What started out as a promising idea has lately been unfulfilling promise, lacking direction, and seems to be fading out a bit. So what happened? Twitter: / rgt_85 Facebook: / rgt85 #arcade1up #arcade #homearcade
@@agent109g8 The Sinden light guns are actually a really high quality option. I have a CRT with lots of light gun games and I'm just as satisfied using the Sinden's on flat screen.
No. They just realize nobody is buying as much because also their machines break and constant returns. Also, nobody wants to buy just 1 arcade game or 3 games in one machine. Why? If they were smart, they could do NAMCO arcade greatest light gun hits and put Time Crisis, Jurassic Park, etc. like at least all the light gun hits from the 80-90s into one arcade then people will pay $700
Half assing things is their business model. They need to always leave room for improvement so they can re-release each cabinet and sell them over and over to the same "hardcore" customer base.
Once upon a time they were affordable. They used to be like $300 when they started out. Now theyre over $700. At that point get one built with many arcade ROMs. Arcade 1up is meant for the casuals who don't know any of this stuff. Also for collectors.
They raised the prices to the point where u can almost just buy real machines. I've seen 1ups going for like 600-700 each while i can find real cabinets for 800. They kinda priced out a ton of people.
When they first started doing these, I wanted one so bad, but they were out of their price range. Now I have enough money to buy one of the cabinets in the old price, but then they jacked the price up over twice that. I still kinda want the Marvel vs. Capcom and NFL Blitz cabinets, but I'm kinda over a lot of the others. It also helps that one of the cabinets I really wanted, the TMNT cabinet, was released onto home consoles.
I think more people would rather buy a Playstation 5 or Xbox Series S or X or even the Steam Deck than buy an Arcade cabinet. Buying a arcade is like buying 1 to 5 games vs being able to play thousands on Xbox, Playstation and other systems and I think this is what's cutting into the 1Up Arcade market.
It's not hard to see why they did a Fast and Furious cab over the other classic racers. It's because Fast and Furious is a popular movie franchise and they think doing a cab of that will be an easier sell to the average consumer. A1Up has been playing it too safe over the past few years, so they re-release the same classic games or do games with some kind of brand recognition.
I think they miscalculated the demographics then. Most Arcade1Up customers are old farts like me, while F&F franchise is mostly beloved by generations that came after us. I don't think FF fans give a flying f*ck about arcades; they grew up with Xbox and Dualshock controllers
@PutlerHuyIo Yeah, do they really some random family is gonna walk through Best Buy or Walmart, see this and think "Wow, a big Fast and Furious arcade racing game for $600? Let's get this in our house"?
@@PutlerHuyIo Yup, not only that, but they could have gone the route of partnering with Nintendo like how AtGames partnered with Gottlieb for their pinball tables and released a Mario Kart GP cabinet or even have a Batman racing cabinet.
At $700, you can get a Arcade Legends Ultimate and modify with with a USB drive for Coin Ops X. Plus, they also have a 4 player control panel available. Beyond that price point, just make a badass MAME cabinet.
The newer cabinets are pretty expensive. They keep rehashing cabinets. The last cabinet I got was the MVSX and after I hacked it, I did not see a need for another Arcade1up. If they ever come out with a Virtua Fighter 1 or 2 cabinet or a Sega Rally/ Daytona cabinet, ill get it.
One thing that gets me, is that they don't really cater for people here in the UK either. When you look at how many have been released in America compared to the UK, we're missing the likes of - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Turtles in Time combo Class of '81 (we ARE getting the 40th Anniversary of Ms Pac-Man though) Mortal Kombat II Deluxe Killer Instinct X-Men Terminator 2: Judgment Day Golden Axe The Simpsons Attack from Mars Pinball (With the Williams tables)
If you're lucky to find one on clearance at all, the last Arcade 1up machine I saw on clearance was the Simpsons at my local Best buy and they want 600 for that crap😂
As someone who got into collecting these late, I can say that the secondary market is very aggressively price hiked. So I do appreciate some reprints at retail value. However, I feel like they don't have the right pulse on which ones need to be reprinted. And you're right, it's been the same catalog for years now Pretty much.
I believe A1up is hitting a technical barrier. The next stage is entering dreamcast level hardware specs. They should commission a monitor manufacturer to make a 4:3 25inch monitor and start selling deluxe 25" versions of their older cabinets to give the game hardware time to catch up.
