Arcade 1Up's Ikea cabinets

[pbj]

If you like one video about these cabinets, you will be slammed with new videos.  Reviews have been popping up daily for almost a month.  I don't know any of these people from Adam but clearly they are flooding Youtube personalities with free cabinets.  I'm kind of surprised none of these people know how to work a screwdriver and crack one of them open... but soon.

[negative1]

these are no-name people.

Actually they are a subsidiary of Tastemakers LLC as noted above - so have quite a bit of experience and a lot of contacts in the market including the ability to get products into the major distributors and retail outlets and plenty of contacts in the manufacturing of this type of product including several factories in Hong Kong to get plenty of them produced and shipped to the retailers - they just have not publicized it.

Link to tastemakers website -- http://www.tastemakersllc.com/arcade1up.html

are you talking about the company selling the 1up arcade machines, or the people reviewing them.

i was talking about the people in the last review:
The history of Arcade Repair Tips starts in 2001 when Tim Peterson and Jonathan Leung launched one of the first MAME machine related web sites (known as Tim’s MAME Machine Web Page). In 2002, Tim’s MAME Machine Web Page was relaunched as Tim’s Arcade Restoration Web Site (http://www.timsarcade.net) and was expanded to include Arcade Restoration Projects that Tim and Jonathan had performed.

these aren't really big name people.

thats what i meant.

later
-1

Oh -- I ( and I believe PBJ also) was talking about arcade1up and them using the YT channel for publicity not the YT reviewers they were using specifically !

right. ok.
yes, the company has gotten it to a few people, that have followers.

but that doesn't really help, since most of the people aren't the target audience anyways.

maybe the rerez person is, but most of them are not real gamers or enthuasiasts.

those outnumber the other people, and the majority of those only have hundreds of hits or less.

later
-1

[negative1]

If you like one video about these cabinets, you will be slammed with new videos.  Reviews have been popping up daily for almost a month.  I don't know any of these people from Adam but clearly they are flooding Youtube personalities with free cabinets.  I'm kind of surprised none of these people know how to work a screwdriver and crack one of them open... but soon.

there have been about 3 'real' reviews, and i know, because i've been posting some of them here.
- the one with the puppet
- the rerez one
- the chick that actually did open up the cabinet and show the insides

- random view from other conventions, meetings, and just resposting previous ones.

i hardly would call that flooding anything, unless thats what you mean.

the rest are all just chaff about pricing, availability, etc.

later
-1

[DGP]

They will sell well initially even though they are poorly built, it seems likely that they will end up breaking in decent numbers (especially with many buying them for young children).

Negative feedback could very well end their attempt to bring 'Arcade' to the masses before they get a chance to bring all the other designs to market.

Hopefully the parent company is prepared for when their cost cutting measures come to light through normal channels (like Best Buy/retailer customer reviews).

- Jason

[negative1]

skip to the 3:00 min mark, to see someone that was able to pick up the centipede unit today from walmart.

sound is pretty good. gameplay shows some missie command, looks weird and cramped on the vertical screen.
(and yes the video is portrait also, ugghhh).

! No longer available

later
-1

[Howard_Casto]

Looks ok, but I won't be able to tell anything until I can play one in person.... the feel is everything.  I've got a theory that people who do videos for youtube in portrait mode ate paint chips as a child. 

[negative1]

quite a lot of little pieces of information
about them.

most of it bad.


===================
as far as the asteroids guy goes
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsQZDYPPtKl3ihf5YTZmN2A
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

the size compared to an arcade machine - expected



the screen actually looks decent and doesn't have a blue tint.



so the quality of the parts is less - given



the control panel wears out quickly since its not covered or treated - typical



the spinner is just a 'dial' - figures



so that rules out - tempest, and major havoc playing well



he didnt mention how asteroids or lunar lander plays, or how the buttons feel.





centipede guy
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEHBE1PwQJiBNrWgen3cHPg
------------------

real arcade control panels get marked up too, but not as quickly



the high score save not working is weird, but not really that big a deal,

since most of these guys don't really care anyway.



believe it or not, i do care about them, but if a game doesn't save them,

that doesn't bother me.



