Arcade1up - Pac-Man Deluxe Arcade Machine

Absolutely stunning arcade cabinet, very easy to assemble and plays amazing!Highly recommended.

This review will come in two parts, the good, and the not so good.The Good.This really looks the part, and even though this isn't the much-wanted XL version, it is a lot bigger than the original Arcade1up Pac-Man.Building this by myself, it took roughly 3 hours, as I was determined to take my time, and not get angry. The instructions are simple, but clear, and well labelled. I did take issue with some of the pre-drilled holes in the smaller pieces of wood, the holes were drilled too deep, so the little wooden dowels sit too deep in the holes, and leave very little to connect to the main sides of the machine. I found it best to put the dowels in to the sides first, and then connecting the little wood pieces to them.The hardest part, and this is where 2 people would be best, is when it comes to adding the last main cabinet side to the rest of what you have just built, because of the many holes that then need to be lined up before you screw the whole side down. But once done, it's very easy to finish it.One important thing to do, BEFORE you put all this together, is to remove the very thin layer of plastic protection from the main screen, and the control panel. If you don't do this first, then when it comes to removing this plastic you will find it gets stuck near the sides, and the top of the main screen, and you will be left with tiny bits of plastic left over.Once built, it looks good. The light-up marque is a nice touch, but I would have liked a light-up coin door, as that really adds to the overall touch.The games are good, although the inclusion of a few horizontal games slightly sours this. You would have thought that a vertical-only monitor, would also mean vertical-only games. Oh well.The games themselves are good, and a good selection of classic, well-known games. The sound is ok, and definitely loud, as I found a setting of just 3 - 5, to be loud enough, as it goes much higher.The online scores are a great addition, and adds a competitive layer to the games, allowing you to compete against owners from around the world.Now, the not so good.Firstly, look at the pictures of the yellow Pac-Man machine, above. Do you see a dividing line in the middle of the machine ? No, neither do I. But, this machine comes in two parts, and you build each of those parts, then bolt the two together. This is not one large machine. Shame those pics are misleading.Next, the controls. The buttons are leaf switches, no clicky buttons here, they feel ok, but could be better. The joystick is terrible. It clicks, but it's 8-way, and most of the games here are 4-way controls. This makes controlling Pac-Man a real pain, because you need to be able to make quick turns, and this isn't possible with a poor 8-way joystick. The amount of movement misses I made during play, was huge, and I found the game was more difficult that playing on a PC MAME emulator, or the real thing. Swapping out the joystick for something more suited to the game might be possible, it's not something I have looked into yet.Next, those of you who are sensitive to latency will notice the latency, it is definitely there, especially in the Pac-Man games. Pac-Land, for example, the scrolling is slightly jerky, leading to some slight latency as you control your character. I found Pacmania latency to be quite bad, and the game was not as playable as on my PC emulators. The shooters, Galaga, Galaxian, etc.. the latency is manageable, but it's not as bad.The screen could be better. Maybe an IPS screen would definitely make a difference. These machines are already £500+, so a better screen would be welcome at this cost.Overall, a nice machine that betters the original Arcade1up releases. But, could be so much more. The latency will be an issue to those of us who do care about these things, because it turns a great game into a frustrating game. Maybe a future update could address this, I don't know. Updates are still coming out.Is it worth £500 ? This will depend on what your expectations are. If you are skilled with building, including working with wood, then it might be better to build your own. If not, then this is the next best thing. Maybe, modding this, in the near future, might be the way to make it even better.