Definitely need more classic titles, Time Crisis would be epic. I feel the same, I was so hyped when they first came on the scene and released Street Fighter. Over time there hasn't been much variety and it's just killed the excitement I had for Arcade1Up.
It's a shame, because we here in the UK are getting the Ridge Racer cabinet (non sitdown one) in october which is odd considering that we have the Fast & Furious cabinet as well. I think it's totally a shame that they've had to re-release dozens of the same titles i.e. Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Pac-Man, TMNT, NBA Jam etc yet not releasing other games like a Time Crisis cabinet with all three Time Crisis games or Area 51 cabinet or even a guitar hero arcade cabinet.
Another thing that didn't help is the fact that they never have replacement parts available, every time I would go to their site it always showed out stock for any machine. So basically if your machine brakes you can't get parts for it.
I would love to see a gauntlet cabinet ( gauntlet I,II and dark legacy) … the cabinet itself has such a great form factor they would really need to make it be 19inch display though with 4 players
Great video! I have 3 Arcade1ups that I brought for $399 each and I want to buy more but the higher prices and lack of new games are preventing me from adding to my collection. I love having a mini arcade in my man cave and want to purchase more cabinets... I just need the prices to come down on the cabinets I want.
What I will do is order one of those preloaded HD, Mini PC, 80's speakers from thrift store, monitor, and some building material to make my own cabinet with wood. The way sound is produced in those 80's speakers makes retro gaming sound better, it gives flashbacks instantly, these cheap modern cabinet just don't cut it for me. I remember in the 80's going to arcades those cabinets were built like tanks, I need an Aracade machine to have quality part not just a great game. F&F is really signs of losing touch, there's hundreds of other options to chose from prior to F&F
Great vid man. I don’t know why they haven’t put out stuff I grew up loving like Operation Wolf and other classics. Maybe it’s because of others buying up the rights ? I don’t know much about it but I’ll be watching your stuff for updates hopefully .
They got IPs that were really easy to attain. You'd never see a Donkey Kong machine or others. Tron really surprised me that they were able to get but then the price was crazy high for 2 games on it.
Back when I worked in a movie theater the foot pedal for time crisis CONSTANTLY broke and had to be replaced. So a complete redesign of that would be a good idea.
Two of the machines I purchased the display didn’t work and even after they sent new displays my terminator 2 machine doesn’t work and they told me to ship it back on my dime for a refund…..that would cost as much as the damn machine so I said screw it I will never buy another.
If they were semi recent purchases, call your credit card company and complain. There’s a decent chance they’ll get your back. Worked for me, although I’ve never bought from 1up
Part of the issue is people only have so much room for these. Once you buy a couple, they take up a lot of room. Also most people outside of the collectors are going to buy what they have memory's with when they were younger. For me it was turtles, killer instinct, and terminator. Outside of that unless it was something the really stood out im not going to keep eating of space when space is limited.
I took notice of them when they announced the Marvel vs Capcom 2 cabinet. I was ECSTATIC! Owning a big piece of my childhood was a dream come true. Bought it, love it. Followed their company news for a bit and then they just fell off. Nothing exciting announced. Time Crisis 2 and House Of The Dead 2 would interest me though. But they have to be real good (foot pedals and all).
My best friend built an arcade at his house, featuring a lot of the Arcade 1 Up machines. The main issue he had, was at first if you got a machine that didn't work for some reason, you could just call a number and they would send you a replacement. No problem. Now when you buy one, and there is a problem. That same number refers you to a website where you report a broken screen or whatever. Then after a long time, they will eventually send you the replacement.
This was inevitable, arcades are just a niche market that now we only have a small group of hardcore who are willing or even wanting to shell out hundreds of dollars to own. I would say Fast n Furious may seem like a bad choice but it's only more recent arcade racer that still in many locations. As for everything else it's all about how much can they realistically sell, if they know they can sell a couple hundred thousand they will definitely skip it.
I kept hearing a rumor about a wrestle fest version from them. It doesn’t seem like that will happen either but that is one of the few I would be interested in
For me, the problem is that they’re TOO expensive, I have 3 of them already, but I refuse to pay $600-$700 for something I can build an exact copy of and emulate they’re whole catalog. But if they drop the price I will continue to support them
Yup. This is pretty much me too. I only buy these when they’re heavily discounted. My first purchases were Golden Tee & Mortal Kombat II for a couple hundred apiece. Then picked up Terminator for $300. My latest addictions…picked up X-Men for $349 & The Simpsons on clearance for $139 (!). I feel really good about all those acquisitions at those prices. But I simply won’t bother with any of them at regular prices.
