Ultracade

I went to Jillian's in Westbury (sort of a big arcade/pool hall/resturant/bar/bowling alley/whatever) with my Nephew the other day and noticed this new cabinent they got in…something called an 'Ultracade.' It actually turned out to be a pretty fucking cool idea, as it was nice being able to play this stuff in an arcade while surrounded by the latest polygon-crazed madness. Basically, there's a menu where you can choose from a large assortment of older arcade games.

http://www.zax.com.au/ultracade/new_interface_sm.jpg

Among the games I remember seeing (and this is just a small fraction of what was available):

Street Fighter (the original- I was excited, since I haven't played it in ages, and man does it suck now)
Street Fighter 2
Street Fighter 2 Championship Edition
Street Fighter 2 Turbo
Strider (classic!)
Saturday Night Slam Masters (still pretty decent)
Megaman- The Power Battles (horrible)
Commando
Zero Wing (sadly lacking the awesome Genesis intro screens ;) )
Robotron 2084
Root Beer Tapper
Defender 1 & 2
Joust 1 & 2
Asteroids

EDIT: Found a few links with info about it, including the official site with a list of titles available. Seems each unit comes standard with 86 games, with upgrade packages available.

http://www.thehomearcade.com/ultracade_multi.htm

http://www.zax.com.au/uc-conversion.html

these have actually been around for a LONG time, and i'm really pissed that they took the one at the local hotspot out to put in another god damn music game.

NOTHING beats playing random o.g black guys who think they are the shit in SF2 and then doing redizzy combos on them(or for that matter, glitching the machine)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MrWhitefolks

these have actually been around for a LONG time

---

The fact that I just stumbled across one just goes to show you how dead the arcade scene is. :(

Yep. I've never seen one, ever.

That's been in there a while, acutally, Dole. It also has SonSon and the MegaMan arcade games on it.
It's just REALLY overpriced. I remmeber it being about a buck's worth of points to play. Damn that JIllian's. All the cool kids hang around in the FYE in Bayshore, anyway. Damn cool kids.

The one at my Boomers is a quarter?

http://www.ultracade.com/flashsite.html

ultracade is pretty cool, but it's flawed emulation, and I kinda feel weird pumping quarters into a machine to play emulators that run better on my computer.

There was one at the hotel I was staying at a couple of years ago. I spent most of the vacation pumping quarters into that thing playing Rockman Power Battle (in English!)

It's not horrible, just waaay too easy :)

I picked up a Centipede cabinet that had been converted to an Ultracade at the San Jose auction a few years ago. I yanked the computer out and gave the cabinet to a friend to convert back to Centipede. It's pretty neat. Nice front end. The guys who made it actually emailed me to ask permission to use some of the marquee scans off my site at www.arcadecollecting.com. I forget all of which ones they used, but I remember Zookeeper and Bubble Bobble.

Quote:

---

I picked up a Centipede cabinet that had been converted to an Ultracade at the San Jose auction a few years ago. I yanked the computer out and gave the cabinet to a friend to convert back to Centipede. It's pretty neat. Nice front end. The guys who made it actually emailed me to ask permission to use some of the marquee scans off my site at www.arcadecollecting.com. I forget all of which ones they used, but I remember Zookeeper and Bubble Bobble.

---

Would that be one of those arcade auctions that they hold at the fairgrounds from time to time or would this be the California Extreme show they hold over at Parkside Hall near the convention center?

I palyed one at ocean city 2 years ago..i like it, got to play black tiger again, even had astayanax, which i didnt know was even an aracde game, thought it was just a nes game.

They have one at every rest-stop on the Mass Turnpike. It certainly made my 3 hour drive to school much better, though these usually tacked a couple hours onto the trip.

If you're lucky, you'll find an Ultracade that has SNOW BROS.

:) :) :) :)

Mine does! Well at least it used too.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by BlackFlame

Would that be one of those arcade auctions that they hold at the fairgrounds from time to time or would this be the California Extreme show they hold over at Parkside Hall near the convention center?

---

It was an auction at the fairgrounds. (Super Auctions).

