Really nice video! I would also love to see a video on the top 10 worst arcade toys. Not just for the laughs but also to know which ones we should avoid. Keep up the good work. I subscribed long ago and still am today.
I remember collecting a lot of these before 2020. My favorite from the ones I had was always the small cabinet of Joust released by Basic Fun. I would play that every morning before work. Joust in general feels very zen to me, for some reason. I dunno, I get into a flow with it, no matter what version I play. I also remember loving the MyArcade Micro Players of Galaxian and Galaga. Yeah, they're running NES ROMs, but the control and feel of that cabinet style they use just feels really good and solid to me. As for Fix It Felix Jr, I have it, and it looks nice, but it's never been a favorite of mine. The first time I played it, my game lasted for about an hour before I just shut it off. I'm pretty sure I wasn't just having a REALLY good day. I think the game version they made for that cabinet is actually too easy. Am I the only one who had that problem with that toy? And dammit, now you've got me wanting that Space Invaders toy. I never came across that one. That cabinet is sick!
@6:32 Ever thought of building a small building on your property and opening it up to the public as a "private access arcade?" Could be a good side gig for rentals or birthday parties.
I suppose racing games are underrepresented because they mostly used analog controls and those are a lot more difficult/time consuming/expensive to use in those miniature arcade cabinets. So hats off to the Pole Position game, hopefully others will follow. Thanks for another great review, Semper Fidelis!
Thank for uploading, The 1st 2 of those mini arcades I bought were Basic Fun's Ms. Pacman and Dig Dug, both are very enjoyable and look the closest to the arcade you could get for $20. The Basic Fun Pacman game is just ok, I would rather have the one with the 40th Anniversary cab art, plus the game on here is too difficult skillwise to play. I agree My Arcade's Space Invaders is number 1 on the list due to it being a literal shrunk down version of the game.
Jon you are a legend, I love your videos and you put so much effort to put this on TH-cam for entertainment of the community, 1+ sub right now coming in.
@@CONCRETEJUNGLE-be6ic I expect it's just inherited. Initially, many of these little arcade boxes were just NES-on-a-chip, and the layout for the NES was d-pad on the left and two buttons on the right. That's how the molds were made, and it just kind of stuck.
I brought the Space Invaders one for $69 (NICE) and I must admit its sooooooo good. Only flaws is Sound (easy fix) and Score doesn't save but besides that its the true arcade experience from these units.
Great video!! Really nice to have been given the heads up to a few of these in your original reviews. Now of course we need a list of those with potential that got it so wrong... A few that threw away a licence were Turtles Fighter... Maybe Mortal Kombat..... Pac-Man 40th anniversary for Not using the #14 rom????
I found a reproduction unit of Fix It Felix JR at Neon Retro Arcade in Pasadena, and those units started being made after someone dumped and uploaded the game onto the internet
These mini cabinets always remind me of the one toy I wanted as a kid - Coleco used to make Pac-man and Donkey King mini cabinets. Looking back they were pretty primitive and I doubt they'd hold any interest to me now but back in the 80's I wanted one badly.
I think you're talking about these, right? th-cam.com/video/YutXfK2INKk/w-d-xo.html I have a few of these now, and even got a new one WITH THE BOX for Christmas! 😀
Great list Jon. I passed on Rolling Thunder since it wasn’t the arcade version, but I did like the NES version. I’m now looking back into it just because of you. I feel so easily influenced.
Hi Jon, absolutely wonderful video!!! In your list I have the Rolling Thunder, Contra, and Space Invaders. I want to really thank you for suggesting I pick up Rolling Thunder when I wasn't sure between Elevator Action and Bad Dudes. I was pleasantly surprised with how much fun I had and still have playing a unit with NES on a chip! And Contra and Space Invaders are very challenging and fun too!! I've been on the fence with Bubble Bobble My Arcade because I really want the Numskull arcade rom edition, but its pricey. With all of that being said....your videos have helped me make some great purchases!!! I have so much more fun playing these various arcade units then when I owned console units. As an honorable mention, I would like to add Super Impulse BurgerTime...that was a purchase solely because of your comparison video vs. the My Arcade version, so thank you!!! Keep up the great work Jon!!!