I was super excited for 1up and I have a few real arcade cabs blitz showtime 4player, Mk4 both og dedicated but after seeing the quality and issues people were having with the 1ups I just spent the same amount of money and bought an empty Mk2 cabinet and built a MAME cabinet and I'm completely happy with it honestly.
I haven't purchased an Arcade1up cabinet in about 2 years, and won't be purchasing anymore. My last cabinet I purchased was their Street Fighter Big Blue cabinet, and that cabinet had audio issues, in which they never corrected. They released a patch for it which created even more issues with that cabinet. They also have horrible quality control and customer service. Your best bet at this point is getting a nice multicade and enjoy it.
the MVSX exists, and that's been hacked to run every single Neo Geo game. For me, that's the only quarter scale arcade cabinet I need. I've bougth some Arcade 1ups over the years, but I could sell all of them and just keep my MVSX and I'd be happy.
It's not or doesn't have to be a "collect them all" kind of situation. They are large bulky and as you said only now starting to get unaffordable for the average person. I think the idea is and always was to buy your beloved nostalgic childhood game; of a slightly smaller size that can fit in a lounge room game room house or apartment of average size. They definitely need to stick to fewer models with the best features and release release titles with cult followings. I'm in Australia and about to get my first Mortal Kombat 1up arcade cabinet the Legacy cabinets sold out from Melbourne distributor so getting a cheaper Generation 1 from Big W the Australian version of Walmart... although I would love the golden axe one it is 4 times the price and has to be shipped from America so I probably won't bother getting a second one perhaps modify or upgrade this one so it has a few more titles....
The hardware and emulation is what is limiting them. The newer games require more work and that equates to more costs. They want to release the same crap to keep getting quick easy money from the suckers that keep buying the new variants.
Weird because when I started to speak out about how the prices were going up way too much people were talking down to me saying oh well if you can't afford to go somewhere else. Because spending almost $1,000 on a compressed wood miniature cabinet is supposed to be a flex nowadays 🙄 The thing is these were supposed to be cheaper than a used arcade cabinet also be easier to move. When now the only benefit to these all that they're easy to move. These are selling for brand new $800 plus shipping and tax. Not to mention how people at these afterwards with different buttons and controllers and so on. So our used cabinet would actually be a lot cheaper.
You should see if they need help. If you, your friends, or associates know something about the business, maybe you could try working there and see if you can make the differences you want to see.
How can I emulate NBA Hangtime on my arcade1up cab? What's the best way to do that and still switch back to the original pcb? I know I will lose the online play that the cab already has.
I completely agree with you. Everyone in the community is asking for new games. The thought is that we aren’t really their customers - the retailers are, and the retailers are apparently asking for these same titles. I want more Capcom, Konami, Sega, and Namco to say the least. SF Alpha, SF 3, Tekken, Virtua Fighter, Daytona, and House of the Dead would be instant purchases for me and a lot of other people.
I have a a1u street fighter legacy cab, neo geo mvsx cab, atagmes pinball and the legends ultimate. The one I still play is daily is the legends ultimate. Because I was able to drop 1200 games plus with the drop of a thumb drive. I don't think a1u is going to be alive much longer.
I had the original street fighter 2 cabinet, and thought it was great. I recently played the mortal kombat cabinet that has 12 games...the input delay was brutal. I'd say it was unplayable. The cabinet looked phenomenal though.
There are only so many IPs you can release, so I think that’s how/why they do so many re-releases (not to mention only so many IPs people care enough to shell out $600+ for a cabinet with only a handful of games on it). As RGT mentioned, you’re also having to pay more for a cab with non-authentic parts and too small in size for two adults to play comfortably side by side than you did when A1U first started. As cool as it is to have an arcade cab in your house, the novelty wears off.
I almost got a Arcade 1UP because of your early reviews but I decided I would wait for RPie to drop in price and build my own then COVID hit and I never did either It's time I revisit that idea
Build your own. You will absolutely love the experience of learning and building. Some advice. Buy a track saw if you can afford it & use 3/4" MDF not plywood. Don't overthink it , you can do it.
