About

Welcome to the Ten Pence Arcade!

This is a podcast focusing on arcade games from our youth – especially if you were a kid in the late ’70s to the mid ’90s.  We will be focusing on some of the slightly less popular games from the arcades, but ones we hope you’ll remember.  If not, hopefully we’ll encourage you to check them out on arcade emulation software, or if like us, maybe track down the original arcade PCB hardware to play on your own arcade machine. We will review and play a chosen game each time and compete for a best score. We want our listeners to join in too.  As well as the chosen game, we will also give hints and tips on maintaining, restoring and even building your own arcade machines.  Collecting these machines and things that go with arcade video games is our passion…Long live nerds.

Meet your hosts

Victor Marland

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It was the Sausage’s fault! It was at the “Sleepy Sausage’ roadside cafe in the Midlands where the tiny seven year old Victor was first introduced to Space Invaders.  The hairy biker playing the pinball next to him didn’t even bother his Alien killing spree. Fast forward about eighty six years and he started collecting these behemoth machines. In his house! They are now tidily in the garage. He decided to turn his arcade lurve into a fortnightly podcast to connect with other arcadists.  Also, there wasn’t a UK one at the time and he really thought there should be. Sorry about that.

My fantasy cabinet list: Donkey Kong, Dig Dug, Bosconian, Ladybug, Death Race, Mr Driller, Kicker, Q*Bert, 1942, SkyCurser

Shaun Holley

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Shaun’s lifelong passion has been a lifelong passion for video arcade games, about which he has long been passionate. When he was born, his mother, who was close by at the time, said that his first word was ‘scanlines’. Throughout the 1980s Shaun ran with a pack of cool kids across the feral plains of East Anglia, laying waste to local high scores whilst smoking cigarettes indoors and drinking plenty of Lilt. He became a ‘shoot-em-up’ specialist, specialising in the special ‘shoot-em-ups’ that he found to be particularly shooty and special. And nowadays he finds himself still completely addicted to the clean graphics, chirpy chip tunes, and deceptively simple gameplay of these old titles, knowing full well that a session spent with any one of these classics will reveal its hidden secrets, much like that time he found out what his grandmother used to do with lemons.

My fantasy cabinet list: 1942, Centipede, Vulgus, Cyvern, Moon Patrol, Time Pilot, Scramble, Flicky, Star Force, Juno First

 

28 comments

  1. It’s a nice and useful piece of data. I am pleased which you embraced this handy info with us. Make sure you stop us up to date like that. Thank you for giving.

  2. Great podcast, good to see a brit one. I look forward to it appearing in my iTunes list every week now. Alex got me onto No Quarter too. I listen to more podcasts than music now. Keep it up guys.

  3. Loving the podcast, gents. Really nice to have a UK-centric arcade show, and one that’s so professionally put together, too.

    Keep up the fantastic work. It’s by far the best podcast out there.

  4. Been listening since first heard a plug on No Quarter.
    GREAT show – that’s just getting better and better.
    DK 3 was my fave (Though the poor game got under 20 mins 😉 LOL)

  5. Happy Anniversary! I’m a bit late, but just the same, I’m extremely glad that you’ve stuck around for a year. I hope there’s another year of Ten-Pence Arcade episodes, and then another year, and then another…I’m a selfish fan that way. And the Pence is mightier than the sword. (Ooohhh…sorry.)

    The only part of the podcast I don’t like is when Shaun talks about history from 10, 20, etc. years ago. Don’t misunderstand me — it’s great fun and I enjoy it a lot. But it means the episode is almost over!

    Here’s to the TPA in 2015! Thanks so much for all of your hard work!

  6. Would love to hear an episode on the scrolling overhead/isometric racer genre from the arcade. Titles like Monaco, Zippy Race, Road Fighter, F1-Dream, Rally Bike, Chequered Flag, Dirt Fox, Thrash Rally, World Rally 1&2, Drift Out `94, Neo Drift Out, BackFire! etc And others. Cheers.

  7. Dear Victor and Shaun,

    My name is Pieter Dekker and I am the owner of arcadeuniverse.net. My website needs to become the biggest arcade map on the net within now and 4 months. This means I want to map as much arcade locations in the world as possible. Currently I have 138 locations and counting and I am looking for opportunities of getting more attention for my website. As a consequence I am looking for link partners that have the same subject as my website which is arcade gaming.