What a generous comment, Brian. Thanks for watching and especially for coming back to tell me of your experiences and how my videos have been able to help. That's exactly what I hope to do!
Hi. I had the same 2xl with 8 track tapes. I loved it and played with it all the time. They updated 2xl that used cassettes. I loved pacman and space invaders. Great video. 👍👍👍
Hard to argue with those...the only one I don't have is the Pole Position one. Wish I'd have seen one. I popped when you named Tetris as #2 because I found myself playing that one the most out of all the other Basic Fun offerings. I also believe it's the only one that keeps a high score if I'm correct? Space Invaders My Arcade is a worthy #1 for many reasons. Love what they did there.
Whew! OK, that's one viewer I didn't completely piss off with my list. Let's see if we can keep the streak alive! 😜 Thanks as always for watching, Target!
Stop. I'm drooling. 🤤 Seriously, though, it's pretty evident at this point that Nintendo is not gonna license out any of its IP to third parties. If we ever get something like that, it'll be manufactured and distributed by Big N themselves. Which is cool by me, btw. I think they did great with their throwback Game & Watch hardware releases, so why not?!
Terrific video Jon. My favorite version of Tetris is the Arcade version by Atari from the late 80s. I love the little animations and it's 2 player competitive as well.
Fix It Felix Jr. - There's an excellent version of this for the C64. It may not be an exact port of the "arcade" version, but it's a damn good version of it. Really nice graphics, speech samples and some new, but logical, gameplay additions. One mini-arcade machine I'd like to see, is Zaxxon (arcade ROM). Back in the 80s, I always wanted one of the Coleco tabletop Zaxxon machines, although I knew that it wouldn't come anywhere close to the arcade version. Now we have the ability to make a perfect mini-arcade version of it. Mini-arcades of Space Harrier and Outrun would also be great.
@@GenXGrownUp no I realise that. I have managed to get some cheap here is the UK. But as you said not the actual price. They are worth getting, if you want to spend that bit extra, also they have a space invaders arcade cab coming soon with the reflective screen with space invaders PT 2 not far behind it.
@@GenXGrownUptotally agree with you. I own Numskulls galaga, Pac-Man, ms Pac-Man, galaxian and dig dug. The new wave stuff is well out of my price range and then import tax on top of that. Then they would look out of place next to my others.
I wish myarcade would produce and come out with more arcade accurate units. Absolutely love SF2 championship one, want to get contra and space invaders soon as well.
Thanks. 😀 I did a piece on the Polybius power hub, but haven't picked up any others. Have nothing against them, just haven't happened to pick up any of the others. th-cam.com/video/FkLsBNLlQTc/w-d-xo.html
I got one of the Space Invaders after seeing your first video, got my hands on a Fix it Felix also. I also have the Galaga and although the cabinet looks great it's an NES ROM, which is why I am sure it didn't make the list.
Indeed. The Basic Fun Galaga was the best of the bunch, I think, but its weird diagonal bullets and claustrophobic layout pushed it too far down the list to make my top 10.
Too bad that "Pole position" doesn´t have any real steering wheel/gear stick etc. in this edition. I have so bright memories from when i played the original on arcade in 1984 (my first arcade experience togheter with "Phoenix" and "Circus Charlie"). Damn what i miss that time in my youth.-Probably the the best !. The sound of the speaker voice was of such bad quality that i gave up on understand what she really was saying. ""Woo-woo, baa baa, ooyya molliboy"" was actually meant to mean: "Prepare to qualify" (the banner says the same sentence but i never realised that at that time.-Probably all too busy/excited with the game itself i assume, ha-ha !) which i found out many, many years later !. Anyway, if any chance pops up for purchasing any of the mentioned arcades as mini editions, i would´nt doubt to open up my wallet. But "Pole position" in the form of the above is just a sad money grab idea from China though. "A red piece of plastic instead of real steering wheel"....please....
Slight stretch to call Bubble Bobble an arcade puzzle game... there are a few levels where you have to actually think about how to get the bad guys... but puzzling isn't really a key element of the game.
I have one of those on my to-do list, but it's tougher than you might think - a lot of bad to pick from, and and even more bad outside of the mainstream licensed releases.
