Pandora Arcade Units - Are they worth it?

So I recently picked up a Pandora 5S. Partially out of curiosity, but mostly because arcade games were amongst my favorite games I played as a kid. I grew up near Reno where gambling is a thing, and if you aren't 18, you aren't even allowed in the area with the slot machines. So as a kid, I spent a lot of time in the arcades while the adults were dropping coins into slot machines. This has, admittedly created a bit of a nostalgia direction for me. Arcades were far superior to their console counterparts back then. And there were tons of arcade exclusive like X-Men that are still loved to this day. And as someone who loves classic 2D fighting games, the arcade was one of the best places to play.

We'll start off explaining what the Pandora's Box is. It's a portable game console, with arcade sticks and buttons built in. It's got an HDMI out port so you can hook it straight into a TV, power it on and play. Pretty much anywhere. It also has a VGA out with an audio jack and a built in speaker. I get the VGA jack, as a lot of people try and keep with CRT, getting that old school feel. But the built in speaker is kind of a surprise. It's not a horrible speaker, but nothing that will set the world a light. It also has a couple of USB ports in the back. One is so you can play games from a thumb drive (expandable storage is always a plus), and the other is so you can use the stick as a USB Controller (I'll get into that later). On the top you have 2 sticks, and 2 sets of buttons, a classic 6 button layout for each player. There is also the standard player one and player two buttons, along with a coin button and a pause button.


I will start off with what everyone usually wants to know first, the games, and how do they play. The version I picked up has 999 games built in. Through my research on the device, there seem to be a TON of variants. There are ones that have a back hinge, ones that have screws through the top (like mine), and a massive variety on the quantity of games included. I won't go through the entire games list as that is not only too much, especially for a text review. But I will take you through some of the major titles, and hit on the good and the bad of what this machine has to offer.

When you boot the device, you are greeted with a a nice opening sequence with some pretty intense music. This intro seems to vary from version to version, but it is a nice touch. Then it boots to the game load screen. You have a list of the games, for my versions case, in alphabetical order, and to the right, a screen with a demo of the game. There are different settings to the games, but I'll get into that later. But I do want to touch on the 2 modes. There is a free play mode, and a coin mode. In free play, you can just select your game, and it'll dive right in, into the actual free play variant of the game. The coin mode, you have to load a coin before you even select a game, and once you do, you have a counter ticking down on you for some reason.

The first game I chose to play was a favorite classic Beat'em up. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I chose the original, but Turtles in Time is on here. The game plays great, no slow downs that I ran into, and no real problems with image quality. You do get a periodic artifact, but remember, this is technically emulating these games. I continued to select from my favorites list as a kid, Street Fighter (it has all the variants through 3), King of Fighters (again all the variants through 2004), Samurai Showdown, Last Blade, X-Men, Marvel Vs. Capcom, Raideen. They all played beautifully. Then I started to find the worm in the apple. There are games that don't play well at all. Mortal Kombat for one. The game plays, but slowly, and the sound emulation is choppy at best. And this is one I don't fully understand, nearly every Sega game plays horribly as well. Even older titles that should have zero problems. The issue I gather is the version. Supposedly, if I load an MK rom onto a USB drive, it will actually play just fine. I've yet to try this, but I plan to soon.

Now the game list, while extensive does run into a few issues. First, they often use the Asian, or European variants of the names. So it might take some time to find your favorite titles if it had a different name elsewhere. Also, in a way, there are a ton of repeated titles. The qualifier comes from the fact it's technically a different variant that did exist. But when there's 14 versions of Street Fighter 3, it can be a little out of control. Over-all, however, I like that it has all the versions of the games it does have.

There are a few noteworthy items that need to be brought up with the games. One of the biggest is there is no saving high scores. As far as I can tell, there are no versions of these games that have this option. This is a bit of an issue with certain games. Games like Martial Masters have secret characters that unlock when the game has been booted and running for a certain amount of time. So in these situations, the character will remain locked. There are a few games that have features like this. So you can expect to play the first boot of a game every time, nothing saved or unlocked. You can set the coin amount (pointless if you ask me) as well as set the difficulty (and depending on the game, the lives) of each game as well. Most of this is moot, as you have endless coins using the button if you so desire.

