Retrodome – Barnsley

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 is a walk round video of the arcade floor.

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  At some stage in its life, the Snapper marquee must have been replaced by a Pac-Man one.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.