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Growing up, my dad owned a small arcade.
So while my friends were playing NES games, I was rocking Street Fighter 2 with unlimited credits.
Now, I might be making a midlife crisis decision soon, and need help!
seeshooteatrepeat/Shutterstock
I’ve been toying with the idea of getting an old-school arcade cabinet.
Arcade Cabs Are Too Big (or Are They?)
All of my gaming stuff has been getting smaller and smaller over time.
Mister
Gone is my huge gaming PC tower, replaced by a gaming laptop.
My TV is now a razor-thinOLEDmounted up on a wall.
MyOLED Nintendo Switchwon’t quite go in a pocket but it’s still pretty tiny.
HORI
So the idea of bringing a virtually immovable gaming unit into my house seems like a bad idea.
Then again, these days you could buy alternatives to those full-sized arcade cabinets.
There arethree-quarter scalereplicas, as well as smaller half andquarter scalesystems.
Of course, if you go below three-quarter scale then it might be hard for an adult to play!
Then there’s the option of a counter-top cabinet.
Hence, a game on a JAMMA circuit board will work with a JAMMA arcade cabinet.
This is the most common standard you’ll encounter with both classic arcade cabinets and modern remakes.
Finding Good Boards Is Getting Harder (Does It Matter?)
Especially since I’d like to change games when the mood takes me.
This only really leaves emulation or virtualization options, but here we run into another set of issues.
You must provide your ownlegally-obtained ROMs.
The kit (like the Pandora’s Box JAMMA board) should work with JAMMA arcade cabinets.
you could, of course, also roll your own by running something likeMAMEon a Raspberry Pi.
If it were me, unless my editors graciously bought me a MisterCade to review (hint-hint!)
DIY Cabs Are Too Hard (But, Not Really?)
So the idea of building a cabinet from scratch isn’t appealing.
Instead, why not just buy a good arcade stick?
If I just want to play casually, it doesn’t even have to be that good.
There are lots of great arcade sticks around thanks to the fighting game genre.
That sounds sensible, and you could pack it all away when you’re not playing.
Still, it feels like it defeats the point of having a dedicated arcade system.
It’s like having a Chess board set up somewhere.
you might just walk up to it and start playing with no friction.
“But wait,” says the little horned man on my left shoulder.
“An arcade cabinet is also decoration.
Even if it just stands there in attract mode, it livens up the place.”
“Can’t argue with that.”
adds the guy with the halo to my right.
Well, I guess justonemore gaming thing can’t hurt.
Except maybe in the wallet area.
Isn’t that always the elephant in the room?
But, what’s the price of being cool?
Arcade cabinets are cool, and that has to count for something.
Especially since you could cover them in sick artwork, and how many of your friends have one?
Anyone can have a PlayStation, but a full-sizeStreet Fighter IIcabinet?
Now that is geek cred my friends.
