Azathoth

Don't forget you cannot adjust the difficulty.

I agree with you 100%, these are definitely not for purists and I could see them maybe being more viable to some people than a regular cabinet. What made me feel the need to comment was some of the more generalized positive comments and attitudes taken by people who never bothered to seriously look into owning a cabinet. The price point isn't some mind blowing bargain compared to a real cab, and anyone with an extra $50 can buy an additional XXXX-in-1 JAMMA board. The assembly-required setup may make initial transport easier but the tradeoff being cheaper materials and a weird playing position. Their footprint is smaller than a real cab, but still big enough that I don't realistically see anyone moving them from room to room no more than you would a full size cabinet. Anyone with stars in their eyes thinking "Wow, I've always dreamed of owning a real cabinet and now's my chance!" shouldn't just blow off buying the real deal (and potentially be disappointed) just because it requires more footwork than walking into Wal-Mart. If someone was offering a real cabinet with a tiny 17 inch LCD monitor, knockoff stick & buttons, unlit irreplaceable marquee, and a 2 game emulation PCB with no options..... well good luck selling that.

Let me add a little perspective from someone who owns multiple arcade cabs. I've managed to accumulate over a half dozen cabinets over the past few years. Ones that required work (dead monitors) were less than $100 and included PCBs. Those that had no monitor/PCB were either free or less than the cost of the wood, coin mechs, and power supply the included. The only one above $100 was a little less than $300 and included a newish 25 inch monitor and a 2 slot MVS board with carts. This is all when living in a tiny rural area with no active (or defunct) arcades and no amusement distributors. None have super fancy side artwork or trackball/spinner controls, and don't look like the just came off the showroom floor. I'm cool with that. If you're interested in playing standard joystick input games and don't require a meticulously restored machine to play on, chances are you can find one at or under the $300 price, and definitely under the $400 price when including a riser and replacement controls.

Even though I've got enough cabs to choke a horse I was thinking about the SFII one. Not anymore. At this point they've devolved into an oversized collectible trinket with fancy side art, like a My Arcade game on steroids. And I'd say it's a safe assumption that with such bare bones emulation options there won't be any type of high score saving in the other cabs. I feel embarrassed as a gamer when someone reacts to a rubbish At Games clone with "You really liked these games? They're garbage." I'd imagine someone not exposed to a real arcade cab to think similarly of these.

Clickbait titled article written in Chicken Little sky-is-falling hyperbole. Did Nintendo seek out to prosecute any end users that actually play these games? What about the game dumpers, who I dunno, actually preserve this shit? C&D any emulator authors? No? Oh that's right, they just went after the people running a commercial, high profile, for-profit venture that relied primarily on illegally distributing copyrighted works. By the same logic, where's all the wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth when Nintendo shuts down a Chinese sweatshop pumping out Famicom and GBA bootlegs? After all they are just helping to "preserve" games by distributing countless copies to customers may be unable to find them through normal channels or refuse to pay inflated second hand prices, and by proliferating thousands of copies of these games they'll be less likely to be lost to the sands of time. I also find it a bit hypocritical for people to be perfectly cool with a website turning a profit by illegally distributing commercial software, yet they'll scream to the heavens when a company throws out an emulator console running a pirated copy of their favorite emulator.

A remastered Blu-Ray of "The Lost World" was released recently. A Cinephile would immediately comment on things inherit to this one specific transfer like title cards, film stock, score, in comparison to previously released versions. A film critic would examine the movie as a whole regarding the plot, scenery, acting, & direction; their comments would mostly apply to anything from the new Blu-Ray to a bargain bin public domain VHS. The average Netflixing movie-goer.... well you probably couldn't pay the average movie-goer to watch it. It's old, silent, black & white, 4:3, & filled with a cast they've never heard of. The only way you could make it more unappealing is if it was a foreign language film with English subtitles. Video gaming has been around long enough and grown large enough so that the wonderful, force fed term of "gamer" isn't some all encompassing kumbaya-at-the-fireside label the press wishes it was. Granted the main point in the OP was about a comment about classic arcade games (rather than the review itself of a game sequel), but it stands to say that tastes have evolved where not all "gamers" are "gamers". I wouldn't expect a "music lover" to form honest, objective opinions in a bluegrass gospel CD, a gangsta rap single recorded in a makeshift home studio, and a NSBM demo done on a 4-track in a basement. That's just too extreme of a difference in genres no matter how much they say they "I like all music".

Tengen was just the US publisher, like they did with other Namco produced FC games. I'd say they'll use the JP ROM like they have with other games and I'm curious to see how it handles the sound. The JP FC cart has a different mapper and has different (better) sounds than the US cart that uses the Tengen mapper.

I have a few Genesis 4 player adapters I got in some thrift boxes. I have one of them plugged into my setup to act as a controller selector; I can leave a 6 button pad, arcade stick, Justifier, and SMS pad all 4 hooked up at the same time and just toggle between them with the switch. The small bit of extra cord length provided by the adapter is also just enough so I can sit on the couch without controller cords being as tight as Dick's hatband.