==========================================================



a very mixed bag.



later

-1

[yotsuya]

Newsflash -  cheap crappy arcade toys are cheap and crappy, film at 11, er- on YouTube

[leapinlew]

man... I think these look so cool. I might buy on 4 of them for my kids playroom.

[yotsuya]

man... I think these look so cool. I might buy on 4 of them for my kids playroom.

You do that and let us know how it goes.

[negative1]

man... I think these look so cool. I might buy on 4 of them for my kids playroom.

You do that and let us know how it goes.

kids should be fine with it.

its the right size for them, and they're not picky about details.

the real issue will be losing interest in the games (except maybe the multiplayer ones).

retro games tend to be repetitive and sometimes have a hard difficulty curve.


i'm sure the same thing will happen with a lot of adults.
they will play them for awhile, and then they will collect dust.


i have an arcade machine in my garage, i played it like crazy for a few weeks back in 1996.

i think i've played it maybe 40-50 times seriously since then. it's been in the garage now for
about 6 years, and i've played it about 10 times there.

i'm going to bring it out, and move inside, and then i will probably play it more.

later
-1

[leapinlew]

i'm going to bring it out, and move inside, and then i will probably play it more.

Maybe, but I highly recommend that wherever you put it, it doesn't take valuable space in the room. They way I have mine now, they add to the overall vibe of the room, like a decoration. I had them in a more prominent area at first, but after a while, I felt they were taking up space, and not being used. Now,

[JDFan]

Looks like they couldn't get enough stock to fill all the pre-orders and still have stock for the stores for the sept 25th launch date -- SO have pushed the release date back to Oct. 16th !!

https://www.facebook.com/Arcade1UpOfficial/photos/a.397920000704032/477339312762100/?type=3&theater

[pbj]

" this move by your company is a slap in the face to your early adopters...or I guess now we're "Want to be" early adopters."

 

God this hobby is full of manchildren.

[Howard_Casto]

Yeah you'd think that people wanting a product would be glad it's successful, thus ensuring the company will keep selling/supporting said product.  I guess that would make too much logical sense for the internet. 

[JDFan]

Yeah you'd think that people wanting a product would be glad it's successful, thus ensuring the company will keep selling/supporting said product.  I guess that would make too much logical sense for the internet.

Exactly -- also at least they did something and actually let everyone know what was going on - rather than just keep the launch date and not have any in the stores to pick up and having people get notified on release day that their pre-order has been delayed while still having them out in stores for sale !

[negative1]

Yeah you'd think that people wanting a product would be glad it's successful, thus ensuring the company will keep selling/supporting said product.  I guess that would make too much logical sense for the internet.

Exactly -- also at least they did something and actually let everyone know what was going on - rather than just keep the launch date and not have any in the stores to pick up and having people get notified on release day that their pre-order has been delayed while still having them out in stores for sale !

so far, they've been pretty good on the PR front.

also, people have been getting emails about it also, so it's not like they
were going to be blindsided anyways.

at least they doing well in that area.

later
-1

[negative1]

'supposedly', the meg chick that was showing off the internals

has said that as of last week, (no video yet), that they've

managed to hack the 1up arcade machine to use

pi in it.

 

no other details, guess we'll have to see what was done,

what controls can be altered, and other mods.

later

-1

[smass]

Hacking a pi or small computer or xbox in there will not be a problem.  Controls can be spiced into a zero delay and then its just a matter of getting video to the monitor.  Or even replacing the monitor with a "free" Dell 17".  Thats never been in question.  I ordered the Walmart Galaga so I could play around with it.  If I like the form factor and looks of it, I will mame it up with a old computer and a small selection of vertical 4 way games.  Probably change out the joystick eventually as well if the one in there is crap.

