Mini Arcade Alert!

[Andromeda Stardust]

10 minutes ago, negative1 said:

hello kosmic,

 

[...]

 

if i ever see some expert gameplay on any replicade or numbskull machine, maybe that

would be impressive. but i doubt i'll ever see anyone even try.

 

later

-1

Ha, I love how you compare the $12.95 - $20 Tiny Arcade rubbish to the $150-$180 Numbskull and $120-$150 Replicade cabs.

 

I am working on memorizing the pattern for the cherry stage. Would that be proof enough if I successfully execute it? These Quarter arcade cabs are actually much higher quality than the 1UP arcade stuff. I had to gut the 1UP machines to put decent arcade sticks and buttons in them, and paint lacquer on the marquee so that the print doesn't rub off. Real arcade vinyl doesn't do that. After my experience with the 1up machine, given the scale of the upright cabs, I'd rather just have my Quarter Arcade.

 

The Replicade spinner on tempest could use some work admittedly. The trackball on Centipede is very nice. I have scored over 100k on Tempest and 30k on Centipede. And I am by no means a competitive player.

 

Quarter Arcade is still the only licensed device that I am aware that has the actual Ms Pacman ROM, unless you want to buy a commercial Pacman Galaga Cab ($3000 new), or the 30-in-1 Home Arcade machine for around the same price. The Ms Pacman ROM has some royalty issues with ex GCC members. It appears Numbskull paid the royalties to use the Ms Pacman ROM right before GCC sold them to Atgames. And we all know Atgames have a lovely track record for quality.

 

Don't expect a 1UP arcade machine or any other quality device featuring the real Ms Pacman ROM any time soon, or any home Namco console collection or plug and play, at least since Game Cube 50th Anniversary Namco Museum, GBA Ms Pacman Collection, or the 2004 Ms Pacman plug and play.

 

45 minutes ago, Kosmic Stardust said:

I got a question for you gurus. I bought the Pacman edition Numbskull Quarter arcade from geekstore.us (yes, it is still in stock there), number 06731/10000. Out of the box, it had the 5 lives / 15000 pts variant 1.30_5 firmware. Apparently they did update it before it shipped. I have played it considerably over the past week or so. Recently as of this evening, I installed the 1.30_3 firmware on it, and the numbskull logo splash screen does not appear on the screen when I boot it. This is in line with one of the reviewers who did an extensive review and also noted the splash screen was absent after upgrading the v1.30_3 firmware.

 

I have encountered an odd bug as well, about a half dozen times so far, typically it appears on the cherry or strawberry stage during play but could presumably happen anywhere. The controls seize up and do not respond intermittently for about 5 seconds or so. This is more than enough to kill a run.

I think I may have fixed it. If the Numbskull logo doesn't show up upon boot, you may have a bad dump. The updater goes up to 8%, then the USB insert sound plays and it jumps to 99%.  It is important not to touch it at this stage. You have to wait a few minutes for the updater to tell you it's finished before you disconnect it.

[Andromeda Stardust]

1 hour ago, negative1 said:

hello kosmic,

 

[...]

 

if i ever see some expert gameplay on any replicade or numbskull machine, maybe that

would be impressive. but i doubt i'll ever see anyone even try.

 

later

-1

I accept your challenge.

 

Perfect score for 1st intermission is 30,000.

https://nrchapman.com/pacman/cherry.html

https://nrchapman.com/pacman/strawberry.html

Is that "expert gameplay" enough for you?

 

I plan to achieve this on the Quarter Arcade.

I gotta start practicing! ?️

 

EDIT: Stage 255 / Killscreen on Quarter Arcade Pacman would be truly worthy of some special achievement, but I don't have the patience to do that.

Edited January 15, 2020 by Kosmic Stardust

[Zoyous]

Each form factor has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. The Numskull and Replicade units definitely have their appeal for people who want to admire an accurate (miniaturized) replica of the original coin-op cabinets at least as much as playing it. Centipede is the only one I've got and its mini-trackball is very impressive. It's something I've played with for an hour without any discomfort. I doubt the same can be said for Street Fighter II, but they did add the option to use an external, full size controller if you want to. The upcoming Dragon's Lair will add the additional feature of having HDMI out if you want to play on a larger display. So I think they are gradually adding in a lot more flexibility. The Arcade 1Up units on the other hand are designed with nearly-the-original-scale controls for better ergonomics. But they don't hit the mark as far as accuracy in original cabinet shape and artwork goes.

 

I've mentioned this before, but the fact that none of these retro gaming options completely checks off every box is a feature of the business model, not a mistake. Keeps ya wanting more.

