Retro & Arcade Gaming Blog · London
"Every quarter you dropped in that cabinet bought a story worth telling."
Long-form reviews, frame-data breakdowns and hardware restoration diaries from a small studio flat off Brick Lane. Written by players who still queue for the CRT.
Who we are
A tiny editorial team obsessed with the joystick era
ArcadeBattleHeroes started in 2018 as a Shoreditch meet-up newsletter and grew into a full blog read in 40 countries. We publish three to four deeply-reported pieces a week — no listicles, no rewritten press releases, just play-tested writing.
Our promise
Hands on the sticks before a word is written
Every review logs at least fifteen hours of play. Every restoration guide is one we performed ourselves on the bench. When we recommend a fight stick or a CRT, it lives in our flat first — so the advice survives contact with a real Friday-night tournament.
How we cover a game
From first credit to published verdict
Log the hours
We play each title for a minimum of fifteen hours across difficulty tiers and, for fighters, online ranked ladders.
Test the tech
Input latency, rollback netcode and frame data are measured on our bench, not taken from a spec sheet.
Cross-check history
We place each release in context — its arcade lineage, the developers behind it and the ports that came before.
Publish & revisit
Verdicts go live, then get updated after major patches so the score you read always reflects the current build.
What we publish
Four beats, one obsession
What readers say
Trusted by players who care about frames
"Their rollback netcode tests talked me out of a bad monitor purchase and into the right one. No other blog measures this stuff properly."
"I followed their CRT recapping diary step by step and brought my 1989 cabinet back to life. Clearest restoration writing I've found anywhere."
"The weekly fighting-game guides took me from button-masher to a local top-eight finish. The frame data breakdowns are genuinely usable."
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
Is the blog free to read?
Every article, guide and review is free with no paywall. A voluntary £4 monthly membership removes ads and unlocks our full frame-data database, but nothing on the site is ever locked behind it.
Do you accept review copies from publishers?
We do accept review code, and we always disclose it at the top of the piece. Accepting a copy never affects a score — several publisher-supplied games have scored poorly and been published anyway.
Can I pitch a guest article?
Yes. We commission two guest features a month, paid at £180 per accepted piece. Email a short pitch with links to prior writing and we usually reply within a week.
Do you host events in London?
We run a monthly retro tournament and open-cabinet night near Brick Lane, usually the last Thursday from 7pm. Details go out through the newsletter and entry is free for members.
Get in touch
Join the newsletter or send us a tip
Story leads, restoration questions, guest pitches or event RSVPs — drop us a line and we'll get back to you.
- Phone
- +44 20 7739 4567
- Studio
- 58 Brick Lane, Shoreditch, London E1 6RL
- [email protected]
- Desk hours
- Mon–Fri 10:00–18:00 GMT