Arcades In Galway City

deathrider

I've recently moved to Galway City to attend college, but the gamer in me, as always, wants more games. So I've been wondering if there are any good arcades around these parts? Somewhere that I can blow a few quid shooting zombies, and fighting ninjas.

RolandIRL

yep, squareyes is on forster street (just between the bus station and tourist office). it's a good internet cafe and gaming arcade. really nice set-up as well. comfy chairs
btw check out the Gamer Group in my sig. a bunch of us boardsies meet up for sessions in there, and we're going to start having LANs soon

deathrider

Yeah, I've heard about Square Eyes. I think I'll be dropping down during the week to check it out. But is it an arcade kinda arcade? The kind with arcade cabinets that eat your cash in exchange for a few credits?
Oh, I'm already on that site too. Joined a few months ago, before I moved

RolandIRL

deathrider wrote: »

Yeah, I've heard about Square Eyes. I think I'll be dropping down during the week to check it out. But is it an arcade kinda arcade? The kind with arcade cabinets that eat your cash in exchange for a few credits?

no i don't think it's that kind of an arcade. it's all computers afaik. no coin-based arcade games.
you could play some arcade games on your computer. check out the Arcade & Retro forum and i'm sure they'll be able to help ya

The only arcades as such are Seapoint out in Salthill, City Limits in Oranmore and the Leisure Dome down on the Headford Road though there is little variance in games between them.

The Freeman

afaik square eyes is more console/pc based arcade games.

for actual throw a euro in and kill zombies, head out to salthill and head in to seapoint, lived half of my childhood playing Virtua Striker 2 in there.

there was funworld above supermacs but that is closed many a year i'm afraid mate.

deathrider

I'll check the one on Salt Hill out. Yeah, I also spent most of my youth in arcades (mostly on Killer Instinct, and Mortal Kombat II), so I'll defo give this place a spin.
I'm not too into the idea of downloading arcade classics onto the PC. It's more for the feel of the arcade itself. The lights and the noise go a long way.

deathrider

deathrider wrote: »

I'll check the one on Salt Hill out. Yeah, I also spent most of my youth in arcades (mostly on Killer Instinct, and Mortal Kombat II), so I'll defo give this place a spin.
I'm not too into the idea of downloading arcade classics onto the PC. It's more for the feel of the arcade itself. The lights and the noise go a long way.

The games in those places mostly consist of the shooting ones and the racing ones, with little or no variation between them. Funworld, that used to be above the Supermacs in Eyre Square, was great fun and I spent a fortune in there.

deathrider

It's the same in most arcades these days though. All racers and shooters. Kinda mindless gaming with no learning curve. Personally I miss the old fighting era in arcades... And Metal Slug! I can't even begin to think how much money I pumped into the original Metal Slug game back in the day.

A-Trak

deathrider wrote: »

Personally I miss the old fighting era in arcades...

You might like us over in the Fighting Games forum so...

We have regular tournaments, and it's as close to the old fighting era, (For old timers anyway,) in arcades

deathrider

I visit those forums fairly regularly, bro. Though I don't post too often. I even traveled round for one of the SSFIV tournys a few months back. Granted, I had my head kicked in, but I had great craic in the process. I've completely altered my style since, in an attempt to become a better fighter.
Next time I can afford to get to a tournament, I'll surely be there to test my mettle again.
Cheers, dude.

On that subject though, does there be Street Fighting tournaments around Galway? I pretty much only paid attention to the threads about ones in and around Dublin, because I was living in Drogheda at the time.

Skerries

Deleted User wrote: »

. Funworld, that used to be above the Supermacs in Eyre Square, was great fun and I spent a fortune in there.

i remember visiting funworld years ago when i was in Galway on the piss
It was a time based system where you paid for the amount of time you were there and not a pay per play

o1s1n

The classic days of arcades in Ireland are long gone. The ones that are left really arent worth bothering with

deathrider wrote: »

And Metal Slug! I can't even begin to think how much money I pumped into the original Metal Slug game back in the day.

Would you ever consider getting your own cab? There are a good few of us over in the arcade and retro forum that have them and I have to tell you, there's nothing like it!

There's an arcade standard called JAMMA. More or less every game you'd probably want to play is JAMMA. You just plug it into your cabinet.

I'm mainly into Neo Geo games myself. Have a 6 slot Neo Geo board in mine at the moment. So you can have six games in it at once. By far the one that gets played most is Metal Slug. I love that game so much!

Dunjohn

deathrider wrote: »

On that subject though, does there be Street Fighting tournaments around Galway? I pretty much only paid attention to the threads about ones in and around Dublin, because I was living in Drogheda at the time.

