Arcade 1up - is this a big mistake if you really want a real vintage arcade cabinet?

A real vintage Arcade cabinet costs a lot. At least where I live. Not many to choose from either. So I went for one the Arcade 1up cabinets, hoping this would cure the itch. Big mistake! Cheaper to buy yes, but also much cheaper the experience, fun and entertainment. Guess I'm back on the market.

The song playing during the build is called "The Kung Fu Arcade" by Espen Kraft and can be found on Spotify and Apple Music here:

[OneSwitch]

Arcade 1UP is a nice stepping stone to the real thing, but it certainly doesn't have the same feel.

[bond_mjblosser]

In the early 2000's I built myself a MAME arcade cabinet. Full size cabinet, with REAL arcade controls, and a real CRT monitor. Not only was it an extremely satisfying project, it felt sturdy and authentic. And I could play every game I remembered pumping quarters into as a kid. These flimsy remakes from Arcade 1up just don't evoke the same feeling as you've found out.

[bitis]

Great video for those who are considering getting either real arcade cabinet or one of these arcade1up or atgames cabinets. I was actually in a similar situation just a year ago, but luckily I had a case where I was sourcing Atgames Legends cabs for public space use so I got to test them out quite a bit. They were good, but something felt wrong. Eventually bit the bullet and paid for an actual cabinet in need of some DIY work. First moment I laid my eyes on it and played with it, I knew I had made the right decision. Small things like CRT glow, sound of coins dropping down to the coin box, glow of the marquee and signs of use are all part of the experience and it's not the same without them.

[ReznaQay]

the concave arcade buttons are nostalgic, i was born in 98, so i bought myself 6 of them to press for fun

[jespercarlsson]

Only the real thing, has the real, cozy smell of warm old electronics. 👍

[jons]

I've been playing the hell out of mine modded with a RPi4. This is the only way! Owner since 2019.

[SeverityOne]

One rabbit hole (that of vintage synthesisers) is enough for me. 🙂 But thank you for sharing the experience.

[Fred_Free]

We used to play Asteroids and Defender etc at the local pizzeria 79-80 in Stockholm in my early teens. 😎

[SoulforSale]

I have the wall mounted version with Tempest and we play it every day

[brianhollings]

Love your passion for the old school games. Battlezone, missile command, sinistar and galaxions were all favourites aswell as Defender, donkey Kong and packman but my favourite was the same as yourself, Astaroids 😊 I've still got my Astaroids table I purchased in 1983 totally original.Its a shame that you don't live in the UK as I would have sold it to you and not for the high price you think(Because of your passion for the game)😊

[TVindustries]

for these things, i feel you really have to feel out what you want from a home arcade.

Does the design please you?
How often will you play the games on it?
Do you want to keep it stock?
Do you like to tinker and do things with it to fit more of what you want?
Do you have the room for a full size even if you found a real one local?
Are you sure if you just want nostalgia you could just visit a local arcade instead of wasting money on something that will sit and collect dust for the sake of a bid to capture nostalgia??

theres a lot of possible questions beyond that. sometimes you have to ask yourself why you want something.

currently I got back into these after I got a gen1 Street fighter and first version of Mortal Kombat II (that didnt even have a marquee) after it came out. the SF cab became a jamma project cab that has sat for years incomplete (which i have been working on rectifying). the MKII i barely played at ALL since there were no options software wise and it has sat till this year when i got rid of it for 100 bucks. Also the gen1 design shells just looked lame. i stopped caring about arcade1up till the recent MK1 cab caught my eye. It had appeal to me being a mini version of the original cab with a MUCH improved design and also better software options stock and even a faux coin door!!!. I have played it much more often and kept it in my room. I have a REAL arcade cabinet (an MK dynamo cab) that i cant play very often because its at my grandfathers house and I dont have much room for it.

and thats the main key for me, having quick access to games Iv enjoyed playing for years, in shells that i can look at and feel pleased by. do i wish i could pop crts in them easily?? yes. have i given up on the idea because its a difficult endeavor? yes.

moving them is also fairly easy. I use them without risers since I like to sit and play.

but no matter what you want these things for, buy them on sale. never pay full price. keep an eye on FB market place or online deal days (I bought a Big Blue for 250 off the original 600 tag new) because no matter what you're probably gonna end up doing SOMETHING to it to make you happier with it, whether its: Joysticks, buttons, new screen, new control decks, coin door, marquee, etc etc. sometimes you'll have one and a better version will come out that makes you sorry you didnt just wait it out till a better option came.

otherwise they can be fun starting point for projects. you just really need to ask yourself what you want out of these beforw they burn holes in your wallet and you're asking yourself why you didnt just get the real thing in the first place.

[frequincyrecording]

The CRT glow brings such a nostalgic feeling, it just doesn’t compare for me. I also like bigger, chunky things.

