Life Before Arcade1up - Who did it first?

RetroRalph·video·12m 14s·analyzed·Dec 15, 2021

Analysis

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TL;DR

Pre-Arcade1Up home arcade cabinet from 2005 failed despite innovation; marketing and timing were key.

Summary

RetroRalph examines the Big Electronic Games Limited Midway at-home arcade cabinet from 2005, positioning it as a historical predecessor to Arcade1Up (2018). The video compares design similarities and differences between the two products, analyzes why the earlier cabinet failed commercially despite a strong game lineup, and credits Arcade1Up's success to better marketing, lower pricing ($299 vs $500), stronger retail distribution (Walmart vs Target), and focus on marquee titles that resonated with casual nostalgic gamers.

Key Claims

Big Electronic Games Limited released a three-quarter scale at-home arcade cabinet in 2005, believed to be the first of its kind
high confidence · Jon (RetroRalph) stating he believes this is 'the first at-home three-quarter scale arcade machine'
The Big Electronic Games cabinet retailed for $500 with 12 games included
high confidence · Jon explicitly states 'the price point was high at $500. Now it did have 12 games'
Arcade1Up launched at $299 plus $50 for riser (total ~$350) versus Big Electronic Games at $500
high confidence · Jon compares pricing directly: 'It was $299 and $50 for the riser. So about all in investment'
Big Electronic Games cabinet featured quarter-inch thick wood externally, half the thickness of Arcade1Up cabinets
high confidence · Jon measures and compares: 'The wood is not very thick. It's actually half of what Arcade1Up is. So it's a quarter inch thick'
Big Electronic Games only secured Target as a retailer; Arcade1Up secured Walmart at launch
high confidence · Jon states: 'the company had only secured one retailer from what I can see, and that was Target, where Arcade1Up, when they launched in 2018, they had one of the biggest brick and mortar retailers in the world, which was Walmart'
Arcade1Up's marquee-title focus (Galaga, Pac-Man, TMNT, Street Fighter) versus multi-cade generic branding was key to its success
high confidence · Jon explains: 'Arcade1Up just did it better. They focused on marquee titles to pull on people's nostalgic heartstrings'
Big Electronic Games cabinet featured a 13-inch CRT monitor with no brightness/contrast adjustment capability
high confidence · Jon notes: 'It's about 13 inches and it's not the best quality... there's no way to actually adjust the colors or the contrast and brightness'
The cabinet's buttons and joysticks were proprietary, making modification impractical
high confidence · Jon observes: 'they're kind of mostly proprietary... the button size is not a standard button size'

Notable Quotes

“The Big Electronic Games Limited Midway at-home arcade cabinet, which I believe is the first at-home three-quarter scale arcade machine. Now, this thing came out in 2005.”
Jon (RetroRalph)@ 1:39 — Establishes the historical artifact being examined as a potential precursor to Arcade1Up
“it makes me have a little bit of an appreciation for what Arcade1Up has done... they did it a lot sturdier than this cabinet. The cabinet's pretty rickety.”
Jon (RetroRalph)@ 6:50 — Comparative quality assessment showing Arcade1Up's manufacturing superiority
“I think Arcade1Up just did it better. They focused on marquee titles to pull on people's nostalgic heartstrings.”
Jon (RetroRalph)@ 9:36 — Core thesis on why Arcade1Up succeeded where predecessors failed—marketing strategy and nostalgia targeting
“The marketplace just wasn't ready for a product like this in 2005.”
Jon (RetroRalph) @ Final thoughts — Identifies timing as a critical factor in Big Electronic Games' failure
“now, Arcade1Up could release almost anything, and their loyal fanbase would buy it despite the issues it has. It's totally insane, and they'll buy every single one.”
Jon (RetroRalph)@ 10:13 — Observation on brand loyalty and market power Arcade1Up achieved by establishing first-mover advantage and brand recognition

Entities

Arcade1UpcompanyBig Electronic Games LimitedcompanyTastemakerscompanyJonpersonWalmartcompanyTargetcompanyMiSTerproduct

