I'm really torn on this. The 3/4 size probably kills it for me more than the emulation. I don't care about emulation nearly as much on arcade stuff, but I sure would like it to be full size. Ultimately, it is a long term goal to build my own arcade cabinet from scratch. The desire for that project has more to do with the fun of building it over any actual cost savings (actually it will probably cost more). These arcade cabinets are tempting simply because I could have one much sooner and the price is pretty reasonable. And let's face it, if I'm being realistic, I'm not going to have time to build my own cabinet for a very long time.

This is actually a big point for me too. I know you can get the stands, but a full size unit would have been pretty awesome. I would have bought it just to mod it at that point and keep the Final Fight or Street Fighter art. I get why they didn't do that, but damn that would have been way more tempting. I plan on getting one together at one piont, but I kinda want to go all in with a big 4 player machine and a great front end, but haven't had the time or desire lately.

So a breakdown of retailers and what they're offering:

FYE: https://www.fye.com/search?cgid=a...

Games w/ Riser bundle (online only) $379.99
or just the game itself for $329.99
Rampage
Street Fighter
Asteroids
Centepede

Gamestop: https://www.gamestop.com/browse?n...
Same four cabinets as FYE but $299.99 and free shipping

Bed Bath & Beyond: https://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/...
Same four cabs as Gamestop at the same $299.99 shipped
BUT they have the Cabinet Riser sold seperately for $69.99 shipped

Fry's Electronics: https://www.frys.com/product/9649...
Has an exclusive combo cabinet that's already pre-sold out w/ riser for $499.99
includes the following games
Asteroids
Major Havoc
Lunar Lander
Tempest
Gravatar
Asteroids Deluxe
Centepede
Missile Command
Crystal Castles
Millipede
Liberator
Quantum

Walmart: https://www.walmart.com/browse/ar...
same four cabs as FYE, Gamestop, Bed Bath Beyond for $299.99 each shipped
PLUS a walmart exclusive: Galaga & Galaxian (same price as the others)
and the Riser is now on there sold seperately for $39.99 (but release for it is showing October 15th)

the next one I'm posting is because of the pictures in the listing might be of interest
Walmart Canada: https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/arca...

so the pics show the approximate scale and holy crap I thought they would be taller without the riser...


Still, if they would have done Galaga 88 on the Galaga/Galaxian combo for walmart, I would have preordered it in a heartbeat (I'm still thinking about it)...
Also, if they do a Pac-Man/Ms Pac-Man/Dig Dug combo, I'd seriously think about it as well


Also, no Space Invaders cabinets were listed on any of the sites.

Best Buy has this for 399.

It combines the two units I was most interested, the spinner unit, and the trackball unit! Plus the addition of 4 more awesome games. I think I will have to get this... I just don't know how I can afford it, since I'm broke as shit.
 

What concerns me is not the size or emulating piece but the flimsy nature of the materials, especially after watching that assembly video. A large amount of people rest their wrists and or lean on arcade cabinets while using them that I've seen so at some point this low quality material will suffer a broken point where the screw and or dowel connect. If that happens goodbye cabinet.

Think I'd rather repurpose a real arcade cabinet for this purpose than buy a flimsy 2/3 size $300 unit that *will* break. It's too bad, it was a decent concept.

I've read bad things about the trackball/spinner cabs from people who had tried out demo units at EVO. They reported the trackball/spinner controls become erratic or cause on-screen movement in the opposite direction when the ball or spinner is moving extremely fast. They speculated the Arcade1up cabs might be using a digital encoder to capture movement rather than a pure analog signal like the original cabs used.

I'm not convinced it's "flimsy" and-or likely to break. Do you actually know about the material they use? The reviewer did not indicate any issues with the material. That said, a traditional cabinet is certainly sturdier but also far more expensive and far far heavier. I'll wait for reviews rather than make presumptions  

It's $300, and that includes the electronics.  It isn't out of the question to presume it isn't made of lower quality materials.  Just sayin'.   
 

Lower quality material than the original cabinets? I'm honestly not sure that's true. It's just different. It's like trying to compare a Ferrari and a Toyota. Both can be of high quality they just serve different purposes. An original arcade cabinet was meant to be put in one place for years and just swallow-up quarters (and they definitely required regular maintenance). This is meant to be as close a clone as possible while keeping the costs affordable. I think comparing the two is a non sequitur.