Aside from a few games, I'm quite happy with the game selection and the systems performance.


Now onto the Hardware. As described before, the game has classic arcade sticks with a 6 button layout. For the 2-4 button games, you just use the buttons A-D. And this doesn't take too long to get use to. The quality of the sticks is decent, but not amazing. There is no lag or anything like that. But they lack the feel you get from the higher end sticks like Sanwa. The buttons are similar. They are very functional, and well built. But they aren't exactly clicky. Now what's nice is the buttons and the stick use standard wiring and plugs into the console, so they are upgradeable if you so desire to do so. That being said, if you aren't a hardcore arcade player, the ones that are provided work really well, and aren't cheap little weak pieces of plastic. The cabinet also has built in lights. These lights are on when plugged in, no matter what. Kinda bugged me, so I disconnected those, thankfully they provided an actual plug to do so.

The actual board is a high quality lexan with a decent print of Ryu from Street Fighter IV on it. There are other versions, variants and qualities, so keep that in mind if you are picking one up. Once you open it up, you get to see it's really a large housing for not a lot of gear. The actual game board isn't very large, so it's mostly open space. The one item I am extremely happy with is they have the wires well pathed, and they are long enough to remove the top and not tug on them. There are versions with a fan, which mine does not. I will note, the fan is 100% not necessary. I've had long gaming sessions, and no issues from heat at all. There is also the Mono speaker side mounted as well. I guess some units have it facing downward, and that just seems like a bad idea to me.

The actual hook-ups work perfect too. I've had the HDMI in 3 TV's ranging from an older 32" to a brand new 60" smart TV with no problems. The audio jack works great. I've had it hooked up to my 2000 watt stereo system and it sounded really good. Then the USB ports. The reader works reasonably well. I've only done a little with it, so I can't say too much. But the USB controller is where this gets interesting. You don't power the machine on, you just USB to USB whatever you are controlling and that's it. The only downfall of this is when hooked up to consoles, I.E. my PS3 are hooked up, you only get 6 buttons. Making it REALLY hard to do much on them. On the PC, much better, as it's much looser with it's peripherals.

That covers really all there is to the console itself. All in all, it's a nice piece of kit. I've clocked some extensive hours on it, and I'm not feeling any build quality issues, and the majority of the games play fantastic. There are even a few gems I've never heard of, that I absolutely loved. If you are on the fence on getting one, just do your homework on the different versions, and look at the descriptions and photos. But you should be getting a solid product.

New 3DS

Console Review - New Nintendo 3DS

Is it worth buying?

I'm going to break regulation and write about something new today, the New Nintendo 3DS. The original 3DS and 3DSXL are one of the top selling handheld consoles of all time. Not only is it backwards compatible with all of the DS and DSi titles released on the previous handheld, but with it's graphical upgrades and surprising useable 3D features, it's a pretty solid handheld. The New 3DS is classic Nintendo, release a game that requires an upgrade of some sort (Xenoblade Chronicles in this case). This time, however, you don't buy a peripheral, or a new memory unit a la Nintendo 64, but you have to purchase a whole new system. Many, including myself, balked at this as we already owned some iteration of the 3DS already. I've since upgraded, and will be letting all of you know how I feel about the new system.

First, I want to recap on the original 3DS, it's strengths and weaknesses.

The 3DS was Nintendo's first steps into console quality gaming on a handheld. As beloved as the original NDS was, it had some pretty serious graphic limitations, along with some dev's creating games that were just too much for the little system (FFXII and Assassins Creed come to mind). The 3DS allowed for direct downloading of full game titles (the DSI had a little of this functionality), proper online game play, and of course the 3D screen on all models but the 2DS. The 3DS also had a fully analog joy pad which, in my opinion, is a massive improvement on Sony's for both the original PSP and the Vita. All of these are what allowed Nintendo to corner the market on the current handheld generation. Well, that and Super Smash Bros.

