Budget Atari and Capcom arcade cabinets to see release this fall!

[NE146]

Zero way theyre going to do the holographic Mirror for space invaders.. that would mean cardboard background and lighting.. Way too complicated for consumers to build . Not to mention it would be limited to space Invaders games only.. and then which background to use? There are four total.

 

That said if they did I would be the first in line

[negative1]

Yeah I keep thinking about these. I think for joystick games like Galaga, Street Fighter 2, etc.. the experience wouldnt be any different from every other emulation cabinet out there.

 

However what keeps me looking back at it is the trackball and spinner controls. Who am I kidding... if the reviews are good I think its a very good chance Ill pick up the centipede & vector ones.

 

 

 

Actually, getting real arcade trackballs and spinners aren't that hard to get either, and these ones aren't the right size as the arcade ones either,

so it's not really an advantage.

 

Looking at the assembly video, the connector to the LCD screen is in the ribbon cable to the control panel, so it's some kind of HDMI i would think.

 

it would be cool to figure out a way to replace it with a CRT type screen, to get better looking vector like effects. I don't know if they will have an option

to adjust the glow, thickness, and other vector effects for those games.

 

later

-1

Edited August 2, 2018 by negative1

[Skeeter]

Head's up, there's an upcoming live video that's supposed to discuss the Arcade1up machines. The video starts in less than an hour and a half.

 

https://twitter.com/ArcadeRepair/status/1025007727842676737

 

[NE146]

Actually, getting real arcade trackballs and spinners aren't that hard to get either, and these ones aren't the right size as the arcade ones either,

so it's not really an advantage.

-1

Oh yeah for sure... however like I said earlier tweaking it right for multiple games is doable but a bit of a pain.. and unless you restrict yourself to them (as these do) in an emulation cabinet it often means you end up with a frankenstein control panel as weve all gawked at in pics

 

Im just saying if these end up reviewed well out of the box with good control for Millipede, MC, Centpede, CC, Major Havoc, Tempest, etc I might just bite.

[Tanooki]

Trackballs are very cheaply sourced to the point they're a small dollar upgrade for the iCade 60in1 board which has both Centipede and Millipede on there along with a couple other trackball titles if I remember right. I've not seen much complaining about it other than having to buy one or the games don't work right so I wouldn't be surprised if that cheap optional to that little pirate board were sourcing similar parts to keep the costs down.

[Cynicaster]

I'd definitely be reading reviews carefully before springing for one of these to play trackball games. I recently played on an arcade stick that had a small trackball nicely integrated into it, and it looked really nice with back-lighting and the whole bit, but the trackball was absolutely dreadful. It was too small, it didn't "free-spin" at all if you swiped it, the bearings didn't feel smooth... it was useless. I'd sooner play Centipede with a joystick, and that is saying something.

[Flojomojo]

These have top billing at GameStop.com. It would be nice if the price and free shipping sticks.

 

 

I hope they're available to try out in stores -- this is the kind of product where a good brick-n-mortar store experience can make a big difference.

 

I wish I could get the Midway one with Defender controls and Stargate (or if you must, "Defender II," yecch) onboard. Maybe Robotron, too.

 

Rampage is probably fun for kiddies, Gauntlet (3-player?) too, but I would much rather have the Eugene Jarvis games. Not that I have room for this in my tiny house. Even if they're little ...

 

 

My child is exactly 48" tall (we are negotiating car seat safety, the guidelines say 49" is the cutoff!) so perhaps this could be one of those gifts where it's more for the giver than the receiver.

 

[NE146]

Well the “multi Williams” cabs have been a thing for some time now... with a semi-accurate control panel for Defender/Stargate etc. Then again they aren’t $299

[Rodney Hester]

I've been thinking a bit more about this.

 

Per Twitter, these aren't emulation, but either some sort of custom ASIC or FPGA.

 

Either way, given the breadth of titles being offered (many of which have never been rendered into FPGA/VHDL, at least), the sheer amount of R&D in terms of development and testing would be *staggering*, numbering in years and many millions of dollars. If true ASIC, the story is even worse, but that path seems less likely given they appear to be able to update firmware on-the-fly.

 

The odds are _very_ strong that this is indeed some sort of MAME-on-a-RPi type solution, but if that's the case, why not just say so? Did they not secure the licensing rights to the emulator itself (MAME notably having a very strong anti-commercial stance)?

 

Something seems increasingly fishy here, and as much as I want to believe, it's just too incredible that a company shows up out of nowhere with a fully-formed product ready to go to market in 60 days that nobody's ever heard of using unicorn technology and sold for bargain-basement prices.

