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

[NE146]

It's almost exactly like my old forum signature before Al removed large images

[atarilovesyou]

 

I say this with respect, because a lot of what you say comes across as pretty reasonable, but I don't think you are fairly characterizing your own behavior in this thread. When you say things like

 

 

you are well past the line of "logical, reasoned deductions" and firmly in the realm of "insulting people who have a different opinion." The fact that some people have decided that these products, which are not perfect, have $300 of value for them doesn't necessarily mean that they have no impulse control, or that they are ignorant, or that they are deluding themselves. It may mean only that they have come to different conclusions than you did, given the same information. Do you actually not accept that reasonable people can disagree about these things? Because these are not the statements of someone who does.

 

I would take your reasonable point of view a bit better in hand had this not been your 12th post since 2005...

 

i get what you're saying, but I think you're missing my point. If someone says " I realize these are lacking in quality, but I think they look cool, so I'm going to buy one." That's fine. To each, his own.

 

But I would simply contend that someone who admits they know something is lacking in quality, but decides to buy it anyway - while they are entitled to do whatever they like with their own money, and are certainly entitled to feel that way, that opinion isn't one that other people who are looking for meaningful critical review or informed opinions should pay much attention to.

 

At the end of the day, everyone is going to do what they want with their own money. And if you like it or think it looks cool - great. Buy it. Have a blast. I'll wait until I see it in person, and see more reviews from non-fanboys, and YouTube "personalities" who have created shows for the sole purpose of procuring free stuff for "reviews".

[John Stamos Mullet]

 

I would take your reasonable point of view a bit better in hand had this not been your 12th post since 2005...

 

 

[128Kgames]

 

In his own mind, I'm sure he is.

[John Stamos Mullet]

 

In his own mind, I'm sure he is.

Several people have agreed with me.

 

Others have not.

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Flojomojo]

Some people like the idea of a miniature arcade machine for $300!

Other people do not think it is a good value!

 

thirty pages of this

 

[John Stamos Mullet]

Some people like the idea of a miniature arcade machine for $300!

Other people do not think it is a good value!

 

thirty pages of this

 

You're leaving out the part where some people casually (or directly) suggest that those who do not think it's a good value should not be allowed to post more than once,and should be asked (or forced) to stop posting because reasons.

Edited September 18, 2018 by John Stamos Mullet

[Flojomojo]

no i didn't

 

(this is where you say, "yes you did")

[OrionB]

<sock puppet image>

 

I'm a lurker, not a sock puppet. Get it right!

[John Stamos Mullet]

 

I'm a lurker, not a sock puppet. Get it right!

that was one long ass lurk.

[OrionB]

Back on topic, I've done quite a bit of research on these cabinets since I like the look of them as a conversation piece, and I thought I'd share my notes below, in case anyone finds them helpful. Much of this information came from this thread, and thanks to those who have linked to videos etc.

 

The bottom line for me is that I'm on the fence about whether to get one, since the "cons" list is pretty significant. I'd be much happier if they'd put another $100 into these to make them less cheap (but I understand why they didn't).

 

Pros:

1. Artwork is a faithful recreation of the originals. In cases where they had to make changes because of available space, the changes have been done tastefully.
2. The cabinet is light enough that I can actually move it myself without much difficulty, when needed.
3. Games appear to be faithfully emulated. No NES-on-a-chip here.
4. The control layout of the primary game of each cabinet is (mostly) faithfully recreated. Controls are well calibrated for the primary game from what I can tell (e.g. the Centipede cabinet's trackball looks like it works well for Centipede/Millipede).
5. By far this is the cheapest solution available for a turnkey arcade cabinet that looks the part and doesn't have the maintenance baggage of a vintage cabinet.

Unknown:

1. The monitor is a 5:4 1280x1024 TN panel. TN panels can have pretty bad viewing angles, and this is particularly concerning for the cabinets that have a vertical monitor since the long axis often has a very bad viewing angle in one direction. Won't really know until I can see one in person.
2. I can't tell how good the scaler is. Hopefully no visible scaling artifacts, and haven't seen any in the available videos, but can't tell for certain. Above all else I hope they didn't stretch the native 4:3 graphics to fit the 5:4 display.
3. Usually with emulated arcade games you have to either change the speed the game runs to match the display refresh rate, or the graphics will show tearing artifacts. I don't like either of those options so I have a G-Sync monitor on my DIY cabinet. Could be okay though; won't know until I can play one.
4. We don't know how durable the controls are. We know that they aren't brand name controls so who knows.
5. We don't know how durable the cabinet itself is. I've had some furniture with this type of construction that has been rock solid through several moves, and other pieces that fell apart if you looked at them wrong.

