Retro Replay Launch Day - Norwich

It’s Saturday 28^th September, the launch day for Retro Replay.  This is a new arcade and gaming lounge in Norwich’s rebranded Castle Quarter, formerly the Castle Mall.  I’ve got my head in the back of a generic BAS cab.  The arcade is about to open, and the lights have just been switched off so people can appreciate the games, illuminated marquees, and the newly installed neon lighting in all their glory.  My wife shines her phone torch inside the cab as I connect Puzzle Bobble to the harness.  “How are you getting on?” asks Glen, the owner of Retro Replay.  What he really means is hurry up as we’re about to open!  I refit the backdoor, push the cab against the wall and switch it on.  As the monitor glows into life, I see that I have left dipswitch one on and it goes into the service menu.  I curse for a bit, switch the cab off, pull the cab out from the wall, remove the back door, switch off dipswitch one, refit the door and push the cab back in position.  I switch on the cab and see the familiar Neo Geo logo and multi-coloured bubbles fill the screen.  I step back and feel happy and relieved to see my machines up and running together for the first time.

The lineup from left to right: Final Fight, Pang and Bubble Bobble.

There is a sudden influx of people, and it’s now time to chill out and enjoy some gaming.

A couple of weeks prior to this, news of this awesome new arcade came up on my Facebook feed.  I got in contact with Glen, offered to help out with the launch and agreed to loan him four of my machines.  These are Raid cabs, and my wife and I made a big effort to refurbish and get them ready for the launch.

The venue is spread over two floors, with the upper floor being the main arcade floor, and the lower floor predominantly console gaming.  The arcade line up is fantastic, with a nice variety of games across different eras.  This includes eighties classics, such as Galaxian and Space Invaders Part II, iconic nineties titles, including Ridge Racer and Virtua Fighter, and even a couple of cool games from the noughties.  There are also some pretty obscure titles.  Air Rescue, Battle Shark and Steel Gunner were among my highlights, I had never played these before.

It’s been years since I’ve played Primal Rage in the arcades, and it was awesome seeing it again after all these years.  The game looked incredible in the Deluxe Showcase 33” cabinet. 

Some of the cabs have been picked up locally.  Ridge Racer and The House of the Dead are from the Pleasure Beach and 500 GP and Midnight Maximum Tune 3 from a small chip shop / arcade in Potter Heigham.  It’s great to see these get a loving new home.

A high score competition is currently being held on the lower floor with cash prizes to be won.  Centipede (Atari 2600), Pac-Man (NES), Space Invaders (Super Famicom) and Tetris (NES) are the games featured.  The competition ends 20th October.

The lower floor also has some cool cocktail cabs, including Sega’s Space Trek, Guitar Hero Arcade and Mr. & Mrs. Pac-Man pinball.

Inevitably there were a few arcade casualties.  Pac-Land developed a last minute board fault.  Also the monitor chassis on Point Blank started smoking the day before, and my Marvel Super Heroes filled its place on the main arcade floor.  This one proved really popular.  The cab was from a barn near Blackpool, and the board from a lock up in Reading.  Both needed work, and it was great seeing them out there once again for people to enjoy and hearing the comments.

I did chuckle when someone was playing Final Fight on the Challenger 26 and mentioned that the monitor had seen better days and was a bit faded.  If only he knew the backstory of this particular machine!  When we picked the cab up, it was in a bit of a sorry state and falling apart.  The Op had threatened to smash it up with a digger the following day, and said I could have it.  I thought it would be a shame to see it destroyed and accepted his kind offer.  It’s somewhat surprising that we managed to get it home in one piece.  The cab has been taken apart completely and glued back together with new dowels, the Electrohome G19 monitor has been serviced, and the power supply replaced. 

The cab cleaned up well, and I’m really pleased with how it turned out.

Here are some more pics of the arcade.

Pac-Man and Clyde taking some time out from the arcade at the launch.

We had an awesome time at Retro Replay, and it’s fantastic that Norwich now has a proper arcade once again.  The launch was a massive success.  Glen and his team have worked extremely hard to bring us this arcade, and I feel privileged to have contributed to the launch lineup.  Now all I need to do is get back down there and work on my high scores!