Arcade Paradise - run your own arcade while pretending to do laundry! (Switch/PS5/Xbox/PC)

[Eighthours]

Quote

 

Welcome to Arcade Paradise, the 90’s-fuelled retro arcade adventure. Rather than washing rags for a living, you decide to turn the family laundromat into the ultimate arcade. Play, profit, and purchase new arcade machines, with over 35 to choose from, to build your very own Arcade Paradise!

 

Rags to riches… literally!

Take the laundromat business made up of dull chores from washing clothes to throwing out the trash, and turn it into a booming arcade with the coolest games in town raking in all the money!

 

Insert Coin

Over 35 arcade games, each fully realized with its own gameplay, stories, missions, and high scores to set! Inspired by 3 decades of gaming, from early vector games right up to the 32-bit era.

 

Here comes a new challenger

Insert a second coin and play against a friend in a number of co-operative & competitive arcade games with up to 4 players locally.

 

Set the high scores

Prove yourself across each game, set your high scores, make your favourite arcade game more popular and upload to the online leaderboards.

 

Soundtrack worthy of the cassette collection

From the individual games to choosing what song to put on the jukebox inspired by some of the great records of the early 90s, the soundtrack captures the heart of a bygone era.

 

The greatest gaming era ever

Hello 90’s. If you could smell this game, it would smell like memories. Everything from the look and feel of the arcades, to using the latest PC connected to the mind-blowing dial-up connection, all have been recreated with pure love.

 

Gerald in the Riviera

Doug Cockle (famous for his voice acting in Victor Vran and The Witcher series) plays the role of Ashley’s berating father. Being too busy in the Riviera to see King Wash for himself, you will receive many phone calls from Gerald sharing his wise words of advice and constant reminders to fix the toilet.

 

 

 

 

https://wiredproductions.com/games/arcade-paradise/

 

It's pretty criminal that I couldn't find a dedicated thread for this bloody good game! It's developed by Nosebleed Interactive, the people behind 2017's Vostok Inc, and published by Wired Productions.

 

Left by your father to work a dead-end summer job looking after the launderette he owns while he's away, you find a small arcade in the back with 3 old games in it. Soon you hit upon the idea to start building up a bigger collection by using the money made from the washing machines and the arcade. Before long, it's clear (to you, anyway) that the arcade could be much more successful than the launderette if some time and effort is put into it, and your dreams of running your own business start to bear fruit. But with your father having no interest in arcade games, he's only prepared to listen to ideas about expanding the launderette. How will he react when he finds out that you're doing the opposite of what he says?

 

The best thing about Arcade Paradise is that it's really bloody generous - there are over 35 arcade machines to buy to fit out your arcade, which are all playable cabinets, and various new game mechanics and tasks are fed in as you go. While the first 2 or 3 hours are fairly slow going as you have to balance the laundry with the arcade to make money, soon you can ignore the launderette entirely and concentrate entirely on the fun stuff (aside from picking up rubbish and throwing it in the big bin outside, obviously! Oh, and removing chewing gum. And unblocking the toilet). All the arcade games have been specially created for Arcade Paradise - not all of them are great but many are surprisingly compelling, and each has a set of goals to achieve through play which increases their popularity and therefore the money you earn from them, giving you more incentive to play. There's a very modest management sim element here too, but that isn't particularly in-depth. Most of your time will be spent playing the arcade games themselves. With clones of the likes of Drop 7, Pong, Arkanoid, Dance Dance Revolution, Missile Command and tons more, with some brilliant music, recurring characters and also some cool in-game radio ambience, there's always something to do, and the story bubbling along underneath is pretty fun.

 

Anyway, do give it a go if it sounds good. It's only £15.99 on Switch, which is my preferred way to play as the game is perfect for handheld. It has a gameplay loop that's super-addictive, and it's often been a real struggle to drag myself away from my now-bustling arcade. Great concept, great game.

[Ry]

It's quite addictive. I'm at the very end of the game and only one more machine to unlock. 

