Time was, if you wanted an arcade cabinet in your house, you had to make a lot of sacrifices. You either had to sacrifice space and a lot of money for a commercial cabinet or sacrifice more time but less money on building a custom MAME cabinet, or some other solution for home arcade gaming. Arcade1Up's line of 3/4 scale arcade cabinets hit the scene and shrunk the cabinets down from their full-sized versions, added more than one game per unit, and kept the price manageable.

Mortal Kombat Arcade1Up Cabinet – Design and Features

“ If you've ever put together a bookshelf or desk from someplace like Walmart, you won't find any surprises here.

Arcade1Up Mortal Kombat Cabinet On Walmart See It

Mortal Kombat Arcade1Up Cabinet – Gaming

“ It's hard to believe the pixelated blood spatter was once considered the possible downfall of civilization.

The question remains with Arcade1Up cabinets: what sacrifices have to be made to get a 4-foot arcade cabinet replica in your home? The good news is the Mortal Kombat Arcade1Up cabinetmanages to distill the arcade Mortal Kombat experience into a device without a lot of sacrifices.The most notable difference between the Arcade1Up Mortal Kombat cabinet and its arcade equivalent is its size. Just like the whole line of Arcade1Up cabinets, the Mortal Kombat... kabinet... is 3/4 scale, standing just 4 feet tall. The standard height for the entire line makes the cabinets pretty difficult to play standing up. The company also sells a line of attractive branded stools with designs based different cabinets, and it also sells a separate riser for around $50, depending on where you buy it.Arcade1Up sent a riser along with the Mortal Kombat cabinet, and as a 6'2" individual, I highly recommend getting one if you plan to add any these cabinets to your collection. It brings up the machine another foot off the floor, just enough to make it playing it comfortable from a standing position. I still ended up using a bar stool from my kitchen to play, but the riser is a great addition.The Mortal Kombat Arcade1Up cabinet comes in a large, flat box, with the parts and pieces are packed inside snugly. I did notice some of the veneer had chipped during shipping, but in this specific case, the parts with minor cosmetic damage are structural, so the chipping isn't noticeable.The cabinet itself is made from a composite wood material and assembles pretty easily. If you've ever put together a bookshelf or desk from someplace like Walmart, you won't find any surprises here. The instructions are easy to follow and there were a few extra pieces of hardware included in case a screw or dowel gets lost or busted. Arcade1Up recommends 2 people work together to assemble the cabinet, but I was able to do it on my own in about an hour.Extremely minor complaint about visible structural screws aside, the parts and pieces fit together well and I had no problems assembling it and placing it on its riser.The control deck is exactly what you'd expect, with a pair of matching joysticks and buttons, players 1 and 2 buttons, power toggle and 3-position volume control. A single speaker is built into the deck, as well.The 17-inch screen on the Mortal Kombat Arcade1Up cabinet is impressive. It's extremely bright and I didn't notice any smearing or other ugly ghosting effects. The vintage 1990s graphics look awesome on the screen, with bright colors and a deep red in the important pixelated blood, of which there is a lot.I've seen grumbling online from some arcade enthusiasts about the quality of the joysticks, so I was keeping my expectations low. After using them, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. They feel a lot like my trusty Soul Calibur V fight stick.The bat top joysticks are square gated, making them ideal for use in fighters like the three Mortal Kombat games. The buttons don't have the crispness of professional set up, but they feel roughly equal to the buttons on my Mad Catz fight stick. For normal play, I found the controls responsive, with an authentic feel. If you're worried about the controls, there are countless tutorials out there for swapping them out for Sanwa or other commercial-grade parts. It might be a good option for serious contenders, but in my experience, the buttons and joysticks included with the Arcade1Up Mortal Kombat cabinet offered me no problems.The most important function of the Mortal Kombat Arcade1Up cabinet is how well it plays the included games. Housed in a cabinet based on Mortal Kombat II, the first three games are included, and selected from the start-up screen. Should you grow weary of Mortal Kombat and want some more variety with one of the later games, holding the P2 button for 5 seconds returns you to the game selection screen at any time.They're just as fun as I remember them being. Mortal Kombat's graphics went from jaw-dropping to corny pretty quickly, but the passage of time has brought the graphics to the point they now feel downright charming. The digitized representations of actual actors smashing and kicking their way around the screens is still super fun. The famous gore is downright quaint in 2019. It's hard to believe the pixelated blood spatter and skeletons that look like they were bought from a discount pop-up Halloween shop were once considered the possible downfall of civilization. When I finally remembered how to pull off Scorpion's fatality in the original game, I was about as excited as I was when I first did it on SEGA Genesis way back in the day (my kids couldn't have cared less).