Arcade gaming in Blackpool

In the last week of February 2018, I ventured up north to Blackpool. 

Blackpool is the first place that many people think of when it comes to seasides in the UK. Undoubtedly, millions have visited it over the years, but its peak is also long gone. Despite the bright lights and tourist attractions for families to visit, the backstreets of Blackpool show a rundown, jaded, and grotty town, seemingly in a frozen stasis outside of the summer holidays.

That same decline can also be applied to its tourist trap amusement arcades - having asked my online following what games could be found in them, most replied lamenting all of them being full of gambling and ticket redemption machines - not even any current titles. I knew Blackpool's arcades, like most of the others in the UK, were definitely not what they used to be, but surely they weren't that bad.

With that in mind I decided to look as hard as I could, and hope to find at least a few suggestions towards something better than the easiest, money-making fare that arcades typically revert to here.

Traditional Arcades

Starting off with the big ones, the traditional arcades and family entertainment centres littered down the Golden Mile of Blackpool's seafront.

Coral Island

Up first is probably one of Blackpool's most famous and prominent attractions on the seafront, Coral Island. It's easy to see why. Money has clearly been spent on this place- from the massive pirate skull entrance, to the various bars and restaurants contained within, to the onsite ghost train, and the monorail of pirate ships running through the arcade. It's definitely one of the more impressive arcades in the UK as far as decor and theming goes.

However, I was slightly disappointed in their selection of games. Overall, about 5% of Coral Island's space is taken up by actual video games, and although most income is of course from the ticket redemption machines and coin pushers for arcades nowadays, it was still a shame to see how few they actually had considering the floor space available.

Now the games available were fine, just the usual fare - Dance Dance Revolution X2, Time Crisis 4, Rambo, and an OutRun 2 SP SDX- but what surprised me was that all these machines had a fault in some shape or form, which shouldn't be happening in an arcade of this nature, even if these aren't their biggest priority. OutRun 2, for example, had steering wheels which were in dire need of calibration, and flappy gear shifters that barely responded to any use of them.

Meanwhile, both of these DDR X2 cabs had sticky, unresponsive pads. The left cab was even set to 1 song for £1, as opposed to the fair standard of 3- this is borderline scamming on Coral Island's part, which leaves me dubious of how they configure their gambling machines as well.

Perhaps the worst example was After Burner Climax. The flight stick was missing its missile fire button, stripping players of a main gameplay mechanic and any chance of getting far. This is pretty appalling to be honest.

Worse still, there was indeed staff out on the floor, fixing claw and 2p machines, but seemingly not noticing certain people's confusion at Time Crisis 4 not accepting any coins. A simple fix, perhaps not being done because it doesn't ensure as much immediate money back.

Coral Island's space has potential for more, newer games, like Time Crisis 5 and Dance Dance Revolution A, and they would do well considering their constant success in older iterations. However, it would seem those in charge aren't particularly enthusiastic about this. 

They also must strive to keep their games in the best condition if they want people to play them - this is Blackpool's most popular arcade with large footfall, so you can't always expect things to be perfect, but anyone would notice the clear issues with OutRun 2's controls.

I have to give credit where credit is due and say that this is one of the most impressive looking arcades in the country, but the condition of the machines left a lot to be desired. The focus is evidently on the redemption machines and other facilities, and I recognise that it is their biggest source of income, uey even in the UK there are places doing the Family Entertainment Centre route far better than this.

So, overall, Coral Island didn't live up to the hype. I'd heard this was the one potential place in Blackpool with good games and amazing decor, but realistically I only got half of that. One hopes they can improve in the future, but it won't be forthcoming.

Golden Mile Amusements

The next arcade along the strip was Golden Mile. Despite not having the same impressive decor that Coral Island had, the place seemed pretty clean and well run. Unfortunately, this too had little to speak of games wise, probably even less than across the road. The games were all in one small cluster at the side entrance, away from all the redemption which again took up the main bulk of the space.

