# RARE Arcade Pickup - The Grid! **Source:** RetroRalph **Type:** video **Published:** 2022-03-29 **Duration:** 7m 59s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTbDfaYxwr8 --- ## Analysis RetroRalph showcases his recent acquisition of Midway's The Grid, a rare 2000 arcade cabinet (Midway's last arcade game) featuring third-person shooter gameplay with up to six-player local multiplayer via cabinet linking. He discusses the cabinet's condition, Zeus 2 hardware specs, and plans to potentially create additional units for the Game On Pinball Expo in Phoenix, while speculating about Arcade1Up's potential interest in reproducing the title. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] The Grid was Midway's last arcade game, released in 2000 — _Jon directly states this as established fact; The Grid is the final title in Midway's arcade lineup_ - [MEDIUM] Production numbers for The Grid are conflicting: Insert Coin documentary claims 500-550 units, but other sources suggest a couple thousand were made — _Jon acknowledges uncertainty: 'In the Insert Coin documentary, they say about 500 to 550 were made. However, there's conflicting information that says that maybe a couple thousand were made.'_ - [HIGH] The Grid uses Zeus 2 hardware (32-bit); only two games used this platform: The Grid and Cruisin' Exotica — _Technical specification confirmed while reviewing the PCB: 'This ran on this is the Zeus 2 hardware. It's a 32-bit architecture. The only two games that Midway used this for was The Grid and Cruisin' Exotica.'_ - [HIGH] Jon found two working boards at Castles and Coasters and now has one working cabinet; goal is to create two more units for Game On Pinball Expo in Phoenix — _Jon outlines restoration plan: 'The goal would be to create two more. And we tossed around a couple of ideas and concepts... we would feature them at the Game On Pinball Expo this year in Phoenix, Arizona'_ - [HIGH] The Grid supports multiplayer for up to six players by linking multiple cabinets — _Jon states: 'local multiplayer is possible with up to six players by linking up multiple cabinets. Very innovative for its time.'_ ### Notable Quotes > "I got a chance to play The Grid last year at Galloping Ghost, and man, this game is awesome. It was developed by Midway and released in the year 2000. It was actually Midway's last arcade game." > — **Jon (RetroRalph)**, ~0:50 > _Establishes The Grid's historical significance as Midway's final arcade title_ > "The only two games that Midway used this for was The Grid and Cruisin' Exotica. So you know being the end of Midway and this being the last game they released, those are the only two games that actually ever made it on this hardware." > — **Jon (RetroRalph)**, ~7:30 > _Highlights the rarity and exclusivity of Zeus 2 hardware platform_ > "In the Insert Coin documentary, they say about 500 to 550 were made. However, there's conflicting information that says that maybe a couple thousand were made. The thing is, that was over 20 years ago, and a lot of them were actually destroyed." > — **Jon (RetroRalph)**, ~2:20 > _Acknowledges production number uncertainty and explains rarity due to cabinet destruction over time_ > "Wouldn't it be cool to have deathmatch type of a cabinet where you could be playing with other people around the world that you can jump into the games, jump out of the games. I feel like this would be a really cool cabinet for them to reproduce." > — **Jon (RetroRalph)**, ~5:30 > _Speculation on potential Arcade1Up reproduction interest; frames The Grid as untapped licensing opportunity_ > "To me, it's a game everybody should play. It's so fun. Just lots of really cool aspects to it. And honestly, so much fun if you have a bunch of people playing together." > — **Jon (RetroRalph)**, ~9:45 > _Jon's overall assessment; emphasizes multiplayer appeal as core value proposition_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Midway | company | Developer and publisher of The Grid (2000), Midway's final arcade game; also made Cruisin' Exotica on Zeus 2 hardware | | The Grid | game | Rare 2000 Midway arcade cabinet; third-person shooter with up to six-player local multiplayer via cabinet linking; runs on Zeus 2 hardware | | Jon | person | Host of RetroRalph channel; recently acquired a working Grid cabinet and plans to restore two additional units for Game On Pinball Expo | | Galloping Ghost Arcade | company | Where Jon played The Grid; also mentioned as potential topper reproduction resource via Galloping Ghost Reproductions | | Galloping Ghost Reproductions | company | Potential partner for creating missing arcade cabinet topper for The Grid | | Castles and Coasters | company | Location where Jon sourced two Grid PCBs/boards used for his restoration project | | Game On Pinball Expo | event | Annual pinball/arcade expo in Phoenix, Arizona where Jon plans to showcase the restored Grid cabinets | | Arcade1Up | company | Home arcade cabinet manufacturer; Jon traded an Astro City unit to acquire The Grid; speculates about their potential interest in reproducing The Grid as a networked multiplayer cabinet | | Cole | person | Collaborator who contributed ideas and concepts for the Grid cabinet restoration project | | XL Arcade | company | Manufacturer of replacement side art stickers that include all keypad codes for The Grid | | Cruisin' Exotica | game | Midway arcade game; second and final title to use Zeus 2 hardware platform | | Running Man | game | 1987 film referenced as thematic inspiration/comparison for The Grid's violent game show premise | | Smash TV | game | Arcade game