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

LINK- The Golden Voyage of Sinbad- Cult Movie Review

LINK- The 7th Voyage of Sinbad- Cult Movie Review

LINK- Into the Unknown Exhibition Shines Bright at the Barbican

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

Making Time for Gaming and Difficulty Modes

I probably won't get to play Starfield, Buldur's Gate 3, FF16 and many other games anytime soon, if ever. These games are being called genre-defining or ‘all-timers’ by many yet there's not a chance I'll play all of them because the time-sink would be too great. So, I’ve played the games that I know I didn’t want to miss like RE4 Remake, Zelda, Mario Wonder, Goodbye Volcano High and other quirky indie games that don't take tens of hours to complete. It's just such a shame as 2023 was one of the best years ever for videogames and 2024 could be looking pretty good too. Will I ever catch up? No. No, I won’t.

As a 43 year old married man, I only have a finite amount of time and I want to feel like I'm progressing. If it were my uni student days, where I had all that free time between lectures, then that would a different matter. For me, who completed Operation Wolf on the green monochrome screen of the Amstrad CPC 464 on the keyboard, the idea of challenge is nothing. No, facing enemy combatants in a jungle setting on a green screen was my #Legend moment. Additionally, as you get older your reaction times slow and, whilst they don't calcify, they are definitely significantly slower than they used to be- it's simple biology. Thus, some games become incredibly challenging but that doesn't mean I don't relish the fight. 

One of my greatest (and earliest) gaming achievements.

I've never understood the 'Git Good' tribalism that exists for some of these games. Life is hard enough so for many videogames are a leisurely escape in their downtime. I always start on the regular mode but, when there are unfair difficulty spikes or the need to resource farm to progress, I slide down to easy to progress before reverting to the regular mode again. I'm a child of the 80s and I did my time on incredibly hard or borderline unfair games in the arcades and on the home computers of the time. I've completed Katana Zero, Nier: Automata and many other recognisably 'hard' games but I can swallow my pride when needed and alter the challenge. For when I am feeling particularly hardcore, I play From Software games but I haven't completed any except Elden Ring, due to the farming needed when there is a huge difficulty spike. I only completed Elden Ring due to the fact that I could wander around a huge world when I met a creature that was too powerful and get OP-ed in the process.

Elden Ring is my most played game and took me over 160 hours to beat.

I am already saturated with so much media; if it's not games it's books, audiobook, magazines, podcasts, music albums, YouTube short and long form video essays, graphic novels etc without the added complication of playing all these videogames too. Gaming would dominate all my free time and, when you are a teacher with a young family, manage this level of gaming would be detrimental to my family life not to mention mental health.

My gaming pile is quite high and that’s before I account for digital games like Alan Wake 2, A Highland Song and a few others.

I have a huge backlog across all media forms and the Backlog Guilt Spectrum is real. I look at my 'to do' pile then inexplicably proceed to purchase more. I regularly go through massively productive periods where I make a dent in this backlog. Traditionally, I have a calm January where stay away from games and read or watch films and TV series. Usually, that is followed by the Summer holidays where I read prodigious amounts to make good on my promise to finish all the books I've purchased over the past year. I did that this year and felt immensely proud, before buying a load more books and feeling that tension rise again.

I have a real choice paralysis as I have always been quite informed about a lot of pop culture so not having experience of certain things seems anathema to me but that's what age, work and life does to you, it forces you to face your commitments to other things and realise that there is too much media to be consumed so slow down and enjoy the ride.

The Year Ahead in Gaming

Okay, I've joined the fray- after the usual flurry of end of year gaming reflections there's the typical 'looking to the year ahead' SEO thing, and I'm no different so here's my version of that, strictly tongue in cheek mind. Now, no-one can predict exactly what is going to happen but why let that stand in the way of an article? Let me gird me loins and let's get cracking.

In January, I abstain from any form of videogaming and usually catch up on the books, comics, graphic novels, podcasts, films and TV series that I've been meaning to get to but haven't. It has been building up quite a lot after the Summer holidays last year, where I went on a massive reading binge whilst in Cape Verde for the week and inhaled a load of books.