Cons:

1. The artwork appears to not be very durable, particularly on the control panel. Arcade1Up claims the issues with that YouTube guy's Centipede cabinet was a manufacturing defect, but I'm skeptical. We shall see when more of these are in the wild.
2. Controls appear to not be well calibrated for most of the non-primary games. The Defender layout is a train wreck, the spinner isn't right for either Tempest or Major Havoc, and it looks like Crystal Castles is just unplayable. I suspect the spinner may be salvagable by gluing some weights inside, but the trackball feel for Centipede/Millipede is much different than for Missile Command or Crystal Castles, and there's really nothing to be done about that.
3. None of the settings are accessible. This might have partially mitigated the above point if you could adjust the spinner/trackball sensitivity in each game, but no. Hopefully you like the default settings for number of lives, difficulty, etc.
4. The cabinet is small enough that multi-player games are likely to be unconfortable, particularly for three players or if playing a long time.
5. The cabinet is very small so a separate riser is required if you want to play these games standing up as God intended.
6. The joysticks and buttons are microswitch, and some of the games originally had leaf switch controls. (Some people prefer microswitch controls but I find them too noisy personally.)
7. Some of the panels used in the construction are very thin. In particular the bottom front panel seems like it would be prone to breakage by kicks and bumps if you don't use the riser.
8. The number of games in each cabinet is pretty limited (except maybe in the Atari deluxe cabinet), so you have to have multiple if you want, say, Pac-Man AND Galaga.
9. The cabinet itself is a standard design which doesn't replicate the distinctive cabinet of each of the games.
10. There is no way to emulate scanlines, if you like that look.

[Flojomojo]

https://media0.giphy.com/media/vIZ0U63Ig0uOI/giphy.gif?cid=4bf119fc5ba186bf5631514549316d91

[John Stamos Mullet]

Back on topic, I've done quite a bit of research on these cabinets since I like the look of them as a conversation piece, and I thought I'd share my notes below, in case anyone finds them helpful. Much of this information came from this thread, and thanks to those who have linked to videos etc.

 

The bottom line for me is that I'm on the fence about whether to get one, since the "cons" list is pretty significant. I'd be much happier if they'd put another $100 into these to make them less cheap (but I understand why they didn't).

 

Pros:

• Artwork is a faithful recreation of the originals. In cases where they had to make changes because of available space, the changes have been done tastefully.
• The cabinet is light enough that I can actually move it myself without much difficulty, when needed.
• Games appear to be faithfully emulated. No NES-on-a-chip here.
• The control layout of the primary game of each cabinet is (mostly) faithfully recreated. Controls are well calibrated for the primary game from what I can tell (e.g. the Centipede cabinet's trackball looks like it works well for Centipede/Millipede).
• By far this is the cheapest solution available for a turnkey arcade cabinet that looks the part and doesn't have the maintenance baggage of a vintage cabinet.

Unknown:

• The monitor is a 5:4 1280x1024 TN panel. TN panels can have pretty bad viewing angles, and this is particularly concerning for the cabinets that have a vertical monitor since the long axis often has a very bad viewing angle in one direction. Won't really know until I can see one in person.
• I can't tell how good the scaler is. Hopefully no visible scaling artifacts, and haven't seen any in the available videos, but can't tell for certain. Above all else I hope they didn't stretch the native 4:3 graphics to fit the 5:4 display.
• Usually with emulated arcade games you have to either change the speed the game runs to match the display refresh rate, or the graphics will show tearing artifacts. I don't like either of those options so I have a G-Sync monitor on my DIY cabinet. Could be okay though; won't know until I can play one.
• We don't know how durable the controls are. We know that they aren't brand name controls so who knows.

• We don't know how durable the cabinet itself is. I've had some furniture with this type of construction that has been rock solid through several moves, and other pieces that fell apart if you looked at them wrong.