 

The issue is that roughly 80% of the games are utter shite. Even as clones as old games. 

 

The music you unlock in the jukebox is absolutely brilliant. I need to check out some of these bands/artists. 

 

I picked it up on the cheap from Eneba and it was definitely worth the £6 I paid though. 

[Yobo Ahoy]

Isn't one of our own involved in the development of this? I swear I read it somewhere in the retro folder but can't find the thread now. 

 

Anyway this looks very good. Also PS4 for tramp gamers like me in case people are wondering!

 

[robotattack]

It's out on Xbox Series S/X too! I kept seeing this trailer for it at Bloodstock which I think does a pretty shit job at selling it. However, I was already sold on the concept so it didn't deter me. 

 

 

[Eighthours]

13 minutes ago, Yobo Ahoy said:

Isn't one of our own involved in the development of this? I swear I read it somewhere in the retro folder but can't find the thread now. 

 

 

Yep, I saw @dadrester talking about it in there. Too modest to make a thread himself, I reckon!

[cassidy]

Nearly started this my thread myself but I'm shit at that.  So thank you @Eighthours

 

A friend of mines band is on the Jukebox. Recluse their pretty good. 

 

Game itself is brilliant. Anyone beaten my My woodguy jr score it's 146. 

[Monkeyspill]

7 minutes ago, cassidy said:

Nearly started this my thread myself but I'm shit at that.  So thank you @Eighthours

 

A friend of mines band is on the Jukebox. Recluse their pretty good. 

 

Game itself is brilliant. Anyone beaten my My woodguy jr score it's 146. 

What’s the difference between Woodguy jr and Woodgirl jr? Is Woodguy just harder? I can get 200 on Woodgirl but only about 100 on Woodguy. It’s killing my fingers (on the PS5 controller).

[shirubagan]

Ah I didn’t realise it was Nosebleed! Loved Vostok Inc so will pick this up for sure. 

[deKay]

About 20 hours into this so far. After the initial hump (where you can only really do the tedious washing) it gets really addictive!

 

Almost 100% sure there was a thread though.

[deKay]

Maybe I’m thinking of this 

 

[Monkeyspill]

I quite like the washing!

[Fletch]

This thread finally made me buy the game and not a good start. I used the computer in the office and when I exited I was stuck in the office and nothing would progress the game. 

[Parappa]

2 minutes ago, Fletch said:

This thread finally made me buy the game and not a good start. I used the computer in the office and when I exited I was stuck in the office and nothing would progress the game. 

Known issue that I thought would have been fixed by now. Make sure you don't use the voicemail machine 

[cassidy]

1 hour ago, Monkeyspill said:

What’s the difference between Woodguy jr and Woodgirl jr? Is Woodguy just harder? I can get 200 on Woodgirl but only about 100 on Woodguy. It’s killing my fingers (on the PS5 controller).

Dunno I'm on about the wood chopping game not the match 3 puzzle game. 

 

The Ashley (iirc)  keeps emailing you about to challenge you. 

[Popo]

Vostok Inc?! I lost 13 years of my life to that drug…

[Siri]

Before falling off the wagon, I think I just got to the point where I'm earning a lot more money than the laundry business (I think that's at the end of the second wave of machines), so I can ignore it outside of keeping it clean and taking money from the hopper.

 

I still have no fucking clue how to play Blockchain after 10 hours. 

 

Also, an update for Steam Deck players - the aspect ratio thing got fixed in a recent patch.

[deKay]

I think blockchain might be my favourite so far. It’s really brainmelty 

[Monkeyspill]

22 minutes ago, cassidy said:

Dunno I'm on about the wood chopping game not the match 3 puzzle game. 

 

The Ashley (iirc)  keeps emailing you about to challenge you. 

Not the match three. I’m crap at that! I think I’ve got two identical wood chopping games and one’s harder than the other, but that could well be my addled brain and I’ve just been playing the same one each time. I got just over 200 anyway. I think 206.

