ADAM ECCLES

System Restored

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Derek Cooper is a retro gamer. His small flat is crammed with old consoles, controllers, accessories and shelves brimming full of old games. Quite an amazing collection, but there's always room for one more, isn't there?

 

1981. The world of arcade games is just coming into its own. The Tron movie is yet to be released. The youth of the era are whiling away their spare time and money in the smokey, bright and flashing neon arcades of the world.

 

A company called Dolos, based in Watford, creates an amazing arcade machine called 'Time Portal'

 

The game is simple, but the graphics are way beyond anything else in the arcade at the time, making it quite unique.

 

Only 256 units were ever made, and they were a massive hit in arcades all over the UK. But, sadly they were all recalled soon after when one kid got a belt of electricity while playing. No fatalities, but the machines were all scrapped as the internal wiring was deemed to be a bit dodgy. 

Dolos disappeared after that, never to be heard from in the arcade world again.

 

Well, except that one machine has survived, unbeknownst to the world, and has sat undisturbed in a cellar in Watford for the last forty years.

Undisturbed that is, until Derek finds it for sale online…

 

What weird and wonderful journeys will he encounter as he warps through the levels on Time Portal? A world of adventure awaits. Fantasy or reality? Hard to tell.