Ms. PAC-MAN Quarter Scale Mini Arcade Cabinet

RetroRalph·video·10m 54s·analyzed·Apr 29, 2020

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.023

TL;DR

Numbskull quarter-scale Ms. Pac-Man cabinet review: authentic ROM, quality build, $150

Summary

RetroRalph reviews Numbskull's officially licensed quarter-scale Ms. Pac-Man arcade cabinet replica, highlighting its use of original arcade ROMs, authentic artwork and design details, arcade-quality micro switches, and dip-switch accessibility. At $150, the product targets collectors seeking authentic retro gaming experiences in a compact, high-quality form factor that differentiates from larger Arcade1Up cabinets.

Key Claims

Numbskull cabinets use original arcade ROMs, not emulated or console versions
high confidence · Jon and Rob discuss the distinction between original ROMs and console ROMs, praising Numbskull for using authentic arcade code rather than inferior alternatives
The product is officially licensed by Bandai Namco
high confidence · Jon states 'These things are officially licensed Numbskull Bandai Namco' at the beginning of the review
Numbskull cabinets are priced at approximately $150
high confidence · Jon explicitly states 'it's about 150 dollars' and later 'the price is 150' when discussing cost vs. quality
The controls use micro switches for clicky arcade-style tactile feedback
high confidence · Rob confirms 'it actually is. It's a little clicky' when discussing the joystick's arcade-style micro switches
Numbskull has cornered the market on high-quality, original-ROM quarter-scale cabinets
medium confidence · Jon states 'Numbskull has kind of cornered the market on this as far as if someone wants like a an original experience high quality'
Products were selling out due to pandemic quarantine demand
medium confidence · Jon speculates 'when everyone's going, you know, staying home for quarantine, I think people were looking for things to do. So they were picking up little cabinets like this'
Jon owns at least three Numbskull cabinets
high confidence · Jon says 'this is the third one I have'
The Ms. Pac-Man cabinet artwork matches full-size original cabinet artwork
high confidence · Rob states 'If I go downstairs, I have a full-size Ms. Pac-Man Galaga, and it's actually the same exact artwork'

Notable Quotes

“These things are officially licensed Numbskull Bandai Namco. That's what's cool about them, right? They're full replicas. They run the original arcade ROMs, which is really cool in itself.”
Jon@ 0:30 — Establishes the product's key differentiators: official licensing, accurate replica design, and authentic ROM usage
“This isn't like a plastic piece of junk. It uses real wood... everything about it, the button placement, everything is exactly as close as you can get.”
Jon@ 0:46 — Emphasizes manufacturing quality and attention to detail as core value proposition
“So this is not junk it's very very high quality stuff but again when you're talking high quality you do pay for high quality so that's why the price is 150”
Jon@ 8:51 — Directly addresses the cost-to-quality ratio as a key consideration for potential buyers
“They've done a really good job actually putting like somewhat arcade type style controls on it, which is really neat, right?”
Rob@ 3:48 — Validates the micro-switch joystick implementation as a notable quality feature
“Numbskull has kind of cornered the market on this as far as if someone wants like a an original experience high quality you know not cut corners original roms”
Jon@ 6:20 — Asserts Numbskull's competitive positioning and market dominance in the quarter-scale authentic ROM segment
“I like them just because i like everything arcade i have a feeling i fall into the category where i'm so compelled to buy it because i love arcade stuff and i think the artwork is what really grabbed me”

Entities

NumbskullcompanyMs. Pac-MangamePac-MangameGalagagameArcade1Upcompany Bandai NamcocompanyGameStopcompanyWalmartcompanyTrack and Fieldgame

Signals

?
competitive_signal: Numbskull positioned as premium-quality alternative to Arcade1Up, targeting collectors with space constraints who prioritize authenticity (original ROMs, licensed artwork, cabinet accuracy) over larger form factors
high · Jon states 'Numbskull has kind of cornered the market on this as far as if someone wants like a an original experience high quality you know not cut corners original roms' and positions product for 'the collector mindset because the collector is going to want original artwork they don't want original game they're going to want that experience'
$
market_signal: Numbskull quarter-scale cabinets experiencing supply constraints and sell-out conditions driven by pandemic-era home entertainment demand
medium · Jon states Walmart inventory was sold out and speculates 'when everyone's going, you know, staying home for quarantine, I think people were looking for things to do. So they were picking up little cabinets like this'
?
announcement: Multiple Numbskull quarter-scale arcade cabinets in various game IPs announced/available including Ms. Pac-Man, Pac-Man, Galaga, Track and Field, Bubble Bobble, Space Invaders, and Dig Dug; some titles still pending release
high · Jon reviews extensive product catalog on Numbskull website showing multiple titles; specifically notes Dig Dug expected 'around Christmas time' and 'November 2020' per website listing
?
product_strategy: Numbskull quarter-scale cabinets explicitly differentiate from competitors via original arcade ROM usage rather than emulation or console ROM ports, plus officially licensed authentic artwork and cabinet design
high · Jon repeatedly contrasts Numbskull's approach with inferior competitors: 'I seen a lot of products like this where they don't use the original ROMs or or it like Oh yeah this is a mortal combat but it uses the genesis you know rom and it like yeah well that sucks'

