As someone who travels regularly across Europe for Street Fighter 2 + 3 tournaments, the preservation of classic hardware is more important than it's ever been now. And we're very very lucky that there seem to be more enthusiasts than ever willing to maintain and bring these machines to a new audience. As it happens, we've actually been looking at this place as a regular meetup spot for the Midlands 3rd Strike players! Can't wait to check it out. (Nice use of the Dudley theme as well. The Dudley/Dudley pun isn't lost on me haha)
That's cool! I wish I was good at Street Fighter but I am simply not. I agree though that classic hardware preservation is only getting more challenging and the more people like Craig who rise to the challenge the better. Check it out, hope you enjoy it. I didn't spot a Street Fighter III machine in there but there are a couple of SFII machines. I don't think those ones are completely original but I didn't get to spend a lot of time checking with the nephew having no interest in Street Fighter whatsoever! Nice spot. A lot of the music choices in my videos are jokes because that's easier than finding actually appropriate music without any constraints. 😉
Great video. I like the look of this place and agreed with many of your points. The Barcades I visited had loud music playing which took something away from the proper experience. TMNT played with 4 people is the right way to do it!
The bars are great for going out with a few friends and getting drunk and playing classic arcade games. But if all you want to do is play and relive the arcade scenes of the 80's and 90's then this kind of place is where you want to be for sure.
Gratz to the Awesome ppl that Opened The Retro Realm! GG to the nephew and ty for posting the vid. the Place looks Fun, I use to go Time-Out Arcades a long time ago anyways thank you. take care.
It is definitely for nostalgia. As an industry arcade gaming is evidently dead and gone - the home consoles and computers simply superceded them. But to any of us who grew up with them, they were an indelible part of the videogaming revolution, for the longest time they were the peak of the technology. I still remember walking into one of the local arcades at a nipper and being blown away by Data East's RoboCop on a giant CRT screen with the movie's music and sampled voices blaring from stereo speakers - the home versions were never quite as good - and endless afternoons playing Konami's coin-op of Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles with my cousin at a local shopping centre boulevard and it feeling like I was actually playing an episode of the Saturday morning cartoon itself. For us, these things were formulative events. Owning an authentic cabinet (or even a clever replica) is a childhood dream we can now make reality, if we wish. But the existence of arcades today are, really, the realm of trying to capture happy moments from our childhoods. They haven't really got a purpose beyond that.
Thanks for sharing the memories. I don't think I played RoboCop but my memories of Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles are very similar to yours. The NES version is amazing but it's not the same. Then not long later you had Turtles in Time and the SNES port is a perfectly fine way to play it and that's when arcades switched to being more about these big racing or shooting games that you couldn't have at home and then they started to die out too. I like that there are more retro arcades appearing these days though and giving us the chance to share some of that experience with kids now.
@TheRetroSofa I loved your observations in the video about how a kid today approaches playing the games until they lose interest, so having 'free to play' switched on is good. Most arcade games weren't best designed for home consoles. They gave an advantage to players that were willing to shovel change into them for extra lives, so the home versions were often harder because aside from giving NES players unlimited continues it wasn't really possible to replicate the 'coin op' aspect of coin ops, and the games were usually just as hard because that's how they were designed to be to keep getting more money haha
Hey Bill, I'm always happy seeing your new videos in my feed! It's so beautiful seeing the younger generation having fun with these old games, too! There are wonderful new games, but it seems to me all these smartphone games (or shall I better call them casinos?) and free-to-play/pay-to-win games are dominanting the market right now. Nothing particular associated to arcade gaming, but sharing old games with younger player: My son loves the Zelda mangas (our nerdy bedtime lecture) and i showed him The Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time. This was one of the games that blew my mind as a kid and I think it definatly stands his ground even today. Do you know about the PC port "Ship of Harkinian"? With the 3DS - models/textures this is my favorite way to play this classic right now (at least in my opinion). I would love to hear your take on the PC port/recompiling scene. I recently played Mario64 this way, too and it's like a childhood dream come true for me to see these games beeing updated this way. (I remember talking to friends at school and saying something like "A remake of Mario64 would be a blast!"when the PS2/Gamecube came out. Either way, thanks for your video! Have a nice day!
