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

[Flojomojo]

Of course, the 70s and 80s were a long time ago, and *most* of those kids have moved on.

 

I'm honestly torn as to whether or not I want one of these things.

[John Stamos Mullet]

Because the machines look really cool, and every kid who grew up in the 70's or 80's dreamed of having their own arcade machine. This product makes that dream a reality at an affordable price with little hassle.

I grew up then too. I have always wanted a real arcade machine in my house. This isn't that. It's tiny. $300 for 4 games in a midget coffin is not really affordable. You can buy a whole PS4 or Xbox one that plays hundreds of games, including arcade accurate versions of these particular games, for less.

[Bill Loguidice]

My point was - these things do not compute.

 

Easy pickins Joe Smith at the Grocery story mostly ignored all the Ms Pac-Man and Space Invaders on-a-stick type releases that were $25-$30 at every Best Buy, Walmart & Bed Bath & Beyond. Why would anyone think they would be able to sell these people the same games with similar "arcade style" knockoff controls in an IKEA FlüggeNarn box for $300?

 

Actually, the market for the sub-$80 vintage gaming-based products ($15 - $80, really) is still hopping and is arguably stronger than ever. These are huge impulse buys. And for what it's worth. Arcade1Up has been crowing about the large number of pre-orders they've already got, so you know it has to be good. Retailers aren't stupid either. They wouldn't procure hundreds of thousands of these units if they didn't think they'd sell.

[John Stamos Mullet]

Of course, the 70s and 80s were a long time ago, and *most* of those kids have moved on.

 

I'm honestly torn as to whether or not I want one of these things.

and yeah - this was my other point. All of us here love retro video games, obviously. Be we aren't the majority of consumers. Most people don't care about this stuff. Some might care enough to buy an $8 Pac-man T-shirt at Kohls or Marshalls. A few might buy one of those $25 Ms Pac-Man on a stick jobs for a chistmas present and use it twice, and then it collects dust on a shelf for the rest of it's days. But that's a far cry from $300 for what is essentially an extremely limited appeal nostalgia toy in miniature.

[John Stamos Mullet]

 

 

Retailers aren't stupid either. They wouldn't procure hundreds of thousands of these units if they didn't think they'd sell.

 

[PlaysWithWolves]

Frys got rid of the old cabinet pics and put up new ones. Looks like Quantum replaced Super Breakout.

Nicer view of the controls:

[Skippy B. Coyote]

I grew up then too. I have always wanted a real arcade machine in my house. This isn't that. It's tiny. $300 for 4 games in a midget coffin is not really affordable. You can buy a whole PS4 or Xbox one that plays hundreds of games, including arcade accurate versions of these particular games, for less.

Yeah, but we're dedicated retro gamers on a retro gaming forum so we're picky about stuff like how accurate the construction of the cabinet is to a real arcade machine; the general public is not. Arcade1Up's units are arcade machine shaped and have the same art on the sides and marquee that people remember along with reasonably accurate looking control panels, and that's more than enough to make them sell like hotcakes. Sure, you could buy a modern console for $300, but a modern console isn't an arcade machine and doesn't have the same type of allure.

 

I foresee craptons of grandparents buying these for when the grandkids come over and reasonably well-to-do middle class folks buying them for their summer cabins and the like.

Edited August 8, 2018 by Jin

[Bill Loguidice]

and yeah - this was my other point. All of us here love retro video games, obviously. Be we aren't the majority of consumers. Most people don't care about this stuff. Some might care enough to buy an $8 Pac-man T-shirt at Kohls or Marshalls. A few might buy one of those $25 Ms Pac-Man on a stick jobs for a chistmas present and use it twice, and then it collects dust on a shelf for the rest of it's days. But that's a far cry from $300 for what is essentially an extremely limited appeal nostalgia toy in miniature.

 

Your sales data is incorrect. This stuff sells just fine.

[Bill Loguidice]

Frys got rid of the old cabinet pics and put up new ones. Looks like Quantum replaced Super Breakout.

Nicer view of the controls:

9649533.05.big1.jpg

 

It's criminal that there's no ball and paddle game on any of the spinner units now.

[Flojomojo]

First impression: WTF is Quantum?

Second impression: that looks way more fun than Super Breakout.

 

Still, why not add a few more?

[negative1]

Frys got rid of the old cabinet pics and put up new ones. Looks like Quantum replaced Super Breakout.

Nicer view of the controls:

9649533.05.big1.jpg

 

i don't like the big arrows and circles around the controllers.

 

they look like controls for dummies.

 

also, quantum is a very cool underrated game, (don't spell bad words or piictures when you get high score on it)...

 

but super breakout is a classic, and should have stayed also.

 

later

-1

[Tanooki]

 

A little out of date but fair enough. A newer kind of example would be from a decade ago. Zizzle had John Popadiuk of full size pinball fame (Tales of the Arabian Nights, etc) create a set of tables for them 3/4 size to sell for $300 at retail. A bunch of them were made and shipped to just a few spaces such as Best Buy. They tried to run those things out in mass sales for a couple years at Best Buy (2 years, each year was updated for the next Pirates movie or another Marvel face of it) and in the end so few sold Best Buy gave up and kept dropping the price. At first $100 off, then even worse it was down to $75-100 to get rid of the stacks in the isles they had. I would think at that rate they likely eventually got scooped instead of dumped but who knows and they weren't that bad either.

