You might not know this, but I was born in South Africa in 1980. Johannesburg, to be precise. My family went to England in 1983, but we moved back to SA in 1985 and stayed there until 1995, the year we emigrated to Australia.
One of my favourite childhood memories is of a place my brother and I called 'Angelo's Cafe', which was located in a small shopping centre sort of equidistant from our house and my primary school. To this day, I have no idea what the place was actually called - it was 'Angelo's Cafe' to us because it was owned by the father of a guy named Angelo, who was one of my brother's high school classmates. Anyway, the joint was special for a few reasons: 1. You could buy sweets for five cents; 2. They always had the latest trading cards; and, most importantly, 3. They had ARCADE GAMES.
Yes, like moths to a coin-operated flame, we went there as often as we possibly could to blow our pocket money on Mortal Kombat, Cadillacs and Dinosaurs and, easily our favourite, Double Dragon. But it wasn't just the games that drew us there; it was the grungy ambiance. 'Angelo's' wasn't the cleanest place in the world and the game cabinets were covered in grime and cigarette burns. It kinda felt like you shouldn't be there, and that was half the attraction.
Cutting a long story short, I returned to Johannesburg for the first time in 15 years in July (watch this space for more on my trip) to experience the World Cup and visit friends and family. A lot had changed, but I went back to that small shopping centre and 'Angelo's Cafe' was STILL THERE! It's now called Joe's Place (perhaps it always was?) and Angelo and his family have moved on, but they still have cheap sweets and trading cards...and Double Dragon. Now, I'm not talking about some hip retro refit here. It was the same cabinet I played as a kid! The screen was pretty much ruined and there were a few more cigarette burns, but there's no doubt in my mind that it was the same one. I still can't quite believe it.