[Malenko]

the only redeeming quality of these "cabs" was the licensed ROMs. You take that away and its just a ---smurfy--- mass produced MAME box.

[pbj]

It boots quickly and has a nice menu.  Something nobody can figure out how to do with a Pi.

[smass]

the only redeeming quality of these "cabs" was the licensed ROMs. You take that away and its just a ---smurfy--- mass produced MAME box.

I understand where you are coming from.  But I don't agree, at least not until I have one in my possession to see for myself.  For most folks (non-hobbyists) these machines are a novelty or a kids toy, and for $300 they are a decent deal. 

For someone who can build their own, like myself, I want to see if the form factor and appearance will be good enough as a platform to mod.  Sure I can build something like this on my own, but that does come with a time commitment on my end and a material cost close to the price of one of these machines (of which the art package is the biggest cost).  If I find the form factor and construction reasonable, I could use these as a platform to mod - I have friends and family that are always asking me to build them a machine.  These things may be a great platform to start with.  No sawdust flying, no ordering and installing art, not design time, just some quick mods and off you go.

I am not going to pass final judgement until I have one in my possession.  If it sucks, I can return it. 

[Richardgregory]

For that price and the build...although quality needs to be seen, it's a no brainer!

I wonder if it's just available in US?

[Malenko]

I understand where you are coming from.  But I don't agree, at least not until I have one in my possession to see for myself.  For most folks (non-hobbyists) these machines are a novelty or a kids toy, and for $300 they are a decent deal. 

For someone who can build their own, like myself, I want to see if the form factor and appearance will be good enough as a platform to mod.  Sure I can build something like this on my own, but that does come with a time commitment on my end and a material cost close to the price of one of these machines (of which the art package is the biggest cost).  If I find the form factor and construction reasonable, I could use these as a platform to mod - I have friends and family that are always asking me to build them a machine.  These things may be a great platform to start with.  No sawdust flying, no ordering and installing art, not design time, just some quick mods and off you go...

Well no, you don't see where I'm coming from. The fact  I could build a better machine cheaper has nothing to do with what they are selling.

Excusing poor build quality because its "a toy" is disingenuous.  The form factor is terrible.  Its too small to be a bartop, too tall to be a real machine the pedestal is a joke because its still too short. LCD viewing angles are abysmal , not a big deal for the head on fighters but a potential big issue for the outer players on Rampage. Speaking of Rampage, shoe-horning that game into the existing formfactor (and making the other games included 2 player) doesn't work well at all. They should have just left it a 2 player cab.

The components being connected the way they are also seems short sighted. Why not use regular power and VGA cables for the monitor?

If you consider this a great starting point, well, we're just not going to see eye to eye on that. Its cost prohibitive to spend $300 on a shell that you need to replace everything inside on. The monitor, electronics, and controls all need upgraded. All of your positives can be filed under lazy or "the same as converting any other existing cab"

Im not saying they aren't worth $300 , I'm saying they have a lot of shortcomings that everyone is dismissing and validating for terrible reasons. The cabs are flying off the shelves , so I just hope they take some of that money and make the next round of cabs better.



RG: I disagree with it being a no-brainer. $300 is still a good chunk of change. I know they are available in Canada as well, outside of that I dont know where else they'll be sold.

[Howard_Casto]

*sigh*   You are paying $300 for "just a shell" that has nice artwork on it.... artwork that would cost the price of said shell if you were to build it yourself.  Full-length sideart is prohibitively expensive..... I don't understand why some of the old timers around here don't get that.   

I can whip up a decent cab for a couple of hundred bucks, but it's going to have parts express black vinyl on it at best because a full artwork package is 300 bucks.
  Now if you don't care about artwork I can certainly understand why you think this is a ripoff, but if you do....   I also have concerns about the quality, the emulation and various other things and when push comes to shove I'll probably pass on these, but to dismiss them just because you don't want them personally seems silly.   