There wasn't much variety in the games either, with most being fairly average racing games like Mario Kart, Sega Rally 3, GRID, and Fast & Furious- and I was hoping to see more recent racers, like Daytona Championship USA or even Cruis'n Blast, mediocre and unchallenging as its gameplay is. Still, neither would have the revolutionary graphics that the arcade experience once delivered either.

The newest release was what was claimed to be the only Virtual Rabbids ride in the whole of Europe so far, heavily advertised on flyers and LED boards outside. It's nice to see more arcades adopting virtual reality technology again, and giving it prominence to boot, though I'm not sure £3 per rider is the price most people would want to pay for an uninteractive simulation experience.

Proving the lack of interactivity and truly game-changing experiences further, photos recently unearthed by Sara Zielinski and Mark Fisher on Facebook, show what Golden Mile Amusements (then named Mr B's) was like in 1994. Showpieces back then included Sega's R360, Daytona USA, and Virtua Fighter, bringing the forefront of 3D graphics to visitors. Little of this is indicated there now.

Funland

This arcade was closed for most of the time I was there, and it was only on the day I left Blackpool it opened up. I could only have a quick visit as a result, yet I wasn't missing much to begin with- this place genuinely was devoid of anything remotely notable. Just redemption, gamblers, and one lone nondescript motorbike racer.

I had caught wind that Funland's upstairs areas had some of the oldest games in Blackpool, including Sega Rally Championship 2, Soul Surfer, and the original Time Crisis, but these were nowhere to be found - just more ticket redemption and family entertainment, with no cutting-edge or fun gameplay.

Like the other two big arcades on the strip, it looked very well maintained and clean, but it's a sorry state of affairs when you now have almost zero video games to speak of.

Fun Palace

Another arcade that was closed until later on, Fun Palace seemed like one of the only arcades in Blackpool that had changed little over the past few years - the exterior and insides looked somewhat dated. I unfortunately didn't get to see what was upstairs, closed off presumably due to it being off season.

They have made a pretty big deal about having Star Wars Battle Pod, possibly because it was the only place in town that actually got one. A sad indictment of how things have gone when a very notable release has got into just one of Blackpool's arcades.

Battle Pod remains a very fun experience, but its pay-per-stage system still leaves a lot to be desired. Other than that, Fun Palace had the usual Raw Thrills games, including a twin Fast & Furious that had seemingly been converted from a much better Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 3 machine

Other arcades

I did unfortunately miss out on a couple of locations. Brookes Collectables, an antique shop, had some vintage cocktail cabs and uprights in their basement to play, but they were sadly closed for refurbishment. Due to it being off season, Happy Dayz and Slots Of Fun were closed, though from what I can tell, this was no real loss. Happy Dayz looked like it had a twin OutRun 2 and Mario Kart Arcade GP 2, but not much else, and Slots Of Fun likely doesn't have any games at all now.

Piers

Onto the pier arcades. In total Blackpool has three piers, all of which containing arcades, all of which are owned by the same operator. However, no two piers are alike and have different varieties of games, which was nice to see.

North Pier

This pier mainly had Bandai Namco-made games, which were a nice break from the Sega and Raw Thrills titles that largely dominated the lineups of the other arcades. The highlight here was the thoroughly enjoyable Time Crisis 5, a game which has unfortunately ended up in few locations thus far. It's a real shame, as it has considerably more depth and playability than your average Raw Thrills shooter these days.

Other games included Dead Heat, Deadstorm Pirates, and a non-working Transformers Human Alliance.

Despite Time Crisis 5, this was probably the most unremarkable out of all of the piers overall. Perhaps a multi-game cabinet or two wouldn't have gone amiss here.

