Budget Atari and Capcom arcade cabinets to see release this fall!

[Vrock]

6 hours ago, Bill Loguidice said:

I'm biased of course, but the only advantage the A1U cabinets have at this point is with artwork and monitor orientation for select games. Otherwise, our Legends Ultimate blows them away in every other category, and you only need one. The connectivity and laundry list of features that keeps getting added to are genuine game changers in the category. 

Monitor orientation and artwork mean alot to me; I understand others may not care as much but these things are about nostalgia after all, and the design and marquee of the Legends cab doesn't fit that bill. Price is another area where Legends Ultimate loses, at least from a certain point of view. In my view, for $150, someone can get a A1UP cab and if they like, tinker with it down the road and come up with a neat little MAME machine for much less than the $599 asking prices of the Legends. They are two different products that cater to different tastes, for sure. I'm not one of those Atgames haters....I'd have dropped $500 on a Legends machine with a proper monitor and cabinet design. Just food for thought when y'all design the second generation of this thing.

[Vrock]

4 hours ago, Bill Loguidice said:

I don't know what's in the newest A1U cabinets. In the Legends Ultimate, it's a 24" 1080p 60hz monitor.

The newest A1U cabs appear to have a 4:3, 1280x960 60hz LCD. The old ones had 5:4 1280x1024 monitors, and were quite average at best.

 

Granted, 1920x1080 is a much higher resolution, but these games were rendered at like 224x288, so it's not like it matters. The larger screen is nice, but the aspect ratio is a deal-breaker for some.

[Vrock]

4 hours ago, negative1 said:

It's for a completely different market as Bill said. If you want games that will never be released on Arcade 1up you will be upgrading and modding it anyways.

Here, you save the cost of all those upgrades (trackballs, spinners). 

As far as the artwork goes, you can get your own. The screen on the Atgames legend is better than the A1UP also.

 

So, what advantage does the A1up have over it. Nothing. If you want a dedicated machine, with artwork, fine, but that doesn't really mean much

when you're playing games.

 

The cost difference easily makes up for all the money you would be spending on the A1up to get it anywhere near the ability to play the games

you actually want, with the proper controllers (exceptions - tron joystick, and atari flight yoke).

 

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Oh, I don't know. $150 for a cab. Add a video board for $25, a Raspberry Pi for $35, and a cheap amp for $12. Figure you spend $25 on a decent Sanwa joystick, another $20 on buttons, $10 for the usb encoder. $30 for a trackball or spinner, if you like. And let's say you don't want to drill out your control deck, you can get a custom one for $60-80 depending on what you like. You're looking at a very cool little 3/4 scale MAME machine for well under $400.

The nice thing about the A1U cabs is the aftermarket support, and you can tweak them however you like over as long as you like. But yeah, if you just want a "one and done" multi-cab and don't care about how it looks or displays your games, for $200+ more the Legends is a good option.

Edited December 1, 2019 by Vrock
clarity

[Bill Loguidice]

1 hour ago, Vrock said:

The newest A1U cabs appear to have a 4:3, 1280x960 60hz LCD. The old ones had 5:4 1280x1024 monitors, and were quite average at best.

 

Granted, 1920x1080 is a much higher resolution, but these games were rendered at like 224x288, so it's not like it matters. The larger screen is nice, but the aspect ratio is a deal-breaker for some.

Yes, it's meant to play everything from classic arcades and consoles to modern PC games, so the monitor choice was intentional for the broadest support.

 

The aspect ratio no doubt bothers some, but in reality it's still a height of close to 17" on vertical games that you're standing right in front of.

[Bill Loguidice]

Yes, these are for somewhat different markets, although there's some obvious overlap. It's very hard to directly compare something as small as an Arcade1Up to something as large as the Legends Ultimate. It can be hard to go back once you actually use the larger machine. Of course, the larger machine can't be sold for $75 either, so there's that.

[negative1]

1 hour ago, Vrock said:

The newest A1U cabs appear to have a 4:3, 1280x960 60hz LCD. The old ones had 5:4 1280x1024 monitors, and were quite average at best.

 

Granted, 1920x1080 is a much higher resolution, but these games were rendered at like 224x288, so it's not like it matters. The larger screen is nice, but the aspect ratio is a deal-breaker for some.

