go Emily and I jumped on the Taito game Elevator Action Death Parade. It was brilliant.

We arrived at 11.30am and there was a steady flow of people of all ages into the venue while we were there. Even though it was busy, there was a nice buzz and we never felt cramped in playing machines and there are plenty of games on offer we didn't have to wait long to play any games.

Tempest. I'd never played the arcade game before, but I love the Atari Jaguar version

There were still plenty of games I could've had a go on there but there just wasn't time.

The Neo Geo section

We're looking forward to our next visit to Arcade Club. There will also be a new Arcade Club venue opening in Blackpool next year. Wonderful news.

Bubble Bobble, a true classic

You can find Arcade Club at the Abbey Retail Park in Kirkstall, Leeds.

Arcade Club - retail entertainment done right

Check out the Arcade Club website for more information, opening times and prices.