LinLog

This year, I got my wife a bigger-than-usual gift for Mother's Day.  It was a vintage topaz ring that matched some earrings I'd gotten her in Mexico several years ago.  It's in a similar style to her engagement ring.

In the spirit of reciprocation, she wanted to get me something nice for Father's Day.  So I suggested a couple of things and let her choose.  She picked the cooler of the options - an AtGames Legends Ultimate Arcade cabinet.

I'd been eyeing arcade cabinets for a while.  Of course, I'd considered building a custom MAME cabinet myself, but to be honest, I didn't really want a construction project, just the end result.  I'd also looked at the possibility of just buying a cabinet, but they tend to be a little pricey.  For instance, I'd seen some custom cabinet builders selling just the cabinets (not electronics) for around $1,000.  To be fair, they were very nice cabinets, but that seemed a little much.  Also, I'm not particularly interested in putting together just the electronics either, so it would still be a little bit of a project.  So I wanted to go with something pre-built.

One option that I originally considered was the Arcade 1Up machines.  I'd seen these in the local Walmart and they actually looked pretty nice.  The design was very authentic to old-school arcade machines and they were very reasonably priced, with some of the units being as low as $300.  However, they also aren't full-size, so to be able to play the games standing up, you need to either build or buy a riser for another $60.  They also come with a limited selection of games, usually a dozen or less.  And even if you can mod them to add more, the controls are really only designed for the built-in games, so you're limited in what you can do.

The Legends Ultimate does not have such limitations.  My introduction to this cabinet was actually playing an older version of it at the Strong National Museum of Play.  They have one in the retro arcade that's free to play, and it seemed quite nice.  It had several classics that I enjoy (including Burger Time and Elevator Action) and the controls were very good and flexible enough for a variety of games.

(Correction: After going back and looking closer, it turns out the unit at the museum wasn't from AtGames.  The Strong actually had the Chicago Gaming Company Arcade Legends cabinet.  That system has been discontinued, but it was very similar to the ones produced by AtGames.  When I Googled it, I just put in "arcade legends" and the AtGames website was the top hit, hence my confusion.)

For the record, if you're considering this cabinet, I would recommend getting it from Sam's Club, which is what we did.  When I first looked it up, the list price was around $550.  However, since then it has gone up to $900 on their website.  But when my wife ordered it, Sam's Club was still offering it for $550.  And it seems AtGames has a special deal with Sam's Club to include some extras in their version.  So I got 2 free months of their  premium ArcadeNet service as well as the pinball button attachments that you can see on the side of the cabinet.  I've been enjoying those more than I thought I would.

I'll do a separate post with a review and break-down of my experiences with the Legends Ultimate, but so far I'm enjoying it.  It's got a decent selection of built-in games (they advertise 300 games, which is...technically true), good controls (including a trackball, if you want to play Centipede, and spinners for...I don't know what), and a fairly decent selection UI experience.  It's also expandible, with a very subtle expansion panel in that metal strip between the controllers and the screen.  In fact, you can see that I have a flash drive plugged into that panel.  They have a very nice BYOG (Bring Your Own Games) feature which allows you to load up a drive with games in UCE format, plug it in, and they just show up.

So I'm happy.  I've got a nice selection of vintage arcade games and a cabinet that gives me an actual authentic arcade play experience.  And, while it may not be an authentic design, I think it actually looks pretty cool.  And that counts for something.