Retro Arcade Visit March 2006

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RETRO ARCADE VISIT MARCH 2006 - GREAT YARMOUTH

Welcome to the first in our series of articles in which we visit arcades in Norfolk to see which classic old arcade machines are still in use. At a time when most arcades are being taken over by fruit machines and the videogame market is slowing down, it is so exciting to find these old machines, tucked away in the back of some arcades.

Our first visit was to the king of Norfolk arcades, Great Yarmouth. This place holds fond memories for me, growing up in Norfolk. Countless summers were spent trawling through the many arcades, being mesmerised by the bright lights and noise. Of course back in those days the machines were lined up in rows and each would try to entice you with its attract mode. I remember the massive attack on the senses as you first entered an arcade.

The walk down an eerily quiet Regent Street was greeted by an icy cold wind and grey skies. It dawned on us that maybe we had made the visit a little too early in the season. But as we battled on and turned onto the parade we could see the distant lights of the arcades in the distant. Phew, maybe we would find our treasure. After negotiating the building work that was taking place on the sea front, we reached our first arcade.

Our first stop was Majestic. As we walked around, it became apparent how much fruit machines had taken over. We found a small group of machines huddled together on the left side of arcade.

Although none of these were ‘classics’, we found a Sega Virtual Tennis (1999), Namco Time Crisis (1996), Sega Star Wars Trilogy Arcade (1998), Namco Crisis Zone (1999), a couple of Midway Hydro Thunders (1999), and the amusing Williams Revenge From Mars (1999) pinball table. Not exactly an Aladdin’s Cave of retro goodness, but it was early days yet.

So as we left the warmth of Majestic to brave the cold winds once more, we hoped the next arcade would be more exciting...

The next stop was Lesiureland. This is a strange arcade in that it is split into two separate buildings. Much like Majestic, this had several older machines together along one wall and a million fruit machines. This arcade was more geared towards the sit-down racers with both the two-seater Namco Ridge Racer (1993), although it was actually running Ridge Racer 2 (1994), and Sega’s massive three-screen behemoth that is Ferrari F335 Challenge (1999).

Along the same wall there was also a Namco Time Crisis 3 (2003) and a Namco Maximum Tune (2004). Unfortunately these are relatively new so were not really of interest. But as we continued to explore we found something hidden away at the back of this arcade. It was Namco’s Point Blank (1993), which was a pleasant surprise.

There was also another large two-seater racing game that was unplugged and being cleaned, unfortunately I didn't record what it was.

As we continued along the parade we found that the next few arcade operators were not willing for us to take pictures of their machines, and one actually suggested we should pay him for the privilege!! To be honest there was not really anything further of note. We found an Atari Gauntlet Legends (1998), a Sega Rally Championship (1995), and several other machines that we had already seen earlier.

There was one mystery machine which was titled Dragon’s Lair 20th Anniversary Edition. I have done some research into this and apparently there is a company called Ultracade Technologies, based in America, that supply either pre-installed 27” cabinets or conversion kits to convert old Jamma cabinets into multi-game arcade systems. The pack contains replacement artwork for the cabinet side panels, marquee, and control panel, as well as the Ultracade software and game pack on CD, new buttons and joysticks, the so-called ‘computer system’ that has Jamma connectivity, and lastly all the cables and instructions. The game pack that comes with the system contains 86 classic games including 1942, Bombjack, Asteroids, Ghost ‘n Goblins, Mr Do!, Street Fighter II, Moon Cresta, and many more. Additional game packs can be bought, including Midway Arcade Treasures and the Dragons Lair Anniversary pack.

It’s quite an exciting prospect and would allow retro gamers to play the classics in their local arcade in an age where it’s hard to justify the space taken up by the older machines. It was strange, as we had only recently been talking about how cool it would be to have a MAME type cabinet in arcades. We’ll be doing a dedicated article on this system later in the year.

Back to our Arcade visit now.

There was little else of note found. A few of the arcades had not opened yet and one had, unfortunately, closed down. We decided to call it a day and headed back to station to get the train back to Norwich. On the way back we mulled over what had been found and it does seem that the real old machines are no longer able to justify their existence against the money making fruit machines and newer novelty gun games and sit-down racers.

It was interesting to see that the oldest games we found were released at around the same time as the Sony Playstation was launched. I think that that it marked a time when home consoles could really start to offer the arcade experience in the home. It seems that the old classics are only to be found at the smaller resorts or in the hands of collectors who can restore them to their former glory. But who knows, maybe the Ultracade system will take off and the arcade will once again ring out to the sounds of the 80’s. Now all we need is a little sun.

As it was a little early in the year, we will be going back in the summer. There will be a ‘Retro Summer Special’ article coming up, including Yarmouth, Cromer, and Hunstanton. If anybody out there intends to visit any arcades in Norfolk this year and would like to submit their findings to us, please feel free to email us and we will include it in our summer special article. Digital pictures are also welcome, but please ensure they are reduced down to a web-friendly size (50kb maximum). Happy gaming retro fans.

Article by Retro Kid, March 2006.