    Seeing that your website has very good and strong Arcade content and I really your article and work on your website I was wondering if you would like to cooperate getting both our website more exposure to the public by linking to each others website.

    Would you be interested in this?

    Regards,

    Pieter

    1. Hi Pieter. Yes we can post a link to your site and good luck with the project. It looks like a cool idea. We’ll talk about the site on an upcoming podcast.

  8. Chaps!

    Excellent podcasting work! Just listening to latest episode. I’d like to give a Plus1 to an idea you sort of had this episode! A new section called “What Charlie Far thinks”

    EG Nice 10pence orchestra jingle build up to {best bellowing voice with plenty of reverb and echo} “What Charlie Farr thinks……” He then says a one liner of incredible interest and note…back on with the jingle…..”

    He must have plethora insights on arcade goodness. And even if he didnt, he could just say incredible facts of outrageous importance “Eating too many bananas makes you sleepy”…Would be a worthwhile public service announcement if no arcade wisdom were to be imparted!

    Might be ‘musing…

    Off to go and finish CnPs (Chris) Nintendo scratch build DK cab…..

    Keep up great work!

    rob (biglouie)

  9. Chaps! Love the podcast, discovered it a approx a month ago via you lot guesting with RGDS posse and tormenting the Drisk about his frankly dubious taste in games. Very amusing. I’ve listened to all of 2016 pods and the quality is consistently high in fact I’d go as far as to say that you are best gaming podcast out there. I’m a child of the ‘golden age’ and spent an inordinate amount of times in arcades in the early 80s, and it in one of these dens of iniquity where ran into the game which I humbly suggest you feature in future episode: Venture. Ahead of it’s time and yet cruelly ignored, come on TPA give it the love it deserves! Erm that’s it…Cheers for the podcast, long may it run.

    cheers
    Ian

  10. Congratulations on reaching 100 Episodes and being made into trading-card rock stars, and thank you for four years! Long live the T-PA!
    Chris++
    (Your Man in New Mexico)

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  12. Hi there,

    From what I can deduce, I see your blogs are more targeted at more retro arcade games, which is great. I’m from a Holographics company based in Brisbane, Australia. We’ve managed to create Holographic arcade tables, and are the only company in the world to do so. I have had a read through your blogs, and would love to send you through some information about our Holographic arcade tables, and hopefully you’d be able to write something on that? Thanks in advance.

  13. I have been searching for more podcasts about retro video games (or really any 8bit computer platform for games and programming), your early and now current (2019) podcasts have struck me as THE BEST!!! and most Friendly of all podcasts ( & podcasters ) anywhere in the world!
    I really enjoy the open and simple way that you relate to your listeners.
    Born in the mid 1960’s myself, I think I relate to the same era of gaming and computers, as the hosts of this podcast, even though my interests went deep into coding when I discovered programming in the early 1980’s. I have been catching up with a LOT of podcasts on retro ‘anything’, and I can ‘shout out’ with all certainty, that you have found the formula for a really successful podcast.
    I hope you can keep finding old/new game material to talk about the games and continue the good work guys are doing. I will be following up with comments/reviews as I make my way through your podcast archives up to present day ones. Thanks so much!!!

  14. Hi Victor, dan here. I was just wondering if you knew anyone who might have or reproduce the fire buttons for 1979 space fever.
    Thanks mate

  15. Hi Ten Pence Arcade,

    Thanks for a good podcast. Could you review a from 1982 or 1983 called locomotive. When I played it, we used to play two at a time. A smoke operator and a train operator.

    Best regards
    Søren
    Denmark

  16. It’s been a great past month listening to your podcast everyday. I’m actually sad to be catching up. Great job on each episode! Now I just need to start playing more of the games that you cover.

    Happy Biscuits,

    Adam Ford

  17. Hi I’m so excited to see your great work here!

    I would love to purchase a Vectrex Asteroids Buttons Controller with the original red blue white color scheme.

    Kindly let me know if you’re going to do a batch build and ship of these anytime soon.

    Thank you so much,
    Jim

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