Central Pier

Possibly the best out of the three, Central Pier had some older pieces compared to the rest of Blackpool. The clear standout was this Initial D 3 Cycraft. Usually, these Cycraft machines have Club Kart installed, so it made a nice change to see the more uncommon ID3 iteration. With the cab designed to be a quick experience, the version of it was slightly downgraded, with no gear shifter or card progress feature, but this was still a high point among few high points.

More pictures:

Central Pier also had DDR X2, House of The Dead 4, GRID, Paradise Lost, and Razing Storm, Crisis Zone's spiritual successor. This machine has gotten probably one of the best LCD conversions I've ever seen- the game ran smoothly and looked great on the LCD, with no input lag from the guns either.

Some newer games in the mix would've been appreciated, but Central Pier do seem committed to maintaining the stuff they do have.

South Pier

South Pier had the most up to date lineup of the piers, and a few surprises both good and bad.

It was really great to see the latest iteration in the Korean Pump It Up series, Prime 2 2017. Not many arcades invest in new dance games these days, as most keep their old Dancing Stage Euromix or Fusion still going. Unfortunately this cabinet was offline, but it looked like it was doing well with tourists, which is a positive sign for the series after its shaky past with earnings in the west.

Storm Racer G, by Chinese development team Wahlap Tech in association with Sega. Despite a large motion base cabinet, this was non-functional, and exposed its clear lack of gameplay depth.

South Pier also had Jurassic Park Arcade. Like Storm Racer, this too had a motion base that wasn't working, robbing much appeal and whatever advantageous experience these games may have.

St Annes Pier

Just a few minutes south of Blackpool is Lytham St Annes, a quiet little town with a Victorian seafront in stark contrast to the bright lights and outlandish building exteriors of the likes of Coral Island. I had done some looking and it seemed like this place had some older games than Blackpool's arcades, so I decided to try and make it down there at some point.

And sure enough, it had a good amount of Sega titles from the 90's and 2000's, including Jurassic Park: The Lost World, Manx TT Super Bike, Star Wars Trilogy, and House Of The Dead 4. Most had questionably made LCD conversions, but were still in mostly good working order.

Alongside the standard Dancing Stage Euromix cabinet, the pier also had a Pump It Up Pro, again refreshing to see dance games other than DDR even if this is a slightly outdated version.

The highlight of this pier though was a very rare 2 player After Burner Climax link up! I'd seen one of these before at Club Sega Akihabara in Tokyo, Japan, but didn't think for a second that one like this would exist in the UK.

Pleasure Beach

Finally, at the end of Blackpool's Golden Mile is the Pleasure Beach theme park, easily noticeable thanks to its rides and facade. After getting the rides out of the way, I took some time out to check up on the numerous arcades contained within it - for one large thing in particular...

Beach Amusements

The first arcade visible in the Pleasure Beach is Beach Amusements. Unlike the other arcades in the park, you can access this one without having to enter the park itself, as it has an entrance on the street. Convenient if you're in the area and just want a quick game without paying for entry, of course.

If little else, this place did have a deluxe Point Blank 2 cabinet. £1 a go, but in perfect working order.

The fact that Rambo, comparatively modern in the presence of Point Blank 2, now a long running staple, perhaps says something about the lastability of what we get now.

Playdium

Next was Playdium. This one had the least games out of any of the arcades in the park, mainly just gambling machines and coin pushers. A Dancing Stage Euromix, King Of Route 66 trucker game, and another non-working Rambo were the only games here.

Millennium Dome

Pleasure Beach's biggest arcade was the Millennium Dome. This building used to house a ride, the 'Millennium Bug', supposedly moved to Southport's Pleasureland some time ago. The space has since been filled with arcade games and now feels more than a little run down. 

Proceedings looked like a who's who in lesser-seen games at first- there was a row of more uncommon games, including a twin Ridge Racer 2, MTV Drumscape pod, and a deluxe Sega Rally Championship.

Yet, despite being switched on, they all had this taped over the coin slot...