[F34R]

These are up for pre-order at FYE

 

https://www.fye.com/search?cgid=arcade_1up

[128Kgames]

Something seems increasingly fishy here, and as much as I want to believe, it's just too incredible that a company shows up out of nowhere with a fully-formed product ready to go to market in 60 days that nobody's ever heard of using unicorn technology and sold for bargain-basement prices.

 

Not sure where you're getting your timeline but this thread was started back in February, which is over 5 months ago, and the company I'm sure was working on them prior to the announcement.

 

If you check the company out you'll see they seem to market low priced items so that could very well be their business model, hence the "bargain basement" price as you put it.

[Flojomojo]

These are up for pre-order at FYE

 

https://www.fye.com/search?cgid=arcade_1up

 

Good photos of the $60 riser there. It doesn't look as bad as we were led to believe, in my opinion. Screencapped so we will know what it looked like if this thing goes away.

 

I think the control panel would be a little more comfortable if it were not parallel to the floor, but a more gentle slope. Again, $299 I guess.

 

[Rodney Hester]

 

Not sure where you're getting your timeline but this thread was started back in February, which is over 5 months ago, and the company I'm sure was working on them prior to the announcement.

 

If you check the company out you'll see they seem to market low priced items so that could very well be their business model, hence the "bargain basement" price as you put it.

 

I'm more talking about when this thing 'blew up' and became part of the general consciousness - but if you think 5 additional months is enough time to crank out a completely custom hardware solution, you're welcome to that opinion.

 

_Obviously_ the *seller's* MO is to market low-cost-to-manufacture goods - but the seller is *not* the creator of the tech (as is well documented in this case). Consider for a moment that the 'preorder' pricing is $299 per unit - nobody, including retailers, blinked. That means that for every presale, Walmart and Gamestop are likely taking $60 or so for themselves, leaving $240-ish dollars per unit to pay manufacturing and materials costs, salaries, transport, and R&D before they can achieve profitability.

 

Do you honestly believe they're going to do that with anything _other_ than an off-the-shelf Raspberry Pi clone and emulator of dubious legality? There's no such thing as a general-purpose "arcade SoC" they could have leveraged, and a different construct would have to be built for -every- hardware (note: not controller) type present in each original arcade game (or if you prefer, MAME driver).

 

If they did it "right", they'll never make back R&D costs. If they didn't, they'll turn a small profit, but at the expense of honesty and consumer goodwill. That's the part that bothers me. If it doesn't bother you, no worries!

[F34R]

Here ya go.. take a look..

 

https://twitter.com/arcade_1up/status/1025424168827805696

[PlaysWithWolves]

But I thought we could roll our own better rig with a Raspberry Pi?

 

$3-400 3/4 arcade cabinet with "authentic arcade [controls]" and gorgeous cabinet graphics that's being put into brick-and-mortar stores that we can return it to if we don't like it, and we're still unhappy.

 

Edited August 3, 2018 by PlaysWithWolves

[Rodney Hester]

But I thought we could roll our own better rig with a Raspberry Pi?

 

$3-400 3/4 arcade cabinet with "authentic arcade [controls]" and gorgeous graphics that's being put into brick-and-mortar stores that we can return it to if we don't like it, and we're still unhappy.

 

I suppose it comes down to what makes you happy.

 

For my dollar, if all I cared about was the controller and pretty labels, I'd just build the Paper Arcade and display it on my desk at work. If I actually want to _play_ the thing, I expect them to mean what they say and provide an "authentic arcade experience"...and from my own experience, that *isn't* going to happen with a RPi.

Edited August 3, 2018 by Rodney Hester

[PlaysWithWolves]

I suppose it comes down to what makes you happy.

 

For my dollar, if all I cared about was the controller and pretty labels, I'd just build the Paper Arcade and display it on my desk at work. If I actually want to _play_ the thing, I expect them to mean what they say and provide an "authentic arcade experience"...and from my own experience, that *isn't* going to happen with a RPi.

 

Earlier in the thread someone was complaining about the cabinets and said it'd be better to order some pre-cut/made parts and make an RPi system. It was quickly shot down as being even more expensive overall and much more hassle.

 

A complaint was voiced that every time one of these systems comes out someone chimes in to just make your own with a Raspberry Pi.

[Rodney Hester]

 

Earlier in the thread someone was complaining about the cabinets and said it'd be better to order some pre-cut/made parts and make an RPi system. It was quickly shot down as being even more expensive overall and much more hassle.

 

A complaint was voiced that every time one of these systems comes out someone chimes in to just make your own with a Raspberry Pi.

 

The main reason rolling your own is more expensive is because you can't take advantage of volume pricing.

 

Regardless of whether the RPi is technically superior or not, the claim made by the manufacturer is that they are using "custom hardware" for these, not off-the-shelf SBCs. My counterclaim was merely that such a thing would be a fiscal disaster if true, and would also have required FAR more time investment than they realistically _could_ have made.

