Buying an old-school arcade console is a big investment. Ms Pac-Man bragging rights don’t just cost a lot of money — you pay the price in real estate. That whole corner of your living room gone for just one measly game. A new service called All You Can Arcade sort of makes this proposition worthwhile.
For $US75 a month you get the right to hold onto one console, which you can swap out monthly with no charge for delivery or pick up. In certain areas — like San Francisco — you’ve got a pretty wide selection of classic games (Bad Dudes!), but a search around our office in Manhattan pulled up no results.
If you’re a really big nerd with a really big stack of cash at your disposal, you can also sign up for two and three consoles at a time for $US150 and $US225 — so, you know, these packages are like very expensive Quickflix DVD packages for arcade games.
Given the cost of the consoles as well as the expense of shipping and delivering them to your house, $US75 seems pretty reasonable. Then again, you have to wonder if there are enough arcade nerds out there to sustain the business. It seems a little overkill when consoles loaded with thousands of games are out there. And you can play all of these basically for free on your computer. On the other hand, awesome, and you are not worthy. [All You Can Arcade via Apartment Therapy]