Review Fix Exclusive: Inside ‘Dream Arcades’

Review Fix chats with Michael Ware, founder of Dream Arcades to find out about the personalized Arcade cabinet creators and what makes their models special ones.

For more on Dream Arcades, click here.

Review Fix: For those who don’t know who you guys are, what do you guys do?

Michael Ware: We build PC-based arcades for home or corporate use. Our machines are built with real arcade quality parts but are powered by a PC. The machines have a custom menu and can play PC or emulated games.

Review Fix: Can you tell us about your different machines?

Ware: We carry 5 standard models, ranging from our 4-player sit-down arcade to a monster 40-inch model. We also offer an upright with a 21-inch monitor and small footprint, as well as larger versions with 29 or 32-inch screens.

All of our machines feature our Retro-reload software, which makes finding and adding additional titles as simple as typing the game’s name. Once the customer clicks to download a title, our software automatically locates and configures it, as well as adds it to the menu complete with animated screenshot.

Review Fix: How can these machines be personalized?

Ware: We have our own CNC, so we can build just about anything a customer asks for. However, the majority of our customizations are artwork. We can completely skin an arcade, and even have an artist for custom artwork. We do lots of corporate arcades like this, but we’ve done things like put photos of our customer’s kids as superheroes or video game characters on the arcade.

Review Fix: What other custom work can do you guys do?

Ware: We have a programmer and engineer on staff, so we can do write custom games, or even design hardware. We’ve done hardware designed for the XBox 360, and games ranging from a Pac-Man clone to hunting light-gun game titles.

Review Fix: Bottom Line, why should someone own one of your machines?

Ware: Our products are designed to be simple to use, but still has customization and hackable as possible. We offer phone, chat, and e-mail support for the life of the product, and we really stand behind what we sell.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14263 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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