Arcade1Up in trouble?

James Falconer

James Falconer

Administrator
I've been big into retro/vintage gaming for a few years now. Purchased all of the old 'mini' systems, including the NES, Super NES, Atari and more. Absolutely love it.

In more recent times I got into the suite of products from AtGames (actually met with them in Vegas at CES one year!). They demonstrated the product and I was hooked. As soon as the cabs became available in Canada I was all over it.

Since arrival my Legends Ultimate and Legends Pinball cabs get frequent play. Loving how easy it is to add games (recently added a batch of new Data East titles) and pins. Their e-store makes it fairly easy to do.

Question though, I've been quietly lurking around Arcade1Up cabs for awhile now, and over the Black Friday / Cyber Monday period noticed some insane prices. $700 cabinets for $300 or less. People were getting 3 for the price of 1 at times. Are they in trouble? Are people in the space buying less (perhaps priced too high to start?). Or maybe clearing inventory for new products in the new year?

Love their offering, hope all is well on their side for sure!
 
spARTacus

spARTacus

Well-known member
I think the idea of what Arcade1Up is doing (I had never heard of them before your post) is really cool. However, I am wondering about how much of a market exists. For me personally, I don't really have lots of space for such a cabinet. It would have to be crammed into the family room somewhere and would also have to compete with the family's desires for use (and decor) of the room. Would most people ever consider having more than one in their house, just to achieve that retro feeling and discussion centre-piece when entertaining? I think most people would be thinking about how many games they can get out of a gaming console, vs just one game from a cabinet. I quickly looked to see if they offered a "multi-cabinet", basically a gaming console in a cabinet. I don't think they do. One wouldn't really be able to achieve any specific game retro graphics on the exterior of such a multi-cabinet (which I assume is also some of the draw), unless one was willing to just pick a popular retro game theme like maybe Pac Man or Space Invaders, regardless of what games the cabinet was capable of playing. A multi-cabinet might have a bigger market, and I assume wouldn't be too hard to achieve given all the retro multi mini things that now exist.
 
Dunt Dunt Dunt

Dunt Dunt Dunt

New member
spARTacus said:
I think the idea of what Arcade1Up is doing (I had never heard of them before your post) is really cool. However, I am wondering about how much of a market exists. For me personally, I don't really have lots of space for such a cabinet. It would have to be crammed into the family room somewhere and would also have to compete with the family's desires for use (and decor) of the room. Would most people ever consider having more than one in their house, just to achieve that retro feeling and discussion centre-piece when entertaining? I think most people would be thinking about how many games they can get out of a gaming console, vs just one game from a cabinet. I quickly looked to see if they offered a "multi-cabinet", basically a gaming console in a cabinet. I don't think they do. One wouldn't really be able to achieve any specific game retro graphics on the exterior of such a multi-cabinet (which I assume is also some of the draw), unless one was willing to just pick a popular retro game theme like maybe Pac Man or Space Invaders, regardless of what games the cabinet was capable of playing. A multi-cabinet might have a bigger market, and I assume wouldn't be too hard to achieve given all the retro multi mini things that now exist.
Click to expand...
Stayed in a vacation house that had a free standing retro game.... it had a dozen or so classic games on it. I gave it a try, but just couldn't get back into it. Neither could any of the kids, as those games just weren't meant to last more than a few minutes, before killing you... so the next quarter could be put in.
 
spARTacus

spARTacus

Well-known member
Dunt Dunt Dunt said:
Stayed in a vacation house that had a free standing retro game.... it had a dozen or so classic games on it. I gave it a try, but just couldn't get back into it. Neither could any of the kids, as those games just weren't meant to last more than a few minutes, before killing you... so the next quarter could be put in.
Click to expand...
Sure, but if a cabinet like what Arcade1Up does was done differently, to not only be about a retro arcade game or games (that try to kill you fast to take your quarters), but instead basically be more of a gaming console concept in a cabinet, then would that have more appeal?
 
