Another amazing product that is a perfect fit, amazing colors and unmatched quality.

Seems to be pretty cheap pressed board with a few screws and wood dowels holding it together so will be hard to keep it from wobbling and falling apart. If I were assembling I'd probably glue the thing together as wellFor $300 shipped it's not too bad but they most likely are using a single custom PCB and who knows what emulation as well as cheap buttons/trackball/spinner so doubt they'll age well and will probably wind up being sold off cheap after they don't sell well in store like the last attempt at home arcade machine production by Big Electronic Games ( At least they are using a 17' lcd instead of the 14' one the last attempt used. I am going to bite on at least one - with the intention to raspberry pi mod it.

I am sure that a pi hack cable will be available pronto.They are also selling a stand for it to raise it to normal arcade height - but you could build your own for cheap of course. The price is just too good considering its ready to go with an art package and all. Full size flat back arcade kits with shipping are more expensive than this. And they require buttons, art, computer/pi.I was actually considering building a few cabaret machines from scratch, but screw that for now.

So I'm in for at least one to give it a try at modding it if nothing else.I like the centipede and asteroids for the spinner and track ball. But the street fighter one would probably best for a pi hack as you get two 8 way joysticks and 6 buttons per player.so I might go with that one for my mod experiment. Last time I saw one in the wild was at the Disneyland arcade, near Magic Mountain.

It might still be there, dunno, it's been a few years. They're really cute cabinets, but not very practical to play on. But I do agree with you, if you're going with a cabaret it shouldn't require a chair. The whole point of a cabaret is to reduce the square-footage footprint it takes up, having to use a chair defeats that purpose. Cabarets were mainly placed in Hotel lobbies, waiting rooms, diners etc.

Places where people congregate, but are limited in space. I have my Robotron cabaret tucked snug into a corner in our 900 sqft apartment. It's takes very little room, and doesn't annoy the wife for being too big or too much of an eyesore. Looks more like a 3d render used for assembly than an actual unit ( notice the panels don't bend down when assembling to the sides ) - Have a feeling in real life they would snap or at least bend downward if not held up due to gravity - so looks like they made a 3d model and animated the assembly process and not used actual real life parts because gravity would make those panels fall toward the ground if it was actually a real unit being assembled. (doubt you'll be able to actually assemble it like shown in step 4 without placing blocks under the parts to hold them up before installing the second side! I know they are not true Cabarets Yots, I guess my point was that Cabarets are hard to find, and this is a nicer alternative for my situation (limited space). I dig the look of them, and from what I saw on youtube, everyone was very impressed with the build and the parts are said to be high quality.

So who knows. When I get mine I will do a review for you guys and let you know.

I am sure with in a week they will be hacked and they will have a 1000 games on them.Here is one video up close in action. Buttons seem to me to be as good as any Happs buttons.Another video. Not as great, but again it passes the eye test. I think these are pretty solid units.

None of these games have cabaret height. Cabaret games have the control panel at the same place that normal games do, they just cut off all the stuff above the monitor to make them smaller. These games just chopped the bottom of the cabinet off to save $8 in production cost while completely killing anything that would ever make them feel like an arcade game.The manufacturers don't care if these games work right, if they did then they would possibly have a 3 player game with a 19' wide panel, that requires every player to sit in a chair. Walmart probably pre-purchased the cabs in bulk to get a discount that they could pass along to us. I'm thinking the small size is purposeful. Probably requires them to use one less sheet of mdf or it dramatically reduces the artwork cost or something, which would be more than $8. Yeah the rampage one is cramped, but it uses real controls, the cp layout is correct and the art on the cpo is correct.

Let's not complain too much when things are improving compared to multi-cades in the past. I mean they aren't perfect but seeing as how none of us built them how could they be?Personally I'd build a riser myself as they are generic and don't reflect the art of some of the cabs. We could probably make one that doesn't like the thing is sitting on a glorified milk crate as well.

Walmart probably pre-purchased the cabs in bulk to get a discount that they could pass along to us. Purple heart car donation. I'm thinking the small size is purposeful. Probably requires them to use one less sheet of mdf or it dramatically reduces the artwork cost or something, which would be more than $8.

Yeah the rampage one is cramped, but it uses real controls, the cp layout is correct and the art on the cpo is correct. Let's not complain too much when things are improving compared to multi-cades in the past. I mean they aren't perfect but seeing as how none of us built them how could they be?Personally I'd build a riser myself as they are generic and don't reflect the art of some of the cabs.

