Arcade1up MOD - TMNT - 4 Player - GET IT NOW!

RetroRalph·video·16m 16s·analyzed·Jun 24, 2019

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.026

TL;DR

Custom Arcade1Up TMNT four-player mod with 99 Lives control panel and LED marquee upgrade

Summary

RetroRalph demonstrates a custom-modified Arcade1Up TMNT four-player cabinet featuring a 99 Lives control panel, a Blackout marquee upgrade from Barnyard Arcade Game Factory, and a Raspberry Pi-based RetroPi build. The video documents the technical installation challenges, customization options, and collaboration between hardware and graphics vendors in the Arcade1Up modding community.

Key Claims

Arcade1Up's official TMNT cabinet does not have a lit marquee
high confidence · RetroRalph explicitly states 'Arcade1Up already announced it' but 'it's not available yet' and mentions '1UP didn't put a lit marquee on the new one'
The original TMNT mod used a three-player Hulk Rampage conversion with Raphael mapped to Donatello
high confidence · RetroRalph acknowledges previous mod was 'a three-player Hulk Rampage that I converted to a three-player Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' and 'if you hit Raphael, you get Donatello'
99 Lives control panels can be customized with variable features and ship bare-bones with just holes
high confidence · RetroRalph states '99 Lives...creates these control panels. And they can ship them with as much stuff on them as you want or with as little stuff as you want' and 'I happened to get it bare bones'
The Blackout marquee from Barnyard Arcade Game Factory does not include a bottom bracket and requires transferring one from the original marquee
high confidence · RetroRalph explains 'with the blackout design, you actually take that bottom bracket and stick it onto the acrylic' because 'he doesn't have the bottom bracket on the new marquee'
The cabinet uses four encoder boards for a Raspberry Pi RetroPi build with identical configuration on all four
high confidence · RetroRalph demonstrates 'four encoder boards' needed 'if you're going to do this with a Raspberry Pi retro Pi build' and states 'all four of them are configured exactly the same way'

Notable Quotes

“The fatal flaw was that, for one, I did it with a three-player control panel because I converted a Hulk Rampage, and the second fatal flaw was that, ah, there was no Raphael.”
RetroRalph@ 0:48 — Establishes the motivation for this updated mod—fixing a community complaint about the missing fourth player character
“1UP didn't put a lit marquee on the new one and I'm not gonna let 1UP one-up me. So we're gonna light this thing up because it doesn't have a lit marquee we need it!”
RetroRalph@ 2:06 — Demonstrates RetroRalph's modification philosophy and competitive playfulness with Arcade1Up's product offerings
“This film is a little bit different than what Tyler usually sends me. I feel like it's a little thin, and I don't know that it gives off the best picture quality, actually.”
RetroRalph@ 9:44 — Indicates quality variation in Arcade Graphics' materials and RetroRalph's preference for previous product iterations
“These encoder boards can be super finicky if everything's not configured exactly the same on each one. So make sure they're configured exactly the same.”
RetroRalph@ 11:48 — Technical advice for builders attempting similar four-player RetroPi configurations
“It just boots right into the game. You don't see any kind of splash screen. You don't see any emulation station or any of that. It just boots right into the game.”
RetroRalph@ 13:31 — Explains the custom software approach providing a seamless arcade experience without emulation menus

Entities

RetroRalphpersonArcade1Upcompany99 LivescompanyTylerpersonArcade GraphicscompanyBarnyard Arcade Game FactorycompanyMatt Scottperson Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesgameHulk Rampagegame

Signals

~
sentiment_shift: Strong aftermarket modding community exists around Arcade1Up products with multiple suppliers offering compatible upgrades and customizations
high · 'how cool is it that there's a community, this modding community, that's sort of been built around this Arcade 1UP product' and multiple third-party vendors (99 Lives, Arcade Graphics, Barnyard Arcade Game Factory) providing compatible products
?
announcement: Arcade1Up has officially announced a four-player TMNT cabinet, though it was not yet available at the time of this video and lacks LED marquee as standard feature
high · 'Arcade1Up already announced it. They did, but it's not available yet' and '1UP didn't put a lit marquee on the new one'
?
product_strategy: 99 Lives differentiates its control panels through customization depth and direct collaboration with individual customers, offering modular features like LED cup holders that Arcade1Up's official offering does not provide
high · RetroRalph notes 'you may want something a little bit more custom, and so you may want a little bit more detailed, or you may wanna have different options that Arcade 1-Up doesn't offer, and 99 Lives can provide stuff like that'
?
product_concern: Quality control issues on Blackout marquee from Barnyard Arcade Game Factory—side holes not pre-drilled despite previous products having them, requiring manual acrylic drilling
high · RetroRalph states 'for some reason the side holes are not drilled' and 'every other marquee i've gotten from him already had the pre-drill holes on the side so if you are going to go down this path just be really careful'
?

