Review: Big Games Midway arcadeHmm Reviews, Xbox 360, gaming — by TDavid @ 4:29 pm PST
  (2 votes, average: 4.5 out of 5) Loading ... |
If you told me 20, perhaps even 10 years ago that I could get classic, authentic arcade games like Robotron in a standup arcade cabinet for under $500, I’d have raced out to buy one on the spot. Considering I’ve paid more for game systems that bombed like the 3DO, that seems like a good price for a standup arcade cabinet.
Our oldest teen wanted the Big Games Midway arcade for Christmas so we ordered from Costco online. They promised to call us before delivering and to our surprise they showed up yesterday of all days during the worst rainstorm in history when the kids were home from school. There goes the Christmas surprise when the box is clearly labeled as shown above. Doh.
When we got home my wife and I unpacked the system and put together the cabinet which comes in three main pieces. The bottom part of the cabinet with the shelves and the top marquee section. The middle section arrives as a single piece with 14″ monitor, two joysticks and six button for each player. All the stickers are already on the cabinet pieces. Assembly of the unit took less than an hour.
Once assembled, it’s a matter of plugging in, sticking a cartridge about the size of an old NEO-GEO cartridge into the center of the base unit, pushing all the way to the back, just above the rather small 14″ monitor where there are control instructions for how to play each of the 12 included Midway arcade games and turning on the power on the side:
Defender™
Defender II™
Robotron™
Joust™
Bubbles™
Splat™
Sinistar™
Rampage™
Rootbeer Tapper™
Wizard of Wor™
Timber™
Satan’s Hollow™
The games are faithful to the arcade experience as far as graphics but the controls are uncomfortable with games like Defender. The button configuration is too stretched out instead of the more triangular like format that was more like the arcade. Robotron plays great with the dual joysticks, something I wish would be an option for the Xbox 360 Live Arcade version. Maybe somebody will come out with an arcade stick configuration for the Xbox 360 (maybe one exists already, I didn’t search around)?
Uh oh, high scores
Unfortunately the high scores keep resetting so there’s little point in actually saving your scores because they’ll be wiped out in short order. It would have been nice if they’d have made it like the instructions say which is the high scores don’t reset unless the power is turned off. Even nicer would be some sort of memory card reader so the scores could be saved that way. I’m running down if this problem is unique to us or this way on all the machines with their tech support.
Speaking of tech support, they do have an 800 number, but when you call they take down all your information and tell you to email support at mybiggames dot com. Umm, why do companies do this? Why have telephone tech support only to tell you to email them the problem? They could at least take down the issue and email you their response. Weak.
Another interesting feature is the secondary AV port where you can plug in a DVD player or other game system. While you can’t play the game system using the joystick you can use the screen which is kind of cool.
If you are looking for a low end arcade home arcade cabinet without MAME support (this is a major drawback) or joysticks that can be replaced/upgraded, then the Big Games Midway cabinet could be of interest. They also have another Konami standup unit (also 12 games). If you don’t care about a more realistic physical arcade experience then buy an Xbox 360 and buy the games on Live Arcade. Not all of the games here are available, but you won’t have to worry about your high scores being saved. Grade: C-
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[…] [break to play Robotron 2084] […]
Pingback by Help the drunk get home game » Make You Go Hmm — November 18, 2006 @ 10:57 pm PST
Your problem isn’t unique, our highscores reset also. And if you change any of the game settings, those seem to reset as well.
The Konami unit has better graphics, a 15″ monitor, games are saved even when unplugged, front storage door is sturdier (attaches differently), NO CARTRIDGE, no AV plugs (at least that I can find) and it has the ability to adjust the monitor settings. Interestingly enough, both units are made, or maybe just sold by Big Games, so I’m not sure why they aren’t more consistent between the two units.
Comment by texascpa — November 25, 2006 @ 1:58 pm PST
Thanks for chiming in, texascpa. Yeah, we’re going to go with a MAME cabinet the next round, I think, although my wife said that Konami package looked fun. It’s interesting that the high scores actually get saved on that one.
Comment by TDavid — November 25, 2006 @ 2:26 pm PST
If you go with the Konami, look for it at a Linen’s N Things store and use one of their 20% of coupons. YOu should be able to pick it up for less than $400.
Comment by texascpa — November 26, 2006 @ 7:44 am PST
The Midway game is last years model. The Konami is this years model (so it is update with newer features). I think there is no external AV on the Konami version because the screen is mounted vertically so if you hooked a dvd player or other device to it, it would display wrong. Konami also has re-enforced controls. From what I have read, if you have the Midway version you can contact BigGames tech support and they will send you a remote control that you can use to adjust the monitor. The Konami version has the monitor controls already exposed so you don’t need a remote.
Comment by jjc1 — November 28, 2006 @ 11:33 am PST
JJC1, thanks for the tip about the remote. I will call them this week.
Comment by texascpa — November 29, 2006 @ 7:50 am PST
Can you buy cartridges with different games for the Midway arcade or is that the only 12 games you can play?
Comment by Cosmos — December 6, 2006 @ 10:27 pm PST
That’s the only 12 games at this time, Cosmos.
