I am fortunate in that I grew up in a sea-side town, with a pier (boardwalk) that had a decent arcade, and there were two more to compete. I was there in the British hey-day of arcades, which (video game wise) was probably between 1980-84.
Very, very happy days. Happy memories. A lot of the arcades were still going strong around '88, and made for a good evening out as I got older, and better at the machines.
Circa '96 I some of the arcades, still had some old skool machines, and a few decent modern ones.
Last visit 2003 - they were all gambling machines, with just one pinball, and one old time, ancient elcetro mechanical machine ( a shooting game) left.
For old time s sake, I played the shooting game and won, (20 shots, 20 hits - coin retruned) cos I knew it of old, I knew that it was fixed, and how the "kick" worked/
Across the border, in Brighton, Feb 2004 this was, the pier there has lots of machines, eh Sureshot? But, I was hard pressed to find anything remotely playable, or worth my time & money, I think wasted a couple of quid on a Star Wars game, and then moved down to the gambling machines, fuck all worh playing really.
Played a few penny shover things, couldnt find a pinabll, gave up in frustration. It was out of season, and pretty late, I might have found some old skool machines in Duke St, or Queens St, or someplace, but Mrs.THX and I, only holiday out of season, and only on a strict budget
This long assed post was brought to you in assoication with some free beer, from my mate, who gave me beer to do some odd jobs for him.
Author