Topics

Quarter-scale arcade cabinet replicasprimaryOriginal ROM usage vs. emulation/console versionsprimaryArcade cabinet authenticity and historical accuracyprimaryAffordable collectible arcade products for space-constrained buyersprimaryHardware quality and micro-switch arcade controlssecondaryPandemic-driven demand for home arcade/gaming productssecondaryComparison between Numbskull, Arcade1Up, and other competitorssecondaryDip-switch accessibility and original ROM configurationsecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.88)— Jon and Rob express consistent enthusiasm for Numbskull products, praising quality, attention to detail, and authentic gaming experience. Only minor negative mentioned is the $150 price point, which they frame as justified by quality rather than excessive. Both hosts demonstrate genuine appreciation and collector interest.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.033

Hey guys, welcome back. Hey Rob. How are we doing today, man? We're doing pretty good, man. What are we talking about today? Are we talking about these little, little, tiny, little micro arcades or something? No, no, no, no. They're not that little. They're actually a little bit bigger. There's something in the middle of really little and then like sort of full size and not arcade one-up. There's something kind of like in between. We're talking about these numbskull guys, aren't we? These little numbskulls. Yeah, they're really cool. So these things are officially licensed by Bandai Namco. That's what's cool about them, right? They're full replicas. They run the original arcade ROMs, which is really cool in itself. And they're very, very realistic. Like everything from the artwork, the artwork's dead on. The shape of them, they're the actual shape of the original cabinet. The buttons, everything about it, the button placement, everything is exactly as pretty close to exact as you can get. So it's pretty damn cool. Everything is made with very high quality. This isn't like a plastic piece of junk. It uses real wood. The other cool thing is because they're using the real arcade ROM, you can actually go in and manipulate the dip switches of these devices. So these are awesome for collectors. Collectors that maybe don't have the space for something like an arcade one-up, but still want to have the fun, right? They still want to have fun. They still want to relive their childhood with these arcade games, but they just don't have maybe the space. Or maybe you're just crazy like me and you collect everything, and then you're going to buy it anyway. I just wish we had some to show off because I think these are just... We do. We do? Yeah. What? We do. Yeah. So this one on the left is the Pac-Man. These are all numbskull, all fully licensed. So you got the Pac-Man, the Ms. Pac-Man, and the Galaga. But the one we're going to talk about today is actually the Ms. Pac-Man. So I'm going to take these out of the way real quick so that we have a little bit more space on the table. And we're going to go into the Ms. Pac-Man one. Let's do this. So, man, maybe you can show everybody the size of it. You've got those little coin doors. You've got little buttons on them. You've got to talk about all of this. Show us how it works. Yeah, so let's try to look at the side art first. So the side art is dead on. If I go downstairs, I have a full-size Ms. Pac-Man Galaga, and it's actually got the same exact artwork. So it's got the right artwork. On the back, it has all these little details, the air vents that were on the original cabinet. So that's really cool. Back down here, you've got your power button. That's how you charge it. And then you have a little volume scroll wheel right here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But this is just a replica, right? Like you can't actually like play these guys. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can, check it out. So. I don believe you I don believe you No you can Of course you can play it No you can play it It doesn work like that so here there a button on the back i going to press it and you going to start to see it boot up now it does have a lit marquee now you can get you know it going to get a little washed out from the uh from the camera there but so look at that booting yeah it's booting the original arcade rom now if i wanted to while it was booting i could press player one and player two to get into the dip switches but in order to start the game you put in coins like you would so like i said it's all wired so i'm gonna put it up the volume up a tiny bit so you can actually hear it yeah one sec oh damn it i can't get to it hold on one second guys that's not don't get impatient there's like a volume switch on the back oh a little louder there we go so yeah so we can put our quarters in nice player one there's player two let's hear the Let's hear the music, though. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, another cool thing about these is it's using the little button actually has micro switches in it. So they've done a really good job on this little joystick that's on it. You mean it's like kind of clicky? Yeah, yeah, it actually is. It's a little clicky. So they've done a good job actually putting like somewhat arcade type style controls on it, which is really neat, right? I mean. Yeah. they they have not they have not sort of taken corners on our cut corners on any of these details even underneath it if you went to an official cabinet you would see the speaker oh right actually right underneath it that's actually where it is on the original i'm going to try to get a shot of the lit marquee but i don't think i'm going to be able to with the with the way let me let me show i'll show the picture here so the lit marquee they actually do a pretty good job on the website showing the lit marquee i mean even down to the lit marquee you know the the button styles the slant of the of the monitor the little lcd man yeah even the bezel artwork that bezel artwork is all all original so this is actually all the original bezel artwork and the other cool thing is so if i were to power it down and then when it boots up i'm going to try to do this for you guys on camera so i'm going to boot it back up and when John Youssi the rom booting i'm going to press player one and player two at the same time. And what we should get, I can't actually see the back to see if it's lighting up to turn on, but hopefully it is. When