Jakks Pacific Retro Arcade review and future plans

AllenBomber

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When people first started buzzing about those ~18" tiny cades built from plug-n-play games and dead DVD players, I was intrigued. I thought the idea was cute and I wouldn't mind one sitting on my desk. After seeing that one finish for nearly $425 on ebay, ( http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150412331063 ) I guess I was a little more interested. I really wanted to one-up this guy and go straight to a 60-in-1 board, but I figure I'd start small with the same Jakks system and work my way up. I picked up a lot of dead DVD players and got the same Jakks Pacific system. Now before people start harassing me for just knocking off his junk, let me specify that while I think he had a good start, it wasn't up to my standards and I think I'm gonna have a much better outcome.

Now, on to the review...

First impressions: I got my Jakks Pacific p-n-p system today and my first impression with it wasn't stellar. I guess I didn't expect much for 20 bucks, but still... I slapped some batteries in this thing and fired it up. The first thing I noticed was the "menu" button on the front resembled a coin reject button and they were nice enough to place an LED behind it for some added authenticity. Very nice. When I hooked it up, I realized that I really could have used a longer A/V cord. When you have an LCD that's wall mounted at eye level, it doesn't leave you much room to get away from it. I ended up just standing and playing for a few minutes.

Software: The games were mostly well represented. Mappy got some updated graphics in the characters and items (I could directly compare to the original sitting 6' away) but everything else was pretty faithful. The only gripe I really had was with Dig Dug. Since Dig Dug is meant to be a vertical monitor setup, you'd think they'd just shrink down the screen size to make it fit a normal TV. After all, that's what they did with Pac-Man on this unit. Even my old Atari 2600 re-proportioned Dig Dug to fit on a standard TV. They didn't do that though. What you get is more like a 2/3 view of the level and it scrolls to follow your character. This gets really annoying. I was blowing up baddies in the upper portions of the levels, and couldn't even see if there were any lurking in the lower levels. If Atari could re-proportion it almost 30 years ago on the 2600, why can't we do it today?

Buttons: The buttons on it just aren't right at all. Aside from them being on the wrong side (like many people previously commented), the buttons are WAY too heavy. After pulling it apart, I tested the microswitches on a scale. New switches from HAPP claim to be 150 gram or about 5.25 ounces. I tested some older and slightly worn switches out of a Nintendo cab and they tripped on my scale at around 4.5 ounces of pressure. Less than 3 ounces of pressure at the sweet spot on the switch leaf. The switches from Jakks took over 8 ounces of pressure to trip, and the buttons directly contact the switch. There's no leaf. You're fighting the pressure of the switch and the spring directly requiring about 10 ounces of push for every button press. I know I'm harping on this, but after a few minutes of Galaxian my hand was far more tired than an average round at a Galaxian machine. Also, arcade buttons are almost always glossy. Why on earth did Jakks decide to paint these in a white satin? They just don't look like arcade buttons. I'll be subbing in real buttons and switches for my version, but I don't know how much more they could have screwed up their button setup.

Joystick: I don't know how they could get the buttons so wrong and the stick so right. The fact that this looks like a period correct gloss red and (faux) steel Pac-Man joystick only adds to the effect. It's a little weird that they incorporated the twist into the stick for pot-style steering on Pole position, but it works and feels surprisingly decent. My only gripe about this thing was removing it from the case. Since I'm not going to drop the whole box into the control panel like the one from the auction, I still have to use their stick to preserve the pot steering for Pole Position. I messed with it for a little while and determined that I could not get this thing apart without destroying it, so I ended up hacking the game control panel apart to remove the stick. Oh well. I wasn't gonna use it anyways. Despite the poor engineering, I guess I can let it slide.

Board: I like their little board. Everything is neatly packed into the case and everything is well labeled. Even if I chop every lead, the well silk-screened labels will make redoing this thing a snap. It's amazing to me how far we've come in 30 years. 12 games, each of which used to use a board the size of a cafeteria tray, now fits onto a board that is half the size of a business card.

Well, I've probably written more about this little thing than anyone else in the world, so I'll end there. I'll post some updates when I get going on the cabinet. If all goes well, I'll be using this as a prototype for a fully functioning (including coin) tiny 60-in-1.
 
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