Arcade Club (Leeds)

Atari Star Wars

I took the last Friday of the school holiday off, and took the youngster out for a trip to Arcade Club in Leeds. It’s a bit of a run for us (the opposite side of the city) but it turned out to be a fun afternoon. Arcade Club has three floors packed with a huge number of arcade consoles from the 1970s onwards. The ground floor has machines from the 1990s onwards, including rhythm games, pin ball and the classics like Daytona and Sega Rally. The mezzanine floor is filled with all the classic coin-ops I remember from the 1980s, and the top floor has fighting games, VR, consoles, and more Japanese style sit at consoles.

You play a flat entrance fee, and all the games are on free vend. We were hit with a wave of sound as we came in; the ground floor is a storm of noise. The staff were friendly, and we also had a break at the cafe, which wasn’t overpriced at all. There is a reasonable bar selection, probably aimed at catering for the crowd after the post 6pm ‘no kids’ cut off.

We tried a couple of games on the ground floor; Ridge Racer, Sega Rally and a flying game called Afterburner, but quickly went upstairs. The youngster wanted to try some of the classics. Immediately after we got upstairs he was in the Atari Star Wars pod. This was the classic wire-frame Death Star attack (which he’d played as a kid on my old iPad). He loved it.

We then went around and played loads of machines. 

• Space Invaders (where I got asked why they were getting faster!)
• Galaxian (we played this one a fair bit)
• Galaga
• Frogger (he thrashed me at this)
• Pac Man (I thrashed him at this)
• Moon Patrol (he loved this)
• Centipede (he loved this)
• Millipede
• Battlezone (I found the excitement I had over this has been eclipsed by World of Tanks)
• Missile Command (he got good at this quickly but we all died)
• Paperboy (he loved this)
• Asteroids (this was one he struggled with)
• Robotron
• Defender (he wouldn’t touch this - said it looked too complex)
• Star Gate (same as Defender, which it’s an evolution of)
• Tempest (my favourite but he wouldn’t play it as he didn’t like the look of the controller)
• Scramble (looked very much like the BBC Model B version in a cabinet)
• Return of the Jedi (looked very much like a game I vaguely remember on the ZX Spectrum with Speeder Bikes)
• Hot Rod (an up-to four person game where he thrashed me)

I’m sure that I missed some out. The youngster made a joke that I loved the Atari corner, but I also seemed to like games with odd controllers (track balls, rotary or spinning action). Tempest was the highlight of my visit; I’ve never played it for real in an arcade, but absolutely loved Tempest 2000 on the Atari Jaguar.

We spent nearly four hours there, so it was a good afternoon out. It’s work noting the car parking is only 90 minutes, but you can park for free for an unlimited time at the Morrisons/Retail Park opposite. 

Definitely recommended. There are other sites (eg Bury) that friends have also said good things about.

13 April 2024