Arcade Legends Ultracade acquired secondhand, not many games loaded

[jree3000]

I acquired an Arcade Legends Ultracade (1) today along with a Ms Pacman/Galaga 20th reunion.  I got a stupid great deal ($700 for both!) but was dismayed to see the Ultracade doesn't have but a dozen games installed on it.  I do have the system Install CD Version 3 but that brings me to my second problem, no coin door key.  As I understand it, the cd-rom is behind the coin door.  Does any one know if these were all keyed the same?  Could I get replacement key for it?  If not, what are my options?  Drill it out and replace it?  After popping the install CD in my computer it looks like there are 54 game files here (I thought it was supposed to have 90 or more), much more than what is currently installed.  Will i just be able to install them from the CD?  It seems like there is very little information on the internet for these things so any info anyone has would be a tremendous help.

[PL1]

I acquired an Arcade Legends Ultracade (1)

That's the GlobalVR version, right? (before Chicago Gaming got involved)

You may want to check out the thread here.

no coin door key.  As I understand it, the cd-rom is behind the coin door.  Does any one know if these were all keyed the same?  Could I get replacement key for it?  If not, what are my options?  Drill it out and replace it?

It's easier/faster/cheaper to pick/drill the lock than find a replacement key.

You should be able to find a suitable replacement at Lowes/Home Depot -- be sure to match the diameter and length.


Scott

[Titchgamer]

Cant help with the game prob but as Scott said it is easier to break the lock and replace.

Either drill it or depending how good the catch is you can usually pry them open with a flat blade screw driver.

They are just held in place with a lock nut so very easy to replace.

If you drill it start with a small bit then work your way up they are usually pretty hardy!

[jree3000]

Thanks for the replies.  It is not the GlobalVR (I don't think) as it has Chicago Gaming Co. logo on it. Maybe it's an Arcade Legends 2?  It's so hard to find info online about these.

[PL1]

Looks like Chicago Gaming offers tech support per pg 18 of the Owner's Manual.

5.2 TECHNICAL SUPPORT
Free telephone support is provided for the Arcade Legends System.
Technical Support is available from 9:00-5:00 Central Time, Monday through Friday.  Call 1-708-780-0070.  Ask for technical support.

Scott

[JDFan]

  After popping the install CD in my computer it looks like there are 54 game files here (I thought it was supposed to have 90 or more), much more than what is currently installed.  Will i just be able to install them from the CD?  It seems like there is very little information on the internet for these things so any info anyone has would be a tremendous help.

From Chicago gaming site :

Upgradable, add even more great games!!
Take it to the next level. Upgrade from 125 titles to 145 titles with the Arcade Legends 2 Game Pack.
Simply replace the original SD card with the new Game Pack SD card.

SO the games should be on a SD card in the machine not the install CD (The CD probably installs the front end etc. and maps to the SD card for the roms

[jree3000]

Thanks for the replies.  I was able to open the lock and get the games reinstalled.  There are only 50 on this version.     Oh well...easy come easy go.  If anyone knows where I could acquire some additional games packs I would love to know.

[JDFan]

Thanks for the replies.  I was able to open the lock and get the games reinstalled.  There are only 50 on this version.     Oh well...easy come easy go.  If anyone knows where I could acquire some additional games packs I would love to know.

According to the product manual :

8. GAMEPACK (UPGRADES)
Please note,
Arcade Legends 2
 is not compatible with UltraCade/Global VR gamepacks. 
UPGRADES FOR
 ARCADE LEGENDS
 WILL NOT WORK WITH
ARCADE
LEGENDS 2
!!!
In late 2007, Chicago Gaming Company will offer upgrades, which will allow you to
increase the total number of games in Arcade Legends 2. 
 Please check
www.chicago-gaming.com
 for availability

SO you might contact them and see if they still have the software available and what the cost is !

Though seeing the prices they charge it is probably more costly than just swapping it out to a mame PC or xxx in 1.

[jree3000]

Yeah, I'm thinking that might be the way to go.  It actually sounds like a fun project.  Time to start researching!

