[Arcade1Up] Attack From Mars Arcade1Up Pinball Review

[shiva]

Finally, the Arcade1Up Pinball cabinets have started to show up, though they are pretty much already sold out. Apparently Canada got their units in first so MichaelTheGameGenie got his review up, and overall he liked the quality of the unit, though he noted the 720p resolution and a couple other issues. He also demoed the 10 included games, all basically the non-IP William games. He had stated he was not very familiar with a proper Pinball cabinet, and the Arcade1Up are very much a consumer cabinet set-up, so it will be interesting to see when he plays a proper sized cabinet with a better quality monitor and a proper setup.

I can see a lot of consumers getting this. It's really no different than the Zen tables you can get on Steam, and though Arcade1Up did a nice job, it just doesn't compare to a proper professorial pinball cabinet, especial since this is a Android version using a 24 inch monitor. that is actually quite expensive for what you get. Still, Arcade1Up has a winner here, a lot of mom and pop consumers will pick this up, even though I feel that the AtGames Pinball Legends is a far better value once they fix all their various issues.

Still a nice unit to have if you are a "hobbit" arcade collecter, and certainly better than the Star Wars and Marvel versions of this cabinet. You can view the review right here.

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

So if I understand correctly:

- Price is US$550
- It's running on some kind of... Android hardware?
- Emulator is Zen, and ten (very good) Williams games are included
- Four solenoids used to simulate the subtle thunks of flippers & bumpers, an awesome feature
- Accelerometer for nudging
- Real analog plunger
- 24" monitor recessed and offset upwards
- Wifi not enabled for some reason
- Very little of significance seems tunable, such as the solenoids, accelerometer and video details

Hopefully the shortcomings can be addressed via update, altho that's going to be harder without wifi. Also, I would certainly hope the hardware has enough memory such that you can buy more tables and add them to the machine. It would be pretty disappointing if ten games total is the hard limit.

I guess my biggest issue is not so much the 24" screen (if I can enjoy playing pinball on a 7" tablet, I can certainly deal with a much larger screen). My biggest issue is that the screen is offset so deeply, plus shifted upwards with the huge 'faux apron' area. That effectively makes the 24" much smaller than it needed to be IMO. I get that it's kind of cool to vaguely simulate the real depth of a PF, but since it's still only a flat surface, I'm not sure how much of a point there really is in that.

I agree though, that overall this sounds like a nice product for a fair price. Lots of players (on the amateur side) should love it. If they can fix the wifi issue and improve the customization options, that would help enormously IMO.

Btw, that guy may be the first person I've ever heard in my life that actually sounds like the American stereotype of a Canadian! I really only needed him to sign off with an ",ey?" :D

 

[shiva]

LOL
Correct Nic. Android is only 720p, but they actually used a 1080p monitor in this. Weird.
just 720p,no wifi support and no backglass dmd. just a picture. 550 us I feel is to much for it. You have to mod it, so I feel for the extra 50 dollars the ATGames legend Pinball is a far better deal. If I wanted a 24 inch screen for modding the new 1.3 version of the toyshock is coming out in may.

I still think for the average consumer, this is just a great starter table for them. Arcade1Up has put out a quality, but very limited, table here. But... People may end up buying something else down the road just for fp/vpx play.