An American Tourist's Abbreviated Guide to London Gaming
by Kyle Orland 
{ Nov 30th 2007 at 8:30AM }
In America, Thanksgiving is a time of family, turkey, and football. In England, Thanksgiving is, well, just another day (although there was football). Unfortunately, I happened to be in the latter country with my wife and her family for the week surrounding the holiday, which means I didn't get a chance to revel in the Rock Band release or gawk at the Black Friday madness. I did, however, get an extremely cursory glance at the state of gaming and gaming culture as I toured the country's capital, London. Check out the below gallery for a glance at that glance, and be sure to read the captions to figure out what's going on. And, if you happen to be from England, I apologize in advance for what I'm sure is my total misunderstanding of everything I saw.
Above: A totally awesome Real Puncher game at the Namco Station arcade. The game is apparently the sequel to Sonic Blast Man, which was a childhood arcade favorite of mine.
Above: A totally awesome Real Puncher game at the Namco Station arcade. The game is apparently the sequel to Sonic Blast Man, which was a childhood arcade favorite of mine.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ben Cameron @ Nov 30th 2007 8:44AM
I'm English and I've never seen a 'football' themed air hockey tabl4e, all the one's i've ever played on are .. air hockey!
NecronomiconUK @ Nov 30th 2007 8:56AM
Same here... well aside from the time I saw this very table at the same Namco arcade
A_M @ Nov 30th 2007 1:54PM
The Center Parcs in Elvenden Forest has a pretty awesome looking air hockey 'football' table. It has 4 mallets, for four separate players (I guess one player could use two at once though) and it's about double the size of a normal air hockey table. The one downer; it's about two quid to play which put me and my friends right off.
Jtenma @ Nov 30th 2007 8:54AM
MEH.
dark_inchworm @ Nov 30th 2007 8:58AM
I find your lack of Hellgates disturbing.
Jon @ Nov 30th 2007 9:16AM
We are used to paying nothing for our phones so it isn't surprising that mobile networks sometimes gives us additional bonuses when signing new contracts. Orange once gave out free DS lites. I think T-Mobile is currently giving away PSPs to those qualifying.
Xavier Gill @ Nov 30th 2007 9:19AM
Theres loads of Space Invaders graffiti in London, its done by an artist called Invader
http://www.artofthestate.co.uk/Graffiti/the%20toasters_space_invaders_graffiti.htm
Official site - http://www.space-invaders.com/sominv.html
ThornedVenom @ Nov 30th 2007 10:00AM
LOL, I remember those machines from more than 5 years ago! There weren't anymore gloves on the machine though, and my pre-adolescent classmates were kinda hardcore.
Since they were too weak to play it fair, of course, they just readied themselves and dashed at full speed towards the machine, pouncing like an idiot to punch smash the target at maximum velocity.
I clearly remember that because I almost got hammered by one of the dudes, because I was walking across his runway.
Soulharvester84 @ Nov 30th 2007 11:03AM
I have a can of that Mario energy drink.... i live near buffalo new york. I got it from the FYE store at the local mall. Its not the greatest tasting drink ever but the can is awesome.
68newyorker @ Nov 30th 2007 11:07AM
I spotted the Mario energy drink on display at Spencer's Gifts in a local mall (bay area, ca)
James @ Nov 30th 2007 11:49AM
*Culture shock* Arcades still exist?
The last place I saw one was in Barcelona a couple of years ago. None in Manchester now.
Pawsaldo @ Nov 30th 2007 12:24PM
You just have to look harder, there is a least 3 arcades in London and loads on the south and east coast of england.
in other news Namco Station sucks, Trocadero is only a little better, 10 years ago trocadero was awesome
9 FLOORS OF ARCADE
James @ Nov 30th 2007 12:26PM
Ah yea, I didn't even consider places like Blackpool and Eastbourne. They're littered with them.
To be honest I'd rather play them 2p machines that drop the coin down and push other ones off. I spend enough money on games to waste the remainding playing in public!
fallen heero @ Nov 30th 2007 12:02PM
ye most machines are way more updated than that... ok maybe not too recent but still where i live there's a bowling alley and they have arcade machines and they have stuff like ghost squad and time crisis. The usual basically. Also most stores do that thing with the top sales and sometimes some supermarkets sell cheap games that are actually good. If you look at the prices they are way more expensive than in America. Its roughly $80-$100 per game brand new. We would consider it cheap if the games are around $60-70 for a brand new game tbh. I haven't seen a football themed air hockey table either and its probably a 1 off thing. Hope u enjoyed staying over here!
CrispyXUK @ Dec 1st 2007 9:26AM
I get the impression you don't realise that gambling isn't as restrickted here as it is in your country
mr mobius @ Nov 30th 2007 2:21PM
The gambling isn't as restricted because it is only small chance machine you have pictured. Also, there are no quarters to be seen, but instead the coins are 10p pieces you see -> 100p = £1.
A Pissed-off English Gamer @ Nov 30th 2007 8:38PM
Yeah, our arcade scene is a joke. I would love a nice arcade to go to play some fighters like Soul Calibur or Tekken, but alas, even when one of these machines comes along, and it's a rare occurance, it costs £1 per game. Frankly appalling.