A retro YouTuber and video game enthusiast has opened up a new arcade museum in Stroud in the UK, BBC West and the Stroud Times report.
Alex Crowley (better known as Arcade Archive online) opened the location in Belvedere Mill in Chalford four months after making the announcement on his YouTube channel. The museum is a partnership between Crowley and two other individuals, including fellow YouTubers Richard Horne and Neil Thomas, and is located beneath an existing hands-on computer and console museum called The Cave.
Crowley, who also works as a bricklayer by day, told BBC West that the museum was about telling the "story" of arcade games and bringing that history to life. He's been collecting games for 15 years and decided to open up the museum after another space inside the building became available following the pandemic.
He estimates in a video interview with the Stroud Times that he's "probably clocked up 5000 miles" putting together the impressive collection, which includes rare games like Nintendo's Sky Skipper and the electro-mechanical version of Sega's Gunfight.
The description of the museum on the website reads:
"Arcade Archive is finally open and ready to take you back in time to the Golden Age of the arcades.
"With more than 40 lovingly restored cabinets (and counting) from across the world, revisit the earliest days of the arcades with the legendary Pong, Space Invaders and Asteroids Deluxe, vector icons like Star Wars and Battlezone, Nintendo’s unreleased Sky Skipper and Stern’s prototype Rescue, Capcom’s crushingly hard Ghost ‘n Goblins, Taito’s deceptively cutesy Puzzle Bobble, Sega’s sun-kissed OutRun and many more.
"Arcade Archive is a passionate ode to coin-op gaming, set in a dimly lit room bathed in moody neon for a truly nostalgic experience."
Potential visitors are able to book tickets now from RMC's shop with the tickets costing £16.50 for an adult and £10 for a child (under 16). Once you get inside, all the games will be free to play.
You can watch an interview Crowley gave to the local newspaper the Stroud Times below for even more information on how this impressive museum came to be: