Series 2 games have been announced. The lineup includes:
Space Invaders
Final Fight (including 1944, Strider & Ghosts'n'Goblins)
Golden Tee (including several other Golden Tee versions)
Karate Champ (including Bad Dudes, Burger Time, and Caveman Ninja)
Mortal Kombat 2 (including Mortal Kombat, and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 )
SFII cocktail cabinet (w/ head to head split screen)

Golden Tee is criminally underrepesented in home versions (the only real ways to play are the $4000 home cabinet or MAME). The screen looks like it may be too close to the trackball, a painful problem with many original Golden Tee conversions. It would also be a big selling point if it went up to GT Complete. If that ends up being any good, I might get rid of my Taito bartop to grab one.

It’s not ideal, but I saw Golden Tee TV games complete with trackballs simultaneously in Big Lots and Goodwill a few years ago. Actually, there were two at Goodwill and multiple new in package at Big Lots. Coincidentally, my local Goodwill has another one right now!

I never really got the appeal of arcade golf though.  

 

I see me buying the MK model.

Finally saw these in person and had the kids along.

They were really excited to see the 2 player Street Fighter cabinet... but the buttons were either not connected properly or broken, so the demo mode didn't work.

I need to do some more reading on what vertical-screen games I might want to stuff into the Galaga cabinet, as that one has my eye.

But also not sure I want to drop $170 on it. Though I know that is a fair deal for just the cabinet kit, no matter how I intend to use it.


Surprisingly, the small size was way less off-putting than I'd imagined it would be.

Really?  I was considering buying the SF2 model and modding it with a rasberry pi, until I saw these in person that is.  I thought it was comicically small.  They are the perfect size for kids to play on them standing up, and if I had kids I would buy one asap to get them into arcade gaming! 

Well, it was perfect size for my kids, and that was my only real interest in it.

If I wanted it for me, I would just buy another full size vintage cabinet  

I have the sf2 cab with riser. I am 6'1 and it is perfect, i feel completly comfortable standing and playing on it. I ordered mine through target, was in perfect shape when arrived and works just as it should.

So for the people that have these, if I was going to only buy ONE, what is the best one to get in terms of utility?

I gather they are all running some flavor of MAME under the hood -- can any of them have additional games added easily?
Or is it all going to come down to just using the shell and wiring in a computer to play alternate games?

The plug 'n play is one of the only decent ways to play at home, the other being a relatively expensive PC port of the first game. Both of these have only 3 courses I'm pretty sure! I only got into Golden Tee a year or two ago. In a world of lame power-bar based golf games, I never realized how much nuance and skill is involved in Golden Tee. A fairly core feature of the game is that you can only turn in 15 degree increments, which forces you to learn how to curve the ball. Then you go searching for a home version to practice on and come up empty. They're one of the few companies that stuck to their guns with a profitable arcade-only game that forces you to spend 4 bucks a game to play!

The size isn't so much the issue for these as they're easy to manipulate into pandora or pi box situations, or even placing just a MAME PC or MAME bootleg board into it too. The problem are a few, and size is just a comfort issue with it being short. The CPO art is awful as far as ink goes, rubs off after not too terribly long, enough they had to start by request mailing out clear cut plastic overlays to screw on they annoyingly don't include in the box. The stick and buttons are not accurate, not accurate enough even on a new unit you'll run into problems getting 1:1 detection which is death in a SF2 game or even an old 80s arcade title. The screen has a poor view angle, but not a big deal given the space the unit takes up. It uses screws and fairly cheap quality press board along with a very flimsy thin clear piece of plastic (not even plexiglass) over the LCD. The body will not take abuse of anyone who may get mad and fist pound the body for long, definitely not kicking. If you're someone who may pop the glass, it's so weak on that overlay that LCD will just crack. They I've seen from store abuse and use tend to get a bit looser and wobbly as well so they don't really tighten up well long to really last.

I've seen mods, people placing good plastic over the view area, getting the cut piece for the CPO or doing their own, and swapping out happ/sanwa sticks and buttons to get the accuracy needed, and even some going as far as gutting the marquee board and making their own real one that lights up. The problem is all these fixes add up against buying a second hand arcade cabinet and doing it yourself. That's why I've seen enough people happier when Walmart started dropping them to $150-200 being more ready to buy the things as they sadly really are disposable. I'm curious what they'll do with the cocktail model to shore that up because the tempered glass of a classic one I don't see them duplicating.

From what i have heard the Pacman or one with Asteroids are the best in terms of quality. The spinner sucks ball though on it. And the trackballs are also not the best but can be tweaked to be better. You just have to go into one of these with the expectations that if you want a really great experience, you are better off with a mame cab. If you just want something convenient and is a neat but expensive novelty, one of these can scratch that itch.

