Inside Sunderland's new Space Bar, featuring Slimer cocktails, Pac-Man, Street Fighter and more

A unique and vibrant new venue opens its doors in the city centre tonight.

With 30 arcade games, many of which you won’t find elsewhere in the area, next generation consoles, retro games and a colourful cocktail menu featuring everything from a glow-in-the-dark Slimer to Proper Mortal Kombat drinks, Space Bar is the city’s first dedicated arcade and cocktail bar.

It’s seen a major transformation of the former Spot White snooker hall on the corner of Waterloo Place with retro arcades, neon art by city artist Frank Styles, the creation of new themed rooms with their own self serve kegs which can be hired for parties and even a rare Slimer model used to promote the original Ghostbusters films, one of only 50 in the world.

They even have special Duff beer for The Simpsons fans.

It’s been a labour of love for city businessman Rob Davison who already runs the nearby Geeky’s repair shop and Harry’s Game Shack in High Street West.

While the latter is popular with kids, his new venture is aimed at both children and adults, with everything from retro games such as Pac-Man, Donkey Kong and Street Fighter II to modern favourites like Fortnite and dance machines.

“You won’t find games like this anywhere else in Sunderland, we’ve sourced them from around the country,” said Rob. “There’s a huge appetite for arcades and gaming and while there’s bars like this in places like Leeds and Newcastle, we wanted to bring one to Sunderland.

“We’ve been working on the site for the past few months and have had a lot of interest already. We held a friends and family night and the feedback was great, people were really excited by it.”

Rob first opened gaming and repair shop Geeky’s in 2009 and he says it’s great to see the works ongoing in that corner of town.

“The street has really come alive recently, with the new station entrance, Hills Arts Centre, Pho 79 and the new multi-storey being built on Holmeside. The investment, and the effort being put in by the council, is great to see.”

As well as a whole host of arcades, gaming booths and tabletop games like foosball, shuffle boards and pool tables, the venue has two bars over two floors and will be serving food including burgers, pizzas, nachos and hot dogs.

Rob added: “We’ve kept the 5am licence held by Spot White, as it was popular with people who don’t finish work until late at night, so we’ll see how it goes in the first month or so to see if people want to use it that late.”

The bar runs a token system for the games, priced £8 for 15 tokens.

A number of new jobs have been created by the venture, with recruitment still ongoing.

Anyone interested in applying can email [email protected]

The eyes of the gaming world are already on Sunderland, with a multi-million pound investment from  British Esports Association (BEA) - the national body for esports - which has opened a £7m National Esports Performance Campus at The Place in Sunniside.

A new Esports Arena is also set to open this year at the old Audi showroom at Sheepfolds, providing a base from which to host and stream Esports competitions.

Sunderland is set to lead on the UK Esports gaming evolution. With an annual turnover of $200bn, the gaming industry generates more money than the movie, music and TV industries combined.

*Space Bar will be open 11am to 2am Sunday to Thursday and 10am to 6am on Fridays and Saturdays. It opens to the public from 5pm tonight, Friday, April 5.