The Arcade1UP home arcade machines are cheaper than ever

You can chalk it up to “nostalgia goggles” all you want, but the results are in, and retro gaming clearly isn’t going anywhere. Miniature old-school consoles like the NES Classic Edition, Super NES Classic Edition, and the newly released Sega Genesis Mini have proven to be insanely popular, but for lovers of old arcade games, there’s a line of other retro machines that have flown under the radar: the Arcade1UP cabinets.

These slightly scaled-down machines are perhaps the best way to bring the old-school arcade right into your home, and they just dropped down to their lowest prices yet, with two Arcade1UP models now ringing in at less than half their original price. The Arcade1UP cabinets are officially licensed consoles featuring the original cabinet artwork of the game each model represents. The cabinets themselves are 3/4th-scale replicas of the originals, standing at four feet tall. (If you prefer to play while standing, then the Arcade1UP riser is a great add-on that you can grab for $45.)

Along with its titular game, each Arcade1UP machine comes loaded with two or three additional titles. The <em>Asteroids</em> cabinet also features Major Havoc, Lunar Lander, and Tempest; the <em>Centipede</em> arcade also has Millipede, Missile Command, and Crystal Castles; and the <em>Street Fighter II</em> console offers three variants of the iconic genre-defining fighting game: Champion Edition, The New Challengers, and Street Fighter II Turbo.

The Arcade1UP machines also feature the original controls for the games they come loaded with, meaning that they don’t just look the part – they feel and play like proper arcade machines as well. Although the Street Fighter II machine has the smallest discount of the three, it offers the most versatile and recognizable control layout with a joystick and six buttons – a setup that makes this particular cabinet the best choice for converting into a custom MAME machine if you’re inclined to tinker.

When they were initially released, the Arcade1UP machines ran for $400 and the latest standard pricing has been hovering around $300. All three of the aforementioned cabinets are currently on sale at Walmart, and two of them are marked down almost 50%: The Arcade1UP <em>Asteroids</em> machine is the cheapest of the bunch at $165 ($134 off), the <em>Centipede</em> cabinet is just $10 more at $175, and the <em>Street Fighter II</em> machine is on sale for $249.

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