I'm liking the SF2 cabinet. I threw in a Retropie, which was pretty easy to do. My 2.5 year old daughter loves being able to reach the controls while standing.

I'm considering a Rampage. I might try for it when I see one on sale for cheaper. I wonder why these didn't end up in Target (at least not near me). Seems like they attract a different clientele than Walmart more apt to purchase a $300 toy.

I never actually saw one in person before ordering online. According to Brickseek, my local Walmarts are sitting on stock and very few of them have lowered prices. I guess I'll keep an eye on that to see if anything lowers enough for me to consider getting another. They're fun little toys, but I don't think they're worth the msrp of $400.

I was willing to pay $300 for my first one, but seeing people get them for way less than that tells me it's just a matter of time before these come down more in price. I'd be surprised if the company is able to sustain this kind of volume in future runs. Store marking these down to 100 aren't going to be getting newer games.

Are they doing split screen for SF2 cocktail? Seems a little weird. I would guess even playing 1P, you're only using half the screen.

Do the LCDs they use even have good enough viewing angle for cocktail mode?

What's the MSRP on the small ones? That puts them in a size range with more competition, I believe.

It'll be interesting to see if the company can keep pumping out new titles. You'd think people would run out of money and room, but I am posting this on a pinball forum...

I can't quite figure out the arcade1up mechanism for holding the plexi in place on the cocktails. Looking at pics, are those 4 thumb screws? Do they stick out above the plexi? Don't standard cocktail cabs use some kind of edge bracket/clips? Maybe if converting to glass you'd be able to convert to edge clips, but I would think getting glass to the exact specs with screw holes might end up being more complicated and costly.

Edit: there are pics in this post with a side view of the SF2 cocktail cab. It appears to me that it does have raised thumb screws:
https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/299-new-arcade-cabinets-street-fighter-centipede-tempest-/page/31#post-4777967

I see a mistake on that SF2 cocktail. On the tabletop artwork, the red box that says "play as a boss" is cut off. Hopefully that's fixed before release.

I have a cnc machine, so I figured I'd take a stab at making my own control panel protector for SF2. It would be easy to make a completely new control panel, too. Heck, it wouldn't be too far-fetched to make a complete cab using my SF2 as a model, but it's so much easier and probably cheaper buying the pre-made cabinets from arcade1up.

sf2 cp protector (resized).PNG

I've been measuring to make it fit my control panel panel as close as possible. Some buttons are slightly skewed left or right a tad, so I guess there were loose tolerances in their manufacturing process, meaning they had to create a protector that would account for all the slop.

I would prefer not to mess with clear coating. There was a YouTube video of someone recommending how to spray it, and he was saying how well it turned out. It looked pretty bad to me.

I'm not even sure what kind of plastic I'm using. I just happened to have a sheet of it on hand from some past project. It fits ok, but I did use the arcade1up method of just having it fit over the buttons, so the holes are slightly visible around the buttons. If I were to swap to longer screw in buttons, I could cut another one with smaller button holes where the buttons would actually hold the protector in place.

I'm planning to get some different screws and countersink them. I think that's something the arcade1up ones are missing.

I have a couple generic non-dedicated stand-up arcade games and wish they were both as small as these arcade1up machines with fun themes. I have 3 dedicated driving cabinets, but never really got into arcade collecting otherwise.

To me the fun is in the theme and size of the cabinets. I have a toddler and she loves being able to reach the controls, so that aspect has a lot of appeal to me. She stands next to me while I sit on a stool. The build quality is kind of crap, and I doubt there's much resale value, but if I had the option between filling up space with a dedicated full size cab or an arcade1up cab, I'd probably choose the arcade1up. I like to tinker and they're easy to mod. They're decently light. I carried my assembled SF2 cab downstairs on my own.

What's funny is for me installing a retropie in my sf2 cab has resulted in me actually playing my retropie!

I've had it sitting in a NESpi case on my desk for ages without being played.

I've been looking up games I'm interested in and just adding them instead of building out a forever-long list of junk I'll never play.

It has been cool playing the PS1 version of Mr. Driller in the cabinet (I didn't mess with it too long, but didn't get the arcade version working when I tried).