[paigeoliver]

You are better off selling the Ultracade and maming something else. Maming it is a downgrade because you took away the one thing it had that gave it value, legitimacy.

[JDFan]

You are better off selling the Ultracade and maming something else. Maming it is a downgrade because you took away the one thing it had that gave it value, legitimacy.

Perhaps if you can find someone that's willing to pay more for "legitimacy" than it will cost to buy a suitable replacement. Figure the maming could always be done so that it is easily reversed if/when it is going to be resold.

[jree3000]

Well this baby has a HEAVY old school 25" monitor which I'm not in love with in the first place.  I think selling it and building a modern MAME cabinet is the way to go.  It might take a while to find a buyer but I'm fairly certain I can flip this for much more than I paid.  It was essentially just a throw in to my MsPac/Galaga reunion deal. The seller had the MsPac/Galaga listed at $500 and said I could have the Arcade Legends too for another $200.  The only caveat was I had to haul them out of her basement.  At about 300 lbs each, this was no small task. 

[paigeoliver]

Well this baby has a HEAVY old school 25" monitor which I'm not in love with in the first place.  I think selling it and building a modern MAME cabinet is the way to go.  It might take a while to find a buyer but I'm fairly certain I can flip this for much more than I paid.  It was essentially just a throw in to my MsPac/Galaga reunion deal. The seller had the MsPac/Galaga listed at $500 and said I could have the Arcade Legends too for another $200.  The only caveat was I had to haul them out of her basement.  At about 300 lbs each, this was no small task.

Not sure why you think it would take a while to find a buyer. Take good pictures and put a $750 price tag on it, take good pictures, be sure and mention how the games are real licensed games and it will sell in a week.

[yotsuya]

Well this baby has a HEAVY old school 25" monitor which I'm not in love with in the first place.  I think selling it and building a modern MAME cabinet is the way to go.  It might take a while to find a buyer but I'm fairly certain I can flip this for much more than I paid.  It was essentially just a throw in to my MsPac/Galaga reunion deal. The seller had the MsPac/Galaga listed at $500 and said I could have the Arcade Legends too for another $200.  The only caveat was I had to haul them out of her basement.  At about 300 lbs each, this was no small task.

Not sure why you think it would take a while to find a buyer. Take good pictures and put a $750 price tag on it, take good pictures, be sure and mention how the games are real licensed games and it will sell in a week.

Exactly, there's people who think that the original 25 inch heavy old monitor is much preferable than a light 32 inch LCD widescreen.. I know I'd be one of them.

[lisowskikevin]

Well this baby has a HEAVY old school 25" monitor which I'm not in love with in the first place.  I think selling it and building a modern MAME cabinet is the way to go.  It might take a while to find a buyer but I'm fairly certain I can flip this for much more than I paid.  It was essentially just a throw in to my MsPac/Galaga reunion deal. The seller had the MsPac/Galaga listed at $500 and said I could have the Arcade Legends too for another $200.  The only caveat was I had to haul them out of her basement.  At about 300 lbs each, this was no small task.

Not sure why you think it would take a while to find a buyer. Take good pictures and put a $750 price tag on it, take good pictures, be sure and mention how the games are real licensed games and it will sell in a week.

Exactly, there's people who think that the original 25 inch heavy old monitor is much preferable than a light 32 inch LCD widescreen.. I know I'd be one of them.

Not even a close contest....Monitor or TV screen over LCD ANY DAY! 

[paigeoliver]

If the original poster lived anywhere near me then I would be trading hard into the Arcade Legends cabinet, which I would put into my gameroom and never look back.

Well this baby has a HEAVY old school 25" monitor which I'm not in love with in the first place.  I think selling it and building a modern MAME cabinet is the way to go.  It might take a while to find a buyer but I'm fairly certain I can flip this for much more than I paid.  It was essentially just a throw in to my MsPac/Galaga reunion deal. The seller had the MsPac/Galaga listed at $500 and said I could have the Arcade Legends too for another $200.  The only caveat was I had to haul them out of her basement.  At about 300 lbs each, this was no small task.

