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yrevalNext up in the Arcade Action series is something rather unusual; this one isn't a permanent venue, but rather a "pop-up" arcade that's been running for one weekend, roughly once every six weeks, at the Banana Block event space in east Belfast since late 2024 (and at the Oh Yeah Music Centre downtown for about another year and a half before that). Five four-hour sessions take place each weekend, with tickets priced at £20 (with kids getting in for £12 to the early family-friendly sessions) and all games set to free play.
The list of games varies somewhat each time, but on the floor at the time of my most recent visit were:
Video games: Crazy Taxi, Tekken 2, Sunset Riders, Gunbird 2, Metal Slug, Time Crisis, TIme Crisis 2, NBA Jam, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr, Pac-Man, Ms Pac-Man, Tetris (Atari), Galaga, Street Fighter II: Champion Edition, Panic Park, WWF Wrestlefest, Bubble Bobble, Frogger, Pump It Up: Perfect Collection, Super Hang-On, Windjammers, Outrun, Virtua Tennis 2, Centipede, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Point Blank, Burger Time, Alien 3: The Gun
Pinball: Street Fighter II, Baywatch, Batman: The Dark Knight, Aerosmith, Guns 'n' Roses: Not in this Lifetime, The Shadow, Tales from the Crypt, WWF Royal Rumble
Classic consoles and computers: NES, Master System, SNES, Mega Drive, N64, Saturn, Playstation, Dreamcast, Playstation 2, Xbox, Gamecube, Xbox 360, PC, BBC Micro, ZX Spectrum
The video games were in generally excellent condition, and while the line-up doesn't contain too many surprises, with numerous beloved classics present, there was an interesting obscurity - Panic Park is a 1998 game by Namco which is a minigame collection controlled with two handles, one for each player, that slide on a single rail. I didn't play too much of it, but I enjoyed what I did play of it, and it was one of the more popular games, being played at pretty much all times.
Not the best picture, admittedly - the lighting is atmospheric, but not the best for taking good pictures with my nearly decade-old phone. The flyer gives a better view of the controls:
Unfortunately, the pinball machines weren't as well maintained - while Street Fighter II (the fact that there's a SF2 pinball game shows just how much of a big deal it was in its time - it's probably worthy of its own post) was in excellent condition, with the yellow trim making it look particualrly sharp, the same could not be said for some of the other machines. The Shadow was particularly disappointing in this regard; it has a feature called the Battlefield which is best described as a real-life game of Breakout, in which the flipper buttons control a paddle which kicks the ball up the Battlefield on contact. It's a very cool feature, even if it turns out not to be very relevant when playing for score.
The paddle on the Shadow I played didn't kick the ball as it should, rendering the Battlefield non-functional. The flippers on WWF Royal Rumble did not seem to be in proper working order, either - the left ramp, an important shot as it leads to the upper playfield, was practically impossible to make.
The consoles were equipped with Everdrives and optical drive emulators, enabling access to a wide library of games off a single SD card. Consoles up to and including the N64 were set up in one corner of the main hall and paired with PVMs...
...except for the PS1, which was housed in a kiosk similar to one you could have found in a store 30 years ago.
Newer consoles (Dreamcast onwards) were located in one of a few side rooms, and the Xbox 360 was running Guitar Hero 3.
For more details, https://basearcade.com/ is the place to go. I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in arcade games, or even just retro gaming in general. At time of writing, the next running of Base Arcade will take place this coming weekend - unfortunately, tickets for the Saturday evening session, which will be attended by Walter Day, founder of Twin Galaxies, and father of competitive gaming, are sold out. I'll leave you with a few of my high scores:
Crazy money? Made. Awesome? Got.
Galaga is without a doubt my favourite "golden age" arcade game. I've reached 100k before, but I didn't quite manage it this time.
Pamela Anderson is judging your Street Fighter II pinball play.
Until next time...
The list of games varies somewhat each time, but on the floor at the time of my most recent visit were:
Video games: Crazy Taxi, Tekken 2, Sunset Riders, Gunbird 2, Metal Slug, Time Crisis, TIme Crisis 2, NBA Jam, Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr, Pac-Man, Ms Pac-Man, Tetris (Atari), Galaga, Street Fighter II: Champion Edition, Panic Park, WWF Wrestlefest, Bubble Bobble, Frogger, Pump It Up: Perfect Collection, Super Hang-On, Windjammers, Outrun, Virtua Tennis 2, Centipede, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Point Blank, Burger Time, Alien 3: The Gun
Pinball: Street Fighter II, Baywatch, Batman: The Dark Knight, Aerosmith, Guns 'n' Roses: Not in this Lifetime, The Shadow, Tales from the Crypt, WWF Royal Rumble
Classic consoles and computers: NES, Master System, SNES, Mega Drive, N64, Saturn, Playstation, Dreamcast, Playstation 2, Xbox, Gamecube, Xbox 360, PC, BBC Micro, ZX Spectrum
The video games were in generally excellent condition, and while the line-up doesn't contain too many surprises, with numerous beloved classics present, there was an interesting obscurity - Panic Park is a 1998 game by Namco which is a minigame collection controlled with two handles, one for each player, that slide on a single rail. I didn't play too much of it, but I enjoyed what I did play of it, and it was one of the more popular games, being played at pretty much all times.
Not the best picture, admittedly - the lighting is atmospheric, but not the best for taking good pictures with my nearly decade-old phone. The flyer gives a better view of the controls:
Unfortunately, the pinball machines weren't as well maintained - while Street Fighter II (the fact that there's a SF2 pinball game shows just how much of a big deal it was in its time - it's probably worthy of its own post) was in excellent condition, with the yellow trim making it look particualrly sharp, the same could not be said for some of the other machines. The Shadow was particularly disappointing in this regard; it has a feature called the Battlefield which is best described as a real-life game of Breakout, in which the flipper buttons control a paddle which kicks the ball up the Battlefield on contact. It's a very cool feature, even if it turns out not to be very relevant when playing for score.
The paddle on the Shadow I played didn't kick the ball as it should, rendering the Battlefield non-functional. The flippers on WWF Royal Rumble did not seem to be in proper working order, either - the left ramp, an important shot as it leads to the upper playfield, was practically impossible to make.
The consoles were equipped with Everdrives and optical drive emulators, enabling access to a wide library of games off a single SD card. Consoles up to and including the N64 were set up in one corner of the main hall and paired with PVMs...
...except for the PS1, which was housed in a kiosk similar to one you could have found in a store 30 years ago.
Newer consoles (Dreamcast onwards) were located in one of a few side rooms, and the Xbox 360 was running Guitar Hero 3.
For more details, https://basearcade.com/ is the place to go. I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in arcade games, or even just retro gaming in general. At time of writing, the next running of Base Arcade will take place this coming weekend - unfortunately, tickets for the Saturday evening session, which will be attended by Walter Day, founder of Twin Galaxies, and father of competitive gaming, are sold out. I'll leave you with a few of my high scores:
Crazy money? Made. Awesome? Got.
Galaga is without a doubt my favourite "golden age" arcade game. I've reached 100k before, but I didn't quite manage it this time.
Pamela Anderson is judging your Street Fighter II pinball play.
Until next time...