In the end, even the arcade1up boards are emulating the games, so I have no qualms swapping out the hardware to something more feature-rich that is also emulation. I guess there could be a certain appeal to only having a few dedicated games in the cab, but not sure if I could leave one stock.

Thanks for this notice! I went ahead and ordered one. That's cheaper than any I'm seeing online or available locally for me via brickseek.

If I could get a similar deal on Rampage, that's one I've got my eye on. Brickseek thinks I can go to a Walmart about a half hour away and get one for 200, but I haven't been very motivated to make the trip.

How does the manufacturer/retailer relationship work? Does the manufacturer buy them back or does Walmart not actually buy their stock and the manufacturer is just placing them on their shelves and the store gets a cut? I'm wondering if the 2019 releases will be less available in brick and mortar stores.

What's funny about these games is they're making me look into brick and mortar stores I didn't even know existed. TJ Maxx? Never heard of it, but there's apparently one nearby.

Now, have I actually gone to a brick and mortar store for one of these games? No...

It would be interesting, but I'll be surprised if they attempt light gun games.

I just ordered the Asteroids game yesterday from Gamestop. It was just delivered!

Apparently it shipped out of a warehouse pretty close by.

I'll give the stock spinner a try, but I was honestly probably going to modify this cabinet into something else anyway.

The rotary encoder tech isn't even all that complex. It seems like something cheap-ish, keeping the same style of spinner would be possible in mass production. I guess they didn't want to mess with custom parts.

A diy solution could probably make use of an arduino to read the rotations and output to something usable by the A1up control inputs (with software-adjustable sensitivity programmed into the Arduino).

I wonder if these enclosed Chinese encoders are any good: ebay.com link: 600P R Photoelectric Incremental Rotary Encoder 5 24V AB 2 Phases Shaft 6mm

I can only assume they're using an enclosed encoder disc due to the form-factor (otherwise seems like they'd be smaller like the digital encoders, but I honestly have no idea. If those free spin decently, perhaps a semi-cheap DIY option is out there.

Duplicate

I don't think I came close to that for a Retropie install. Even at full price, I'm at:
$300 for the game
$30 for joysticks/buttons/usb encoders (buttons I got were no better than stock, so I kept stock buttons - could spend more on better quality)
I had a raspberry Pi, but that plus power supply + sd card is what $50?
$35 for LCD board

I kept the stock speaker and used the amplifier built into the LCD board, so no extra costs there.

About $415 for a basic RPi swap in, more for premium buttons/joystick and amplifier/upgraded speakers. I have no idea what custom artwork would cost, though. Seems like retheme kits on eBay are about $200. So if that's the baseline, maybe 600-800 for a full retheme?

Get a discount cab as a starting point and that price goes down even more.

As in: we're going to create artificial scarcity, so if you see one on the shelf that you want at full price, don't wait for it to get marked down by half or more.

In what ways is one better off buying an old, used CRT cab?

Granted, I have some CRT cabs, but:
-They're hard to move in and out of my basement.
-My 2.5-year old daughter can't reach the controls.
-CRTs have burn in and are expensive to replace and require maintenance.
-They required me to go to a sketchy warehouse or a stranger's basement/garage, rather than shipping to my door.
-I don't think any full size cab I would actually want at this point is going to come as cheap.

They're cheap toys, they're fun, and my wife doesn't worry that I've brought bedbugs into the house from a previous owner. I've got a toddler, and she refers to them as her games. I love it.

I was planning to convert my Asteroids cab, but when I ask my daughter what she wants to watch me play, she says, "the spider web game!", referring to Tempest.

Also, the pod in Lunar Lander is an ice cream cone.

I may have to keep it as is, but I sure could use a better spinner.

Looks like FYE has their cabs marked down to $250 with free shipping. Their stock includes SF2 and Rampage, which I don't think I've seen as cheap for online ordering.

What are you finding that costs that much? Assuming you have the RPi, SD card and psu, and use stock controls, minimally you'd only need the LCD driver board (about $35) and 2 usb encoders ($20 for the pair). So maybe $55 extra beyond what you've got on hand?

The existing wiring for the stock controls can plug right into the cheapo usb encoders. The LCD driver board has an onboard speaker amp and comes with wires/connector that are easy to adapt to the stock speaker. Then you just control volume from within the emulation station settings.

Is this Arcade1up selling direct through Amazon?