[JDFan]

*sigh*   You are paying $300 for "just a shell" that has nice artwork on it.... artwork that would cost the price of said shell if you were to build it yourself.  Full-length sideart is prohibitively expensive..... I don't understand why some of the old timers around here don't get that.   

I can whip up a decent cab for a couple of hundred bucks, but it's going to have parts express black vinyl on it at best because a full artwork package is 300 bucks.

The artwork can actually be had for quite a bit less than $300 -- for example here is a seller on Ebay that has several of the same sets 1up is releasing for about $80 a set ( 2 sides, Kick PLAte, Marquee, CPO) and they will do custom sizes if you contact them. -- ( https://www.ebay.com/itm/GALAGA-Arcade-Cabinet-Graphics-For-Reproduction-Marquee-CPO-Side-Art-Kickplate/163253743767?hash=item2602ae7097:g:dKkAAOSw4shYAQ27 )

[Richardgregory]

I'm thinking from an audience perspective that these CABs are more tailored for kids, which then again not sure whether they prefer their WII/X/PS4 anyways, so maybe these things won't sell to certain folks like us here.

[yotsuya]

Maybe I’d agree if they did some sort of scaling to the artwork, but slapping it on the side without taking the form factor into account seems lazy. Look at how it’s on the Centipede and Galaga. I dunno, that doesn’t appeal to me personally.

[smass]

If you consider this a great starting point, well, we're just not going to see eye to eye on that. Its cost prohibitive to spend $300 on a shell that you need to replace everything inside on. The monitor, electronics, and controls all need upgraded. All of your positives can be filed under lazy or "the same as converting any other existing cab"

I think "the same as converting any other existing cab" is a bit closer to my reasoning so lets examine this.  I have converted a few cabs.  The bargain $100 cabs are usually roached and require, at a minimum, some wood repair, repainting, and some sort of art replacement (marquee, cpo, side art, or some combination of the three).  So you are probably at or above $300 once you have that bargain cab ready for controls, monitor, computer.  You also have some time commitment to do all this work.  On the other hand, I can order one of these cabs, spend 20 minutes screwing it together, and get right to the mods.  Again, it all depends on how I feel about it once I get my hands on one.  But if I like the arcade1up machine, its going to be a no brainer for me to use one of these as a starting platform vs. dealing with sourcing, picking up, cleaning, and refurbishing a donor cab.

[opt2not]

If you consider this a great starting point, well, we're just not going to see eye to eye on that. Its cost prohibitive to spend $300 on a shell that you need to replace everything inside on. The monitor, electronics, and controls all need upgraded. All of your positives can be filed under lazy or "the same as converting any other existing cab"

I think "the same as converting any other existing cab" is a bit closer to my reasoning so lets examine this.  I have converted a few cabs.  The bargain $100 cabs are usually roached and require, at a minimum, some wood repair, repainting, and some sort of art replacement (marquee, cpo, side art, or some combination of the three).  So you are probably at or above $300 once you have that bargain cab ready for controls, monitor, computer.  You also have some time commitment to do all this work.  On the other hand, I can order one of these cabs, spend 20 minutes screwing it together, and get right to the mods.  Again, it all depends on how I feel about it once I get my hands on one.  But if I like the arcade1up machine, its going to be a no brainer for me to use one of these as a starting platform vs. dealing with sourcing, picking up, cleaning, and refurbishing a donor cab.

Yet, in the end you're stuck with a cabinet that looks like a Walmart special, as opposed to a cabinet that is an actual arcade machine. Apples are not Oranges.

[pbj]

$300 cash in hand for nice condition real arcade machines.

 

[smass]

Yet, in the end you're stuck with a cabinet that looks like a Walmart special, as opposed to a cabinet that is an actual arcade machine. Apples are not Oranges.

