Nickel Arcade

Tron 2 was an awesome film; but it also brought about something of a mini mid-life crisis in the corner of my mind. Well, for about 10 seconds.

The film is a stark reminder that old-style amusement arcades with video games have all but vanished from the UK; Angelo and I have looked EVERYWHERE and the sad reality is that I’m a dinosaur who is still yearning for the good old days, days where I could escape for an hour or so, avoiding an obscene amount of enemy bullets whilst trying to beat a Boss in a shoot-em up!

The modern ‘amusement arcade’ is just full of fruit machines with different stickers and always seem to be full of nutty Russian gangsters or groups of Pakistani’s who seem to live in the seedy parlours at airports and plough endless pound coins into them.

Luckily for me, there’s a small corner in Utah called the ‘Nickel Arcade’ that has a wealth of video games that stretch back to the 80’s and 90’s; and even some obscure bits from the 2000’s! And all for the bargain of 15c (10p) per play!

So without further ado, I will share my findings with thee………oh yes, and most of the games are available for purchase via e bay or their website!

My favourites? The Tron cabinet! The Golden Axe ‘Revenge of Death Adder’ game and last but not least, the unexpected Streetfighter 3rd Strike machine! I still got the moves Mr. Takis!

Nickel Arcade 1