Arcade-One system?

[mstaton]

Hello everyone,

 I recently came across a system called ARCADEONE and it supposedly will play practically every video game made. (arcade-one . com)

My interest would be to play Atari 2600, 5200, NES, Super NES and Sega Genisis games. 

Does anyone have this system?  If so, is it true that all these system's games are on it?

Any and all opinions are appreciated. 

 

[mr_me]

They are selling intel i5 computers.  If you already have a computer then you can emulate those systems on your existing PC.  If you don't, you can emulate those systems on a more inexpensive computer.

[mstaton]

I wouldn't have any idea how to go about that. Their system is $425.  That sounds very fair for a machine that can play thousands of games, and you can use an Xbox wireless controller to play.  Is there anyone here who has one?  I'd like to hear your experience with it.

[Bill Loguidice]

It's hard to understand the value proposition here. It seems to be a place that re-sells PCs with pre-installed emulators and front ends and then you supply your own ROMs, controls, and displays. If they include the ROMs, I suppose that's a help, but of course a legal no-no.

[mstaton]

It’s easy to understand if you don’t have knowledge of emulators, front ends, ROM’s etc, like me. I’m just a fella who played those old systems as a kid, and without having to spend the time to learn about the inner workings of the system, just wants to push the power button, kick back and enjoy the games. 

[Tanooki]

9 hours ago, mstaton said:

It’s easy to understand if you don’t have knowledge of emulators, front ends, ROM’s etc, like me. I’m just a fella who played those old systems as a kid, and without having to spend the time to learn about the inner workings of the system, just wants to push the power button, kick back and enjoy the games. 

Yes and I'd agree with you 20 years ago, but in the last decade emulators have come a very long way on your stock standard PC running Windows.  Emulators are basically idiot proof they're so setup you don't have to do any clicks more than like firing up a MS Office app, clicking File, Open, and clicking the file and clicking OK.  That seriously is all it takes for your popular console and handheld systems to work now.

 

The only potential extra setup may be to download a tiny BIOS file, sometimes truly optional, if necessary as the author may have made their own version for that too.  The only other thing you'd do, you would do on a PC game anyway from the menu, such as setting up your controller button setup.  A default setup for an audio and video side of an emulator usually gives the best normal performance, the rest of the tweak really there for people with junk hardware that need help or someone who wants to go above and beyond.

 

Spending that kind of money if you're using a PC already is point blank stupid and lazy.  If the ROMs are an issue, and I can't link you roms, but I can say this much, that place known as the internet archive that's more known for archiving old web addresses also does files.  Among those files people maintain collections of no intro or pure ROM sets by system.  The total files are fairly large, but you can expand them and pick the ones you want as single game downloads.

 

I just did all the work for you, but if you feel the need to waste that money, go for it.

[mstaton]

Tanooki,

You could've given me the keys to the Kingdom, and I'd still think you're an A55.  You took my post as an opening to call me stupid and lazy, and yet you really know nothing about me.  I wouldn't do that to someone who I wanted to help, but I guess it's your way of flexing.  I'm sure the chicks dig it!  Do me a favor, would ya?  Don't EVER reply to another one of my posts. These games are nothing more than a fun little time waster for me, and morons like you take the fun away.  So take yourself and your pocket protector and get lost!

[Mikebloke]

I have a retron 77, arguably it's completely useless because I could just emulate it on a pc. But actually there is a benefit because it's small, compact, can run carts if I really desired (but it essentially just copies the rom data rather than a direct read), wires are less of a pain, etc. It's a convenience for a cost. 

 

If these machines makes it easier, fits with your house better in terms of location, furniture etc then go for it. I use laptops rather than desktops I like sitting on the sofa than in a chair. I connect the laptop to the TV but it's a bit of a faff. I buy things so I can play on consoles or clone machines for ease. 

 

So if it's useful for you, then go for it. And to answer the idea that all emulators are idiot proof, they really aren't. Mame, saturn emulation etc is not easy to handle, if a preset configuration makes it usable for you and your family go for it. Personally I usually avoid arcade Emulation because I can't get round mame's menus. Meh. 

 

Edit: just want to say, I'm one of those that attack the Ataribox release for similar reasons 'you can do it on a pc'. This is because nothing of the Ataribox actually is different to a pc. A device with built in software to simplify the experience of setting up games is the service you are buying, to pick up and play games without having to fiddle with settings is something worthwhile considering, especially if you aren't interested in learning everything about computers. Perhaps sometimes we are too quick to judge others on what is easy for us but might be difficult or hard to understand for others. 