referenced as stylistic/tone comparison for The Grid's host personality | ### Topics - **Primary:** Arcade cabinet acquisition and restoration, Rare arcade hardware: The Grid's production history and rarity - **Secondary:** Zeus 2 hardware platform and exclusivity, Multiplayer arcade cabinet networking and linking, Arcade1Up business strategy and licensing opportunities, Game On Pinball Expo and community showcase planning - **Mentioned:** Arcade preservation and documentation ### Sentiment **Positive** (0.85) — Jon expresses enthusiasm and excitement throughout, calling the acquisition 'epic' and the game 'awesome.' He's engaged with the restoration project and optimistic about its potential. Only minor frustration about missing topper and network switch configuration, but these are addressed constructively. Overall tone is celebratory and community-focused. ### Signals - **[community_signal]** Jon uses his platform to solicit community feedback on hypothetical Arcade1Up Grid reproduction, framing it as an interactive poll (confidence: high) — Jon directly asks viewers: 'if they made a bigger version... would you do that? Would you want to do that? Would that interest you?' and invites comment responses - **[licensing_signal]** Jon speculates about Arcade1Up potentially licensing The Grid for reproduction as a networked multiplayer cabinet, citing their history of securing arcade game licenses (confidence: low) — Jon asks: 'I feel like this would be a really cool cabinet for them to reproduce. I don't know what the licensing would be like, but Arcade1Up, couldn't you do that? I mean, couldn't you do it? You get licenses for just about everything else.' - **[market_signal]** The Grid remains exceedingly rare in the secondary market; production numbers are disputed (500-550 vs. potentially several thousand), but only documented units in circulation suggest extreme scarcity (confidence: medium) — Jon notes: 'But you don't see them really at all. Although they are scattered in various places around the country.' Production numbers conflict between Insert Coin documentary and other sources. - **[announcement]** Jon announces publicly that he acquired The Grid and plans to restore two additional units for display at Game On Pinball Expo in Phoenix (confidence: high) — Jon states: 'And the idea would be that we would feature them at the Game On Pinball Expo this year in Phoenix, Arizona for other people to enjoy.' --- ## Transcript Hey guys, welcome back to the channel. I don't know what is going on in 2022, but it is epic when it comes to arcade pickups. And my latest pickup is Midway's The Grid. Can't believe it. I got one. It's missing the topper, but hey, we're going to figure that out. I've already reached out to Galloping Ghost Reproductions, and I'm trying to talk to them as well as a couple other friends I have in the business that might be able to help. So we will see. I'm not going to hold my breath, but they might be able to help because this thing needs a topper. Anyway, in this episode, that's what we're going to do. We're going to check out The Grid. I'm going to tell you a little bit about it. We've covered it before on the channel, but I am super stoked. Let's check it out. I got a chance to play The Grid last year at Galloping Ghost, and man, this game is awesome. It was developed by Midway and released in the year 2000. It was actually Midway's last arcade game. It's a third-person shooter which consists of a super violent television game show hosted by a Smash TV-like host. Very reminiscent of the movie Running Man. One of the coolest things about it, though, is that local multiplayer is possible with up to six players by linking up multiple cabinets. Very innovative for its time. So you're probably wondering, how did I actually acquire this? I thought they were really rare. Well, they are, but there's some conflicting information out there. In the Insert Coin documentary, they say about 500 to 550 were made. However, there's conflicting information that says that maybe a couple thousand were made. The thing is, that was over 20 years ago, and a lot of them were actually destroyed. So to know an exact number at this point is pretty tough. But you don't see them really at all. Although they are scattered in various places around the country. But my goal would be to take the two that we found at Castles and Coasters. If you didn't watch that episode, go check that out. But we found two boards, and now I have one working cabinet. So if we ever need to use it as reference for how things are cabled or configured, we now have something that we can go on. But the goal would be to create two more. And we tossed around a couple of ideas and concepts that actually Cole came up with And I think they pretty cool And the idea would be that we would feature them at the Game On Expo this year in Phoenix Arizona for other people to enjoy So anyways that where we at right now But let's go back into the garage and check a little bit more out on the cabinet. Okay, so we're out in the garage, but before I show you more of the good cabinet and the condition it's in, I just got another War Final Assault. So I wanted to show you this. I actually have two of them networked. So if you look, there's one right here and there's one right there. So if I actually start a game, put credits in here. Press start. Press start to say just play. Select that character. You can do head to head, multiplayer deathmatch. And then both of those are ready to go. So this one's green and that one's red. So it's totally cool. But the network that I had to set