I just checked and the number one spot is now $59.99 on both My Arcade's website and Amazon. Actually, all sites that I can find it on now have it at $59.99. You did mention that the original MSRP needs to be $50 or less (Which the original $39.99 price tag fits under) to make the list but using the wayback machine I can see that the price hike happened well before this video was made so I think at least a mention that the price has been increased would've been appreciated.
You said it, Criceto: original MSRP. I think if you search most of these you'll find they're no longer available for that launch list price, which is why I was sure to stipulate that I'm not going by current market price. I hope you're able to grab one because that SI is pretty remarkable.
Simply because they didn't make my top 10. I wasn't rating how much I liked the original game, but rather, the implementation of the game in tabletop arcade toy form. Most of the ones you pointed out were simply NES ports crammed into the arcade shape. 😝
Question: Anyone who bought space invaders, does your screen look on the dim side? I am very disappointed in how dark it appears and how small everything appears to be. I have to look at it 1" from my eyes to play it. Is it just me?
Literally every review. 😀 This isn't a review, but a recap of my 10 favorites. Links to reviews of the devices covered here in the description, and dozens more can be found in my back catalog.
my Favorite mini game isnt an arcade game at all its the oregon trail hand held my second favorite is the orginal my arcade mini arcade i love it simply for f22 my third favorite is is those early 2000's plug n plays i have batman tetris spiderman jeopardy sponge bob and slew of others i cant remember right now
I don't play a ton of pinball, but my two absolute favorites (which I've even considered buying in the past) are The Shadow (based on the '94 film) and The Cyclone (sequel to The Hurricane, I think).
@@GenXGrownUp Shadow is a great machine for sure. .. The newest Godzilla machine from Stern is an absolute monster of a game.. if you ever see it out, definitely play it
I own 7/10 of these now, and I picked up a few on your recommendation. I would love to see an updated version of this list every once and a while!
Really nice video! I would also love to see a video on the top 10 worst arcade toys. Not just for the laughs but also to know which ones we should avoid. Keep up the good work. I subscribed long ago and still am today.
I’m sure My Arcade version of Burger Time would land on that list lol 😝
I remember collecting a lot of these before 2020. My favorite from the ones I had was always the small cabinet of Joust released by Basic Fun. I would play that every morning before work. Joust in general feels very zen to me, for some reason. I dunno, I get into a flow with it, no matter what version I play.
I also remember loving the MyArcade Micro Players of Galaxian and Galaga. Yeah, they're running NES ROMs, but the control and feel of that cabinet style they use just feels really good and solid to me. As for Fix It Felix Jr, I have it, and it looks nice, but it's never been a favorite of mine. The first time I played it, my game lasted for about an hour before I just shut it off. I'm pretty sure I wasn't just having a REALLY good day. I think the game version they made for that cabinet is actually too easy. Am I the only one who had that problem with that toy?
And dammit, now you've got me wanting that Space Invaders toy. I never came across that one. That cabinet is sick!
@6:32 Ever thought of building a small building on your property and opening it up to the public as a "private access arcade?" Could be a good side gig for rentals or birthday parties.
Was hoping to see Galaga on here one of my favorie games of all time. Good to see bubble bobble though.
Ooooooh, Bubble Bobble! My brother played that ad nauseum; I can hear the music for it as I type here. 🎶
Hahaha!
I suppose racing games are underrepresented because they mostly used analog controls and those are a lot more difficult/time consuming/expensive to use in those miniature arcade cabinets. So hats off to the Pole Position game, hopefully others will follow. Thanks for another great review, Semper Fidelis!
Great video with a few I’d forgotten about. #1 was well deserved indeed, here’s hoping My Arcade makes more premium units someday.
That's my wish, too. We now know they can hit that $40-$50 with an arcade version, so do more! 😀
Tetris! I'm seriously surprised by that one.
I'm not surprised by Space Invaders at all. That would have been my #1 as well. Good choice!
OMG CONTRA!
fo sho!
Thank for uploading, The 1st 2 of those mini arcades I bought were Basic Fun's Ms. Pacman and Dig Dug, both are very enjoyable and look the closest to the arcade you could get for $20. The Basic Fun Pacman game is just ok, I would rather have the one with the 40th Anniversary cab art, plus the game on here is too difficult skillwise to play. I agree My Arcade's Space Invaders is number 1 on the list due to it being a literal shrunk down version of the game.