There's not really. I don't know any other Galwegians who play Street Fighter, so any tournaments I've been to were in Dublin. Limerick holds some too. I did check Squareyes a few months ago, to see if something could be arranged, but their setup isn't really suited to fighting tournaments. It's pitch-dark, for a start.

Seapoint in Salthill is really lightweight these days. They do have a cab with loads of old Capcom games on it, including SF1 and SF2, but it's been broken every time I've checked for the last good while. I also remember the glory days of Killer Instinct in there....

Malice

While we're on a nostalgia trip, does anyone remember the Savoy on Eglington Street? I used to wander in there after school and play many of the old classics - Final Fight, Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter II etc. I remember the place being packed the day that they got in the new Champion Edition of SFII with everyone marvelling at being able to play as the previously unselectable boss characters.

I wonder whatever happened to that premises as the arcade was all underground and has been closed up since the mid-nineties at least.

deathrider

o1s1n wrote: »

The classic days of arcades in Ireland are long gone. The ones that are left really arent worth bothering with



Would you ever consider getting your own cab? There are a good few of us over in the arcade and retro forum that have them and I have to tell you, there's nothing like it!

There's an arcade standard called JAMMA. More or less every game you'd probably want to play is JAMMA. You just plug it into your cabinet.

I'm mainly into Neo Geo games myself. Have a 6 slot Neo Geo board in mine at the moment. So you can have six games in it at once. By far the one that gets played most is Metal Slug. I love that game so much!

I've got a Mortal Kombat II cab back homein Drogheda. Unfortunately though, here in Galway, I really wouldn't have the room (or the cash) to buy one. I was checking last night through a few of these forums, and noticed a dude selling a Street Fighter Vs X-Men cab. My little eyes lit up with nostaligia when I seen this. Again though, room and cash are scarce at the moment.

o1s1n

Ooh, is it a dedicated Midway Mortal Kombat II cabinet? Those things are monsters! You'd have a hard time fitting that anywhere really.

I'm a little short on space at the moment myself so was thinking of replacing my monster upright machine with a candy cabinet. They take up much less space and generally have much bigger monitors. Can be a bit pricy though, especially trying to source them here.

deathrider

Yip, it sure is. Fatastic artwork on the side of it, picture of Raiden shooting lightning from his hand. And, yeah, it's quite a big boy, but it's a great machine.

I wouldn't be one for collecting cabs (as I only own that one), but it was a must have purchase, because I'm a huge MK fan. I even have an arm full of MK tattoos. I'd love to pick up more cabs, but if I was to really get into it, it would be a few years down the road yet.

Duggy747

Seapoint used to be the shìt, almost all of the arcades games I've ever played were from that place (The other place being Bundoran). I remember when Mortal Kombat first came in and there was a huge amount of people surrounding it. :pac:

Ah, and popping in 10p to have a crack on Chase H.Q. or the Playchoice version of Mario Bros. 2.

I was gutted when I returned to Seapoint years later, seen they changed the entire place and only have a handful of shìtty, expensive arcade machines now.............which they seem to replace quite often.

Duggy747

Duggy747 wrote: »

Seapoint used to be the shìt, almost all of the arcades games I've ever played were from that place (The other place being Bundoran). I remember when Mortal Kombat first came in and there was a huge amount of people surrounding it. :pac:

Ah, and popping in 10p to have a crack on Chase H.Q. or the Playchoice version of Mario Bros. 2.

I was gutted when I returned to Seapoint years later, seen they changed the entire place and only have a handful of shìtty, expensive arcade machines now.............which they seem to replace quite often.

Most of their arcade games have been replaced by pool tables, novelty machines and the like. Remember getting half days from school and going down to Seapoint to pass time 'til my bus home.

dloob

Deleted User wrote: »

Most of their arcade games have been replaced by pool tables, novelty machines and the like. Remember getting half days from school and going down to Seapoint to pass time 'til my bus home.

All the downstairs area is those novelty machines that give out tickets. There are a few games upstairs, mostly racers and a few pin ball machines.
They have a guitar hero arcade game at the moment.
Still only a shadow of what it was before all those ticket spitting machines arrived, but sadly probably much more profitable.

deathrider

I never really got the whole vibe of the ticket machines myself. There is an arcade (well, what passes for a arcade in this day and age) just around the corner from where I was living in Drogheda that was full of these things. Gather a bajillion tickets, and get a "free" baseball cap? Personally, I'd rather lose my cash in an enjoyable video game instead.

The Afterburner Climax machine was the only thing that kept me returning to this arcade.