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It's July 2011 and, overlooking Tottenham Court Road from an elevated position, Café Nero's leather armchairs bask in rare afternoon sunshine. Through the windows, beyond the crawling red double-deckers and people pursuing invisible paths to the workplace, you can see Casino amusements, its tubular neon sign a relic of 1980s tech, beaming against a grubby yellow backboard. A forum announcement that Dariusburst: Another Chronicle had entered the building, eventually corroborated with photographic proof, triggered an Olympian style citywide sprint for the Northern Line. Goodge Street the destination, shooting-game groupies armed with pockets full of change went diving over ticket barriers, through rapidly closing train carriage doors, and headlong into sidewalk negotiations.
Sandwiched between a Scientology centre and a Computer Exchange, Casino's upstairs entrance once greeted you with a carpet the same age as the outside signage, a couple of pinball machines and a Time Crisis 3 line-up. But then, wedged between Battle Gear and an Avatar Pinball machine, stood the comparatively ethereal Dariusburst, a shiny piece of Japan and a long way from home. Previously headed to the Trocadero's Funland before it got the kiss of death, Casino owner John Sturges prudently intercepted and rerouted.
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