[Andromeda Stardust]

7 hours ago, Zoyous said:

Each form factor has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. The Numskull and Replicade units definitely have their appeal for people who want to admire an accurate (miniaturized) replica of the original coin-op cabinets at least as much as playing it. Centipede is the only one I've got and its mini-trackball is very impressive. It's something I've played with for an hour without any discomfort. I doubt the same can be said for Street Fighter II, but they did add the option to use an external, full size controller if you want to. The upcoming Dragon's Lair will add the additional feature of having HDMI out if you want to play on a larger display. So I think they are gradually adding in a lot more flexibility. The Arcade 1Up units on the other hand are designed with nearly-the-original-scale controls for better ergonomics. But they don't hit the mark as far as accuracy in original cabinet shape and artwork goes.

 

I've mentioned this before, but the fact that none of these retro gaming options completely checks off every box is a feature of the business model, not a mistake. Keeps ya wanting more.

I don't truly understand the apeal of Track and Field or Dragon's Lair, though they obviously have their fans or Numskull wouldn't produce them.

 

And yeah the six button fighters need a proper ful scale array. To be playable. That said, the tiny joysticks and trackballs work nearly as well as the real thing.

 

The quarter arcades have better controls than the 1up machines honestly. I shouldn't have to upgrade the joystick, butyons, and apply laquer to the overlays because 1up cheaped out.

 

My secret desire is for a Donkey Kong cab with selectable US/Japan stage order, but that won't happen. I swear, if Nintendo makes a labo arcade cab for the switch tablet, I'm gonna vomit in my mouth a bit. An aftermarket switch arcade cab with digital stick and butyons would be cool.

[NE146]

I'm actually looking forward to that Numskull Space Invaders cab. I'm just really curious how they're implementing it in real life, like is there REALLY going to be a little mirror projecting over a background? Or will it just be a facsimile with an emulated background. I think I'd be fine either way though, as the package as a whole still looks appealing to me since that is the SI machine of my childhood. I'd probably not be as enthused if it was a Midway replica I'd have to put on my office desk. 

 

[Zoyous]

4 hours ago, NE146 said:

I'm actually looking forward to that Numskull Space Invaders cab. I'm just really curious how they're implementing it in real life, like is there REALLY going to be a little mirror projecting over a background?

Seems like that should be entirely possible, since a mini mirror reflects just as clearly as a larger one. That would sure be cool.

[Andromeda Stardust]

30 minutes ago, Zoyous said:

Seems like that should be entirely possible, since a mini mirror reflects just as clearly as a larger one. That would sure be cool.

It certainly appears that way based upon the pic. They spare no attention to detail on these.

[negative1]

17 hours ago, Kosmic Stardust said:

I accept your challenge.

 

Perfect score for 1st intermission is 30,000.

https://nrchapman.com/pacman/cherry.html

https://nrchapman.com/pacman/strawberry.html

Is that "expert gameplay" enough for you?

 

I plan to achieve this on the Quarter Arcade.

I gotta start practicing! ?️

 

EDIT: Stage 255 / Killscreen on Quarter Arcade Pacman would be truly worthy of some special achievement, but I don't have the patience to do that.

 

 

Hi Kosmic,

 

Good to see someone trying. However, learning grouping might be harder at first, but will better than

trying to memorize patterns.

 

Ok, going for a killscreen is hard, but if you can get to the 9th key, and possibly 1,000,000, that would be very impressive.

 

I fired up the Myarcade Namco pac-man yesterday, and broke 100k, and got to the first key using my patterns. 

I should be able to get 1 million if i try harder.

 

Its just annoying for a lot of games, because i am right handed, and reaching way over to the left makes a lot

of games much harder. I'll admit having the joystick in the center helps a lot.

 

good luck.

 

later

-1

[TrekkiELO]

On 1/10/2020 at 12:28 PM, Tanooki said:

Basic Fun, the ones who started using those NOAC LCD games exclusively at Walmart that started all this copy cat craze My Arcade picked up on still makes them at a slower pace.  They recently announced 2 new models, one of them is Spy Hunter and you can find it very limited in certain Walmarts around the US but very thinly spread so far.  The game isn't a NOAC but like their re-do of Galaga and Ms Pac Man, these ones are brand new coded games attempting to simulate the real arcade game.  If you can find the video online Spy Hunter clearly parrots the arcade release, somehow they dumbed the weapons array down where owners say it works well so you can use whatever you pick up on top of your machine guns.

Picked up Spy Hunter #16 along with Defender #17 both Arcade Classics by Basic Fun today at the Walmart in Plymouth, Indiana, they also had Centipede and Rampage on clearance for $11 each!

 

?