The 3DS isn't without it's faults however. First and foremost is the 3D screen. I very much like the 3D as it enhances the graphics considerably. But it's a giant pain to use most of the time. if you can't guarantee that you're sitting in just the right position, the screen goes all wonky and double vision, making game play impossible. The next issue is classic Nintendo, peripherals. Many games released (MGS3, MH3 & MH4, Resident Evil etc.) all are enhanced by a peripheral call the 'Circle Pad Pro'. A fancy little device that you attach to the 3DS to allow for a 'C' stick and 2 more shoulder buttons. This is both costly, and more importantly, not available for the American markets. Some might say that these games are playable without the circle pad pro, but..... and this is a big but, the game play without it is kinda crap. In all honesty, the Monster Hunter games are nearly unplayable without it, requiring you to use the touch screen for the camera, options, equipment and missions. Lastly is a personal pet peeve of mine, of which I seem one of the few that have it is the speakers. I don't know if the 2DS or the original 3DS have this issue, but the 3DS XL's speakers are woefully inadequate. Some games in particular (like a favorite of mine, Blazblue) almost need headphones in a quiet room. I honestly don't understand how a pair of Stereo speakers produce half the sound of most cellphone's itty bitty Mono speakers.

Enough on the old system, and onto the new. If you compare the New 3DS with the old, at first glance you barely notice any changes. They added 2 new shoulder buttons, and there's this little rubber nub sticking out next to the A,B,Y,X buttons. They also moved a bunch of the existing buttons around, most obviously the start/select buttons and the power button.

Let's go over these changes real quick. The extra shoulder buttons and the nub is Nintendo basically building in the circle pad pro into the new system. That little nub is a 'C' stick. The extra shoulder buttons are a little hard to reach for the small of hands, like myself, but still usable. So few games take advantage of these anyway, you'll rarely be too worried about them. The nubby little 'C' stick is a more intriguing upgrade however. The original Circle Pad Pro had a proper joypad, the same as the directional joy pad. The 'C' stick is a pressure sensitive nub that doesn't really have much feel to it. It most certainly doesn't have any give, or movement. It is surprisingly intuitive though. Once you get use to it, you just adjust the speed of the camera movement by applying more or less pressure.

Moving the volume was also a good choice. Where the volume was located before, on the side of the hand held, was easy to bump, accidentally turning the volume up or down while gaming. Now located on the screen, that's not a possibility any more. The speaker output has been increased to something more acceptable as well. They've also added Amibo support, which in all honesty won't matter to 90% of us, but for those who like it, one more plus.

Moving all the other buttons..... I'm not so sure about. They moved the start/select to a more traditional location under the A,B,X,Y buttons, where they use to surround the home button. I think their reasoning was to prevent the accidental hitting of the home button while pressing start, which sort of makes sense, but it's easier to bump the start/select buttons by complete accident now. The worst move was the power button. They moved this to the bottom of the device, where it use to be a flush button on the face of it. The button is hard to find, harder to push, and just in a stupid location. I know most of us don't turn the 3DS off too often, but this was a stupid decision from Nintendo. 

They also moved the headphone jack and charging location a little, but those are insignificant in all regards.

They did more than that though. They upped the power on the hand held by a significant amount. You won't notice this in most cases, but where it is noticeable is with load times, and on rare occasions when games framerate would drop, this system doesn't seem to anymore. Another upgrade with the wireless modem. The original 3DS systems wireless was painfully slow. The New 3DS's has has a pretty major upgrade, allowing for about twice the original speed.

The biggest and best upgrade was to the 3D system. They've added an infrared head tracker to keep the 3D working, even if you move about. And as it's infrared, it works in the dark too. I will point out, it works quite well. You can sometimes see the system working, the screen will go double for just a moment, and then correct itself, or a periodic flicker, but it's seldom and not that noticeable. I've even tried screwing with it, turning my head, even fiddling with the screen, and it seems to be able to keep itself straight most of the time.

