Coolest Gadgets

The world is divided into two segments - those who can spend their day and time in arcades all day long, feeding the machines quarters until they manage to unlock every single secret and complete the game on a single credit, and others who claim that arcades are the reason for the downfall of morality in society due to the negative messages that are spread via the games themselves. If you fall into the latter category, kindly ignore this post, while purveyors of the former will be delighted to know that they can now bring home an arcade game without the hassle of transporting an entire gaming cabinet home with the Arcade-in-a-Box system.

This unique system comes with a pair of arcade controls which you can then plug it directly to your TV set, turning it into an instant arcade setup. The Arcade-in-a-Box is pre-loaded with Midway Arcade Treasures software and the Atari Anniversary Collection bundle of games. This machine is powered by Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system, theoretically enabling you to play virtually any other game with the built-in control. Those who have MAME and the corresponding ROMs in their computer will probably give this a pass though, but if you really want an authentic arcade experience at home, it can’t get any better than this.

You would first have to fork out approximately $1,800 for the Arcade-in-a-Box system, which is nearly double what the machine’s innards is worth. I suppose one can never place too much emphasis on the value of nostalgia. The best value-for-money proposition would be using all that cash to pick up a nice gamepad, but you won’t score points with your mates that way.