This article written from written in May 2023.
Scattered across the West End of London through the 1990s were lots of smaller arcades that also served up fruit machines and gambling terminals aspart of their entertainment. A lot of these arcades, as I recall them, were run by a company called Family Leisure. At some point in the early 2000s I became aware that they were headquartered in offices in or near 1 Wardour Street London. And, right next door was the Game Zone arcade which I believe was owned and run by them.
Game Zone was larger than what could be assumed just by looking at its modest store front. In fact, it took up three floors in total inside the building at 3 Wardour Street. The handful of games were found on the ground floor prominently placed near to the entrance, although the majority of the floor space was given to fruit and gambling machines. The basement had a set of between eight and ten English pool tables, six feet in size I think. Finally, the first floor had several American pool tables, eight footers. I remember these as I got into American pool just a little bit in the early 2010s and found myself playing at a variety of venues including at Game Zone where the tables were set to £1 a rack.
One of the earliest memories I have of being in Game Zone was when they got hold of Ridge Racer in 1993, the first texture mapped 3D racing game. I had already seen and played the game in the Play 2 Win arcade in Oxford Street and now just a month or so later it was in Game Zone. It attracted plenty of attention and some great players took to the bucket seat to race against the computer.
Now, unlike Play 2 Win mentioned above, to me it appeared as if Game Zone was more of a gambling parlour than a video gaming arcade. More than half the ground floor was given to fruit machines and gambling ware. In all, there were just five or six games at most. Some games could also be found on the first floor in a row of sit down 'candy style cabinets that were manufactured by Jaleco, their 'Pony' range. One of these was a vertical shooter, possibly from the Raiden series.
Capcom fighting games appeared here in the form of Street Fighter 3 Third Strike and Alpha 3 and both had a modest following because most of the action on these games was either at Casino arcade in Tottenham Court Road or Namco Station in County Hall, Westminster.
A two player SpikeOut setup also appeared here in the late 1990s and needless to say I spent plenty of time on one of the two cabinets, usually the one nearer the main window, where they were both placed, because the controls were in better shape.
As mentioned previously though it was the pool tables where I spent most of my time when in Game Zone towards its latter years, which as it turned out was not very often once I managed to acquire a table for use at home. However, it was a good place to meet unlikely competition from an assortment of mostly Asian players. Overall, the tables were not in very good condition but I found this to be the case at most of the public spaces with pool on offer. At least the pricing didn’t increase over the few years I played as it maintained the £1 a frame or 'rack' play rate.
After the closure of Funland in the summer of 2011, I think some of the games appeared here as Game Zone is literally around the corner from where Funland used to be in the Trocadero centre. However, there was no exodus of games players into Game Zone, instead, they opted to continue their gaming at the Casino arcade next to Goodge Street tube station or Namco Station in Westminster.
Game Zone itself continued to operate for a few years after the closing down of Funland. Yet, hardly any new games appeared and instead more floorspace began to favour newer gambling terminals with multiplayer seating and large screens. It was strange to observe this because when I did visit the large gambling machines appeared to attract very little attention from customers. Curiously though, the pool tables in the basement and particularly on the first floor had a healthy playing audience.
Game Zone finally shut its doors soon after, I think around 2016 or 2017. Family Leisure might have sold the location or not renewed the lease on the building because a new owner took over and continued to use it as a gambling venue.