Hey, great to hear from you. Tommy had a great time but mostly all he wanted to play was Super Mario Bros! I'd love to play Zelda with him at some point but I just have to wait and see if he's into it. I haven't checked out the PC port of Ocarina of Time but I've played a lot of Super Mario 64 with RTX and messed about with the PC port of Perfect Dark. It's interesting and definitely something I need to catch up on. I guess it kind of continues the point I was making in this video about whether we want to play these games as they really were, play them as we remember them, or use modern tech to let them shine brighter than ever. Really I think if you're wanting to play games as you remember them you need to give them a bit of an uplift sometimes because a lot of these early 3D games especially won't have that same impact they had on release. Even though, as you say, Ocarina holds up incredibly well.
There wasn't any US-style arcades in France either. You'd see some machines at cinemas or bowling places but that was it. Funny thing is, now that retro arcades are a thing I've seen much more of these around. I love going there because arcade machines are really cool, but to be honest this isn't really how I like to play games, and the thought of having to pay each time irks me (props to the Retro Realm for making it free to play on that).
I like free to play but it's not strictly better than putting tokens or coins into the machines. It's just different and some older arcade games are well-suited to seeing how long you can last with your coins. Infinite continues makes death irrelevant on a lot of games as well. But yeah, overall I think I prefer free play. They were never a thing in Germany either but retro arcades are still popping up here and there.
It sure isn't going to happen while I'm unemployed, but I did just look up how much a flight from Stockholm to Birmingham is. Going to a place where you can eat and play arcade games with friends seems nice. I went to Sega World once in the 90s, as a kid, but we sure couldn't afford playing more than a handful of their arcade games. (And we weren't alone, which is why the place shut down.) Sweden is very similar to the UK when it comes to our arcade history, it seems. I saw them at amusement parks and such, while pinball machines were more common.
I used to love Sega World in Bournemouth. Such a shame they closed down. My dad got some very brief footage of me playing SegaSonic The Hedgehog but unfortunately they told him not to film. I'd love to find one of those machines again. Birmingham's pretty good for retro gaming. There's The Retro Realm and NQ64 in Birmingham, plenty of CeX (second hand chain) shops, and a couple of independent retro games shops on the outskirts of Birmingham that are worth checking out. They unfortunately do the thing where they'll come up with prices on the spot rather than pricing everything as it comes in, which is a shame, but definitely worth a browse. I grew up around there so I don't see it as like a great holiday destination or anything but as a city break with a couple of friends for a long weekend I reckon it's underrated.
@@TheRetroSofa My most prominent memories of Sega World (in London) was the VR ride with Michael Jackson and seeing SegaSonic the Hedgehog! I can't remember if I actually played the latter or just watched the demo loop, but it left an impression.
For nostalgia 🎉 They are definitly a risky investment, which is why dedicated arcades now are mostly either bars for adults, or a Dave and Busters type place (it’s an American chain that is half family arcade, half sports bar restaurant. It’s geared towards families, but is also a popular spot for adults).
This is more a dedicated arcade with a diner than a bar/restaurant that's also an arcade so I hope it works out. I feel like it's a good time to be starting this kind of business. If game prices are any indication, retro gaming's massive right now.
Last year while traveling I went to some Japanese retro arcades in Osaka and Tokyo, hoping to "relive" the fun days of Street Fighter in the 1990s. In reality, the experience was just depressing. Very few people were there, and the few that were were all playing by themselves against the computer. It wasn't at all like 20 years ago, where you'd have a line of people waiting to play next, forming a crowd of spectators that would watch each match. That whole scene is essentially dead, and the retro-arcades are kind of just like a museum for old games and nothing more.
