ARCADE CLUB IN LEEDS
In August of 2019 I got married, beautiful day, beautiful weather and a great day was had by all so where is the best place for a newly married fifty something to spend his honeymoon? An amusement arcade, called the Arcade Club, seemed the ideal place for the pair of us to go and if memory serves me well we did a whole 12 hour shift, 11am to 11pm on a Thursday (I think) at £16 each, quite a reasonable price and only a short drive from where we live. If you are driving, parking isn't too bad as it has a small car park right outside or if that is full you can always park in Morrisons just over the road.
There was a small bar serving canned drinks, beer, larger, cider and some spirits. When it came to food both of us were completely catered for, hamburger, pizza, hotdog all of which were also available as meat free options, ideal for the vegan in your life.
But of course our main aim was to play. Some of the earliest arcade machines available to play there are games such as Pong (1972) all the way through to the 80s and my favourite machine, Galaga (1981), there are also imported Japanese arcade cabinets and dancing games among many others available. There are also a great selection of pinball machines. All of these games brought back memories of growing up by the coast where I was surrounded by amusement arcades.
Some of the most popular games appeared to be the large arcade boxes containing shooting games, such as House of the Dead which appeared to be one of the most popular as it seemed to always be occupied. We quite often passed the cabinet thinking we'd play only to fnd people in there thinking we'll come back later and try again, eventually we got to play which was good as it's one of our favourites.
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| House of the Dead, a very popular game |
The top floor contains more recent hardware, PlayStation 5s, XBoxes and VR machines are set up, it seems a really popular area but not really my cup of tea so decided to steer clear, so back down to the ground floor and a couple of games of air hockey. The hydraulic games such as Space Harrier (1985), Super Hang On (1987) and Outrun all seemed popular with the visitors.
In 2024 the Arcade Club closed for a short period of refurbishment and then re-opened with a much larger footprint being able to cater for a larger bar area and more food options, but most important is the quantity of arcade machines.
I have visited the Arcade Club in Leeds numerous times since and have thouroughly enjoyed every visit. the Arcade Club is also available as a venue for special events such as birthday parties, stag or hen parties, christmas parties etc.
I would highly recommend the Arcade Club to anyone but to be certain of a good time put plenty of hours to one side, probably even a whole day as you will surely want to stay as long as you can, the time will pass quickly but you will be a much happier person for spending time there.
If you are not situated anywhere near Leeds/Bradford there are also Arcade Clubs in Bury and Blackpool, which as of now we haven't tried yet.
Michael
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