Back home from my Corn-land oddessey with an arcade update.
First up... St Ives
For context, St Ives is a gorgeous little tourist town packed to the gunwhales with galleries, pasty shops and restaurants. It's also surrounded by beautiful beaches with amazing white sand. Word of warning though, don't drive in after 10am and expect to find anywhere to park. We were there before the English school holidays started and it was packed. Same thing goes for food. If you want anything other than fish and chips, you really need to book. Trawled the town on spec last Tuesday and couldn't find anywhere with a free table between 6.30 and 10pm!
Now down to business, the arcade (singular).
I'm sure that most of you are familiar with Harbour Amusements from the various posts on here and J+, but it really does bear repeating that this is an astonishingly well-maintained, clean and welcoming place, with a great range of fully functioning machines. OK, so they might have a few more racing games than I, personally, would like, but I haven't seen a place like this for years.
The Games
18 Wheeler (sitdown)
Afterburner Climax
ATV Trak 2p
Big Buck Hunt HD
Blazing Angels
Dancing Stage Euro Mix
Dark Escape 4D
Deadstorm Pirates (cabin) 2p
Deat Heat 2p
Fast and Furious Super Cars 2p
Final Furlong 2p
Ghost Squad 2p
Grid 2p
Guitar Hero Arcade
Hillbilly Moonshine
Jurassic Park Arcade (cabin) 2p
Mario Kart Arcade 2p
Need for Speed Carbon 2p
Pacman Smash Airhockey 4p
Sega Rally 3, 2p
Skiball 3p
Star Trek (reboot) pinball
Submarine game
Time Crisis 2
Time Crisis 5
Various pushers and slots
Whack-a-mole
Whack-a-squid
There's also a snooker club upstairs with what seems to be a very reasonably priced bar...
Final shout out goes to the local cinema, the Royal. This is a proper retro experience. You even have to queue outside until the doors get unlocked, remember that?! I took the kids to see Minions (avoid if you possibly can). I was taken myself in July 1980 to see Disney's 'The Black Hole'. Nothing seems to have changed in the intervening 35 years!
Next up, Grand Casino, Penzance.
Penzance is far more of a 'real place' than St Ives. There are ordinary shops there where you can buy stuff that you need, as opposed to simply put on a shelf and gather dust. I popped down one evening to catch Terminator Genysis. Unfortunately, the movie was sold out, but at least that gave me the chance to check out the arcade.
Penzance has an enormous prom, most of which is quite some distance from the town centre. Right in the middle, and opposit the tastefully arranged scaffolding flagpoles is the monumental Grand Casino.
Inside, however, things aren't a patch on Harbour Amusements. Loads of slots, and a few redemption machines, but not many games, and not all working properly.
Daytona USA
(sitdown) 2p (dodgy sound, heavy screenburn)
Big Buck Hunt Open Season
F355 2, 2p
Simpsons Pinball Party (slack left flipper)
Sega Rally (sitdown) 2p (off)
Guitar Hero Arcade
Dance Dance type game
Just in case anyone else is heading down to Cornwallshire with a vague hope of finding hidden treasures, you should probably cross the following off your list. As far as I could see, there was nothing arcadey in:
Tintagel
Hayle
Perranporth
Sennen Cove
St Just
Marazion
First up... St Ives
For context, St Ives is a gorgeous little tourist town packed to the gunwhales with galleries, pasty shops and restaurants. It's also surrounded by beautiful beaches with amazing white sand. Word of warning though, don't drive in after 10am and expect to find anywhere to park. We were there before the English school holidays started and it was packed. Same thing goes for food. If you want anything other than fish and chips, you really need to book. Trawled the town on spec last Tuesday and couldn't find anywhere with a free table between 6.30 and 10pm!
Now down to business, the arcade (singular).
I'm sure that most of you are familiar with Harbour Amusements from the various posts on here and J+, but it really does bear repeating that this is an astonishingly well-maintained, clean and welcoming place, with a great range of fully functioning machines. OK, so they might have a few more racing games than I, personally, would like, but I haven't seen a place like this for years.
The Games
18 Wheeler (sitdown)
Afterburner Climax
ATV Trak 2p
Big Buck Hunt HD
Blazing Angels
Dancing Stage Euro Mix
Dark Escape 4D
Deadstorm Pirates (cabin) 2p
Deat Heat 2p
Fast and Furious Super Cars 2p
Final Furlong 2p
Ghost Squad 2p
Grid 2p
Guitar Hero Arcade
Hillbilly Moonshine
Jurassic Park Arcade (cabin) 2p
Mario Kart Arcade 2p
Need for Speed Carbon 2p
Pacman Smash Airhockey 4p
Sega Rally 3, 2p
Skiball 3p
Star Trek (reboot) pinball
Submarine game
Time Crisis 2
Time Crisis 5
Various pushers and slots
Whack-a-mole
Whack-a-squid
There's also a snooker club upstairs with what seems to be a very reasonably priced bar...
Final shout out goes to the local cinema, the Royal. This is a proper retro experience. You even have to queue outside until the doors get unlocked, remember that?! I took the kids to see Minions (avoid if you possibly can). I was taken myself in July 1980 to see Disney's 'The Black Hole'. Nothing seems to have changed in the intervening 35 years!
Next up, Grand Casino, Penzance.
Penzance is far more of a 'real place' than St Ives. There are ordinary shops there where you can buy stuff that you need, as opposed to simply put on a shelf and gather dust. I popped down one evening to catch Terminator Genysis. Unfortunately, the movie was sold out, but at least that gave me the chance to check out the arcade.
Penzance has an enormous prom, most of which is quite some distance from the town centre. Right in the middle, and opposit the tastefully arranged scaffolding flagpoles is the monumental Grand Casino.
Inside, however, things aren't a patch on Harbour Amusements. Loads of slots, and a few redemption machines, but not many games, and not all working properly.
Daytona USA
(sitdown) 2p (dodgy sound, heavy screenburn)
Big Buck Hunt Open Season
F355 2, 2p
Simpsons Pinball Party (slack left flipper)
Sega Rally (sitdown) 2p (off)
Guitar Hero Arcade
Dance Dance type game
Just in case anyone else is heading down to Cornwallshire with a vague hope of finding hidden treasures, you should probably cross the following off your list. As far as I could see, there was nothing arcadey in:
Tintagel
Hayle
Perranporth
Sennen Cove
St Just
Marazion
