Scaled down arcade cabinets

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ActRaiser
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Re: Scaled down arcade cabinets

Postby ActRaiser » November 10th, 2019, 10:06 am

These are all awesome ideas and posts. The February / March time frame can't come soon enough!

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VideoGameCritic
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Re: Scaled down arcade cabinets

Postby VideoGameCritic » November 10th, 2019, 10:47 am

I love the concept of arcade cabinets. Having grown up in the golden years of the arcades (70s-80s) it pretty much shaped my view of what a video game SHOULD be like. You pony on up, have a good 3-4 minutes of fun, and if you're lucky rank in with your initials. And then you still had the rest of the day to do stuff.

Today's games are designed to keep players firmly planted on their ass at home all day, pausing only for Uber Eats or something like that.

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velcrozombie
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Re: Scaled down arcade cabinets

Postby velcrozombie » November 10th, 2019, 12:44 pm

About a month ago our workplace put a 1-Up Galaga machine in our breakroom and about five of us have been playing regularly, with other random employees giving it a go once or twice out of curiosity before moving on. There was a battle for the high score when it was hanging around the 100k - 150k point mark, but one kid (around 20, who is really into online shooters like Apex Legends) put the high score into the 300k range and competition has died down as a result. In lieu of the official riser, we have the game perched on one of the heavy-duty folding tables in the room and it works for everyone except one shorter kid who stands on a chair when he plays. The stick and buttons feel surprisingly solid (I've owned Hori and Madcatz arcade sticks with Sanwa parts) and the graphics on the top and sides of the cabinet look nice, but the unprotected stickers around the joysticks and buttons are already wearing off from friction and sweat. The high-score glitches - it resets itself periodically and you will only see the true high score if you make the top five (something I haven't seen in a while, being stuck at 99700) - but there haven't been any other technical issues. I went from being cold on these machines to considering getting one for modding if I can find one at a considerable discount - the only thing that concerns me is if the machine is configured in such a way that makes swapping parts difficult, and I'm sure there are answers if I dig around online a bit.

VideoGameCritic wrote:I love the concept of arcade cabinets. Having grown up in the golden years of the arcades (70s-80s) it pretty much shaped my view of what a video game SHOULD be like. You pony on up, have a good 3-4 minutes of fun, and if you're lucky rank in with your initials. And then you still had the rest of the day to do stuff.

Today's games are designed to keep players firmly planted on their ass at home all day, pausing only for Uber Eats or something like that.


I didn't grow up with arcades - I got an NES for Christmas in 1987 and had minimal contact with gaming prior to that - but having an cabinet available to me that I can play on break or lunch without disrupting my schedule at least allows me to understand where you're coming from. I still prefer to play in 1-2 hour blocks at home so that I can really get lost in a game, but it's nice to have an alternative to play for 10 minutes now and then.

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noah98
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Re: Scaled down arcade cabinets

Postby noah98 » November 10th, 2019, 12:52 pm

velcrozombie wrote:...but the unprotected stickers around the joysticks and buttons are already wearing off from friction and sweat. The high-score glitches - it resets itself periodically and you will only see the true high score if you make the top five (something I haven't seen in a while, being stuck at 99700 for my personal high score) - but there haven't been any other technical issues. I went from being cold on these machines to considering getting one for modding if I can find one at a considerable discount - the only thing that concerns me is if the machine is configured in such a way that makes swapping parts difficult, and I'm sure there are answers if I dig around online a bit.

VideoGameCritic wrote:I love the concept of arcade cabinets. Having grown up in the golden years of the arcades (70s-80s) it pretty much shaped my view of what a video game SHOULD be like. You pony on up, have a good 3-4 minutes of fun, and if you're lucky rank in with your initials. And then you still had the rest of the day to do stuff.

Today's games are designed to keep players firmly planted on their ass at home all day, pausing only for Uber Eats or something like that.


The deck protectors eliminate the issue with the art wearing out around the controls. I got my Galaga one free from the company. The high score glitch is one of the reasons why I paid for a newer revision of the pcb. Unfortunately, Arcade1up won't send this free, but you can buy it from them or someone who has modded the cabinet.

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Matchstick
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Re: Scaled down arcade cabinets

Postby Matchstick » November 10th, 2019, 3:45 pm

Glad to hear you've had a good experience with your machines, noah98. More time has gone by, and man, do I ever love that MK II machine. I have no space to really add more to my home at the moment, but that doesn't mean I don't want more in the future.

Also glad that you managed to put together your collection without having to pay full price for any of the units. It's entirely possible! As others and myself have noted, WalMart tends to dump these off for cheap from time to time. If you keep your eyes open when you hit the stores, you can really get a great deal on these machines.

I hear ya on the Space Invaders cabinet, too. Man, does it looks great! It's the main reason why I hesitated and didn't buy it at $75 when I saw it. Fun fact: it's gone now. But I had the idea to buy that cabinet and convert it into something else, maybe even dedicate it to my Saturn library. I just couldn't bring myself to desecrate such a beautiful-looking cabinet and artwork, though. They did a great job with the design of that Space Invaders machine, and it may well be the best-looking cabinet design of the bunch.


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