Custom Stand Up Arcades

[twocoach]

We are looking for a custom stand up arcade for our basement. If I am going to have an arcade, I don't want a store bought one that only has 1-3 games. Anyone have any experiences with these? I don't know if I am interested in building it myself or not yet. I have the ability, just not sure about the patience or time. But if there was a well-organized, up to date tutorial of how to do it and good sites on where to get the parts, I could do it.

Also looking at this company as they seem to be pretty reasonably priced (at least until I ask about what it would cost to ship from Twin Cities to Omaha).

https://www.retroreplayarcades.com/

Just curious if any users here have built or purchased one recently and if you have, what your experiences were.

[TDub]

I think fish said he had one, but that was a long time ago, I might be misremembering.

[KUTradition]

no advice, but i’d be looking for one of the old sit-down “tabletop” style pac-man units that used to be in pizza huts

[StayCurious]

I have a friend in KC who has many of them. Not fun to move them, but they are fun when friends come over. He got Street Fighter II as one of them. Any of those fighting games are good choices.

[TDub]

no advice, but i’d be looking for one of the old sit-down “tabletop” style pac-man units that used to be in pizza huts

man I used to love pizza hut. tabletop Pacman AND book it?!

[twocoach]

no advice, but i’d be looking for one of the old sit-down “tabletop” style pac-man units that used to be in pizza huts

Speaking of old school Pizza Hut items, anyone remember these KC Royals place mats from Pizza Hut back in the late 70s?

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R ... &_osacat=0

[kubowler99]

Haven't built a cabinet yet (but have wanted to). We have a Raspberry Pi (3b+) with about 5k games on it across multiple platforms.

This company looks promising: https://primearcades.com/

They have cabinets reasonably priced, and a few with 3k+ games already loaded.

[jfish26]

We are looking for a custom stand up arcade for our basement. If I am going to have an arcade, I don't want a store bought one that only has 1-3 games. Anyone have any experiences with these? I don't know if I am interested in building it myself or not yet. I have the ability, just not sure about the patience or time. But if there was a well-organized, up to date tutorial of how to do it and good sites on where to get the parts, I could do it.

Also looking at this company as they seem to be pretty reasonably priced (at least until I ask about what it would cost to ship from Twin Cities to Omaha).

https://www.retroreplayarcades.com/

Just curious if any users here have built or purchased one recently and if you have, what your experiences were.

Oops, sorry I missed this. I do have one, PM me if you're still looking.

[jfish26]

We are looking for a custom stand up arcade for our basement. If I am going to have an arcade, I don't want a store bought one that only has 1-3 games. Anyone have any experiences with these? I don't know if I am interested in building it myself or not yet. I have the ability, just not sure about the patience or time. But if there was a well-organized, up to date tutorial of how to do it and good sites on where to get the parts, I could do it.

Also looking at this company as they seem to be pretty reasonably priced (at least until I ask about what it would cost to ship from Twin Cities to Omaha).

https://www.retroreplayarcades.com/

Just curious if any users here have built or purchased one recently and if you have, what your experiences were.

I typed this up as a more-detailed PM, but am getting error messages, so:

I used this company:

https://thearcadeguys.shop/

They were awesome to work with at every step, including a custom wrap (in for a penny...) and post-install troubleshooting.

I have zero complaints about the company, the product or the customer service.

Be aware that the learning curve is ENORMOUS (both for how to program/reprogram buttons/controllers, but also for the games themselves - you won't think about this, or at least I didn't, but not being able to look down at the buttons and have the graphics on the deck tell you what they do makes everything a learning experience).

I say this just to flag that it's not really plug-and-play for kids. You'll likely have to do some hand-holding.

[twocoach]

Good stuff, thank you. That is one of the companies I am looking at. I assume there will be some manual intervention of some sort in all this. I can handle whatever programming or configuration is needed. Glad to hear they have good support as that is key in a venture like this.

This looks to be in the same price range as the other one I was looking at as well so I'll see where that fits in this year's budget and start doing some additional research. Thanks for the recommendation!

[jfish26]

Good stuff, thank you. That is one of the companies I am looking at. I assume there will be some manual intervention of some sort in all this. I can handle whatever programming or configuration is needed. Glad to hear they have good support as that is key in a venture like this.

