Why are Arcade 1up Machines hated? - Think before you buy

[TrippinKahlua]

Guys, I’m torn.

Three years ago when I learned of the existence of these things through Boogie2988, I’ve been mesmerized.

Having an arcade machine is something I’ve dreamed of and these looked very reasonable, and authentic enough.

Yet I read from comments right here on Kiwi, and through other Youtubers, that these things are garbage.

I’m pretty resolved to talk my mom into letting me buy the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cabinet and I’m even getting set to sell a DS Lite, several Pokémon cartridges and other things so I can get the cash and not spend $400 out of the blue.

But is it worth it at all? A lot of comments say “made from cheap parts” (gee whiz, a cheap arcade console, isn’t that the whole point?) but I still see a lot of support from even the casual market. I saw some mom inquiring about a Ms Pac Man cabinet at Wal Mart yesterday. People obviously want these.

And really, I want this Christmas Present because who knows if it will be available next year? I only see two more in my Walmart area. And when my car is back, I’m gonna pursue before December 25th.

I’m gonna do this regardless of what I hear, but I still want to know, why do people shit on Arcade 1up?

 

[The Cunting Death]

They aren't real arcade machines, they're glitchy, and its a fuck ton cheaper to just make a machine out of a raspberry pi

 

[whatever I feel like]

They are flimsy and poorly made. Emulation is sometimes bad (gets better every release though, apparantly.) Not full sized. And I think they have the wrong layouts sometimes?

 

[TrippinKahlua]

They aren't real arcade machines, they're glitchy, and its a fuck ton cheaper to just make a machine out of a raspberry pi

But only if you understand Raspberry pi.

 

[The Cunting Death]

But only if you understand Raspberry pi.

its not that hard to do tbh, like at all. I know fuck all about my pi and I have one set up in my room next door.

 

[Pissmaster]

Because it's a relatively large, dedicated video game thing that costs as much as a game console, more or less. They're also not running on LE VERY IMPORTANT AUTHENTIC ARCADE HARDWARE, but rather, a build of MAME on a cheap Allwinner CPU that you could find in the cheapest Android tablets out there. They run everything just fine, but that kinda shit rustles the jimmies of people who can't cum without absolute perfect hardware timing that can only really happen on original hardware.

I have the Centipede one. I got it a couple of years ago when Walmart clearanced them out for $125 a pop, and I made it into a nice little trackball MAME machine. You can get a few boards - one for the monitor, one for the buttons, and one for the trackball, and rig those up to an old computer or a Raspberry Pi and spend an afternoon making a neat little MAME machine out of it. The stock hardware it comes with works just fine, but you only get a handful of games, with no way to install more later on. So unless you really really love whatever game you bought, or you're willing to mod it, you're gonna find yourself with a big dust collector.

As far as parts go, they don't use the absolute cheapest parts you can get, though arcade snobs are the type to say anything less than Sanwa buttons and sticks are hot garbage. I've used the stock buttons that came with mine, and they've held up perfectly fine. On the other side of the coin, I also have one of these:

and the buttons started giving out within about a week.

My Centipede cab also had some of the best instructions I've ever seen as far as stuff you have to assemble yourself, everything was pretty well labeled and the instructions were clear, and I appreciated that.

They're also pretty short, and the risers are very overpriced. I think $40 for what amounts to a few pieces of wood screwed together? Just smack together $10 worth of wood or cut up an old table you don't need or something instead. They really should come with the riser, for how expensive they are, but that's a universal criticism.

They also don't have some of the extra bits and bobs of real cabinets, like light-up marquees and buttons. Like, $400+ and they couldn't slap a few LEDs in there? Come on. Nor do they have access to the service menus or dip switches, despite all of that being baked into MAME and the roms themselves. Pretty dumb, but whatever, that's not an issue if you just turn them into MAME cabinets.

If you're not into woodworking or can't build out a cabinet yourself, but you still want a MAME machine, they're perfect to just slap a computer in and go. But if you don't wanna mod it, chances are, you'll get bored of the tiny collection of games they come with before you've justified the several hundred dollar price point, and you might sell it in a yard sale where I'll stroll up and offer you fifty bills for one, like I've been eagerly waiting to do.

They aren't real arcade machines, they're glitchy, and its a fuck ton cheaper to just make a machine out of a raspberry pi

I haven't noticed any glitches in mine, when I had the stock board in there. Also, just go with an old Windows PC if you have one, that's what I used.

They are flimsy and poorly made.

Mine seems fine. Hell, go slap around the one on display at every Walmart, they seem pretty sturdy. The bottom front piece is thin, but the rest of the cabinet is fine.

edit: Oh, and the screen (on mine) is a 1280x1024 LCD monitor. So you're not getting pixel-perfect visuals or anything, but to their credit, the games do run at the proper aspect ratios. No Arcade1Up has a CRT, of course, though none of the screens are anywhere close to high quality or HDR or anything. Black levels are that sort of backlit greyish color you always see on cheap monitors, but I didn't feel anything off about the framerate or response time. I'm also a person who can't play Mega Man on most screens due to input lag, so I'd be raising hell if that were an issue.

 

[Celebrate Nite]

If I ever had the money and space to get an actual arcade machine, it's going to be a Dance Dance Revolution machine.

Although I'm torn as to which version i should get. Extreme and 4th Mix Plus Solo are my top 2 choices.

