Rockside Leisure

Back in my youth, this place was one of the Mecca’s for my friends and me. When you were lucky to have a Sega mega-​drive at home and more likely had a spectrum, you came here to see real computer games at 10p a play.
As technology at home moved on, the arcades kept up and this place would have the latest sit down simulators, gun games and improving traditional games like virtua fighter. At one point it even had a mini bowling alley which made for a good laugh to start your night out.
Sadly, eventually technology has made the arcade obsolete. Now the latest consoles will do all you can experience in the arcade better and seeing as these simulators are very expensive and even the traditional cabs aren’t cheap either, this place has turned into a fruit machine emporium. They still have a few games like house of the dead (with guns) and some driving simulators, but now you mostly hear money from the fruities rather than cries of ‘Sho Ryu Ken’.

I’m not sure why, but this place draws me in whenever I visit Brighton. I situated across from the local Wetherspoons, its actually pretty low key from outside. But it does go back into the building for a long way, and there are a ton of ways to waste hours of time on cold rainy days if you’ve got a fistful of coins. They don’t change the games as regularly as other arcades, but the ones they do have tend to be pretty good nontheless.