WHERE GAMES ARE PLAYED! Games have always been important and we all reminisce about such and such a game and the High Scores achieved on them. But equally important in telling the story about those early days of gaming is to remember where we played them. Previous features have mentioned how I became a Video Games Addict, here I tell where the High Scores were achieved.

Back in the 80's arcades sprung up like leaks in a hosepipe. They were still mysterious, dark, usually smelly places. They were in the backs of taxicab offices, in dank basements or video shops. These were the kinds of place that partook in the Video Game explosion. You have to remember that back then this was not mainstream wholesome entertainment and the idea of it being a multinational media industry was unheard of.

One such dark dank basement in Ilford became my first haunt. Hence the name of this esteemed web site 'The Basement Arcade'. They always seemed to be in basements for some reason away from the public's eyes, in areas that were not being used for anything else. This particular basement arcade could be accessed down a narrow flight of steps beside a railway bridge where the mainline track ran into London. The trains rattled by on their way to London, shaking the building to its foundations, adding to the mystic of the place.

Once down the stairs a door would be opened for you by some dubious looking black dude. The smell of pot instantly hit you in the face, but nobody bothered to look up, as they were too hooked on their games to bother.

We were in the minority for sure because we were caucasian, 13 or 14 years old and sometimes still in our school uniforms. But nobody hassled us because it was like a brotherhood of gamers and if you could claim a High Score, respect was due. I remember a Scramble machine and a Frogger cabinet, but the rest is just a daze. This hazy memory was probably a by-product of the constant deep blue-ish smokey haze which always seemed to hang around in that basement.

The Classic Frogger!

Eventually the place got raided by the police and was shut down. It was a real shame, but gamers are an industrious lot and as one door closes another opens.

'Pick A Pet' was the surprise wording on the front of a building that would become my new and next second home. Again it was down in Ilford's town centre, just off the beaten track, in a terrace of buildings that were due for demolition, there it proudly sat.

What was once a bad pet shop, which sold rabbits with mixamatosis and goldfish that died before you got them home had been bought by some dubious character who proceeded to turn it into Ilford's number one arcade. The usual suspects from the basement arcade all now hung around 'Pick A Pet'. The glass front of the pet shop had been blackened out. The only light you could see would come from the flashing machines inside that penetrated the glass where the black paint had missed or had worn off.

We would cycle down there on our bikes, chain them up outside, hoping they would not be stolen and entered the shop. We would not come out for at least 2 hours. We spent all our pocket money and saved our dinner money by starving ourselves through lunch at school to get extra credits. This arcade rocked, seriously dodgy folk hung around it and some real grand masters played the games. The games were as rock hard and varied as the clientele. The list sounds like a who's who's of Classic Video Games:
Asteroids, Astro Fighter, Lunar Lander, Scramble, Phoenix, SPACE INVADERS II, Moon Cresta, UniWars and Space Duel plus many more;

Astro Fighter & Moon Cresta

Scramble & UniWars

Asteroids though was the star attraction, sitting in the darkest part of the backroom with the biggest crowd around it. The kings of the arcade held the High Scores here. The game I remember looked pretty hard-core at the time with so many buttons, and kids like us did not want to embarrass ourselves by dropping a credit into it. I also remember the control panel being very high off the ground (to a 13 year old at least), meaning that this game was real Hard-Core.

Lunar Lander & Asteroids cabinets

The arcade lasted for years and good times were had down there on a regular basis after school. Ahh I really do have nothing but good memories about 'Pick A Pet'. Today in the year 2006 a whopping great Sainsbury's Supermarket has been built on top of it and the old terrace of shops were bulldozed down years ago to make way for it. Just another sorry modern day example of some multinational company building on every available bit of land solely to increase its profits and in the process managing to screw the local community.

Many arcades have been lost over the years due to such acts of wanton vandalism. But hope lives on, indeed it does on web sites like The Basement Arcade where we are keeping the memories alive for people just like you and just like me.