Compucade

Compucade was an early forerunner of the internet cafe, with 2 branches based in St Mary's, Southampton and Portsmouth (England) from the mid-80s to the mid-90s.

The brainchild of Richard (Dick) Hazelton, it was a shop populated with Commodore Amigas & Atari STs, and later PCs.

The idea was simple: pay to play video games on a per-hour basis - a COMPUter arCADE. In the Southampton shop there were desks lined along the left and right side of the building.

Highscores on the games were kept (in the early days) in a book at the front of the shop and you could register a score when you achieved it, and have your name recorded for posterity.

The more popular games on the Atari ST were Rogue, Goldrunner, Kick Off and Midi Maze. The latter was one of the first multiplayer networked games linking up to 16 Atari STs via the midi interface. Leagues were run, and there were teams of 2 player, 4 players and free-for-alls.

Eventually the PC came to the fore and multiplayer networked games became popular such as Microprose's Global Conquest in 1992 (the first 4 player networked game from a major publisher).

The Southampton shop eventually closed some time after the Portsmouth Branch and the property was subjected to a harsh CPO by Bellway, and eventually demolished earlier this decade to make way for a new homes development as part of a regeneration of the area.

External links

• Builders try forced entry
• St Mary's is home, why should I move?
• Campaigner is told to leave his home
• Retrogames Discussion