Edited November 11, 2020 by Mikebloke

[mr_me]

The retron77 is a small inexpensive computer.  The new atari vcs is not inexpensive; people are buying it for the atari branding.  Both come with incomplete atari 2600 game libraries.  This is because of copyrights and licensing.  Both are closed systems so adding the game roms you want are more difficult than on a regular computer, even cheap $50 computers.  Still, it's something anyone can do.

 

I'm not sure if arcade-one is including the rom files because they'd be breaking copyright laws if they did.  You can ask them directly because their web-site is vague about it.  It wouldn't be hard for them to do it because it's easy to get the entire atari 2600 library in a single download archive file from an ARCHIVE ORGanisation.

 

If you did want to try it.  Here is an example of a single atari 2600 game rom for download.  Unzip to get at the rom file is optional.

https://atariage.com/software_page.php?SoftwareLabelID=355

 

All the emulators are free and legal.  I expect arcade-one uses this one for atari 2600.

https://stella-emu.github.io

 

There's nothing to know regarding the inner workings of the system.  No front-end required unless you want one.  If you don't want to pay someone a premium for the hardware but want everything done for you; you can also download complete, packed with rom files, front-end pre-configured, drive images.  You just write the image to a drive and boot.

[youxia]

20 hours ago, Bill Loguidice said:

It's hard to understand the value proposition here. It seems to be a place that re-sells PCs with pre-installed emulators and front ends and then you supply your own ROMs, controls, and displays.

Many people struggle with, can't be bothered, or don't have time finding/setting up stuff like Hyperspin or MAME. It might seem silly to us, but I can see how buying a complete ready-to-go package is a solution to these woes. It's the same with pre-configured Retropie Pis, they are very popular.

 

Of course, it's also shady as hell, because such sellers are making money out of other people's work (their input is really minuscule). I doubt very much they have permission from Hyperspin (same as selling Retropie systems is illegal and unwelcome). But what annoys me most in this particular case is a huge mark-up they are asking: a "compact small form i5" can be had for under 100USD, so their +300USD premium for installing some stuff is quite preposterous.Csompact Small Form Factor PC

[pacman000]

I suppose the extra $200 is to cover shipping, & the 2% of people who’ll lie to their credit card company to get a refund. That, & I doubt they sell many of these; it might take insane markups to make this a profitable business.

Still, putting a few similar systems together & selling them for half the normal eBay price is tempting.

[mr_me]

2 hours ago, youxia said:

Many people struggle with, can't be bothered, or don't have time finding/setting up stuff like Hyperspin or MAME. It might seem silly to us, but I can see how buying a complete ready-to-go package is a solution to these woes. It's the same with pre-configured Retropie Pis, they are very popular.

 

Of course, it's also shady as hell, because such sellers are making money out of other people's work (their input is really minuscule). I doubt very much they have permission from Hyperspin (same as selling Retropie systems is illegal and unwelcome). But what annoys me most in this particular case is a huge mark-up they are asking: a "compact small form i5" can be had for under 100USD, so their +300USD premium for installing some stuff is quite preposterous.Csompact Small Form Factor PC

Hyperspin or any front end is completely optional.  You don't have to configure anything in mame except for the odd game that benefits from tweaking the controller configuration; and mame has a gui for configuring controllers.  I can understand retropie because linux is a completely foreign operating system to many people but you can download completely loaded retropie images at no cost. 

 

As far as legally selling retropie systems it would depend on what emulators you are including.  Retropie and emulationstation are GPL licensed as far as I know, and lots of emulators are also GPL licensed and can be sold.  Some emulators do have non-commercial licenses, and of course the rom files are almost all commercial software protected by copyright.  I doubt many sellers or buyers cares about these details.

Edited November 11, 2020 by mr_me

[youxia]

27 minutes ago, mr_me said:

Hyperspin or any front end is completely optional.  You don't have to configure anything in mame except for the odd game that benefits from tweaking the controller configuration; and mame has a gui for configuring controllers.  I can understand retropie because linux is a completely foreign operating system to many people but you can download completely loaded retropie images at no cost. 

This is a typical response from a very experienced user.  People are different though

 

27 minutes ago, mr_me said:

As far as legally selling retropie systems it would depend on what emulators you are including.  Retropie and emulationstation are GPL licensed as far as I know, and lots of emulators are also GPL licensed and can be sold.  Some emulators do have non-commercial licenses, and of course the rom files are almost all commercial software protected by copyright.  I doubt many sellers or buyers cares about these details.

It does not really depend or anything, and has been done to death on their forums. Whether sellers/buyers care or not is also beside the point.