That's true. Again we in the UK never really had that anyway. Occasionally you'd have people watching Dance Dance Revolution (or Dancing Stage, as we called it) but that's about it. I wouldn't expect that way of gaming, the queues of people to compete at Street Fighter, coming back now unfortunately. We've got the games but we don't get to play them as we used to.
I like the idea of the modern free-to-play arcade. One thing I've noticed at some of the arcades in the area around my area of The States is new arcade machines that require a credit to play on every level. That really put a sour taste in my mouth, but I suppose it's authentic to the classic greed aspect of arcade machines. I dunno... maybe I'm just a miserly curmudgeon who prefers Galaga...
I like both. If you're playing with kids a free-play arcade where you just pay to get in is ideal but I also like seeing how far I can make my credit go, you know? This obviously doesn't work on arcade machines that kick you off after one level/race/whatever regardless of how good you are. I still like the old arcade games where one credit was all you needed if you were good enough.
Here in the US, we still have several great retro arcades. The best one in my state (Pennsylvania) is called Timeline Arcade. You pay by the hour to play games from every decade. There is something from every style and something for every age bracket. My mother in her sixties enjoyed playing there just as much as my daughter age 8.
Fun.nothing beats it if you like old shite.if you lived near Blackpool like I did we had massive arcades in the 80s including esoteric stuff like sega 360 and outrun with a full car mock up built in.
I used to visit arcades a lot in Blackpool and Bournemouth because these are tourist places and tourist places tended to have arcades. I don't know why in Britain we were only meant to play games when we were on holiday.
As someone who travels regularly across Europe for Street Fighter 2 + 3 tournaments, the preservation of classic hardware is more important than it's ever been now. And we're very very lucky that there seem to be more enthusiasts than ever willing to maintain and bring these machines to a new audience. As it happens, we've actually been looking at this place as a regular meetup spot for the Midlands 3rd Strike players! Can't wait to check it out. (Nice use of the Dudley theme as well. The Dudley/Dudley pun isn't lost on me haha)
That's cool! I wish I was good at Street Fighter but I am simply not. I agree though that classic hardware preservation is only getting more challenging and the more people like Craig who rise to the challenge the better. Check it out, hope you enjoy it. I didn't spot a Street Fighter III machine in there but there are a couple of SFII machines. I don't think those ones are completely original but I didn't get to spend a lot of time checking with the nephew having no interest in Street Fighter whatsoever!
Nice spot. A lot of the music choices in my videos are jokes because that's easier than finding actually appropriate music without any constraints. 😉
Great video.
I like the look of this place and agreed with many of your points.
The Barcades I visited had loud music playing which took something away from the proper experience.
TMNT played with 4 people is the right way to do it!
The bars are great for going out with a few friends and getting drunk and playing classic arcade games. But if all you want to do is play and relive the arcade scenes of the 80's and 90's then this kind of place is where you want to be for sure.
I really liked this. Thanks mate. 👍
Thanks! Glad to hear it.
Gratz to the Awesome ppl that Opened The Retro Realm! GG to the nephew and ty for posting the vid. the Place looks Fun, I use to go Time-Out Arcades a long time ago anyways thank you. take care.
Thanks! We had a good time. 😁
It is definitely for nostalgia. As an industry arcade gaming is evidently dead and gone - the home consoles and computers simply superceded them. But to any of us who grew up with them, they were an indelible part of the videogaming revolution, for the longest time they were the peak of the technology. I still remember walking into one of the local arcades at a nipper and being blown away by Data East's RoboCop on a giant CRT screen with the movie's music and sampled voices blaring from stereo speakers - the home versions were never quite as good - and endless afternoons playing Konami's coin-op of Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles with my cousin at a local shopping centre boulevard and it feeling like I was actually playing an episode of the Saturday morning cartoon itself. For us, these things were formulative events. Owning an authentic cabinet (or even a clever replica) is a childhood dream we can now make reality, if we wish. But the existence of arcades today are, really, the realm of trying to capture happy moments from our childhoods. They haven't really got a purpose beyond that.