At this time, there are only a few New 3DS exclusive titles released (excluding the SNES virtual Console Games), most notably Xenoblade Chronicles. There are announcements of more to come. I actually see most of the exclusives probably coming from the indi game market, as this new system gives them more to play with. Now with only 2 games currently available, is the upgrade worth it? This is where is gets incredibly objective. Xenoblade Chronicles is a good game, and on it's own merits, I can understand purchasing the console for that game alone, and if you're new to the system, easy choice, just buy the new one. It's not that much more and worth it.... but, for those who aren't interested in JRPG's I can see the upgrade being a tentative one at the very least.

The cons are very simple, full price for a system (that doesn't even come with a charging adapter I might add). There are only 2 exclusive games. And most of the added controls aren't even usable on most games.

The pluses are good ones though. The upgraded processing power makes almost all 3DS games run more smoothly. Yes, many games don't use the added buttons, but those that do greatly benefit from them. And the head tracking makes the 3D actually usable.

Anyone on the fence for purchasing the New 3DS will have to weigh out their options. As someone who actually uses the 3D, I'm quite happy with it. And I do want to add, Xenoblade Chronicles is a solid game in it's own right (which was actually my main reason for picking up the system in the first place).

The Nintendo Entertainment System: Birth of an Empire

A retrospective look at one of the greatest Consoles of all time.

Not including Nintendo's 'Color TV Game', the NES was Nintendo's first real stab at the home video game market. And what a stab it was. Comparatively to the previous well known 8-bit systems of the day (the Atari for those too young to remember), The NES featured superior graphics, betters sound and a controller that consisted of more than a joystick and one button, and even launched with the famed 'Light Gun'. And with one of the most robust line-ups of launch titles to date (still impressive by today's standards), the NES grew to be one of the most successful video game consoles of all time.

The Nintendo Entertainment System didn't have the smoothest of launches in the US however. The NES launched in America in 1985, shortly after the time Atari was on it's way out (largely due to the ET scandal). It was so tough for Nintendo to get a leg into the market, largely as many stores refused to even stock game systems any more, they had to get clever. And that's why they decided to market themselves as a 'Home Entertainment System', even through in a few gimmicks like R.O.B. the robot. Even with the rough beginnings, the Nintendo was a quick success, turning themselves into the 'must have' Christmas present for the next 5 years.

Nintendo's first game line-ups could be considered baby steps for them if you think of how the console evolved. Even with the somewhat rough beginnings, Nintendo's early days (including the bundled games at launch) included Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt, which are games that are still loved today. The games on the NES quickly evolved as well. Shortly into the system's life, Nintendo released a game so massive, it required something no console system had ever seen, saves. This game would be the famed 'Legend of Zelda'. And they only continued from there. The NES allowed Nintendo to produce games of such quality (and fun), it launched numerous franchises and characters that are still relevant today.

Let's take a brief look at the evolution of Nintendo's games. If you look at the start, it's very blocky. The graphical limitations are easily seen. You can make out what the characters are supposed to be, but blocky. The sounds were also pretty basic. All the sounds in the early days (and this includes any music track in the game) are all single note sounds. Even with these limitations, the designers at Nintendo, and the composer Koji Kondo were able to produce memorable characters and music. Shortly into the NES's life, the developers were learning how to design around the system, finding what it was capable of. This allowed for some fantastic innovation. They were developing games with top down perspective, driving games with a 1st person perspective. If you think about it, games that utilized the Light Gun were the first console based First Person Shooters. Yes they were limited to the technology of the time, and are more accurately known as 'Rail Shooters', but these were the first steps in that direction. On top of that, Nintendo started greatly enhancing the sounds the NES was able to make. This not only allowed for much more robust soundtracks, even some games were capable of voice... Sorta (example: Bayou Billy).

