Caine’s Amusements
Located close to Herne Pier,
this arcade has a good selection of the latest releases as shown at EAG Expo 2017,
including Cruis‘n Blast, Space Invaders Frenzy and The Walking Dead.
It’s great to see Space
Invaders back in the arcades. Although
it’s more of a ticket redemption game, I love the frantic gameplay and can’t
resist a go whenever I see one.
It was the first time I’ve
seen After Dark DLX, a fun fantasy-themed shooter released by UNIS / Universal
Space in 2013.
With two gun turrets and a
steering wheel for steering / dodging events, the set up is almost identical to
Namco’s Dead Storm Pirates. This deluxe
version also features a motion seat.
Here is a video of the game.
Talk of the Town
The first machines you
encounter in this arcade are Sega Rally 2 and Le Mans 24.
I enjoyed a couple of credits on Le
Mans 24, a Sega game you don’t see very often. I had a race with my four year old daughter,
who ended up driving the wrong way around the track whilst on fire.
Next up was The House of the
Dead III and Time Crisis 3, the latter was switched off.
As we headed towards the back
of the arcade there were some awesome surprises.
I could hardly believe it, an
OutRun DLX!
The machine had been
converted to Turbo OutRun. I love the
marquee topper and have never seen one of these before.
Although it was great to see
an OutRun Turbo DLX, it was also a little sad to see it not working and
unloved, gathering dust and being used to prop up fire extinguishers.
The machine had some cosmetic
wear and tear. At some point in time
‘Jilly T’ had felt the urge to inscribe her name on the seat.
Despite this, I’m sure that
with a bit of tlc the machine could be restored back to its former glory.
Well I never thought I’d see
Thunder Cross II in an English seaside town arcade in 2017!
This Sega Super Megalo 2 had
a bit of an identity crisis, with Virtua Striker 2 side art, The King of
Fighters ’98 instruction strips and Thunder Cross II installed in the cab.
Unfortunately the rear projector screen was
damaged and the colours washed out, rendering the game barely playable.
There were two Electrocoin
Duet cabinets with Cosmo Gang the Video and Wonder Boy.
The Dr Who and Fish Tales
pinball tables were both switched off.
Overall Talk of the Town was
a cool arcade with some interesting game titles and machines that you just
don’t see anymore, but it was a shame some of the machines were in a bit of a
sorry state.
Wow some great finds! I could've sworn I heard Talk Of The Town closed down, I seem to remember them having a Space Harrier DLX and several other Megalo + Duet sitdowns before (Virtua Striker 2 and KOF 98 were just two of their games).
ReplyDeleteWould be great if you asked around on Jamma+ and the VAC to see if anyone would be interested in that Turbo OutRun (or the other cabs for that matter), I'm sure they'd want rid of it. Not very often you see a complete conversion, I have never heard of or seen that topper card.
Nevermind. Just found this thread which talks about how the owner of the arcade isn't willing to sell. It also looks like there has been a lot of PCB swapping and general misuse of the cabs, the line up has thinned out even more it looks like since 2013
ReplyDeletehttp://www.jammaplus.co.uk/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=53354&title=talk-of-the-town-herne-bay
Wow Space Harrier DLX! I would have loved to have seen that. Sega Taiken cabs are a rare sight, but Space Harrier seems especially so.
ReplyDeleteSadly the owner doesn't appear to be interested in selling anything. It's surprising how many operators I've spoke to have this mind set. I can't understand why they wouldn't want to sell their old broken games and use the funds to invest in new money making machines or at least get the machines repaired. Still I might try again at the end of the holiday season.
I managed to find more good stuff on my holiday, I'll post an update next week.
It really is a shame when they won't move on anything. Especially such desirable cabs like that DLX Turbo OutRun.
ReplyDeleteNice to hear more write-ups are coming, you do some pretty good ones. I would do some myself actually but it always seems you've already done them or I'm staying at a place which doesn't have any arcades...
For example, I just had a hoiday on the Isle Of Anglesey, Wales. There was no arcades whatsoever, besides a room at a cafe with some fruit machines and a tired looking Maximum Tune 2.
I was pretty disappointed so I traveled to Llandudno which was around an hour away. There was 3 or so arcades there but there wasn't much. There was Luigi's Mansion Arcade, which I had a play on, and the new Daytona, but nothing much else, wasn't any cabs that predated 2010 or so. That wouldn't really make for an exciting arcade write-up.
Hey Jase- Talk Of The Town is sadly closing down, but the owner is finally selling his games. He has around 30 boards in the back as well as the games you pictured. Hopefully all the games can be saved!
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/BloggosPow/status/977554822672142338