Well this was a nice
surprise! I didn’t know anything about
this new retro arcade / barcade until it popped up on my Facebook feed. As luck would have it, we were pretty much
going to be driving past on our way to our holiday destination, and so decided
to stop by to check it out. The venue is
fantastic, with an awesome selection of arcade classics along with some more
unusual machines. Pay on the door and
all of the games are set to free play. There
are also console, rock band and VR rooms.
Here are some of my gaming
highlights.
A.B. Cop – Sega / Aicom – 1990
When people talk about Sega ‘super
scaler’ classics, this one definitely seems to have slipped off the radar. The fact that it’s never had a home release
adds to its obscurity.
I’ve only ever seen it once
before, and that was many years ago whilst on holiday in Malta. It turns out it was actually developed by
Aicom, the company behind the awesome Neo Geo shooters Viewpoint and Pulstar. Taking the role of an Air Bike Cop, the
player is tasked with hunting down criminals.
The game is good fun, a sort of futuristic Super Hang-On with gameplay
more similar to Chase H.Q.
Drug addiction has clearly
taken its toll on R2D2.
Dead or Alive – Tecmo / Team Ninja – 1996
I enjoyed a couple of credits
on this and it was cool seeing the dedicated cabinet.
These must have been made in
very small numbers. It looked in mint
condition as well. I remember seeing a
home use only one on Ebay a couple of years ago, I wonder if it’s the same one?
OutRun DLX – Sega AM2 – 1986
Well it just has to be in my
list of highlights doesn’t it? A few
years ago this was a nostalgic memory and thought of actually playing one of
these was just a dream. It’s fantastic
that there are actually a few arcades in the UK now where we can play this
iconic classic.
Aqua Jet – Namco – 1996
It’s great to see some love
for these Namco simulator type games, which were in all the arcades in the
nineties, but have pretty much disappeared now.
Their size and niche appeal has meant that many have been scrapped over
the years. Retrodome also has Alpine
Racer 2.
Snapper – Alca – 1980
Here we have Snapper, a
Pac-Man clone produced by Alca, the now defunct UK based company. At some stage in its life, the Snapper
marquee must have been replaced by a Pac-Man one.
I always find these UK built cabs
really interesting, perhaps more so than the official ones. Alca manufactured bootleg machines, but towards
the end of their life they did produce machines under license with genuine
boards. Later machines produced like
this include Frogger, Galaga and Gyruss.
Astro Blaster - Sega / Gremlin – 1981
It was cool having a few
credits on Astro Blaster, especially as the one I picked up from the Great
Yarmouth Bed and Breakfast is still very much in the project phase. This one was in great condition, played well
and left me feeling a bit more motivated to get cracking on mine. The game is good fun and I love the
synthesised speech!
Centipede / Millipede / Missile Command / Let’s Go
Bowling – Cosmodog / Team Play (Licensed from Infogrames via Midway Games West
) – 2002
Here is another cabinet I had
never seen before, a pretty cool multigame cab with three classic Atari games. Missile Command is stretched for the vertical
screen. Interestingly Let’s Go Bowling
is actually a new game, but was made to look like an old one.
The different art on each
side is a nice touch.
Some more pics of Retrodome.
We had an awesome time at Retrodome. The main arcade floor is very large and there
looks like there is still plenty of room to add more games. I look forward to heading back and seeing how
it develops.
