Played iCade 60 in 1 on vacation

Droler

Well-known member

Donor 12 years: 2011-2022
Joined
Jan 31, 2008
Messages
2,493
Reaction score
37
Location
Walker, Louisiana
In a tiny little "arcade" in the Holiday Inn on Lake Buena Vista Blvd, along with a pretty cool racing duo, Guitar Hero, couple of cranes and an air hockey, my son and I played a 60-in-one labeled "iCade" with an 8 way microswitch joystick, three buttons and a trackball. The trackball was smooth as glass but it still could not redeem the awful, half assed sound, lag in controls and general crappiness of every single game we played (Gyruss was the worst offender with less than half the sounds intact and the rest either missing or incorrect). My son (8 years old) has just gotten more or less addicted to Donkey Kong, and tried playing it on this machine and could not control Mario enough to get to the top of the first level. I tried Ms. Pac in both slow and fast mode and couldn't round a corner correctly with the 8 way joystick.

All in all we played maybe 4 or 5 games before giving up on it. It really makes me angry that for a lot of kids, and some adults, this might be the only exposure to a classic arcade experience they EVER come across, and they'll think that's how these games played for real back in the day.

Not to spark a heated debate here - and I do realize this is probably an inferior, older model of the board, but my MAME computer does a much better job of emulation. I do not understand why this type of boardset does so badly.
 
multi.jpg


Here is a shot of the offending cabinet.
 
The cab actually looks pretty nice (an original Midway as the base I assume)! Most of the multicades I encounter in the wild are crap cabs with mediocre controls.

8-way sticks are murder for 4-way games - really detracts from gameplay as you say. I always thought that a little more thought should have went into the original 60-in-1 in terms of focusing on common controls (eg. A board just with 4-way stick games) versus just a focus in vertical vs horizontal. It takes talent to put together a truly multipurpose CP that takes advantage of all rhe games. Otherwise, you're left with a CP that does nothing well.
 
Last edited:
The manufacturers don't care that it doesn't work right, like all chinese bootleg manufacturers they are more concerned with the initial perception of value of their item and not if it is actually any good or not. That is why they do things like make 6,000 in 1 nes knockoffs that really only contain 30 unique games AND require you to go down the 6000 game variation list one game at a time.

The board is still quite usable. The problem is insisting that the thing be a 60 in 1. Turn off all the 8-way games, trackball and spinner games and suddenly the thing becomes a whole lot better. Unfortunately everyone building and operating the things seems to be playing the same "lets fool the consumer" game that the bootleg manufacturer is taking, and thus they stick an 8-way joystick on every time.
 
I have to agree. Every game I've played on one was nearly unplayable or the sounds are off. Originals FTW!

Another poor, poor Ms. Pac.
 
The problem is the joystick. Put in a good switchable 4-way / 8-way joystick and it would be very playable. It's not perfect, but passable if you can't put 20 dedicated cabs in your home.
 
Problem with the switchable joysticks or even putting an 8-way and 4-way side by side is that guests ALWAYS mess this up. They never grab the correct stick. You are much better off just picking 8-way, 4-way or trackball and just having a single control type and turning everything else off.

The problem is the joystick. Put in a good switchable 4-way / 8-way joystick and it would be very playable. It's not perfect, but passable if you can't put 20 dedicated cabs in your home.
 
I have that exact cab minus the ball. I'm not sure who exactly made them but it's a from scratch cab and actually built pretty good. I was lucky enough to have mine running advance-dos-mame which works fantastic.
 

Attachments

  • mame.jpg
    mame.jpg
    59.6 KB · Views: 105
Man what is it with the horrible garish artwork on newer cabinets? Looks like there was a logo explosion at the arcade factory.
 
This is why I always build them with 4-way joysticks. If I put in an 8-way, everyone bitches about problems playing Pac-Man, Donkey-Kong, Frogger, etc. If I put in a 4-way, NOBODY complains about not going diagonal in Xevious, 1942, etc...
 
