Kids 'in tears' after Torpoint retro video game venue closes

Escape Gaming Venue in Torpoint will close tonight for the last time

A retro video game venue in Torpoint will close today after opening in Fore Street back in September.

Paul Mason, a senior engineering designer at Babcock, owns the business said the closure comes following a 'combination of reasons' including not having the time to run the arcade and that he needs an operation in the near future.

Speaking to Plymouth Live in September, Paul said he wanted to 'offer the nearby community a new venue where they can have good, clean, family fun.'

They have eight two-player arcade cabinets powered by PS2 and PS3 consoles, and a two-player rail shooter machine.

There are seven mini-consoles: Atari, Commodore, Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Megadrive, Super Nintendo, Neo Geo and Playstation classic. Paul is looking to sell some of the equipment on.

In a statement on the closure, he said: "We have a private hire from 16:30-18:30 and will then be open for an hour or so after for anyone who wants to come down for a final game.

"It's all a bit sad, with some of our younger regular customers actually being in tears that we are closing, so we can only apologise to them at this time.

"The reason we are closing is for a combination of reasons, mainly from me not having the time at the moment that the business needs to run correctly.

"My daytime job is getting busier by the week, I will be having an operation at some point this year, the lease on the shop is about to expire.

"All these things and a few personal problems at the moment mean that I just can't concentrate and dedicate myself enough to the project.

"This, however, is hopefully not the end!

"Setting up the shop in this location was always meant to be a way of testing the business model and learning more about how to run a business of this sort.

"I have learned a tremendous amount of things and the performance of different aspects of the shop was varied therefore we now have a much better idea of what works, what doesn't work, what needs improving or what needs changing if we were to do it again.

"I am hoping to open again at some point in the not so distant future. I have already got my eye on the premises and I have a few ideas on how we can create the same fantastic atmosphere that we had in the high street and even improve on it.

"I will be selling off a lot of the existing equipment over the next few months via eBay mostly. Once the finances are looking good again I'll look to secure a business loan as well as any grants available and may even seek investment from other interested parties.

"So please don't write us off quite yet and keep an eye on the Facebook page for any news."

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