Arcade1Up Terminator 2 Deluxe Arcade Machine

What This Is

A light-gun arcade cabinet with two guns mounted on the control deck, built around the Terminator 2 arcade game, with online leaderboards over WiFi.

Light Guns Are The Most Social Cabinet

Hand somebody a joystick and they ask what the buttons do. Hand them a gun and they already know. Shooting cabinets have the shortest learning curve of any arcade machine, which makes this the one that works at a party and with relatives who have never played anything. That is a genuine argument for owning one.

Why The Guns Are Tethered

Original cabinets mounted the guns for durability and recoil, and this reproduces that. It means less freedom of movement than a wireless light gun and far better feel, because the gun has mass and resistance. It also means the guns and their tethers see the most physical stress of anything on the machine. Expect those to be the parts that eventually need attention.

Leaderboards Matter More Than They Sound

A cabinet with fixed content has a natural lifespan: you finish the games and it becomes furniture. An online scoreboard puts a reason to play one more round back into a machine you have already beaten, which is the difference between a cabinet in use and a cabinet in the corner.

It Is Loud

The audio is a large part of why this game works, and it is not subtle. In a basement that is ideal. Under a bedroom at nine in the evening it is a conversation you will have.