A visit to Bar Arcade NQ64 in Edinburgh

There is no doubt that the retro market in video games is on the rise, and in Edinburgh they are aware of it. I recently had the opportunity to revisit the beautiful Scottish capital and I didn’t hesitate to go to a recently opened arcade bar: the NQ64, belonging to a franchise with premises spread over various locations throughout the United Kingdom.

With an eighties decoration based on fluorescent graffiti and neon lights, we can find themed cocktails, classic consoles such as Super Nintendo, Mega Drive II, Nintendo 64, PlayStation and GameCube, and various arcade machines from all eras, shapes, colors and flavors. which can be played through its own token system. In this article I will comment on the three that, for one reason or another, most caught my attention at this Scottish place:

Mario Kart Arcade GP

Guess which arcade I put the most coins into. I never expected to see myself sitting in a fictional kart impersonating Wario and throwing items at my rivals from a button on the horn of the steering wheel that I was physically operating. Little to say about this saga that may surprise you, beyond the fact that this game released in 2005 is the first not to be developed exclusively by Nintendo since they had the collaboration of Namco, and that the cabin has a front camera that takes a photo of the player’s face to give him the option to customize it and place it on the chosen character during the race. As a curiosity, in addition to the typical characters that usually appear in all installments of Mario Kartthis version also features Mr. and Mrs. Pac-Man as participants, and Blinky, the red ghost they usually chase.

Guitar Hero Arcade

I couldn’t try this one, there was a queue and it took them a while to clear it, but I was taking a look at it and it surprised me for two reasons: the first was that I had no proof that GuitarHero It would have appeared in arcade machines, and the second that that possibility had not even crossed my mind. The surprise was huge but I saw all the sense in the world once I reasoned about it, there were already quite successful dance or Japanese drum machines. This Activision and Konami arcade that came out in 2009 is just like the versions for home consoles (especially based on Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock), with the same system, interface and peripherals, repeating the guitar with colored buttons as the main tool. It limits some of the features common to other installments, such as character customization, but maintains the spirit inherent in this saga with great songs to interpret of the caliber of “Knights of Cydonia” by Muse or “Paranoid” by Black Sabbath, a repertoire that could be expanded since the machine had the possibility of connecting to the internet.

Super Street Fighter II X: Grandmaster Challenge

And the latter is not so much because of the machine or the game itself, but because of where it was located within the premises. I will start by commenting that this version released in 1994 was known by the name that you see in the header only in Japan, since it reached the West as Super Street Fighter II Turbo. It differs from the mythical Street Fighter II in that it is more complete than its base game, with four different speed settings to apply during the game, as well as new animations and movements for the characters or the addition of Akuma to the fighter template. Well, where was this arcade that caught my attention so much? Well, inside the bathroom. With this premise in mind, I would have loved it if they had also left a Game Boy handy in the toilets… although perhaps more than one of us would have eternalized ourselves in there.

As I mentioned at the beginning of the article, these are the three machines that seemed most curious to review. However, the place also has timeless jewels such as Q*bert, crazytaxi, Donkey Kong Junior, space invaders, Golden Ax, Double-Dragon, Galaga either Tetrisworth mentioning at least.

You can learn more about this bar through its website or with its social network profiles. In short, where Edinburgh is already a must-see, the NQ64 makes the city even more interesting for any video game lover.