Brighton No. 2
I mentioned briefly last month my new venture in Brighton: the number 2 arcade. The
arcade is situated within the Carousels complex, operated by ex travelling showman
Owen Smith. Carousels includes a large food takeaway, restaurant, bar, and best of all, a
set of gallopers on the beach, and is about five hundred yards away from my number 1
arcade, Mechanical Memories,.
My plan was to have the arcade up and running by the end of June, thus allowing a
few weeks to iron out any problems. The end of June came, and none of the machines
were ready, so the deadline was moved to the start of the school holidays. The start of
the school holidays came, and none of the machines were ready, so the deadline was
moved to the beginning of August. Well, the beginning of August came and we were
already two weeks into the school holidays, and none of the machines were ready. By
this time, in addition to my twelve hour days travelling to Brighton, seven days a week, I
was working till the early hours at home, desperately trying to get machines ready to
operate. It's funny, isn't it, that a little five minute job ends up taking three hours.
Anyway, I eventually got the arcade open ready for the bank holiday weekend. If
you count the Bryans Four Square as 'four', there are twenty-four machines, although
there will certainly be more next year. At this point you may well be thinking, "We
know this bloke's pretty damn good, but how does he manage to run two arcades?"
Well, No. 2 more or less runs itself. All the machines operate on 'new money', and I've
installed a change machine, so there's no need for anyone to flog old pennies. There are
double doors between the bar and the arcade, so Carousels' staff can keep an eye on
things. In addition, a member of staff wanders round from time to time at the weekends.
Unfortunately, the arcade won't be operating all year round, as the gallopers are
always pulled down at the beginning of October, and stored in the bar and arcade. So it
will reopen next year in March.
Now, you may already have tried to identify the machine on the front cover. You're
probably thinking, "What is it? I've never seen one of those before. I wonder who built
it and how old it is)? Well, it's called See-Saw; no, you've never seen one before; I built
it, and it's about two months old. It's one of about half a dozen wall machines I had
planned to build for the arcade, but one of only two that are actually finished. The game
is very straightforward: On insertion of a lOp coin, the right-hand knob is turned and a
ball pops out at the top of the playfield. By turning the left-hand knob, the player rocks
the see-saws in an attempt to guide the ball to the bottom centre of the playfield. If
successful, the player's coin is returned.
When I was half way through building the machine, I began to think it was a total
waste of time, as I thought the ball might be uncontrollable. As it turns out, it's a fun
game to play and not too difficult to win - just what's required of a repeat play machine.
The picture on the front cover probably isn't very clear in black & white, so I shall
post some pictures on the pennymachines site.
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