Maybe not just new retro style games, there are many indie games that feel like arcade games, like castle crashers, speedrunners, and super chicken horse
They used to be cheap, but now they’re expensive just so they could pay for the licensing for the arcade games (the licensing for The Simpsons and TMNT are definitely extremely expensive because of the companies that own them - Disney/Fox and Nickelodeon)
When these came out it gave me a wild hair to build myself a full size cabinet. My son and his friends loved it, many hours hearing “Boom Shaklaka!” Coming out of the home office. Adult family members who came to kids birthday parties also loved it. Like it was 1984 and they were playing Galaga at the 7-11 again.
I started to by these during the pandemic. It was fun to modify them. But i only use the Atgames Legends ultimate now. Sold a couple of the 1up machines.
I’m with you on this item. I have purchased several cabinets and planned on 1 more, but now it’s just easier to emulate on pc and play any game ever created from my couch. I know it’s not the same experience, but much more rewarding than paying 700 bucks for cheap quality controls. Now if they placed quality controls, speakers and screens, different story.
Arcade one up totally f'ed themselves by getting greedy ,that's the bottom line. It was such a cool novelty at first comma but then as the audience grew wiser, they realized how much that arcade one up was overcharging for minimal effort. Karma
The fast and furious game was sick. I went to an arcade that even had the 4d motion thing with it. Although not the most obvious racing choice, but a good one imo
I think what you're saying makes a lot of sense. I don't believe arcade1up are done yet though, I think once they drop time crisis opinions will shift back to they are progressing again. I think they have new releases up there sleeve but been tinkering them and in the process been bringing out deluxe because it's easier for them while waiting. Time crisis has taken way too long to release but it will get them back on track and with 4 shooting games it will shine over T2. Fast and furious was a disaster really so I think they will make a comeback later this year.
I have just two Arcade 1nups, Mortal Kombat II and the Terminator Judgement day and that's all that appealed to me from Arcade 1nup. I originally bought the T2 Cab for the 699 plus tax, and about a month later the price dropped a massive sale and I ended up price matching the T2 cab for 350, I saved a lot on the cab Thank God, I hooked my T2 cab up with powerful speakers, Terminator Topper that lights up with better looking Marquee, it looks real dope and the sound is top notch,
They can't afford new licenses. There was a time when I would have been interested in an arcade cabinet or one to put MAME in, but now I have a Steam Deck and a dock for my 65" tv, an 8Bitdo arcade stick, and thousands of games on a 1tb microSD card the size of my pinkynail.
I only have 2 of these cabinets.... the first TMNT cabinet, and the first Marvel VS Capcom. I do enjoy them. I am limited on space, so even in the best case scenario, I'm not sure how many more would be in my future (maybe one or two more max). But the re-releases of games is frustrating in part because there's usually some kind of trade off. They've gone to more traditional looking cabinet designs compared to their earlier "shark fin" designs, which is nice. But then there might be speakers that are worse, or a worse monitor, etc. Then there's things like the artwork, depending on your preferences. Like I said, I have the first TMNT cabinet, and I prefer the artwork on it. I do like the shape/form factor of the Turtles in Time cabinet a bit more, though it's not perfect. The speakers on it are worse. But, it does have online play, AND they got the license for the original recording of the theme song for the first TMNT game on that newer one, where as mine has the cover version. I appreciate the effort they went to in getting that license, but it's puts someone like me in a catch-22 situation. I really don't want to go spend $700 on that newer TMNT cabinet, especially since I prefer certain aspects of the one that I have. And honestly, even if it was a complete improvement on all fronts (and used the same original game artwork), I can't say it would be worth the price to upgrade. And then I Have to go through the hassle of unloading my existing cabinet. I think in addition to making newer cabinets, they really need to think about finding ways to make money in supporting the ones already out there. Taking TMNT for example, If they were to offer some kind of upgrade kit for the cabinet that I have, that would perhaps include the newer PCB board (with the online capability and original theme song), a new control desk with the extra live button, a wifi antenna, etc., that I could just swap into my existing cabinet... even if they charged $200 to $300 for that, I'd be inclined to buy that. As it is, they are effectively losing some degree of potential business to 3rd parties that offers parts and options for the A1up cabinets.
They got greedy. I bought my first cabinet for $300. Got my last two for $500. Now they are as high as $750. I will never pay that for an arcade 1up machine.
I saw a few of these in disc replay yesterday. They were selling the Burger Time cabinet $1500, the others three were all priced at $1000 to $1200, I just don’t remember which ones they were.
