Arcade Systems

Arcade Systems: pre-configured retro hard drives and consoles from the UK

Arcade Systems is a UK-based store, active since 2018, specialising in the sale of hard drives, SD cards and consoles with pre-configured retro emulation systems. Its products are designed and shipped from England, with tracked shipping worldwide and an instant download option via its own customer portal.

Available front-ends and platforms

The Arcade Systems catalogue is organised around the main retro emulation front-ends, all available as pre-loaded builds or as instant downloads:

• Batocera: bootable Linux distribution for PC, Steam Deck and Raspberry Pi, which boots straight into the cabinet UI without needing to install Windows.
• RetroBat: Windows-based cabinet UI that runs alongside an existing Windows installation, with no dual boot.
• LaunchBox + BigBox: premium Windows UI with a theme and plugin ecosystem, including cover art, attract videos and marquees.
• Hyperspin: animated cabinet wheel UI, with a high level of customisation.
• TeknoParrot: loader for modern arcade titles post-2005, with over 470 compatible games, including Initial D, House of the Dead and Time Crisis 5.
• MAME: the reference arcade emulator, available standalone or combined with any of the above front-ends.

In addition, the store offers builds for consoles (Xbox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii), for handhelds (Steam Deck, Asus ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go, Anbernic, MSI Claw), for virtual pinball (VPX with 1500 tables), for light guns (Sinden, GUN4IR, AimTrak), for racing (force feedback wheels) and for arcade machines (bartop, cocktail and full-size cabinet).

Contents of each build

Each pre-loaded build includes the corresponding front-end, all pre-configured emulators, ROMs and BIOS files for each compatible system, cover art and marquees, controller profiles for Xbox, PlayStation, 8BitDo and generic XInput controllers, and a quick start card. Light gun builds include emulator profiles that automatically detect Sinden, GUN4IR and AimTrak guns and load the appropriate settings for each game.

Shipping and delivery options

Arcade Systems ships from the UK to the United States, European Union, Australia, Canada, Japan and other international destinations via tracked carriers. Next-day delivery is available in the UK, while international shipping usually takes 5 to 10 business days. Almost all products in the catalogue have a download variant in addition to the hard drive variant: the customer buys the download SKU, receives the customer portal credentials by email and downloads the content via FTP to write it to their own external drive.

VIP Membership

VIP Membership unlocks the exclusive VIP builds tier, with deeper compilations and unique releases not sold separately. It includes early access to new builds and platforms before their public release, a larger VIP Pick-and-Choose tier than the public catalogue, and all current and future public download SKUs at no extra cost. It also provides priority FTP servers, a VIP torrent build, access to the private VIP Discord, remote assistance, discounts on physical products and drive cloning, and member discounts. Lifetime and 5-year access options are available.

Customer service and support

The company offers human support by email and through its private Discord, with help for setup, troubleshooting and adjustments. The customer portal allows builds to be re-downloaded at any time and provides free updates as new content is added. The store also publishes setup guides, comparisons and tutorials on its blog, with examples such as the Aurora dashboard guide for Xbox 360 RGH/JTAG, the installation of Multiman and CFW on PS3, the GDEMU vs MODE vs PicoGDR comparison for Dreamcast, or the XStation vs PSIO installation on PS1.

Returns policy and nature of the software

Arcade Systems offers a 100% money-back guarantee. Regarding content, the company notes that the front-ends and emulators it distributes (Batocera, RetroBat, LaunchBox, Hyperspin, TeknoParrot, MAME, RetroArch, etc.) are free open-source software and legal worldwide, while the pre-loaded ROMs operate in the same legal grey area as any pre-loaded ROM media; the company expects customers to own the original consoles or arcade hardware for the titles they play and removes specific titles on request.