# Arcade1up - CES 2021 - X-Men is HERE!

**Source:** RetroRalph  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2021-01-11  
**Duration:** 5m 9s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQOW0cOauqE

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## Analysis

RetroRalph announces Arcade1Up's X-Men cabinet from CES 2021, featuring X-Men (Konami), Captain America, and Avengers: Galactic Storm (both Data East) with Wi-Fi multiplayer capability. The video discusses the cabinet's design features, the technical history of Galactic Storm's MLC cassette hardware, and the game mix rationale.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] X-Men cabinet will feature Wi-Fi enabled play for multiplayer with people worldwide — _Direct product announcement/demo at CES 2021_
- [MEDIUM] Avengers: Galactic Storm was developed on Data East's MLC (motherless/motherboardless cassette) hardware system, similar to Neo Geo MVS but only produced four games total — _RetroRalph's research and discussion; technical accuracy should be verified against historical arcade records_
- [MEDIUM] X-Men and Captain America were two or three-button games, requiring a fourth button addition for Galactic Storm compatibility — _RetroRalph's technical analysis of cabinet controls_
- [HIGH] The cabinet includes a plastic faux coin door rather than decal version from Legacy collection — _Direct product feature demonstration_

### Notable Quotes

> "they bringing us x-men which is really cool uh and it's online enabled which is which is great"
> — **RetroRalph**, early in video
> _Expresses enthusiasm for marquee title and online multiplayer feature_

> "So they were able to get Konami and Data East to work together, so they had three titles on the same cabinet with a mix of different companies that developed the original game"
> — **RetroRalph**, mid-video
> _Highlights technical/licensing accomplishment of consolidating multiple publishers on one cabinet_

> "I think it cool that you end up with a fighting game that sort of tagged with two side scrollers beat can get a little monotonous over time so we not throwing a fighting game to sort of drag it into the mix and make it a bit different"
> — **RetroRalph**, late in video
> _Game selection rationale: genre diversity to prevent monotony_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Arcade1Up | company | Manufacturer of home arcade cabinets; announcing X-Men cabinet at CES 2021 with online multiplayer |
| X-Men | game | Konami arcade game; marquee title on Arcade1Up cabinet announced at CES 2021 |
| Captain America and the Avengers | game | Data East arcade game; included on Arcade1Up X-Men cabinet |
| Avengers: Galactic Storm | game | Data East arcade game using MLC cassette hardware; third game on Arcade1Up X-Men cabinet |
| Konami | company | Original developer of X-Men arcade game |
| Data East | company | Original developer of Captain America and the Avengers and Avengers: Galactic Storm; developed MLC cassette hardware system |
| Neo Geo MVS | product | Arcade hardware reference point for comparison to Data East's MLC cassette system concept |
| RetroRalph | person | Content creator; video host providing analysis and commentary on Arcade1Up cabinet announcement |
| CES 2021 | event | Consumer Electronics Show where Arcade1Up publicly announced/demonstrated X-Men cabinet |
| 1UP Weekly | organization | Show/channel covering Arcade1Up news; hosting representatives from Arcade1Up on January 11th |
| Legacy collection | product | Arcade1Up product line featuring decal-style coin doors; X-Men cabinet uses plastic version instead |
| Dunk Dream 95 | game | One of four games produced for Data East's MLC cassette system; mentioned as example of cabinet refresh capability |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Arcade1Up X-Men cabinet announcement and features, Multiplayer online connectivity in home arcade cabinets
- **Secondary:** Data East MLC cassette hardware history and comparison to Neo Geo MVS, Game selection rationale: genre diversity and cabinet replayability, Multi-publisher licensing achievement (Konami and Data East collaboration), Cabinet design and cosmetic elements (marquee, coin door, riser graphics)

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.8) — RetroRalph expresses genuine excitement about X-Men as marquee title and Wi-Fi capability. Minor criticism of repetitive X-Men branding on cabinet design. Overall enthusiasm for product announcement and anticipation for community reception.

### Signals

- **[licensing_signal]** Multi-publisher collaboration: Arcade1Up secured games from both Konami (X-Men) and Data East (Captain America, Galactic Storm) on single cabinet (confidence: high) — RetroRalph explicitly notes: 'they were able to get Konami and Data East to work together, so they had three titles on the same cabinet with a mix of different companies'
- **[announcement]** Arcade1Up officially announces X-Men cabinet at CES 2021 with Wi-Fi-enabled multiplayer and two additional arcade games (confidence: high) — Direct product demonstration and discussion at CES; official announcement context
- **[product_strategy]** Cabinet design includes genre-diverse game mix (two side-scrollers + one fighting game) to prevent gameplay monotony and extend replayability (confidence: medium) — RetroRalph's analysis: 'a fighting game that sort of tagged with two side scrollers beat can get a little monotonous over time so we throwing a fighting game to sort of drag it into the mix'
- **[technology_signal]** Arcade1Up integrating online/Wi-Fi multiplayer connectivity into home arcade cabinets for cross-regional gameplay (confidence: high) — Explicit mention of 'Wi-Fi enabled to be able to play these games with other people around the country, world'

