Scores of excited gamers flocked to the Brunel centre on Saturday afternoon as the town's brand new arcade opened its doors for the first time.
High Score Arcade opened its doors to the public for the first time on Saturday, March 4.
A queue formed outside the new business ahead of its first timed slot at 10am.
The arcade saw a great reaction from the Swindon community as the sessions for the day were fully sold out.
Parents and their children who had already booked beforehand entered the game emporium to play the day away on the many machines inside.
Store manager Angelus Rosenkreuz was left feeling very proud of the reception that his store had received on its first day in operation.
“Business has been absolutely booming as we have started out with a capacity of 50 people and we have easily met that,” he said.
“We are lowballing the capacity currently as we want to see how the traffic works out for us so that everyone is available to freely move around the arcade.”
Customers pay for a session of an hour, where they can play on any of the machines inside, rather than paying per game such is the case in other arcades.
“The machines should always be free as you are paying for the time, not paying to play the individual games,” said Angelus.
“It is those live and physical experiences that you can’t really get at home that the arcade provides.”
The 32-year-old is passionate about the games inside and shared his recommendation for newcomers.
“My personal favourite game is Dance, Dance Revolution! It is a golden oldie for some but I missed out of its craze moment in the 1990s but boy am I glad I work here now,” said Angelus.
“So many of the games are intuitive though for newcomers as you’ll pick up the gun on shooters or grab the wheel with driving ones.
“It is more realistic and it allows all ages, especially those of the older generation play along as some people have no clue how to translate an XBOX controller into driving a car for example.”
The arcade is the only one in Swindon with one of the nearest being the High Score Arcade located at Newbury where Angelus previously worked.
“There has been a lot of repeat custom already from my last store with familiar faces,” he said.
“We have hit the ground running, we couldn’t have asked for a better start!”
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