Dream Arcades intros cocktail Dreamcade 2.0 arcade cabinet

Those wild 'n crazy kids over at Dream Arcades are at it again, and just when you thought you had your holiday budget ironed out, along comes the four-player cocktail Dreamcade 2.0 to put you back in the red. This arcade cabinet features an "integrated trackball, lighted buttons, a Windows-based DreamPC and a collection of more than 145 licensed games including classic titles from Midway, Digital Leisure, Atari, Namco and Capcom." The 2.0 version of the Dreamcade boasts a 21-inch "real arcade monitor," tinted safety glass and the ability to connect your own console. Sure, it'll cost you $1,899, but that's a small price to pay for all this retro.

[Via I4U News]

[DickHardknocks @ Oct 9th 2007 7:44PM]

Holographic Street Fighter 2?

[Kozzi @ Oct 9th 2007 7:48PM]

eh.. what have they done to you ... Surface ?

[Matthew Hilario @ Oct 9th 2007 7:55PM]

are the concave buttons to retain its vintage aesthetics?
post2k convex are the arcade standard!

and if you just buy other buttons, might as well just build your own stick!
i agree tho it's damn sexy. not worth 1.8k tho definately.

[cmonkey @ Oct 9th 2007 8:32PM]

Blasphemer! :p

When I was building my arcade machine, I went with concave primarily because its what I'm familiar with. Besides, MAME has really limited support for post 2000 games.

[Tim T. @ Oct 9th 2007 8:00PM]

Wow! Dreamcast news...?!...

...oh...

[john @ Oct 9th 2007 8:22PM]

Does it come with real cigarette burns and smell like stale junk food & month-old sweat?

[LeStat730 @ Oct 9th 2007 8:35PM]

Anyone else find it strange how the controls are laid out? While I'm sure there are a few games it might not be a problem with, seems to me that the majority of games wouldn't be to fun to play with a upside down or sideways display? Perhaps the screen is split 4 ways, but for this kind of money I'd rather buy or build a MAME cabinet with 4 control pads set up properly to share the entire screen.

[Craig @ Oct 9th 2007 8:48PM]

clearly you were not alive in the 80s...

[LeStat730 @ Oct 9th 2007 8:55PM]

I was alive in the 80's, I just never got into gaming until 86 when I got a NES console. Still don't understand the layout though... it would make sense with a game like pac man maybe but then the description also says it can play street fighter...

[Jean-Michel Decombe @ Oct 9th 2007 10:16PM]

Not sure what you mean. I would assume that the screen rotates upon player change, although I am not certain that MAME supports that. Does it? Also, it is meant for two players, from what I see. Change seats depending on whether you want to play vertical or horizontal games. That's what the picture suggests, but I'm off to read the detailed info, as it looks very cool. Now, how to convince my wife that it's a priority item for the house?

[andy @ Oct 9th 2007 10:51PM]

Can you load the other 5000 ROMS on this system to justify the cost?

[skoochy @ Oct 9th 2007 11:15PM]

Hmm, everyone but Engadget seems to think this thing is three-sided, three-player (and it is called 3-cade so I am not sure where the "4-player" thing comes from).

@andy, if you read any articles, you would see that yes, you can load the other 5000 ROMs on the system, although it seems already worth the price if you have ever looked at any "arcade-style" games.

[Mike Ware @ Oct 10th 2007 1:16AM]

There's 4-players on three control panels. Two players sit side-by-side using the larger control panel shown in the front of this photo.

Also, someone asked about flipping. Most of the arcade emulators support flipping. So you can play in horizontal or vertical mode. Additionally, you can also play 4-player games like Gauntlet because there are two independently programmable interface cards (one for the head-to-head and one for the side-by-side controls).

[jimbeaux @ Oct 10th 2007 12:34AM]

FINALLY!!! Something productive you can do with a Windows PC!!

[g.hojman @ Oct 10th 2007 12:35AM]

hey, they're local! cool i'm going to try to check them out here up in Folsom!

[kuzu-b @ Oct 10th 2007 12:51AM]

I saw the word dream twice, saw the cabinet, and almost ruined my pants when I though for a moment it was a Dreamcast cabinet. Then you crushed my dreams. Thanks alot, engadget. You shouldn't tease people like that.

[Michael Ware @ Oct 10th 2007 1:20AM]

Actually there is a Dreamcast adaptor available for the arcade. Also we sell the unit at a reduced price without games, or even without the PC.

[Adam Bergstein @ Oct 10th 2007 1:12AM]

Um...I need that.

[Josh @ Oct 10th 2007 10:43AM]

I had a tour of the Factory where these are made. I'm very impressed with these things. The 4-player control on Gauntlet is very slick. For the other ROMs, they include MAME32. Also, you could load any low-requirement PC game on these things too. There are some changes I would make for my own personal cab, but for a mass-produced product, I haven't seen any better.

By the way Michael Ware, how was the trip to China? ;-)

[sean @ Oct 10th 2007 12:56PM]

Is there another joystick on the far side to make this 4 player, or are they counting the track ball as the 4th control? It looks like the trackball is on the wrong side for games like centipede. Is there any other trackball games besides missile command that use a horizontal layout? Oh, and rampart?

[sean @ Oct 10th 2007 12:57PM]

Nevermind about the 4 player comment, I can see the fourth control in the cutout through the transparent top in one of the other pictures.

[MonkeyPunch @ Oct 10th 2007 5:30PM]

No spinner? How to play Tempest then?