Not only did John come up with a unique theme for an arcade cabinet, but he also went the extra mile literally "sculpting" custom pieces for his build.
In a move some might say more foolish than bold, RetroBlast frontman Kevin Steele is handing over the keys to the RetroBlast.com website to a bunch of slack-jawed ...
Alright, I know it's kind of hard to see in this picture, but if you look closely, you'll see that built into the bar is a 4-player control panel which can be used to play on the flat-panel display mounted on the wall behind the bar! Awesome!
The controls tuck away nicely into the bar and the TV can obviously be used to watch normal television, although, I'd bet it's constantly stuck on some sports station.
Head on over to the BYOAC forums to see some larger shots of the whole setup.
Innovative, clean and very useful without taking up a lot of space. I dig it!
Hey! Just a reminder: Galaga Legions for Xbox is now available for download!
Classic Galaga action redefined: Galaga, the classic top-down arcade shooter released by Namco in 1981, is many fans' favorite arcade game of all time. Now, completely updated and revitalized, Galaga Legions bursts onto the scene with new game dynamics and spectacular graphics.
Achievements: New achievements are offered for you to conquer. Show the world your old-school Galaga skills are new school enough to beat them!
RetroBlast reader Wil saw my recent response making a call to anyone that had more pics of the actual cabinet to send us some shots.
More for curiosity than anything else, I wanted to see how this thing was built and what was powering it under the hood.
Turns out the people who built the machines for Mountain due are using your standard PC setup running Windows XP and using Maximus Arcade as their Front End System to navigate the 178 games that are loaded on the machine.
Jeff Rothe of Rotheblog.com has just recently finished an in-depth research article on what might be considered the 15 Most Valuable Classic Arcade Games of all time. Of course the list is subjective, as you and I might have differing opinions, but that's what makes for great conversation! Even Jeff himself would agree:
"This list is highly subjective, one rare valuable arcade game is worth some amount to one collector and a different value to another collector. I will try to explain my criteria for this top fifteen list of most valuable arcades so read on."
I won't divulge the number 1 on the list, for that you'll have to head over to Jeff's site , but I do think this is an interesting topic.
For example, what's worth more to you, personally? Is it a game that you grew up with and have fond memories of, or a game that fetches the highest dollar amount?
For me, I'd place a Ms. PacMan original at the top of my list? Why? Because I have more memories of playing that game as a kid in the local dive restaurant down the street, than any other game that I might have played at that time. To this day I still have a goal to own an original Ms. PacMan and probably will in time.
So head over to Jeff's Blog and check out this interesting article and feel free to chime in both here and there on what you think.
This cabinet has been generating a lot of blog time this week hitting all the popular techy sites causing several oohs and ahhs along with some silent nods.
The name of the cabinet is Retro Space and its creator is Martijn Koch.
His website says "As a homage to the video arcade era, and especially to honour the design of the first ever arcade cabinet, I created "Retro Space." The perfect machine to mark the end of this marvellous time in gaming history. Either as art or as the ultimate gaming gadget."
So the gist is, this is a direct tribute to the original Computer Space design, long held to be one of the first video arcade cabinets created.
Cronin's Custom Arcades has hit the scene with a fresh batch of custom built cabinets for you to empty your wallet on!
Their about us page gives us some insight into the beginnings of this new venture.
"We currently use several vendors and manufacturers to help us build a quality product, most of which are in Ohio and Michigan. The machines are built in one location, my workshop, where all of my arcade cabinets have been built.
I am a Packaging Design Engineer by trade and video arcade enthusiast since the age of 8. I was lucky enough to have grown up during the 'Golden Age' of video arcade games (1985-87 is regarded as the peak). Once the market shifted away from arcades to consoles, I missed the classic arcades I grew up with."
"My Frogger experiences are relatively limited. Over the years I've enjoyed a love/hate relationship with the classic Konami title.
Every time I ever saw the game in an arcade I would go out of my way to not play it, not even look at it, because on many levels it just irritated the shit out of me. It was a game that rewarded patience and punished my natural tendencies. But the thing is, when I was living in Seoul, Korea it was one of the only games available to play (besides Ms. Pacman) in the Officers Club on base. So of course I played the hell out of it.
Recently, I had a chance to revisit the game in iPhone form.
Konami's iPhone build of the game doesn't really do much to change the formula. Actually it doesn't do anything to the game outside of the controls and a bit of a touch up to graphics."
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