Signals

$
market_signal: Retail distribution was critical success factor: Target-only distribution for Big Electronic Games vs. Walmart nationwide distribution for Arcade1Up provided massive exposure advantage
high · Jon states: 'the company had only secured one retailer from what I can see, and that was Target, where Arcade1Up... had one of the biggest brick and mortar retailers in the world, which was Walmart, so the exposure was huge'
$
market_signal: Big Electronic Games cabinet failed at $500 price point (2005) while Arcade1Up succeeded at $299 (2018); pricing was identified as a key differentiator despite superior game lineup on earlier product
high · Jon directly compares: 'the price point was high at $500... When Arcade1Up launched, the price point was significantly cheaper than this. It was $299 and $50 for the riser'
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product_strategy: Design philosophy difference: Big Electronic Games used generic multi-title branding ('just said Midway') versus Arcade1Up's marquee-focused strategy (Galaga, Pac-Man, TMNT, Street Fighter) to trigger nostalgia
high · Jon explains: 'It was sort of this like just crazy multi-cade artwork. So I think it probably didn't really pull on the nostalgia heartstrings because it just said Midway... Arcade1Up just did it better. They focused on marquee titles'
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product_concern: Big Electronic Games cabinet had significantly inferior build quality: quarter-inch external wood (vs half-inch Arcade1Up), proprietary non-standard buttons, janky joysticks, and CRT monitor with no adjustment capability
high · Jon documents: 'The wood is not very thick. It's actually half of what Arcade1Up is. So it's a quarter inch thick... there's no way to actually adjust the colors or the contrast and brightness... The cabinet's pretty rickety'

Transcript

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0:00

Hey guys, welcome back to the channel. Today's episode, we're gonna talk about a company called Tastemakers, more commonly known as Arcade 1-Up. They hit the scene in 2018, and they set out to produce a flat-packed, three-quarter scale, plug-and-play arcade experience at home. And they secured some really big licenses between 2018 and now. And at the moment that they were released, I thought it was just gonna be a fly-by-night, kind of a fad thing, Christmas cash grab, and then they'd be, you know, maybe out of business or moving on to other things, because Tastemakers made toys and all sorts of stuff. At the root of Tastemakers, it was a toy company, so that's what they were good at doing, making toys. So I figured, eh, it'd be around for a little while and then it would go the wayside. But maybe kind of think about what was out there before Arcade went up. There was, you know, full-size arcade machines. You could go out and secure your own, you know, in the private market, go buy it, and, you know, go on Facebook Marketplace, go find something. People would shy away from that because they didn't have the know-how to fix it, or it was too cumbersome, or even at some times too expensive. And then there was the DIY community where you'd build a cabinet, sort of like Arcade 1UP, but more full-size in nature. You'd learn MAME, you'd map the controls, you'd have to learn how all the emulators work and the ROMs and all that. Now that's where I started in the hobby, and then I kind of graduated to full-size arcade. And then there was actually kind of more of like the build-it-yourself from scratch. You know, and that's probably the really, really small percentage of the community. But it made me wonder, what existed before Arcade 1UP? Did anybody try to actually market a three-quarter scale arcade machine before that? So in this video, we're going to take a look at a company that did just that. And maybe by looking at the product, yes, I went and bought one on OfferUp, maybe we'll get a glimpse into why they weren't successful. Okay guys, here it is. The Big Electronic Games Limited Midway at-home arcade cabinet, which I believe is the first at-home three-quarter scale arcade machine. Now, this thing came out in 2005, and it had two variants. There was a Midway version and a Konami version. Both have stellar game lineups, actually. I was shocked at the game lineups on these. Now, what I think is interesting is some of the things that are very similar between this offering and Arcade 1-Up. Now, Arcade 1-Up came way later, but there are some similarities. So if you look at the kick plate on this device, it has all the names of the games. So very similar to the Revision 1 arcade one-ups. It had all the names of the games on there. Now where the differences are is this front kick plate is actually a cabinet that opens and you can hook up other devices to this because it actually has a CRT in it. Unlike arcade one-up that came out later, like I mentioned, they had an LCD. So it's got a CRT versus an LCD. So that's actually a really cool feature, although it's not very big. It's about 13 inches and it's not the best quality. It's not an arcade quality. It's really a TV. So you'll see when I show you the back of it. The bezel actually shows you the games and how to play them, so it shows you what buttons you need to use to play each game. Just like the Revision 1 Arcade 1-Up, or the Wave 1 as people in the community call it, the Wave 1 Arcade 1 did not have a light marquee and neither does this It a piece of wood Now one thing that was really interesting is the build quality of this is pretty bad actually The wood is not very thick It actually half of what Arcade 1 is So it a quarter inch thick So it's really really thin wood. There is half inch thick wood in certain sections of it inside to reinforce it but what you're getting on the external is a quarter inch. It's really really thin. So I just thought this is so fun and so interesting and it's definitely a piece of at-home arcade history. The other thing is the buttons and joysticks leave something to be desired just like the Wave 1 Arcade 1-Up. Now Arcade 1-Up never really did a great job making their joysticks and buttons that much better. They made them what I would call acceptable for casual play but they're definitely not you know top of the line or anything like that. They're okay clones of what would be more likely a Sanwa button and joystick. So what's the deal with the inside of the cabinet? Well, it's got storage inside so you can actually put in a game console or a VCR at the time. They actually suggest that in the manual that you could put your VCR in it, but you can put a game console and there's a switcher inside and the switcher switches between the actual PCB inside it and whatever you have attached to the AV inputs, which are composite by the way. So if I press it over, I can simply turn on my Nintendo here and we can play some Wild Gunman on a 14 inch screen.

