# Ultimate Arcade1up Head-to-Head MOD!

**Source:** RetroRalph  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2019-03-09  
**Duration:** 6m 9s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCRS2hy747s

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## Analysis

RetroRalph features Chris Gaison's custom Arcade1Up modification that links two arcade cabinets together to enable four-player gaming without physical crowding. The mod uses HDMI and USB switches to connect a Smash Bros-themed cabinet with a dark-themed Link cabinet, allowing players to enjoy four-player classics like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, X-Men, and NBA Jam across two separate screens. RetroRalph announces a collaboration with Chris for future content and mentions a potential Q&A livestream.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Chris Gaison created a previous Arcade1Up mod featuring Smash Bros. Ultimate with Raspberry Pi, PC, pinball, and light gun capabilities — _Chris describes his prior conversion project before revealing the head-to-head mod_
- [HIGH] The linked mod uses HDMI and USB switches to allow two separate cabinets to function as a four-player system — _Chris provides detailed schematic explanation of the technical implementation_
- [HIGH] The mod supports games including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1 and 2, X-Men, NBA Jam, Mortal Kombat 9 and 10, Gang Beasts, and multiplayer pinball — _Chris explicitly lists compatible games for four-player functionality_
- [HIGH] RetroRalph and Chris Gaison are planning to collaborate on future content for the channel — _RetroRalph announces expanded collaboration plans with Chris covering areas outside his expertise_
- [MEDIUM] A follow-up Q&A livestream with Chris is being considered to answer viewer questions about the modification — _RetroRalph states 'We're also considering doing a subsequent episode that's going to be a live stream' for Q&A_

### Notable Quotes

> "I thought I could be content with that, but there was another modification I really wanted to do."
> — **Chris Gaison**, ~1:30
> _Explains motivation for escalating from single mod to linked cabinet project_

> "The modification I have for these machines are the ability to interface them to create a four-player mod between them."
> — **Chris Gaison**, ~2:45
> _States the core technical achievement of the project_

> "Now we all have room. Endless elbow room? Priceless."
> — **Chris Gaison**, ~5:30
> _Captures the practical benefit of the mod for multi-player comfort_

> "The possibilities are almost endless for the Arcade1Up as far as things you can do."
> — **RetroRalph (Jon)**, ~9:15
> _Commentary on the modding potential of Arcade1Up cabinets_

> "Chris actually dives into specific subject areas that I don't have expertise in. So we just thought if we collaborated together, we could provide even more content for the viewers."
> — **RetroRalph (Jon)**, ~10:00
> _Explains the rationale for the new content collaboration_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Chris Gaison | person | Arcade1Up modder and content creator who created the dual-cabinet four-player mod; previously created Smash Bros. Ultimate conversion; website: 317films.com |
| RetroRalph (Jon) | person | Video host and content creator; features Chris Gaison's modifications; announcer of collaboration plans |
| Arcade1Up | company | Manufacturer of compact arcade cabinets that serve as the base hardware for modding projects |
| Raspberry Pi | product | Single-board computer used as emulation platform in both Arcade1Up mods |
| RetroArch | product | Emulation frontend software requiring controller configuration for joystick compatibility |
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | game | Four-player arcade game compatible with the linked mod |
| X-Men | game | Four-player arcade game compatible with the linked mod |
| NBA Jam | game | Four-player arcade game compatible with the linked mod |
| Super Smash Bros. Ultimate | game | Theme/subject of the first Arcade1Up mod created by Chris Gaison |
| Street Fighter 2 | game | The arcade cabinet theme used for the second (dark-themed Link) cabinet in the mod |
| Mortal Kombat 9 and 10 | game | Mature games mentioned as compatible with the linked mod setup |
| Gang Beasts | game | Multiplayer game mentioned as playable with the mod for Chris's kids |
| 317films.com | organization | Chris Gaison's website featuring additional content and projects |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Arcade1Up cabinet modifications and customization, Four-player arcade gaming setup and technical implementation, HDMI and USB switching hardware for arcade linking, Retro arcade emulation and RetroArch configuration
- **Secondary:** Content creator collaboration and channel expansion, Home arcade gaming accessibility and space constraints

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.92) — Enthusiastic tone throughout; RetroRalph expresses high satisfaction with the mod ('pumps me up'), praises Chris's work ('nailed it out of the park'), and conveys genuine excitement about the collaboration. No criticisms or negative aspects mentioned.