What's weird is the 1-3 months shipment expectation, which could give them enough time to sell on-demand if they had to convert to that model.

https://www.amazon.com/Street-Fighter-Player-Stick-Arcade-Machine/dp/B07G1Y6XJS/ref=mp_s_a_1_6

At any rate, $250 on SF2 seems more common online now.

Depends on what you want to play, but the Street Fighter has probably the most accommodating controls for most games outside of games with oddball controls, and good for fighters obviously.

Hopefully they honor requests made before then... it was some time ago that I filled out the form for Asteroids and still haven't received it.

2 deck protectors were delivered to me today. They were ordered in January, I believe. They came without notice.

I had ordered 3: SF2, Asteroids, and Rampage (thinking I'd buy this one)

Unfortunately Asteroids is the one I needed, and the one I didn't get. I made my own for SF2 and just haven't been motivated to put the effort into Asteroids.

Edit: I actually did receive the Asteroids protector! It just got delivered a little later in the day. Guess USPS made a couple trips to my house today.

If I understand it correctly, Pacman and Galaga were originally Walmart exclusives. It appears both are now listed at Best Buy with themed risers and a stupid high price of 380. So let's lift the exclusivity and make them more widely available, add very little cost by adding a riser, and increase the price! Brickseek thinks Galaga without riser is available widely in my local Walmarts for $300. Either is a cab I'd be interested in, but I swear I was seeing a couple stores have them at $200 (maybe even $150 at one location) on Brickseek towards the beginning of the year. Anyway, it appears they may be padding the stock of these 2 cabs, so there will likely be a time they come way down in price again. It's hard to imagine demand increased to justify new stock at the msrp when they've clearly been on sale for way less.

I have no experience, but I've read that you should get a price check because it might ring up at the lower price even if they haven't marked it down on the tag.

There aren't standards. You just do p1 and p2 the exact same, and then you go through the steps for both controllers to map the inputs as part of the emulation station controller config (i.e. press p1 start, press p1 button A, etc). You can remap controls if you don't get it right. I haven't messed much with the options on the different emulators, but for me the MAME and Final Burn Alpha emulators don't map up the same way. There's supposed to be a way to align them, but I haven't messed with it.

I never played the games on real hardware. I paid $150 for Asteroids and have been ok with it on the stock spinner, but I haven't put too much time in on the games to know if a better spinner would make things better. I'd totally go for it at $75. I may try to track down a $75 Centipede.

I originally bought the Asteroids cab thinking I'd mod it, but have left it stock so far.

I didn't realize they were selling parts separately. I just checked, though, and the 12 in 1 control decks page doesn't seem to provide a link to purchase. Maybe they're out of stock.

Assuming monitor rotation was the same as your starting cab, I'd imagine converting to another game simply involves getting the respective PCB and control deck. I would also bet it's not too difficult to rotate the monitor if needed.

Not sure what the 12 in 1 control deck costs, but I priced out pcb, control deck and deck protector for centipede and came to about $70 total in the cart.

Given that I have the space, it would be more cost effective if I can get a $75 Centipede cab.

Screw Brickseek and screw Walmart!

I went to 2 different Walmart hell holes that Brickseek showed should have stock of more than one unit of both Centipede and Asteroids at $75, and neither had either one. At the one, a guy in the department said they had not had Centipede for a long time.

It's not worth the effort, even at $75. I do not plan to step foot back in Walmart for these games at any price going forward. I shouldn't have to work to give them my money.

You'll need at least a compatible LCD controller board that has HDMI, and a usb control encoder for controls. That assumes you're on stock buttons. People often install extra buttons for credits, and go ahead and replace all buttons. An upgrade can also involve a cheap audio amp and dual speakers for stereo.

I'm not sure what's involved with adapting the stock spinner to usb/or other protocol compatible with RPi.

I like the look of the Marvel Superheroes cab, though it's funny that the a1up version actually looks like a dedicated cab for that game, even though I'm pretty sure that didn't exist. Capcom games from that era tended to be simply kits for existing cabs (often generic Dynamo cabs), as far as I know, so artwork was relegated to a simple square/rectangular decal on the sides of the cab.

Strange... I guess 2 relatively unrelated things sitting on the shelf not selling = bundled sale for Walmart?