*** Updated Review ***I had to purchase a UK plug adapter to get this to work, I cannot see Arcade 1up sending me a UK plug, but for some reason I was sent a machine that was imported from Italy, but as it is now working I can give a proper review. I am only giving this a three star review because that is all what it deserves. I will go through all the points that I can think of. I will add that I am 5 foot 9 for reference.01) Artwork - It is ok, but if you are assembling on a hard floor such as I was, my cabinet ended up getting scuff marks on it, so try to assemble on a sheet if you can, I was putting together on a concrete floor.02) Assembly - It took me two days to put together, but that is because of my health, I used the instructions but also youtube videos on how to put it together as sometimes I found the instructions a bit confusing so I wanted to double check that I was doing it correct. It is more than possible with one person, but two people is better.03) Control Panel - This is the dodgy part, the monitor and the control panel are all in one, so if the monitor breaks or the keyboard goes, then you have to replace the whole front panel, I did not really look at the control panel as in modifying it, replacing buttons etc as I want it stock.04) Attract Mode - A very disappointing experience, it only shows the game that you are currently sitting on, so if Pacman then it shows Pacman and does not randomise. Also it does not play any sounds like you would hear in the arcades, which to me is the whole point. Arcades were noisy with all the games playing music and enticing you in to play them. Xevious was always the loudest that I heard in the arcades.05) Games - A totally disgusting selection of games, it is a vertical screen and yet they have horizontal games as well, I played Rolling Thunder and the graphics were squashed and did not look like I remember it and that is really bad. Also if you have more than one machine, each machine has the same poor selections on them, which is a massive shame.06) Controls - I played Pacman first and being honest, I found the joystick to be hit and miss, in that it would not moving right when I wanted it to move right, so I would have to go back and take the turn again. The joystick at the moment is stiff which is a good thing sort off, but not how the arcade joysticks were.07) Marquee - I tried this in the day time, and it lit up and looked pretty good, so I am going to wait until darkness falls and then give a try at night time, it would be brilliant though if they could have some kind of option which turns the marquee off during the day time if that is at all possible.08) No riser???? - I am sick and tired of people saying that it does not have a riser, of course it still has a riser because you have two upright panels, they have just redesigned the thing so it is not the traditional riser, but you still build a box at the bottom, where the top fits onto. So to me it is still a riser.09) Size - As I say I am 5'9 and I am towering over the cabinet, but it is still big enough to be ok, if you are shorter though, then this would be the perfect size, especially for children. If you are taller though, maybe think about a stool, or waiting for the XL version to hit the UK, which I honestly wish that I had done now.10) Sound & Volume - The sound quality is not the best, even coming from two speakers, so do not expect arcade quality sound. The volume ouch, I am not sure why they went up to 15 for, as that is just far too high, especially if you have neighbours, around 1 or 2 is what I went for.11) Setting up - This was easy enough, and no major issues, and straight away it wants to update and also to scan a QR code so that you can access online high scores.12) Local high score saves - If the game supports hi scores, then you can add your name to the machine for all your friends to beat, some games do not have hi score saves such as Pacman. To save high scores, press player one button for five seconds to exit the game.13) Software glitches - I tried Rolling Thunder and the game glitched and kept scrolling until it locked up, I need to do further testing to see if it does it again or was a one off.14) Anger and frustration - Oh yes the same anger and frustration levels are there as in the arcades, so that is kind of nice.15) The worse game - I have to say hands down it is Mappy, unless you played this game in the arcades, you might try this once to never play it again, I have to rate this one of the worst arcade games ever.16) Changing game options - You can adjust the game with hitting the cog icon, you can have more lives, fast shooting, more life's etc etc. The main thing is not to turn on smoothing from what I have seen from videos on youtube, I have not tried it yet but I will, but from all the people saying to turn it off, I will keep it off after trying it.17) Further testing - I really need to test this a lot more and if it glitches again, then I am just going to return it as you don't spend all of this money to have glitches in the systemI hope you found this review helpful, I have tried to be as critical as I can be, and give people all the answers that I know that I wanted, where some reviewers were lacking in what they said, so I had to ask questions, because they never covered what I wanted to know.*** Previous review ***I spent two days trying to put this together and stupidly I did not notice that it does not come with a UK plug instead a two prong. So I cannot use it and have to spend money to get some form of adapter or dismantle it to return the item which is going to be a lot of hassle.1) Assembly took me two days to complete and I used a mixture of the instructions and also videos2) I assembled on a hard floor and with moving the unit around to assemble it, I now have lovely scratch marks on the unit.However, it is very bad that this does not come with a UK plug since it is being sold in the UK.

Looks fantastic in my man cave. 14 games all customisable and with online high scores. Love it!!!

Loved this machine when it first arrived...easy to assemble and great fun. BUT 3 months later and one of the buttons has stopped working, rendering it useless.

I really really wanted the XL version, but it looks like 1up isn't going to ship that version to UK retailers. This deluxe version is the next best thing, but side to side the size difference is insane. Also I've noticed that Galaga 88 often resets to the game selection screen. I've not found the cause nor fix for this either.

Really great cabinet. The deluxe models are much better than the older versions. Some great old games on this and really happy with the purchase.,