I'm now selling that arcade 'thing' at JC Penney

[Sanriostar]

So our company has started up a gift section for the holidays. I get a small inquiry from the store manager, "you collect games, right?"
"Yeah. Mostly the older stuff..."
"WONDERFUL!"

So I get to work, and there's that multi-game thing that has the Williams and Midway games on it, in the gift section. And because I made the mistake of showing people that I can play a decent game of Robotron and Wizard of Wor, I'm now in the section for the shopping season. :eek 2:

Apart from selling the other electronics, my work consist mostly of showing 5 year-olds how to play Joust and Bubbles, and keeping people from kicking the thing. What I have seen so far:

A Grandma killing the Wizard; and we're talking she was 75 or so and from the old country.
12-year old girl play Defender for an hour and get steadily better.
A gentleman swear to me up and down that Defender is the only one that was in the arcade, and the rest are new games (!) LOL
No one ever finishes a game of Tapper, they just don't get it and play a new game or walk away.
50% of people ask me where Pac-Man or Space Invaders is on the thing.

I don't go into any schpeil, I just play dumb and don't mention CGE or that I can rattle off who programmed what of the original games. Most wouldn't belive me, anyway.

I make a point of not playing the thing unless asked; I'd rather let the kids play it and get thier parents to buy one.
Besides, I can take a good 20 minutes on Robotron once I'm warmed up.

[YoshiM]

I saw that setup at a JC Penney's while my wife and I were shopping for thermal curtains. I played a bit of it and, sorry to say, thought it was utter crap. Now it could be the display was defective but I tooled around with Timber and the game looked like it was an Atari 7800 release. The graphics were muddy and the colors were off. The joystick felt okay, though but the flat topped buttons were kinda stiff.

[theshizzle3000]

I know this is probably unlikely since it is in the store, but do you have any pictures of the system?

[Sanriostar]

I saw that setup at a JC Penney's while my wife and I were shopping for thermal curtains. I played a bit of it and, sorry to say, thought it was utter crap. Now it could be the display was defective but I tooled around with Timber and the game looked like it was an Atari 7800 release. The graphics were muddy and the colors were off. The joystick felt okay, though but the flat topped buttons were kinda stiff.

That's my position too, mostly. But I've had enough sales experience to never say that in the store.

It is a NES on a chip.

[Sanriostar]

I know this is probably unlikely since it is in the store, but do you have any pictures of the system?

It's on the JCP website. Search 'arcade' and it'll show up.

(can't paste a URL for some reason) :/

[NE146]

Here it is.. http://tinyurl.com/yh4z9v

[kainemaxwell]

I saw this in the store at my mall the other day. I was shocked, I should go over to play a quick game tomorrow.

[InsaneDavid]

At least now it's getting down to a more reasonable price.

[Kuros]

At least now it's getting down to a more reasonable price.

Nope, it's still in the "Rather get nut-punched because the pain goes away quicker" stage.

[swlovinist]

While I think it is cool that a company is "attempting" to market arcade machines, I played this at Target last year and it is just plain bad. Coming on a site like this in which everyone has played the originals, you have balls.
Everything about this product makes me want to buy a "real" arcade, not a fake NOAC. I am sorry to be so harsh, businesses need to hear this stuff before they blow alot of money on good ideas gone bad. Idea #1 HAVE SEVERAL PEOPLE PLAYTEST YOUR ITEM OUTSIDE YOUR COMPANY THAT ARENT PAID OR CONNTECTED TO FAMILY. Idea #2 The money saving ideas that made it to the final stage product shot yourselves in the foot. The monitor is too small, the cabinet(espically no marquee insert)WTF?

[swlovinist]

While I think it is cool that a company is "attempting" to market arcade machines, I played this at Target last year and it is just plain bad. Coming on a site like this in which everyone has played the originals, you have balls.
Everything about this product makes me want to buy a "real" arcade, not a fake NOAC. I am sorry to be so harsh, businesses need to hear this stuff before they blow alot of money on good ideas gone bad. Idea #1 HAVE SEVERAL PEOPLE PLAYTEST YOUR ITEM OUTSIDE YOUR COMPANY THAT ARENT PAID OR CONNTECTED TO FAMILY. Idea #2 The money saving ideas that made it to the final stage product shot yourselves in the foot. The monitor is too small, the cabinet(espically no marquee insert)WTF?

[ROBOTNIK666]

That machine was at my local Target about a year ago. It's too bad that it's so expensive.

[Sanriostar]

Coming on a site like this in which everyone has played the originals, you have balls.

The Senator from California would like a clarification on this statement. :?

I don't think you're trying to flame, I just work at JCP, which sells the thing. I know, and prefer the joys of an original Robotron machine. I privatley have the same sentiment as most posters here on DP about this thing.

[Arcade Antics]

Is it crap? Yes. It's poorly built, made of the cheapest of the cheap materials, and the emulation is terrible. LOL

But I think most folks who would purchase it (read: nobody who frequents this site) understand that - at least on some level - going in to purchase the thing. And if they don't, then what's the difference? They'll always be happy with it.

Every year at this time (just before the holiday rush) a lot of sporting goods stores get in those crappy "arcade" air-hockey and foosball machines too. Same thing - they're stripped down, cheap imitations of the Real Thing for folks who think "it will be neat to have" and get bored with it inside of 3 months.

