Capcom Home Arcade review: the DF Retro verdict

The Capcom Home Arcade is an absolute delight. It delivers almost all of what you might hope for, but there are some genuine surprises on top of that. Yes, the unit does an admirable job of replicating the classic coin-operated experience on a range of genuinely great games, but the biggest takeaway is how it actually introduced me to less prolific – but no less enjoyable – titles from a golden age of arcade history. Even though the line-up contains just 16 games in all, there’s actually a palpable sense of discovery here and I came away from the product even more impressed by Capcom’s arcade heritage.

In terms of those all-important first impressions, the Capcom Home Arcade makes quite an impact. In the age of the retro mini-console, publisher Koch Media goes large by constructing an arcade-style base unit, using high quality Sanwa arcade parts to deliver a genuine, authentic feel to the controls. It’s rugged but precise, but most importantly just like an arcade controller should. Mounting it all within a jumbo-sized Capcom logo is a little ostentatious but nothing is lost in quality of the crucial interface – it feels great. Crucially, it’s also secure too. The underside of the unit uses a soft-touch rubberised plastic that somehow manages to keep the unit firmly planted to the surface during play.

Connections are limited, with an HDMI output on the rear alongside a micro-USB for power and a mysterious EXT input – a USB port with undefined capabilities. Rounding it off is the power button. If you’re thinking that the EXT input is used for firmware updates, this is actually carried out by an internal WiFi chip, which leads me on to the only genuine issue I had with the review unit: it wouldn’t connect to any network, meaning I couldn’t update the system software. I was lucky in that it turns out that I already had the latest firmware, but it did mean that other cute functions – like uploading high scores to a global database – didn’t work for me.

While the form-factor of the unit is much removed from the fundamental retro mini-console design, the internals are a different story. There’s no FPGA madness here for precision simulation of Capcom’s CPS1/CPS2 architecture. Instead, Koch Media has worked with Barry Harris of the Final Burn Alpha project to deliver emulation instead, powered by an unidentified ARM system on chip. We know it’s a little meatier than the SoCs used in the likes of the Mega Drive mini, as it actually seems to have a heatsink mounted on top. Meanwhile, the HDMI output delivers a 1080p signal, as opposed to the 720p of other retro consoles. An impressive four gigabytes of NAND flash is used to house the collection.

Capcom Home Arcade games list

There’s a good spectrum of CPS1 and 2 games on the unit – 16 in total. There’s a good mix of classics and lesser-known titles that definitely deserve some time in the limelight.

Alien vs PredatorArmored WarriorsCaptain CommandoFinal FightCyberbotsDarkstalkersStreet Fighter 2: Hyper FightingMega Man The Power Battle1944: The Loop MasterEco FightersGiga WingProgearCapcom Sports ClubSuper Puzzle Fighter II TurboStriderGhouls ‘n’ Ghosts

Loading up the unit itself, we’re greeted with a boot-up time of around 25 seconds before dipping into the main menu of the system – and while it is very attractive and well-presented overall (I liked the use of preview music when highlighting each game), the interface itself runs at a very low, choppy frame-rate. Thankfully, poor performance doesn’t extend to the quality of the emulation itself, with games running just as they should, by and large. My initial sessions with the machine were negatively impacted by an infrequent stutter, but thankfully a factory reset managed to solve this issue. Bear that in mind if you have the same problem – it worked a treat for me, though it does have the side effect of wiping all of your high scores.

Emulation quality overall is absolutely fine, bar the occasional audio drop-out – which couldn’t be fixed by swapping cables (and while we’re on the subject of cables, publisher Koch Media deserves kudos for supplying very long ones!). There also seemed to be an occasional weird glitch in Street Fighter 2 Hyper Fighting, which you can see in the embedded video.