Over the past year, I’ve visited places with arcades that aren’t significant enough to warrant a writeup all to themselves, but deserve to be covered in their own small ways I think. What better way to do that than lump them all into one for a round-up, then? Here’s an amalgamation of tales of arcades in the UK, from Anglesey to Tamworth, from Llandudno to Matlock, here’s those little places:<\/span><\/p>\n Towards the end of August 2017, I went on holiday to the northern region of Wales, the Isle of Anglesey specifically. I looked up to see if there was any arcades on the isle but I was surprised to find there was only 1- and it was a very small space, tacked onto a restaurant.<\/span> This arcade was part of a fish and chip shop + restaurant, and as previously alluded to, the only one on Anglesey. When I first set foot in it, the signs were good. It was dark, dingy, and outdated.<\/span><\/p>\n A long line of old gambling machines against the wall, a absolutely\u00a0battered ‘Bowlingo’ mini bowling alley, and 2p pushers that were barely operational.\u00a0<\/span>Pretty bad, considering the restaurant looked fairly modern.<\/span> The right side was switched off, presumably not working. The sound was barely audible. The CRT’s had pretty bad burn in. The card reader wasn’t working. The ‘DO NOT SIT ON SEAT IF NOT PLAYING’ sign was placed halfheartedly on the marquee. All of this made for one of the worst condition arcade games I have ever seen!<\/span> There was a little graveyard of machines in the corner, and I tried to see if there was a neglected old cab, but there was nothing. And I was shouted at by an employee for looking, so there you go. Watch yourselves, people.<\/span> <\/p>\n Disappointed with Anglesey’s arcade, I looked around online to see if there was any other arcades just outside of Anglesey. Unfortunately, the next town along the coast was 45 minutes\u00a0away, and the other towns, like Rhyl, were even further, which is a shame as I’ve heard they have some nice stuff, like this 8 player Daytona:<\/span> An okay little arcade, with old looking decor but new, shiny machines.<\/span><\/p>\n \nIt was nice to see Luigi’s Mansion Arcade. I do like the plastic replicas of the original’s Poltergust 3000 vacuums.<\/span><\/p>\n \nNot a massive fan of the new Daytona, but from looking at older pictures of this arcade, it replaced the pretty dire NASCAR Arcade by Raw Thrills- anything other than that is good by comparison!<\/span><\/p>\n The attract mode said something about a ‘open tournament’- there wasn’t anything mentioned about it in game when I played it, so I don’t know what this meant. Maybe it was something to do with the Championship Mode, which I haven’t tried yet.<\/span><\/div>\n Also, not sure why they need not one but two Terminator Salvation machines. Variety is better than having double cabs of one game!<\/span> \nThe Deck Arcade<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Most of the games here are made by Raw Thrills, which left a lot to be desired.\u00a0<\/span>Namco’s 2009 tank sim, Tank! Tank! Tank!, was my only game of interest here.<\/span><\/p>\n It’s a spiritual successor of sorts to Tokyo Wars, which I have enjoyed playing in the past. Even with it being a lot more recent, it never got a wide release, and as such is about as uncommon as its original incarnation now.<\/span> \nIf only there was an actual Street Fighter machine there…<\/span><\/p>\n Later on that day we went on the Llandudno cable cars up to the Summit Complex. The cable car track is one of the longest in Britain and there was really quite great views.<\/span><\/p>\n But why am I mentioning this? At the entrance the sign mentioned this arcade. When we got up there though, it didn’t seem to exist…<\/span><\/p>\n Anyway, despite the somewhat lackluster arcades as a whole, I had an amazing time in Wales and did so many things I haven’t told you about. May be visiting again soon with a better mindset of what to expect!<\/span> \nDuring my first visit to Tamworth in quite a few years, I couldn’t resist a look at the Namco arcade and bowling alley now that I was always on the lookout for arcades. It’s in a prime location, near to the town centre and other attractions in the Castle Grounds, so I had time to check it.<\/span><\/p>\n \nInterestingly, the venue has a noteworthy history regarding arcades- in the 90’s, it was Sega<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \nwho owned it! The first floor was used for Sega World, and they supposedly had an 8 player Daytona USA among other expensive titles.\u00a0<\/span>However, it was sold to Namco in 2001, who moved the games down with the bowling, and leased the first floor to a gym, so there’s no leftover machines from when Sega owned it, sadly.