{"id":18849,"date":"2019-02-26T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T00:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=18849"},"modified":"2019-02-25T02:42:30","modified_gmt":"2019-02-25T02:42:30","slug":"a-coin-op-arcade-on-my-desk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2019\/02\/26\/a-coin-op-arcade-on-my-desk\/","title":{"rendered":"A Coin-Op Arcade on My Desk"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"No office desk is complete without a desk toy to help you through the slow times of the day. For anyone raised in the heyday of video game arcades, the folks at My Arcade are there for you. They offer a line of nostalgic classic videogames in realistic arcade cabinets that are small enough to fit on one\u2019s desk. Some of the biggest names in early arcade history are available in a handheld portable Pocket Player, as a 7\u201d tall arcade-shaped Micro Player, or the top-of-the-line 10\u201d tall Data East Mini Player. Sure, they\u2019re fun to play, but I get a smile simply seeing it there on my desk.<\/p>\n

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My Arcade sells a variety of retro gaming products and accessories, but the ones that impress me the most are the three lines of licensed collectibles. A line of Pocket Players are handheld, Nintendo DS sized consoles, sporting three different classic games. The Micro Player line are cute little arcade cabinets each featuring one particular game. Finally, the Data East Mini Player is a much larger (desktop-ish sized) console that contains 34 different Data East brand arcade games. Each one has its pluses and minuses, so we\u2019ll take a look at them one at a time.<\/p>\n

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My Arcade Pocket Player<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"This is a line of handheld players, each featuring three classic games – typically one flagship one and two supporting ones. For example, PAC MAN comes with PAC MAN, PAC-MANIA (a sort of 3d-ish version of PAC-MAN), and PAC-PANIC (a variety of Tetris.) The Galaga Pocket Player has Galaga, Galaxian, and Xevious. Other headliner examples include Dig Dug, Bubble Bobble, and Ms. Pac-Man. The screen looks good and is reasonably sized at 2.8\u201d. However, most of these classics are in \u201cportrait\u201d format so the sides of the screen aren\u2019t necessarily well used. It feels good in my hands, but would make for a pretty full pocket (it fits, but takes up the whole pocket.) The game requires four! AAA batteries to run, and while it can be powered off a micro-USB input, mixing a handheld with a power cable seems to be a strange pairing.<\/p>\n

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My Arcade Micro Player<\/strong>
\n\"\"I consider the Micro Players to be Data East\u2019s flagship line. These cute little arcade machines are just the right size to fit on one\u2019s desk, getting two or three would turn the corner of your desk into your own little arcade! While each machine boasts a single game, there are a wide variety from which to choose. I have BurgerTime, but I\u2019m eyeing Dig Dug and Galaxian. Several new models are coming out in April, including Elevator Action, Ms. PacMan, and Bubble Bobble. Pressing on the \u201ccoin slot\u201d in the front powers up the game and then it’s a matter of pressing a button to \u201cput in coins\u201d and you\u2019re on your way. The interface is similar to an old NES controller: including a d-pad, two main buttons, and two small button for starting up the game. The d-pad has a threaded hole in which to insert a little joystick. It is pretty small in my hands, but usable. If I\u2019m going to geek out about playing an arcade game in my youth, I want to be using a joystick. The Micro Players run off four AA batteries, but also have a mini-USB port. Unlike the Pocket Players, I could see a desk toy like this comfortably running off of a USB port on my desk. There are a few minus sides to the setup. While the game maintains high scores, they are lost whenever the machine is turned off. My biggest concern would be the game\u2019s volume button. Located at the back of the cabinet it is easy to use, but defaults to \u201cfull volume\u201d whenever the game is turned off. For something I imagine as a desk toy, having it boot up and blaring startup music while others around me are working just doesn\u2019t seem like a good design decision. Thankfully, one can dial down the volume each time as the machine boots up, but if I forget its pretty clear to everyone around me that I\u2019m going to play BurgerTime. Finally, the small size looks great on my desk and even the controls are reasonable to use, but if I actually want to play it on top of my desk I need to lean over to get the best view of it. It is simply a function of the size of the cabinet. Simply setting it on something another 6 to 8 inches taller makes using the machine much more relaxing. It\u2019s a small thing and a simple adjustment, I certainly wouldn\u2019t want the game to have some sort of obnoxious stand to raise it closer to eye level. It would destroy the whole point of the cool-factor of having a little arcade machine on your desk.<\/p>\n

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My Arcade Data East Mini Player<\/strong>
\n\"\"The Mini Player is the capstone of the My Arcade lineup. It is larger, at 10\u201d tall it still fits on a desk but approaches the level of \u201cTHE\u201d desk toy on your desk rather than \u201cA\u201d desk toy. However, the larger size means it doesn\u2019t suffer from the lean-over problem I have with the Micro Players line. It also turns on when the \u201ccoin slot\u201d is pressed, has a similar D-pad turned joystick, and four action buttons. High scores are still not saved, but thankfully the volume remains set even when the game is powered off. It has a micro-USB slot for power but, unfortunately, there is not battery power option. (One hack I\u2019ve seen online is to simply velcro a USB battery pack to the back of the machine.) The main selling point of this larger machine would be its 34 different games from the Data East brand of arcade machines. While there are no PAC-MANs or GALAGAs on the list, there are a few that stand out, including Karate Champ (no 2-player vs mode unfortunately), BurgerTime, Caveman Ninja, and a few sports-themed titles. Note that these are all old-school titles so they can be a challenge to play. They were meant to eat up one\u2019s quarters and they do a good job of it. Thankfully, unlike in the old arcades, now I can press the \u201cquarter button\u201d and simply continue with my game.<\/p>\n

I could wish for more AAA titles in the mix, but here are my thoughts on a few of the included games in a short rundown…<\/p>\n

Games I Liked<\/p>\n