Josh Hendrickson
Arcade1Up
Arcade1Up, the company bringing the arcade machines to your home for an affordable price, decided to start CES with a bang. The company announced cabinets for Burger Time, NBA Jam, pinball tables, and new form factors and accessories.
A Limited Edition Burger Time for Your Nostalgia
Burger Time is a game that released in 1982, so this is an arcade machine that’s all about nostalgia and the beginning of the gaming scene. For those of you who are unfamiliar, the gameplay was relatively simple. You control a chef who runs around Donkey Kong-reminiscent levels filled with ladders.
The object is to run across ingredients for a burger (bun, meat, etc.), which drops them to lower levels. Eventually, you complete a burger at the bottom. Each level has four potential burgers. But, enemy food characters will try to stop you, and your only defense is to drop ingredients on them from above or use a limited number of pepper shots to stun them.
Arcade1Up says this is a limited edition 3/4-scale machine, which also includes Karate Champ, Bad Dudes, and Caveman Ninja. The unit consists of controls for two players, a light-up marquee, matching riser, and a unique form factor and artwork that matches the original Burger Time machine.
Arcade1Up promises to ship orders placed by January 31 on March 1. And again, quantities are limited. You can pre-order it right now at Arcade1Up’s online store for $399.
NBA Jam has Online Play
Next up in Arcade1Up’s lineup comes with a shocking surprise. An NBA Jam arcade cabinet with online play. If you never played NBA Jam, you missed out on one of the best basketball video games of all time. It might look like a normal enough two-on-two game at first, but the characters jumped obscene heights and could even light the ball on fire and do a flipping dunk (as in, you flipped several times, and then dunked). It was silly and so much fun.
You can play with up to four other players who also own the units around the world. This cabinet is also a 3/4-scale replica and includes NBA Jam, NBA Jam Tournament Edition, and NBA Hang Time.
Arcade1Up didn’t specify pricing or requirements for online play at this time. We’ve followed up and will update when we have more information.
Pinball Machines
Although details are scarce, Arcade1up announced that it’s partnering with Zen Studios to create 3/4-scale digital pinball machines. Zen Studios is a popular pinball game creator with games on iOS, Android, Xbox, and more. At this time, it’s unclear what these machines will look like or what the games or pricing will be, but we’ve asked for more information.
Other Cabinets and new Form Factors
If all that isn’t enough, Arcade1Up announced the following 3/4-scale cabinets: A Frogger arcade—which includes Frogger and Time Pilot—and a Golden Axe machine, where you can play Golden Axe, Shinobi, Altered Beast, Wrestle Wars, and Death Adder.
The company also announced a new version of the Star Wars cabinet. This one is a sit-down cabinet with a slide-out bench to give the unit a cockpit-like feel. You’ll be able to play Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi.
Arcade1Up says it’s also working on other factors, including handheld devices, plug-and-play controllers, at-home Jumbo Joysticks, and more.
We’ll be at CES, where Arcade1Up plans to show off some of these products, and the world’s largest arcade machine. We’ll follow up with Arcade1Up to get all the details.
