We went on a trip along the
Great Yarmouth , Hemsby
and Newport
I’ve previously covered these
on the blog. Since then, The Haven
holiday parks all have Star Wars Battle Pod cabinets. Also I’ve since come across another venue,
the Newport Club, with a couple of cool games.
Winterton-on-Sea
Hermanus
We stopped by
Winterton-on-Sea, but there were no amusements along the beach. Upon driving away I spied some funny little
round houses which looked like something out of a Disney film.
This turned out to be
Hermanus Leisure. There is an
entertainment complex with a few bars, function room and a small amusement
arcade. I could see a Sega Rally and a
Simpsons cabinet through the doors of the arcade, but unfortunately it was
closed so we carried on to Sea Palling.
Sea Palling
No games machines here
unfortunately, but the legacy of Pac-Man and Space Invaders lives on!
Bacton
Another holiday park with
some real unexpected treats!
Chase H.Q. The game is one of my earliest memories and
started my love for arcades and arcade gaming.
It’s kind of fitting that I should stumble across it again almost three
decades later whilst checking out Norfolk
Sadly there were quite a few
faults with the machines. The Neo Geo
‘jingle’ could be heard when the Electrocoin Bar Line cab was switched on, but
the monitor was dead. The Chase HQ boost
button wasn’t working. Silent Scope EX
wasn’t working. The UFO catcher wasn’t
working. Adams Family pinball table was
faulty. Even the change machine wasn’t
working! Still, these faults couldn’t
dampen the experience. Playing Chase HQ
whilst hearing ‘Hadouken’ and the elephants on Dhalsim’s stage took me right
back to the early nineties!
Mundesley
Grays Amusements
Most of the machines here had
faults. One side of the Sega Rally twin
had graphical issues, one side of Tokyo Wars wasn’t working, and Star Wars
Trilogy Arcade and Crisis Zone weren’t working.
Even the 2p pushers sounded like they were struggling! On the upside, I had never seen Sega’s Soul
Surfer before. Also despite one half not
working, it was nice seeing Tokyo Wars, an old favourite.
We made a brief stop at Stow
Mill, just outside Mundesley. The mill
is open to the public and the views were nice from the top.
Trimingham
Next to the bar in the
entertainments area there was a small arcade room with a Ferrari F-355 twin, a
touch screen quiz machine and…whats this…Super Thunder Blade!
Much like when I saw the Chase
H.Q. cabinet, I had to do a double take!
I vaguely remember playing the sit down deluxe version years ago, but I
can’t recall seeing the upright cabinet before.
I’ve had some good finds in holiday parks. I guess these sites didn’t have to update and
follow new trends like arcades had to, with the games viewed as not just a
source of income, but an extra facility for the holiday makers.
Cromer
The arcades had the usual
modern shooting and racing games, although it was the first time I’d seen Sonic
& Sega All-Stars Racing Arcade. I
only had two credits, I love the choice of characters and all the references
from Sega’s extensive back catalogue and I had good fun racing around the
Shibuya track. Also the colour changing
on the cabinet itself looks pretty cool.
We had good fun catching
crabs off Cromer Pier. We had most
success when the tide was out and found bacon to be the best bait. After a hard afternoons crabbing we treated
ourselves to fish and chips in town.
Was staying in Mundesley around May last year. Went in the one arcade, and it was in a even sadder state. Area 51, Crisis Zone, Soul Surfer, and Tokyo Wars? Gone. I think I caught a glimpse of Tokyo Wars at a area in the back where it was turned around with some fruities and what might've been Crisis Zone. Sega Rally 2 and Star Wars trilogy were both turned off and had coin mechs ripped out, yet were still on display. Alpine Surfer was the only one turned on, but had some serious monitor issues. Unless they've fixed them, I'd bet that no more games are there at all.
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame when arcades like that just rot away in the test of time, I've been in Mundesley quite a lot of times now and I remember it in it's glory days. Not sure if this is me looking back on things with rose tinted glasses, but at a number of points in time I remember a Daytona, Simpsons, Track and Field, OutRun, Space Harrier, Rave Racer, Virtua Cop, and Street Fighter 2 being there, all surely scrapped.
I recently visited Mundesley again and was pleasantly surprised. At the back of the arcade they have Area 51, Tokyo Wars, Sega Rally 2, Star Wars Trilogy, Soul Surfer and Alpine Surfer. All the games were working, although the controls on Star Wars were a bit off. They also had Crisis Zone which was switched off. Area 51 and Soul Surfer are pretty rare these days. In fact you hardly ever see the later Atari games and it's the only Soul Surfer machine I've ever seen.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like they've had some awesome titles over the years, I wish I had some pics of the glory days!
Did you ever visit the arcade in Bacton? There is a shop attached to it and apparently the arcade has been shut down for years. I would love to know what it was like back in the day. Through the window you can see some fruit machines and even a Sega Rally sit down cab at the back.
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DeleteSorry for the late reply, but I'm not sure if I ever went in that one. I think I did a few times, but I can't say I remember it. I did spend most of my time in Mundesley usually.
DeleteAnyway nice to hear they've got the cabs back up and running. I have seen many a arcade where the op's have opted for ignoring the condition of the cabs and just leaving them to decay over time.
But, I was in Whitby recently, and one arcade had an After Burner Climax that began showing graphical issues. However, the machine was soon turned off, a out of order sign was placed on it, and the very next day all was well and I enjoyed a few plays on it with no issues. I spoke to the arcade op about it and he said he checked over the machine to see if there was any issues and whatever it was it was definitely fixed.
I'd recommend a look at Whitby's arcades, while one of them, Fun City, has no vids, Funland has lots of great modern ones (the aforementioned After Burner Climax, Sega Rally 1 & 2, Manx TT, a nice projection screen Time Crisis 2 and more), and Pleasureland Amusements has got the very first Daytona 3 in the UK!