Topics

Arcade1Up cabinet modifications and customizationprimaryCustom control panel design and manufacturingprimaryMarquee upgrades and installation techniquesprimaryRetroPi build configuration for four-player arcade cabinetsprimaryCommunity modding ecosystem around Arcade1Up productssecondarySupplier quality and manufacturing consistencysecondaryDIY arcade cabinet customization best practicessecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.78)— RetroRalph is enthusiastic about the custom control panel quality and the modding community ecosystem, though he expresses some frustration with installation challenges (marquee drilling, film quality) and minor dissatisfaction with the Blackout marquee film quality compared to previous Arcade Graphics products.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.049

On this episode, we're bringing Raph back. Oh. Mm. Hold on. Hold on. Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Okay, before we get started, let me give you a little flashback. because I basically acted like it was the second coming of Christ when I first did this mod, so listen in for a second. The time has come! Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Alright, stop right there. So, the fatal flaw was that, for one, I did it with a three-player control panel because I converted a rampage, and the second fatal flaw was that, ah, there was no Raphael. I know, guys, I know, I heard you. We can't do Raph like that. I get it. We're gonna fix it. Don't worry All right, we got this. That's let's just get right into it. Okay hey guys welcome back so you're probably wondering why are we standing in front of a Teenager Ninja Turtles cabinet. This is old news. Arcade1UP already announced it. They did, but it's not available yet, is it? So, I had done a modification as a Teenager Ninja Turtle cabinet before, but it was a three-player Rampage that I converted to a three-player TMNT. But I left out Raphael. I mean, the lights are there, the buttons are there, except if you hit Raphael, you got Donatello. So, you know, needless to say, Raph wasn't that happy about that so we're gonna bring Raph back like I said. So before we get started with that I did want to talk about something. So 1UP didn't put a lit marquee on the new one and I'm not gonna let 1UP 1UP me. So we're gonna light this thing up because it doesn't have a lit marquee we need it! So we're gonna put one on it right now. So anyways we're gonna do that first but before we get to all that, wow that was really aggressive, but before we get to all that we are going to talk a little bit about the control panel. So I I don't have the time to cut all the wood out and do all this stuff right now. I just don't with my day job and everything else. So luckily there's a company out there, 99 Lives, that creates these control panels. And they can ship them with as much stuff on them as you want or with as little stuff as you want. So I happened to get it bare bones. I just got it with the holes. And yeah, I just got it just like that. And then I figured I'd put my own buttons and joysticks and everything like that. But the really cool thing is he's partnered up with Tyler over at Arcade Graphics. So there's a whole section dedicated to his control panels. So you can get that artwork and everything for it. So it's awesome. But anyways, we're going to talk more about that in a minute. But let's actually go and upgrade this marquee. And the cool thing is I finally got one of those Blackout marquees by Arcade Game Factory. So we're actually going to use the Blackout one on this one. So I'm excited about that. I've never done that before. So we're gonna we're gonna check out the blackout marquee to get that done first and then we're gonna really dig into this control panel Alright guys, let's get this old marquee out of here So it's really two screws one on each side and then potentially if you haven't removed them before there's two that hold the monitor mount To the marquee as well and you're gonna need to remove those if you haven't already Okay, I literally can never remember the name of this back plate right here, but it's that back plate below my two speakers You're gonna want to loosen this up on each side. Don't fully remove it just loosen it because otherwise you can't get the marquee out. I don't like to have to take apart the whole cabinet so this avoids that. So basically the cabinet has a little bit of flex on it you just loosen each side and then you should be able to pull out of the front of the marquee without any problems Alright so I gently gonna try to flex the flex the side of the cab and try to pull out this marquee without pulling on it too hard You got to be careful because that back plate in the back with the speakers on it that I have will actually fall out if you loosen it too much. So just be careful, and you can make it out of here no issue. So there you go, see? And actually that back plate did move a little bit, so I'm just squeezing that back together right there. Now we're going to hold on to this because in the blackout design, you actually take that bottom bracket and stick it onto the acrylic that he sends you because he doesn't have the bottom bracket on the new marquee that he that he sells so we need to take that off but we'll do that here in a minute all right so here's the blackout marquee it's basically the same acrylic marquee except without the bottom bracket so you're going to need to take the bottom bracket off of our old one and put it on this new one so it looks like this is just how you assemble it once we get it all together but we're going to unscrew the back plate off the old marquee and we're going to screw it on to the new one. Be careful to take all of this protective coating off and then there are included screws. Use the included screws when you turn when you put on this piece not the ones that you took out. So you'll notice there's three