This is why I always build them with 4-way joysticks. If I put in an 8-way, everyone bitches about problems playing Pac-Man, Donkey-Kong, Frogger, etc. If I put in a 4-way, NOBODY complains about not going diagonal in Xevious, 1942, etc...

yeah the ones I built/converted went with 4 way at least the classics play better, and I dont think anyone has ever commented on the lack of diagonals :)
 
I just ordered a pair of 4 ways for my 60 in 1. Does anyone know what games only work with a 8 way? I know Gyress, and Gun Smoke, but what else?
 
If you are going with a 4-way stick and two buttons then turn off all of the following games.

1942
1943
Arkanoid
Centipede
Galaga 3
Gyruss
Juno First
Millipede
Scramble
Super Breakout
Super Cobra
Time Pilot
Xevious
Zaxxon
Gunsmoke
1943 Kai
Congo Bongo (4-way but needs a qbert joystick).

Be sure and enable the speed up dip switch on the speed up pac versions or else they will all be slow.

That leaves you with a 43 in one, but that 43 in one is far better than the stock 60 in 1. Particularly since a lot of the audio problems people complain about are also on that list of titles I just advised you turn off.
 
All 8-way games will work with a 4-way. You'll just be limited to up down left right movement. No diagonals...
 
And that is inferior to simply playing another game with the correct controls. Even one single game with poor controls brings the entire thing down. It is why most mame cabinets are terrible, because they have all the things that won't play properly turned on.

Let us say you have an ice cream shop and your distributor has 60 flavors available, but 17 of them taste and smell like raw fish to various degrees (although this isn't obvious to the customers until after they order the cone). Now would you rather have 60 flavors available and have 27 percent of your customers get terrible ice cream or have 43 flavors and nothing but happy customers.

Quality over quantity. People will pay $100 for an aftermarket kit that will add a single game (Double DK, Star Wars/ESB, Multipede, etc, etc) and be quite happy with it. But give them a $60 board for 60 bucks that really can't play all the games properly and they will still insist on turning every last one of them on, and will even insist that Pac-Man plays fine with the 8-way or that Scramble is a little harder with the 4-way, instead of just turning off the stuff they can't play right.

Your guests will always pick the problem title. If you have 12 games in a line, they will pick the broken game. If all your games work perfectly then they will walk up to the worst game you have and play that. If you have 43 games on a menu that play right and even one that doesn't then they will select that 1 game. Put 17 of them that don't play right, then it is even more likely. Install the 8-way (which gives you roughly 40 that don't play right) and then it becomes a guarantee that they will pick title after uncontrollable title. Install a switching stick and they will play every game in the wrong mode. Install a 4-way and an 8-way and they will use the wrong stick every time.

All 8-way games will work with a 4-way. You'll just be limited to up down left right movement. No diagonals...
 
Last edited:
I also figured out that if you turn all the games off but one, it will boot directly to that one game (skipping that bad looking icade menu). This would be great for dedicated cabinets with a bad boards. easy $80 fix (plus Jamma harness).
 
Last edited:
All 8-way games will work with a 4-way. You'll just be limited to up down left right movement. No diagonals...

It makes some of the games like Xevious much more difficult, but I don't think its even possible to make it through Scramble without diagonals. In the "city" portion you have to hug the forward edge of the screen then go diagonally down and back to clear the building.

Super Cobra also has those same kind of obstacles.
 
I just installed an Ultimarc Mag-Stik Plus and it's great! 4/8-way switchable from the top. Awesome.

That's what I've got with the red ball top. You switch between 4 way and 8 way by lifting up the joystick and turning 1/4 turn or for $10 less, you can get the one that you flip a switch on the underneath of the joystick accessed through the coin door.
 

Attachments

  • t-stik_plus.jpg
    t-stik_plus.jpg
    12.3 KB · Views: 141
  • t-ball.jpg
    t-ball.jpg
    10.3 KB · Views: 135
Back
Top Bottom