6:35

But when you think about the buttons and the joysticks and the overall build quality, it kind of makes me have a little bit of an appreciation for what Arcade 1-Up has done. You know, I'm by no means saying Arcade 1-Up is amazing and without its flaws, because it definitely has a bunch of them. But it makes you appreciate that, you know, they did it a lot sturdier than this cabinet. The cabinet's pretty rickety. So yeah. Trying to play Defender on this is really, really difficult because of the button layout. So, you know, obviously when you have like a multi-system like this and you're trying to do a bunch of different things, it's hard to, you know, get the buttons right. But yeah, this is very infuriating trying to play Defender on. You know, you kind of need the unique controls for Defender. There's other games, most of the other games on here actually play halfway decent. As far as potential modifications to the controls go, there's this panel right here that comes off, and you have to take off a bunch of screws to even gain access to the buttons, but they're kind of mostly proprietary. They do have regular connections where you could connect a micro switch or something, but the button size is not a standard button size, and this is a plastic control panel. So would it be worth your time to mod this? Not really. This would be something that you just buy and enjoy the way it is. And like I said, the sticks are not, they're pretty janky. They do have micro switches inside, but it's just not great stuff. You know, it's not arcade quality stuff by any means. But would it be worth modding back then? I don't think so. But hey, I mean, I'm sure people did it, but is it worth it? In my opinion, no. The PCB is right here. It's just a closed system. It's got some ribbon cables for the controls. And then this is just your AV composite cable that goes directly to this sort of consumer grade monitor right here. Hey guys, it's final thoughts time. So why did the big electronic games product not take off? Why did it fail? First, I think the price point was high at $500. Now it did have 12 games, so there's a lot of value there, but it kind of didn't focus on any one game. It was sort of this like just crazy multi-cade artwork. So I think it probably didn't really pull on the nostalgia heartstrings because it just said Midway. Some people may not know that Joust was made by Midway, so maybe if it just said Joust, it would pull on more people. So I think the attention wasn't quite there. When Arcade 1UP launched, the price point was significantly cheaper than this. It was $2.99 and $50 for the riser. So about all in investment So I think over the years Arcade 1UP has raised their prices quite a bit but that after lots of marketing some product improvements and a lot more brand awareness plus a loyal fan base My other suspicion is that the marketplace just wasn ready for a product like this in 2005. And the company had only secured one retailer from what I can see, and that was Target, where Arcade 1UP, when they launched in 2018, they had one of the biggest brick and mortar retailers in the world, which was Walmart, so the exposure was huge. In summary, I think Arcade 1UP just did it better. They focused on marquee titles to pull on people's nostalgic heartstrings. Sure, it's not at all arcade authentic, but those people that walked by it and said, oh man, I remember Galaga, or Pac-Man, or Final Fight, or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, you know, they had all these titles. Street Fighter, they had all these titles that they knew would pull on people. So for the casual gamer who remembers their time in the arcade, it was kind of a perfect way to grab their attention. And maybe these customers had no desire to ever buy a full-size arcade machine, but in their mind, this was a good enough product for them. And now, Arcade 1UP could release almost anything, and their loyal fanbase would buy it despite the issues it has. It's totally insane, and they'll buy every single one. It's absolutely crazy. So they did it right. I don't know if it was marketing. I don't know if it was timing. I don't know what it is, but they definitely have proven that this is a successful market. And if there is a positive silver lining to all this, it's that it's drawing more attention to some of these arcade games that have been dormant for years. Sure, there's hobbyists like myself that have always loved them. And there's a lot of people like you guys out there that love these products. But then the thought of ever being able to build an actual arcade in your house with real machines, they're heavy. They cost a lot. You don't want to fix them. They succeeded in providing something to fill that niche. Now, what I would encourage people to do is if you do enter the hobby and you have that passion and you want to get into it further and you feel like you have the will, definitely look into consider looking into real arcades and learning how to, you know, restore them and things like that. We need more people in the hobby to sort of graduate from these. But I do think it's a great entry point for someone that wants to scratch the itch of arcade gaming, but it isn't at all arcade authentic. And I just want people to realize that. Is it a good alternative? Sure, it really is. And for me, it's a positive thing if people can get into arcade gaming, spread the word about some of these amazing games from the past. That's really all I have for this episode. Definitely give me a thumbs up if you enjoyed it. Put your comments below. I think this will stir up a lot of interesting conversation. and consider subscribing to the channel if you enjoy this content. That's it for now, and we will see you on the next one.