Happy National Retro Day

Today is National Retro Day.

What's your favourite throwback, retro or vintage thing?

I'm still a big fan of the 80's and 90's - the era's I grew up in.

As today is the 'official' day to celebrate all things retro then I recommend a visit to Teezers Retro Golf in Coventry, Joe Joe Jim's Crazy Crazy Golf course at Fletcher's Arcade in Cofton Hackett, Birmingham, Arcade Club in Bury and/or Leeds and Retro Arcade in Warrington.

Playing Mousetrap at Teezers Retro Golf in Coventry

Fletcher's retro arcade is home to a crazy Crazy Golf course

In Pole Position at Arcade Club in Bury

I enjoyed a trip to Pac-Land at Arcade Club in Leeds just before Christmas

There is a wonderful array of retro arcade cabinets in this old railway arch in Warrington

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.

Arcade Club in Bury

A trip down memory lane at Arcade Club in Bury.

We finally visited Arcade Club in Bury last Saturday. I don't know why it's taken us so long!

As a big fan of retro gaming and amusement arcades I've got many brilliant memories of playing arcade games at holiday camps and seasides back in the 80's and 90's, so it was superb to visit a venue that has hundreds of arcade cabinets set-up from the era.

Arcade Club operates an entry fee policy after which you can access all of the games without having to fumble around for change. As it was our first visit we opted for the £16 price for access to both levels. For £12 you could access one or other of the levels.

About to enter Level 3 of Arcade Club

Level 2 is home to a range of modern and imported arcade games, VR games, pinball tables and gaming PCs. It's not really my cup of tea but it was still nice to have access on our visit. The floor was absolutely packed with people having fun - I haven't seen an arcade like it for years!

In my element

Level 3 was what I was interested in and I wasn't disappointed. At Arcade Club you'll find row upon row of lovingly restored arcade cabinets offering everything from Asteroids to Pac-Man - and probably a game beginning with Z.

Asteroids

The New Zealand Story

It was a bit overwhelming to see so many games to play, all set on free-play, and we didn't know quite where to begin. Luckily for us we spotted a 2-player Parodius game and jumped on that. We're big fans of Parodius on the SNES so we quickly got into the swing of things and enjoyed playing for a few credits before we were lured away with another 249 or so games to play.

When I was a kid my two brothers and I used to love visiting the arcades at Barry Island and Minehead holiday camps and when we ventured out to the seaside amusement arcades there were even more games to play.

I remember seeing the Bomb Jack arcade game at our local Chinese takeaway when I was a kid. I never ever got to play it. I made up for that at Arcade Club though

On the leader-board again

Until I bought Pac-Land for the Atari Lynx and PC Engine last year I hadn't played the game since a stay at Butlin's Somerwest World in Minehead in the 1990's. Over the all of the noise at Arcade Club I could clearly hear the music from the game playing and so had to give it a play. I wasn't disappointed.

Pac-Land

Back in the 80's and 90's there was no way I had the money to master any arcade games, but with the games set to free-play and unlimited credits available I was able to complete MERCS (a game I used to have on the SEGA Master System) and also get on the leader-board on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

2nd on the MERCS leader-board

Such a tough game

One game I wasted many many many 10p's on as a kid was RoboCop. Playing it now the graphics are still cool and my skills on it are still as rubbish as they were 30 years ago. It was still fun to play though, and just as back then it was good to watch other better players working their way through the game.

RoboCop

Arcade Club is a superb venue and I'd consider it a living museum as well as a retro throwback to those halcyon days of the 80's and 90's when an amusement arcade didn't consist of mostly ticket redemption games.

How arcades should be 

Pacmania 

We'd never played Flicky before. We're now both addicted to it 

Space Invaders Part II 

Super Pac-Man is a tough game

We had a wonderful afternoon at Arcade Club and after three hours of pretty much non-stop gaming we were ready to head outside for some fresh air and a chance to give our weary backs, necks and wrists a rest.

The last game we played at Arcade Club 

How I felt after three hours of retro gaming! 

Operation Thunderbolt, the sequel to Operation Wolf. We played both games at Arcade Club

You've got to love old video games and they're typos ;-) 

Having a nice sit down to play Pole Position

We will be back.

You can find Arcade Club at Ella Mill in Bury, Greater Manchester.

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

The team at Arcade Club are putting the finishing touches to their second venue, with the site in Leeds opening soon. We're looking forward to visiting.

Arcade Club certainly does

Link:
- Arcade Club

Related blog posts:
- Amusement Arcades
- Greater Manchester