A few small Easter Raids in Wales - Part 1

During the Easter holiday, we travelled down to South Wales.

Our base for the week was the picturesque seaside town of Tenby.

I didn’t expect to overtake a Space Invader on the motorway!  ‘Don’t be a Space Invader’ is a safety campaign launched to alert drivers to the risks of tailgating.  I think they’ve missed a trick by not using Nancy of Chase H.Q. fame!

I was looking forward to visiting Caldey Island, located less than a mile off Tenby coast.  The island is home to a group of Cistercian monks who farm the land and make cheese, chocolate and perfume.  Unfortunately the island is only accessible by boat, and the boat trips didn’t start until the day after our holiday ended.

The caravan park we stayed at had a modern arcade.  I always enjoy a few credits on Deadstorm Pirates and Jurassic Park Arcade with the kids, as well as Pac-Man Smash air hockey.

During our stay, this Gamestec playnation virtual reality machine was installed. 

VR has been getting a larger presence at EAG over the last couple of years, and I was curious to give this a try.  However I wasn’t very impressed.

1. It was three pounds per credit, so six pounds for me and my daughter to have a go, which lasted a few minutes.

2. I was expecting a game, but in fact it’s just a ride.  The player selects a theme and you just move your head and look round and that’s it! 

3. There is the hygiene issue.  I didn’t mind playing it as it was brand new, having just been installed, but there really should be provisions to give the headset a clean before use.

4. I don’t tend to get motion sickness from games, but I felt a little disorientated at the end of this.  Admittedly the numerous pints of Carling I’d had during the evening probably didn’t help!

I’d contacted a few Ops before the holiday and managed to get a couple of promising leads, but nothing was set in stone.  It was very much a case of ‘give us a ring when you get here.’  They didn’t all come through, but I did manage to squeeze in a few small Raids.

The first Op visit was in a small village near the town of Llanelli, Carmarthenshire, West Wales.

Nowadays the Op mostly deals with fruit machines and pool tables.

He also had jukeboxes and some very old one arm bandits.

Unfortunately he’d got rid of his PCB’s and most of his video game items a couple of years ago.  However he did have a nice bundle of MVS carts and motherboards, with just a single fighter and one I haven’t already got!

I’m a big Neo Geo and SNK fan and I love the reliability of these carts.  I’m by no means going for a full set, but I tend to hold on to carts I haven’t got and sell the rest on.

The boxed cart had a King Of The Monsters label under the brown tape, and there were several game titles hand written on the box, including Samurai Shodown, Super Sidekicks 2 and Top Player Golf.  The game turned out to be none of those and was in fact another Windjammers.  It looks like it had been sited at Llanishen Rugby Football Club.

He also had this generic cab with Hyper Sports inside, which I left behind. 

Apparently the cab had been sat in the corner of his unit for years, and he didn’t know if it worked.  The cab looked solid, nice and compact, and he didn’t want much for it.  I would have bought it if I lived closer. 

The Op was extremely friendly and pleasant to deal with.  He done me a cracking deal on the MVS carts, and when we were chatting outside he put his hand in his pocket, took out a bundle of notes and gave my children five pounds each to spend at the seaside.  We thanked him, said goodbye and headed for Cardiff.