Philosophical question (organizing my collection)

[RampantOctopus]

So, here's the single most important question anyone has ever asked in the history of humanity: 

Are Arcade1Up "cabinets" consoles? If so, are the dedicated consoles? If not, are they plug-n-plays? 

 

It's very important for me to know as with the addition of my latest acquisition (a Memorex VIS, thanks for asking), I need to know if I now have 100 game consoles or 99 and a giant plug and play?

 

Thank you in advance for making way more out of this question than it deserves. 

[VectorGamer]

1 hour ago, RampantOctopus said:

Are Arcade1Up "cabinets" consoles?

[+save2600]

They don't take cartridges, discs or otherwise accept media of any kind and you're not hooking them to a TV, so they're not consoles.

 

They're not a "plug 'n play" in the traditional sense, since you're not hooking a handheld controller up to a TV.

 

They're dedicated Mini-arcades, just like these things!   ?

 

[RampantOctopus]

Oh man, I didn't even think to count my tiny arcade toys in my collection... Nice! 

 

Honestly though, that's a good distinction. Thanks... I keep coming back to the thought that maybe famiclones shouldn't count either... it's not like they're their own thing, but then again, I wouldn't be so harsh about an x'eye. hmm. Big questions that effect nothing here. 

[Ramses]

An even bigger question: if an arcade cabinet was turned on and there was no one around to play it, would it make a sound?

[+save2600]

14 minutes ago, Ramses said:

An even bigger question: if an arcade cabinet was turned on and there was no one around to play it, would it make a sound?

Depends if the attract sounds are enabled!   ?

[+stupus]

I cant think of 1 thing that could qualify them as a console.

[128Kgames]

I don't think "mini-arcades" would apply, based on their size.  A "3/4 home arcade" category might be a better designation.

[John Stamos Mullet]

They are arcade style cabinets. Period. 

[RampantOctopus]

4 minutes ago, John Stamos Mullet said:

They are arcade style cabinets. Period. 

buh-buh-but they're not. You'd never see one in an arcade... edit: that's not what you said. Sorry. never mind. 

Clearly they're actually Tardis(es, tardisi?)

I'm back to them being plug-n-play. just plug into the wall and not a tv. 

Edited October 18, 2019 by RampantOctopus
my bad.

[Flojomojo]

Categorization is goofy, but I'll play.

 

They are toy arcade games. 

They don't weigh 42 tons or take quarters or 1970s/1980s technology. 

They use teeny weeny single board computers and LCD screens. 

They're more like plug and plays, but they're in cabinet enclosures. The same guts are also in "wallcades," bartops, and cocktail tables. 

 

They are to arcade games as this toy car is to a real car. 

 

I've decided to splash out for the Star Wars Arcade model, and it arrives Monday. I have no delusions about it being anything more than what it is, but for me, the label doesn't matter. 

 

Yeah, they're like plug and play games, only bulky and expensive instead of small and cheap. 

[RampantOctopus]

@Flojomojo I dig your Tesla. I'm sure the Star Wars acquisition will be fun-- I hope you will share your experience about the controller with us, I've been eyeing that and having thoughts of Spy Hunter and Stun Runner and some other games my homemade cabinet really can't do justice too... But I digress. 

 

I also desperately want the Arcade1Up Burger Time and MVS cabs if those are for real. That's neither here nor there. 

[Flojomojo]

@RampantOctopus Tesla? Too rich for my blood, you might have confused me with someone else. 

 

I figure that the Star Wars arcade game still charms me after all this time, and unlike the stick-and-button games, there's no ideal way to play it on consoles or in MAME, so what's $500 to an adult with a job? With the understanding that I am NOT going to build a collection of these, even though that would be neat. I guess I could mod it but the games I could play on it aren't as hot to me as the Star Wars trilogy. I think this will be the closest I've ever come to playing The Empire Strikes Back on arcade hardware. 

 

STUN Runner is something I remember fondly, but the existence of Wipeout kinda renders it moot. I've been playing the Lynx version on the PocketGo, which either has a collision detection bug, or I've become really, really good at it somehow. The levels kinda repeat themselves after a while. 

 

How to play Spy Hunter without a gas pedal? I make do with the NES version, which I think controls better than any of the more faithful emulated versions. 

[NE146]

Now that I've had one in my house for about a year, that is exactly my default description of them to people. i.e. "They are toy arcade games". Although I wouldn't go so far with the toy car analogy.. maybe more like the difference between a laundromat industrial washer/dryer vs. a $250 home one or something.  Although those are the variations of the "same" thing, and these aren't, since emulation is different from the real thing technically. I dunno.. just typing off the top of my head. ?

[128Kgames]

Yeah, I don't dig the toy reference, to me it implies them being something a child would play with.  But then again I correct people that they are "action figures" and not dolls in my collection (I have some 18" NECA, McFarlane, etc.).  But hey, call them whatever you want, especially if you collect them.  I've gotten hooked myself, and actually started pairing down my collection to make some money, and some room.  Been meaning to thin things out for years anyway, especially when you realize you don't just have doubles, triples, etc.  