Indeed.  But it depends on whether you are an orange person or apple person which is better.  My brother, for example, is interested in a cab for son's play room.  My nephew is 9, and likes to play on my mame cab when he visits.  For around $400 after I make my mods, he can have a lightweight, easy to move, clean, new cab for the play room.  I would humbly suggest that for his needs, an apple may be better than an orange.

I have two converted cabs, both which cost me a lot more than $400 to build out.  They are heavy, hard to move around, and took a lot of work on my part to get them to look authentic.  They work for me as I have them in my basement bar area and the size, time commitment to build, and overall cost were well worth it for my uses.  So I guess I am an orange guy...

Can't apples and oranges co-exist? 

[leapinlew]

I like'em. Why not? Someones making a licensed retro arcade machine..... that's great!

I don't think I could build a cabinet for less than $300 and if I could come close, it would be because I already have the tools and perhaps some of the parts available. I certainly have been around enough to know what I would do about all the decision points: what software, what hardware, etc.

These take an hour to put together, powering on/off the unit most likely won't corrupt some fragile underlying software, and the price point isn't outrageous. Hopefully they sell well and they produce more options.

I dunno. Maybe I'm not being cranky enough but I think these little machines are fun.

[Howard_Casto]

*sigh*   You are paying $300 for "just a shell" that has nice artwork on it.... artwork that would cost the price of said shell if you were to build it yourself.  Full-length sideart is prohibitively expensive..... I don't understand why some of the old timers around here don't get that.   

I can whip up a decent cab for a couple of hundred bucks, but it's going to have parts express black vinyl on it at best because a full artwork package is 300 bucks.

The artwork can actually be had for quite a bit less than $300 -- for example here is a seller on Ebay that has several of the same sets 1up is releasing for about $80 a set ( 2 sides, Kick PLAte, Marquee, CPO) and they will do custom sizes if you contact them. -- ( https://www.ebay.com/itm/GALAGA-Arcade-Cabinet-Graphics-For-Reproduction-Marquee-CPO-Side-Art-Kickplate/163253743767?hash=item2602ae7097:g:dKkAAOSw4shYAQ27 )

I get what you are saying, but Galaga doesn't have full side art, it has a sticker on the side.  I can get several capcom kits for less than 100 as well because they don't have full side art.  A better example would be centipede:


https://www.ebay.com/itm/Full-Set-Side-Art-Arcade-Cabinet-Centipede-Artwork-Decals-Restoration/323400709929?hash=item4b4c2f3729:g:QqMAAOSwke9aFa-b


That's a cheap-o set and it's still 200 bucks... and it's from Belgium, which, no offense if anyone lives there from the forums, I don't know if that's a good sign or not.

I want a nice tiny machine to play trackball games on.  I think the centipede looks nice and if I find one on sale I might get one.  I'm perfectly capable of building a white box for it to sit on and I probably have enough scrap lying around to where it won't cost me anything.  I certainly understand people not wanting one, but I don't get the hate. 

[Malenko]

*sigh*   You are paying $300 for "just a shell" that has nice artwork on it.... artwork that would cost the price of said shell if you were to build it yourself.  Full-length sideart is prohibitively expensive..... I don't understand why some of the old timers around here don't get that.   

I bought the entire open ice art package for like $160 shipped and it included a backlit translight, 2 pieces of full side art (slightly over sized to ensure it fit), and a poly carb coated CPO. Midway cabs are significantly larger than these 1up cabs. Even got 2 copies of the monitor bezel instruction card ; and this wasn't from Ken either, so I didn't get a friend discount. I could probably get cheap Chinese prints for like $50 shipped.

I think "the same as converting any other existing cab" is a bit closer to my reasoning so lets examine this.  I have converted a few cabs.  The bargain $100 cabs are usually roached and require, at a minimum, some wood repair, repainting, and some sort of art replacement (marquee, cpo, side art, or some combination of the three).  So you are probably at or above $300 once you have that bargain cab ready for controls, monitor, computer.  You also have some time commitment to do all this work.  On the other hand, I can order one of these cabs, spend 20 minutes screwing it together, and get right to the mods.  Again, it all depends on how I feel about it once I get my hands on one.  But if I like the arcade1up machine, its going to be a no brainer for me to use one of these as a starting platform vs. dealing with sourcing, picking up, cleaning, and refurbishing a donor cab.