up is kind of stupid. Okay, so the network switch it came with didn't have a power supply. So I rigged up a power supply right here, but yeah, so that there's an Ethernet switch Or that is an Ethernet cable rather that goes from this guy Down to that and then just connects to the other cabinet right here So and then they both link up and they detect each other so that's pretty cool But anyways, we'll talk more about that later. Okay, so I'm green and that one's red. All right, check it out You're going to die Anyway, what we're really here for is the grid, and you can see it's in pretty good shape actually. The bummer is there's no topper, so we're gonna have to figure that out. The control panel is in good shape, the flight stick is good, the trackball is good, the keypad works. The keypad's really instrumental for this game, because you can unlock hidden players, you can start with weapons, and do a whole bunch of different things. So the keypad is really instrumental. You can even store your character. So as you kind of build up your character it store those types of things Outside of that the design is pretty cool too so it has like very different design than a standard midway cabinet Although like you could almost argue that this whole part is a traditional midway cabinet and then like from here forward, they sort of built this like pedestal looking thing, and then it has like indents where they put midway. It's a very, very cool design. You know, over the side, you have the side art and all that, and I'm actually going to get new stickers that go in here because there's one that uh xl arcade makes it actually has all of the keypad codes but anyways so i'm happy with the way it looks the control panel is good like i said the cabinet is good the artwork is good so i'm pretty happy overall with this purchase and the way it looks and you'll notice over here there is no astro city well i traded the astro city and a little bit of cash to get this guy um we don't talk about arcade one up much at all on this channel. I share some things on Twitter and Facebook and stuff like that, but for the most part, I've kind of moved on. I don't really focus on it much anymore. But I am still interested in what they're doing, and I look every now and then. And it seems like they're kind of banking on the future of Arcade 1 of being connected cabinets, so you can play multiplayer. Some of those games, like Street Fighter, they become sort of difficult because you have different skill levels. Well, the grid came out and kind of came and went, so there isn't like this 20-year history, for the part of people playing it on a regular basis. And wouldn't it be cool to have deathmatch type of a cabinet where you could be playing with other people around the world that you can jump into games, jump out of games. I feel like this would be a really cool cabinet for them to reproduce. I don't know what the licensing would be like, but Arcade 1UP, couldn't you do that? I mean couldn't you do it? You got licenses for just about everything else. I want to know for the people watching, like if they made a bigger version, you know, because they're making these larger cabinets now, if they made a bigger version of this cabinet and you could play in a large death match with six people at a time, you know, over the internet, would you do that? Would you want to do that? Would that interest you? Or is this kind of a waste And would it Yeah I don know Anyways I just thought of it I thought it could be interesting but let me know in the comments below maybe that stupid and i need you guys to tell me dude no no dude bruh dumb that my son sounds like him and his friend they're all bruh like they're almost like frogs ribbiting but it's really they're saying bro they're like bro but it sounds like ribbit ribbit it's like bruh okay so let's check out the back of the cabinet there is the pcb this ran on this is the zeus 2 hardware it's a 32-bit architecture. The only two games that Midway used this for was The Grid and Cruisin' Exotica. So you know being the tail end of Midway and this being the last game they released, those are the only two games that actually ever made it on this hardware. It's pretty capable hardware too as you can see from the graphics in the game. Other than that it's JAMA so you can see your JAMA connector right there. You've got a power supply right there so it's pretty empty for the most part and then you've got where all the connections go into the control panel including the keypad and the joystick and the trackball and you got a subwoofer. This thing actually sounds really really good it's got a great sound system. Alright guys well we're gonna play this out of here. It about wraps up this video. You can see you have six characters you can choose from and then there's other ones that are unlockable like Scorpion. Yeah Scorpion from Mortal Kombat it's pretty cool. These beginning levels are actually really easy and then it gets a lot harder yeah already on the next level it gets a lot harder trust me anyways guys if you enjoyed this video give me a thumbs up consider subscribing the channel put your comments below what do you think about the grid is this a game that you played is it a game you want to play I don't know to me it's a game everybody should play it's so fun just lots of really cool aspects to it and honestly so much fun if you have a bunch of people playing together all right guys we will see you on the next one _(Acquisition: youtube_groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 25e51098-a496-4cdc-94ef-7cb1adbbe081*