 

[Pissmaster]

If I ever had the money and space to get an actual arcade machine, it's going to be a Dance Dance Revolution machine.

Although I'm torn as to which version i should get. Extreme and 4th Mix Plus Solo are my top 2 choices.

573 Digitals can play everything from 3rd through Extreme, so just get one o' them mo'fuckas and slap that shit in and install a DVD drive and get one of those mutliloader discs with everything.

Or just get that remake of Extreme via Stepmania and use that

DDR Solo machines have a much smaller footprint, but only two sensors per panel. Full-size ones have four. So, take that into consideration.

or get an In the Groove 2 dedicab

 

[From The Uncanny Valley]

I have to crouch to use one. Problem number one.

 

[AgriDrThunder]

How can you justify spending hundreds of dollars on an arcade cabinet when there are poor Gamers in Africa stuck grinding on nokia cell phones? Gamers have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win. Gamers of all countries unite!

 

[Celebrate Nite]

DDR Solo machines have a much smaller footprint, but only two sensors per panel. Full-size ones have four. So, take that into consideration.

I only mentioned 4th Mix Plus Solo because it has every song from 1st mix to 4th Mix (barring the korean version songs and Strictly Business), and some of the licenses from those versions that never got a revival in 5th mix - Extreme are REALLY good.

or get an In the Groove 2 dedicab

Oh yea... I could have an R21 ITG2 and sticking the DDR songs on that (along with Foonmix and a few others), but the downside is that the background videos would be strictly ITG, which while nice to look at, can get pretty dull at times.

 

[REGENDarySumanai]

Dude, just make your own arcade machine using a custom built PC or any microcomputer, along with any other parts needed.

 

[sasazuka]

If I had the money and, pretty much as importantly, the space, I'd consider the new OutRun cabinet (even if the sprite swap due to the lack of the Ferrari license is kind of a bummer) but I have neither.

I'd consider getting one of those teeny tiny Barbie-doll scale arcade cabinets if I saw more 16-bit era games on them, such as Ghouls N' Ghosts or basically any Sega Super Scaler game (OutRunners, like on the Arcade 1-up machine, would be ideal since the cars were already cosmetically changed to avoid licensing issues to begin with).

 

[robobobo]

For just about anyone who'd buy a knockoff arcade cabinet, you could do better for less setting up a cheap emulator and plugging it into a big-ass TV and buying good controllers for it. A person actually bent on getting an arcade experience is going to shell out for better, either a real arcade cabinet or a higher-end emulator cabinet with hundreds of games on it.

 

[Pissmaster]

I only mentioned 4th Mix Plus Solo because it has every song from 1st mix to 4th Mix (barring the korean version songs and Strictly Business), and some of the licenses from those versions that never got a revival in 5th mix - Extreme are REALLY good.

Oh yea... I could have an R21 ITG2 and sticking the DDR songs on that (along with Foonmix and a few others), but the downside is that the background videos would be strictly ITG, which while nice to look at, can get pretty dull at times.

4th Plus had a normal version for standard machines, and there are hacky ways to get Solo cabinets to run non-Solo games. So if you wound up with either cabinet style, you could still jump between 4th Plus and Extreme. I think that actually gives you every song in the classic library, excluding spinoffs and the Euromixes.

ITG2 machines use Pump it Up's pad board, so you can connect that to a Windows computer with some separate drivers for an easy Stepmania cabinet, bypassing R21 restrictions entirely. But they're the most saught-after DDR-style machines out there, so unless you can get one for a great price, just look into getting a DDR cabinet.

 

[Totally Awesome]

They look cool, but they are way too expensive for only having a few games each. If I did get one, I would mod it to have a bunch of games. I would have to move shit around and get extra space.

 

[JektheDumbass]

I tried the TMNT cabinet in store and the joystick felt stiff and the buttons weren't responsive, there was a noticeable delay. It just didn't feel nice.

 

[Jimmy Durante's Ballsack]

If you're not going to get a proper CALIFORNIA SPEED, Gauntlet, or Gradius machine then what's the fucking point?

The older machines were designed specifically with durability in mind. These things were to be used by the public. And the public can't take care of anything that is given to them. 1up machines are designed to be used by autists. And autists can't take care of anything either but are dumb enough to buy another one when they sperg out and break the cheap piece of junk they bought.

 

[sasazuka]

If you're not going to get a proper CALIFORNIA SPEED, Gauntlet, or Gradius machine then what's the fucking point?

Speaking of which, I feel like California Speed should have been included on the racing-oriented Midway Arcade Treasures 3 although the reason it probably wasn't included was just that the Thunder and Rush games probably ate up most of the available space on the DVD-ROM.

 

[Pissmaster]

Speaking of California Speed, one thing I've always wanted to do is build out a MAME machine for racing games, preferably using an old car seat and steering wheel. That'd be great, but dismantling a car is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay out of my league.

Or a lightgun machine, but there's no good lightgun replacement out there that's not basically just crappy IR Wii remote technology.

I tried the TMNT cabinet in store and the joystick felt stiff and the buttons weren't responsive, there was a noticeable delay. It just didn't feel nice.

You can judge the quality of the area you're in by how many joystick balls have been stolen from the Walmart TMNT display

If all four are gone, I pray to God you're armed