Boneyard Arcade Brings Back the Memories

Arcades have changed a lot over time and, even though they are not as prevalent as they once were, there has been a steady rise in small centres where you pay an admission fee and get the machines on free play or a contactless pay system on the machines. Whatever model these arcades use, it's fine with me to be able to play original and refurbished machines which give the feel and create the atmosphere of the arcades of my youth.

Living in London, these arcades or barcades were easy enough to find but here, in the South West, the only machines I would find would be the odd ones here and there or ticket redemption spitting machines. The piers and coastal arcades around here would have the occasional arcade machine but that would be the more modern machines with the occasional Guitar Hero machine thrown in.

Boneyard Arcade in Exeter is different though. Run by two brothers with a love for gaming, it features original and refurbed machines. Importantly though, it contains many vintage and classic arcade and pinball machines including:
Tempest
Galaga
Centipede
Asteroids
Sega Rally
Ms. Pacman
Star Wars: Arcade
DDR
and various Mame enabled compilation machines.

I went with my daughters for the first time for my birthday and we had a blast. The atmosphere was family friendly (we did go at 2pm though) and the noise was a nostalgic rush of memories. The £5 contactless card for 20 credits system worked well and, with nearly all the games costing 1 credit, actually incredibly reasonably priced.

With £10 of credit to hand we played most of the machines but our favourites were Star Wars Arcade, Asteroids, Galaga and Tempest.

I've still got about 18 credits left on my card so will definitely visit again. I think this is going to become a part of my bi-monthly comic shop, videogame shopping and arcades routine. Boy, that kinda takes me back to my youth in Barking with the library, Cash Convertors and Rodney's comic shop trinity.

LINK- Vintage Arcade Machines in the Wild

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LINK- Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema Virtual Exhibition Experience- Review

LINK- Children of the Stones: Cult TV Series Review

LINK- Tom’s Midnight Garden: Cult TV Review

LINK- On And On And Colston ( Or, How We Kinda Sort of Learned to Talk About the Legacy of Colonialism and the British Empire)

LINK: Japan: My Journey to the East

The Cambridge Centre For Computing History

I've been meaning to visit the Cambridge Museum for Computing History since I first came across their website a while ago, but knowing that the Oliver Twins (of Codemasters and Dizzy fame) were going to be doing a talk there was all the impetus I needed to finally get down there.

The museum is located in an industrial area, usually the preserve of out of town shopping centres and shops like B & Q and Carpet Right, but for a collection of vast proportions it makes sense that the computing centre is here. The centres collection explores the historical, social and cultural impact of personal computing. What makes this museum so special is that unlike many other museums the displays are not behind glass, instead most of the old computers and game consoles are plugged in and working, ready for use by visitors (Only the very rarest items have a 'do not touch' sign on them or are behind glass).

Being a retro gaming geek, this museum has the perfect blend of interactive exhibits and informative knowledge displays. As an avid gamer I felt that I knew a lot about computing but boy was I wrong, there were so many machines which I didn't even know about, the one that really surprised me was the Amstrad/ Sega Megadrive hybrid, that was a thing apparently! Who's fevered mind dreamed that one up?

The Amstrad Mega PC- The power of the Sega Megadrive and Amstrad PC combined.... wow, just wow!

The centre had it all; Macintoshes, Sinclairs, Microcomputers as well as  all the Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft consoles. The museum had gadgets and peripheries and even a Sinclair Electric car.

Although the centre had only been open for exactly a year, it had plenty to see and do and was packed. There had been a school group earlier in the day and as the time ticked on closer to the Oliver Twins talk more of a crowd started to build. I played many of the game on show including Super Robin Hood, Fantasy World Dizzy, Cybermorph on the Atari Jaguar (the controller is horrendous to hold), Sonic the Hedgehog on the Megadrive and a shmup on the Turbo Grafx 16. Also I saw the graveyard of arcade machines, there were 13 in total and whilst some were fixed many are in need of major renovations. The museum is hoping to get them back online soon and that would be special!

Just after 3 o'clock the Oliver twins, Philip and Andrew arrived and had a look around the centre. Once they had a look around they went into the conference room and after a few technical hitches, started their talk. The talk was relaxed and illuminating, they talked about their interest in gaming from a young age and their enthusiasm for coding right up to their relationship with Codemasters. They discussed Dizzy of course but this was much more than just that, they talked about starting their own company and the founding of Blitz Games, its closing and the emergence of Radiant Games, their newest venture. They spoke with enthusiasm and candour and it was refreshing to see such honesty and lack of hyperbole.

After the talk, which lasted just over an hour and a half, there was a chance to ask questions. I learnt that the brothers enjoy the works of Nintendo and respect their fun way of producing games that engage people of all ages. Also the brothers thought that Fantasy World Dizzy had the best art of their games, anything with a dragon is cool apparently!

  There was a short break for drinks and refreshments and this provided me with an opportunity to get things signed and discuss gaming further with the Philip Oliver. He signed my Fantastic Dizzy Master System poster and my Quattro Games cassette from Codemasters, both of which I'd had since my childhood.