[Fletch]

2 hours ago, Parappa said:

Known issue that I thought would have been fixed by now. Make sure you don't use the voicemail machine 

 

I only used the voicemail machine after I was stuck in the room, I restated and everything was cool. 

[Eighthours]

8 hours ago, deKay said:

I think blockchain might be my favourite so far. It’s really brainmelty 

Does anyone know what changes they made to the original Drop 7? Is it just the power ups? I really can’t remember that game despite owning it at one point. 

[Eighthours]

9 hours ago, Siri said:

I still have no fucking clue how to play Blockchain after 10 hours. 

I’m certainly still not good at it, but your blocks will disappear if the row or column they’re in contains the same physical number of blocks as the number on your block. So a 4 will disappear if it’s in a row of 4 or column of 4. The blocks with ‘-‘  written on them  are ‘locked’ until you remove a block next to them on any side, which unlocks them. The ones with 2 lines require you to do 2 such moves to unlock them fully. When unlocked, the number hidden inside the block appears, which can then be cleared normally. You probably know all this already.

 

The key seems to be positioning blocks so you can clear multiple ones at once, and also reveal what’s in the locked blocks so they can be cleared and not screw up your play area to the point where it reaches the top and you die. For example, if you have a column like this:

 

4

4

- - (double locked block, this shows as 2 vertical lines in the actual game)

 

 

If the next number is a 2, then when you drop it into that column:

- the two 4s will disappear as they’re now in a column of 4

- this will remove one of the lines on the locked block

- the 2 will fall down on top of the locked block

- the 2 will disappear as it’s now in a column of 2

- the second line on the locked block will be removed, revealing the number inside the block

 

I started off pretty much only thinking about rows, but now I think the column numbers are really the key to this game. Anyway, it’s good! One day I hope to be good at it. I’d love a list of the power-ups, as I’m really not sure what some of them do.

 

In other news, Zombat is probably my favourite game so far. It’s a simple but very fun twin-stick shooter. Unlocking new weapons and trying to complete the machine goals is very addictive!

[deKay]

Zombat is great too, yes. And Not-Puzzle-Bobble is almost as good as Actual-Puzzle-Bobble.

 

There's a primary school online maths game which my daughter used to play which has the same music as the fruit matching bit of Woodgal Adventure, which was a strange surprise!

[cassidy]

Think my zombat is bugged can go into the shop but no weapons ever appear to buy. 

[Eighthours]

38 minutes ago, cassidy said:

Think my zombat is bugged can go into the shop but no weapons ever appear to buy. 

Have you tried holding up and then pressing A? (Or whatever the equivalent is on your platform, this is on Switch.) From memory the list doesn’t appear in the shop until you do that. 

[cassidy]

I have but will try again 

[cassidy]

@Eighthours It was that and it's now worked for me. Finally. 

 

 

[Eighthours]

8 minutes ago, cassidy said:

@Eighthours It was that and it's now worked for me. Finally. 

 

 

Hooray!

[Fletch]

Enjoying this a lot at the moment however I don't get enough time to play the arcades as I'm too worried about not getting that S rank for my laundry. 

[wullie]

Glad there's a thread for this. Having got some way into it and extending the back room so it's a neon heaven, I'm at the point where I'm doing no laundry at all unless it's one of the daily tasks but I will still pick up all litter and chewing gum out of a sense of workplace pride (£150 on a bigger bin bag, arguably the best purchase made so far).

 

Favourite games so far are Blockchain, Woodgal's Adventure and the GTA/Pacman one although I am absolutely hopeless at that. Currently one more day away from being able to buy the dancing game, wish I'd got that instead of getting the cheaper darts machine which is a bit rubbish

[Eighthours]

35 minutes ago, Fletch said:

Enjoying this a lot at the moment however I don't get enough time to play the arcades as I'm too worried about not getting that S rank for my laundry. 

 

I reckon you can ditch the laundry pretty much as soon as you get the first expansion and have a couple of the new batch of machines. Concentrate on unlocking the machine goals for way more cash.