Cons:

• The artwork appears to not be very durable, particularly on the control panel. Arcade1Up claims the issues with that YouTube guy's Centipede cabinet was a manufacturing defect, but I'm skeptical. We shall see when more of these are in the wild.
• Controls appear to not be well calibrated for most of the non-primary games. The Defender layout is a train wreck, the spinner isn't right for either Tempest or Major Havoc, and it looks like Crystal Castles is just unplayable. I suspect the spinner may be salvagable by gluing some weights inside, but the trackball feel for Centipede/Millipede is much different than for Missile Command or Crystal Castles, and there's really nothing to be done about that.
• None of the settings are accessible. This might have partially mitigated the above point if you could adjust the spinner/trackball sensitivity in each game, but no. Hopefully you like the default settings for number of lives, difficulty, etc.
• The cabinet is small enough that multi-player games are likely to be unconfortable, particularly for three players or if playing a long time.
• The cabinet is very small so a separate riser is required if you want to play these games standing up as God intended.
• The joysticks and buttons are microswitch, and some of the games originally had leaf switch controls. (Some people prefer microswitch controls but I find them too noisy personally.)
• Some of the panels used in the construction are very thin. In particular the bottom front panel seems like it would be prone to breakage by kicks and bumps if you don't use the riser.
• The number of games in each cabinet is pretty limited (except maybe in the Atari deluxe cabinet), so you have to have multiple if you want, say, Pac-Man AND Galaga.
• The cabinet itself is a standard design which doesn't replicate the distinctive cabinet of each of the games.
• There is no way to emulate scanlines, if you like that look.

everything you posted here I 100% agree with. This is why I'm more off the fence with my arms folded waiting to see what they look and feel like in real life, than on the fence and undecided, or decidedly buying (doubtful).

 

And while you might disagree with my cynicism or hyperbolic wiseass responses, that list of cons is pretty significant, and is the reason I'm scratching my head at why discerning collectors would be so excited to buy these.

 

Nice post. Well thought out

Edited September 19, 2018 by John Stamos Mullet

[atarilovesyou]

 

I'm a lurker, not a sock puppet. Get it right!

 

That's one hell of a lurk.

 

that was one long ass lurk.

 

About as long as an ass can get, that's how long this lurk was.

 

The Longest Ass Lurk

[atarilovesyou]

 

Back on topic, I've done quite a bit of research on these cabinets since I like the look of them as a conversation piece, and I thought I'd share my notes below, in case anyone finds them helpful. Much of this information came from this thread, and thanks to those who have linked to videos etc.

 

The bottom line for me is that I'm on the fence about whether to get one, since the "cons" list is pretty significant. I'd be much happier if they'd put another $100 into these to make them less cheap (but I understand why they didn't).

 

Pros:

1. Artwork is a faithful recreation of the originals. In cases where they had to make changes because of available space, the changes have been done tastefully.
2. The cabinet is light enough that I can actually move it myself without much difficulty, when needed.
3. Games appear to be faithfully emulated. No NES-on-a-chip here.
4. The control layout of the primary game of each cabinet is (mostly) faithfully recreated. Controls are well calibrated for the primary game from what I can tell (e.g. the Centipede cabinet's trackball looks like it works well for Centipede/Millipede).
5. By far this is the cheapest solution available for a turnkey arcade cabinet that looks the part and doesn't have the maintenance baggage of a vintage cabinet.

Unknown:

1. The monitor is a 5:4 1280x1024 TN panel. TN panels can have pretty bad viewing angles, and this is particularly concerning for the cabinets that have a vertical monitor since the long axis often has a very bad viewing angle in one direction. Won't really know until I can see one in person.
2. I can't tell how good the scaler is. Hopefully no visible scaling artifacts, and haven't seen any in the available videos, but can't tell for certain. Above all else I hope they didn't stretch the native 4:3 graphics to fit the 5:4 display.
3. Usually with emulated arcade games you have to either change the speed the game runs to match the display refresh rate, or the graphics will show tearing artifacts. I don't like either of those options so I have a G-Sync monitor on my DIY cabinet. Could be okay though; won't know until I can play one.
4. We don't know how durable the controls are. We know that they aren't brand name controls so who knows.
5. We don't know how durable the cabinet itself is. I've had some furniture with this type of construction that has been rock solid through several moves, and other pieces that fell apart if you looked at them wrong.

Cons:

1. The artwork appears to not be very durable, particularly on the control panel. Arcade1Up claims the issues with that YouTube guy's Centipede cabinet was a manufacturing defect, but I'm skeptical. We shall see when more of these are in the wild.
2. Controls appear to not be well calibrated for most of the non-primary games. The Defender layout is a train wreck, the spinner isn't right for either Tempest or Major Havoc, and it looks like Crystal Castles is just unplayable. I suspect the spinner may be salvagable by gluing some weights inside, but the trackball feel for Centipede/Millipede is much different than for Missile Command or Crystal Castles, and there's really nothing to be done about that.
3. None of the settings are accessible. This might have partially mitigated the above point if you could adjust the spinner/trackball sensitivity in each game, but no. Hopefully you like the default settings for number of lives, difficulty, etc.
4. The cabinet is small enough that multi-player games are likely to be unconfortable, particularly for three players or if playing a long time.
5. The cabinet is very small so a separate riser is required if you want to play these games standing up as God intended.
6. The joysticks and buttons are microswitch, and some of the games originally had leaf switch controls. (Some people prefer microswitch controls but I find them too noisy personally.)
7. Some of the panels used in the construction are very thin. In particular the bottom front panel seems like it would be prone to breakage by kicks and bumps if you don't use the riser.
8. The number of games in each cabinet is pretty limited (except maybe in the Atari deluxe cabinet), so you have to have multiple if you want, say, Pac-Man AND Galaga.
9. The cabinet itself is a standard design which doesn't replicate the distinctive cabinet of each of the games.
10. There is no way to emulate scanlines, if you like that look.