The problem with examples like this is its more often than not based on worst case scenario. There's no point in picking up a $100 "donor cab" and dumping $200 into it if you can get a fresh one CNC'ed for half the price. At most I've spent maybe $50 fixing up a busted cab, scrap wood, bondo, and paint isn't that expensive. But lets use these 1up cabs as a base. Let's say I spend $300 on the cab, I still have to replace the knock off sanwa controls, tiny LCD, and if I want to play more than 3 games, the guts. After I do all that Im still stuck with a cab that has a bad formfactor even with a booster seat, and a marquee that doesn't light up.

I'm not saying these aren't great for a 9 year old that only wants to play 3 or 4 games; I'm saying its a minimal effort release with real world short comings that are consistently dismissed because , well, I don't know why, but everyone does it.

Your argument is still based on me being a builder. Nothing Ive said has nothing to do with my building a better one cheaper.



Lew, I dont know anyone who dislikes the concept, just the execution. $300 price point for a cab that size is easily achievable using the same cheap materials. An eBay special Pandora controlpanel is $110 shipped so all you need is a monitor and some 1/2" melamine chip board and youre done. These better take closer to 15 minutes to put together, and there are a myriad of options to power a cab that wont get corrupted by a power cycle or limit you to 4 games.  I hope Im not coming off as cranky, Im just being a realist. I love the idea but they just seem to be made as cheap and fast as possible, right down to the lack of scaling on the side art. Just a little refinement and these things could have been awesome. Hell make a bigger one for $50 more and call it the 1UpXL /shrug.

[leapinlew]

Hell make a bigger one for $50 more and call it the 1UpXL /shrug.

That's the spirit! Plenty of room for version 1 updates!

[negative1]

Im not saying they aren't worth $300 , I'm saying they have a lot of shortcomings that everyone is dismissing and validating for terrible reasons. The cabs are flying off the shelves , so I just hope they take some of that money and make the next round of cabs better.

RG: I disagree with it being a no-brainer. $300 is still a good chunk of change. I know they are available in Canada as well, outside of that I dont know where else they'll be sold.

they will also be sold in europe and australia i think.

they've already committed to some new cabinets next year.

i think they had prototypes of bartops, and they definitely have some cocktail cabinets coming out.
(no price on those yet)

i don't know anyone that's interested in those, they are terrible ergonomically to play games, weigh a lot,
and require a lot of space to place.

that being said, i owned two non-working ones several years ago, a ms pac man, and gyruss one, and only
used them as tables. never got around to fixing them up.

later
-1

[JDFan]

I get what you are saying, but Galaga doesn't have full side art, it has a sticker on the side.  I can get several capcom kits for less than 100 as well because they don't have full side art.  A better example would be centipede:

Well I'm pretty sure since they say they will make custom size if wanted - you could probably make a centipede set that would print proper size for a smaller cab and as long as it used less vinyl than the full size Galaga print they could custom print it from your .pdf for around the same cost as the Galaga they sell ( I'm sure the cost is based on the amount of vinyl the print uses.) You'd have to contact them to see but getting them to print a set of Centipede art sized to a cab you are building should be fairly easy if you provide the artwork ready to print. ( I'm pretty sure that they would be cheaper than the $200 set from Belgium )

[yotsuya]

They can’t go any bigger, according to their licensing agreement.

[JDFan]

they will also be sold in europe and australia i think.

They use Sambro for distribution in the UK ( https://www.sambro.co.uk/ ) and redplanetgroup for canada ( http://www.redpg.com/retailers/ ) both of which are fairly large distributors which work with most of the retailers, so would think eventually they'll be seen in many places (esp. if the initial launch goes well !