of them in that packet. Use all three of those. You should be able to line these up real nice because they have pre-drilled holes and you're done. Okay so this step you're going to want to be careful for. So basically the the marquee graphics were a little too long. So they were longer than the marquee so I was going and install it and it wouldn't actually fit. So what you're going to want to do is actually put the marquee graphics on the ground and then put the marquee over it and sort of press it down and you're going to want to take your X-Acto knife and shave off the access. Otherwise what you're going to end up with is a marquee that won't fit. So the graphics just won't fit in there. This was a little bit harder because Tyler used this almost like photo quality paper which I'm not used to. It's usually just a regular vinyl or some kind like just translucent vinyl but this was something different. So you're seeing me struggle here because it looks like the acrylic was actually like it was it was not cut all the way so I'm actually using the exacto knife to actually cut some of the acrylic in order for me to actually properly shave this excess off. But anyways just be careful if you haven't done this before it's similar to putting on graphics on a cabinet but you just have to be a little more careful than that just so that you don't you know mess it up. So once we're done here we should be good to go and then I'll show you how to install it from here. Okay, so a little tip. If you put those graphics on a table, then they're going to pick up some dust and dirt and stuff. You're going to want to clean the graphics off first because otherwise when you sandwich this piece in front of it, you're going to end up with some dirt that will not ever get out of there. So you got to take these little brackets, make sure your graphics are aligned well, sandwiched between that plexi, put that little thing on. It's got some double sided tape. You just tear that off and then those little L brackets just go right on and that's pretty much it's pretty simple now something I'm not happy about is for some reason the side holes are not drilled and this is acrylic so drilling directly into acrylic is really difficult okay so apparently this video is turning into a marquee installation video because I keep hitting snags all over the place so basically you want to attach this to the lip with that little piece that's on the top of the marquee I'm attempting to drill right into the acrylic but it's not gonna work so again you're just gonna see me struggle with this and you can kind of see it's not going to fit. I'm going to need to drill holes in the acrylic, which is really unfortunate because if you don't have acrylic drill bits, you're going to be kind of stuck here. Luckily, I have them. So I'm going to show you. Oh, I just keep trying, don't I? At least I'm... Oh, and there it goes. The back plate fell off. The thing I told you, you don't want to happen. Anyways, we're going to need some drill bits. I'm going to go get them real quick so I can show you what they are. I'll put a link to the description. John Youssi it can't drill through that. So I'm going to need to get these drill bits. I'm going to be back here in a second and I'll show them to you but these are going to be the things you're going to want i'll put a link into the description so you have them so i used my acrylic drill bit and did this i'm really going to need to talk to scott over at arcade game factory i don't know if he knows that this came out this way or if this was just a mistake because every other marquee i've got from him already had the pre-drill holes on the side so if you are going to go down this path just be really careful you don want to drill in too far because you will get shadowing and things like that and you going to get a little anyway so anyways just wanted to show you what that looked like but we should be good to you know screw this thing in now at this point okay so let put the marquee back in again make sure you line up that back groove with the this back plate and that looks about right like like i said it's a little bit uncomfortable because it's hard to tell yeah that's the screw hole i can feel it let's see if this time it goes all the way through Still needs a little bit more. You know I'm going to try my better, my more powerful drill. I might be able to get that through. If this guy can't get through it then I don't know. Let's give it a shot. That looks okay. So I'm going to actually try to drive it in on the other side. I'm not even going to pre-drill the hole. It's probably not the smartest move, but I'm going to try it. Nope. Not going to happen. Going to have to pre-drill a hole. All right. Well, I'm going to attempt to pre-drill it on the cabinet. Oh, my gosh, guys. Finally. Okay. Well, we got this done. Let's just at least light it up real quick, make sure it's all good. but man, this is like marquee drama like crazy. I just want to be done with it. But all right, let's see what it looks like lit up. Okay, guys, so I'm behind the cabinet, and if we did this all right, I'm going to flip the switch, and the marquee should light up. All right, it looks like it lit up. You know, I'll give you my reaction on this. This film is a little bit different than what Tyler usually sends me. I feel like it's a little thin, and I don't know that it gives off the best picture quality, actually. I'm always really happy with Tyler's stuff. I'm just not so sure. I'm a big fan of this particular film he used for this marquee. I'm going to roll with it. It's not, you know, it's not, it's not junk. It's just not, uh, not as good as I would have hoped. So anyways, we'll get onto the more important stuff, but now we got a lit marquee. I wanted it to be off so you can kind of get a good idea. Let's talk about the control panel and what we could expect there. All right, guys. So I want to