Why can't this console exist?

[The Curmudgeon]

So I made a thread a few months ago about the upcoming new Microsoft console and it's advertising and hype that focused more on the tech inside the machine than what you could actually play on the damn thing. Consider the difference between the excitement the new Spider-Man gameplay demo for the PS4 has been getting online - that's how you sell shit.

Anyway, moving away from ultra high spec machines and looking more at gameplay, you know what I'd love to see and would line up to buy? A console dedicated to arcade gaming.

Right now, there are consoles dedicated to retro games; the limited edition mini NES and SNES did big business, there are replica's of the Sega Megadrive/Genesis, the old Atari consoles and even replica ZX Spectrums. So retro home gaming is very much catered for.

But what about arcade gaming? True, they'll never replicate the dingy arcade halls I used to frequent, or walking in with a pocket full of coins and walking out an hour later buzzing, but why has this never been attempted officially?

I say "officially" because there's a lot of bootleg devices out there that let you play old arcade games, but I don't want hacked devices, I don't want to play emulators on a PC. I want an arcade console, something that either lets you stream or download classic arcade games. Can't Konami and Capcom and all these other guys just agree to let their classic games be put on an official console?

Imagine coming home and turning on the Arcade Master 2000. Will you play, ooh, Double Dragon first? Or Pit Fighter? Or Ghouls and Ghosts? Or even Bubble Bobble or Chase HQ? Fuck, I'm drooling writing this.

Why can't this be a thing?

[trashcanman]

I'll take two, please. There are some few beloved arcade games like TMNT and X-Men that have been ported to modern consoles, but it's definitely the exception and not the rule at this point. My guess the console would a pain because there are so many different companies at play that the cost would be substantial whereas Nintendo already presumably owns the rights to most of the games on their old consoles. Still, so many lost arcade classics and forgotten obscurities to bring back to life it's a shame.










Yeah. I'd buy that console.

[The Curmudgeon]

Every one of those games tugged at the old heartstrings, Trash. I can't imagine with the relative might of, say, the PS4 that these console games would be hard to port over. I remember there was a compilation on the PS1 of old Capcom games and it was fantastic. Why something like that can't even be done again, the fact that these bootleg machines are being made and sold surely shows there's a demand for it. I just want to go back to a time when saving Madonna from armies of side scrolling thugs was actually a plot.

On that note, imagine THIS cover being accepted today.