Bla1ze

Bla1ze

CB OG
spARTacus said:
I think the idea of what Arcade1Up is doing (I had never heard of them before your post) is really cool. However, I am wondering about how much of a market exists. For me personally, I don't really have lots of space for such a cabinet. It would have to be crammed into the family room somewhere and would also have to compete with the family's desires for use (and decor) of the room. Would most people ever consider having more than one in their house, just to achieve that retro feeling and discussion centre-piece when entertaining? I think most people would be thinking about how many games they can get out of a gaming console, vs just one game from a cabinet. I quickly looked to see if they offered a "multi-cabinet", basically a gaming console in a cabinet. I don't think they do. One wouldn't really be able to achieve any specific game retro graphics on the exterior of such a multi-cabinet (which I assume is also some of the draw), unless one was willing to just pick a popular retro game theme like maybe Pac Man or Space Invaders, regardless of what games the cabinet was capable of playing. A multi-cabinet might have a bigger market, and I assume wouldn't be too hard to achieve given all the retro multi mini things that now exist.
Click to expand...
You're underestimating their market (older folks with extra money to burn) plus, you're not accounting for their customization. A lot of people gut Arcade1Ups, and make multicabs with cheap Android Boxes, PC's, or Raspberry Pi's (I have several modded myself). The modding community which often keeps things alive, is quite large. As for the space issue, they are significantly smaller (and cheaper) than purchasing genuine arcade cabinets. The market for them is certainly there, just look on YouTube or dig into the FB groups that exist for them and you will see.

To the question at hand, though, are they in trouble? They've had issues all along with some Quality Control, but this year hasn't exactly been great for them due to a number of reasons. A lot of folks in the Arcade1Up community feel misled with some of their releases as of late where online play for NFL Blitz wasn't ready at launch, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 coming out glitchy and busted online play, their lack of updates for things that are broken and the overall feeling of 'cheaping out' on the software side of things while also raising prices. The community has often fixed / hacked things faster than Arcade1Up has, which just looks bad overall. There's wayyy more to it but I'm sure you get the picture. They've been over promising and under delivering as of late according to some.

They might be having some issues now, but I believe their future in the market kind of depends on how they handle the issues that have arisen. If they choose to ignore them and continue to ignore them, then maybe they'll be forced to exit. They're part of a larger company anyway, so they'll just go on selling other toys. However, if they actually start listening to the feedback and start correcting some of the issues and do right by the customer, they'll be fine.
 
spARTacus

spARTacus

Well-known member
Bla1ze said:
...plus, you're not accounting for their customization. A lot of people gut Arcade1Ups, and make multicabs with cheap Android Boxes, PC's, or Raspberry Pi's (I have several modded myself). The modding community which often keeps things alive, is quite large....
Click to expand...
That aspect makes sense to me.
 
spARTacus

spARTacus

Well-known member
Bla1ze said:
Yeah. You pick up a A1Up on sale for $199, jam in an Android box for $20-40, and a LCD converter board for $20 and you got a multicab. One of mine has an obscene 22K games on it.
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That's a lot of games. A lot of games.

Is there a hidden keyboard and mouse somewhere easily accessible, for sorting through menus and categories? I assume something like DOSBOX hosted on an old minimum PC or laptop (heck even on an old BlackBerry Playbook) would also maybe be a candidate for the backend of a customized multi-cabinet?

Would Arcade1Up themselves ever be interested in trying to be a central point for the customization community?
 
SteinwayTransitCorp

SteinwayTransitCorp

Well-known member
Bla1ze said:
You're underestimating their market (older folks with extra money to burn) plus, you're not accounting for their customization. A lot of people gut Arcade1Ups, and make multicabs with cheap Android Boxes, PC's, or Raspberry Pi's (I have several modded myself). The modding community which often keeps things alive, is quite large. As for the space issue, they are significantly smaller (and cheaper) than purchasing genuine arcade cabinets. The market for them is certainly there, just look on YouTube or dig into the FB groups that exist for them and you will see.