After a time Adam Oliver, the 15 year old son of Andrew, spoke about game designing and the challenges of making a game. He discussed learning coding in Scratch and then moving onto GameMaker and then producing Alien X, the BAFTA Young Game Designer of the Year 2014 Award winning game. Andrew answered questions and offered an interesting take on the changes to the ICT Curriculum. I asked him how schools were coping with the new curriculum and he spoke openly how things had shifted from consuming to constructing, there was a notable shift in his school from proprietary Office packages to creative software where the pupils were given creative freedom under a remit. It seems like computing is finally moving in the right direction and the Olivers are helping by being involved in such initiatives as 'Made in Creative UK.'

I left the centre after having been in there for over 6 hours and I have to say that I had the most fantastic time. I played games I hadn't touched in years, met fellow gamers and enthusiasts an met my childhood game heroes and got my swag signed. All in all an amazing day!

My signed copy of Fantasy Dizzy and Quattro Adventures pack.

Here I am on the far right hand side... so stoked to have been here!

The Death and Rebirth of the Arcade in the UK- by Anjum Razaq

The 80’s and early to mid 90’s were the halcyon days of arcades which found machines in abundance across chip shops, video rental stores, airports and also of course the arcades which were scattered across beach fronts, towns and cities. The arcades were a heady place, full of bright lights, arcade sounds and excited voices. The arcades machines occasionally changed and moved with the times and each new iteration of the latest ‘big game’ brought people in their droves to test their mettle. The arcades served as a social hub for people to practice, share and hone their skills- in short the arcades were a place to meet kindred spirits.

The arcades adapted to the growing pressure of more powerful home consoles on the late 90’s by bringing in the phenomenally popular dance games, which in one fell swoop brought in many traditional non- gamers at that time; females. 

My initial arcade experiences were local, I would often visit the local video rental shop in the town (‘21st Century’) and watch in awe with my friends as these pro’s would play through to completion. It was in this way that I saw most of the ending of ‘Street Fighter 2’! I’m sure many of you have a similar story and this is what arcades bring out in gamers, feelings of belonging and nostalgia. I’m sure wherever there are gamers in the world there is a special place in gamer’s hearts about the arcade experience. However the arcade industry in the West has been in decline for the past decade if not longer. Funland in Trocadero London closed on July 2011 and the only real way to share in communal gaming which wasn’t online was through HMV and its Gamerbase extension at the back of its flagship store. Gamerbase held tournaments and competitions and promoted such events through facebook, Twitter and other social media but it too fell away.

Even though the arcade industry has been dealt some serious body blows, the highest profile being the closure of Funland I believe the talk of the demise of the arcade has been exaggerated. The gaming community who still care about the arcade experience have started to mobilize and the best example I can use is ‘The Heart of Gaming’, a recently opened arcade initiative in Acton, North London, which hopes to bring back the arcade experience to the people.

The Heart of Gaming is contained within an old warehouse, past a creepy graveyard and dark alleyway next to a trainline

I spoke to the owner Mark Starkey about the death of the traditional arcade and he provided some insight;

It’s lovely to walk into a room and hear all those arcade machine noises, that is gaming nostalgia and people pay for nostalgia. The old arcade business model was outdated. The arcades were often run by old boys who didn’t see the arcade industry changing. Paying 50p, £1 or even £2 for a credit in game in which you might just last a minute wasn’t viable anymore, not when people had arcade quality graphics available at home on their computers. So my idea was to charge a one off entrance fee at the door and people can play as much as they like for 24 hours’.

As a gamer I’m sure we have all experienced this, the feeling of having a finite amount of money and making it last for as long as possible. The idea of a one off day fee is very simple but a definite game changer. It allows gamers time to play a wide variety of games as well as offer an opportunity to hone their craft and skill on specific games they like. During my 5 hours there I played and completed ‘House of the Dead 1’, ‘Gunspike’ (a strange ‘Mercs’ style game featuring Street Fighters Cammy) and ‘Ikaruga’. I played several rounds of ‘Street Fighter 4’ and was soundly defeated by my cousin, often without landing a blow! I also played a couple of rounds of Pacman and Donkey Kong.

There are many arcade machines and if there are any games on the Xbox 360 or PS3 you want to bring with you you can, the machines play those systems too!

Playing Ikaruga and dying about a billion times!

This model of one-off payment is perfect for gamers as it allows them to go back to the games they like and get better at them, I dread to think how many continues I used in completing Ikaruga! Also I now want to get better at Street Fighter 4 and compete in the various tournaments and competitions which occur frequently and are streamed online via twitch.tv

Mark has stated that the aim of the HOG is;

… to create  strong sense of community. You can play games and get better at them if you like but if you don’t like a game it doesn’t matter, it hasn’t cost you anything… this business model allows gamers to test out a wide variety of games. For example I never even heard of Gunspike but someone mentioned it and now we have it here, it’s a curio.

Whilst speaking to Mark about the new Computing curriculum I asked him about the increased emphasis on programming and developing. Mark became animated and spoke about how it would be good to show children how to fit in the circuitry and build an arcade rig.

We discussed the Raspberry Pi and the possibilities it opens up to children and Mark stated that he would like to develop HOG to include an educational aspect, even allowing for school trips to do classes on building and creating arcade units. I will be talking with Mark more about this as I develop the curriculum but the idea of getting children to programme a game in Scratch, Python or another language and developing a whole arcade unit sounds like a great project. This truly would allow the children to become game producers instead of consumers, which really appeals to me.

The Heart of Gaming logo

So the future of the arcade is more hopeful that the naysayers would have you believe, the arcades are not dead, they are merely evolving…