Great video. Thank you!
Glad you liked it!
I’d never seen the Space Invaders game. I might’ve bought that on sight.
I love these so much! (Good to know I've got the top 3)
Jon you are a legend, I love your videos and you put so much effort to put this on TH-cam for entertainment of the community, 1+ sub right now coming in.
Thanks for the love, LoopBlox! 😀
@@GenXGrownUp Can u explain please why the joystick is always on the far
left.
@@CONCRETEJUNGLE-be6ic I expect it's just inherited. Initially, many of these little arcade boxes were just NES-on-a-chip, and the layout for the NES was d-pad on the left and two buttons on the right. That's how the molds were made, and it just kind of stuck.
@@GenXGrownUp Ok,thank you for the answer.
I brought the Space Invaders one for $69 (NICE) and I must admit its sooooooo good.
Only flaws is Sound (easy fix) and Score doesn't save but besides that its the true arcade experience from these units.
Good vid. But like I said in the other videos, these mini arcade games are mainly a collectible thing.
And the surely are that, but many people enjoy playing them, too.
Bro I love rolling thunder😂
Great video!! Really nice to have been given the heads up to a few of these in your original reviews. Now of course we need a list of those with potential that got it so wrong... A few that threw away a licence were Turtles Fighter... Maybe Mortal Kombat..... Pac-Man 40th anniversary for Not using the #14 rom????
I found a reproduction unit of Fix It Felix JR at Neon Retro Arcade in Pasadena, and those units started being made after someone dumped and uploaded the game onto the internet
Wow. What a great ranking run down! I really enjoyed it. I think I missed a couple of those individual reviews. Thanks for the links.
Oh, Butter! You're going back and watching old videos you missed?? You're doing the lord's work, my son! 🤩
These mini cabinets always remind me of the one toy I wanted as a kid - Coleco used to make Pac-man and Donkey King mini cabinets. Looking back they were pretty primitive and I doubt they'd hold any interest to me now but back in the 80's I wanted one badly.
I think you're talking about these, right? th-cam.com/video/YutXfK2INKk/w-d-xo.html
I have a few of these now, and even got a new one WITH THE BOX for Christmas! 😀
I got donkey Kong and qbert versions you're talking about.
Good list. Space Invaders for sure comes first!
Most definitely!
Great list Jon. I passed on Rolling Thunder since it wasn’t the arcade version, but I did like the NES version. I’m now looking back into it just because of you. I feel so easily influenced.
Thanks, Fungible. I have been accused of being a negative influence on peoples' wallets before. 💸
Code name Viper for NES is rolling Thunder on NES, done right. 🙂
Hi Jon, absolutely wonderful video!!! In your list I have the Rolling Thunder, Contra, and Space Invaders. I want to really thank you for suggesting I pick up Rolling Thunder when I wasn't sure between Elevator Action and Bad Dudes. I was pleasantly surprised with how much fun I had and still have playing a unit with NES on a chip! And Contra and Space Invaders are very challenging and fun too!! I've been on the fence with Bubble Bobble My Arcade because I really want the Numskull arcade rom edition, but its pricey. With all of that being said....your videos have helped me make some great purchases!!! I have so much more fun playing these various arcade units then when I owned console units. As an honorable mention, I would like to add Super Impulse BurgerTime...that was a purchase solely because of your comparison video vs. the My Arcade version, so thank you!!! Keep up the great work Jon!!!
What a generous comment, Brian. Thanks for watching and especially for coming back to tell me of your experiences and how my videos have been able to help. That's exactly what I hope to do!
Hi. I had the same 2xl with 8 track tapes. I loved it and played with it all the time. They updated 2xl that used cassettes. I loved pacman and space invaders. Great video. 👍👍👍
Thanks, Karyn! Good eye! My 2XL doesn't seem to work, but he's beautiful on my set, don't you agree! 😀
@@GenXGrownUp yes, he is! 😊
Hard to argue with those...the only one I don't have is the Pole Position one. Wish I'd have seen one. I popped when you named Tetris as #2 because I found myself playing that one the most out of all the other Basic Fun offerings. I also believe it's the only one that keeps a high score if I'm correct? Space Invaders My Arcade is a worthy #1 for many reasons. Love what they did there.