This looks to be in the same price range as the other one I was looking at as well so I'll see where that fits in this year's budget and start doing some additional research. Thanks for the recommendation!

Sure thing. Amazing bang for the buck (and replayability), compared to spending comparable amounts on a single (but newer) Golden Tee etc.

[twocoach]

Good stuff, thank you. That is one of the companies I am looking at. I assume there will be some manual intervention of some sort in all this. I can handle whatever programming or configuration is needed. Glad to hear they have good support as that is key in a venture like this.

This looks to be in the same price range as the other one I was looking at as well so I'll see where that fits in this year's budget and start doing some additional research. Thanks for the recommendation!

Sure thing. Amazing bang for the buck (and replayability), compared to spending comparable amounts on a single (but newer) Golden Tee etc.

Yeah, I didn't one something that just did 1-3 games. I spent a lot of time driving around the country with my Dad for his work when I was a kid and we planned our routes based on which truck stops had the best arcade games we liked. There are a lot of old games I'd love to see and play again for old times sake.

[jfish26]

Good stuff, thank you. That is one of the companies I am looking at. I assume there will be some manual intervention of some sort in all this. I can handle whatever programming or configuration is needed. Glad to hear they have good support as that is key in a venture like this.

This looks to be in the same price range as the other one I was looking at as well so I'll see where that fits in this year's budget and start doing some additional research. Thanks for the recommendation!

Sure thing. Amazing bang for the buck (and replayability), compared to spending comparable amounts on a single (but newer) Golden Tee etc.

Yeah, I didn't one something that just did 1-3 games. I spent a lot of time driving around the country with my Dad for his work when I was a kid and we planned our routes based on which truck stops had the best arcade games we liked. There are a lot of old games I'd love to see and play again for old times sake.

Yep. The one TAG did for me has something like 17,500 games. Almost overwhelming. And they will re-image the CPU for free (so you get stuff they add...you just have to send in the SD card and wait for it to come back).

[twocoach]

Sure thing. Amazing bang for the buck (and replayability), compared to spending comparable amounts on a single (but newer) Golden Tee etc.

Yeah, I didn't one something that just did 1-3 games. I spent a lot of time driving around the country with my Dad for his work when I was a kid and we planned our routes based on which truck stops had the best arcade games we liked. There are a lot of old games I'd love to see and play again for old times sake.

Yep. The one TAG did for me has something like 17,500 games. Almost overwhelming. And they will re-image the CPU for free (so you get stuff they add...you just have to send in the SD card and wait for it to come back).

Good to hear. I can probably print out some vinyl letters on a Cricut to label what each button is to help the kiddo out. I like that you can set up and edit a favorites list so you don't have to scroll through such a large selection of games. Good stuff, thanks!

[jfish26]

I just got an email from the company that made mine (The Arcade Guys) with a promo code: TAGCUPID23.

That's for a total discount of $500 off their Ultimate 43" and Ultimate 55" cabinets.

[twocoach]

I just put in an order for one of these: https://gameroomsolutions.com/shop/full ... de-bundle/
Can't freaking wait to get this in my house.

Full custom graphics are included so I will be starting to work with their graphics guy on my KU hoops themed cabinet very soon. Feel free to share some of your favorite photos/graphics of KU basketball players/moments here if you're OK with me possibly including them in my design.

I'll share some photos once it is done and in place.

[jfish26]

Cool, good luck! Most likely, the brains of it will be a single-board computer (like a Raspberry Pi) working off an SD (or similar) card. My STRONG advice would be to copy the card to a hard drive before jumping into things, so that you have a backup on hand and can be in a position to restore the system yourself if things get screwy.

[Shirley]

Congratulations twocoach! What a gift to be able to share it with your son.

This is the first time I've seen this thread. When I read this:

"I spent a lot of time driving around the country with my Dad for his work when I was a kid and we planned our routes based on which truck stops had the best arcade games we liked..."

I thought, that's something I would do!

(Except in my case, it would have been where the best pinball machines were, or as an adult, to whichever bars the most competitive foosball was being played.)

[Sparko]

I am thinking the same thing as a retirement gift for my family.

[Shirley]

I am thinking the same thing as a retirement gift for my family.

As a peace offering to make up for you now being home all the time?

#sad