Prime Arcades - Stand Up Racing Cabinet w/ 107 Games!

RetroRalph·video·8m 55s·analyzed·Dec 11, 2020

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.017

TL;DR

RetroRalph reviews Prime Arcades 107-game racing cabinet; impressed by games but disappointed by wheel quality.

Summary

RetroRalph unboxes and tests a Prime Arcades 107-in-1 racing cabinet with steering wheel, widescreen display, and multi-game capability. While impressed by the game library (including OutRun 2006), he identifies several quality concerns: non-force-feedback steering wheel, stretched aspect ratio presentation, default Japanese/Chinese language settings, and jerky wheel response. Despite initial disappointment with the 'Premium Edition' positioning, the machine redeems itself through robust game selection.

Key Claims

Prime Arcades is a company based in Southern California that manufactures multi-game racing cabinets
high confidence · Jon (RetroRalph) stating 'This company is out of Southern California'
The steering wheel is positive feedback (spring-return to center) rather than force feedback
high confidence · Jon explicitly explains the difference: 'The steering wheel is not force feedback, it's positive feedback. Now positive feedback just means it's going to go back to center'
The cabinet uses a $100 steering wheel, not a higher-end component like a G29
high confidence · Jon states 'I looked at the back of this it's a hoary like hundred dollar steering wheel' and critiques the Premium Edition positioning
The cabinet defaults to Japanese or Chinese language settings despite being marketed for U.S. market
high confidence · Jon observes 'I don't know why they have the game set to Japanese language' and 'Everything is in Japanese or Chinese'
The cabinet displays games in stretched 16:9 aspect ratio rather than maintaining original 4:3 aspect ratios
high confidence · Jon notes 'the games are being presented in 4-3 aspect ratio the games are being presented in 16-9 and stretched'
The cabinet features 107 arcade racing games including OutRun, Daytona USA, Cruisin' USA, Sega Rally, and console racers
high confidence · Jon lists games and demonstrates gameplay; notes hidden console racer library accessible via mode button
The cabinet can be linked with another upright or sit-down cabinet for multi-system play
high confidence · Jon states 'These do have the capabilities of linking between two systems. You can link two uprights, You can link an upright and a sit-down'
Prime Arcades is likely using a mass-produced Chinese base system with Prime Arcades branding applied
medium confidence · Jon speculates 'I'm sure this is a mass-produced system in China. And I think they just skin it with the Prime Arcades logo. So I don't think Prime Arcades is really doing a whole lot here'

Notable Quotes

“This company is out of Southern California. And this is a multi-racer. So it's got 107 arcade racing games on it.”
Jon (RetroRalph)@ 1:50 — Introduction of Prime Arcades company and product positioning
“The steering wheel is not force feedback, it's positive feedback. Now positive feedback just means it's going to go back to center.”
Jon (RetroRalph)@ 4:07 — Key technical distinction affecting user experience; identifies primary quality concern
“I looked at the back of this it's a hoary like hundred dollar steering wheel... if it's going to be a Premium Edition racing experience you would use like a g29 wheel or something”
Jon (RetroRalph)@ 4:38 — Criticism of component quality relative to premium positioning
“I'm sure this is a mass-produced system in China. And I think they just skin it with the Prime Arcades logo. So I don't think Prime Arcades is really doing a whole lot here.”
Jon (RetroRalph)@ 3:57 — Assessment of Prime Arcades' role as possibly a rebrander rather than manufacturer
“this thing completely redeemed itself by actually having some some more games on it... we will have other videos on this”
Jon (RetroRalph)@ 7:57 — Positive sentiment reversal due to game library quality; commits to follow-up coverage

Entities

Prime ArcadescompanyJon (RetroRalph)personOutRun 2006gameDaytona USAgameSega RallygameCruisin' USAgameArcade1UpcompanyMark Kimperson