I will say, once you have built a MAME cab, like i have in the past, it is truly hard to appreciate something like these. So my opinion could be biased. I wish i never sold mine. But space...........always a problem

I've got the Rampage cab. I have a riser, but I haven't installed it yet because it's the prefect height for my 4 year old son. He loves Rampage, and he can play it by himself without my help. If they drop down cheap enough, I plan to buy a second one. I would like to get the Street Fighter cab because it's the most ideal for modifying with additional games (due to the extra action buttons).

Overall, I'm very happy with the cab. It's certainly not super high quality, but for the cost, you can't go wrong. Mine was a Christmas present from my parents, but I happen to know that they only paid $150 for mine. I think $300 is a bit much for what you get, but if you can find one for $150 or lower, I would say go for it. My Dad also has the Pac-Man cab which is a lot of fun and plays very well. I'm not a super big fan of Pac-Man, so I prefer the Rampage cab.

Same. I couldn't believe how small these machines were when I saw one in person even after watching a few video reviews.

I find myself playing the Pacman one for at least 10 minutes at Walmart... if the cabinet isn't broken. The size of the cabinet is smaller than a real one, but I get lost in the gameplay.

I don't plan on buying one of these cabinets, but at least it is decently sized to where someone in an apartment could own one.

They've got new cabs coming out in 2019. I like the Final Fight one a lot. I kind of want one even if I don't have room for it. In other news I discovered what kind of screen they're using from watching an assembly video. It's a pretty nice 4:3 lcd display, and you can get controller boards for it that let you plug hdmi, dvi, and vga into it. Specs show it's pixel refresh rate at 5ms total.

http://store.lcdparts.net/M170ETN...

I may just build my own mame cabinet and play all the games.  ;p

The MK and the Final Fight ones look awesome.

My bought my first Arcade 1up machine on May 26th, the Mortal Kombat II. Got it home and put it together in about an hour. It worked flawlessly and my friends and I had an amazing next two nights. Then the third day I started to notice something alarming, the pixels in the upper left corner were going dead right before my eyes! One by one I could see them turn bright, and then instantly turn to the blackest of blacks and never turn back. It was happening from a left/right motion. I tried to cope with it by putting a decal in the corner of the screen but it just kept getting worse. Then today, I got home and was playing for about 30 minutes, reset to the menu to choose Mortal Kombat II, and it booted MK1. I thought "that's odd" and booted back to main screen. Then I tried to choose again and heard a soft "pop" and the screen just totally went dead, no sound, nothing, the only thing you can still see is the growing strands of dead pixels. I've tried everything but it doesn't even boot the Arcade 1Up logo or anything, just totally dead five days into owning it. The worst part is a tossed my box and receipt the 2nd day after it seemed to be working great, and then instantly everything under the sun started going wrong. My only evidence is buying it on my credit card, the $299.00 charge, and it shows my Wal-Mart store number and date, but that's it. Customer service phone is closed so I sent them a lengthy well written email with pics. I hope things work out, I was really so impressed with it the first two days, I'm pretty bummed! Especially since I don't exactly have $300 to throw around

Your credit card should cover the purchase or at least give you the proof to return it to Walmart. Worst comes to worst just buy another one and then return the broken one with that receipt.

I feel your pain, this is why after I returned mine to Gamestop I didn't buy another. Dealing with 1up wasn't bad but the fact that they don't want you to return it to the store is sketchy.

 

I did end up finding the receipt balled up in my car after all so that was good.
From what I heard Walmart service desk can also reprint a receipt for a credit card.
Still haven't heard back from a rep but each time I turn it on to check it, the dead pixels continue to grow, it's like someone is drawing on it with an etch-a-sketch
That said I've seen plenty of people never have a problem with these machines at all. I put in an online ticket and I'm nearly the 50,000th ticket.

It isn't particularly sketchy.

It is more or less standard practice for large items (diy furniture kits, appliances, etc) to have big printed inserts pleading to NOT return it to the store if there is an issue but to call their support number instead.

It is way more expensive for them to accept a fully returned item than to simply replace the parts that are broken or damaged and have the sale "stick" with the retailer.

True but if you tell me it's gonna take three weeks to replace the screen on a $300 cab (I bought it when it first came out) no thanks I want my money back, you get one shot with me.

My 12-in-1 is still working fine. I still play it regularly and I am very happy I got it. The paint on the control deck is starting to rub off, but since it was just a generic control deck (not reproducing actual cabinet art) I didn't bother with ordering a deck protector. I still might replace the spinner one of these days.

I'm open to getting a second one, but don't really have a great spot to put it unless I get rid of some more of the kids' old toys. MKII or Rampage would be my top choices, preferably if I could get them for 200 or less.

I agree. I buy things that I expect to work and don't want to be waiting around for parts or contacting a company's customer service to try to fix the issue to save THEM money. If I want another one I'd take it back to Walmart or wherever and exchange it.