 

 

Welp, that about covers it. I'll see you guys on release day

[negative1]

Back on topic, I've done quite a bit of research on these cabinets since I like the look of them as a conversation piece, and I thought I'd share my notes below, in case anyone finds them helpful. Much of this information came from this thread, and thanks to those who have linked to videos etc.

 

The bottom line for me is that I'm on the fence about whether to get one, since the "cons" list is pretty significant. I'd be much happier if they'd put another $100 into these to make them less cheap (but I understand why they didn't).

 

Pros:

• • Artwork is a faithful recreation of the originals. In cases where they had to make changes because of available space, the changes have been done tastefully.

 

 

 

Not exactly a dealbreaker for me. But for some people they aren't ok with the changes, see centipede.

 

Also, the deluxe cabinet has it in black, so that's odd looking.

 

 

1. 
   

• • The cabinet is light enough that I can actually move it myself without much difficulty, when needed.

  •  

I've been meaning to ask people, how many times exactly do people move around their cabinets.

 

I have a real arcade cabinet, and have moved it 3 times due to actually moving. In all the years

that i stayed in each place, I NEVER moved it.

 

Do people really want to drag this cabinet around to different rooms, or over to other peoples

houses? i don't think thats the core audience.

 

yes, its convenient, but i don't think its as big a factor as people make it out to be.

 

 

 

• • Games appear to be faithfully emulated. No NES-on-a-chip here.

 

we won't know that until actual gamers play the games, and report back.

we have no idea which rom revisions the games are.

 

 

 

• • The control layout of the primary game of each cabinet is (mostly) faithfully recreated. Controls are well calibrated for the primary game from what I can tell (e.g. the Centipede cabinet's trackball looks like it works well for Centipede/Millipede).

 

rampage - maybe

centipede - not really, button placement and trackball placement isn't quite right

street fighter 2 - yes

asteroids - yes

pac man - yes

space invaders - if you're ok with the joystick

galaga - yes

 

 

 

• • By far this is the cheapest solution available for a turnkey arcade cabinet that looks the part and doesn't have the maintenance baggage of a vintage cabinet.

 

i think the crux of the whole argument against these, is that they aren't 'arcade' cabinets, they look like a modified cabaret, but

the overall shape of them is wrong. the monitor is at the wrong angle, and same with the control panel.

 

is it the cheapest for a 3/4 replica, then yes.

 

 

Unknown:

1. 
   

• • The monitor is a 5:4 1280x1024 TN panel. TN panels can have pretty bad viewing angles, and this is particularly concerning for the cabinets that have a vertical monitor since the long axis often has a very bad viewing angle in one direction. Won't really know until I can see one in person.

  •  

from all the videos so far, street fighter 2 looks the best,

the vector games all look dull, the latest japanese video shows great looking screens for the main player.

the real issue will be for multiplayer

 

 

• • I can't tell how good the scaler is. Hopefully no visible scaling artifacts, and haven't seen any in the available videos, but can't tell for certain. Above all else I hope they didn't stretch the native 4:3 graphics to fit the 5:4 display.

 

so far i haven't seen any, but unfortunately both of people that have cabinets, have low resolution captures of their gameplay.

 

i know that missile command and crystal castles look scaled up/down possibly on the vertical screen (Depends on how the native

resolution of the game pixels are implemented.

 

• • Usually with emulated arcade games you have to either change the speed the game runs to match the display refresh rate, or the graphics will show tearing artifacts. I don't like either of those options so I have a G-Sync monitor on my DIY cabinet. Could be okay though; won't know until I can play one.
  • We don't know how durable the controls are. We know that they aren't brand name controls so who knows.

