GROUP TEST ARCADE CABINETSWhat’s the story?
Arcade1Up’s units come flat-
packed, and most of the range
uses the same generic cabinet
design. The ROMs are licensed,
though, and each cab has unique
artwork. Ours riffs off the original
Rampage game, with some
superb marquee art.
The scale approaches a full
cab, but in going for 75% size
the finished product doesn’t
dominate any reasonable-sized
room. It’s a bit short for mostadults, but risers and stools
are available.
Controls-wise, you get
three sets of sticks and buttons,
so you and two chums can
simultaneously smash up cities.
(Dungeon crawler Gauntlet is
sadly limited to two players.)Is it any good?
This one has a presence that
makes it feel like you’re in front
of a proper cab. In play, however,
things are variable. The largescreen is bright and clear, but
these games were designed for
CRT, not LCD. Optional filtering
would have helped the visuals
avoid a bad case of the jaggies.
Also, Defender’s controls are
mapped across the entire front
panel’s six buttons, rendering
it unplayable.
This particular Arcade1Up
shines most when using co-op
multiplayer in Rampage and
Gauntlet, although the coin-
guzzling nature of the originalsis very apparent: it’s tempting to
just keep topping up your lives,
and there are no save states to
pick up lengthy sessions later.
It’s still enjoyable, but given the
space demands and price, you’ll
need to really like the included
titles to justify buying this one.Price £325 / stuff.tv/Arcade1Up
O 17in display O Internal speakers
O Original arcade ROMs
O Mains power
O 1200x640x580mm, 26.3kgArcade1Up Rampage
STUFF SAYS Flawed but fun – especially in multiplayer – this bodes well for the range’s future +++,,
THREE PLAY
This cab might not be
full-size, but three
players can easily fit
around it to partake
in multi-player
rampaging.PI SCORE
This unit’s innards
aren’t really hackable,
but retro-gamers
have modded
Arcade1Up cabs with
Raspberry Pi boards.ARCADE1UP
STREET
FIGHTER II
If RepliCade’s tiny
take (see opposite)
doesn’t do it for
you, go almost
full-size with this
iconic brawler.
Hopefully the Star
Wars Arcade1Up
will finally make
it over from the US
in 2020 too.
£350 /
amazon.co.ukALTERNATIVELY