Visit to NQ64 Manchester

[chris2922]

I’m off to Manchester for the weekend, and as it’s my birthday the other half has arranged a visit to NQ64 arcade bar on Peter Street. Fair play to her, she has literally no interest in games or arcades. I’m looking forward to it. I haven’t been to one of these ‘new’ retro arcade clubs or bars yet. I say new but I know they’ve been round a fair bit now. It will be good to see some classic machines in the wild and not just my games room.

The last time I can actually remember playing proper arcade games in a proper arcade it was Barmouth arcade in the 80’s! I suppose I’m a closet arcade fan these days

 

[devtty0]

NQ64 is good fun - its not massive, and skews slightly towards newer games, last time I was in there, a few werent working, but there are a few pins as well, and it was good to have a few beers while playing.

Obligatory - arcade club is nearby though! that is a whole world better, if you can manage to convince your other half to drive to Bury

Anyone been to NQ64 in Edinburgh? that was loads better than the Manchester one imo.

 

[deanzor]

I've been to the Birmingham one of these, and even as an Arcade Club snob it was okay for a couple of hours. A few of the game are clearly running emulated or Pandora because the sound is borked, but they had dedicated Point Blank, OR2, HOTD 2, T&F, Guitar Hero, Simpsons etc. I'd go back. You buy tokens over the bar to feed the machines though, it's not pay in and freeplay.

 

[chris2922]

The website says they have Tapper! Will definitely give that a go.

 

[tronads]

I would be driving to Arcade Club by "accident"....blame it on the satnav..... and well, considering you are already there, you might as well go in now

 

[funk]

Not sure if it's still there but Crazy Pedro's, great late night pizza and the last time I was in they had some decent pins.

Good cocktails for the other half too

 

[chris2922]

Thought it was a great little place. I enjoyed playing a few classics like Pac-Man, Mario Bros, Track and Field and Tapper. All working ok on original hardware and CRTs in dedicated cabs, very nice.

The people in there surprised me the most though. It was really busy which was great to see, but there were lots of young (under 30) people, and I reckon more than 50% of the people in there were women! I don’t mean to be stereotypical but I expected mostly over 40’s blokes and a few reluctant significant others. I was pleased to be wrong.

Pac-Man got the most love - it was played for the entire 2 hours I spent in there. Outrun 2 was busy, all 4 seats were occupied almost all the time. The light gun games were popular too, HotD 3, Time Crisis 2, 3 and Point Blank all with working recoil.

The console section was… interesting. A load of Everdrive style flash carts. So full game libraries on each system. Cool but also blatantly illegal so was surprised to see that. But they are free to play so maybe it’s less of an infringement. Or nobody gives a sh*t any more.

 

[funk]

Nintendo definitely would if they found out, sega not so much

 

[DanP]

Popped into NQ64 to kill a few hours yesterday evening. I was pleasantly surprised at the selection of games. From memory I recall:

Tron (no sound)

Defender (not working)

Galaxian

Pac Man

Ms Pac

Donkey Kong (no sound)

Mario Bros

Star Wars trilogy

Bubble bobble

SF2

Outrun 2

Mario Kart

Qbert (joystick was fucked)

Space Invaders deluxe

Timber

Big buck hunter

Some form of HOTD

Point Blank or Time crisis?

Tetris

X-men

TMNT

Track and field

Some pins (didn’t play any)

Some dance thingy

Some others I’ve forgotten

I didn’t play them all but the ones I did were playable, not collector condition by any means. It was a Monday night so pretty empty. 20 tokens for a tenner and I only used half of them. Worth a visit if you’re on your tod in Manchester.