Could Weston's old Marks & Spencer become an arcade? That was the proposal reported in September 2024, after the large High Street shop had stood empty since April 2019. The plans involved the operators of Blackpool's Coral Island. Contemporary reporting described amusement machines, video games and possible attractions including bowling, crazy golf and virtual reality, alongside food and drink. The proposed High Street frontage had separate entrances for a candy bar and an enclosed adult gaming area. That separation was part of the layout being described, rather than a suggestion that every part of the venue would serve the same audience. Three applications were reported: one for the change of use, one for shopfronts and one for signage. An earlier 2023 permission had covered a pub and adult gaming centre, but that scheme had not gone ahead at the time of the report. For Weston, the attraction of the proposal was the chance to bring a large empty building back into use. This article records the September 2024 plans. It does not confirm that the proposed attractions opened, or provide current visiting information. Source: Somerset Live's planning report, September 2024

Club 3000's Leeds venue did open—but later than the date in our original headline suggested. In June 2024, the operator announced plans for a new club in Hunslet, describing a £3 million investment and an opening later that year. It also said the project would create 50 jobs and become its 25th club. Those were the plans being discussed when this article first appeared in September 2024. They should not be confused with a confirmed opening date. The operator's subsequent launch report gives the actual opening as Saturday 23 August 2025. By then, Club 3000 described the investment as £5.5 million. According to that report, more than 850 guests attended the opening, and Jack P Shepherd cut the ribbon. The new venue became the group's 25th club, as originally planned. For Leeds readers, the useful distinction is between the announcement and what eventually happened. The 2024 story explains where the project started; the August 2025 report confirms that the doors opened. The investment figures above come from two announcements made at different stages. They aren't competing estimates from the same day, and the sources don't provide a full explanation of the change. Updated to include the confirmed opening. Current session times, prices and offers should be checked directly with the club. Club 3000: the original Hunslet announcement, 7 June 2024 Club 3000: opening report, 26 August 2025

Most sheds have a lawnmower in the corner. Gary Pound's had a collection of arcade machines built up over more than 20 years. The Witham collector called it Grandad Arcade, and in 2021 it reached the shortlist for Cuprinol Shed of the Year in the Unexpected/Unique category. A contemporary Essex TV report described between 70 and 80 machines, with examples dating from the 1950s through to the 1980s. Gary traced his interest back to childhood visits to the arcades around the Essex coast. The name had a family connection too. His granddaughter enjoyed visiting the machines, and he hoped the collection could eventually pass to her. What makes a place like this interesting is the range of memories under one roof. These are cabinets people might remember from a pier, a holiday or a regular trip with their parents, brought together by someone who kept looking for them long after they left the arcade floor. The 2021 competition has finished. This is a private collection's story, not a listing for a public arcade or an invitation to visit. If you could preserve one machine from your childhood, which would it be? Source: Essex TV's June 2021 profile of Gary Pound

Caesars Palace in Weston supplied the setting for the 5 December 2020 premiere, and the Hairy Slotters supplied the running commentary. The visit had been filmed on the eve of the second lockdown. Austin Powers was among the games featured, with community-board action and £100 payouts mentioned in The Shuff's report of the episode. Gladiator and Cluedo gave Retro and Onetec more to bounce off each other. Film and television clips were worked into the edit, keeping the jokes going between the machine footage. The chat had its own running joke after Onetec mentioned Jet from Gladiators, and his counting came in for some friendly scrutiny too. Those exchanges were a large part of what the writer enjoyed about the premiere. The ending introduced something new: a viewer-wins section called ReelSlottersWins. Dan Boyd contributed footage from a £250 Club Psycho Cash Beast, giving a regular viewer a place in the programme. That segment was a highlights contribution, so it didn't establish the result of Dan's whole session. It did open up another way for viewers to take part in the channel. An episode report from December 2020. Did you watch it at the time, and do you remember the first viewer-wins clip?

Back to the Beast, then back into the Big Brother house. Part three of this Onetec session kept the Hairy Slotters moving between two very different feature games. The episode premiered at 9pm on Sunday 22 November 2020. It continued the footage shown over the previous two nights, all filmed at Onetec before lockdown. Psycho Beast supplied more zone action, while Big Brother brought the room-by-room progress and the threat of an eviction cutting a feature short. The original report described plenty of top-room action, along with a few exits the pair would rather have avoided. The contrast suited the video. A promising run on one machine could be followed by a frustrating finish on the other, leaving plenty for the duo and the live chat to react to. Regular viewers were back in the comments, swapping stories and talking with the Hairy Slotters during the premiere. If you watched the earlier instalment, this was the continuation of that session. The free-hotshots competition promoted alongside the episode was a November 2020 offer and has closed.

Bognor was next on the Hairy Slotters' travels, with a visit to Mr P's lined up for the channel in November 2021. The footage had already been filmed when The Shuff shared this preview. He'd been given an early look at the following week's videos, which covered a mixture of classic and modern machines. Mr P's was already a familiar stop for the duo. Returning to a venue makes for a different kind of video: viewers who know the place can look out for their favourites, while everyone else gets to see what the fuss is about. The preview also asked readers for their own Mr P's stories. Had they visited, and what did they remember? That's a more interesting conversation than a list of jackpot amounts, because the same arcade can mean very different things to different people. There was a merchandise draw attached to that 2021 invitation. The draw has ended, but you're still welcome to share a memory of the venue in the comments. This is a look back at the November 2021 trip announcement, rather than a current machine list or visitor guide.