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \nI still hoped there would be some quality games to play in whatever space there still was, but there was only a few. Mario Kart Arcade and Star Wars Battle Pod were the only highlights of a very small selection.<\/span><\/p>\n \nThe games were still in good condition, but I was thinking there’d be more choice. There’s not very much space, but it’s quite strange to me how a dated game like Terminator Salvation is still out and taking money, when they could replace it with a more recent shooter, like Time Crisis 5. I’m hoping on a future visit, there will be more newer games, but perhaps Namco’s\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n focus is on their bigger locations.<\/span><\/p>\n \nI must mention this amazing bit of street art near the building though. After the disappointment over how few games were there, this definitely was a real delight to see.<\/span><\/p>\n Matlock Bath is a little town just 30 minutes\u00a0away from me. The one way it can be described is a landocked seaside town, with all the tourist attractions and hallmarks of one, but no beach of course.<\/span>![](\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/img\/b\/R29vZ2xl\/AVvXsEiGrJnKOEnDMWPWH-SvzmoYdLXoB5CKPEtglSv25u6-YQ_KAOl3VAnC2jn4ZWw4U3y_td0EsGaiL6g6VO2ih_RhpHTzuWsR8sIfGmWsePknf-Il1qLkU0KnhhPPJH1wwgkHC2oT24_3NkI\/s1600\/IMG_20180401_152831.jpg\")
<\/a><\/div>\n\nA<\/span>nglesey\u00a0+\u00a0 Llandudno, Wales<\/span><\/h4>\n
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\n<\/p>\n\nThe Coast Diner Arca<\/span>de, Benllech<\/span><\/h3>\n
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<\/span>And, right at the back of the arcade, I found the only game to be had- Maximum Tune 2.<\/span>
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<\/b><\/span>Now, I like the Maximum Tune series. I like the gameplay, I like the car tuning, I like the music by Yuzo Koshiro, and I don’t like the fact most UK arcades don’t have it. So I should be happy I found one in this arcade. But this was just depressing to see.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
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<\/span>I had one credit, still priced at \u00a31, and didn’t have another go. While I was hopeful at first for finding some hidden treasure, I left the arcade with a pretty bad taste.\u00a0<\/span>Just how on earth have they let the place fall into such disrepair, when the restaurant actually looked pretty decent?\u00a0<\/span>
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<\/span>Soon enough, this will most likely be converted into more seating for the restaurant. The arcade might’ve been popular once, but it’s had its day- as w<\/span>hile there were people in the diner above, the arcade was deserted and no-one else came in while I was there.<\/span>
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\nIt didn’t help that there was little info I could find about it on the internet, and the entrance was the other side of the building, with only one sign pointing towards it. Most people probably don’t even realize it exists, to be honest!<\/span>
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<\/span>There also was this 2nd arcade elsewhere in Benllech attached to the ‘Wendon’s’ cafe<\/span>, but it only had pushers and fruit machines.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
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<\/span><\/p>\n\nLl<\/span>andudno<\/span><\/h4>\n
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<\/span>I would’ve normally made the journey but I had other stuff planned already, like a zipline experience\u00a0and Snowdonia so I only had time to do one. So, I chose Llandudno, as it looked like a really nice town overall, and it had a few arcades.<\/span>
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\n<\/p>\n\nLeisure Island Amusements<\/b><\/span><\/h3>\n
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\nThere were a few other arcades in Llandudno but there was little of note- though I did spot some familiar faces in one of the grabber machines…<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n
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\n<\/p>\n\nNamco Funscape\/Station, Tamworth<\/span><\/h4>\n
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\nThere are 4 arcades in Matlock, a good amount considering its relatively small size. Only one of these has any actual games though, which is a little disappointing, but still, it’s interesting there’s a town like this near me.<\/span><\/p>\n\nDerwent Amusements<\/span><\/h3>\n