Handbaked Arcade

Such great fun! I easily lost about 30 minutes playing Mario Brothers... haven't played that game in years.

What a fantastic blast from the past!

Having the kind of competitive streak that makes me a sore loser and a mean winner, I usually steer clear of arcade games. (Beat me at a board game though, and you'll regret it. I've been known to have toddler-style Monopoly strops involving paper money and tiny plastic houses being found weeks later in the most unlikely of places. You have been warned.)

That said, Tom from Handbaked Arcade is an affable, easygoing and all-round lovely chap, and it was brilliant having him involved in last week's Qype Summer Party. Despite being a smaller set-up than his usual shindigs, he had enough equipment, classic games and old-skool kit to keep a neverending Qype crew entertained. Keep an eye out for his future events, flex those thumb muscles and get involved. You won't regret it.

This is just such a good idea. Handbaked Arcade were at the Qype Summer Party this year with their nostalgic arcade games - the array of games on offer looked awesome. It certainly went down well with the crowds as well - some people looked so transfixed they could have stayed there all night! If I hadn't have been so busy, I would have been one of them - I relish any opportunity to show off my MarioKart skills on the N64!

As I'm afflicted with colour blindness, rarely bring my glasses out and have the eye to hand coordination of junkie playing Twister, I've never been that big in the gaming game.

That said, I've still attended a couple of Tom's previous events - last year's at The Future Gallery was epic - and although Hand Baked Arcade's presence of vintage classics at our recent party was slightly more scaled down than the norm, it was immense all the same.

There was a constant stream of connoisseurs throughout the night, one and all getting thoroughly entertained.

Great to see Street Fighter 2 Turbo (The best Street Fighter game, no question) and a nice emulator that looked like a cab.

Deffo needed some Neo Geo and proper old school stand up coin-op machines though. And possibly a bully who would steal your 20 pence pieces for authenticity.

And Mortal Kombat.

And that Afterburner game with the rotating seat from T2.

Oh, and linked game boys for Tetris face offs.

BRB, starting my own old school arcade.

Perfect if you have nostalgia of vintage videos games like Mario kart, Street Fighter on Nintendo. In the same way, there are many other cool arcade video-games.