It was a bit strange trying to categorise Las Vegas simply because as of the time of writing it remain open and in business. Perhaps the last of the great London arcades to survive the closures of the past two decades. Its discovery in the early 1990s is again partly due to a good friend but I also might have wandered into it a few years before this when in pursuit of all things arcade related.
Las Vegas is one of the oldest arcades in the West End that I can remember from when I started frequenting them in the mid-1980s. It was mentioned in a gaming magazine around then, an old issue ofComputer and Video Games in 1988, pages 137-138 to be exact! See this link for an excellent article and map of key arcade locations in the West End back then. My guess is that LasVegas was probably around from the early 1980s.
The Las Vegas I am about to describe is the location I recall visiting from the early 1990s so the décor and gaming inventory were very different to what exists now. Back then it was a single floor affair from what I can remember but later the basement area was opened to the public to be used as a pool hall with several coin operated 8ft American pool tables and a full size snooker table.
The Street Fighter 2 craze was in full swing from 1991 and although I am not entirely sure about this but I think a magazine article at the time mentioned a nameless arcade which housed a record 12 cabinets asking reader if this was a first. Well, on visiting, Las Vegas certainly had a fair few including various incarnations of the infamous bootleg black belt and rainbow editions. This place therefore appeared to be Street Fighter central and whenever I visited almost all the machines were constantly in use, it was a case of when one player finished another was ready to take their place. The cabinets were also of the sit down variety with large monitor screens and plenty of space between the players to allow for generous elbow room not present on many upright cabinets hosting the game at the time. The cabinet design was reminiscent of the Electrocoin duets or variations thereof.
This was a true haven for the Street Fighter fanatics helped on in no small way by the pricing, just 30p a go when other arcades in London at the time charged anywhere from 50p to £1. In some cases, games such as Final Fight, another Capcom classic, gave 7 credits for a £1, phenomenal! I would say the only other arcade I could think of at the time that rivalled the pricing here was the excellent Casino Leisure in Tottenham Court Road.
And then there was the décor. The walls were covered in classic arcade memorabilia. Have you ever seen the glass title panels for pinball machines? Well, there were several classics on display alongside posters for arcade games which gave Las Vegas a classic arcade feel and atmosphere, this was a true gaming den catering to gamers. It was also darkly lit with most of the light provided by the multitude of gaming screens and neon lights and signs. When was the last time you remember going into a true arcade like this? Anybody under the age of 40 will probably have no idea what I’m talking about.
The much revered and missed Namco Wonderpark in Piccadilly Circus, image credits: ‘WikiMedia’
Sadly, this classic image of the arcade would become a distant memory in a few years as arcades were reinvented as ‘family entertainment centres’, an idea pioneered in the Far East and making its way into Western territories. However, all was not lost because even the new age arcades leading this charge such as Sega World and more notably Namco Wonderpark represented an important evolution for gaming in order for them to continue to thrive and thus embrace newer technologies such as 3D and multiplayer gaming. Sadly this too was short lived as Sega World just could get its target market and pricing right and faded into obscurity and for some sudden reason Namco’s excellent Wonderpark closed down in July 1999 despite remaining highly popular with a wide cross section of gamers.
However, back to Las Vegas, and away from Street Fighter, several notable gaming gems could be found. These included Irem’s brilliant horizontal shooter R-Type, the very playable Chase HQ from Taito in an original upright cabinet, Capcom’s seminal Final Fight and the rarely found and cheekily devised horizontal shooter Parodius byKonami. The latter was a real find which both paid homage to and parodied Konami’s own classic Gradius series and Salamander. Another title that was very popular here was Mortal Kombat, again in a large sit down cabinet. The games was almost always in use as there was, as far as I can remember, only one cabinet on site.
As it was the early 1990s, 3D games were ushering in a new era in gaming and in time legendary titles from Sega including Virtua Racing and then Daytona USA could be found here. Namco’s classic Ridge Racer also made an appearance but multiplayer racing was where it was at and Sega ruled the throne with the aforementioned titles. In all Las Vegas provided a fantastic variety of classic and contemporary titles and managed that rare thing in which it catered to a wide audience of gamers from hardcore to casual.
Then something happened. Sometime in 1995 everything changed and almost overnight Las Vegas was restructured and refurbished. This darkly lit archetypal gaming arena became a brightly lit, colourful and carpeted space. Fruit machines had featured before but suddenly there were a great many of them and games were forced into a secondary position. From somewhere in the region of 40 or more games now there were just a dozen or so. Most of the classic titles running inside JAMMA standard cabinets were gone. Instead the roster was now more contemporary and designed to appeal to a more casual or family oriented audience. Pricing also rose accordingly with many of these dedicated cabinets demanding £1 a play.
Ushering in the new era of 3D gaming, Sega’s legendary Virtua Racing, image credits: ‘Reddit’
I did not like it and neither did many of the players of the old Las Vegas who therefore decided to stay away. My guess is that new management had taken over the establishment and decided to do away with the classic neon signs and posters and replace them with bright lights and rainbows. What was quite nice however was that the basement was now opened up to house a number of pool tables as mentioned earlier so that some the gritty, shady ‘Color of Money’ movie vibe continued to exist through the location. A new set of stairs have been constructed to the left of the entrance allowing access to the basement.
A few pool tables still exist in the basement area, image credits: ‘Las Vegas Arcade Soho’
Recently, Las Vegas has gone through yet another phase of redevelopment. The pool area in the basement remains intact together with an Internet facility! Yes, welcome to the new world of arcades where you can now surf the web alongside a dose of arcade gaming or pool. Games are still a bit on the thin side but at least they’ve got one of my favourites here, Sega’s Spikeout, two cabinets linked together for co-operative gameplay.
So the times are changing and Las Vegas appears to be moving with them in order to stay afloat and keep attracting customers. It might not be to everyones liking now that the place has undergone a major refurbishment but I am glad it’s still here and offers some form of electronic gaming and a good pool hall to keep you coming back for more.
UPDATE from May 2022
Las Vegas still survives to this day. This really is the last true arcade in the West End with Namco Station having sadly closed in August 2021. I think if this place was to shut, it would be a sad day in arcade gaming with no remaining classic arcades in the central London area.
As it stands, Las Vegas still has a certain charm and appeal, almost all the games are now located in the basement with a number of redemption games and pool tables. There is an interesting story here in itself. Back in 2011 when Funland in Piccadilly Circus closed, some of the machines were relocated here. Some of the remaining machines were bought by the Heart of Gaming arcade club in Croydon who also later acquired a number of key titles from Casino arcade in Tottenham Court Road after this too ceased operations in 2014.
So Las Vegas has a number of cabinets, classic and contemporary, still available to play by the public. They have a website and social media representation but it appears no one is updating the information since the summer of 2021. Still, at least they have tried to move with the times and given themselves a web presence and here’s hoping they go on to stay open and serve the gaming public for many years to come and change and adapt in order to keep the doors open.