One of Nintendo's great innovations were it's controllers. The controllers were some of the first to have more than 1 action button, and oddly one of the first to allow you to pause the game with the start button (Start to stop, must be where Windows got it from). It was one of the first, purely hand held controllers, without making us use some facsimile of a Joy stick. Most of the early joystick controllers required some sort of table to sit at to really be usable, with some feeble attempt of using suction cups on the bottom, and would come loose at the most inopportune moment. What the NES controller allowed us to do was move, steer, whatever with the left hand and do whatever action is required with the right hand . This was an evolution that can be likened to the evolution of man growing thumbs. This was such a good controller setup, it's still the base of almost all hand-held controller layouts to this day.

I don't want this to just be a parade with out great the NES was. As with everything, it was not without faults, and the NES had some biggun's. First was the setup. To this day, I've yet to see a setup that was more un-reliable and fiddly, and I have a Wii. They didn't come with any standard component cables, but an adapter to work with your Cable port (The RF adapter). I understand this was to allow the NES to work, even if you didn't have a VCR. But this allowed for the worst possible picture quality, and the component cables weren't even a stock option.

And once you did figure out how to hook the thing up, you had to deal with one of the most un-reliable consoles to ever be released (maybe aside from the X-Box :p). All of us had our tricks, having the cartridge in just the right, un-plug and plug it back in, hold power and reset at the same time, jump up and down, sacrifice a chicken, and none of it helped. Sadly, I think we all knew it too. What was truly at fault was 2 things, dust and corrosion. Even though the NES had a closing lid to protect it's delicate interiors, dust would still manage to find it's way in there. Probably as most of us didn't use dust covers on the games them-selves. This would lead to us blowing the systems out with our mouths, which seemed to work great.... at first. When we would blow out both the cartradges and the console, what we were also doing is leaving little saliva deposits, which would cause rust and corrosion, making our NES's more and more un-reliable to the point of almost being un-useable. This is such a well known problem, that 3rd party companies were (and are) making replacement parts for the pin reader system.

On top of the corrosion issues, there was also a design flaw in just using the games, even if you took every opertunity to protect the system. Because of Nintendo's use of light weight metals (I.E. Nickel) on their contact pins, repeated use, pressing the game down in the system would cause the pins to start to bend, and eventually loose connectivity. This is one flaw that could not be circumvented. Again, there are (and were) companies that make replacement parts for this. Thankfully this was an issue Nintendo recognized and corrected in the Super NES with their top loading system. Funnily, you can almost call this an un-planned obsolescence. As all our NES' were dying, Nintendo had launched the SNES. The 'Here's your fix... A new system!'.


But I digress. Even with these faults, the NES laid the foundation for Nintendo, and the home video game consoles as a whole. It was an important step. Many of us today still hold the NES in reverence. It was many gamers first system, and was a leap forward compared to what had been release previously. The NES was the first system to step out of our world and be a hero, go and save the princess, or be a Formula 1 driver. Nintendo hit the nail on the head with this one, and with luck, the NES will forever live on.

The Nintendo 64 - Nintendo's first steps into 3D

The Nintendo 64 was Nintendo's first steps into full 3d gaming. Designed to compete with consoles like the Sony Playstation and the Sega Saturn, the Nintendo was the only console of this generation to use cartradges instead of CD's. This led to an interesting moment in gaming development. Where the Nintendo was capeable of crisper graphics and no loading times, due to the size limitations of cartradges of the day, it was extremely limited in game size, limited data for full recorded music and sounds, and no fully rendered cut scenes. On top of that, the production of cartradges was both complicated and expensive, not allowing much of the Indi market to develop for the system. Even with these limitations, the Nintendo 64 was not only a huge success, but had a vast array of some of the best games the market had seen to date. Many of which are still beloved and played today.

