Cool thread.
London;
Ok, London had a brilliant scene in the 90's but the best arcades (that were) are gone, with one (or two) expections (one of which I will discuss in detail).
Firstly, there are a couple of places in
Central London, I beleive that there is still a
Namco Funscape just over the bridge from Big Ben.
http://namcofunscape.com/location/london-county-hall#venue-info2
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Near to
china town / soho (Wardour Street)there is
Las Vegas, which in the basement has a several noir cabs with tekken (MK X to come?), racing games DJ machines. In fact I really need to get back there as I saw some photos showing a pretty decent line up (that I didn't see a year ago) I'll get more info on these in due course.
https://www.facebook.com/LasVegasArcadeSoho
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There is also a Barcade in Peckham, again I'll get more information.
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Now then, now then;
North Action (lol)- Despite being stuck out in the arse-end of nowhere in London, North Action is the '
Heart of Gaming', well, it's the home to this afornamed, relatively new Arcade that was build on the bloody remains of one of the best arcades in the western hemisphere (Segaland / The Troc RIP
).
Heart of Gaming, adopts the contemporary practise of disposing of pay-per-play and opts for a single entry fee which can be between £7 and £10 depending on whether it's weekdays or weekends respectively.
In addition, you can also buy monthly passes (£20), which allow unlimited access for a month - although this may change depending on how things pan out.
It is also possible to rent out the arcade for the night - come the witching hour, the day's punters get dragged out and the sleepover nerds can get the booze out and game all night, and all morning.
Several of us from arcade otaku did this at the end of last summer and it snowballed a bit with other groups joining us, but it was bloody fantastic, and answered the age old question of what one can do when you can see barely play mario kart at 3 in the morning - the answer is play 4 more hours of Alpha 3, Super Turbo and Last Blade.
The line up at the HOG is fairly diverse, and whilst the main draw for age weathered arcade fans is the row of Versus Cities that run various versions of street fighter, they also have a selection of naomis, woodies, a Daytona (2 player only), a couple of light gun machines and a custom made bishi-bashi. Oh and two Vewlixes linked with Ultra SF.
They also have several dance machines which have been modded to be able to use your own MP3's.
In addition to this, they have a selection of home consoles with wide range of systems.
They regularly hold various non-arcade game, gaming events like smash brothers (which seems to be insanely popular), and also other Nintendo themed events.
I mentioned gaming events, they also hold Super Turbo and Third Strike tourneys that are now streamed to a projection screen. I think it may also be streamed to the net, or at least come games are uploaded.
The arcade is located relatively near to North Acton tube station, which is on the central line, although it is a bit tucked away, basically you turn left out of the tube station, left again to go over the bridge over the tracks, the turn left down the alley that follow the tube line, over a little road that cuts across you for access into the cemetary and then continue on till the end of the alley where some steps lead you to to literally the front door of the HOG (look right).
Check the HOG's facebook page for updates and last minute changes to opening times etc (which are usually 12 or 2pm or 4pm till midnight).
https://www.facebook.com/TheHeartOfGaming
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No doubt other london peeps can chime in more specifally on the other aracdes in and around London, or i will follow up myself later.
As a final note, there are still amusement venues in coastal resort towns across the UK, one place that I want to try and visit this summer is
Astro City in Southend on Sea.
http://astrocityarcade.co.uk/
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As an even more finaler note, I also hope to check out the Pinball museum which apparently moved into the site of an old amusement park in Margate Kent (Coast), which is being refurbished (as in fact the whole town is). The park is open this June, but I think that the Pinball place is open already. In addition, there are some arcades close to the beach.
), the GI Joe arcade game, and a Fix It Felix machine. The cabs look custom built for the most part and all are for sale (though the prices asked are a little steep IMO 
). One word of advice is to not go in on Saturday mornings as MTG/YuGiOh players flood the store and make moving around somewhat hard.
