Your decision to buy a home arcade cabinet just got slightly less irresponsible

by JC Fletcher { Jun 24th 2009 at 3:03PM }

Want to make your game system or computer less convenient, but infinitely more awesome? X-Arcade has announced that "in celebration of its hometown Pittsburgh Penguins recent Stanley Cup Victory," it is offering a version of its X-Arcade Mame Cabinet for $799, down from its usual $999. That's a great deal (relative to the normal cost)!

The cabinet includes a 2-player X-Arcade stick, though if you're crazy enough to buy this kind of stuff, you'll probably want to swap out your own Sanwa sticks and buttons. You'll need to provide your own game system or PC, your own monitor (or add one for $425), and your own speakers, unless you use a TV with speakers. Of course, with your all-Rush mixtape, you won't even need arcade audio.

[Via Arcade Junkies]

Tags: arcade, mame, x-arcade

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

gaddes @ Jun 24th 2009 3:09PM

more like "in celebration of not selling any of these and wanting to get rid of them"

Christ-ian @ Jun 24th 2009 4:13PM

(ahem)

Not cool.

Archon (PSN: Archonik, XBL: DarkARHN) @ Jun 24th 2009 3:11PM

Oh yeah? Mine's almost ready, made it myself:
http://files.getdropbox.com/u/808987/cabinet3.jpg
Fully functional with working coin mechanism. All it needs is a paintjob (next week hopefully, after I get the plexiglass for bezel that I ordered).

Total cost? 220 pounds. That's less than $370. Why would I want to spend over twice that? It doesn't even come with arcade controls, just a fighting stick on top of the actual cabinet. Thanks, but no thanks.

Heavytoka @ Jun 24th 2009 3:33PM

It's looking good, make sure to post a pic when you're finished building it.

Shoyz @ Jun 24th 2009 3:47PM

I suggest making some sort of border out of wood to put around the Monitor.

cmonkey @ Jun 24th 2009 3:50PM

Nice. I built mine for under $200, but I went without a coin mechanism and used MDF, which is way cheap in the US.

Archon (PSN: Archonik, XBL: DarkARHN) @ Jun 24th 2009 6:03PM

@Shoyz: as I said "I get the plexiglass for bezel that I ordered". That's the 'cover for the monitor' you are talking about. It will be covered in printed game art from the inside leaving a small 'box' in the middle for the screen.

chispito @ Jun 24th 2009 9:38PM

Fine looking cabinet you have going there. I've toyed around with the idea of making a cocktail cabinet coffee table, but I'm not sure it would be comfortable to play on at a typical coffee table height.

zkey14 @ Jun 24th 2009 3:12PM

Yeah, that's a bad cabinet.

globones @ Jun 24th 2009 3:51PM

Rip. Off.

zombiejesus @ Jun 24th 2009 3:16PM

yeh I have like two cabinets I found. People keep throwing them out in my neighborhood. Im just too lazy to do anything with them.

Crazy-008 @ Jun 24th 2009 3:18PM

My cabinet has Faison Love's head inside of it.

Sinister Rouge @ Jun 24th 2009 3:20PM

Maybe if they had an option for an Arkeg...

Otis @ Jun 24th 2009 3:21PM

Wait, so all this is, is the wood, and a stick?

God, what a ripoff.

Crazy-008 @ Jun 24th 2009 3:27PM

That's what she said.

Zoot Suit Jedi @ Jun 24th 2009 5:05PM

@Crazy-008

Y. E. S.

rkrocks123 @ Jun 24th 2009 3:27PM

I nominate this for 'Best Post Ever', merely for the best Futurama reference ever. I swear, I recall that part more often than any other scene in the series.

"All right. It's Saturday night, I have no date, a two-liter bottle of Shasta and my all-Rush mix-tape... Let's rock. "

baby sea tuna @ Jun 24th 2009 3:59PM

Agreed. I could watch that YTMND all day and not get bored.

norm @ Jun 24th 2009 3:29PM

Yeah, I don't know who would really buy that thing at that price. Not to mention, the parts in the stick are crappy, so basically all that is useful is the box it comes in. No thanks. Nothing that is built to run MAME games is worth that price.

emirabal @ Jun 24th 2009 4:03PM

Well im just wondering when rampage is coming out to XBLA, that game was awesome.

Kooper113 @ Jun 24th 2009 4:29PM

X-Arcade is a huge scam! As an arcade stick builder I know the parts they use are absolute trash, and so are their PCBs. They emulate a KEYBOARD and it can lag a ton at times.

Plus, to correct the article, you can't replace the parts with sanwa, they size of the holes will only allow happ style controls and sticks. Happ is the very rough american hardware most people will remember from their arcade childhood.

For this price it should already BE happ parts, you're basically paying out of your ass for something you could build on your own with enough dedication.

People they want almost $800 FOR WOOD.

Trizero @ Jun 24th 2009 5:38PM

It's sad that I live in Pittsburgh and never realize these guys even existed.

matthew @ Jun 24th 2009 8:11PM

Am I getting this right here? 799 for the wooden shell? Are you kidding me?

I just bought a pop'n music cabinet for 2,800 shipped from Japan.

Don't tell me about irresponsibility!

Covarr @ Jun 24th 2009 8:54PM

I'd rather just build one. The experience could be useful, and it'd probably be more fun than actually using the thing.

Diskoboy7 @ Jun 24th 2009 9:26PM

I have a rule about purchasing arcade cabs.

First rule - ABSOLUTELY no pre-crash (pre-1984) games should be made into a MAME cabinet, no matter what the condition. People that do, should be shot on general principle. Sorry... But It pains me to see an old Atari, Midway, or Nintendo cabinet turned into an unrecognizable mess of less than stellar games.

Second rule - Unless it's a cockpit/simulator game, NEVER pay over $600 for a cabinet. No matter how rare, or pristene it looks. It's a hollow wood cabinet, with a TV in it, for christ's sake... If it's gonna be sitting in your garage or game room, it's not gonna be making you much money. The first excuse most people use when trying to sell a cab at an astronomical price is that it "still makes money", which is usually total bullshit.

jb007 @ Jun 25th 2009 12:00AM

I might as well throw my hat into the ring: I've built my own. I bought a heavily dis-used and stripped dig dug arcade cabinet on Ebay (I had to strip the artwork off which was sad, but not a huge loss since it had been painted over twice already), added my own 21" CRT, applied vinyl sides and artwork, created my own bezel, redid the spray paint and designed my own control panel with a track ball and six buttons for each stick (2 players)

It looks stellar, certianly more impressive than buying a premade model. If anything you get a real sense of accomplishment for essentially planning out the entire thing and having control over it's construction from day one.

luckily I was able to salvage a big chunk of the artwork (which I applied paint stripper to in order to get the outer paint off) and it now resides in the cabinet. Plus, I kept the retro atari badges and FCC warning stickers on the back for uber-retroness.