Thanks for sharing the memories. I don't think I played RoboCop but my memories of Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles are very similar to yours. The NES version is amazing but it's not the same. Then not long later you had Turtles in Time and the SNES port is a perfectly fine way to play it and that's when arcades switched to being more about these big racing or shooting games that you couldn't have at home and then they started to die out too. I like that there are more retro arcades appearing these days though and giving us the chance to share some of that experience with kids now.
@TheRetroSofa I loved your observations in the video about how a kid today approaches playing the games until they lose interest, so having 'free to play' switched on is good. Most arcade games weren't best designed for home consoles. They gave an advantage to players that were willing to shovel change into them for extra lives, so the home versions were often harder because aside from giving NES players unlimited continues it wasn't really possible to replicate the 'coin op' aspect of coin ops, and the games were usually just as hard because that's how they were designed to be to keep getting more money haha
Hey Bill, I'm always happy seeing your new videos in my feed! It's so beautiful seeing the younger generation having fun with these old games, too! There are wonderful new games, but it seems to me all these smartphone games (or shall I better call them casinos?) and free-to-play/pay-to-win games are dominanting the market right now.
Nothing particular associated to arcade gaming, but sharing old games with younger player:
My son loves the Zelda mangas (our nerdy bedtime lecture) and i showed him The Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time. This was one of the games that blew my mind as a kid and I think it definatly stands his ground even today. Do you know about the PC port "Ship of Harkinian"? With the 3DS - models/textures this is my favorite way to play this classic right now (at least in my opinion). I would love to hear your take on the PC port/recompiling scene. I recently played Mario64 this way, too and it's like a childhood dream come true for me to see these games beeing updated this way. (I remember talking to friends at school and saying something like "A remake of Mario64 would be a blast!"when the PS2/Gamecube came out.
Either way, thanks for your video! Have a nice day!
Hey, great to hear from you. Tommy had a great time but mostly all he wanted to play was Super Mario Bros! I'd love to play Zelda with him at some point but I just have to wait and see if he's into it. I haven't checked out the PC port of Ocarina of Time but I've played a lot of Super Mario 64 with RTX and messed about with the PC port of Perfect Dark. It's interesting and definitely something I need to catch up on. I guess it kind of continues the point I was making in this video about whether we want to play these games as they really were, play them as we remember them, or use modern tech to let them shine brighter than ever. Really I think if you're wanting to play games as you remember them you need to give them a bit of an uplift sometimes because a lot of these early 3D games especially won't have that same impact they had on release. Even though, as you say, Ocarina holds up incredibly well.
There wasn't any US-style arcades in France either. You'd see some machines at cinemas or bowling places but that was it. Funny thing is, now that retro arcades are a thing I've seen much more of these around. I love going there because arcade machines are really cool, but to be honest this isn't really how I like to play games, and the thought of having to pay each time irks me (props to the Retro Realm for making it free to play on that).
I like free to play but it's not strictly better than putting tokens or coins into the machines. It's just different and some older arcade games are well-suited to seeing how long you can last with your coins. Infinite continues makes death irrelevant on a lot of games as well. But yeah, overall I think I prefer free play. They were never a thing in Germany either but retro arcades are still popping up here and there.
It sure isn't going to happen while I'm unemployed, but I did just look up how much a flight from Stockholm to Birmingham is. Going to a place where you can eat and play arcade games with friends seems nice.
I went to Sega World once in the 90s, as a kid, but we sure couldn't afford playing more than a handful of their arcade games. (And we weren't alone, which is why the place shut down.)
Sweden is very similar to the UK when it comes to our arcade history, it seems. I saw them at amusement parks and such, while pinball machines were more common.
I used to love Sega World in Bournemouth. Such a shame they closed down. My dad got some very brief footage of me playing SegaSonic The Hedgehog but unfortunately they told him not to film. I'd love to find one of those machines again.
