I own a couple actual vintage arcade machines and paid less for them than this. If you shop around you can find deals.
I also have one of these 1up cabs and it is definitely not like vintage. Software may be the same but it is using a modern monitor not a CRT. I think I paid around 300 for it several years ago. Not full size.
First to answer your question. Gosh man…I feel like everything is insanely expensive now. Food entertainment, resources, everything. It’s brutal. I went to a local used game shop and prices have not recovered since 2020. Some games are stupidly overpriced now.
Oh, I’ve seen this cabinet in person! It’s much smaller than I expected and would be kind of awkward to actually use. I’m 6 foot, and I would have to look down at it to use it.
It’s cool, though. The artwork is really neat.
I think if I was going to get a cabinet, there were only two ways I would want to go about it.
I would probably make my own and spend a heck of a lot of time and money on it. It would be a pain to do, but the end product would be something that fits my tastes and works perfectly. Those cabinets that are essentially just big emulators seem to make the most sense to build imo.
acquiring a DDR machine. I have no idea if you can even build those. I mean, I guess you could, but those would probably be expensive as heck.
I built a custom GBA a while back and I think when it was said and done I spent around $300+ CAD on it? It was more expensive than it needed to be, but it was a fun project to try. I taught myself how to solder too, which was fun.
Those things are complicated as fuck. An arcade cabinet is relatively simple compared to a pinball machine. Even modern ones still need all the moving parts for the board; video game just needs the computer, a controller and a screen.
Yeah, the hardware in a console is mass produced, the hardware in an arcade cabinet is made in relatively small batches. Mass producing something is always a lot cheaper per unit due to economies of scale.
Not all of them. In recent years, virtually all arcades have been powered by standard gaming PCs (see for example the infamous Half-Life 2 arcade). In the past, it wasn’t unheard of for some arcades to have nearly identical hardware compared to home consoles. The Neo Geo arcade for example is running the exact same code as the home console (although in this case, the arcade came first). There have also been edge-cases, like the Namco System 11, which is using only slightly modified PS1 hardware (primarily in the sound department) in order to drive down costs.
My internet tech came to setup a new ONT and had a bunch of time to kill so we talked about hobbies, I guess he builds arcade machines and was showing me pictures of all the wiring and woodwork he did plus programming to get it all functioning and the custom pc inside. It looked like a ton of work.
I gave him some spare 12th Gen i7 mobo combos for him to use in his builds as he said he was looking for more parts and usually puts in a 3080 video card in each
As someone who sometimes buys these, the price, when on sale, is often cheaper than buying wood and hardware to build my own outer cabinet, control deck and screen.
There’s trade-offs - the materials used aren’t quite as nice as I would pick, but then the included, already applied, art is very nice. And there’s the convenience of not having to plan out all the details like control layout, monitor, side art, top bezel.
To me, it’s really a piece of furniture, rather an affordable way to play the included games.
The CPU cores also only last about 5 years, for me. Which isn’t good, considering that a cheap modern computer will easily last 8-15 years.
I, personally, don’t give a ton of consideration to the included games. I’m really just buying the outer shell and licensed artwork. That’s what I’ll be looking at when not playing.
I’ll replace the innards with a Raspberry Pi when it dies, if not sooner. So I’ll play whatever games I want that fit the control scheme.
I also replace all of the controls, about half the time. The included controls outlast the CPU core, but don’t feel as nice to play on as a set that’s reasonably easy to replace them with.
Pandora’s Box is a game machine, with games pre-loaded. It tends to have thousands of arcade games pre-loaded.
It’s a popular choice for restoring actual full size arcade machines, with dead motherboards. It’s also an option to upgrade (or just revive from motherboard death) an Arcade1Up.
With some effort, a cheap PC will do the same job, but some folks like that they’re premade and ready to use.
I guess what I meant a bit more specifically are things like buttons, the screen, cables, any daughter boards needed for like special lights, speakers etc. stuff beyond, as you mentioned.
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