We are constantly deluged with gaming information. If it's not trailers or sizzle reels, it's magazine profiles, social media pics and adverts. We live in very fortunate times in that we have all this content to make an informed purchasing decision. Sure, the various Not E3 streams and trailer drops have been exhausting but think of the alternative; nothing, nada, nowt to look at and make decisions on.

Back in the day, before all this media existed, gamers had to rely on a few magazines off the WHSmith's shelf. In the British microcomputer boom of the 80s though hundreds of games were released and all were not covered in magazines, so you had to rely on either word of mouth, cover art or tiny screenshots at the back of the cassette.

As I was tidying my garage this week, I was organising my Amstrad CPC 464 game cassettes and waves of nostalgia washed over me. I had kept a select few games after getting rid of the rest in a great cull that must have happened at some point but which I now can't seem to recall. There were some bonafide classics in there including Rainbow Islands, Bubble Bobble, Chase HQ and some Dizzy titles. However, there were a few duffers too... Capcom's Sidearms anyone?

So, whenever people complain about the oversaturation of videogame materials, be it trailers, creator interviews, crowd funding campaigns or videogame articles creating buzz, I think back to Sidearms.

LINK: Japan- My Journey to the East

LINK- The Last Guardian- Video Games As Art

LINK- The Mysterious Cities of Gold Retro Soundtrack Review

LINK- Twin Peaks Retrospective

LINK- The Transportive Nature of Objects (And the Power of Mini Consoles)

LINK- My One True Gaming Constant in Life- Nintendo

LINK- On, and On and Conston (Or, ‘How We Learned to Talk About the Legacy of Colonialism in GB’)

LINK- ‘Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire’

LINK: Let’s All Create a ‘New Normal’.

I have very fond memories of Bubble Bobble as it was one of the first games from my childhood that I fell in love with. The catchy music, sweet graphics and simple to play but difficult to master gameplay hooked young me in and it has been that way ever since. In fact, when I started this website one of the first covers I did for the homepage was a homage to Bubble Bobble due to the pure love I have for that game.

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So, whilst sitting in the shed on a wet rainy day taking a break from remotely teaching my pupils during lockdown, an advert popped up for a Quarter Arcade cabinet of Bubble Bobble and it got me thinking… I know Numskull have released a few arcade machines before and they are all bona-fide classics like Pacman, Galaga and Dig Dug but none of them really interested me. Bubble Bobble was different though and so I pre-ordered it. Over the course of the last month, I've had some buyers remorse and more than once thought about cancelling it but I know that it has sold out and I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I had ‘must have’ and I'd let it go and so I stuck with it. I'm glad I did.

This is an official, fully playable arcade machine and uses the original ROM of the game. A big draw for me was that it had the 2 player mode with dual-joystick controls so I could enjoy it with friends and family. The game runs off a C-USB power cable but does have an internal battery so you can play it away from a power source, at least for a while.The system is very robust and looks very swish. The Taito detailing and branding is on point and even though an exclusive Bubble Bobble arcade machine didn't exist, this is a good approximation of what the arcade machine would look like.

I know some may say, “Why don’t you just MAME it?” or '“Why pay so much for something you can find a ROM of online?” To this I would say that I have the game on emulator but sometimes it’s nice to have something official to show an appreciation and love for it. These products are not for everyone and I get that but why be negative towards something that serves a community who look forward to it?

I'm now off to kick Baron Von Blubba’s butt but I hope that Quarter Arcade follow up with Rainbow Island, Parasol Stars and New Zealand Story arcade machines.