Old Irish arcade photos - do they exist?

Dr Bob wrote: »

lol my mates were too young looking to get into pubs so we basically lived there every weekend for a few years .

hmmm I probably know you Dr Bob. We lived there too in the mid to late 90s Played all those games on their rows of Xenons and Duets

When Leisure plex in coolock first opened it was great, downstairs eventually had some great early 3d games like ridge racer and Virtual Racing and virtual fighter, up stairs had R-Type 2, Tumblepop, Street Fighter 2, Konami X-men, crackdown, A Neo Geo multi system with FATAL FURY, Bowling, a Baseball game and Robo Army.

Barneys in Dublin was a bit grubby but it was where I first played Street Fighter 2 and Mutant Fighter which was a terrible game but it had fantastic graphics and sound design.

I grew up in Bray, my first job was in the change booth at Star Amusements in 1973 (I was 13). I spent my spare time playing pinball (Kings and Queens 1965 Gottlieb)

In 1976 Pat Quinn opened "Cool Pool" on Quinsborough road with Pool and Pinball

The original 8 pinball machines included these 5:

"Jubilee" & "Blue Chip" (Williams )

"Four Million B.C." & "Hokus Pokus" (Bally)

"Jack in the Box" (Gottlieb)

In 1977 the first video games arrived:

"Datsun 280 ZZZAP" & "Amazing Maze" (Midway)

"Atari Stunt Cycle", "Sprint 2" & "Breakout" (Atari)

Then the new SS (Solid State) pinballs arrived in late '77, including:

"Evel Knievel", "Night Rider", "Captain Fantastic", "Aladdins Castle", "Wizard", "Circus", "Bow & Arrow" (Bally)

"Big Indian" (Gottlieb)

In 1978 everything changed with the arrival of Space Invaders, and soon "Amusement Arcades" became "Video Arcades" with Defender, Galaxians, Tempest, Donkey Kong, Pac Man, Centipede, etc.

There was another "Cool Pool" in Drogheda, and a place called "International Recreations" in Rathmines.

My arcade days started in Waterford, early 80s through to early 90s. The old Savoy cinema (now Supermac) was an arcade upstairs with Zaxxon and Paperboy etc... a bit later there was Freds (now the Kazabar pub) which had Hypersports, Yie-Yar Kung Fu, Black Tiger, Star Wars sit down cab, Ghosts and Goblins and later on Golden Axe.

Around that time (late 80s early 90s) the other arcades in Waterford that I remember were: Jackpot next to Sinnots Records / Opposite the Woodman. All I remember there was the 4 player gauntlet. Then there was Pot Black across the road upstairs in what became Ruby's / The Foundary nightclub. Apart from Snooker, they were a favourite haunt at lunchtime from school and they had things like: Golden Axe, Side Pocket, Toki etc..

Sullys snooker club where City Square is now had a decent arcade selection too. I remember burning up a lot of 10p coins in their Salamander machine and the awful by todays standards Hard Drivin sit down cab. Later on they had some decent cabs like Space Gun with the dual guns etc...

The Bowling alley next to the RSC had a great couple of years between 91-93. It was where I saw Street fighter 2 for the first time. They also had chase HQ, Cabal (a personal favourite), a multi arcade machine (I swear a game like Sunset riders was on it), and this sit down driving cab that I can never remember the name of where you sit down and drive a yellow car, swinging left and right when motorcyclist enemies climb onto your car.

Throughout all of this Tramore was always there. The big outrun sit-down cab in strand amusements and the 4 player turtles cab, plus the World Cup 90 game that I could smash on a single 10p (or 2p if the slot was easy to "flick a two" into), the Sega rally and house of the dead machines at Freddie's, Wonderboy at pipers and the very first street fighter / Yie-ar / Star Wars sit-down again at Atantic.

By the time I moved to Dublin in 93 it was all about SF2 and the big G-Loc machine in Dr Quirkies. There was an arcade off the side of Talbot street that I forget the name of that had a Sega Rally and Daytona that took a lot of my money for a year too. Favourite day trips were Coolock Leisureplex to play Mortal Kombat and the Atari Expo thing down in Tallaght I think where they had a sit down Star Wars Arcade (the one like the version that came on the 32X). Omni park had a decent arcade too next to the cinema and I possibly half imagined it - but I remember one in the Virgin Cinema on Parnell Street that had cab versions of PC games like Rise of the Triad - I have a vague memory of it (or another game) being actually virtual reality i.e. requiring a headset.

I haven't ever seen any photos of any of these places. There are no arcades in Waterford now and probably haven't been for 2 decades. Still some bits out in Tramore but its mostly slot machines now. No idea what the situation is up in Dublin, whether any of these places still exist ?

Century City was still on the go until relatively recently (last time I was there was like 2013) as it never really stopped being a popular spot for pool. Kinda surprised it packed up as it seemed very handy for its market.

Quirkey's is unfortunately all gambling now, I walked in there recently to get quite a shock unfortunately.

Bob's in Skerries still had some machines apparently, though I know they recently did a clearout.

Stumbled upon Bob's completely by chance while coming back from Ardgillan estate circa 2018/9ish — ran in for a bottle of Coke and ended up back in 1994. Shame it's packed up.