Signals

?
business_signal: Prime Arcades appears to operate as rebranding/white-label operation of Chinese-manufactured arcade hardware rather than original manufacturer
medium · Jon speculates based on default language settings and generic packaging: 'I'm sure this is a mass-produced system in China. And I think they just skin it with the Prime Arcades logo'
$
market_signal: Premium arcade cabinet market segment includes lower-cost component sourcing (consumer-grade $100 steering wheels vs pro equipment)
high · Jon identifies $100 wheel in 'Premium Edition' cabinet, compares unfavorably to G29 or professional-grade alternatives
?
announcement: Prime Arcades 107-in-1 racing cabinet with steering wheel officially reviewed and unboxed; retail availability implied
high · Jon receives cabinet in mail, conducts detailed unboxing and feature review with public documentation
?
product_strategy: Cabinet features dual game library structure: primary arcade racing games + secondary console racing games accessible via mode button
high · Jon discovers hidden console racer library (OutRun 2006, Off-Road Challenge, etc.) via mode button after initial disappointment with arcade-only presentation
?
product_concern: Steering wheel responsiveness issues including jerky response and dead spots; wheel tuning/calibration problems affecting gameplay
high · Jon repeatedly notes 'really, really jerky' wheel, 'massive dead spots', and plans follow-up testing to address calibration

Topics

Multi-game arcade cabinet design and specificationsprimarySteering wheel quality and force-feedback vs positive-feedback mechanismsprimaryDisplay aspect ratio and game presentationprimaryComponent sourcing and manufacturing practices in arcade hardwaresecondaryRacing game library and game selectionprimaryRetail arcade cabinet market and premium positioningsecondary

Sentiment

mixed(0.55)— Initial skepticism and disappointment with wheel quality and presentation choices gradually shifts to appreciation for game library depth. Reviewer tempers enthusiasm with acknowledgment of quality/value concerns but commits to further exploration and testing.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.027