To the question at hand, though, are they in trouble? They've had issues all along with some Quality Control, but this year hasn't exactly been great for them due to a number of reasons. A lot of folks in the Arcade1Up community feel misled with some of their releases as of late where online play for NFL Blitz wasn't ready at launch, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 coming out glitchy and busted online play, their lack of updates for things that are broken and the overall feeling of 'cheaping out' on the software side of things while also raising prices. The community has often fixed / hacked things faster than Arcade1Up has, which just looks bad overall. There's wayyy more to it but I'm sure you get the picture. They've been over promising and under delivering as of late according to some.

They might be having some issues now, but I believe their future in the market kind of depends on how they handle the issues that have arisen. If they choose to ignore them and continue to ignore them, then maybe they'll be forced to exit. They're part of a larger company anyway, so they'll just go on selling other toys. However, if they actually start listening to the feedback and start correcting some of the issues and do right by the customer, they'll be fine.
Click to expand...
Hey hey……..older folks……….not older seasoned sounds about right..lmao.
 
SteinwayTransitCorp

SteinwayTransitCorp

Well-known member
Dunt Dunt Dunt said:
Stayed in a vacation house that had a free standing retro game.... it had a dozen or so classic games on it. I gave it a try, but just couldn't get back into it. Neither could any of the kids, as those games just weren't meant to last more than a few minutes, before killing you... so the next quarter could be put in.
Click to expand...
I think part of the issue with the old big box games is you have to stand and play, and they are designed not for long term gaming as you said; get that last quarter.
 
Bla1ze

Bla1ze

CB OG
spARTacus said:
Is there a hidden keyboard and mouse somewhere easily accessible, for sorting through menus and categories? I assume something like DOSBOX hosted on an old minimum PC or laptop (heck even on an old BlackBerry Playbook) would also maybe be a candidate for the backend of a customized multi-cabinet?
Click to expand...
There's a keyboard and mouse attached to one of mine which is using an old Mac Mini as the brain but it's not needed for 98% of the navigation. The system is all run off a front-end called Batocera, there are several front-ends however one can choose from though, such as RetroBat, LaunchBox, CoinOps, etc and can largely be controlled by the Joystick and buttons once set up is complete. The front-ends basically just provide the UI and look while pointing to the different emulators. eg: RetroArch, DOSBOX, etc. Theoretically, a PlayBook with RetroArch could potentially work. But yeah, most people opt for an Android box, old PC, or Raspberry Pi.

spARTacus said:
Would Arcade1Up themselves ever be interested in trying to be a central point for the customization community?
Click to expand...
They've been pretty active in the community but there's obvious limits to their activity. At the end of the day, they're a toy company dealing with large video game licenses. They can't really be condoning people modify their machines to potentially play unlicensed games. Plus, as the manufacturer, they'd basically be telling people to void their warranty. But the aftermarket/customization community is huge. Everything from different themes for the front-ends, to custom side-art, buttons, marquees, toppers, people building bar fridges in them, etc :D

Sidenote: When it comes to market, I should also mention there are other players in the arena as well. AtGames is big with their Legends systems, and iiRcade appeal to many folks as well.
 
Bla1ze

Bla1ze

CB OG
SteinwayTransitCorp said:
The other real issue with a pinball machine is once you play at once how many more times are you gonna go back for this really big box sitting in your room?
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I mean, if you're asking yourself that question a Pinball machine is not something you should be buying. I go to arcades just about every other week to play pinball and play my virtual pinball machines every day. Granted, there's more variety that way but still if I had $5K to burn I'd have a pinball machine lol.
 
SteinwayTransitCorp

SteinwayTransitCorp

Well-known member
Bla1ze said:
I mean, if you're asking yourself that question a Pinball machine is not something you should be buying. I go to arcades just about every other week to play pinball and play my virtual pinball machines every day. Granted, there's more variety that way but still if I had $5K to burn I'd have a pinball machine lol.
Click to expand...
Yes I would too, but then again I also have something called a wife………lol
 
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