Play Atari's 'Centipede' on a tiny, authentic arcade cabinet
It's likely as close as you'll get to having the real thing in your home.
There's something special to playing a vintage arcade cabinet, but it's usually impractical to own one. It's no mean feat to lug a gigantic machine into your home, and you'll probably have to restore it to recapture its glory. Atari and New Wave Toys think they have a better idea. They've partnered on Replicade X Centipede, a 1/6th-scale cabinet replica that lets you play (what else?) Centipede in an authentic-looking system that won't chew up tons of space in your den. The 3.5-inch LCD won't recreate the experience you get with an old-school CRT screen, but everything else is surprisingly close. It's made of metal and wood, the art is sourced directly from Atari's vaults, and you even steer the game using a tiny trackball.
The mini cabinet runs on a lithium-ion battery to let you play where you want, and New Wave is promising "lag-free" performance through its chipset.
New Wave is crowdfunding the project, and backers can pledge $90 or more to get a Centipede system of their own starting in April 2018. That sounds like a lot, but the company expects to price the mini cabinet at $160 when it hits retail. This isn't for those of us who are happy to save some money by playing Atari classics on PCs and consoles -- it's for those who want to relive the arcade's heyday while making a few concessions to modern realities.