Hey guys, welcome back. So today I got a package in the mail. Now this isn't any package, this is a big package. And I just thought it would be really fun for us to sort of unbox slash unwrap this ourselves. So I haven't talked about what this is on the channel, and by the way I don't have really adequate tools to undo this, so it's going to take a little bit. But it will build up the anticipation. So, I could do this a lot faster if I had the appropriate tools, but that way you have to fast forward or watch through the whole thing. Alright, I'm getting somewhere. now obviously it's an arcade machine of some kind but you don't know what it is yet until we get this unwrapped ah geez okay we're getting there it's kind of tight quarters in here because i have way too many machines in a small space and this is the only space in the house i really can fit full-size machines unless I you know unless I um I don't know took over another room which that ain't happening sorry fellas I'm married and I get away with just about what I can as far as the arcade stuff goes okay so we got most of the wrap off so we're gonna go and get this top portion off now this machine is not wrapped in any specific artwork it's just generic artwork So it's like a multi-cade. And what do you know? It's got a steering wheel. So this is a 107-in-1 arcade by a company called Prime Arcades. This company is out of Southern California. And this is a multi-racer. So it's got... Dang it. It's got... Oh! Okay. It's got a... Whew I almost farted there It got 107 arcade racing games on it So it a multi for arcade racers Mostly the stuff we all remember from the arcade. So what I'm going to do is now that we have it sort of unboxed, sort of, I'm going to put it into position. Well, I guess we could talk about it really quick before we put it into position in the room with the other arcades. And I'm going need to throw all this stuff away before Kim gets home or else I'm screwed. So all right guys let's check out the Prime Arcades Upright Racer. So when you first log in this is what you get. You get this menu screen no video snaps or anything like that and you lightly tap your wheel to the right like I'm doing to move down the list and you move left to move up the list. So it's got a bunch of different games on here. It's got virtual racing. It's got outrun. It's got outrun turbo. It's got Sega Rally, you've got California, or sorry, not California, Cruisin' USA, you got Cruisin' World, and Daytona USA. So I'm going to go to Daytona USA real quick. There's 107 games on this, and the screen on this thing is 26 inches. It's a 26-inch widescreen. So there's a couple things that I'll go over while we're playing the first game that were kind of a bummer at first glance. So these do have the capabilities of linking between two systems. You can link two uprights, You can link an upright and a sit-down. I don't know why they have the game set to Japanese language. I'm pretty sure I can change this because it does allow you to enter the dip switches somewhere in here. So I'm going to go and do that. But everything is in Japanese or Chinese. I'm not sure. Which is pretty weird. I'm not sure why they would have done that for a U.S.-based system. But I'm sure this is a mass-produced system in China. And I think they just skin it with the Prime Arcades logo. So I don't think Prime Arcades is really doing a whole lot here. The other thing you'll notice about the steering wheel is the steering wheel is not force feedback, it's positive feedback. Now positive feedback just means it's going to go back to center. That's not force feedback. So that kind of a bummer because it not really clear whether it was force feedback or positive feedback And I guess positive feedback might be a good marketing name for hey the wheel returns to center so kind of a bummer the pedals feel okay the wheel feels okay but I looked at the back of this it's a hoary like hundred dollar steering wheel so it's not like they're using a crazy steering wheel and they are calling this a premium racing experience so to me if it's going to be a premium racing experience you would use like a g29 wheel or something that's a little bit more expensive and a little bit better quality. As far as the monitor goes, they do everything widescreen, so everything is stretched. So some people might not like that the games are being presented in, you know, 4-3 aspect ratio games are being presented in 16-9 and stretched. That's kind of a bummer if you ask me. I personally would prefer them to be maintaining their existing, you know, their original aspect ratio. It does have a coin slot on it, so you can set this to accept coins for play, so it is technically a coin-off system, which is pretty interesting. The speakers are stereo. They actually sound pretty good, and down below where my foot is, they've got sort of this metal textured plate that kind of helps your foot stay in place when you're playing it, which is pretty neat, but I'm not considering this a full review. I just thought it'd be fun to unbox it and check it out. I literally just wanted to buy this to kind of take one for the team for the channel and see uh see if something like this could be good right i kind of went into it blind and sometimes you go into these things blind and they're definitely not they don't turn out the way you'd expect them to so we'll see maybe there's hope for this thing after all but for right now all right just when i thought all hope was lost so check this out i was like man i know there should be more games on this thing and You hit the mode button and there's a ton of console racers. So it's pretty awesome because there's a lot of them and they're really good games. But the one that I was most stoked on, right, is OutRun 2006. It's actually on here. So there's Off-Road Challenge, a bunch of great games. So, okay, this thing is redeeming itself slowly. But let's see. If you guys never played this game, definitely a really cool game. And, you know, the wheel on this thing just isn't great. I got to figure it out because there might be some fine I can do on this thing But for the premium racing experience I definitely expected a better wheel but I excited because this game awesome and you can do these super dramatic things with it as far as like the drifting goes very very cool so let's do it all right and there's remixes of the original soundtrack that were on the original Outrun game. So if you're into Outrun right now, and you might be because the arcade one-up just came out, so everyone's like, Joe Outrun right now. But let's do it. All right, I'm going to show you guys. If I can pull it off, the wheel is like really, really weird on this. One of the cool things about this game is that you can do these super dramatic drifts. I'm going to try do one around this other corner over here right here. Yeah! Oh, all right, well, it's kind of good. We'll do one more, but it's super fun. I'll do one right here if I can. Man, this thing is sensitive as hell. Yeah, baby! Oh, we're going on the beach, but it doesn't matter. all right anyways guys so we're going to do another video on this this thing completely redeemed itself by actually having some some more games on it i'm definitely gonna have to figure out how to get this wheel going because it's like super jerky so if anybody's an expert at racing wheels let me know because i'm definitely wouldn't say i'm an expert at tuning these things because it just seems like it's really really jerky in games like this or there's like massive dead spots Which isn't cool if you guys enjoyed this video definitely give me a thumbs up consider subscribing to the channel Stay tuned for the channel because we will have other videos on this so definitely turn on that notification bell And that's it for now guys. We will see you all the next one you