Lot of opinions on these and I understand everyone's points. We all have different perspectives. Everybody's opinion is valid from their own perspective. The reason I am going to get one and give it a try is for my own reasons. I have been fooling around in this hobby for about the past 3 years. I started by building a mame cabinet from scratch using one sheet of plywood and some scrap wood I had lying around. I also had a tankstick that I got off CL for $60. I am a computer guy - I managed a Gateway Country store back in the late 90s, and have been building computers and computer gaming for all my adult life. So for me, the fun of building a mame machine was in getting the computer setup and tweaking the software. I managed to build a presentable cabinet around my tankstick, but the actual building of the cabinet was my least favorite part of the whole process. My next project was a Wizard of Wor original cabinet that I bought two years ago. I replaced the power supply with a new one and got it to the point of playing blind. I believe there is an issue with the video relay board, but it could also be the monitor. The cabinet is in my basement and I haven't touched it in a year and a half. This project has taught me that I really don't want to fool around with original cabinets and CRT monitor repair. Again, some guys love this stuff, for me its a pain in the ass and I have no interest in re-flowing pcbs and re-capping monitors. After I shelved the Wizard of Wor (I will sell it or get back to it one final time later this year) I bought a professionally constructed, but empty, arcade cabinet off CL. I went ahead and added a PC, buttons, and LCD, and ordered a generic art package for cheap. The cabinet came out nice (the construction was top notch to begin with) and sold it to my buddy who wanted a mame machine for his basement. I have a lot of fun populating the control panel, and wiring and setting up the software. Next, I bought a non-working and mostly stripped out M.A.C.H 3 cabinet. I have always been a fan of rotary shooters so I bought a set of LS-30s, a full Ikari Warriors art package, and made it into a mame multi-rotary machine. I also bought a non-working Chase HQ that I intend to convert into a mame multi-racer. So I have some experience building, modding, and generally fooling around with arcade cabinets.
So going forward in the arcade hobby I have come to a few realizations. What I enjoy about this hobby is the emulation/computer setup. What I don't enjoy is messing with old CRTs and original arcade equipment. I also don't really enjoy the cabinet building part of the hobby. My vision for my small basement arcade space is to have about half a dozen machines setup to play specific groups of games. I have my multi-rotary, I have my multi-racer, I would like to add a 4-way vertical cab, an 8 way vertical cab, and an 8 way horizontal cab. My play anything tankstick build is upstairs in my computer room.
So given what I want, and what I like to do, I could either keep buying empty or non-working original cabinets and converting them, or template out and build replica cabinets to house my mame machines. So here's where the arcade1up machines
possibly come in. They address a few issues for me.
1. Space, I like the smaller profile (not the height but that's easily addressable)
2. I like the art packages - Galaga, Centipede, street fighter, etc. I also like that the work is already done as far as this goes.
3. I like the ready to assemble format vs. building from scratch.
4. They appear to be easily modded, even if that means taking out the monitor/pcb that comes with it and adding a 17" LCD of my own and a pi with a zero delay (total parts cost about $65 as I get 17" 4:3 LCDs free.
5. At $299 they are about what I would have to spend to build a replica cabinet from scratch (including artwork, buttons, t-molding, etc) and I don't have to mess around building it from scratch.
So I am going to get one to see what the thing is all about in person. If build quality is decent and I feel I can work with the format, I may buy a few more and mod them up. That's what I enjoy doing. Modding and setting up software and working with pi or computers. If I find out that the thing is not built to a standard I can work with, I will just mod it up and sell it my brother for cost. He has two young kids and has been asking me to build him something for them anyway. For less than $400 I can give him a pi-modded machine with a couple of dozen games on it that his kids can beat up for a few years. If the thing is total garbage I will just return it to Wally world for a refund. End of story.
I know...cool story bro.... I don't expect any of you guys who love the cabinet building process, or love the artwork design process, or love restoring original machines, to have any interest in these pre-fab units. They are not for you anyway. They are aimed at the guy who wants a cool looking game for his kids, but has no interest in building his own. And, maybe, these machines will work for a guy like me, we will see...