Edited November 11, 2020 by youxia

[mr_me]

30 minutes ago, youxia said:

This is a typical response from a very experienced user.  People are different though

What do you mean?  It's much simpler without a front-end.  What isn't obvious to someone not experienced with this stuff is where to find the rom set.

 

30 minutes ago, youxia said:

It does not really depend or anything, and has been done to death on their forums. Whether sellers/buyers care or not is also beside the point.

What does their forum say?

 

This is what the emulationstation license says:

"Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:"  (conditions are only about warranty and liability)

 

Retropie is covered under gnu gpl which permits selling.

"Yes, the GPL allows everyone to do this. The right to sell copies is part of the definition of free software. Except in one special situation, there is no limit on what price you can charge. (The one exception is the required written offer to provide source code that must accompany binary-only release.)"

 

That leaves the individual emulators some of which are also covered under gnu gpl licenses and can be included.

 

 

Edited November 11, 2020 by mr_me

[mstaton]

7 hours ago, Mikebloke said:

I have a retron 77, arguably it's completely useless because I could just emulate it on a pc. But actually there is a benefit because it's small, compact, can run carts if I really desired (but it essentially just copies the rom data rather than a direct read), wires are less of a pain, etc. It's a convenience for a cost. 

 

If these machines makes it easier, fits with your house better in terms of location, furniture etc then go for it. I use laptops rather than desktops I like sitting on the sofa than in a chair. I connect the laptop to the TV but it's a bit of a faff. I buy things so I can play on consoles or clone machines for ease. 

 

So if it's useful for you, then go for it. And to answer the idea that all emulators are idiot proof, they really aren't. Mame, saturn emulation etc is not easy to handle, if a preset configuration makes it usable for you and your family go for it. Personally I usually avoid arcade Emulation because I can't get round mame's menus. Meh. 

 

Edit: just want to say, I'm one of those that attack the Ataribox release for similar reasons 'you can do it on a pc'. This is because nothing of the Ataribox actually is different to a pc. A device with built in software to simplify the experience of setting up games is the service you are buying, to pick up and play games without having to fiddle with settings is something worthwhile considering, especially if you aren't interested in learning everything about computers. Perhaps sometimes we are too quick to judge others on what is easy for us but might be difficult or hard to understand for others. 

Thanks Mikebloke!  It's nice to see that someone else "gets it".  I appreciate your thoughtful comments!

[+stephena]

Emulators aren't always easy to use.  And I say this as the maintainer for Stella, usually considered one of the easier ones to use.  The Stella port for the Retron77 in particular has forced us to think about appropriate defaults, and removing as much 'required knowledge' as possible from the setup and use of it.  And in some ways we're still not there completely.  MAME can be very hard to use.  I've used it for 20 years, and have extensive experience with emulators of all kinds, and I still find some parts of it hard to configure.

[youxia]

3 hours ago, mr_me said:

What do you mean?  It's much simpler without a front-end.  What isn't obvious to someone not experienced with this stuff is where to find the rom set.

 

What's there to explain, really? A casual person, whose experience with PCs is limited to web browsing, etc, will struggle trying to find, install, and understand how to handle a huge amount of emulators, most of which have a daunting amount of options and configs. This might be easy for the likes of you and me, but not for many other people. Frontend packages generally make it easier (with exception fo Retroarch perhaps), not harder, and also have the added bonus of being easy on the eye, what with the flashy vids and all that (hence the popularity of Hyperspin and its ilk). But even for an experienced user it all can be simply quite time consuming. So, some folks prefer to pay and have it all done for them. Therefore it is some sort of service, the problem is with exploiting others' work without permission and often despite explicit warnings, plus charging silly premiums.

 

About the legality of selling Retropie: https://retropie.org.uk/about/legal/ It's not really the point though, I just said it's "shady" in general, even if you can somehow make it "legal", or because you know that nobody can really do anything about it.

[mr_me]

1 hour ago, stephena said:

Emulators aren't always easy to use.  And I say this as the maintainer for Stella, usually considered one of the easier ones to use.  The Stella port for the Retron77 in particular has forced us to think about appropriate defaults, and removing as much 'required knowledge' as possible from the setup and use of it.  And in some ways we're still not there completely.  MAME can be very hard to use.  I've used it for 20 years, and have extensive experience with emulators of all kinds, and I still find some parts of it hard to configure.

Microsoft Word is a very large and complicated piece of application software.  The average user is typically using a small fraction of that functionality.  Anyone supporting it does have to know everything about it; that's not easy.