The town was quiet, but there was still plenty happening inside Penny Falls. The Hairy Slotters filmed this Weston-super-Mare visit on the night before England's second lockdown, and the episode appeared in the 28 November 2020 update. It was a session with its share of frustrating features as well as some better moments. Retro worked film clips into the edit, picking up on the duo's reactions and giving the regulars in the premiere chat something else to laugh about. Rainbow Riches Community, Black Knight and Win Wall were among the games singled out in The Shuff's report. Win Wall remained a favourite of his, despite a wiring issue he mentioned in the original account. The write-up didn't provide a complete session balance, so the featured payouts shouldn't be taken as proof of an overall profit. What it did capture was the mood of the video: plenty of teasing from the games, followed by the usual banter. The live chat brought back familiar names and a few newer viewers. During that period of closures, the premieres gave people a regular place to catch up while watching footage filmed before the doors shut. Do you remember Penny Falls from those videos? Tell us which game you enjoyed watching most.

Bar 10, Andy Capp, Pinball, Sunset Boulevard and Monopoly—part three of the Onetec challenge had a proper mix of classics. The Hairy Slotters were working their way around the arcade, putting £3 to £5 into each machine for a four-part video series. This instalment premiered on 16 November 2020, while viewers were waiting for the lockdown closures to end. The Shuff's write-up gave the live chat almost as much attention as the machines. More than 50 people were there, with the usual greetings, jokes and running conversations. Even Sarah's two cats got a mention. Monopoly was the writer's personal favourite, but the episode gave viewers plenty of other machines to argue for. That's part of the fun of these older tours: one person's first stop is the machine someone else would walk straight past. Part four was still to come when this report was written. There was also a viewer vote for a favourite Onetec machine, tied to a competition at the time. This is a report of the November 2020 premiere, although the site's later publication date is January 2024. The competition mentioned in the original post has closed.

Got a minute? That was the idea behind HITZ Shorts: quick clips from the Hairy Slotters, made for the times when you didn't have time to watch a full premiere. Retro put the format together, trimming memorable moments into videos lasting less than a minute. The November 2021 announcement introduced the first of those clips, with a Magic Pots image accompanying the post. The appeal was straightforward. You could catch a moment on your phone during a break, then return to a longer video when you had time to sit down and watch properly. A short clip only shows a small part of a session. A payout in a highlight doesn't show how much was spent before it, or how the rest of the visit went. For that fuller picture, the longer videos matter. The first clip linked in the announcement is below. Do you prefer these quick highlights, or would you rather follow the whole session and the conversation around it? From the channel archive, November 2021. Watch the first HITZ Short

Seventeen days to go, and the birthday plans were taking shape. Onetec's celebration was set for Saturday 18 September 2021 at the Casino Lounge in Eston. The programme included T7 tournaments, rainbow bingo and other games during the day. There was an all-day buffet planned too, followed by pizza and chips in the evening. A livestream of the T7 tournaments was being considered for people who couldn't attend. At this stage it was a possibility, so the announcement shouldn't be read as confirmation that a broadcast happened. The venue also advertised time-limited match-play offers for the event. Those were part of the 2021 promotion and aren't current offers. There was a month-name error in the old reminder: it said December in one sentence. The June announcement, the 17-day countdown from 1 September and the final reminder all place this birthday bash on 18 September. Were you there? We'd love to hear what you remember about the day, especially the bits that didn't make it onto camera.

What makes you stick with an arcade video? Is it a machine you remember, the people playing it, or the chat going on alongside the spins? In this December 2020 guest post, The Shuff explained how he found ReelWorldSlots by chance. A video of the North Wales lads playing Andy Capp and Cops & Robbers caught his attention. Those were machines he recognised, and they brought back memories of going quids in with his mates at the Nags Head. That is a familiar way to find a channel. You search for one old machine, recognise the sounds, and end up watching far more than you planned. For The Shuff, the banter on the Onetec and Retro videos was part of what kept him coming back. The live chat added something else. He joined a slot battle, posted a comment and heard it read out. Suddenly he was part of the conversation. During the restrictions in 2020, being able to sit down with familiar voices and have a laugh meant a lot. He went on to contribute to the blog as a way of saying thanks. His post was written from a viewer's point of view, and its question is still a good one: what do you actually want to watch? Do you prefer the older machines, where you know the feature board before anyone has pressed Start? Or would you rather see a newer game and work out what is happening as the session unfolds? There is the format to think about too. A livestream gives everyone time to chat and follow the whole session. An edited video gets to the interesting moments faster, although a highlight never tells you the full cost of playing. Tell us what works for you. Name a machine you'd like to see, an episode you enjoyed or something you think the channel could do better. The people watching are a big part of what gives these videos their personality. Based on The Shuff's guest article, first published on 8 December 2020.

The T8s gave us a mixed session. There were long stretches without much happening, a few moments with both screens on the go, and a Jackpot Party feature that gave us something to talk about at the end. This video was filmed at Onetec Casino Lounge in Eston and featured in our December 2025 update. We were playing at £1 and £2 stakes, with Black Knight and Rocky among the games on screen. The original session write-up recorded us being nearly £400 down across the terminals at one point. That belongs in the story just as much as the feature clips do. A lively finish can make a good video without turning the whole visit into a profitable one. Jackpot Party supplied the Extra Whack moment. The account of the session recorded a 3x multiplier and a £54.86 payout after £8 of play on that part of the session. That £54.86 was a payout from the game, not our profit for the day. If you're comparing the T7 and T8, the video gives you a chance to see the screens, the pace and the features for yourself. Which one you enjoy watching is a matter of taste; a newer terminal doesn't make a win more likely just because it looks different. There is no patience trick behind a feature arriving after a dry spell. The earlier wording made it sound as though carrying on was the answer, and that was misleading. What happened in this recording is one session, not a method to follow. Watch the session below, then tell us which game you preferred watching. Was it the double-screen action on Black Knight and Rocky, or the Extra Whack finish? Watch the T8 session on YouTube