After a surf at Catherine Bay, a little up the coast north of Sydney, we decided on a few schooners of VB at the Catho Pub, a lovely little bar that came complete with gnarly bikers on their Harleys and a newly wedded couple having their picture taken in the bar. The bride was actually lying on the bar, but my interest in that spectacle waned rapidly on discovering Wonder Boy, a classic coin-op that I’d all but forgotten about.

I spent a lot of time in my teen years escaping to the arcades in Weymouth bay to smoke and play such legendary classics like Wonder Boy, Double Dragon, APB, 1942, Mortal Kombat, Altered Beast, Tiger Road, Street Fighter 2 and many, many others. And it’s in homage of that virtually extinct institution, the Arcade, that I feel compelled to write this. 

Memories of smoky interiors, frayed red velvet seats, plastic racing horses “galloping” for your money, dodgy carpets, the sea breeze and a cacophony of electro jingles are pure nostalgia for me. Sure you still get the gambling machines and the cuddly toy crane, but the phalanx of real games cabinets is long gone leaving only bulky simulators. There’s no gameplay anymore. Airports, motorway service stations and cinemas all offer the same crap - a quick rush as the gun rattles in your hand or the car judders off the road. Rubbish. 

Computer games are great and all these days, but they’re complex and all-consuming. In my book you can’t beat a cherry joystick, two buttons and a 2D platform. Bring ‘em back I say.