Whew! OK, that's one viewer I didn't completely piss off with my list. Let's see if we can keep the streak alive! 😜
Thanks as always for watching, Target!
Space Invaders really has it down!
U are legendman
Hahaha! Thanks, Bammut.
Can you do a list on the 10 worst? Love these videos
What I want is a mini-arcade Nintendo Punch-Out or Super Punch-Out cabinet with the double screens
Stop. I'm drooling. 🤤 Seriously, though, it's pretty evident at this point that Nintendo is not gonna license out any of its IP to third parties. If we ever get something like that, it'll be manufactured and distributed by Big N themselves. Which is cool by me, btw. I think they did great with their throwback Game & Watch hardware releases, so why not?!
Terrific video Jon. My favorite version of Tetris is the Arcade version by Atari from the late 80s.
I love the little animations and it's 2 player competitive as well.
Fix It Felix Jr. - There's an excellent version of this for the C64. It may not be an exact port of the "arcade" version, but it's a damn good version of it. Really nice graphics, speech samples and some new, but logical, gameplay additions.
One mini-arcade machine I'd like to see, is Zaxxon (arcade ROM). Back in the 80s, I always wanted one of the Coleco tabletop Zaxxon machines, although I knew that it wouldn't come anywhere close to the arcade version. Now we have the ability to make a perfect mini-arcade version of it.
Mini-arcades of Space Harrier and Outrun would also be great.
You should do a revised top 10, now that My Arcade is stepping it up with their pro line.
Added to the idea list.
Numskull are pretty good as well.
Numskull is great, but not a single product under $50, so the weren't under consideration.
@@GenXGrownUp no I realise that. I have managed to get some cheap here is the UK. But as you said not the actual price. They are worth getting, if you want to spend that bit extra, also they have a space invaders arcade cab coming soon with the reflective screen with space invaders PT 2 not far behind it.
New Wave's Replicades: also great but too spendy for this list. 😀
@@GenXGrownUptotally agree with you. I own Numskulls galaga, Pac-Man, ms Pac-Man, galaxian and dig dug. The new wave stuff is well out of my price range and then import tax on top of that. Then they would look out of place next to my others.
I'd really wish someone would get the license from Disney to do a retro arcade Nano, or similar release, of the Tron arcade game.
Great video! I was hoping there was a worthy Galaga port somewhere. Way to crank it out!
I'm a mature adult, so I'm going to resist the urge to reply, "That's what she said!"
@@GenXGrownUp 😜😜
Great video
Thanks!
I wish bacic fun could get the rights to make a Donley Kong mini arcade
I wish myarcade would produce and come out with more arcade accurate units. Absolutely love SF2 championship one, want to get contra and space invaders soon as well.
Definitely don't sleep on Space Invaders. You'll be glad you picked it up.
Really enjoyable video. Any plans to cover the Numskull quarter arcades?
Thanks. 😀 I did a piece on the Polybius power hub, but haven't picked up any others. Have nothing against them, just haven't happened to pick up any of the others. th-cam.com/video/FkLsBNLlQTc/w-d-xo.html
I got one of the Space Invaders after seeing your first video, got my hands on a Fix it Felix also. I also have the Galaga and although the cabinet looks great it's an NES ROM, which is why I am sure it didn't make the list.
Indeed. The Basic Fun Galaga was the best of the bunch, I think, but its weird diagonal bullets and claustrophobic layout pushed it too far down the list to make my top 10.
I have game number 3 like literally I got it for 20$ at Walmart
Too bad that "Pole position" doesn´t have any real steering wheel/gear stick etc. in this edition. I have so bright memories from when i played the original on arcade in 1984 (my first arcade experience togheter with "Phoenix" and "Circus Charlie"). Damn what i miss that time in my youth.-Probably the the best !. The sound of the speaker voice was of such bad quality that i gave up on understand what she really was saying. ""Woo-woo, baa baa, ooyya molliboy"" was actually meant to mean: "Prepare to qualify" (the banner says the same sentence but i never realised that at that time.-Probably all too busy/excited with the game itself i assume, ha-ha !) which i found out many, many years later !. Anyway, if any chance pops up for purchasing any of the mentioned arcades as mini editions, i would´nt doubt to open up my wallet. But "Pole position" in the form of the above is just a sad money grab idea from China though. "A red piece of plastic instead of real steering wheel"....please....