 

I'm not trying to slam their product - to the best of my knowledge, I was literally the first person on the planet to order one (largely because I wanted to know what made them tick). I'm taking issue with their _claim_, which is a subtle but important distinction.

[Flojomojo]

An ASIC is just a custom chip. Who's to say it isn't a NOAC or something as seen in plug and play boards?

 

Whatever it is, I'll bet it will be super tiny, like a stick of gum. The computer aspect of this is beyond trivial IMHO. You buy this for the cabinet.

[Rodney Hester]

An ASIC is just a custom chip. Who's to say it isn't a NOAC or something as seen in plug and play boards?

 

Whatever it is, I'll bet it will be super tiny, like a stick of gum. The computer aspect of this is beyond trivial IMHO. You buy this for the cabinet.

 

Actually, the manufacturer said it isn't, as they said quite explicitly that it runs the original arcade board code. That would certainly rule out a NOAC or any other known SoC, which rather gets at the heart of my point. It *can't* be an ASIC.

 

I honestly can't comprehend buying this (or any other) product purely for the cabinetry/artwork. My nostalgia runs deep, but not *THAT* deep.

[Flojomojo]

I believe you, but can you point to where someone said that?

 

I mean the part about what the company said what it was and what it wasn't, not your personal preference in home furnishings.

[128Kgames]

I think the control panel would be a little more comfortable if it were not parallel to the floor, but a more gentle slope.

 

Carpal tunnel, they want to avoid carpal tunnel.

 

Carpal tunnel bad, parallel to the floor good.

[Bill Loguidice]

 

Good photos of the $60 riser there. It doesn't look as bad as we were led to believe, in my opinion. Screencapped so we will know what it looked like if this thing goes away.

 

I think the control panel would be a little more comfortable if it were not parallel to the floor, but a more gentle slope. Again, $299 I guess.

 

Their Twitter account (or was it their Facebook account?) "leaked" that Wal-Mart will have the riser for $39.99 on release day? Or was it $34.99? I don't remember specifically. Either way, that's a bit more in line with what it should be in my opinion. I still think it's butt ugly in comparison/contrast to the beautiful cabinets, but something I may possibly consider for my Asteroids cabinet if I don't like it on a table or can't find a suitable adjustable stool.

 

In terms of the flat control panel, I think that at least for the joystick-less Asteroids cabinet, that's probably acceptable.

[Rodney Hester]

I believe you, but can you point to where someone said that?

 

I mean the part about what the company said what it was and what it wasn't, not your personal preference in home furnishings.

 

https://twitter.com/arcade_1up/status/1025128045701545985

Edited August 3, 2018 by Rodney Hester

[128Kgames]

 

I'm more talking about when this thing 'blew up' and became part of the general consciousness - but if you think 5 additional months is enough time to crank out a completely custom hardware solution, you're welcome to that opinion.

 

_Obviously_ the *seller's* MO is to market low-cost-to-manufacture goods - but the seller is *not* the creator of the tech (as is well documented in this case). Consider for a moment that the 'preorder' pricing is $299 per unit - nobody, including retailers, blinked. That means that for every presale, Walmart and Gamestop are likely taking $60 or so for themselves, leaving $240-ish dollars per unit to pay manufacturing and materials costs, salaries, transport, and R&D before they can achieve profitability.

 

Do you honestly believe they're going to do that with anything _other_ than an off-the-shelf Raspberry Pi clone and emulator of dubious legality? There's no such thing as a general-purpose "arcade SoC" they could have leveraged, and a different construct would have to be built for -every- hardware (note: not controller) type present in each original arcade game (or if you prefer, MAME driver).

 

If they did it "right", they'll never make back R&D costs. If they didn't, they'll turn a small profit, but at the expense of honesty and consumer goodwill. That's the part that bothers me. If it doesn't bother you, no worries!

 

Gotcha, no, of course 5 months wouldn't be enough, but like I said we don't know how long these cabs have been in development. We're only basing this on when they first announced they could be available. They could have been working on these for years. (Unless I missed something and this information was already known).

 

I think it would be good to know more about their entire process but I'm sure there are things they don't want the general public, or a competitor, knowing. Too bad, I for one would be interested in the entire design process.

 

I think the fact that they are marketing these in stores like Walmart they stand a good chance of making some money, even adding in Gamestop and FYE. Throw in Target, Costco and Sams club, they could make some serious coin.

 

Now, I know "beyond" is in their name but seriously, B B & B? Yeah, not sure what the logic is there. I know they sell some weird stuff, but I didn't know this type of item was their bag.

 

I, like many of us, have been burned before on hot, new products, but I'm hoping these cabs aren't going to be the case.