Scratch the Midway arcade cabinet off your holiday list
by James Ransom-Wiley 
{ Dec 14th 2005 at 12:30PM }
RetroBlast has posted a review of the new Midway standup arcade cabinet, which is available at Target
for a suggested retail price of $499.00 (we've seen it on sale for under $400). At just over 5 feet tall, with a dim
14" screen and shoddy controls, only a fool masochist would cash in. To sum it up: "Big Electronic
Games has simply thrown together an absolute piece of rubbish and tossed it into the market in time for the holidays in
a blatant attempt to capitalize off of the recent nostalgia surrounding classic arcade games."
Take a look at the guts if you're still interested.
[Thanks, James]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Chris Maguire @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM
As a more expensive but *MUCH* better alternative, there's a hand-crafted Linux MAME cabinet for sale here: http://www.etsy.com/view_item.php?listing_id=39206
If I had two grand to blow, I'd be all over it...
Jeff @ Dec 18th 2005 10:01PM
"If I had two grand to blow, I'd be all over it..."
More like $2,450 with the shipping!
But there are cheaper *and* better alternatives. One thing a lot of people do is just buy a *real* old arcade cabinet and stuff a PC into it. Total cost: depending on the original game, it can be less than $50 if you transport it yourself. Most people who do this do make some custom alterations to the monitor and controls (to make the controls more compatible with more games), so it might end up being a couple hundred bucks. But you end up with a machine that'll probably last a lifetime and won't literally break your back because of its height (or lack thereof).