FAQs

Who's behind the Retro Room?

We're Marty Neill and Cathy Curran, a hubby and wife couple from Belfast. We wanted to hang out in an old arcade again and so Marty started Base Arcade in 2020 with the aim of bringing Belfast its first retro arcade. It was named after the famous 'All your base are belong to us' mistranslation from the Japanese game Legend Wing.

Base became a real business in 2022 when Dave Hughes and Stephen Currie joined the fold to create Base Arcade Limited. Marty was also a co-founder of the Oh Yeah Music Centre and they very kindly allowed us to try out our concept for Base Arcade as a pop up while we searched for a permanent home.

The pop up was a phenomenal success, really something special. Subsequently Stephen and Dave decided that a permanent premise wasn't for them and that they would continue Base Arcade at Banana Block. After an amicable split we moved on to create the Retro Room, again first as a series of pop ups at Common Market, the Oh Yeah Music Centre, the Black Box and the Northern Lights and now moving into our forever home.

What types of games can I expect?

We have more than 50 vintage arcade games currently in as original as possible cabinets. We're 80s kids so we love the 80s games we remember from the arcades we hung out in but we're partial to a 90s machine or two as well. Expect big shooters a la Point Blank, drivers like Enduro Racer and Sega Rally, stone cold classics like WWF Superstars, Wonderboy, R-Type and others as well as a few curve balls such as a haunted football strength tester (we kid thee not.)

We've a range of consoles too from weird and wacky very early Pong-a-likes to Master Systems, Megadrives, SNES, Dreamcasts, Xboxes and others and we'll always try to do something you can't do at home like our GIGANTIC Guitar Hero and others.

There'll no doubt be a tabletop football game or ten kicking around and a Subbuteo table too if Marty has his way.

Are they really vintage arcade games?

They are, scout's honour. We don't buy Arcade 1Ups from Argos and call them retro machines. We're recreating the arcades of our youth from 1986 not a hipster's garage from 2021!

Where will the new place be?

We'll be announcing very soon. All we need is just a little patience....

How can I stay updated?

Join our mailing list or follow us on social media for timely updates on our events, new games as they arrive, 80s metal, the wonders of kale, football board games (what else) and so much more.