It matters a whole lot.

 

If you want pixel scaling, you can do it better with a larger resolution.

You can also add bezels, and artwork. You can also do pixel effects better

on larger screens, and better quality ones.

 

The arcade 1up screens have terrible viewing angles and color reproduction.

 

There's no contest when it comes to the screen. Obviously you can adjust the aspect ratio (if you run your own software), maybe

not with the built in one, but there's no options on an arcade 1up.

 

It's a much inferior machine.

 

And all this talk about $75-$150 cabinets, sure, when they are on clearance. But the retail for $299, and now even more

expensive games, levels the playing field when talking about modding.

 

You can't really compare the two, but you can compare the hardware, which is the point I made.

 

And since its already there on the atgames as default, you don't have to fiddle with it as much to get games working.

Compared the time and effort to get all those controls working, and the lack of space on the Arcade 1up.

 

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Edited December 1, 2019 by negative1

[128Kgames]

40 minutes ago, negative1 said:

The arcade 1up screens have terrible viewing angles and color reproduction.

 

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Not anymore, not with the latest models.  Having 9 cabs now going as far back as Centipede I can tell you my Marvel LE cab has a fantastic screen compared to the first gen cabs and even the second gen Final Fight cab.

[Vrock]

I regularly see A1U cabinets between $175 and $200 on Walmart.com. Currently several cabs are $150. I'm really tempted to pick up an Asteroids cab for that price and make it my horizontal MAME machine. I play horizontal games on my Galaga cab just fine but would like a bit more screen real estate.

[negative1]

16 hours ago, 128Kgames said:

Not anymore, not with the latest models.  Having 9 cabs now going as far back as Centipede I can tell you my Marvel LE cab has a fantastic screen compared to the first gen cabs and even the second gen Final Fight cab.

Again, the vast majority of their screens are low quality, poor resolution, and viewing angles.

Just because a few of the recent ones are slightly better, doesn't mean the average cabinet a person

buys will be decent.

 

Any vector game will look poor on an LCD, (even on the Atgames), but the fact you can do more effects

on a better monitor, gives them the advantage.

 

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[Vrock]

On my Galaga Rasperry Pi cab, Quantum looks pretty good with antialiasing, a HQ 4x shader, and the vector settings properly adjusted in Retroarch. This on the low quality gen 1 Arcade1Up monitor I'm running for now. I agree that vector games are one area where a higher resolution monitor would be beneficial.

 

I also agree that the stock A1U vector cabs look lousy. They put zero effort into mitigating jaggies, which is a shame.

 

 

[JeffVav]

On 12/1/2019 at 11:19 AM, negative1 said:

Again, the vast majority of their screens are low quality, poor resolution, and viewing angles.

Just because a few of the recent ones are slightly better, doesn't mean the average cabinet a person

buys will be decent.

It's not a "luck of the draw" thing. A1UP changed their monitors (model and supplier I think) this year. I know we received the upgrades in the middle of developing Star Wars. As I understand it they were making a conscious effort to step up the quality on multiple fronts. So newer games are likely going to be using the higher quality hardware than older ones. 
 

One other thing the A1UP cabinets have going for them -- and I realise this isn't necessarily the best forum to appreciate this -- is a low barrier to entry for non-technical people. If you can assemble Ikea furniture, you're basically going to get what you signed up for. The AtGames system looks to serve a different consumer if they want to get the full value out of it... one that's possibly more at ease tinkering with PCs, someone with a little "IT" skill. 

 

In the end it's all about what you have taste for. (And lest people think I'm choosing sides, we also did the Fix It Felix game they've included in the AtGames unit.)

[Bill Loguidice]

7 hours ago, JeffVav said:

It's not a "luck of the draw" thing. A1UP changed their monitors (model and supplier I think) this year. I know we received the upgrades in the middle of developing Star Wars. As I understand it they were making a conscious effort to step up the quality on multiple fronts. So newer games are likely going to be using the higher quality hardware than older ones. 
 

One other thing the A1UP cabinets have going for them -- and I realise this isn't necessarily the best forum to appreciate this -- is a low barrier to entry for non-technical people. If you can assemble Ikea furniture, you're basically going to get what you signed up for. The AtGames system looks to serve a different consumer if they want to get the full value out of it... one that's possibly more at ease tinkering with PCs, someone with a little "IT" skill. 