[mr_me]

There's no reason you can't call these things consoles.  Just like old pong consoles, or a vectrex.  It's more of a console than handheld systems which some people call consoles.  Plugnplays are controllers that plug in to your TV, but why not call them consoles as well.

[tripletopper]

My friend won as the grand prize in a 00s national basic cable game show, Life To the Power of X, an atcade cabinet designed to play Xbox ganes.  It wad the 5th one at the time, with 2 of the other 4 going to Justin Timberlake and Snoop Doggy Dogg.

 

How would THAT be classified under this System?  You don't plug it Into a TV, but it takes discs.

 

As for games, segregated by console, orgainzed in a way that makes sense with storage space being more important than organuzational consistency, and, within a system, ABC by title, except with obvious sequels on the same system not alphabetically close being grouped together by Series Name ( Rise of the Tomb Raider  (Xbox One)bwould be filed very close to Tomb Raider (Xbox One)  instead of in the Rs going purely by title.

 

Other exception, A, An, and The being used as an article.  For the 2600 game The A Team, "The" is used as an article, thus skipped.  "A" is not, thus not skipped.

 

Accotdingto Sideshow Bob Logic, if he named a book after his tatoo, "Die Bart Die" it would be sorted under B because the tatoo is in German, and Die is a feninine subjective article, literally "The Bart The" ( kind of like how English pronouns he and him are different depending on whether its the grammatical subject or object.  Getman articles have that property, sort of like A and An being pronounciation-sensitive articles). Hence why Die Macher,  a famous boatd game, can't be found in the Ds.

[jaybird3rd]

5 minutes ago, tripletopper said:

My friend won as the grand prize in a 00s national basic cable game show, Life To the Power of X, an atcade cabinet designed to play Xbox ganes.  It wad the 5th one at the time, with 2 of the other 4 going to Justin Timberlake and Snoop Doggy Dogg.

 

How would THAT be classified under this System?  You don't plug it Into a TV, but it takes discs.

 

As for games, segregated by console, orgainzed in a way that makes sense with storage space being more important than organuzational consistency, and, within a system, ABC by title, except with obvious sequels on the same system not alphabetically close being grouped together by Series Name ( Rise of the Tomb Raider  (Xbox One)bwould be filed very close to Tomb Raider (Xbox One)  instead of in the Rs going purely by title.

 

Other exception, A, An, and The being used as an article.  For the 2600 game The A Team, "The" is used as an article, thus skipped.  "A" is not, thus not skipped.

 

Accotdingto Sideshow Bob Logic, if he named a book after his tatoo, "Die Bart Die" it would be sorted under B because the tatoo is in German, and Die is a feninine subjective article, literally "The Bart The" ( kind of like how English pronouns he and him are different depending on whether its the grammatical subject or object.  Getman articles have that property, sort of like A and An being pronounciation-sensitive articles). Hence why Die Macher,  a famous boatd game, can't be found in the Ds.

[+save2600]

...first time I tried writing 'tongue tied', this is what came out: triplets guetied. Must be an iOS thang.  ?

[jaybird3rd]

26 minutes ago, save2600 said:

...first time I tried writing 'tongue tied', this is what came out: triplets guetied. Must be an iOS thang.  ?

I've made fewer typos with my nose.

[tripletopper]

I'm acutally using Android.   Just because i use Mac doesn't mean iit's Apple or nothing.

 

It's just that the virtual keys are too small relative to my fat fingers 

 

Sometimes I talk type.  I got to decide what's easier to correct : mistakes based on key geography or based on misheard pronunciation.

[tripletopper]

So what would my friend's grand prize an arcade machine that plays original Xbox, be classified as?  Arcade? Console?  

 

I originally thought you meant how to organuze the ganes.  I say segregated between consoles in ABC order with the two exceptions I mentioned in the long post.

[+save2600]

For stuff like that, how about a Consolecade? ha

 

Reminds me of this arcade cabinet made for the NES, and I actually had one BITD. Consolecade has a nice ring to it.  
 

 

[HoshiChiri]

11 hours ago, tripletopper said:

So what would my friend's grand prize an arcade machine that plays original Xbox, be classified as?  Arcade? Console?  

You insert game software into a user accessible slot. That makes it a console. Having the monitor & controller attached isn't an issue- see the Vectrex for a common example.

 

A freestanding unit with monitor/controls attached that does not have user accessible software is an arcade-style cabinet. A self-contained unit without a monitor is a plug n' play/mini console. If it's a freestanding unit that's small enough to be carried around and played anywhere on its internal power source, it's a handheld.

 

In the above, 'user accessible' means 'an area that would be locked from access by people other than the machine owner.' Otherwise the Neo Geo MVS would occupy one hell of a grey area!

[tripletopper]

The only problem is it's the volume of (and depending on the display technology of the TV display, the mass of) a real arcade machine.

 

There was a time he was considering selling it.  Also he's gradually moving his stuff from his childhood home to his adult home.  That machine is literally the elephant in the room.