Retro arcade game emporium opens in Kirkstall, Leeds

We have the largest arcade in Yorkshire,” says Andy Palmer proudly. He is owner of Arcade Club, which has had a flourishing outlet in Manchester for the last four years and which opened in Kirkstall, Leeds on Thursday May 30.

How many games have they got and what are they?

“We have 300 machines in Manchester and 250 here in Leeds but that will rise to 300 in the coming months," says Andy.

While arcade games have never really gone away, they have been largely eclipsed by home games consoles and mobile phones and those places which do still stock traditional arcade games often only have a limited choice.

For those of a certain generation, it’s probably worth taking a little walk down memory lane. Anyone over 40 might have fond memories of games such as Centipede, Commando, Berzerk, Daytona USA, Asteroids, Donkey Kong, Frogger, Ikari Warriors, Joust, Mortal Kombat, Outrun, Teken, Tetris, the list goes on and on. They’ve even got Qbert. Oh, and an original Star Wars simulator, which still churns out a line from the 1977 film, “Red Five standing by…” which will be a form of nirvana to some. “Some machines are from the 1970s and they are still in working order,” says Andy.

Where is it and how much does it cost?

Arcade Club has three floors of games and is located next to Carpet Right near the Morrisons traffic lights in Kirkstall. It is billing itself as a family-friendly venue, with food and reasonably priced drinks. Andy’s concept is simple. Offer customers original arcade games, from the 1970s to the present, with an enticing ‘pay n’ stay’ entrance policy, costing £16 per adult/£8 per child. “Once you pay on the door, everything free to play for as long as you like,” explains the 47-year-old who grew up in Bury, notably during the heyday of what might today be considered ‘classic’ arcade games.

Gaming nostalgia...

“It’s the best thing I will ever do in my life,” he enthuses. “All those classic games, you can’t play them anymore, except on a PC using an emulator but it’s not the same as the original machine. With the original machines, you get the smell of the paint and wood as it all heats up and that’s the thing you cannot emulate.

"We have 40-year-olds walking around tearfully when they see this for the first time. Some even come up and shake my hand to say thank-you, because they thought they would never experience this again in their lifetime. You can tell when it’s someone’s first visit because they are just wandering around in a daze - suddenly, they’re are back in their childhood.”

Where does he get the classic games from?

Andy says: “The machines are modern antiques, the Pong machine was made in 1972, which is literally as old as me. The most amazing thing is the microchips are still working. They normally have a shelf life of 20 years but these are still going at 50… when they were made, it wasn’t in the cleanest of environments and at the end of the day, light, heat and time kills everything so it’s phenomenal.”

He imports games from all over the world, mainly from collectors and he has a large stock of spares in order to keep the ones he has running.

Bringing the past to life...

“Everything is original, if you play asteroids, the vector screen you are looking at is from 1978. Before then, there were no custom built arcade monitors so they just used one off the shelf - just like you’d buy for your home, in Atari PONG for instance. We have TV screens which still have valves in them. We keep the machines going by repairing and servicing them.

“We’ve got all the stuff you’d expect to see in a modern arcade but also all the stuff you would see in an arcade from the 70s. It really does reach across the ages, so whether you’re a dad in your 40s or child, there’s something for everyone. That’s what makes it a great family venue.”

Andy worked in and eventually owned computer shops after leaving school and says the internet “killed everything”. Everything except a certain nostalgic urge in some of those who inhabit the media saturated world of today and even though it’s games like these which are the ancestors of today’s digital monopoly, in some ways they are also its antithesis.

Should one of the ageing microchips finally pack in, Andy says there’s a modern solution, in the form of something called a ‘field programmable gate array’ (FPGA), which mimics other chips.”

He adds: “Whether its films or music or something else, there’s too much choice today. There’s something about having these old machines around you, it’s an experience you can’t get somewhere else.”