Comment by TDavid — December 6, 2006 @ 11:08 pm PST
To add to TDavid’s response, interestingly enough while Big Games states that it is the only cartridge at this time, the cartridge is labled “Midway Arcade Classics #1″ (or something like that). This indicates to me that they intend on selling other cartridges in the future, but who knows.
Comment by texascpa — December 7, 2006 @ 10:41 am PST
We just purchased the Konami from Linen’s n’ Things per earlier post and got it for just over $360.00 (with tax and having it shipped to local store) thanks for the info Texascpa–we saved $90 with the 20% coupon alone.
Has anyone had problems with the controls on the Konami? I read a few complaints online–just curious.
Comment by billnkim90 — December 9, 2006 @ 5:59 pm PST
I bought the Konami stand-up from LNT on X-Mas Eve. Website price was $225 (in-store $400), with the 20% off coupon (thanks Texascpa), I got it for under 200 bucks with in-store pickup. The emulations seem to be spot-on. Any way to change the volume on this thing?
Comment by llayam — December 28, 2006 @ 10:03 am PST
Under $200 is a good deal. It is loud when you first turn it on. The global volume is controlled from the main menu by pressing the 1 and 2 player buttons at the same time. Even at setting two I find it loud. Funny that the sound volume had been one of the complaints with the Midway version. Seems they fixed it but putting the speaker directly up against the case.
Comment by jjct1 — December 28, 2006 @ 11:50 am PST
Under $200? Wow, what a great deal. Makes me wish I had waited a little longer
BTW, has anyone made it to Mercury on Gyruss yet?
Comment by texascpa — December 28, 2006 @ 4:06 pm PST
I set the number of lives to 255 for Gyruss and once I made it to Earth it went back out to Neptune, I was bummed out.
Comment by llayam — January 8, 2007 @ 11:34 am PST
just wanted to mention in case anyone is looking for the Midway Classics arcade game that I just picked one up for my son at JC Penny for a whopping $78 on clearance (Jan 27th). It was 75% off and my 9 year old is estatic and I am thrilled to have gotten it for him at that price.
Comment by myko — January 28, 2007 @ 4:56 pm PST
Which JC Penney store did you find it for $78 ?!?!
Comment by Nick — February 24, 2007 @ 6:30 am PST
Both the Konami and Midway look very fun. I came very close to purchasing the Konami,but…I stumbled across the Samsclub.com site and found an amazing system! It is much more expensive (about $1500 after taxes and shipping) but it is ABSOLUTELY worth the cost. My two boys are GOING CRAZY over it!
You can hook up many modern systems to it (like xbox, playstation, gamecube, your pc) and PLAY ANY GAMES FROM YOUR VARIOUS SYSTEMS WITH CLASSIC ARCADE CONTROLS!
It comes with a PS2 and many games (Sams Club said “200″ games but it was closer to 119 games in total). But the cool thing is you can go to amazon and order playstation 1 or 2 games to add to your collection. And there are many compilations that include 20 or more games per playstation disk.
So it includes a sound system with subwoofer, 20 inch tv, and the ps2 with games and the cabinet, which I believe is taller than the Midway/Konami cabinets.
A cheaper option is to go to quasicade.com and order the cabinet alone and add your own games system, monitor and sound system. I think its about $599 for the cabinet. Which may or may not include taxes and shipping.
I figured that after I pieced together the system bit by bit I could just order the complete package with less headaches from one vendor that I could return it to locally if there were any problems.
P.S. It did take me and my son about 5 hours to put together. We were a little slow, though.
Comment by ron — March 13, 2007 @ 10:42 pm PST
just purchased the midway arcade classics…..i’m back at the arcade in 1985………..without the quarters…….paid 500 with shipping.i’m in love……can anyone take my wife and kids so i can play in peace…all reasonable offers accepted!!!
Comment by big wil — June 8, 2007 @ 7:30 pm PST
HOW can you upgrade the joysick???????
Comment by kim dupuie — July 24, 2007 @ 2:46 pm PST
Anyone mod their konami? If I can find something that displays composite out in landscape I was thinking of putting it in the bottom cabinet and then cutting a hole up to the monitor compartment to display. Either their would be an extra video/audio in or I would get some sort of switch.
I also noticed the Joysticks seem like they are the same as those $10 all in-one battery powered arcade joysticks you plug into your tv. If someone breaks their joystick, you could probably replace it with the joystick from one of those.
Comment by jjct1 — August 26, 2007 @ 10:43 am PST
hey i love these, i found one the other day or actually i should say just the box then you could put your own system in it but hell even that was close to 600 dollars, and the funny thing is you dont get the high score leds etc. so kewl post
Comment by Charles — November 20, 2007 @ 8:19 am PST
Does anybody know if the either the Konami or the Midway game PCB or cartridge can be taken out of one of these cabinets and wired up to work in a real arcade cabinet such as a jamma wired unit. All of my original upright arcade games have 19″ or large monitors. I trying to convert an old jamma wired Donkey Kong cabinet into a Multi-Williams (Defender, Sinistar, Joust, ect.) unit. I have found someone selling a Biggames Midway here in town locally. I have not had the chance to look inside one yet. Please if any one has any thoughts as to if I could do such a thing using a Biggames game please let me know.
Comment by Shawn — July 1, 2008 @ 10:07 pm PST