Growing up near
Great Yarmouth, we really were spoilt when it came to the arcades. In addition to the awesome arcades down the
seafront, we had arcades on holiday camps and in pubs. One holiday camp in the village where I lived
even had an OutRun DLX!
Back in the day,
pub games rooms were fairly common.
Adults would be in the bar whilst the kids would keep out of trouble in
the games room. There was one pub within
walking distance from my house with a cool games room. The pub was a short walk down a dirt track,
across a field and along Breydon Water.
The pub was called ‘The Fisherman’s Inn’ and I remember going there
after school and playing Cisco Heat, Shinobi, Street Fighter II’ and Toki,
among others.
After one summer,
the pub was refurbished. The games room
became a restaurant and the arcade games disappeared forever. I recently contacted the pub, enquiring about
the whereabouts of the old machines. I
knew it was a longshot, and a couple of days later I got a reply. “I’m afraid I am unable to advise what
happened to those gaming machines as they would have belonged to the tenant at
the time of The Fisherman’s Inn .” I was grateful to receive a reply, even though
it was pretty much what I’d expected. It
was worth a try I thought.
Then the
unexpected happened!
A little while
later I received another email. “I just
had a thought…I cannot remember the last time they got played on, but at my
Mums house, she has old school arcade machines.
The age where they use the old 10p coins.”
It turns out that
the Mum had moved in to a former Bed and Breakfast around ten years ago, and
the machines had sat there in the basement all this time.
So begins my next Raid!
The machines were
located in the basement, which was formerly a bar / games room. The cabs were a bit grubby and it was obvious
they had sat there a long time. But
under the grime they appear to be in really nice condition and should clean up
really well. It’s great they’ve been in
doors all this time in nice dry conditions.
Game World Jamma cabinet
I haven’t seen one
quite like this before. It’s a nice
narrow cab, making it great for home use, and I really like the gold
T-moulding. Inside the cab is a nice
clean Bomb Jack pcb, the perfect game for the cab!
Sega / Gremlin Astro Blaster Cabaret
The Raid highlight
for me! I absolutely love this little
cab. Other than some light surface rust
on the coin door, the cab looks great.
The nameplate on
the back.
Is that a rare
manufacturers sticker on the hood? Erm,
no. It’s a 80’s Heineken beer mat! I’m tempted to leave this in place.
The Getaway: High Speed II
I had toyed with
the idea of getting a pinball table in the past, but lack of space and expense
ha put me off. However this was just too
good to pass up!
I had watched a
couple of YouTube videos beforehand with transportation tips, so had some idea
of what to expect. It was by far the
trickiest machine to get out of the building.
In fact the other machines were a walk in the park by comparison! I had to label all the wires and disconnect
the backbox to get it through narrow doors, manoeuvre the machine round a tight
twisty corridor and then take it up some stairs.
I really like the
look of this one, it almost has an OutRun vibe.
Lord of the Rings Fruit Machine
This was bought as
part of the deal and I will be selling it on.
Cabs out of the
basement and on the ground floor.
The machines on
the van locked and loaded!