### Signals

- **[community_signal]** RetroRalph building content creator partnerships and planning Q&A livestreams to engage audience with technical modding expertise (confidence: high) — RetroRalph announces collaboration with Chris Gaison, mentions shared expertise models, and plans follow-up Q&A livestream for viewer engagement
- **[product_strategy]** Chris Gaison's linked Arcade1Up mod demonstrates hardware-level customization differentiating Arcade1Up from off-the-shelf alternatives through technical integration of switching infrastructure (confidence: medium) — Dual HDMI and USB switching system enabling four-player functionality across separate cabinets represents advanced customization beyond standard Arcade1Up capabilities
- **[technology_signal]** Arcade1Up platform increasingly positioned as modular/extensible arcade solution through community-driven modifications enabling advanced multi-cabinet configurations (confidence: medium) — Chris's progression from single-cabinet Smash Bros. mod to linked four-player system demonstrates platform's adaptability; RetroRalph emphasizes 'possibilities are almost endless'

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## Transcript

Hey guys, welcome back. I am stoked out of my mind for today's episode. So if you guys remember, Facebook user Chris Goizot did a Super Smash Bros. mod. That thing was pretty sick, and people really liked it. But then, he decided that just wasn't good enough. Chris was like, that's not good enough. I gotta do something a little bit more extreme. A little bit more crazy. So what does he do? He takes two arcade one-off cabinets, puts them together for the ultimate head-to-head experience. So sit back, relax, and let's do this! Ah! Ah! Hey everyone, Chris Gaison here. You may remember I had created an arcade 1-up total conversion, making a Smash Bros. Ultimate mod, combining a Raspberry Pi and a PC with pinball and light gun capabilities, and the ability to switch between them with a few clicks of buttons. I thought I could be content with that, but there was another modification I really wanted to do. I picked up another Street Fighter 2 cabinet and modded this one as well, but this time I went with a dark link thing. So cool. Check out the graphics. Oh wait, let me first put it together. There we go. I added two extra option buttons to the control panel and pretty much added all the same components to what made it functional It runs a Raspberry Pi just like the first mod so you may be wondering what the mod Okay okay The modification I have for these machines are the ability to interface them to create a four-player mod between them. The whole purpose of this mod was to link the two machines so that me and my three kids or friends, when they come over, can play games like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1 and 2, X-Men, NBA Jam, and all the other great four-player games, without having to scrunch together on one cabinet. Now we all have room. Showing you the schematics may be a little easier than showing you the rat's nest inside my cabs. It was pretty simple. So I'm gonna try and explain exactly what's going on with these two machines. I've got my diagram up here and I'll show you my diagram too. So basically what it is is you've got the first Smash Arcade 1-Up that has a PC and a Raspberry Pi inside of it and you're gonna want to be able to switch between them so you've got an HDMI switch and a USB switch that swaps between both of them so you can basically utilize either one. So the Dark Link arcade is actually doing something very similar. It also has a USB switch and an HDMI switch in it as well and it defaults to the Pi so it's a standalone arcade and then when you basically flip the switch over it pulls the video from the whatever showing on the the Smash Bros. arcade one up and basically moves the controls over to that so now it's got four USB joysticks to that one arcade. So, and there's an HDMI splitter that takes the signal from the Smash Bros arcade and duplicates it onto the Link arcade Hopefully seeing the diagrams will help let you understand a little bit better what going on with these two machines So that way if you want to do something very similar you have the ability to do that For me this takes the arcade gaming to a whole new level. You don't know how many times I wanted to play a four player game of Turtles or jump into a game of Gang Beasts with my kids. But couldn't because I couldn't fit in. Plugging in USB controllers just wasn't the same either. Now, playing on two different cabinets, I can also play more mature games like Mortal Kombat 9 and 10, and each person can play on their own cabinet. Endless elbow room? Priceless. I can even invite people over to play multiplayer pinball. Each person can play on their own cabinet. A four player mod is a blast. If you decide to do something like this, you might run into a hurdle that I actually came across. Adding the two new joysticks needed to be configured inside of RetroArch before they would work with the mod. It may have just been a different type of encoder. Once I got them configured, no problems after that. I hope this has been entertaining and maybe inspiring to anyone trying to pull something like this off. If you wanted to make a four-player mod without all the frills, it would be much less expensive. I wanted to be able to have the option for a standalone and linkable option. I'll have Retro Ralph leave a link in the description to the schematic in case anyone is interested. Wow, Chris nailed it out of the park with this modification. Guys, I don't know about you, but this pumps me up. The possibilities are almost endless for the arcade one-up as far as things you can do. Now, is it a substitute for a real arcade cabinet, I don't know. It definitely a unit that really easy to mod and move around so I feel like it kind of extends the possibilities for a lot of people because we don always have the space available to us So anyways, I wanna especially thank Chris for this video. This was great. He's contributed lots of content to the channel so far and I'm very appreciative of that. So much so that Chris and I are gonna actually work a lot more together to provide you guys an even more diverse content for the channel. So Chris actually dives into specific subject areas that I don't have expertise in. So we just thought if we got together, we could provide even more content for the viewers of Retro Ralph for all of you guys. So I'm looking forward to that. And if you'd like to check out some of Chris's other ventures, 317films.com is his website. You can go there and see a lot of unique content that Chris has developed over the years. And I think you'd find that really interesting. We're also considering doing a subsequent episode that's going to be a live stream so you can ask Chris Q&A questions based on this modification. So once again, thank you guys for watching. Thanks Chris again for an amazing contribution to the channel. And please subscribe, please like the video, please leave your comments below. I'm very interested to see what you guys have to say about this modification. And that's it for now. We will see you on the next one. Take care. Thank you.

_(Acquisition: youtube_groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 3bbb5d1d-e4fb-497c-ab38-45824752a213*