point out a couple of things. I think you'll think are pretty cool. So it does have these cup holders, but there's something kind of unique about it. So hold on a second. I'm going to switch something on really fast. I don't have this on a switch, but I'm gonna put it on a switch eventually, but it has these really cool green LED cup holders so pretty neat. I don't know that I would keep them on all the time because they're very very bright I'll shut the lights off real quick so you guys can get a gauge of how bright they really are So I mean you guys can see it's pretty damn bright, but these are really cool So I don't know if you guys know this about me. I have a super crazy sweet tooth so my thought is one of them is gonna have a beer and the other one's gonna have like like Sour Patch Kids or Mike and Ikes, those are my favorite candies. So I'll put some of those in there and be able to have some snacks while I game. But yeah, so I'm gonna shut those off, put the lights back on, and I'll show you a couple more things and maybe give you an idea of what it takes to configure this and then we'll wrap it up. Okay, so I purposely left this disconnected so I could raise it up so you guys can see what it looks like underneath. So I'm gonna raise this up really quick. And if you look, you're gonna see, I didn't secure the encoder boards on purpose so you guys could see them. There's actually four encoder boards. I'm going to bring the camera in closer so you guys can see this. Okay, so like I said, you got four encoder boards. And you're going to need four if you're going to do this with a Raspberry Pi retro Pi build. So all four of them are configured exactly the same way. Player up, down, left, right, A, B, and coin are all the same on all of these. That's really important. These encoder boards can be super finicky if everything's not configured exactly the same on each one. So make sure they're configured exactly the same. I use some cheap buttons on this thing. I really don't love LED buttons. I don know if I ever really said that but I had some laying around from the other build and I was like oh it looks kind of cool So I left it but I not the biggest fan The one issue I did have is you notice the graphics aren on this plate and I did let 99 lives know and he gonna accommodate for it in the future if you put front buttons on it and you have the plate in the front that goes all the way to the top it won't close so you can't actually use the control panel so I had to go and cut this on the jigsaw and you guys know how awesome I am a jigsaw cutting but for some reason I lucked out and it went perfect so yeah kind of weird but it did it did work so so there's the there's that front panel right there and then everything will go down nice I'll go around the back I didn't clean this up before the video so you'll notice you know it's a little messy back there but I want to show you what's going on back there really quick and then we'll wrap the video up alright guys let's swing to the back of the cabinets as you can see nothing crazy it's just a Raspberry Pi 3 B and I'm using all of the USB connections as you can see three of them are going to the encoders and the other fourth one is going to this USB hub and then one of those connections is for the fourth USB encoder and one I'm using for a wireless keyboard to get into menus and such. So this system does single boot and I'll leave instructions on how to do that. It just single boots into TMNT the arcade game, which is kind of unique. I'm going to actually put a front end on it eventually and have it boot both TMNT the arcade game and Turtles in Time. But for right now, it just boots into one. It just literally turns on and boots right into it. You don't see any kind of splash screen. You don't see any emulation station or any of that. It just boots right into the game. So that's about it for the back of the cabinet. I'm going to go around front, and we'll do some final thoughts and summary, and we'll finish this thing up. All right, guys, so it's final thoughts time. So what do I think about this custom control panel by 99 Lives? Well, first of all, I think it's freaking cool. I mean, how cool is it that there's a community, this modding community, that's sort of been built around this Arcade 1UP product to pull off things like this. Now, I realize that Arcade 1-Up is gonna release their four-player Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but this is a little bit more custom, and so you may want something a little bit more detailed, or you may wanna have different options that Arcade 1-Up doesn't offer, and 99 Lives can provide stuff like that. So the quality's really good. I feel like the product's really good, and honestly, it's really neat because you're dealing with the individual himself, the owner himself of the company, and he can pretty much pull off whatever it is that you want. So I told him I wanted the cup holders and he put the cup holders in for me and it's a really nice touch So go check it out. I'm gonna put the link in the description to his website So you can see what other products he has to offer I also think it's really neat that he has this collaboration with Tyler from arcade graphics Which is pretty well known in this arcade one-up community scene and he's got custom graphics for this particular device So it's like two companies coming together to offer something pretty unique and interesting. So guys I'm gonna play this thing out I'm gonna play a little bit of TMNT and then you know if you like this video Please like it, please subscribe to the channel if you enjoy the content Don't forget to hit notifications so you can be informed of future video. Please put your comments below I want to hear it 99 lives wants to hear it. Tyler wants to hear it We all want to know what you think of this device So I'm gonna play some TMNT and I'll see you guys on the next one Cheers Outro Music