The Nintendo 64, even with it's graphical limitations, had an edge on much of the market for several reasons. First, it was one of the cheapest consoles of it's generation, costing about $100 less than it's closest competition, the Sony Playstation. On top of that, it was one of the first consoles to utilize fully 3d rendered worlds, instead of just utilizing 3d characters and sprites, with pre-rendered backgrounds. This was apperant in one of the Nintendo 64's launch titles, Super Mario 64. Not only did the fully rendered worlds create an explorable landscape, it also allowed the users full control of the camera, something that was nearly unheard of in gaming to that point. Admitted, sometimes a complete pain, this allowed the players a full view of the world they were playing in, making the games more emersive than ever.

The Nintendo 64 was the first console to come pre-built with 4 control ports. No attachments, and built in to support 4 players on almost every multiplayer game. And of all companies, Nintendo, who lets remind everyone loves to sell you peripherals and attachments, came up with. This gave a great many games a strong emphasis on multiplayer. Many of the Nintendo 64's top titles are heralded to this day for this. Games like Mario Kart 64, Golden Eye, Super Smash Brothers and many others were staples of the multiplayer genre, so much in fact, many of the titles developed at this time, are around in some form or another today.

If there's any 'controversy' surrounding the Nintendo 64, I would have to say the greatest is surrounding the controller. Loved by some, and hated by others. This was the one feature on the Nintendo 64 that galvanized gamers more than anything. I'll start out by saying that I really liked the 64's controller. Yes, it wasn't without it's faults, but it worked perfectly for the games designed for the system. And it was one of the only controllers ever designed that allowed for different options on how to hold the controller. This, however was one of the main complaints against the controller. Where Nintendo was allowing 'choice', many saw this as a limitation as they didn't alway have full access to all the buttons and controlls. The Nintendo 64 was the first console to have a fully analog controller, which was out before Sony's Dualshock by almost 2 years, once again giving an edge to Nintendo in 3D gaming.

Now onto the elephant in the room, the cartradges. Nintendo use of Carts were possibly it's greatest strength as well as it's greatest weakness. The use of cartradges allowed for Nintendo to utilize full 3D worlds, without having to have a loading screen everytime you moved more than 20 yards, which also allowed for sharper in game graphics than most of it's competitors. But cardradges are expensive and complicated to make, negating almost any 3rd party development for the system. In almost all cases, 3rd party developers were forced to make the games along side Nintendo themselves, just to help illeviate much of the cost of development. This was a double edge sword, as it weeded out much of the cheap and crappy titles, and allowed Nintendo a certain level of quality control. But this also stopped almost and of the indipendent market from developing titles for the 64. This was also responsible for ending one of the longest and strongest gaming aliances up to this point, between Nintendo and Squaresoft (now known as Square Enix). Squaresoft was and is one of the largest and most successful makers of JRPG's. They saw there were massive size limitations on Nintendo's cartradges, and Sony had the ability to switch disks mid game as data ran out, thus allowing them to create games accross multiple disks increasing their size immensely.

Something that has always haunted Nintendo, is their love for peripherals. Even with all that's included with the N64 as standard, it was no exception to this fact. The first well known peripheral is the controller memory pack. This allowed for players to save times and ghosts in Mario Kart, Costumes in Bomberman, stuff like that. There were many other peripherals including, but not limited to, the Rumble Pak, Transfer Pak, the VRU and notibly the expansion pak (Nintendo seemed to have an evertion to C's in the 90's... who knew). The Expansion Pak was one of the few peripherals that was necessary to play some games (I.E. Majora's Mask, and Donkey Kong 64). While only a few titles required the Expansion Pak, it added options of higher graphics to many others that didn't.

One of Nintendo's great legacy's are it's quality game titles. With franchises like Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda and Star Fox (to name a few). The Nintendo 64's versions of these titles are so beloved, most are being ported to modern systems today, with several receiving full graphical overhauls, and even making the jump to 3D on Nintendo's 3Ds. Because of Nintendo's quality games, it allowed for the Nintendo 64 to be a heavy weight in a field it should have really been an underdog. The Nintendo 64 was the first steps for many of us into the world of 3D gaming. The N64 is a beloved system for many of us that grew up with the system, and will continue to be played for many years to come.