So the Arcade1up units are slowly making their way into retail stores and non-review unit reviews are starting to show up on Youtube. I thought Youtuber's ETAPrime's videos on the Street Fighter 2 cab he bought answers a lot questions people have been asking.

First, he made a video where he opened up and identified what powers the Arcade1up cabs:






He followed up with a full review:






And his latest video is showing his results modding the cab with a Pi:

How about a synopsis for those that don't care to watch youtube video reviews?

 

Sure. The mainboard in the cab had the label information removed during manufacturing, but ETAPrime was about to tease out that the CPU is an AllWinner A3 ARM CPU with either 256 or 512MB of RAM. That is roughly on par with older versions of Pandora's Box multicade JAMMA boards. He found no obvious way to get into the system to mod it or load different ROMs. The LCD monitor and control panel use standard connectors, so it isn't too much of a hassle to rip out the stock mainboard and put in a PI or mini-PC.

His review in short: It isn't bad for the price if the person buying isn't inclined to roll their own MAME cabinet. The build quality and controls are okay and the emulation is good.
 

A buddy of mine got the Rampage cabinet, and it's much too tiny to sit 3 people in front. Well maybe 3 children could squeeze together, but not adults. Though Rampage is 3p, Gauntlet is locked at 2p max. And Defender - the button layout is all over the board, making it basically unplayable. Kind of a colossal waste of money imo, but it looks cool I suppose.

Ehh, I think I'm just gonna get one of those fancy new Superguns that people are actually starting to make again. That, or I've got my FireTV hacked to play MAME.

I'd love to own a real cab one day, but I just don't have the space right now, especially if I'm going to move in the not so distant future.

I just unboxed the 12-in-1 deluxe cabinet. It was like unpacking the coolest looking Ikea furniture ever. I haven't assembled but everything looks perfect cosmetically. I love how it looks. I connected the controls to the display to test it, and everything appears to working properly, (although strangely it has the wrong information on how to get back to the main menu.) The rollerball feels okay. Perfectly functional. The spinner felt tight and "clicky" which I wasn't a fan of. I might look into upgrading that piece or at least loosening it.

I also really love the game selection. Quantum is a really fun track ball game that I'd never tried before. And major chaos rocks.

People tend to hate the spinner as it will hurt you whether you're muscle memories into it from the old days on Tempest or not as it doesn't roll right. I saw I think it was up on facebook or atari age but someone had modded it and made it behave like the original spinner from the old cabinet and said the game played excellent with it. So you're not off thinking it's not right and upgrading can be done.

these are on sale currently for black friday at walmart for $250 with free shipping if anyone is interested. I picked up the rampage one today

Cool... please let usk now what you think of it... and include some pics  

 

i bought the last one at my walmart, and after 5 hours they canceled it because they really didnt have it in stock. So i go in the store and get a street fighter one and asked them to swap them and go on with the order. They said they couldnt and they are still holding my funds so i dont have enough money to cover 2 of them. So Pissed

 

I saw the one they had setup for demo at my local Walmart and even after seeing them in videos online, I couldn't believe how small it was! LOL! I really don't know why anyone would pay full price for these. I'm guessing that they will be in the bargain bin by mid January. At that point buying the SF2 one and modding it wouldn't be a bad idea.

I agree very short, like a arcade for kids.  However, just to share walmart does have booster table things for these that rise them to the height of a normal arcade.  I still am considering getting a pac-man one and maybe throwing a pi on it.

What surprised me even more is how small the box is to buy it - it could slide into a backseat easily lol.

 

just an update i did finally get one and it is amazing! Its the perfect height while sitting and the quality was really suprising. It would be fun to add a raspberry pi to it as well, but i think im going to keep mine as a street fighter machine.

 

Not trying to rain on your parade, but when was the last time you played a full size upright arcade?  lol 
I will say the Arcade1ups looks really nice, but I don't expect most of them to last very long, assuming they get a decent amount of use.  
I plan on picking up the Pacman and a riser once these get clearanced.