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Arcade1Up interview: Reviving X-Men and the company's future

John and Cyrus from Arcade1Up sat down with our team to discuss their recent releases and what's to come from the company down the road.

Chris Jarrard

February 17, 2021 1:35 PM

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As we now sit more than two decades beyond the golden age of arcade gaming, many players have grown nostalgic for the experiences of their youth. Arcade1Up has been catering specifically to such customers with their vaunted lineup of coin-op arcade cabinet reissues. The company’s scale replicas of the most beloved arcade games of all time have been a smash hit from the first release, offering arcade fans an affordable way to get these cabinets into their homes or offices.

Recently, our own Greg Burke and Blake Morse got the opportunity to sit down with Cyrus Rosenberg and John Diamonon from Arcade1Up. They spoke at length about the process behind building these replica cabinets, securing licensing, and future plans for new reissues.

In the early parts of the interview, Cyrus and John speak about how work began on a cabinet that includes the 1992 X-Men arcade game from Konami. This particular cabinet was tricky for Arcade1Up as it was their first that required three separate licensors. X-Men was the only Marvel game Konami had, but Arcade1Up needed additional titles so that the finished product offered as many games as their typical products. The Arcade1Up team also negotiated licensing for the classic Data East Captain America and the Avengers beat ‘em up as well as its follow up, Avengers in Galactic Storm.

The duo made some indirect hints at future cabinet reissues. Predictably, the conversation turned toward Midway’s classic basketball and football games. Diamonon was careful with his words but explained that licensing with something like NFL Blitz is incredibly complicated.  From the larger rosters inherent to the game of football to dealing with the NFL, any work done on an NFL Blitz reissue will have to be done carefully, but the team is optimistic.

The rest of the chat is incredibly informative, so be sure to check it out in full via the embed above. For more interviews with the team at Arcade1Up and all the folks responsible for creating the biggest games in the industry, be sure to check out the Shacknews and GamerHubTV YouTube channels.

Chris Jarrard

Contributing Tech Editor

Chris Jarrard likes playing games, crankin' tunes, and looking for fights on obscure online message boards. He understands that breakfast food is the only true food. Don't @ him.