it does that boot screen, I can hit these two buttons and it should actually get me to, there we go. So I'll try to, I'll just sort of talk through what it actually says. But you have difficulty, lives, bonus life, and coins. So you can adjust all of that right here. So if you wanted more lives, you could do that. If you wanted to make it easier, you can do that. So all the original dip switch settings for the game are actually here. So, you know, it's really cool when there's, I seen a lot of products like this where they don use the original ROMs or or it like Oh yeah this is a mortal combat but it uses the genesis you know rom and it like yeah well that sucks you know like don make it look like an arcade cabinet and use the use the console rom you know i mean so this actually does a really good job now you know you do pay for it it's about 150 dollars yeah but this thing is not junk the quality is very very very good like i'm super impressed by this and you know this is the third one I have. So clearly I really do like these things. You can get them for about $150 on GameStop or on walmart.com. Although I think they're actually sold out on walmart.com. I'm guessing that when everyone's going, you know, staying home for quarantine, I think people were looking for things to do. So they were picking up little cabinets like this. You know, but there are competitors to numbskull too. So there's, you know, there's companies out there that make a similar product but this is by far i think the best quality one that i've seen 100 i mean no doubt in my mind numbskull has kind of cornered the market on this as far as if someone wants like a an original experience high quality you know not cut corners original roms but if you want there's like a slew of products in between and now we'll have some new categories because you're going to have things that arcade one-ups coming out with those calico mini so there's going to be a lot but this i think falls into a little bit of a different more the collector mindset because the collector is going to want original artwork they don't want original game they're going to want that experience and this does that i mean it really really truly does that which is really cool the sound is good for the single speaker i don't really find anything about this that i would consider a negative outside of maybe for some the cost is a little high see what we need is i think they did such a great job on the attention to detail what we need is to get rick Moranis, you know, to take the, you know, the, the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids machine and then scale that up to full size, you know, and then you would have a full arcade in your house. That's a perfect replica. But for the size, I think it's pretty sweet. Yeah, it is pretty sweet. If you go back to the website, there's other ones out there too. So there's, um, there's other ones that they sell. So if you go to the quarter arcades section of the site, they have a bunch of products, by the way, numbskull has different things that they sell as well yeah this is just numbskull.com and we're going to the quarter arcade section you can see all the the different ones you know yeah so like you look at track and field it's really neat i think that's cool i don't know some of these might not be released yet but track and field's really cool i think the bubble bobble is really neat you know bubble bobble is a really cool game the space invaders cab which doesn't show up there but if you scroll down there is a space invaders so i think for those that are fans of space invaders like that looks really good wait till John Youssi this they did a killer job that looks seriously so good um i don know if that one i haven seen that one seen that one around yet but I sure if it not out it got to be coming But just a really neat product in general you know Actually it looks like it not coming out till around Christmas time According to that it says November 2020 I also haven seen the Dig Dug one around yet But again all of them follow the original cabinet designs so you know if you're into the if you're into things like this or maybe a one-up is not quite your speed imagine having these on like a shelf or a display case i mean they're they're such high quality that they're attention grabbing so they're definitely things where i've had these set up downstairs on like um in my kitchen area and someone's been like what is that like that is cool and then they start playing it they're like oh my gosh this actually plays like the real game so this is not junk it's very very high quality stuff but again when you're talking high quality you do pay for high quality so that's why the price tag is 150 but definitely worth it if it's something you're looking at uh getting into or you enjoy these kind of like collectible items like this i like them just because i like everything arcade i have a feeling i fall into the category where i'm so compelled to buy it because i love arcade stuff and i think the artwork is what really grabbed me dude like the artwork is so dead on that it's hard to kind of ignore it you know All right, so we only have 30 seconds left because we're timeboxing this to only 10 minutes. So what do you guys think? What do you guys think? For those on the live stream right now, comment. What do you think? Is this something that you've purchased or you plan on picking up? If you're watching this on the replay, put a comment down below. Let us know what you think. And, of course, if you like our content, hit that like button and subscribe. And what else is there to talk about? Man, we got some other videos coming out this week. That's going to be a lot of fun. And, of course, Sunday we have the one-up weekly. so don't miss out on that our weekly podcast depending on when you're watching this streets of rage 4 comes out tonight at midnight it will be on steam so uh i don't know i'm torn do i do i live stream tonight and then again with you tomorrow like i don't know i'm so hyped i don't even know so yeah so so before we end it 150 i'll i have a link in the description the only place i could find it available right now is gamestop i tried walmart and it's sold out i'll put the Walmart link in there too. But these are really cool. Go check them out. Numbskull's got a lot of other cool products too. But I think that's it, man. I think we're done. I think so. So we'll see you on the next one. Take care, guys.