OPINION: Home Gaming Space Doesn’t Need More “Almost” Arcade Machines, Media1UP

I’m all for new gaming systems, new games, new stuff. I’m not so much for the same thing repackaged ad nauseum.

Enter the home arcade space, which is littered with emulation. Some of that litter is appealing, but not going to sugarcoat it like most seem to do. Emulation is a mixed bag for gamers. Some of it is great, really, it is, and some of it is abysmal. And most depends on what hardware you’re running it on, how it’s configured and so on.

On the higher-end home arcade pricing scene, there are these $10,000 Megacades (OPINION: Is the Megacade a Pirate’s Haven, Retrogaming Mecca or …?). These machines are mammoth and you have to take them partially apart just to get them in your house.

On the lower-priced, much more affordable and not as space hoggy, we already have Atgames with their Atgames Legends home arcade products. Then there’s Arcade1UP, which instead of multicades, focuses on making machines that are somewhat like the bigger arcades, but they are fading due to a variety of factors. Then there was iiRcade, which was another multicade system that went out of business. Then there are systems like the Pandora, that are essentially baked into arcade-like control panels and come with some eye-rolling amounts of “50,000 games!”

(nevermind the fact nobody reading this can possibly play 50k games, much less 5k games. The math on playing this many games is staggeringly against the gamers)

So, if you’re one of us that owns one or more of these machines, already, do we need more almost arcade machines touting a few games or a bunch AKA multicades?

No.

The emulated games aren’t going to play much differently between these systems. Yes, again, before the flames hit me in the comments: the hardware does matter. The problem with most of the home arcade machines is they use similar hardware specs … so the differences in the gameplay experience for the actual games is minimal.

Given, if somebody comes up with an FPGA MiSTer type emulated home arcade system that is full or almost full-size, that might be appealing. So, not saying there can’t be any newcomers to this market, but they need to bring something different and new, just not about the same and new.

There was a time when arcade games had the anti-drug message, “Say no to drugs!” and we are at that point with home arcades that’s aren’t quite home arcades. Arcade1UP has made it their world to make 3/4 scale arcades that tickle our nostalgia but too frequently come up short on delivering a quality arcade experience.

Full disclaimer: I own two Arcade1up Partycades (Defender and Ms. Pac-Man) and they hang on my gaming door at home. I like and play both of these but realize even these likable systems come up short from the actual arcade experience. I also own a Star Wars Arcade1up pinball, which I do not like much and barely play. Also, I own some gaming chairs and find those uncomfortable and the quality is trash. The only other Arcade1up thing I own is a dry erase board, which is, well, a branded dry erase board (how can these be screwed up?). I only thought about buying some of their 3/4 scale arcade machines but never pulled the trigger, due to the cheap way most of them looked and played (from working demo units in stores).

All this backstory leads to a guy named John D, that formerly was active at Arcade1UP, starting a new company called Media1UP and PGM member Rexer breaks down what Media1UP is up to (spoiler: allegedly a new home almost arcade machine that comes with a few games and will let you buy more games to download to it a la iiRcade):

Rexer and another PGM member Kevgret keep the home arcade space real with their candid, raw truthseeking about what goes on in the world of promoting these home arcades and the antics of various YouTuber shills. Without gamer folks like these, I’d have faded from this scene even more than I already have, because nobody likes to be shilled to 100% of the time. Shills for clicks, views, shills, subs, you name it. The products don’t matter, the customers don’t matter, only the attention whoring matters.

This John D character, don’t know the guy personally, is a real piece of work, but he’s not the focus of my concern. It’s the products to me, always the products. Almost arcade home systems, if you don’t already own one, do you really need another one? I don’t. Am not a customer.

Stuff like the Unico (see: UNICO is Releasing Nova Blast Candy Cab Home Arcade) interest me more because they involve real arcade hardware. I’m not anti-emulation, no way, but as Rexer states in his video, if you already have a home multicade with emulation, how many more do you need?

What do you think? Is there room for more companies to move into this space? What would be needed for a home arcade to interest you in buying another one?