 

19 minutes ago, youxia said:

What's there to explain, really? A casual person, whose experience with PCs is limited to web browsing, etc, will struggle trying to find, install, and understand how to handle a huge amount of emulators, most of which have a daunting amount of options and configs. This might be easy for the likes of you and me, but not for many other people. Frontend packages generally make it easier (with exception fo Retroarch perhaps), not harder, and also have the added bonus of being easy on the eye, what with the flashy vids and all that (hence the popularity of Hyperspin and its ilk). But even for an experienced user it all can be simply quite time consuming. So, some folks prefer to pay and have it all done for them. Therefore it is some sort of service, the problem is with exploiting others' work without permission and often despite explicit warnings, plus charging silly premiums.

 

About the legality of selling Retropie: https://retropie.org.uk/about/legal/ It's not really the point though, I just said it's "shady" in general, even if you can somehow make it "legal", or because you know that nobody can really do anything about it.

The OP is looking for five systems; that's not a large number.  Each of them have excellent emulators with great built-in user interfaces.  Front ends are definitely nicer presentation, no question about that, but they do require maintenance.  Easier to use is debatable.

 

I see nothing shady of selling a preconfigured retropie or what arcade-one is doing as long as they are clear on what they are selling and providing.  The customer should be under no illusion that they are getting thousands of dollars worth of games at a bargain.  Supporting their customers is a valuable service that people would be willing to pay for.  You can get that help free from discussion forums but then you have to separate out the noise.

[Tanooki]

14 hours ago, mstaton said:

Tanooki,

You could've given me the keys to the Kingdom, and I'd still think you're an A55.  You took my post as an opening to call me stupid and lazy, and yet you really know nothing about me.  I wouldn't do that to someone who I wanted to help, but I guess it's your way of flexing.  I'm sure the chicks dig it!  Do me a favor, would ya?  Don't EVER reply to another one of my posts. These games are nothing more than a fun little time waster for me, and morons like you take the fun away.  So take yourself and your pocket protector and get lost!

No I didn't take it as you were stupid and lazy, I was trying to motivate you to save some serious money as it's very easy to do unlike many years ago where it took a lot of time sucking menu and configuration file fiddling to behave right.  You're being kind of a dick pulling out the childish flex comment.  I'll be sure to keep replying to you if you're that triggered over some help.

 

I wrote it pretty clear and easy there it's as easy as opening up a file these days in a popular office app.  That the level of setup is no worse than a standard windows game.  And even told you were and how to get the games short of linking it so I don't get in trouble for linking roms, and you have attitude about it.  Whatever works I guess, but I don't see the need for a tantrum.

 

If that is too complicated and you want a Pi, go for it, they're not easy to setup or configure if you're new to it, and given what you said I'd never recommend one.  Retroarch is finicky as are some other pi based tools built from it so I was trying to keep it simple.  If you go that route, find someone who can set it up just as you want it, and also offers extended support in case you have problems so you don't end up paying twice.

[mstaton]

1 hour ago, mr_me said:

Microsoft Word is a very large and complicated piece of application software.  The average user is typically using a small fraction of that functionality.  Anyone supporting it does have to know everything about it; that's not easy.

 

The OP is looking for five systems; that's not a large number.  Each of them have excellent emulators with great built-in user interfaces.  Front ends are definitely nicer presentation, no question about that, but they do require maintenance.  Easier to use is debatable.

 

I see nothing shady of selling a preconfigured retropie or what arcade-one is doing as long as they are clear on what they are selling and providing.  The customer should be under no illusion that they are getting thousands of dollars worth of games at a bargain.  Supporting their customers is a valuable service that people would be willing to pay for.  You can get that help free from discussion forums but then you have to separate out the noise.

BANG!  You hit the nail on the head mr_me!!  I'm definitely not under any illusions of getting thousands of dollars worth of games at a bargain.  What I would be willing to pay for is exactly what you said.  Support and service along with my time not taken up by trying to figure out what others have already done, and that deserves compensation. Oh and, you're also VERY right about the noise, which I have no interest in hearing or separating from worth-while information.  OUTSTANDING reply - thank you!

[Cynicaster]

On 11/9/2020 at 12:22 PM, mstaton said:

Hello everyone,

 I recently came across a system called ARCADEONE and it supposedly will play practically every video game made. (arcade-one . com)

My interest would be to play Atari 2600, 5200, NES, Super NES and Sega Genisis games. 

Does anyone have this system?  If so, is it true that all these system's games are on it?

Any and all opinions are appreciated. 

 

 

I hadn't heard of this company but I checked out the website to see what they're offering and admittedly my knee-jerk reaction was along the lines of "that's extremely expensive considering I could get much the same functionality for literally no cost using a 10 year-old PC that is collecting dust in my closet and freely available software."