 

[negative1]

1 hour ago, TrekkiELO said:

Picked up Spy Hunter #16 along with Defender #17 both Arcade Classics by Basic Fun today at the Walmart in Plymouth, Indiana, they also had Centipede and Rampage on clearance for $11 each!

 

?

 

Please post some pictures or do a review of them. Thanks.

 

update, nevermind: doesn't look so hot with the controls

 

 

 

 

later

-1

Edited January 16, 2020 by negative1

[negative1]

here's a picture of defender, 3 buttons hmm...  hyperspace,  fire and smartbomb:

thrust and reverse have been added into the joystick.

 

 

reports say its the NES version, which is defender 2 (stargate), 

so there are stargates in it.

 

later

-1

Edited January 16, 2020 by negative1

[negative1]

here's the don doko don review:

 

 

later

-1

[imstarryeyed]

2 hours ago, negative1 said:

Please post some pictures or do a review of them. Thanks.

 

update, nevermind: doesn't look so hot with the controls

 

 

 

 

later

-1

Looking at the Spy Hunter Video I honestly feel this is one of those buy but never play games.

 

It looks like they made every vehicle shootable, even the big "bully" car that is indestructible and can only be destroyed by ramming him off the screen or into a hazard.

 

The lack of being able to use machine guns with a special weapon and an unlimited special weapon make this a big no thank you  from me.

 

From the look of it in demo mode it looks good however...  

 

I am glad they did not go with  the NES version but this version has too many compromises for me.

 

[Tanooki]

3 hours ago, TrekkiELO said:

Picked up Spy Hunter #16 along with Defender #17 both Arcade Classics by Basic Fun today at the Walmart in Plymouth, Indiana, they also had Centipede and Rampage on clearance for $11 each!

 

?

 

Lucky sob, guess I'll try again this weekend maybe I'll see something though I doubt it.  Centipede isn't too bad, 7800/Atari Flashback NES rom hack thing but fine though doesn't do diagonals like the original.  Rampage though is an absolute treat as it uses the NES as a base, but then they hacked the missing Wolfman back into the game and a little more, it's fantastic.

 

I had no idea they finally got around to making Defender official, probably still that hacked Famicom release isn't it?

Edited January 16, 2020 by Tanooki

[TrekkiELO]

18 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

Lucky sob, guess I'll try again this weekend maybe I'll see something though I doubt it.  Centipede isn't too bad, 7800/Atari Flashback NES rom hack thing but fine though doesn't do diagonals like the original.  Rampage though is an absolute treat as it uses the NES as a base, but then they hacked the missing Wolfman back into the game and a little more, it's fantastic.

 

I had no idea they finally got around to making Defender official, probably still that hacked Famicom release isn't it?

Yeah, NES port of Stargate AKA Defender II, I agree about Centipede and Rampage I'd already bought when it first came out.

Edited January 16, 2020 by TrekkiELO

[Tanooki]

5 minutes ago, TrekkiELO said:

Yeah, NES port of Stargate AKA Defender II, I agree about Centipede and Rampage I'd already bought when it first came out.

I have Rampage, bought that one specifically after I decided to purge almost every single mini arcade cab I had as they were just eating space to be mostly looked at so that's why I'm familiar with Centipede.  I never had Defender(Stargate) but watched all the hacking done to expose it over a year ago within Joust.  I probably would have kept the Basic Fun stuff (offloaded the keychain games except for MsPac/Galaga) but Walmart in my area is loaded with stubbornly lazy people and piss poor suppliers and I got fed up waiting 3-6mo before the 'new' stuff would show up locally because I refused to pay ebay scalpers double to triple.  I really did love those NOAC things, but right now the only thing I think I'd pop for probably would still be Spy Hunter, maybe Ms PacMan.  I did get some of those NOACs back though, all $5 and under thrift finds for color Pac-Man, Frogger, and Q-Bert.)

[TrekkiELO]

46 minutes ago, Tanooki said:

I have Rampage, bought that one specifically after I decided to purge almost every single mini arcade cab I had as they were just eating space to be mostly looked at so that's why I'm familiar with Centipede.  I never had Defender(Stargate) but watched all the hacking done to expose it over a year ago within Joust.  I probably would have kept the Basic Fun stuff (offloaded the keychain games except for MsPac/Galaga) but Walmart in my area is loaded with stubbornly lazy people and piss poor suppliers and I got fed up waiting 3-6mo before the 'new' stuff would show up locally because I refused to pay ebay scalpers double to triple.  I really did love those NOAC things, but right now the only thing I think I'd pop for probably would still be Spy Hunter, maybe Ms PacMan.  I did get some of those NOACs back though, all $5 and under thrift finds for color Pac-Man, Frogger, and Q-Bert.)

I've seen both Walmart's stubbornly lazy inventory people and eBay scalpers, I won't deal with the latter either!

