Old Irish arcade photos - do they exist?

We'd a decent enough arcade in Mallow called Griffins was your usual dark smoke filled arcade but good selection of 80's cabs. Shop beside our school has a couple of cabs are well in a back room so plenty of skipped classes due to Cabal & Double Dragon sessions.

Used to go to Perks whenever we were in Youghal (used to go the greyhound racing fairly often), they had a great selection of machines there for years.

There was a few in Waterford RTC as well, these we're probably the last ones I played in the wild..

Bob's was a special place. I have a bit of a story with it for sure and it's a shame it seems to have closed since. I went up there while passing by in 2019 and got speaking to the owner who showed me around, had been speaking with the guys&planning level up around that time + had only just started collecting myself for a few months.

Long story short I first visited in July 2019, I was told pretty much nothing was for sale but could have a Goliath about 8/900 I believe, and a small few others maybe but for crazy money, just or one or two other cabs but for 1500-2k minimum, very little working out the back. I know a few others attempted the same and got the same answer. They said they might be open to a bulk sale but they were speaking to a few guys in the UK so they told me figure out something fast. I decided to go back and see if I could get a deal on something I wanted, I visited the place a month later, only this time it was a lot different, the right hand side was completely empty and stripped of the gambling equipment (you can guess the reason) but long story short when I returned almost everything was suddenly for sale if I had the money. Unfortunately didn't have much money at the time, one of the guys just about managed to buy 20 Goliath's out of about 60/70 I believe. The UK guys got word of us getting Goliath's and were over in a flash, was hoping to buy a game or two but it all happened too fast before I could raise the funds so got nothing out of there unfortunately. I mentioned it to a good few of the collector's that I knew here at the time but again the same thing happened or they weren't interested, one or two got a small few cabs like I know the Punch Out but a real pity more of them cabs couldn't have stayed on these shores which I really tried my best to make work, had I thought this would have happened so fast I would maybe have done things differently but wasn't aware how things happened at the time, within a week or so after the second visit the guys were on their way over if I remember correctly. I would say they still have cabs if people want to buy them as I'd say they had 200 cabs or more and told me they scrapped tonnes too over the years, Andy and his crew couldn't possibly have taken everything. They also had cabs at mosney apparently still and I believe Andy got a few from there (a Atari TX1 for sure).

Super special place, but with the current "retro boom" I suppose in hindsight it was inevitable, eventhough I know the continued to operate for quite some time after and kept a lot of cabs for themselves to keep going. They seemed to like the idea of operating a retro arcade and for people to come back and visit the games they liked from their childhood.

As of 2023, Bray Bowl has one Star Wars (Pro) pinball machine, and a pair of sit-on bike video racing games.

Star Amusements only has games to win tokens/prizes, and a big casino.

There was a surprisingly decent selection of cabs in the ferry booking office on Arranmore Island (Donegal) in the 90s, and until the mid '10s actually - but I can't find any photos of the inside

I'd forgotten just how much money I'd spent on Tekken until I played it again in Token and got through quite a few rounds on my first token - obviously some ingrained memories!

Fairly sure there were SF2 and Time Crisis cabs also, all a little careworn by the time they got out there. Most pubs/chippers had those counter top poker cabinets back then also

Ah understandable, hope all is well, and if you do make some more content, sure I look forward to it!

Prob the wrong thread for this but reading this thread made me remember some of the arcades in Galway I used to goto with my brother. We lived nowhere near Galway but the old man would bring us up every few weeks into Salthill.. off into Seapoint Leisure we would go. It was like something out of this world to me back in those days. Row after row of machines. the 10p machines and then the 20p ones. Trying to make those few quid last as long as possible. SF1 and then finding SF2... Operation Wolf... oh happy days.

i shudder now as a boring old man what happened to all those cabinets... oh how they must have screamed as they were crushed and burnt...

I remember as well a place in Eyre Square called timezone I think? Pay a few quid, play as much as ya wanted for x amount of time.. The T2 Machine... someday when the mortgage is paid off I will get one of them if they still exist in playable condition. **** the 1up version.

Thats for sure, and wow a radarscope, that definitely wasnt there too, they told me a lot were sold over the years but sounds like they dealt with only a few people.

Wow that's absolutely amazing and brilliant condition, really wish I got some bits from there sorta kicked myself afterwards but it all happened so quick. They had some beautiful machines. Do they still have machines or is Bobs gone?

I'd love to see some photos of some Limerick arcades too if anyone has any, I grew up loving The Vic, Funworld (they had a couple of mad rare bits and pieces there over the years like Sonic Blast Heros, Tokyo Wars, one of the first games I remember playing is Shoot Away 2) and even Shannon had a good selection. It's a shame the last of the arcades are really dying here now.

tokyo war cab looks familiar but dont remember ever getting to play it in funworld.

I spent all my teenage years in the Vic and never took one photo :P don't remember many ever been taken which is a pity and anyone I know that would have had pictures I would have lost touch with years ago .

I also was talking to a guy a few years ago who said his cousin worked in funworld when it opened and had loads of early day pictures of the place but never got to see them ....and that I suppose where the crux of the issue lies the people who have photos scattered about the place from parties in these places etc are probably not into the arcade forums much !

there was a few nice machines in stix as well at a time I still vividly remember the big enduro racer machine there !

Yeah I think I grabbed that video from the RTE archives or something like that a few years back and cleaned it up a bit. Wanted to keep it for posterity so stuck it up on YouTube. I also have Bosco up there, I overpaid with real money for the 2 sets of DVD's 😀

Virtually impossible I'd say, but I'd love to see some photos of XL Bowl in Palmerstown, Dublin, circa mid 90's. That's where I first beat Street Fighter 2, and Champion Edition too. I remember getting my weekly 'pay', £3.60. It was 30p on the 18 bus up to Palmerstown, and 30p back...that left me with £3 to play games with...I can still remember the noise of the machine that changed the pound coins into 20p pieces. You'd go off then with your pockets full of coins, try and try and try to get better at Street Fighter, maybe play some Final Fight or Sunset Riders (they'd the big 4 player cab), and then bus it home to continue SF2 on the Snes.....good days