Page 6 - Old School Gamer Magazine Issue #21 Free Edition

By Brad Feingold
In 2011, Jong-Wook Shin had a vision to create a user- friendly arcade system that would allow players to legally download games to a system and play with the full arcade experience. Nine years later, after a success- ful Kickstarter campaign, the iiRcade is now a reality.
When a product is announced to any outlet, the biggest concern is the amount of dedication that the creator is putting into the product. Since the announcement of the iiRcade, Jong-Wook Shin made it his priority to go onto Facebook and give any and all updates to every- thing about the project, from the games that are and will be available, to the design of the cabinet and stretch goals on Kickstarter. Every time he came on the screen, he was announcing something new and exciting. We couldn’t wait to hear what he had to say.
A standard design cabinet was originally announced, but as time went on, there were announcements of new designs for a Double Dragon and also a Dragon’s Lair cabinet. As of the release of this issue, there was an announcement of a new cabinet design based on the upcoming release of RetroMania Wrestling. This review is based on the Dragon’s Lair 128GB cabinet.
I figured I’d open the stand kit first. Everything was well packed and wrapped tight. Upon removal of the first level of Styrofoam, I was amazed. The artwork on the sides of the cabinet was incredible! There was not a scratch or flaw on any part. Every new piece that came out held more incredible art. I could not wait to put it together.
I received some emails from some colleagues asking what it was like to assemble the entire unit. From the stand to the bar top unit itself, it was very easy to do.
The instructions that come with each part of the arcade are clear and precise and make it very easy to install the stand in less than 45 minutes. The only tool that you need is a Phillips screwdriver. All the hardware that you need for assembly is included.Once finished,
I started on the bar top. Like the stand, everything was packed nice and tight. The thin monitor and the protective glass were also strategi-
cally wrapped to prevent any damage. But how do I install the computer and the controller?
The answer was in one of the boxes. The Sanwa con- troller, which has a beautiful Dragon’s Lair design, was already assembled, but what type of processor powers the beast? Is it Android, PC, or OS? Actually, it is none of the above. It is based on the Android system but is created from the ground up for the iiRcade. The general hardware is optimized solely for the unit as well, but it does run Unity, Unreal4 and Gamemaker2 games.
Once you get to the inside of the machine with the cables, you will not have any problems connecting the ports. Everything is set for the size and direction for each port, so you really can’t make mistakes while con- necting the wiring.
Now it’s time to place the system on top of the stand, remove the stickers from the buttons, close up the back and power up. Once the system powers up, the iiRcade
6 OLD SCHOOL GAMER MAGAZINE • ISSUE #21
logo flashes across the screen and gives you the option to scan the Q-code if you have an Android phone. After connecting to the home Wi-fi and registering the