Edited January 16, 2020 by TrekkiELO

[TrekkiELO]

I like these, here's the ones that I've got since they started releasing 'em...

 

Basic Fun Arcade Classics

 

03 Centipede (today)

04 Q*Bert

08 Joust

09 Galaga

10 Rampage

11 Ms. Pac-Man

13 Dig-Dug

14 Pac-Man

16 Spy Hunter

17 Defender

 

Super Impulse Tiny Arcade

 

Pac-Man

Galaxian

Ms. Pac-Man

Space Invaders

Galaga

Frogger

Pole Position

Dig Dug

New Rally-X

Q*Bert

 

My Arcade

 

Burgertime

Elevator Action

Edited January 16, 2020 by TrekkiELO

[Andromeda Stardust]

8 hours ago, negative1 said:

Hi Kosmic,

 

Good to see someone trying. However, learning grouping might be harder at first, but will better than

trying to memorize patterns.

 

Ok, going for a killscreen is hard, but if you can get to the 9th key, and possibly 1,000,000, that would be very impressive.

 

I fired up the Myarcade Namco pac-man yesterday, and broke 100k, and got to the first key using my patterns. 

I should be able to get 1 million if i try harder.

 

Its just annoying for a lot of games, because i am right handed, and reaching way over to the left makes a lot

of games much harder. I'll admit having the joystick in the center helps a lot.

 

good luck.

 

later

-1

My Arcade uses the NES ROM. I wasn't sure did someone publish patterns for the NES version?

 

Patterns are much harder that it appears. You gotta round the corners with perfect execution. Hesitate a single frame and the ghosts desync pretty quickly. For me e cherry pattern falls apart around e upper left pellet. I gotta cut left and immediately cut right while eating both ghosts. The timing of the ghost chomp throws me off because it is midway through a corner cut, then hitting right before Pacman eats the 400 ghost.

 

I suck at memorizing. And I'll prolly just use the Namco collection on my switch for practice since I can save state at the beginning stage.

 

There's no rack advance on the Numskull arcade machines unlike players bitd could train that way by manually advancing the stage for practice.

 

In general getting good at Pacman is great practice for Ms Pacman. my Pacman cab has the 3 lives firmware and the numskull logo tells me the dump is good. No glitching...

[negative1]

45 minutes ago, Kosmic Stardust said:

My Arcade uses the NES ROM. I wasn't sure did someone publish patterns for the NES version?

 

Patterns are much harder that it appears. You gotta round the corners with perfect execution. Hesitate a single frame and the ghosts desync pretty quickly. For me e cherry pattern falls apart around e upper left pellet. I gotta cut left and immediately cut right while eating both ghosts. The timing of the ghost chomp throws me off because it is midway through a corner cut, then hitting right before Pacman eats the 400 ghost.

 

I suck at memorizing. And I'll prolly just use the Namco collection on my switch for practice since I can save state at the beginning stage.

 

There's no rack advance on the Numskull arcade machines unlike players bitd could train that way by manually advancing the stage for practice.

 

In general getting good at Pacman is great practice for Ms Pacman. my Pacman cab has the 3 lives firmware and the numskull logo tells me the dump is good. No glitching...

No, i am using the namco multiarcade with arcade ROMS, so all patterns work.

 

i've crushed the NES version of pac-man, also getting to a Million (though scoring goes to 9,999,990), and there

are patterns, but no 9th key, where the ghosts don't blink. they always blink. you get to the 10th key, and do that forever.

 

 

 

 

later

-1

Edited January 16, 2020 by negative1

[negative1]

Not a working game, but hallmark made a pac-man and donkey kong one,

this year, defender is out (clearance in some stores):

 

 

 

https://www.hallmark.com/ornaments/keepsake-ornaments/defender-ornament-with-light-and-sound-2299QXI3227.html

 

you can find it under $10 online most places.

 

later

-1

Edited January 16, 2020 by negative1

[negative1]

numbskull galaxian:

 

 

 

later

-1

[negative1]

blister pack version with the LED defender:

 

 

 

later

-1

[negative1]

basic fun defender, The NES version:

 

 

 

later

-1

[TrekkiELO]

8 hours ago, negative1 said:

Not a working game, but hallmark made a pac-man and donkey kong one,

this year, defender is out (clearance in some stores):

 

 

 

https://www.hallmark.com/ornaments/keepsake-ornaments/defender-ornament-with-light-and-sound-2299QXI3227.html

 

you can find it under $10 online most places.

 

later

-1

Hallmark made a Galaga Keepsake Ornament in 2009, a year after Pac-Man, this is also where Super Impulse got the idea for their Tiny Arcade line!