Over the years, arcades have become something extremely rare to find in any city, unfortunately for any fan of these arcade gems. Even so, in some parts of the world there are people who try to locate some of these machines that have given us so many hours of fun in order to restore them, preserve them and, ultimately, keep them alive.
For example, in the United States there are several such groups, but in the United Kingdom it is not something that frequent at all. However, a few years ago a very interesting story came to light of a group called UKVAC who managed to get the jewel in the crownbecause he got find more than 50 arcade machines that had been abandoned for decades on a ship that passed away at the end of the 70s.
The maritime ship that became a place of leisure
In the 1950s, the so-called Duke of Lancaster was built in Belfast, a steam ferry that initially served as a transporting passengers and vehicles from 1956 to 1978. A total of 22 years during which she dedicated herself to sailing the seas with trips that went through Ireland, Scotland and all of Europe, in addition to being a ship equipped with all kinds of luxuries.
That was until he made his last trip in 1978 and that was when it was sold to a company that had an office in Liverpool, whose sole objective was to reopen it for turn it into a pure and hard place of leisure. For this, the rooms were modified to transform them into a hotel (something that ultimately did not happen), with a bar, a place to fish and even its own arcade, which is why it is worth mentioning his career.
It was then, in 1979, when it opened its doors again under the name of The Fun Shipthat is to say, The Fun Boat. The person in charge behind all this had the idea of placing more than 50 arcade machines in one of his rooms, among which there were some classics such as Space Invaders, Asteroids, Galaxy o Missile Command, among other. This was undoubtedly the main attraction of the refurbished ship and it did not take long for it to become a popular tourist attraction.
Unfortunately, despite the success it had at that time, its career was relatively short and it was not long before it was closed to the public. The reason was due to the fact that its access was installed through a bridge under the Welsh railway line. Th is generated a series of legal problems with the local government that in the end ended with the decommissioning of the ship
The collector group that came to the rescue of the machines
As we told you at the beginning, there are groups of collectors whose greatest hobby is to dedicate themselves to locating these machines that have been abandoned in order to recover them. In this way, in 2009 a group of urban explorers came across this ship and discovered all the machines it housed, posting some photos of everything inside it on the Internet.
It was then that Oliver Moazzezi, one of the members of the group and one of the largest collectors in the United Kingdom, came across these photos, so he did not hesitate to try to contact the owner of the boat in order to negotiate and reach an agreement. Of course, the task was not easy at all, but he finally located the person behind all this to negotiate so that the machines could be taken from there.
It took him exactly eight months to find the owners until in January 20211 he called them. The good news is that the machines were for sale and I could go and see them. That was when he really learned the story of why the ship was stranded, and that is that the law did not allow leisure areas to open on Sundays, but this did not include the ships and it did not indicate where it should be.
As you can see in the video or in the images that accompany these lines, there is no doubt that this place would have been the dream of many of us to spend the afternoons, where they also found authentic relics. After a few months of negotiations in which we originally the owner asked for an exorbitant amount of moneyIn the end, an agreement was reached.
Despite everything, time did not play in favor of Oliver and the rest, because certain people dedicated themselves to stealing the materials from the ship’s windows to sell them for scrap, which allowed after more than 30 years the water entered inside the boat. The danger of all this is that there could be a risk that the water could seriously damage the machines, so the group had no choice but to act quickly.
Especially since the owner warned them that he only gave them ten days to extract all the machines from the ship, so Oliver and his companions had to hurry. To accomplish the task, because of how tremendously difficult it was to get them out of there, added to their weight, they were forced to bring trucks, ask for help from a multitude of people from different countries with the same hobby, and they even hired a crane to retrieve them from the cover.
After so much effort, in February 2012 everything ended in good news and with a happy ending. The more than 50 recreational machines were safely placed in the hands of collectors across Europe to create a restoration process. So, who knows, maybe the next time you come across an arcade machine it might belong to this ship that was abandoned over 40 years ago.
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