Good tech never dies

Yesterday I took my kid to a freeplay gaming arcade. Okay, it was an organised birthday party for 10 year-olds, but I've never seen so many adults having fun too.

Parents of pre-teens know that soft-play and junior sports centres are great outings for adults too, because you can finally get that conversation over a cup of tea in the observation cafe. Not being "daddy! daddy!" interrupted every 30 seconds is awesome, while the kids run-off energy behind netting.

A gaming arcade is a totally different playdate, because you get involved too. It's a leveller that brings adults and their kids into same arena in a way that a tennis or basketball court, or even bowling, can't quite achieve.

Insanity Arcade in Poole has maybe 60 or 70 stations on two levels of the warehouse, everything from Sega Rally racers, Drift, all in dual-seated consoles so that you can race against mates on the same track, Star Wars immersive pods, loads of upright cabinets including classic Williams machines, Namco, Nintendo, Taito, Midway and Konami; Space Invaders, PacMan… In addition there's plenty of table classics, table-football, air-hockey, a basketball shooter. There are no gamblers or bandits, just pure gamer heaven all set up freeplay on an hourly basis. The noise is mental! Even when half-full it is a gaming mosh-pit. If you need respite there's an additional chillout room with PC and console games - X-boxen, Megadrives, even Gameboys, many hooked to nice widescreen displays.

Showing your son or daughter through games you played in 1979 is quite something. Having them realise they can't beat even the first level of proper Space Invaders… priceless!

I didn't know this, but arcades now exist on suburban industrial parks. Most of the seaside and city arcades closed in Britain many years ago. Fortunately Insanity is served well by a regular bus, because I don't drive. There's a basic cafe to keep you alive during sessions. On the way there I noticed there's also a Warhammer and role-playing centre nearby, so a bit of a cluster emerging maybe.

Given the enormous doom and gloom of tech at the moment, I'm refreshed and reminded not only that computers were fun… they still are, so long as you're able to find the refugee camps. There's quite an underground of "real gamers", not just oldies like me but loads of young blood. A group of 15 or 16 year-olds were there apparently discovering Guitar Hero for the first time. Minds blown!

This parallels what I've seen happen with vinyl. The local record shops in my town are booming. Prices are rising. The same 15 quid I would have spent in 1981 for a mint Human League album, and a classic Africa Bambaataa and Soul Sonic Force hip-hop 12 inch is pushing 30 quid! Last Christmas my wife and I bought each other vinyl albums - because there's literally no new technology or media worth shit nowadays.

There's a pattern here. As Ursula Franklin noticed, technologies start as holistic, people-powered and diverse. Then they enshitify, becoming "prescriptive" as they are captured and commodified by corporate capital. However she did not observe that as the capitalist machine rolls on, high-quality, desirable technologies become classic - not merely "retro", but part of the stable cultural fabric. Their maintenance and renewal, and ownership of "intellectual property" returns to the public sphere.

Look at the vibrant analogue synthesiser market now, with literally thousands of modular Euro-rack makers and boutique pedal manufacturers around the world. Making actual electronic music (not Suno "AI" crap) has never been more exciting. Of course Roland, Korg and Yamaha still have a business. They never became evil monsters like US Big Tech (maybe that's a Japanese thing), and so have a stable, loyal base and don't feel so threatened by newcomers, modders, and makers that they feel the need to buy-up every tiny competitor, sabotage their repair parts market or sue creators of interoperable technology.

The games arcade scene looks like an oasis. It restores hope that when you get off the beaten track of ugly mainstream tech there's a lot that's still positive, timeless, durable, enthusiastic, and authentic.

Now I'm just waiting for a phone company that will install a decent copper land-line back into my house, and I'm starting to think that technology might have a future again.

Insanity Gaming Arcade is in Dorset. Highly recommended!