ok people, sit back and relax.
got to try out 2 units today. the asteroids cabinet at thinkgeek,
and sf2 at gamestop.
yes, there are tons of reviews out there, but have any gamers,
and i mean dedicated, real, or expert gamers tried these out?
i haven't seen any dedicated reviews yet. only short previews.
i'm not going to bother going over the pro's and con's or the
basic information about the games, sounds, lists, etc. as they are sometimes
personal opinions, or have already been gone over many times already.
i'm not an expert on every game, but i do know my way around them.
these are my opinions.
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tldr version:
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controls are not arcade accurate - but actually, and surprisingly do the job for average players,
they are terrible for intermediate and expert players
games play near arcade accuracy - framerate, and response is decent, graphics are blocky and pixelly of course
screen angles are shallow - but are pretty vibrant enough in most cases, the vector games looked dim though
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STOP READING HERE, IF THAT ANSWERS YOUR QUESTIONS
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the long picky review follows:
i am going to go into boring gameplay details,
response times, and control mechanics for the games i know.
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background -
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i have been playing videogames from the days of pong, breakout and space invaders
i stopped playing them in the late 90's, and 00's when deluxe units were the norm.
i do know most of the atari, williams, namco, and capcom library inside and out.
i am NOT an expert at every game, but have played all of them either extensively
in the arcade when they originally came out, at home in MAME, and in pretty much
every port on PC, console, and remake that has come out.
hardware control experience
----------------------------
i have used arcade controls, buttons, trackballs and spinners since they came out.
i have home versions of those controls, and actually don't use dpads or analog stick
on any console unless i'm forced to.
my preference is always dedicated controls for arcade games
arcade gaming habits
-----------------------
i play arcade games, or ports pretty much every day, through the 80's, i stopped
in the 90's, and then picked up mame, and played it every day for a few years.
stopped again, until the 2nd year of the xbox 360. got gameroom, and pretty much
every arcade game, and port on those systems. i have continued this when ports
started showing up on the xbox one. i have played them on the playstation also,
but only the original and PS2, and now the PSP 2000.
lately, over the last couple of years, i have been playing arcade ports and games
everyday for a least a few hours. i usually place in the top 1-10 place on games
that i'm an expert in, and below that on other games.
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now with that out of the way, lets get to the cabinets
time spent playing
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i have spent at least an hour with each cabinet, and at least 10-15 minutes
on each game, to get a good feel for them. any more than that wouldn't have
helped [except for tempest, which i sacrificed some time playing]
on street fighter, i spent 20 minutes with each title, trying out different
characters, and different sides to play.
atari cabinet with asteroids
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condition of cabinet - the control panel had the bottom portion totally
worn out from people playing, the store guy said it had been there about
a week. the buttons and the rest of the cabinet was in good shape
durability - the cabinets are super flimsy, and shake when you play. i barely
tapped the buttons, and the cabinet was shaking. i was playing sitting down
on a chair. which was fine for the time i played, but it just felt wrong.
there were no risers, and i missed standing up.
ergonomics - as i mentioned the sitting down part threw me off, but i got used to it.
the much bigger issue is the hands and wrists, along with the buttons and joysticks.
for asteroids, the buttons do click, which is fine, but annoying. i did notice the spacing,
while probably close to the arcade spacing is ok, but probably not exact or even scaled to
be accurate. if you're used to the arcade buttons, you need to get used to the spacing
and response of these buttons. there is a difference, but for the most part its ok.
the thing that killed my wrists, was that the nice gentle 5-10 degree(?) slope of the
arcade was gone, and now it's just this flat panel. i would definitely hike those up
somehow with supports to make it feel better. granted i didn't play that long, but i
could tell, it would be different after playing for long periods of time.
gameplay -
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asteroids
=========
- managed to play to 10k, and quit, i used the saucer hunting method, and could
have played for awhile longer, but i only wanted to play to see if it worked, and if i could
do it. the buttons had a precise enough feel, and moved in increments that allowed for precision
shooting. it took a little bit of time to get used to the scale of the monitor, and a feel
for the response from pressing the button to the actual firing response.
everything worked out fine, didn't notice any lag. the response rate for left and right
spins with the buttons seemed to be accurate, and the framerate was ok, i was able to
maneuver pretty well, dodge asteroids, shots and ships without any issues.