Being that original PS2 models are required for the FireWire cable, it takes little expense and effort to install an IDE HDD to load games from. On the LCD monitor I use an Aimtrak that I have installed into a PS1 Real Arcade Gun (aka Super Jolt Gun) for recoil/slide action and a foot pedal. On the CRT I'm using a generic Yobo gun that supports both the Justifier and GunCon 1/2 mode along with a Rock Band bass drum pedal. I'm unsure about the Guitar Hero ones, but the Rock Band pedals are great for these 3rd party guns with a 3.5mm jack on the bottom. They're built like a tank and really make an arcade Time Crisis experience.

I have a rubbish Deer Hunting arcade cabinet I bought a few years ago and use it for PC/Wii/PS2 gun games. I bought a FireWire cable specifically to run from the PS2 in the cab to another PS2 hooked to a TV next to the cab for some Time Crisis action. Those are the only titles I used on it and it worked great. As an aside, both of the the older PS2's I'm using were in a box of junk from a thrift store and have defective disc drives. A cheap $5 HDD adapter turns them into a handy little outfit.

Their Namco Museum 10 inch was shown at E3. I'm assuming it'll be another Android based deal running some stolen/unlicensed emulators since it covers multiple systems. I find it fascinating how Dreamgear has generated so much interest in their recent line of releases. After many, many years of pumping out pure, unadulterated garbage and counterfeit products they actually produce something mildly successful that even looks like a legitimate product. I think it speaks to how little Namco and G-Mode (?) care about their retro IP's that they would even entertain the concept of partnering with them.

MSI's website refers to the Namco one as Collection instead of Museum, but I double checked the UPC at a different Wal-Mart today and it's definitely listed as Namco Museum. Both it and the Street Fighter SKU are next to the rest of the MSI stuff. Interestingly enough it seems Dreamgear is coming out with a Namco 10 inch machine like their Data East one that is indeed called Namco Museum.

2+3 is Mappy again, didn't try grounding all 3 points though. The control pins are also plainly marked, including a select button, although that probably has no practical use in any of these games.

Correct. The Data East ones have a slightly different PCB. The IOB points are actually just 3 points and a ground, not 6 separate points. Rolling Thunder - no connections Pac-Man - IOB 1 Mappy - IOB 2 Galaga - IOB 3 Dig Dug - IOB 1 & 2 Galaxian - IOB 1 & 3

The local Wal-Mart has reorganized their electronics section and has most of their plug & plays or standalone consoles all in one section. They've got the shelf space divided off for specific things even if they don't have it in stock and have the UPC sticker in the front. They've got a section of those (rubbish) Famiclone plug & plays by MSI (Mega Man 2, Double Dragon, Ms. Pacman, etc). Two of the things they don't have in stock but have the prices up for are new plug and plays by MSI, a Street Fighter and a Namco Museum ($17.88). I can't seem to find any info about either of these units anywhere and I wouldn't think a store would bother taking those measures for a product that won't be on the market for months. Anyone have any info?

I wouldn't bother taking apart your Burgertime unit unless you're just wanting practice. I checked mine out and unless I just overlooked 'em there's no type of solder connections leading to the NOAC like the Namco ones. If you're just wanting to take the back off you only have to remove 2 side screws. The laminate stickers on the side are pretty tough and will come off cleanly once you get them started.

Weird and disappointing how Zen handled this. For instance, I had the Street Fighter II table for FX2 on 360. When I got an Xbox One about a year ago I was able to install the new version of FX2 and import the SFII table which had been graphically updated. I deleted it all to make some room on the HDD and now that it's delisted I can't re-download anything other than the base FX2 game. Since the SFII table was an import and not a new purchase it doesn't show up in my download/purchase history. I can download the 360 version from a 360 console all day long but for the XB1 version I'm SOL.

I planned on taking my Dig Dug apart this weekend so I'll let you now what I find out. I'll also check the Burgertime board out to see if it has the same solder connections. This is a little off topic; my local Walmart has almost most of this stuff together in the electronic section except for the Bridge Direct mini's and two plug & plays (Atari 2600 and Pac-Man) which are in the board game section. They have those MSI NES single game plug & plays above the Dreamgear and Tiny Arcade machines. I noticed they had a UPC code for a MSI machine next to Mega Man 2 that was sold out and it was labeled "MSI Street Fighter", any idea what this is?

I picked up one of the Rampage units from Wal-Mart on an impulse buy, played it a few minutes but doubt it will be turned on again. The garish coloring on Ralph's sprite looks like the result of a Game Genie code. No real reason to play this instead of using a real controller on a TV screen. These are based on VT0X (3?) hardware and not vanilla NOAC globtops. You can tell by the color usage on the title and character select screen.

I still have the first match burnt into my memory (rock, scissors) from 35+ years ago. As mentioned the AI always picks the same answers. Defeat them once without picking a wrong answer and you'll never lose again.

I'm puzzled by Retrobit's choice of controllers to pack in with it's new HD version of the Super Retro Trio. The old model came with SNES style controllers with a Genesis plug and they were perfectly serviceable but just not as good as a stock 6-button Genesis pad (but then again, what is?). The configuration worked just fine with all 3 systems and if I'm not mistaken even flipped B/A to Y/B for NES games. I get that using these newer controllers is probably cheaper since they're already in production for their Super Retrocade, but using the SNES R as a Genesis C button? That's absolutely crazy, a setup that works for a grand total of 2 games (SFII' and SSFII). Even if the d-pad is fantastic they'll still be rubbish for this reason alone.

$38 USD + shipping!?!? Wonderful markup percentage there.