We could probably make one that doesn't like the thing is sitting on a glorified milk crate as well. I watched the assembly video and it was very enlightening.

There are several exposed screws throughout the machine. Most notably on the sides of the cab and the top of the cp. I don't seem to see those in any of the promotional shots. It also looks like the brains of the thing are attached to the lcd because that's the only way having the power plug only into the lcd and having a ribbon cable with so many wires going to the cp makes any sense. The marquee is a solid piece of wood, so there's no hope of lighting it up.

Site Sections: Street boxing kung fu fighter episode.

Reproduction Cinematronics CPU Exorciser

Modern Replacements for Cinematronics CCPU Custom ICs

Modern Replacements for Battlezone, Tempest, Red Baron Aux Board BPROM ICs

My Games
My Gameroom
My Rowe CD-100B Jukebox
Part lists of electronic components used to restore/repair some of my games.
For Sale Items
Best Practices
Pinball Dolly
PCB Storage Rack Box
Coin Multiplier Board (CMB)

Introduction to the hobby ..

Around October, 2005, a good friend of mine opened my eyes to a hobby that, quite frankly, hadn't even crossed my mind up until that time. Now I am hooked. That hobby is collecting and restoring coin operated video game machines, the very same ones that you may have gone down to your local arcade to drop your quarters into. I used to have good times playing the exciting new games with my friends. Over the years since the arcades disappeared, I often found myself missing many of the old games. You'd think that with the new advanced computer and console games that nobody would care that the old classics are gone, but I missed them. They had their own unique look and feel that a desktop computer just cannot duplicate. I'm talking about the arcade machine style of controls, the upright stance, the presentation of the cabinet, the artwork, the custom lighting, and so on.

I never dreamed that someday, especially 25 years later, that I would be able to own them and play them to my heart's content but here I am. I enjoy the hobby because it includes many aspects, such as electronics, wiring, mechanical assembly and repair, woodworking, painting, and more. There's nothing quite like taking a beat up old piece of junk and bringing it back to its former glory. I also enjoy seeing people who visit my home get all excited when they see the games. It's fun to watch them enjoy themselves playing a game, especially if they haven't seen it in many years and had reserved themselves to the idea that they'd never see it again.

I started the hobby by purchasing my first machine from the friend who introduced me to the hobby. He had been into it for several years and invited me over to his house to play. I was shocked and amazed by his room full of classic games, all working. I knew right away that I had missed the opportunity during the past several years of my life to build such a collection. I wasn't going to waste any more time!

Visit my game room. One thing is for sure, if you are going to get into this hobby, you need a lot of spare space for your games.

Finding some games of your own..

Regarding games like Asteroids Deluxe and Defender, these are considered 'classics' by old-guy collectors like myself who were about 16-18 years old around 1980 when these games came out. As a result, they are relatively rare and can be hard to find. They are much easier to find in the USA than in southern Ontario where I live, that's for sure. The main point I'm trying to drive home here is that finding the games will take time and effort on your part because after all they are 27 years old (or so) and most of them have suffered a lot of abuse. Guys on the cgcc.ca or klov forums offer them up from time to time. However, your best bet is eBay. You would have to keep searching the listings each week, possibly for several months, before something pops up. Finding classic machines in good shape is very hard so it is likely that you'd have to do some work to fix it up nice. There are a ton of con-artists out there who will charge you big bucks ($1500) for an old game in terrible shape. Only true collectors would sell you something nice for well under $1000. Some of the most over-used phrases used by eBay sellers is 'fully shopped' and 'crisp and bright'. These statements mean nothing. 'Shopped' is supposed to mean fully restored but some guys idea of shopped is pulled it out of the garbage and wiped it off. The term 'Crisp' refers to monitors and is supposed to mean that it looks great. This is a buzz word that means nothing at all and 'looks great' is nothing more than an opinion and not necessarily a good one. I could provide you a ton of help with regards to what is really shopped and what is not. I could show you my restorations up close so you know what you should be getting so you do not end up with a piece of junk that needs another $700 in parts and 100 hours in labor. Finding games is one thing, repairing games is another matter entirely. Repairs can involve electronics parts sourcing and installation, reading of schematics, wood repairs, metal repairs, a lot of painting, lots of tools, etc. I really enjoy the hobby but it is costly at times and usually very time consuming.