 

But if I consider a hypothetical situation where all of the knowledge and experience I've gained in the last 10-15 years fiddling with retro console emulation just goes POOF and disappears, especially at this stage of my life where I have limited spare time, etc. then I can begin to see myself being willing to pay a premium to get my hands on a system that I can just set up and play.  

 

So, from the perspective of a fairly experienced emulation user and multi-hobby father of a toddler who values his spare time very much, here is my $0.02 for you: if, even after learning that you can get up and running on something almost identical to this arcade-one system for almost no cost, you are still seeing value in what is being offered, then go for it.  More and more - regardless of whether we're talking about home reno tasks, car maintenance, or retro console emulation - I'm a huge advocate of choosing my battles carefully.  In other words, DIY can be satisfying but it shouldn't be a religion.  If you have the budget, some things are just worth paying for, and which things make the grade will vary from person to person.  

 

With that out of the way, you mentioned XBOX controllers, and here I would recommend you do some more research.  Not sure if you mean XBox 360 or XBox One.  I have no experience with XBox One but I've spent a fair bit of time using XBox 360 controllers for retro emulation and if that's your plan, I'd urge you to shop elsewhere.  Obviously, for retro emulation, d-pad performance is paramount.  IMO, here's the problem with X360 controllers in this use case - they're just good enough that you might decide to stick with them, but they're just bad enough to degrade the experience.  The d-pad on those is fine for modern games where they get used to navigate menus and perform auxiliary functions, but if they're the sole method of directional input, they're not quite up to the task (again, IMO.)  If wireless is a priority, there are other options.  For example, I've not used the 8BitDo products but people seem to love those, and they're available in a bunch of different formats. 

 

 

[youxia]

18 hours ago, mr_me said:

I see nothing shady of selling a preconfigured retropie or what arcade-one is doing as long as they are clear on what they are selling and providing.

That's adorable, but people who have developed Retropie seem to be of a different opinion. I suppose it's the same with Hyperspin, a community driven effort which took many years to put together, plus the last I remember is not actually free (used to be behind a forum paywall).

 

If OP really is just looking for 5 systems, which, according to you are so super-easy to install and user friendly (as opposed to "maintenance" (???) requiring frontends) then I'm not sure he needs "customer service". Probably following few guides on the net would do, and save him/her a few hundred bucks to boot. Bit of a contradiction then, but hey, let's not get that (and the fact that my 1st post ITT was actually expressing understanding as to why there might be a market for such services) get in a way of generating some ususal, contrarian "noise", eh?

[mstaton]

I do appreciate everyone's 2 cents about the ArcadeOne system, even those that were a bit "harsh".  There are other systems out there as well, even less expensive like the Retropie Emulation Console by Retro Gaming House ($239).  But as I process all of this information, I just might get myself an Atari Flashback, (the 8 Gold looks to have a nice assortment of games), and a Retron 77 to play my collection of 50+ Atari carts, and be done with all of this.  All I want is a machine that I can plug in and play the darn games!  It really shouldn't be so convoluted and time/research filled.    

Then again, maybe I'll wait to see how the new Atari VCS does.  But that's probably another big subject that will bring out many opinions.   

[mr_me]

Youxia might be right about retropie.  I see the setup script is GPL but they don't say anything about the other parts of retropie; assume no permission given.  But you don't really need retropie.  Raspbian the OS is GPL, Emulationstation, the front-end, has a free license,  There are many emulators that have GPL licenses.  It's very shortsighted of people to have restricted licenses.  It prevents legitimate people offering a value added service, leaving only pirates fulfilling the market and concerns for consumers.  HP sells computers with Linux preinstalled, IBM sells servers with Linux preinstalled.  Do you think they are being shady?

 

Earlier I posted two links to get started with Atari 2600 emulation using Stella.  There's Mesen for NES, Snes9x for SNES, Kega Fusion for Sega Genesis.  All high quality emulators and very easy to use.  An Atari 5200 emulator would depend on the operating system.  There are benefits to a front end; going through the menus with a game controller for example; but it's another piece of software for the user.  It's up to the user.

[Keatah]

1 hour ago, mstaton said:

All I want is a machine that I can plug in and play the darn games!  It really shouldn't be so convoluted and time/research filled.

It's always that way with anything electronics and computers.

 

I've been doing emulators since the days before Stella was even a gleam in Mr. Mott's eye. Today there are thousands of options and combinations ranging from complete turn-key systems through do-it-yourself and compile-it-yourself systems.

 

The most successful configurations I've put together for folks over the years have always been small form factor i7 systems with either a custom front-end or plain old Windows.

 

I always like it when users learn something about how everything works. Makes for easier updating and allows new systems to be added. Not to mention that it sets good expectations about what is practical vs what is fantasyland.