Retro gaming has taken one more step in 2018 with the introduction of Arcade1up gaming cabinets. The cabinets are designed to be compact yet they preserve the arcade perfection that old school gamers have known and loved since the 80s. My wife, who is a huge Centipede fan, spotted a cabinet at FYE this past weekend on sale for $200. Without a second thought, she bought it and now she is in heaven. We have tried different versions of Centipede over the years with different gaming packs and emulators, but what she most wanted from a Centipede game was the ability to play with a trackball — which is something the no gaming system gave her…until now.

Below is a video of my wife demoing the cabinet:

 

If you are unable to watch, here are the talking points:

Pros:

• Arcade perfect ports including sounds and controls
• Takes only about an hour to assemble
• Compact enough to fit in a home and gamers can purchase a riser to raise up the cabinet
• Some machines come with multiple games

Cons

• No access to dip switches to change the game difficulty or  how many lives a player starts with
• No way (yet) to add other roms (that’s kind of a given though…)
• Some cabinets only feature one or two games
• No way to save high scores when switching off cabinet
• No pause button (Ha!)

If you are a retro gamer, it’s almost a slam dunk to grab one of these machines; especially if you can find them on sale.

4 quarter munchers out of 5