Video parlour deal signed

Press, 12 February 1982, Page 4

Video parlour deal signed

Fifty electronic games and a full-size dodgem track will be the features of Christchurch’s newest amusement centre, due to open in Gloucester Street on March 20.

“Wizards,” as the centre will be known, will be in the Gloucester Street frontage of the former New Zealand Motor Corporation building, which runs through to Armagh Street. Taito N.Z., Ltd.. a Christchurch-based company, yesterday signed a long-term lease with the owner of the site, Skyline Finance, Ltd, of Christchurch. Skyline paid nearly $1 million for the property near the end of last year. Mr Graham Nash, the general manager of Taito, said yesterday that the centre would be “strictly controlled” and aimed at young adults.

It would be open seven days a week, 14 hours on

Fridays and Saturdays, and 12 hours on other days. Inside the 460 sq. m amusement centre would be 50 electronic games, including some not seen in New Zealand before, and a fullsize dodgem track with 10 cars.

Video machine patrons would use tokens rather than coins to work them. Mr Nash said the centre would also have a fast-food restaurant with indoor dining and takeaway food. Five workers would be employed to run the centre. Construction work, consisting of carpet-laying, lowering the ceiling and painting walls, would start soon. The video machines would be installed about the end of the month, he said. Taito, a Japanese firm, is one of the world’s biggest makers of electronic games. An “express branch” of the Canterbury Savings Bank will be built at the Armagh Street frontage of the site.