I have yet to see any of these, although they sound awesome, so I'll be on the lookout for one.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dolemite

The fact that I just stumbled across one just goes to show you how dead the arcade scene is. :(

---

University Pinball in Philly has one. Oh, and thanks to Tekken 5, ARCADES WILL NEVER DIE!!!!1

The one at Rocky's Replay in Orlando has two. One has the normal button config, while the other is specialized for trackball games. The normal one had a game on it I'd never seen before. The 3 Wonders or something like that, by Capcom. The action game plays a bit like Metal Slug with a fantasy setting, and you get options. Its pretty damn cool.

It's just MAME that you pay for.

Fuck that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Revoltor

It's just MAME that you pay for.

---

It's not MAME. They're using their own proprietary emulation.

It's still not very good and it definitely isn't worth 50 cents to a dollar to play.

I like the idea of keeping the classics in an arcade but I don't want to be ripped off for it. I know arcade operators want to stay in business too but they need to find better ways.

It's like the day I found a MsPacman/Galaga Class of 81 cab only to see "insert 2 credits to play" on the screen. No way. These games have always and will always be a quarter. I don't care how fancy the cab looks.

I've played home-made MAME cabs that were far superior.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Korly

Oh, and thanks to Tekken 5, ARCADES WILL NEVER DIE!!!!1

---

What disturbs me about Tekken 5 is I saw some guy playing T5 with his PS2 controller plugged in at the arcade. Did I miss something? When did going to the arcade mean you had a choice in the controls?

Concerning those MsPacman/Galaga cabs, they cost $3000 new. So they almost have to charge 50 cents per play. Sucks, but what can you do?

These Ultracades have been at every Dave & Busters I've been to (3). Judging by the amount of deviation between the D&Bs, I'd say that there should be one at all of them.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by portnoyd

What disturbs me about Tekken 5 is I saw some guy playing T5 with his PS2 controller plugged in at the arcade. Did I miss something? When did going to the arcade mean you had a choice in the controls?

---

Since Namco got smart and realized that most American arcades do not maitain their controls at all, and that doing so would keep the game more lively at those locations. It was an experimental, unsupported feature in Soul Calibur 2 originally, so most arcades did not enable it but the ones that did universally got a positive response from it. Also note how the ports are hidden off to the side, out of plain view so some schmuck can not just brainlessly put some gum or peanut butter in the controller port.

If you think that this is a bad thing, you are deluding yourself.

Quote:

---

Concerning those MsPacman/Galaga cabs, they cost $3000 new. So they almost have to charge 50 cents per play. Sucks, but what can you do?

---

That's senseless. Then again, most of what happens in the arcade industry is senseless. :chick:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Korly

Oh, and thanks to Tekken 5, ARCADES WILL NEVER DIE!!!!1

---

Until the home version comes out -- in a month.

-Dippy

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Korly

University Pinball in Philly has one. Oh, and thanks to Tekken 5, ARCADES WILL NEVER DIE!!!!1

---

I thought it was Tekken that started to kill them off in the first place.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dipstick

Since Namco got smart and realized that most American arcades do not maitain their controls at all, and that doing so would keep the game more lively at those locations. It was an experimental, unsupported feature in Soul Calibur 2 originally, so most arcades did not enable it but the ones that did universally got a positive response from it. Also note how the ports are hidden off to the side, out of plain view so some schmuck can not just brainlessly put some gum or peanut butter in the controller port.

If you think that this is a bad thing, you are deluding yourself.

---

I never said it's a bad thing, just... weird. Never heard of the SCII thing, so it makes sense in the end.

At my local arcade, at any time of day, I can say for sure that there is always someone on the MsPacman/Galaga machine, or the trackball machine (the one with Centipede, Missile Command, and Let's Go Bowling (Romstar/Capcom Bowling). So even at $3,000, and 50 cents a pop, it's working. Senseless, yes, a good business decision, apparently so.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Yoshi

I thought it was Tekken that started to kill them off in the first place.

---

:lol:

So I can use any PS2 pad on the T5 arcade game? I gotta get me a pad with macros on it and go kick some ass,

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Dipstick

Until the home version comes out -- in a month.

---

March 17th. And if you think that a home version release has a detrimental effect on arcade play, think about MvC2.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Yoshi

I thought it was Tekken that started to kill them off in the first place.

---

How so?

Because Yoshi hates Tekken, so it's responsible for the death of anything he feels like.