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The Yoga Flame Edition Arcade cabinet from Arcade 1Up is a re-creation of a cabinet I spent countless days and countless coins playing. It comes with multiple editions of Street Fighter 2, the defining beat-em-up, and several other great retro games. Now, even after Amazon's Prime Day sale, it's down to $399, a mighty $100 off, and I urge you to pick it up if you can.
My wife is always trying to one-up me on Christmas and birthdays when it comes to who can get the best present. Normally, we're about equal when it comes to great gifts, but this year, she outdid me in every way. She gave me a taste of what it was like to be a kid again, without the pressures of adulthood -- and it is glorious.
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While the cabinets are a little smaller than you might remember from being a kid, there is no denying the excitement you get when the Street Fighter 2 theme music plays and you press that Ready Player 1 button. It's intoxicating and never fails to make me smile. The light-up marquee adds to the magic and, I admit, I leave the machine on and the music playing in the room all the time. It makes me happy to walk into a room and hear that sound. I even added some Govee light bars to the back so it has dancing neon lights while I play.
Assembly was pretty simple, and I was able to do it myself without too much trouble. Be careful of the screen as you install it, though. There's plenty of room in the back for a keyboard that you might want to add if you're into modding. There are interesting avenues you can go down if you want to expand the cabinet's capabilities.
Right now, the only mod I've done is adding these cool new knobs. The original ones are fine, if a little small, but I wanted round, shiny balls like the machines of my youth. It was a great buy, and standing shoulder to shoulder next to friends and family, frantically mashing at the buttons, completes that retro feeling.
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Arcade1Up has more than just the Street Fighter Cabinet on sale right now, and I wish I had the money to get them all. Even the ones that aren't on sale make me giddy. I'm still saving for the Time Crisis cabinet. It will be mine one day. It will...
I agree that $400 is a lot of money, and you could do something similar with a Rasberry Pi and some emulator software, but it wouldn't be as good, and it wouldn't feel the same. Trust me.
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