Not sure why you think it would take a while to find a buyer. Take good pictures and put a $750 price tag on it, take good pictures, be sure and mention how the games are real licensed games and it will sell in a week.

Exactly, there's people who think that the original 25 inch heavy old monitor is much preferable than a light 32 inch LCD widescreen.. I know I'd be one of them.

[yotsuya]

If the original poster lived anywhere near me then I would be trading hard into the Arcade Legends cabinet, which I would put into my gameroom and never look back.

Well this baby has a HEAVY old school 25" monitor which I'm not in love with in the first place.  I think selling it and building a modern MAME cabinet is the way to go.  It might take a while to find a buyer but I'm fairly certain I can flip this for much more than I paid.  It was essentially just a throw in to my MsPac/Galaga reunion deal. The seller had the MsPac/Galaga listed at $500 and said I could have the Arcade Legends too for another $200.  The only caveat was I had to haul them out of her basement.  At about 300 lbs each, this was no small task.

Not sure why you think it would take a while to find a buyer. Take good pictures and put a $750 price tag on it, take good pictures, be sure and mention how the games are real licensed games and it will sell in a week.

Exactly, there's people who think that the original 25 inch heavy old monitor is much preferable than a light 32 inch LCD widescreen.. I know I'd be one of them.

Exactly. 50 games is 50 games. I don't know why all of a sudden that makes it MAMEworthy. If it's 50 good games, what's the problem with that?

[jree3000]

Don't get me wrong guys, it's not that I don't love the little nuances you can only get from a crt monitor.  I just worry about longevity with it.  Things like screen burn, color fade etc.  I previously had a 60-1 with a 19" LCD and was not completely satisfied with how that looked.  I guess I'm just a hard guy to please. 

My jam is def Pacman/Ms Pacman.  The 60-1 wasn't quite doing it for me when it came to that.  Never could get the control just right despite trying 3 different joysticks.  Sold it.  The MsPac/Galaga reunion has completely remedied that situation and I do love the authentic appearance with the old school crt, but again I do worry about screen burn and the overall longevity. 

With the Arcade Legends it's mostly about the game selection, it's not great. 

Do any of you have any experience with Arcade-One.com?  Looks like an intriguing setup. 

[JDFan]

Do any of you have any experience with Arcade-One.com?  Looks like an intriguing setup.

No personal experience with them but they seem way overpriced (trying to get $$ by selling Mame machines at inflated prices ) --
ie.

Compact Small Form Factor PC
Intel Core 2 Duo 3.0 GHz CPU
4GB RAM
2TB Hard Drive
EVGA GT 730 2GB Graphics
Price: $600

Figure you can get a similar system for $110 ($126 - 13% and free shipping discount for using bonus13 code from arrowdirect.com) - See attachment

THen add a 2 tb hdd and GT 730 GPU from newegg for $105 ($45 for the EVGA 730GT and $60 for the HDD)

Install and setup Mame yourself and you have the same $600 setup for for $215 !!

[DeLuSioNal29]

I agree with the majority here.  Sell the Arcade Legends and move on.  Sounds like you upgraded the games too, which will make it go up in value.

Originally, you had only wanted the Ms. Pac reunion cab to begin with.  Make money on the Arcade Legends to offset your Ms. Pac reunion cost.  Done deal.

P.S. - You can buy locks cheap here.  Just make sure you measure them first.  These are 7/8" but it could be another size on your machine:  http://www.twistedquarter.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=155_158&products_id=10

DeL

[behrmr]

Don't get me wrong guys, it's not that I don't love the little nuances you can only get from a crt monitor.  I just worry about longevity with it.  Things like screen burn, color fade etc.  I previously had a 60-1 with a 19" LCD and was not completely satisfied with how that looked.  I guess I'm just a hard guy to please. 

My jam is def Pacman/Ms Pacman.  The 60-1 wasn't quite doing it for me when it came to that.  Never could get the control just right despite trying 3 different joysticks.  Sold it.  The MsPac/Galaga reunion has completely remedied that situation and I do love the authentic appearance with the old school crt, but again I do worry about screen burn and the overall longevity. 

