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.