[Rodney Hester]

A little out of date but fair enough. A newer kind of example would be from a decade ago. Zizzle had John Popadiuk of full size pinball fame (Tales of the Arabian Nights, etc) create a set of tables for them 3/4 size to sell for $300 at retail. A bunch of them were made and shipped to just a few spaces such as Best Buy. They tried to run those things out in mass sales for a couple years at Best Buy (2 years, each year was updated for the next Pirates movie or another Marvel face of it) and in the end so few sold Best Buy gave up and kept dropping the price. At first $100 off, then even worse it was down to $75-100 to get rid of the stacks in the isles they had. I would think at that rate they likely eventually got scooped instead of dumped but who knows and they weren't that bad either.

 

I must have missed that, because I sure as hell would have bought at least one.

 

Throwing a SBC in a thin wooden cabinet with a LCD monitor with some art slapped on it doesn't require a hell of a lot of skill or effort. Building a working 3/4ths scale pin with all the features of the original is a major engineering task.

[NE146]

That cant be the control panel artwork ... my bet is they spruce it up.

[Rodney Hester]

 

I must have missed that, because I sure as hell would have bought at least one.

 

Throwing a SBC in a thin wooden cabinet with a LCD monitor with some art slapped on it doesn't require a hell of a lot of skill or effort. Building a working 3/4ths scale pin with all the features of the original is a major engineering task.

 

OK, just watched a few YouTube videos (and giving them the benefit of the doubt, I looked at the improved 2007 releases, not the 2006 originals)...and I lied. I'd never have bought one of these things if I'd been able to see it in action. That's so...sad.

[Tanooki]

They're fairly basic, sorry if I made you think it was as nice as the quarter eating version of either. They're more along the lines of those $100 mini pins you can get that just have ramps, lights, a couple holes to sink a ball into to get kicked out, and that's really about it aside from pop bumpers and independent solenoids for each flipper.

 

I had one, but I got it second hand for all of like $50. I had fun putting it back together as it needed a little help, I mean it worked, but had problems. It took a bit of research but I actually tracked down the designer, talked with him for a bit on the phone after an email and he was blown away I cared to fix it and sent me all the pieces I needed. It lasted a couple years, then the cheap mobo entirely blew out which was nonrepairable and irreplaceable either so it got pitched. There have been people since who have made their own toys for it and done some nice LED mods that really add to it as much as possible, but still it's limited to its scope and programming. They're more complex than the old tabletop Tomy Astro Shooter or Playtime things of the 80s, but not as complex as the 3/4 pins of the 70s/80s like the mini Bally Fireball or the home pinballs of the 70s where either button popped both flippers (annoying.)

[mckafka99]

First impression: WTF is Quantum?

 

 

A really cool game where you essentially try to 'round up' sub atomic particles. I always loved this game.

[Bill Loguidice]

I had a Zizzle pinball machine until this past December, the first version of the Marvel one (and I mentioned Zizzle earlier, as well, but I guess it got overlooked). I got it when it was down to $150 or $100. I don't remember exactly. It was actually lots of fun and did a good job of simulating some of the experience of a real pinball machine. However, I still don't consider it the equivalent of this even at its original retail price. That was definitely more toy-like and definitely not a shrunk down version of the real thing. The Arcade1Up people probably have it easier, but these are very much like shrunk down "real" machines. If you scaled up the Arcade1Up machines, they'd probably pass muster in a real arcade. You couldn't scale up the Zizzle machines and pass them off as an arcade-like experience. There was too much of a gap there between them and what a real pinball machine offers.

[Bill Loguidice]

 

A really cool game where you essentially try to 'round up' sub atomic particles. I always loved this game.

 

Quantum is great and of course makes great use of the trackball in a fairly atypical way for that type of controller. It's available on various Atari compilations/collections as well. I'm still undecided whether the CoCo's Doubleback copied it or Quantum copied it, but they both released right around the same time.

 

Anyway, Quantum is a great addition/replacement, but it still would have been nice to have a true ball and paddle game on there (I can only think there were emulation/experience issues with Super Breakout). Maybe they'll be inspired to do an Arkanoid machine in the future.

[negative1]

 

Quantum is great and of course makes great use of the trackball in a fairly atypical way for that type of controller. It's available on various Atari compilations/collections as well.

 

Quantum was a rare, and lesser known game:

This game did not fare very well in the arcades (and only around 500 cabinets were ever produced); many of the unsold (and returned) ones were sold to either the general public or employees of Atari.

 

I've never seen it on a compilation or port of it ever. That's why its interesting that they are including it here.

 

later

-1

[Bill Loguidice]

 

I've never seen it on a compilation or port of it ever. That's why its interesting that they are including it here.

 

later

-1

 

You know, you're right. I probably only played it a lot when I had my MAME-based arcade machine (which had a trackball amongst the controls), which I misremembered as playing a lot of it in some compilation or another.

 

The only game like it I'm aware of is the aforementioned Doubleback for the CoCo: http://www.lcurtisboyle.com/nitros9/doubleback.html . It's excellent and makes good use of the CoCo's analog joystick.

 

It's possible that Doubleback inspired Quantum, as Quantum is said to have released in December 1982, while Doubleback's release was earlier in 1982. I still struggle with making the timing work, though. That's quick turnaround in either direction.

[Rodney Hester]

Quantum (Parker Brothers) was HUGE on the 2600, perhaps that's where most remember it from?

[John Stamos Mullet]

Quantum (Parker Brothers) was HUGE on the 2600, perhaps that's where most remember it from?

thats reactor, not quantum.

[Rodney Hester]

thats reactor, not quantum.

 

Derp! My bad.

[NE146]

No no no.. you're thinking Quadrun!

 

It always surprises me when people "don't know <enter game here>", but I guess it shouldn't. I knew Quantum even though I never got to play it because I poured over magazines to read about the new arcade games and would just imagine myself playing them... so I was dorky that way. Why I even remember the article..