 

pretty much everyone here, or semi serious players will replace the controls

 

We don't know how durable the cabinet itself is. I've had some furniture with this type of construction that has been rock solid through several moves, and other pieces that fell apart if you looked at them wrong.

as long as people don't bang on them, kick them, or scratch them up, they should last just as long

as furniture does, or even longer. again people tend to play in spurts, a lot at the beginning, and

then tapers off to nothing pretty quickly.

 

 

Cons:

• • The cabinet is very small so a separate riser is required if you want to play these games standing up as God intended.

 

i almost never play games standing up, i use a barstool, and for these, would use a chair

 

 

• • The number of games in each cabinet is pretty limited (except maybe in the Atari deluxe cabinet), so you have to have multiple if you want, say, Pac-Man AND Galaga.

 

i prefer limited models, preferably with one or two games only. that way there's more of a chance they're done right.

 

as they say, the more you put on there, the more compromises you have to make, and then it is jack of all trades, and master of none. so all the games suffer.

 

 

• • The cabinet itself is a standard design which doesn't replicate the distinctive cabinet of each of the games.

 

they don't replicate any known cabinet for any of the games, so that's not really a con.

 

 

good discussion.

 

later

-1

Edited September 19, 2018 by negative1

[mr_me]

...

[*]Controls appear to not be well calibrated for most of the non-primary games. The Defender layout is a train wreck, the spinner isn't right for either Tempest or Major Havoc, and it looks like Crystal Castles is just unplayable. I suspect the spinner may be salvagable by gluing some weights inside, but the trackball feel for Centipede/Millipede is much different than for Missile Command or Crystal Castles, and there's really nothing to be done about that.

 

[*]None of the settings are accessible. This might have partially mitigated the above point if you could adjust the spinner/trackball sensitivity in each game, but no. Hopefully you like the default settings for number of lives, difficulty, etc.

 

[*]The cabinet is small enough that multi-player games are likely to be unconfortable, particularly for three players or if playing a long time.

...

Why do you say Crystal Castles is unplayable; was there a review somewhere?

 

When you say the trackball feel is different between centipede and missile command are you talking about the trackball size? Atari manufactured missile command with both large and small trackballs. I remember the large trackball myself but that was so long ago.

 

Too bad about defender. It's the key game on that machine for me. Curious how they did the defender controls. Was rampage that popular? If it were me I would have done it with two joysticks, dropped rampage and added robotron.

 

Edit:

From what I've seen of their Asteroids, it looks like an old version of mame. They changed the display setup in mame some time ago and Asteroids shots look brighter in newer mame.

 

And regarding space invaders controls; the promo video looks to be for the Japanese market. A joystick for space invaders in Japan would be correct. I remember the midway version with buttons. Some remember the joystick version in the US. I wonder how that happened. Did midway initially import taito machines to test the market? Did they come over later?

Edited September 19, 2018 by mr_me

[F34R]

I just got an email update for the pre-order. Updated release date for a Street Fighter pre-order from Wal Mart is 10/16. Will be delivered 10/19.

Edited September 19, 2018 by F34R

[128Kgames]

I just got an email update for the pre-order. Updated release date for a Street Fighter pre-order from Wal Mart is 10/16. Will be delivered 10/19.

 

Walmart changed my Centipede order to 10/16 with a 10/17 shipping arrival date; hopefully Rampage & Galaga don't change.

[Bill Loguidice]

Best Buy changed the release date of my Atari Deluxe to 10/16 as well.

[Skeeter]

So for the guys that had their pre-orders changed to a release date in Oct., when did you place your pre-order? I'm wondering if this affects all pre-orders everywhere regardless of what date you put the order in?

Edited September 19, 2018 by Skeeter

[F34R]

So for the guys that had their pre-orders changed to a release date in Oct., when did you place your pre-order? I'm wondering if this affects all pre-orders everywhere regardless of what date you put the order in?

My order was done as the pre-orders went live.

 

The Rampage order is still showing 9/27.

Edited September 19, 2018 by F34R

[128Kgames]

So for the guys that had their pre-orders changed to a release date in Oct., when did you place your pre-order? I'm wondering if this affects all pre-orders everywhere regardless of what date you put the order in?

 

Centipede & Rampage - Walmart on July 26.

Galaga - Walmart on August 4

Atari - Best Buy on September 12

 

Best Buy was the first to notify me of the date change. So far the 9/25 dates for Galaga and Rampage haven't changed for my orders.

[John Stamos Mullet]

 

Centipede & Rampage - Walmart on July 26.

Galaga - Walmart on August 4

Atari - Best Buy on September 12

 

[atarilovesyou]

Well i for one cant wait until some of you guys get them and do a decent review rather than the adverts we have seen so far.