 

In the end it's all about what you have taste for. (And lest people think I'm choosing sides, we also did the Fix It Felix game they've included in the AtGames unit.)

I really don't want this to turn into a "vs." thread, because it's unnecessary. I think again we can all agree that there's room for everyone and having more inexpensive home arcade options is good for consumers, just like the upcoming explosion of home digital pinball machines will be good for consumers. However, I do want to do a counterpoint to a few things you said...

 

First off, even though the Legends Ultimate is a full-size, rather than scaled-down unit, it's actually easier to build than the Arcade1Up stuff. You can do it in roughly half the time, with the only piece you actually have to build being the base. Otherwise, the top unit with the monitor and the control panel itself are already pre-assembled.

Secondly, it's true that having the countless options the Legends Ultimate has to play/add more games can be overwhelming, but they are indeed that, options. Even if you don't take advantage of them, you still have 350 built-in games to play, or 360 with the arcade Blast! dongle included in the Sam's Club edition. The Arcade1Up games are definitely easier to use in total, but that's also because you only have a handful of games with purpose-built control panels. And, frankly, whether you pay $449 or $599 for a Legends Ultimate, it's really not that far off what you pay for a smaller, single-purpose machine from Arcade1Up, at least at their standard retail price. Finally, there's a huge mod community for Arcade1Up stuff, and they definitely take advantage of the $75 - $150 pricing, so that audience is definitely not on the casual side. Modding is not for everyone and you can actually do the same stuff on the Legends Ultimate without modding (especially as the updates continue to roll-out and we expand both the Bluetooth and USB functionality), so that's another point for the less technical in the Legends Ultimate's favor for the crowd who wants to do advanced stuff without poking around inside the machine. 

[John Stamos Mullet]

I have two A1Up cabs now. a Fully modded RPi Galaga with additional fire buttons & trackball, that I got for $150, and a Pac-Man that is semi-Stock, which I got for $150. What I mean by semi-stock is that it is running an A1up board, not a Pi, but the A1Up board was modded by someone at Reddit, so it has a usb port, and he flashed it with Pac-Man, Galaga & Space Invaders, so it runs all of the games from that series. ( also added Lighted marquees and lighted LED buttons to both.

 

The only thing about the stock version of the games that bugs me is the lack of screen smoothing and scanline filters. Otherwise, they look, sound and play just as well as the RPi Modded cab versions.

 

But I have two cabinets for Less than the price of one of the Legends ones.

[NE146]

1 hour ago, John Stamos Mullet said:

I have two A1Up cabs now. a Fully modded RPi Galaga with additional fire buttons & trackball, that I got for $150, and a Pac-Man that is semi-Stock, which I got for $150.

 

Do you have a link to the guide or guides you used to mod your A1up to a RPi cab? I want to do that with my 12-in-1 and outfit it with just trackball/spinner/button games.   

 

I've built a rpi3 cab from scratch already, but kind of curious as to the A1up specific stuff people have encountered from someone who's already done it. Like what's the deal with those glued on screws and buttons? Is there a better way to get those out instead of pure prying and bending them out? etc. And whats the deal with the monitor. Will that have to be replaced? 

 

[128Kgames]

Not as bad as you think, I've replaced two trackballs and they come out without a hitch.  I'm thinking they added glue to prevent them coming loose over time, not to keep you from removing them.

[John Stamos Mullet]

25 minutes ago, NE146 said:

 

Do you have a link to the guide or guides you used to mod your A1up to a RPi cab? I want to do that with my 12-in-1 and outfit it with just trackball/spinner/button games.   

 

I've built a rpi3 cab from scratch already, but kind of curious as to the A1up specific stuff people have encountered from someone who's already done it. Like what's the deal with those glued on screws and buttons? Is there a better way to get those out instead of pure prying and bending them out? etc. And whats the deal with the monitor. Will that have to be replaced? 

 

I followed the ETA prime mod on Youtube. Dude does the best videos. clear and concise.

 

The buttons weren't' glued on mine. The popped right out. Just the joystick was glued. But it really wasn't hard to get it off. flathead screwdriver and some gentle prying did the trick pretty easy.