👌
Slight stretch to call Bubble Bobble an arcade puzzle game... there are a few levels where you have to actually think about how to get the bad guys... but puzzling isn't really a key element of the game.
they look awesome, i bought mine yesterday, but sadly i had to turn it back to the store because the coin button or menu button were not working
Which one?
Now that we got a list of the best,now we need a list of the worst😂
I have one of those on my to-do list, but it's tougher than you might think - a lot of bad to pick from, and and even more bad outside of the mainstream licensed releases.
You would think a Galaga made the list right? Seeing as there was 3 different ones made 😂. Dang guess there was games better!
Its an all time classic, but I don’t think there are any versions in this form factor that really do it justice
I just checked and the number one spot is now $59.99 on both My Arcade's website and Amazon. Actually, all sites that I can find it on now have it at $59.99. You did mention that the original MSRP needs to be $50 or less (Which the original $39.99 price tag fits under) to make the list but using the wayback machine I can see that the price hike happened well before this video was made so I think at least a mention that the price has been increased would've been appreciated.
You said it, Criceto: original MSRP. I think if you search most of these you'll find they're no longer available for that launch list price, which is why I was sure to stipulate that I'm not going by current market price. I hope you're able to grab one because that SI is pretty remarkable.
How can you not include Galaga and/or Galaxian??? Ms PAC-man? Elevator Action? Burger Time? I would put these in front of some of those on the list.
Simply because they didn't make my top 10. I wasn't rating how much I liked the original game, but rather, the implementation of the game in tabletop arcade toy form. Most of the ones you pointed out were simply NES ports crammed into the arcade shape. 😝
There's a $149 Namco Museum arcade machine that looks really cool, but unfortunately it doesn't save scores.
I have that one and I will get around to reviewing it eventually. So many viewers have requested it.
Speaking of Namco Museum... th-cam.com/video/sxFsCuvbwvk/w-d-xo.html
Question: Anyone who bought space invaders, does your screen look on the dim side?
I am very disappointed in how dark it appears and how small everything appears to be. I have to look at it 1" from my eyes to play it. Is it just me?
Any reviews that talk about playability?
Literally every review. 😀 This isn't a review, but a recap of my 10 favorites. Links to reviews of the devices covered here in the description, and dozens more can be found in my back catalog.
Have you heard about the my arcade namco museum mini arcade?
Certainly.
Speaking of Namco Museum... th-cam.com/video/sxFsCuvbwvk/w-d-xo.html
Had trade credit so I picked up street fighter 2
my Favorite mini game isnt an arcade game at all its the oregon trail hand held
my second favorite is the orginal my arcade mini arcade i love it simply for
f22
my third favorite is is those early 2000's plug n plays i have batman tetris spiderman jeopardy sponge bob and slew of others i cant remember right now
👍
Brings up a good question... What are your favorite pinball machines?
I don't play a ton of pinball, but my two absolute favorites (which I've even considered buying in the past) are The Shadow (based on the '94 film) and The Cyclone (sequel to The Hurricane, I think).
@@GenXGrownUp Shadow is a great machine for sure. .. The newest Godzilla machine from Stern is an absolute monster of a game.. if you ever see it out, definitely play it
Music in the background is annoying and distracting.
Thanks, I'll take that into consideration for future pieces.
That's pretty much all of them and the ones you listed sucks
LOL! That's pretty darn far from all of them. I'd be curious to hear your top few if you feel "the ones (I) listed sucks".
@@GenXGrownUp just went online to check yep that's pretty much all of them
I wouldn’t call this guy a grown up or even a man.
This guy is both. Thanks for watching.
Does any of those consoles has Circus Charlie? 🫣
The NES game? None of these are consoles, and none of them feature Circus Charlie.
Im Gen-X not grown-up
Is there a pacman machine that does include the original arcade rom?
Not for under $50. 😕
@@GenXGrownUp over $50, as long as its the original arcade rom.
@@bluesith Maybe try something like this: amz.run/78BB