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## Transcript

all right guys the next game is x-men so we've been waiting for this for a long time i feel like x-men's been confirmed a million times by the community but now it's officially confirmed so arcade one up is bringing us x-men and they bring us x-men with a couple of other titles so it's got x-men we'll zoom in here it's got x-men captain america and avengers galactic storm we'll talk about galactic storm in a minute because i think that's a lesser known title but what what I'm really excited about is the marquee title, which is X-Men. So this cabinet will have the standard light-up marquee. This is going to be a similar four-player control panel that we're used to seeing for a while. Now this cabinet will be Wi-Fi enabled to be able to play these games with other people around the country, world, which is really cool. It will have this fake faux coin door, but this will be plastic, not the decal version that you'd see on the Legacy collection that that they just announced which is brand new and then you'll see down below it does have a graphical riser so it's got some really cool you know Marvel artwork there you got the X-Men logo on the side now I'm not the biggest fan when they duplicate you know you know it says X-Men here X-Men here X here you know but some people don mind that I just wish that they would kind of relax on the telling you the name of the game 5 000 times but regardless i excited that they they bringing us x-men which is really cool uh and it's online enabled which is which is great so uh you know you guys probably know captain america and the avengers but the game that i think uh you know it kind of got overshadowed in the arcade is this avengers galactic storm so it got me doing some research uh on that and it's kind of interesting so this game avengers and galactic storm was on this interesting hardware by Data East. Now keep in mind, we got X-Men, which is Konami, and then you have Captain America and... Sorry, I'm spacing out here. Captain America and the Avengers, which is Data East, and then you got this game, which is Galactic Storm, which is Data East. So they were able to get Konami and Data East to work together, so they had three titles on the same cabinet with a mix of different companies that developed the original game. But this hardware that this was on is kind of interesting. It's like this, they called it a cassette system. MLC actually stood for motherless cassette. I have no idea why motherless, but whatever. Maybe motherboardless, I'm not sure. Maybe they were trying to shorten it and be creative. I'm not really sure. But it was kind of like a competitor to or trying to sort of produce something similar to like like a Neo Geo MVS right It was sort of cart based So if someone was an arcade owner but the problem is they only made four games I think with this system. But I think the idea was, hey, if the arcade owner wanted to swap this out for, let's say, Dunk Dream 95, which is, I guess, one of these games right here, Dunk Dream 95, they could do that. So they could switch the game based on maybe user interest or the people coming into the arcades interest which was kind of what neo geo was so famous for it was sort of this evergreen arcade because as they develop titles and as interest may be lessened in other titles they could easily refresh the cabinet without you know having to really reskin it or do anything other than just switching out some marquee cards so i think data east was trying to do something similar but it doesn't look like they really went very far with the technology so what about the game like how is galactic storm i don't know a lot about the game but i did play it for a little while just because i hadn't played it myself i think it will be a title that people will be interested in that are you know into the characters of the Marvel Universe but we'll see we'll see we'll see how people enjoy it but I can definitely tell you the games that people are definitely interested in which is X-Men and Captain America and this bonus game should be pretty fun we'll see we'll see how people like it I mean I think it cool that you end up with a fighting game that sort of tagged with two side beat Side beat can get a little monotonous over time so we not throwing a fighting game to sort of drag it into the mix and make it a bit different And the button scheme does kind of work because that Galactic Storm game was a four-button game, so they had to add, I think, a fourth button in order to achieve that because I don't think any of the other games were four-button. I don't think X-Men and I don't think Captain America were four-button. I think they were either two or three-button. So it makes sense. Anyways, that's all I got, guys. Hopefully you enjoyed this. Let me know in the comments below, are you excited for X-Men? Is this a cabinet you've been waiting for? And then just make sure that you watch 1UP Weekly because we're going to actually talk all about this today. So if you're watching it on, let's see, what would it be? On January 11th. If you're watching this right now on January 11th, then we have a 1UP Weekly show that's either going on right now or you can watch it in replay. Well, we'll have representatives from Arcade 1UP on. So definitely make sure you go to one up weekly and subscribe to the channel but that's all i got thanks guys and we'll see you on the next one

_(Acquisition: youtube_groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 276a86f3-53d6-4b9b-947b-e34b8f30ea49*