 

as for the monitor - you will need to get a video driver board that matches your monitor model. Use the serial number sticker from the back monitor to search amazon for the video board. They're usually $29. That was really easy. Get the one with the little add-on board that lets you adjust brightness, etc.

 

On my Pi cab I replaced all the controls for new. It was a Galaga, so it didn't have a Trackball. I added one of those Lighted PS/2 trackballs with a PS/2 to USB adaptor. This was really the most difficult part for me.

 

So I drilled the hole for the Trackball where the original speaker was. That way, I centered the holesaw bit with the center hole of the speaker grille holes. But to get it to fit nicely, and sit high enough on the control panel I did this:

 

1. Took the top cover off the Track ball enclosure.

2. cut the screw hole legs down to be flush with the top of the bottom half of the trackball enclosure. (used a dremel with a diamond circular bit like an edge grinder)

3. used the dremel with a sanding bit on the bottom of the A1Up control panel to bore out the mdf around the new trackball hole so that the TB encoder wheels fit under the control panel  and can spin freely. (they stick out above the bottom half of the trackball enclosure by 1/4 inch with the top removed. )

[NE146]

13 minutes ago, 128Kgames said:

Not as bad as you think, I've replaced two trackballs and they come out without a hitch.  I'm thinking they added glue to prevent them coming loose over time, not to keep you from removing them.

I tried removing my trackball and I think I stripped a screw tbh And it's still glued in there good.

[128Kgames]

17 minutes ago, NE146 said:

I tried removing my trackball and I think I stripped a screw tbh And it's still glued in there good.

Probably glue on the screw- try using a pick of some kind to clean off any glue covering the screw head (or around it).  I thought mine was stripped too until I shined a light on it and saw all the glue.  Once it was clean it came right out.

[negative1]

A detailed look at the black cocktail pac-man cabinet:

 

 

promos for it, and street fighter 2:

 

 

 

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[negative1]

review of wallacade:

 

 

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[Vrock]

The new panels are indeed an upgrade. Better viewing angles, color reoproduction and contrast. The backlight is still a bit too high for my tastes but much better than old monitors, and no bluish/gray tint anymore to the blacks. Based on the above I think we have a VA panel vs a TN here, which is nice.

 

Downsides: anyone looking to swap these into a 1st gen Raspberry Pi'd cabinet is going to have to deal with the different aspect ratio of these monitors (even though it's more correct than the 5:4), because the old bezels were made for 5:4. This means you will see some monitor frame on the left/right, and the bezel actually cuts off some screen on top and bottom. You can adjust for this via software in Retropie to ensure your screen doesn't get cut off, but it would be nice if a proper aspect ratio plexi bezel was available.

[John Stamos Mullet]

On 11/30/2019 at 7:42 PM, Vrock said:

Oh, I don't know. $150 for a cab. Add a video board for $25, a Raspberry Pi for $35, and a cheap amp for $12. Figure you spend $25 on a decent Sanwa joystick, another $20 on buttons, $10 for the usb encoder. $30 for a trackball or spinner, if you like. And let's say you don't want to drill out your control deck, you can get a custom one for $60-80 depending on what you like. You're looking at a very cool little 3/4 scale MAME machine for well under $400.

The nice thing about the A1U cabs is the aftermarket support, and you can tweak them however you like over as long as you like. But yeah, if you just want a "one and done" multi-cab and don't care about how it looks or displays your games, for $200+ more the Legends is a good option.

This^^ Except I got the Sanwa stick & 10 LED buttons for $19 that came with the USB encoder on Amazon, I used Powered PC speakers I already had, and the Trackball was $17. the most expensive part was the lighted MArquee, and it was $50. and I still spent under $300 for the whole cab.

[negative1]

A closer look at the wallcades:

 

 

 

 

 

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[Vrock]

11 hours ago, negative1 said:

A closer look at the wallcades:

 

 

 

 

 

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This guy says "the buttons don't have microswitches on them". Sigh.

[negative1]

4 hours ago, Vrock said:

This guy says "the buttons don't have microswitches on them". Sigh.

That's easy enough to replace.

The troubling part is the poor emulation of Galaga.

 

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