Bristol’s Lost Arcades

[Stokers]

How do.

I've been tinkering around with a blog looking at some of the arcades I used to frequent in Bristol. They are sadly no longer operating hence the title

I've written up part 1 in case anyone might like to give it a read

Game Over: Bristol’s Lost Arcades – Part 1

The Madhouse Hello again! This time, I’m going to look back at a few of the arcades I used to frequent in the centre of Bristol, and I’ll highlight some of my favourite and most influen…

coinopchronicles.wordpress.com

Thanks!

 

[Bods]

The highlight for me would have been the Carol Kirkwood Bikini Photo's but you seem to have forgot them

Being serious, glad it wasn't just us that got threatened in the Local Arcades, we were told our head would go through the machine if we didn't hand over some money, he left without any

I'm impressed you have 1 photo of in there, wish I had photo's of all the ones we went in, if only we had digital camera's then

 

[kingtreelo]

How do.

I've been tinkering around with a blog looking at some of the arcades I used to frequent in Bristol. They are sadly no longer operating hence the title

I've written up parts 1 and 2, in case anyone might like to give it a read

Game Over: Bristol’s Lost Arcades – Part 1

The Madhouse Hello again! This time, I’m going to look back at a few of the arcades I used to frequent in the centre of Bristol, and I’ll highlight some of my favourite and most influen…

coinopchronicles.wordpress.com

Thanks!

is that Dean Swain in the picture by any chance?

 

[Stokers]

is that Dean Swain in the picture by any chance?

Ha, no just my mate Dean

 

[kingtreelo]

Ha, no just my mate Dean

bit of a resemblance there

arcades werent child friendly back in the late 80s and early 90s, me and my mate got into a fair few scraps in and outside some of them in Liverpool, they ended up putting over 18 signs on a lot of them, but it was never enforced

 

[Flyback2021]

Great read Charlie and very nicely written up. Looking forward to next installment .
Obviously loved the Xenon ❤️photo, was playing the same in Southport ! Was more often than not a hacked version of stf2 in my local arcades and if dealing with the local hoodlums wasn’t hard enough you had slanty fireballs too.

 

[Daveteign]

Great memories of working in Bristol and popping in to Harry's on my lunch breaks for a game of street fighter and air hockey.Wonder what happened to the xenon. I left my details with the owner and asked if they would ever sell the xenon to contact me in the years before they closed he kept the details back on a post note used to show me the note every time I remind him I'd like to buy it then all of a sudden it closes and i didn't hear a thing.

 

[Stokers]

Great memories of working in Bristol and popping in to Harry's on my lunch breaks for a game of street fighter and air hockey.Wonder what happened to the xenon. I left my details with the owner and asked if they would ever sell the xenon to contact me in the years before they closed he kept the details back on a post note used to show me the note every time I remind him I'd like to buy it then all of a sudden it closes and i didn't hear a thing.

Ha that's cool, the very same Xenon as in the picture? When I used to go in they only had one..

 

[Daveteign]

Ha that's cool, the very same Xenon as in the picture? When I used to go in they only had one..

Yeah looks like exactly the same one! This pic of the cab is from ten years ago. I only saw one xenon cab there

 

[elnicky]

Think in the late 90s there was an Addams Family pin at the end near where Quasars went in?

 

[Stokers]

Think in the late 90s there was an Addams Family pin at the end near where Quasars went in?

Yeah you are probably right, I never paid any attention to the pins at the time

 

[elnicky]

Yeah you are probably right, I never paid any attention to the pins at the time

There may well have been a Fish Tales or Tales from the Crypt in the same section. I definitely have a familiarity with Fish Tales from somewhere in Bristol, and I don't think Golden Nugget had any.

 

[Stokers]

There may well have been a Fish Tales or Tales from the Crypt in the same section. I definitely have a familiarity with Fish Tales from somewhere in Bristol, and I don't think Golden Nugget had any.

Ha, I remember the 4 slot MVS being over by the Quasar at some point - but I don't recall the pinballs..

I'm a bit fuzzy about that part of the building, It did have air hockey and table football at one point. I wish I could find some more pictures of the interior.

 

[Stokers]

Yeah looks like exactly the same one! This pic of the cab is from ten years ago. I only saw one xenon cab there

Ha nice, looks like House of the Dead 4 next to it as well.

Nothing worked on that Xenon when we used it, couldn't even get a fireball out.

 

[kevkevkev]

We had a few in swindon that got the new stuff in. Mk2 in lsserquest. Soul edge and vf3 in the arcade down the bottom. Ssf2 opposite burger king....Going down to Weston-super-Mare was always the best though

 

[Stokers]

We had a few in swindon that got the new stuff in. Mk2 in lsserquest. Soul edge and vf3 in the arcade down the bottom. Ssf2 opposite burger king....Going down to Weston-super-Mare was always the best though

Yeah, you couldn't beat WSM at the time. I used to go into Mr B's with two friends and just camp out on the SF Zero 3, X-Men vs SF, Tekken 3 etc.

 

[david656]

@Stokers Great read! I actually work just up the road from where 'Harry's' would have been on Wine St.

I must be just that tiny bit younger that I missed out of all of these places really, either that or my childhood was far too sheltered!

For me, I have fond memories of the original WSM pier, and some random holiday camps in the south west which had small arcades in them.

To badly date myself, House of the Dead 1 (Upright) was the first proper arcade machine I remember playing.

 

[thegreathopper]

That was a great read, I don’t recall visiting the arcade but used to visit the Bierkeller.

Saw the Chameleons, Suicidal Tendencies, and more.

Had some great bands play there over the years.

 

[Stokers]

Thanks for the feedback

I was doing some research into Megabowl last night. Which was on Brunel way, near the bottom of Winterstoke road. I was quite surprised to find out it used to be an official Sega Park until about 1996, the venue was called Arena One back then. Which sounds very familiar to me, I must have heard people talking about it..



I remember visiting a few times after it became Megabowl. It was huge place that had a KFC, mini golf, kids play area (called planet kids) and a huge space for arcades. All I can remember was playing Scud Race and Top Skater when I went, not sure if all the big Sega cabs were still there.

 

[jimmerd]

I'm also from the Westcountry so have frequented all the places mentioned above.

I remember visiting that bowling alley it was pretty cool, I recall they had just installed Cruis'n USA and getting some free credits from the engineer to test it out.
I thought to myself, this is impressive I need to get one of those Nintendo 64's when they come out ( Of course it was not really the same hardware used between the systems)

Some good smokey basement arcade's in Bath, would go and visit DMC consoles which had all the import console stuff.

Crystal rooms (lot's of 80's table tops) 80s-97
Skinnys(Video Mad House) - latest JAMMA stuff (capcom,neogeo etc) and a few bigger dedicates that would be swapped out Hard Drivin,Total Carnage,, Mad Dog etc. 89-94
Quasar across the road with the big games, sit-downs like RidgeRacer and even Blast VS setup etc. 94-2008