[Mr.collection]

Yaeh I saw these at Target then they were at some local disount stores, Marc's + Value City. for $325. Now know that it is a NOAC I might get one when they are even cheaper and playing with it.
So yes for the average rich stupid person it is the perfect gift and is cheap. LOL

[RARusk]

I myself work at a JCPenneys (San Antonio, TX) and the first thing I did when I saw this thing was roll my eyes. I don't think we will sell a lot of these. For the money we're asking you can go and buy an Xbox, Midway Arcade Treasures I and II (which have all twelve featured games and then some), and an arcade stick plus money left over to get....oh I don't know....maybe a GameCube?

[swlovinist]

Coming on a site like this in which everyone has played the originals, you have balls.

I am sorry for sounding so confusing, that is what I get for posting late. I dont mean to slam a product that means well, it is just that I am just tired of "retro" products that have been coming out that suck due to cost saving measures. I think that there is a market for quality retro products that dont have to cost a lot. This arcade machine posted here is not one of them.

[Pantechnicon]

...I just work at JCP, which sells the thing. I know, and prefer the joys of an original Robotron machine. I privatley have the same sentiment as most posters here on DP about this thing.

But hey, I can think of far worse ways to spend a shift in a retail job during the holiday shoppng season than showing the rubes how to play Robotron, so good for you. You got yourself a sweet gig regardless of the relative quality of the product.

I've seen those nice Capcom cabs for sale at Sharper Image and FAO Schwarz in the $3000-$4000 range. I have yet to see one of these low-end models up close, but for some reason I really want to. My local Target stocked them last Christmas but never put one out on display. So they're really running NOACs inside? Ugh! I can forgive almost every other cost-cutting measure in these things except for that :shameful:.

My first MAME cab was built for $47. Wills and ways, people. Wills and ways...

[Blitzwing256]

strange.

in my Target we sold them last xmas and we took the display model and set it up in the breakroom. honestly the games play fine to me, I didn't even know it was a noac, but for the casual gamer its alot of fun (our cart attendent plays robotron every day at lunch)

I did have one question someone might be able to ask about it, is there a way to get it to save the highscores after its shut off? or does it just not have a battery or something? (never saved anything since day one..i was just wondering if there was a switch or something)

[CosmicMonkey]

That's probably the ugliest thing I have ever seen. I wouldn't have that in my house.

Methinks I'll stick to my rather sexy white Super Neo 29 Candy. And real Neo Geo games. NOAC LOL

[98PaceCar]

Umm, this ISN'T a noac. It's running on a board designed by Claw Cowgill, a highly respected board designer in the arcade world. Anybody who's spent any time working on classic games should know his work.

Here's a thread where he spills a little bit of info about the board.

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.video.arcade.collecting/browse_frm/thread/ac1063ee6fc03939/44ff2719d9bf0b10?lnk=st&q=clay+cowgill+target+arcade&rnum=5&hl=en#44ff2719d9bf0b10

I won't sit here and say this is a good product for the type of person that spends their time on DP, but it does have a place and I know of a lot of people that would be very happy to shell out the money for one and be completely satisfied with what they got for their money.

[tonyvortex]

did anyone else notice that sad marvel pinball game jcpenny is selling also when you click on that link?

[Iron Draggon]

forget the silly arcade thing, I need one of those frozen margarita machines! they're a bit overpriced too though, so if you could get me a good employee discount on one, let me know... or just give me a heads up when they mark them down to a more reasonable price... like under $100

[sickdrummer420]

yea i played one of these last saturday. shitty controls, and very bad emulation. the colors did not look right at all. i was excited until i hit the player 1 button to start a game of timber, lets hope i forget this memory real soon.........

[Pantechnicon]

I won't sit here and say this is a good product for the type of person that spends their time on DP, but it does have a place and I know of a lot of people that would be very happy to shell out the money for one and be completely satisfied with what they got for their money.

I agree. If I was less than five feet tall, not a member of Digital Press, and of the belief that the PSX was "old school" then I'd say this thing was the bee's knees.

Having nothing better to do on Sunday (wife and kids were out of town), I drove 15 miles to JC Penneys to see if I could find one of these things in action, which I did.

It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The control panel was unusual, but didn't feel as cheap as I thought it might. The sticks were passable, but JAMMA-style buttons would have been preferable to the ones in the cab.

The sound was atrocious. The less said about that the better. And I was quite horrified by the size of the monitor - couldn't have been bigger than 13", but it did the job. The colors were strange, though, very "runny". I don't know if that was the monitor or the software.

The game ports themselves were actually pretty good. I didn't think any gameplay elements were sacrificed on this cab. Except for the color issues described above the games themselves were top-notch ports.

The size of the thing was a drawback. at 6'1", I had to straddle down really low to see what was going on. Maybe the intention is to put a chair in front of it, but there's something to be said for the authentic game experience of standing in front of the cab. This machine, however, had a footprint that didn't lend itself well to taller types.

There is a humongous amount of dead space underneath this thing. Underneath the monitor well a door opens up revealing a huge dead space with a shelf. There's a little composite video box down there (presumably an AC outlet too, but I didn't see it) that lets you hook up a modern game console for use on the monitor. I thought this was a nice touch, and provides a justification for all the unused space because honestly, this whole hardware setup could have been packed into a tabletop package instead of a half-sized cab facsimile.

I would have spent more time poking around the machine, but there were a couple of 10 year old boys climbing the walls behind me waiting to play it.

So, to wrap up this impromptu review; I would say this cab is better than I thought it would be, and a price of $350 to $400 is a perfectly fair one. I can see a device like this leading people into our hobby, but I can't imagine that anybody who's been into this hobby for some amount of time would ever want or need one.