Birmingham's pretty good for retro gaming. There's The Retro Realm and NQ64 in Birmingham, plenty of CeX (second hand chain) shops, and a couple of independent retro games shops on the outskirts of Birmingham that are worth checking out. They unfortunately do the thing where they'll come up with prices on the spot rather than pricing everything as it comes in, which is a shame, but definitely worth a browse. I grew up around there so I don't see it as like a great holiday destination or anything but as a city break with a couple of friends for a long weekend I reckon it's underrated.
@@TheRetroSofa My most prominent memories of Sega World (in London) was the VR ride with Michael Jackson and seeing SegaSonic the Hedgehog!
I can't remember if I actually played the latter or just watched the demo loop, but it left an impression.
For nostalgia 🎉 They are definitly a risky investment, which is why dedicated arcades now are mostly either bars for adults, or a Dave and Busters type place (it’s an American chain that is half family arcade, half sports bar restaurant. It’s geared towards families, but is also a popular spot for adults).
This is more a dedicated arcade with a diner than a bar/restaurant that's also an arcade so I hope it works out. I feel like it's a good time to be starting this kind of business. If game prices are any indication, retro gaming's massive right now.
Last year while traveling I went to some Japanese retro arcades in Osaka and Tokyo, hoping to "relive" the fun days of Street Fighter in the 1990s. In reality, the experience was just depressing. Very few people were there, and the few that were were all playing by themselves against the computer. It wasn't at all like 20 years ago, where you'd have a line of people waiting to play next, forming a crowd of spectators that would watch each match. That whole scene is essentially dead, and the retro-arcades are kind of just like a museum for old games and nothing more.
That's true. Again we in the UK never really had that anyway. Occasionally you'd have people watching Dance Dance Revolution (or Dancing Stage, as we called it) but that's about it. I wouldn't expect that way of gaming, the queues of people to compete at Street Fighter, coming back now unfortunately. We've got the games but we don't get to play them as we used to.
Whey, the Retro Realm is my local! Walsall represent!! For little more than a tenner, it's an absolute bargain.
Hey cool! I used to live in the area too and it's really awesome what Craig's brought to it.
This is a beautiful thing!
I like the idea of the modern free-to-play arcade. One thing I've noticed at some of the arcades in the area around my area of The States is new arcade machines that require a credit to play on every level. That really put a sour taste in my mouth, but I suppose it's authentic to the classic greed aspect of arcade machines. I dunno... maybe I'm just a miserly curmudgeon who prefers Galaga...
I like both. If you're playing with kids a free-play arcade where you just pay to get in is ideal but I also like seeing how far I can make my credit go, you know? This obviously doesn't work on arcade machines that kick you off after one level/race/whatever regardless of how good you are. I still like the old arcade games where one credit was all you needed if you were good enough.
Here in the US, we still have several great retro arcades. The best one in my state (Pennsylvania) is called Timeline Arcade. You pay by the hour to play games from every decade. There is something from every style and something for every age bracket. My mother in her sixties enjoyed playing there just as much as my daughter age 8.
That sounds awesome. Reminds me I'll have to bring my dad down to The Retro Realm at some point and get three generations gaming together.
ive been looking for places where i can hang out with other gamers and play games with them. its been lacking in tuscon and vail and ive been lonley.
Aww well good luck finding something and if you can't find something, start something!
@@TheRetroSofa i wish.
And let's face it, this show has always been "Minerva's Retro Sofa (co-starring Bill)". 😉
I think it's nice that she lets me present sometimes.
cat's are the best ever 😃😃😃👍
Minerva agrees. But only about her. 🐱
@@TheRetroSofa aww lol 😂 😂 😂
Fun.nothing beats it if you like old shite.if you lived near Blackpool like I did we had massive arcades in the 80s including esoteric stuff like sega 360 and outrun with a full car mock up built in.
I used to visit arcades a lot in Blackpool and Bournemouth because these are tourist places and tourist places tended to have arcades. I don't know why in Britain we were only meant to play games when we were on holiday.
A: to play games.
I could do that at home.