[classicarcadeamusementpark]

The 1Up offers the benefit of being easy to transport in that you can probably fit one un-assembled in your car, not need a friend to help move it, and reasonably affordable and reliable game boards. But it ends there.

The emulation is not as good as a MAME cabinet, the controls are generally not to authentic, and LCD/LED displays look nothing like classic CRT's. In the late 90s I had a custom MAME controller built to my specifications with Asteroids buttons, spinner, and classic leaf-switch Wico joysticks & buttons. Around 2000 I finally had a room to follow through with my childhood dream at 7 years old of having a home arcade (in the mid 70s just before video games), and I had access to a vehicle to move games, friends to help repair them, etc. My plans immediately called for the combination of building several MAME cabinets built entirely out of classic cabinets, classic controls & classic parts are modern ones won't due, alone with collecting dedicated games. I didn't want my creations to look like MAME machines, but rather look like original conversion arcade machines.

I have a dedicated Tempest machine, and if that is your favorite I'd buy an original....There is also the option if you can still get one of buying a DVG board which connections modern computers to real vector monitors.The DVG is a modern homebrew board inspired by the Zektor ZVG board that came around 2001. I bought two ZVG boards at that time to build a color and a b&w machine. I first used my Vectrex monitor, and in 2006 I got an Asteroids cabinet I converted. It plays all b&w vector games on an original monitor. Not long after, I obtained a Space Duel cabinet, and built a color VectorMAME too. I also built a MsPacMAME out of a MsPacman cabinet with authentic 19" CRT monitor and over 10 interchangable control panels to cover almost any type of raster monitor game. I also built a horizontal version too which uses the same control panels. Tempest looks spot on with my color VectorMAME, but I have a dedicated one anyway, as well as many other dedicated games mostly from Atari.

MAME is a very good emulator. You just have to use an authentic cabinet, original game parts with interchangable panels to avoid an ugly over crowded panel, and an authentic arcade grade RGB monitor. Golden age games on a larger monitor than 19" look pixelated, so I use all 19" monitors which were the most common anyway. There are also some FPGA options, but reverse engineering ANYTHING is only as good as the people making it. Software or hardware, either can be great or terrible.

The whole MAME emulation thing is very comparable to VST's with synths. To some, only the original will do, but if done right as some games are emulated well, you could probably fool almost any collector short of record holders on many of the games. I frequently compare to the many retro arcades I regularly visit. I'm a big fan of software emulation in general, but it does take a lot of research and trying things out to get it right. No single version of MAME runs all the classic games best, so I run many different versions depending on the games I want to play.

I've considered building my own MIDI controller to my specs for VST's as none exist that are really what I want, yet I'm very impressed the VST's. It was a lot of work to do this for the MAME machines, and it seems to me the kind of MIDI controller I want is such as obvious design, I shouldn't need to build one. I'm not electronics expert either, but I have friends that help me out as needed. I envision a MIDI controller that resembles a MiniMoog Voyager XL with 61 keys, lots of large knobs, premium keybed & parts, long ribbon controller, aftertouch and even a set of 9 sliders resembling organ drawbars on it. It should offer lots of stage appeal and not be made as a budget item, and be fun to use. Today's MIDI controllers are lacking in all areas, yet the technology of the soft synths is very impressive. My arcade experience would also such if I didn't custom built what I wanted out of great software technology. Not really sure why others don't do the same thing I have.

[Vetal]

every day i think about buying a Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter arcade cabinet from 1up but that size dude, we are grown ass men we will not fit with that small cabinet!

[Victor-itbv]

You say you will be satisfied with the real thing but you might find out one day that the real thing doesn't even satisfy you.

[JackNance]

I owned a real Tempest machine, you can't beat a vector monitor, nothing else like it. You'll need a tech that can help you out, those old machines require servicing on occasion.

[cortical]

Very informative to hear about your experience and evolving feelings about the system, since these have been intriguing to me too for some time. Have you ever played one of the very authentic mini consoles from Replicade? I have the Q*bert version and really love it. I actually play it a fair amount despite the tiny size. It actually has a real mechanical knocker inside that hits when Q*bert falls, just like the real arcade console!

[GizzyDillespee]

I had to go back and rewatch after I saw whoever that was playing Tempest at the end...

"Heavy metal spinner", it's called?

It's not a Moog Source knob, but this might work as a modern substitute... something like that on Kronos, or Wavestate, as long as you could lock it in place during a performance that doesn't use it, or travel... Or just a controller bank with 4 of them! Not just for 0-127, but also for parameters with more steps than that.

[jasonakagecko]

The way you felt about this machine is exactly how I feel about vintage Synthesizer clones. Sure they feel good at first, then the more you play with it you realize it’s not as good as the original vintage.😂

[laurent]

You pay the price of what you get.. What did you expect for 400 or 500 bucks ?