DB Entertainment hires retro arcade games across the UK: an officially licensed Atari Pong table from £425 plus VAT, sit-down and upright cabinets running a 60-in-1 board with the Pac-Man and Space Invaders era on free play, and an electronic Whack a Mole that carries the format a Japanese amusements firm called TOGO invented in 1975. Exhibitions book the range, office Christmas parties book it, and it works at both ends of the age range.
The Atari Pong table
Pong was the arcade game that started the whole thing in 1972, and this version rebuilds it as a physical game: real paddles and a real ball sliding around the playing surface, driven by magnets and motors underneath, with arcade sounds and LED lighting around the edge. Two players sit facing each other, hold their own goal and try to slip the ball past the other side; switch it to one-player mode and the computer takes the second paddle, with speed settings so a first-timer and someone who has played it before get an even contest. The Atari Pong table comes with two official Atari chairs at the right playing height, measures around 4ft by 2.5ft at coffee-table height, needs a clear 5ft by 3ft of floor and one mains socket, and starts at £425 plus VAT with delivery, setup and collection included.
The 60-in-1 arcade cabinets
The retro arcade game is the sit-down cocktail cabinet, the low two-player cabinet that used to sit in pub lounges and chip shops, with players opposite each other and the screen flipping between turns. It runs the iCade 60-in-1 board, so the built-in list covers Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, Frogger, 1942, Bubble Bobble and Scramble among the sixty titles, all set to free play with no coins or tokens to stock. There is also an upright retro arcade game, which suits a busier exhibition stand where people step up, play a game and move on. The cocktail version takes up 4ft by 6ft of floor space and runs off a standard 13-amp plug, so it sits happily in a marquee or a function room as long as there is a socket in reach.
What we have noticed at events is that the simple games hold the floor. One joystick and one job means nobody needs ten minutes of instruction, and people who have only met Pac-Man on a phone get the point of a full-size cabinet inside a minute. Nobody has to be of a certain age to play, though the guests who fed 10p pieces into the originals the first time round do tend to narrate their games.
Whack a Mole, going strong since 1975
The format was invented by TOGO in 1975 and the Whack a Mole keeps the idea while swapping the old mechanical pop-ups for LED-lit dome targets, so there is nothing to jam mid-round. Two players go head-to-head with tethered foam mallets and a digital scoreboard settles who is winning, with rounds of around 30 seconds. The unit measures 12ft by 12ft and 8ft high, needs a 13ft by 13ft patch with 9ft of headroom and a single 13A socket, and plays indoors or out from age six up.
Where the retro kit gets booked
Exhibitions and trade stands use it because free-play games hold visitors on a stand with no staff time needed, and we have supplied exhibition games on stands run by Amazon and Specsavers. Office parties book it for the same reason, and the cabinets turn up at weddings and family events where a quiet corner of the room needs something to do. The range sits inside the wider arcade games hire section alongside racing simulators, dance machines and the prize crane, and there are city pages covering it too, like the arcade machine hire in Sheffield page. Bookings go out from South Yorkshire across the UK, so a stand at the NEC gets the same cabinets as a party in Barnsley, Worksop, Doncaster or Chesterfield.
Not sure which of the three fits your room? The cocktail cabinet wants a 6ft by 4ft patch and a socket, the Pong table squeezes into 5ft by 3ft, and the Whack a Mole needs the biggest footprint of the lot. Ask the office on 0114 345 0135 and we will check the space against the specs before you commit.
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