saucer hunting worked out well. it will be interesting to see if good players can
wrack up enough extra men to go off the screen, and if the game slows down.
this game is playable and worked out ok. except for the missing vector glow, and the
dim graphics, this is a passable emulated version. the home version have more features,
settings, and options of course. on home consoles you can also play with buttons, and
simulate this pretty well.
lunar lander
============
- i managed to get several 5x landings, i forgot my score, but once i managed
some landings and crashes, i quit playing. i an not an expert at this game, but i find it
too boring to play for long.
i did play the arcade version with the big old handle to manipulate the thrust more precisely.
obviously they couldn't do that here, so you will have to make do with a less precise button
push. they might have been able to map that to the dial, but they didn't try that.
again, the game is playable, and the controls map over almost ok. there's not much
to this game, so there's not a lot more to say about it.
major havoc
============
- i got through a few levels, but that was about it. i don't know the warp codes,
and actually wasn't that good at it in the arcades. i have played several home
ports with different controls.
as you know, the original had a roller cylinder, which was converted over to a spinner
for conversion from a tempest machine. here of course, it is played using the dial.
to me, this game is nearly unplayable with the dial as it is. i have seen the mods,
and changes that people claim make the game better, but have yet to see anyone play
deep in the game with those changes.
for me the issue is momentum and speed with the dial. given enough time, maybe i could
get good enough to use what they've encoded to read the dial to move the character.
however, i did try the buttons also, as they alternate controls, but didn't find them
any better.
if anyone out there is good at major havoc, please play it and comment.
i can't say much more, because i don't feel the controls can be used to accurately
play to the game to any level. its fine for the shooter part, and other levels, but
even the mini breakout game is subpar, let alone the actual gameplay.
tempest
=======
this is the game i have the most experience with, i've played through it on easy settings
to the random green levels (99) and beyond. and hit about 450k (light blue levels) on defaults.
[i have videos on youtube showing playthroughs of all the levels into yellow, light blue,
invisible, and green levels, and some random ones up to 1 million plus points]
! No longer availablei played this until level 16, and about 100k points. i could have played further, but i felt
that was enough to get a good idea of how it plays.
the dial/spinner is inadequate for this game. the non-free spinning, and click stops alter
the gameplay a lot of the times. i say that, but it actually depends on your playing style.
it turns out, you don't need to do super fast spins, or quick moves, unless you play that way.
most beginners do that. but it turns out that slow calculated maneuvers, and precise movements
are the best for mid to expert levels.
i didn't get to the red levels, which is the first time you see pulsars. later levels will
have pulsar, and fuseball tankers and other enemies you don't see early on. guess what the best way to take those
out, is to do slow 1 segment moves to the left and right which can easily be done using this
spinner.
the thing that killed me the most was the response of the buttons when firing. you have
to time your shots precisely when the flippers are on you to kill them, and maybe i'm rusty,
but thats how most of my deaths came. not from the shots. it was easy enough to shoot the
stream of shots, activate the super zapper, and kill fuses, and spikes.
i don't think there's a lag in firing. but in the time i played it, maybe i didn't get use
to the response of this emulated version. i have no problem playing it on any of the home
console versions on the xbox 360, or the xbox one.
could i do better on this game, yes, but it would take a lot of time and effort.
i'm not sure that modding the dial would actually help, which is surprising to me.
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Final thoughts
----------------
overall, i would give 1up arcades a grade of C for effort.
D for quality and longevity, B for emulation, C for graphics.
So an average of C overall grading, or 3/5 stars for the price.
Take into account the games you like, how much you will play them,
and how rough these things will be handled.
To me, i don't want to say they feel like they are breaking apart at any time,
because these were worn out demo units.
If you don't play often, these things will last and look good.
If you do play often, they WILL wear out, the buttons, the controls, etc, eventually.
They should have some kind of riser, or you are really missing out on the arcade
feel of it.
Modding the buttons and dials, will do some good perhaps, but in the end,
its probably a placebo, unless you are an expert at major havoc. Tempest
is playable if you can alter your playstyle.
A valiant, but in the end subpar experience, unless you're going for nostalgia,
and love asteroids or lunar lander, and are ok with the compromises.
I will do a separate in depth review of the Street fighter 2 cabinet also.
later
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