I read through a lot but this January my plan is to go through this lot... I'm sure I'd have a good old go and finish a lot though so I've probably bought more by the end if the month and given myself another huge to do list... Anything to ignore the fact that life is entropy and we are all slowly one step closer to death. Ahem. Onwards!

So, February will see me hitting the games big time. Catching up on this sweet stash. Finally I'll finish Mario Wonder and pause to think what the mustachiod err wonder will do next. Also, I'd have bought the Another Code: Remake Collection, which would have come out on Jan 19th, and will lose my mind over how they translate *that* puzzle which used the reflective power of the DS screens.
Final Fantasy Rebirth will also come out at the end of the month but the £70 price tag won't sit right with me so I'll probably get it near the tail end of the year, after the hype and zeitgeist has worn off and get it at the second hand or sale price of about £30. That and I still have FF7: Crisis Core Reunion to finish off.

This is my ‘to do’ list.

I'm sure by the time March hits there'll be loads of games in my digital store and pile from the sales where I would have scooped them up. Heaven's Vault, a game I bought over 3 years ago on the Switch will have to wait, yet again... alas.

Summer will brig the release of Llamasoft: A Jeff Minter Joint-a film about the singular Jeff Minter. I love the games the guy makes and, with the exception of Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the only guy who really gets synaesthesia in the game space.

PlayStation Foamstars will come out, riding in the coattails of Splatoon but, like PlayStation All Stars compared to Smash Bros, will lack the charm, finesse and flair. I predict it will be short lived and by Winter, we will hear of a dwindling player base numbering in the tens.

By now, Switch 2 model predictions would have gone nuts. I'm guessing that it won't start too far from the current model but will be higher powered, more like a PS4, but it will have the ability to play a screen on the TV but have the pad play as the touch control screen like we had in the DS and 3DS- this would allow Nintendo to port over or virtual store hundreds of old DS and 3DS games onto the library.
I would have pre-ordered one as Nintendo casually announce it in a Direct whilst I'm teaching in class. Game will have one and I will reorder but the gits will let me down (yet again) as they can't fulfill the order... sods!

The Autumn season will see the release of the Elden Ring DLC and, as usual, the totally rational and not at least elitist Git Gud crew will discuss the merits of having a rock hard game which doesn't take into account accessibility needs. This conversation will be coherent, logical and not in any way excluding to those who are colour blind, have difficulties with gross motor control or are women. I will buy it of course and love it with all my heart as Elden Ring is my most played game ever with 168 hours of play.

To coincide with Halloween, Silent Hill 2 will be released to much disappointment as all that made the game a masterpiece will be removed. Fog? Gone as now we can see where we are going! Nuanced writing? Gone as AI made the whole endeavour cheaper and better! It will also have DLC where James can wear amazing hats and you can buy different shapes heads for Pyramid Head... Dodecahedron Head? Sign me up!

The year will be peppered with AI, NFT and Games As a Service nonsense and when it doesn't work out, executives will say targets have not been met, award themselves huge pay rises and deals and sack a lot of the workers who actually produce the work. The whole failing upwards trend will continue.

The next Ubi sandbox game is released and, in a surprise move that astounds everyone, has even more icon splooged nonsense it has an over and underworld as well as a usual map: that's three layers of icon filled definitely essential to story beats and not time wasting nonsense. They have played Zelda: TOTK and have learned the lessons built on from that Zelda-like Greek gods themed Immortals: Fenyx Rising.

Also, COD is announced by Activision and in no way consistent with real world politics features a story containing an entirely fictional country called Falestine where the evil women and children must be killed for some totally legit reasons. It will take into account complex legalese framework to sympathetically put geopolitical questions under a microscope… psych! It’ll be the usual ‘do this and shoot that POC.’

Overall, I'm looking forward to the year ahead and predict it will be amazing. I don't foresee Silksong and Metroid 4 coming out but look forward to all the Nintendo Directs and the other not-E3 shows getting blasted for the fact, even though no-one announced a date for either game.