Hemsby and Newport are seaside village resorts, situated
5 miles north of Gt. Yarmouth. There is little variation between the arcades
and there aren’t many videogames left.However
there are still a couple of cool games, including the awesome The House of the
Dead and Scud Race.
Carousel Amusements – Hemsby
This arcade had a Daytona
USA, Time Crisis 3 and the usual selection of gambling and redemption
machines.But tucked away in the corner
looking a little bit lonely was something quite special.
The biggest surprise so far
and one of my all time favourites!I
remember playing the full OutRun upright and sit down cabinets back in the day,
but this is the first time I’ve seen an upright mini.I was almost tempted to make an offer for the
cab, but then the wife would kill me.I
dug out some 20p pieces from my wallet and settled for a couple of
credits.‘Magical Sound Shower’ and ‘Passing
Breeze’ had never sounded so good!
Here are some pictures of my
Naomi running Planet Harriers.
Swapping out the Naomi
motherboard for a Hikaru was no problem at all, everything hooked right up
perfectly!
The 31KHz monitor is ideal
for Planet Harriers, although the game can also be set to 24KHz or 15KHz on the
boards test menu.The custom marquee was
produced by Spectre (Arcade Otaku).I am
considering a control panel overlay, but I do like the nice clean look of the
powder coated panel.
This magazine came
as a nice surprise!A new issue of Joystick
Gamers! Video Game Photo Magazine, released a year after the first.This issue includes three bonus mini
magazines.
Another nice
surprise is that it features Nanboya Arcade, an awesome arcade we just happened
to stumble upon during our stay in Osaka.
I have awesome memories of
the arcades in and around my hometown of Great Yarmouth.I remember playing Pac-Land, Double Dragon 2,
RoboCop and sit-down OutRun on the local holiday camps.A trip to the seafront with my nan and
granddad and playing Chase HQ.The buzz
surrounding Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat and the crowds gathered around
the machines.Going to the arcades weekends/after
school and being blown away by Alien vs. Predator, Daytona USA and Killer
Instinct.Happy times indeed.
During the Easter holidays I
went out with my wife and daughter to check out a few of these arcades.Whilst my expectations were pretty low and
the machines I remember are sadly long gone, there were some nice new games I
hadn’t seen before, a couple of classics and a few nice surprises along the
way!
Great Yarmouth
Golden Mile
It’s sad to see how the
arcades along the seafront have changed over the years, with video games losing
floor space in favour of gambling and redemption machines.The OutRun2 and After Burner Climax machines
have disappeared as well.However it was
good to see some new machines.I was
really excited to see Mach Storm.A
spiritual successor to After Burner, the game is awesome!However it’s probably best avoided if you
suffer from motion sickness.Or if
you’ve just eaten!
Dark Escape 4D was also a lot
of fun.The cabinet says ‘Body-shocking
3D horror shooting’, which I think is a pretty apt description!The 3D is very effective, and the game
genuinely puts you on edge.One cool
feature is that your heart rate is monitored and displayed on screen!
Batman combines racing and
combat and allows you to select different era Batmobiles and adversaries,
pretty cool!These games are currently
in Wellington Pier.
Other cool new games in the
arcades along the sea front include Aliens Armageddon, Dream Raiders, Super
Alpine Racer and Transformers Human Alliance.Very few older games remain.
