Costco: The New Video Arcade Hangout?
[This is a special GSW guest post by John Andersen, who has written some neat arcade-related features for Gamasutra, and passes along this fun tidbit. Ta!]
Have a longing to play Asteroids, Burgertime, Space Invaders or Street Fighter II CE just as you did in your local arcade back in the day? If so, the Chicago Gaming Company has a new consumer product on sale exclusively at Costco in North America, complete with authentic arcade controls (and even a trackball as well!). It's for the classic arcade game enthusiast, and right in time for the holidays. You don't even need any quarters or tokens to demo it either.
Ultimate Arcade 2 (here's a game flyer) has shipped to Costco Wholesale Club locations across the nation. It showcases 100 playable games exclusively licensed from Atari, Capcom, Exidy, G-mode (owners of the Data East library), Irem, and Taito for play on the unit. Although this toy for grown-ups has quite the grown-up price ($1995.00), it's a pretty good bargain considering this is a 300 pound quality constructed cabinet standing 70 inches tall, holding a 23" viewable monitor, with 100 playable arcade game classics, some of which haven't been available for years (Moon Patrol anyone?).
Other UA2 games worth mentioning are Cobra Command from Data East (G-mode), Kung-Fu Master from Irem, Joust from Midway, Bubble Bobble from Taito among many others. Click here to look at the unit and full list of games. Some may mistake UA2 for something that should belong in an arcade, but this machine is intended for homes and commercial use is not allowed since the coin door is permanently deactivated, so make some space in that gameroom of yours.
Ultimate Arcade 2 is a follow-up to the first Costco exclusive Ultimate Arcade product released in the 4th quarter of 2005. Ultimate Arcade 2 will soon be available for order online from Costco.com, however its predecessor is still available for home delivery on the site. A vice-president at Chicago Gaming Company promises there is more to come as new game licenses are being signed up for future arcade products. We'll certainly keep an eye and ear out, meanwhile we'll be heading down to our local Costco for a little Elevator Action and some bulk-buy pizza rolls.
Comments
Ive seen these for the past year at Costco. imo they are overpriced.
The sticks, buttons, monitor and cab are all cheap as can possibly be. And though its aimed at adults the cab isnt full size and at 6' tall I feel like im playing on something in between an MVS mini and a normal full size cabinet.
It would take a bit of work but making your own would be a lot better/cheaper. Or just buy a cheap cabinet and a few of your favorite jamma boards and you just saved 1000+ dollars.
Posted by: Red_venom | October 17, 2006 7:20 PM
I just built an arcade cabinet this summer. From what I remember in researching online, the average height was 70-72 inches.
I'm 6'1" and I don't feel too tall for it. Beats the booster stools of the old days, anyway.
-j
Posted by: Jared | October 20, 2006 12:51 PM
What no spinner for Tempest? Shame.
I have to agree the homemade route is better. I have two friends who did it for under $1000.
Posted by: Robotron | October 21, 2006 4:12 AM
Check out the URL for a real rip-off on this product.
Posted by: GameBoy | October 29, 2007 3:53 AM
I bought this at my local Costco for $1,999. I've been watching them for the last 3 years and this is by far the best yet. The others seemed cheap, didn't have the variety, this one has the giant screen, solid built, total arcade game feel. I love it. Downside, no Galatica or PacMan series games however several lookalikes to PacMan. Expansion modules are supposed to come in the future. Controls are great and my game room parties have been a hit.
Posted by: Zak | December 18, 2007 5:57 PM
You guys are either fulla crap or just plain poor. This is a great deal and a great buy IF you can afford it. Put this next to one of the ones hand made, and odds are that one of them will look and smell like crap.
Posted by: 4uhatrz | May 17, 2008 6:49 PM
4uhatrz...actually, if done right, odds are it won't look and smell like crap. $365 gets you a brand new cabinet from Arcade Shop. Add another $200 for a brand new monitor (or look around and find a used one for about $50), $100-150 for buttons, sticks and wiring (depending on which way you go). You're pretty much good to go after that. $700 without games. That leaves you 2 choices. The first, JAMMA boards. Buy them and swap them out everytime you want to change a game (there are ROM boards as well that you can program yourself with a PC and the right board) or the MAME/PC route. There are even a few companies in Asia that seel multicade boards for about $85-300 each. The $300 boards are essentially a MAME setup without the computer that plugs in to a JAMMA harness.
Anyway, I wasn't going to comment on posts here, but took a little offense to someone saying that hand built cabinets look like crap. They only look like crap, as does anything, when it's poorly done.
Posted by: WhyNotV2 | July 11, 2008 6:46 AM