With the Arcade Legends it's mostly about the game selection, it's not great. 

Do any of you have any experience with Arcade-One.com?  Looks like an intriguing setup.

Your 60-in-1 problem was not your control panel.  It was a combination of the frame skip on the game board + display lag on the LCD.  No joystick can fix those problems.  Especially when you are playing maze games like Pacman.

On the Reunion cabinet, screen burn is not something you are going to need to worry about in your home.  Keep it original and resist the urge to replace the CRT with an LCD.  You'll be much happier with game play.  Besides if your monitor dies, there are still plenty of people that can repair it.

[csnow]

Wow, $700 for both.  I have way more than that in both of mine

[Malenko]

where do you live? I can throw some bills your way for the ultracade.

[jree3000]

Figure you can get a similar system for $110 ($126 - 13% and free shipping discount for using bonus13 code from arrowdirect.com) - See attachment

THen add a 2 tb hdd and GT 730 GPU from newegg for $105 ($45 for the EVGA 730GT and $60 for the HDD)

Install and setup Mame yourself and you have the same $600 setup for for $215 !!

Yeah, I think a lot of his pricing is setting up the emulators and loading the games.  I haven't done enough research to know how difficult that would be to do myself.  Although I'm still a bit green when it comes to a lot of this arcade setup, I'm pretty tech savvy so I'm pretty sure I could just do it myself.

P.S. - You can buy locks cheap here.  Just make sure you measure them first.  These are 7/8" but it could be another size on your machine:  http://www.twistedquarter.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=155_158&products_id=10

Thanks for the link.  I've bought stuff from there before.  I had actually found one at a local hardware store that worked perfectly!

Your 60-in-1 problem was not your control panel.  It was a combination of the frame skip on the game board + display lag on the LCD.  No joystick can fix those problems.  Especially when you are playing maze games like Pacman.

This is really good information.  I was not aware of that but it makes sense.  I knew there was something that was slightly off.  The last joystick I bought for the 60-1 was actually a replacement mspac/galaga reunion 4 way so I was a bit disappointed when it still didn't perform as well as I had hoped.  It was an improvement but still not 100%. 

Wow, $700 for both.  I have way more than that in both of mine

Yeah, it was definitely right place at the right time kind of deal.  I really wasn't even in the market but when I saw it I jumped on it. 

where do you live? I can throw some bills your way for the ultracade.

I'm in Columbus, Ohio.  I think I'm gonna hold on to it for right now.  I actually haven't even had it for a week yet so I'm still warming up the games.   Thanks though.

[DeLuSioNal29]

where do you live? I can throw some bills your way for the ultracade and have DeL deliver it to my door, along with the Arkanoid.

Fixed.

DeL

[paigeoliver]

I am continually amazed at the number of people who say "I am afraid the CRT will break" and then replace it with an LCD. It is like having a car that runs fine, but buying a new engine because you are afraid the old one will break. Instead of just waiting for it to break.

In fact, it is a lot worse than that. CRT monitors are far more reliable than LCD monitors, more repairable and have an incredibly longer lifespan. TV grade CRT tech is almost 90 years old at this point, most of that time spent perfecting tubes that fell within the same specs. While modern LCD monitor technology is only about 25 years old and has not worked to perfect the same design, but instead chased after an ever moving target.

Crts are actually so stupidly reliable that back in the day when your parents went to Sears to buy that new low end TV set it would actually have a "refurb" tube in it, that is a tube that already did 10 or 20 years in another TV set before getting used again in a brand new one.

[jree3000]

I am continually amazed at the number of people who say "I am afraid the CRT will break" and then replace it with an LCD. It is like having a car that runs fine, but buying a new engine because you are afraid the old one will break. Instead of just waiting for it to break.

I was just saying I'm concerned about longevity, but I would by no means replace a perfectly good CRT.  I'm still a bit of a novice when it comes to arcade ownership.  My 60-1 w/ LCD was my first one and I just bought that a few months ago.  The other 2 w/ CRTs I've had all of a week.  I enjoy this forum though because of people like you that can share this insight which I find to be quite valuable as I'm learning.  This is all very good information.