I’ll never forget my first experience with an arcade machine.
I was at a small regional airport. I can’t remember who we were picking up, but I do remember the Galaga machine. The beeping sound effects and the flashing lights called to me like a siren, even though I was barely tall enough to see the screen and grasp the joystick.
I don’t know how much time I spent playing. It felt like hours, but was probably closer to 20 minutes. For a kid whose only experience with gaming was an NES, the whole experience felt transformative.
Ever since then, I’ve wanted an arcade machine of my own. As I grew older, I came to understand that owning an arcade machine meant spending a not-insignificant amount of money — and spending a not-insignificant amount of time on maintenance. Those considerations (plus living in small apartments for a large part of my adult life) meant that obtaining one was more of a pipe dream than anything else.
Enter the X-Arcade Arcade2TV-XR. This (relatively) affordable unit promised to bring the arcade experience into the home, and it definitely delivered on that promise. It also brought the maintenance aspect, too, in the form of tedious setup and configuration. Spoiler alert: I still think it’s worth it, especially if you’re an arcade buff, but be prepared to pull out what hair you have left trying to set up MAME to work with this controller (because let’s face it: if you remember arcades, you’re probably thinning a little).
The arcade dream
X-Arcade isn’t new to the industry. The company has produced arcade controllers for over two decades, bringing the feel of playing old-school games right into the living room. As much fun as it is to play Street Fighter on a console, playing with a physical joystick and an arcade layout feels so much better.
The Arcade2TV-XR model is a bit different. It works with Meta Quest 2 and Quest 3 headsets to immerse the player into a virtual arcade, and it’s a pretty great experience. You can even customize the interior of the arcade to a certain extent, adding your own ROMs and playing your favorite games in an environment that feels familiar, if a bit better lit than the arcades I remember. If you really want to seal the deal, pump in a bit of stale cigarette smoke (but don’t really. That’s awful for you.)
The unit includes a code for Arcade Ranger, the virtual arcade area. It also has a multiplayer game built-in that lets you build and customize an arcade while serving customers, but it isn’t something I spent much time with. My interest lay in trying to recreate the arcade experience: a cacophony of background music, sound effects, and flashing lights all vying for attention while I struggle to make the most of a limited number of quarters.
I was successful to a degree. I wasn’t quite able to capture the atmosphere, but at least I nailed the feel. Playing older arcade games with the Arcade2TV-XR feels great. The buttons are responsive, the joystick is snappy, and it even has a trackball in the center if I ever get the urge to play Golden Tee. The inclusion of a second joystick and set of buttons is great for playing multiplayer arcade games with another person, although you will need to connect the controller to a PC or console for that.
Thankfully, connecting to another system is easy enough to do. It’s the configuration that had me groaning in frustration. Part of the problem is dated documentation; I found conflicting information in the included user manual and on the website. I ended up opting for the information on the company website, trusting it to be more accurate.
The VR setup was simple. Linking the Arcade2TV-XR to RetroArch, on the other hand, felt like trying to beat level three of Battletoads. You know the one. Between firmware updates, USB issues, and trying to get the arcade controller to register in the device panel and then in RetroArch, I spent hours changing various settings until it worked just the way I wanted.
Of course, the controller isn’t to blame for all of that. RetroArch can be a bit of a nightmare at times, and it just had no idea what to make of the X-Arcade stick. In the end, everything worked as intended, and I spent a lot of time playing 1942, Gauntlet, and several other favorites. Playing fighters is particularly rewarding, and the Arcade2TV-XR comes with swappable restrictor gates to fine-tune the experience.
Also: Pac-Man. So much Pac-Man.
It’s not exactly the same as playing an arcade machine, and I have to sideload ROMs onto the Quest 2 headset before they will appear in the virtual arcade environment. It’s not plug-and-play, but I never expected it to be. Emulation has always required effort from the user, but this endeavor took more than expected and isn’t something I’d wish upon a complete beginner.
I’m not sure anything can ever fully capture the same sensation as when I first played Galaga at that airport, but when I pull on a VR headset and watch the cabinet appear in front of me, it’s a step closer.
And when I’m fully locked into a game, trying to beat a previous high score, something is there: the unadulterated joy that comes from playing games that live on mostly in memory.