And again, even the modern games had issues too. One of these two GRID deluxes was fine, but the other was clearly not:

Bowl-A-Drome

Lastly we have the Bowl-A-Drome arcade. This one had a lot of older deluxe machines, all in poor condition, with some of the worst LCD screen conversions possibly ever known.

House Of The Dead 2. Now becoming scarcer, and this machine was set to 3 credits for £1, but there was no sound and the 1st player gun didn't work. A better effort probably could be made than this.

Ferrari F355 Challenge- the 3 screen version, but not much point in playing it when only 1 of the screens is working! This is unfortunately the fate most of these machines are consigned to now.

Namco's Rapid River. This one's seat hydraulics were not working, and again, no sound.

Another Sega Rally Championship deluxe. This one did not have a coin slot that was taped over, yet it was obvious from the attract mode that something wasn't right with the graphics.

Other old Sega highlights in the form of Let's Go Jungle, Harley Davidson L.A Riders, and Ghost Squad, all with faults of some sort. Ghost Squad was the worst, as while the lights were on and sound was coming out of the machine, the screen was only displaying black and white lines.

If that was it, I would simply write off Pleasure Beach's arcades as tired and poorly maintained, with no conscession to the now and a transparently money-hungry side attraction in what was first and foremost an amusement park. However, one unmentioned title remains, and it's a big one - literally. Pleasure Beach still has probably one of the most expensive, infamous arcade games ever made...

Ridge Racer Full Scale.

Yes, really, Namco's monstrous arcade machine from the 90's is still at Pleasure Beach. This is the final remnant of days gone by in Blackpool - back when each arcade had row upon row of games and the newest, flashiest simulators around. By all accounts, this should not be here considering the condition of the park's other machines, but it seems an effort is still being made by the park to keep it running.

The real Eunos Roadster (or Mazda MX-5, as it's more commonly known) you sit and play the game in is in good shape to say it is almost 25 years old. The seats and steering wheel have been replaced, and the windscreen has been taken out, but almost everything else is intact. I was expecting to see parts of it vandalised and dented, but there was very minimal damage to the car.

Of course, the original Sony projectors are no longer in use. Epson DLP projectors have had to be used, and while this does mean there is a bit of control input lag, the game still looks great on them. The projectors go through a new bulb in a few months so Pleasure Beach have to replace them regularly - commendable dedication for a game this old, and lengths which few others have gone to.

With a machine as rare and notable as this, you can't pass up the chance to catch it on film. One day, this be all but a memory, and documentation of it like this will be all we have.

 

Despite the machine's faults, it was nothing short of astonishing seeing one of the last known Ridge Racer Full Scale machines in the world. Pleasure Beach clearly do a fair bit to keep this running, as it still surprises people to this day, and it's preserving a piece of arcade gaming history. Sacrifices are clearly being made with the condition of other games, but if this is what it is all for, then so be it.

As long as the park's technicians keep maintaining Ridge Racer well, it's an absolute must for arcade goers in Blackpool - it costs £6 to get in if you don't want to go on the rides. Do it, before Ridge Racer Full Scale is lost to time- and you will never experience an arcade racer in a real car again.

Epilogue

The picture painted by the remaining arcades in Blackpool is a complex one; few truly new simulators to speak of, and nothing in the way of pure and simple playability with sticks and buttons. But some former glories are still being maintained in places with the experiences of old - not just the above Ridge Racer, but the likes of the Initial D Cycraft seen on Central Pier too:

With successful 'retro' arcades on the rise with locations such as Arcade Club, and preservation efforts of vintage games accelerating, time will only tell if Blackpool will see some of this, keeping a light on for this aspect of video game culture in a town of two halves and past fortunes.

The 'golden age' might be gone, it is yet to be seen whether places like this will benefit off of a potential revival of riches. As shown, suggestions of it can be found, however, and I do hope that people will be inspired to see them, having seen their advantages and positives here...

Ted