Popular Bury attraction Arcade Club has reopened after four months of closure due to Covid-19.
The club, which has hundreds of arcade games from the oldest to the cutting edge, has introduced new measures to ensure the safety of customers and staff.
These include a one-way system, temperature checks, and operating on four-four slots:
Owner Andy Palmer told MM: “We’ve got the social distancing guidelines from the government, we’ve got a one way system throughout the arcade.
“We do prefer if a mask is worn to make other people feel secure and safe.
“We’re doing all we can where the government have requested us to.”
Arcade Club was also one of many Greater Manchester businesses thrown into confusion by the government’s announcement via Twitter of new measures in Greater Manchester, happening for them on the very evening they reopened.
I spoke to Andy after the dust had settled on this impromptu announcement from Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
He said: “We have to be wary of people coming from different family groups and meeting in Arcade Club, and if that should happen make sure that they particularly socially distance.”
Nonetheless, he remains confident that Arcade Club will be able to remain open under the new measures.
Arcade Club was started six years ago by Andy to share his extensive private collection of machines with the public.
Speaking about the early years, he told MM: “We had the pinball machines in the house, and we were dusting them more than we were using them.
“I wanted to do something with the machines where we could actually let people play them and enjoy them.
“We set up in a computer shop. We charged ten pounds for four hours, and you got a can of coke or a cup of tea and some biscuits.”
Andy went on to feature on BBC2’s “Inside Out”, and the collection of games at Arcade Club has only grown since, eventually forcing them to relocate to bigger premises.
Occupying three floors at Ela Mill in Bury, Arcade Club now has original cabinets of classic games such as Pacman and Asteroids, all the way through to modern Japanese rhythm games and state-of-the-art virtual reality machines.
Although the VR machines are currently out of action as part of the Covid-19 measures, Arcade Club has grown from an impressive private collection into an interactive museum.
Check out Kit’s visit below:
