Arcades in Bolton

Bolton, England has 17 arcades on the map. That's 17 arcades mapped around Bolton. Machine condition varies wildly between venues, so the one with the best-maintained cabinets wins regardless of size. Bring a friend — everything's better head-to-head, and most of the best cabinets are built for two.

This guide covers every arcade we could verify in and around Bolton (within about 40 km), built from OpenStreetMap's community-maintained data. Names you'll run into include X-Gen VR and Silcock's Amusements, plus Silocks Jackpot Amusements. If an arcade's missing from Bolton's list, it probably just hasn't been mapped yet.

The Bolton arcade lineup

17 mapped within about 40 km:

What the map tells us about arcades in Bolton

1 of the 17 list their opening hours on the map, which is genuinely useful — arcades keep long hours, so the listed times are usually good.

2 have websites listed. Worth a look for tournament nights and free-play evenings.

There's a cluster: 4 of them sit on Nevill Street, so you can string those into one walk and drive between the rest.

2 arcades list websites — worth a look for opening times and whether they run leagues or tournament nights.

The Bolton arcade run

Plot these on a map and the day plans itself: X-Gen VR, Silcock's Amusements on Nevill Street, Silocks Jackpot Amusements on Nevill Street, Wadbrooks Golden Sovereign on Nevill Street, Silcock's Funtime Amusements on Nevill Street, Hart's Amusements on Hough Lane, Arcade Club Bury on Cork Street, and Darkstar Ultimate Laser Tag Arena. That's 17 stops on the Bolton arcade run. 9 more are listed below.

Arcade tips for Bolton

The regulars' rules for Bolton's arcades:

• Check the retro corner at X-Gen VR. The old cabinets in the back are often the best-maintained — they're somebody's pride and joy.
• Bring friends for versus games at Silcock's Amusements. Fighting games, racers, shooters — all built for two. Solo arcading is fine; versus arcading is the point.
• Ask staff for recommendations. Staff know which machines are new, which are broken, and which have the loosest tilt sensors. Ask.
• Weekday mornings are empty. If you want a machine to yourself for practice, weekday mornings are dead quiet.

Good to know

We searched about 40 km around Bolton — that covers the town itself plus the surrounding communities you'd reasonably drive to. Listings come from OpenStreetMap, mapped by local volunteers, so a brand-new arcade in Bolton can take a while to appear. Spotted a closure among the 17, or a arcade we missed entirely? The map is the source of truth here — one OpenStreetMap edit corrects it for everyone.

We don't list machine lineups — they change too often. What we list is the where: real venues, verified by real mappers.

If you run one of the 17 listed here and something's wrong — a closure, a move, new hours — the fix is the same: update the shop on OpenStreetMap and the correction flows through to this page on the next daily refresh.