Game Spot 21 is a real-deal arcade. Finger-crossing that it comes back post-Covid – and dirtier than ever.

Easter eggshaped image from the loserdrop stairwell that squeezes you between the prize machines and a Chinese into a Fight Club-style fighting-game fight club.

Bubble Bobble became an icon. Cutie dragons burping poppers at trippy edible baddies.

In your capacious Western home you probably have *two* display cases for prizes you have won in UFO catchers: one for the Japanese schoolgirl figurines and one for the model aircraft-carriers.

Pokemon means pocket monsters. Tekken means iron fist. Therefore: Pokken means pocket fist. Named for the scooping of hundredyens – or the skulking home in the cold.

Let’s climb up these labels for game centre gubbins.

I don’t know how videogame collectors afford it all. I keep the volume down on my Game Boy to save batteries. But when I drop credits, they’re free. What’s money for if not that?

Japanese arcades are dripping with tar and nicotine. In fact, it’s said that the reason nineties candy cabinets keep going so long is that the plastics have transformed into a super-strengthened resin after decades of suspension in cigarette tar.

What do you think of when you see this slick plastic carrier with Shiny Sonic decal?

The legendary Taito Hey is portrayed as some sort of utopian wonderland, but it's actually a locked-down regime of authoritarian imperatives. Here are their inflexible demands:

Another visit to Tokyo’s grubbiest games arcade.

Translation is a creative act. Take this sign next to the gashapon (capsule toy machines).

I realised what makes Japanese arcades different.

Game centres all have stories to tell.

Some people think Sega has faded away. Have they heard of Border Break?

As standard for the big modern games in Tokyo arcades: power outlets and drink holders.