shardian
New member
I got this in the other day and got to install and use it last night.
First off, the unit is a PC ( a 900mhz I believe) with a custom arcadeVGA card. It makes no attempt to hide it either, because upon powering up you see the bios screen for about 10-15 seconds. I find that to be a minor annoyance, but I can live with it. It would be nice though to have some sort of interface board that would block the video signal for 15 seconds to hide it.
Functionally, it is simple but nice. It loads into the menu and you're off. It does keep track of overall coinage on the menu, which is super nice. I need to do a bit more testing to see what happens if I leave coins on a game, exit to the menu, then go back into the game. The load screens can be lengthy depending on the game, just like in MAME. That probably is due to the low PC specs used. It also gives you a time limit to select a game or it will pick a random one. While it can be annoying since you don't have time to read the whole list, long term it is a good thing to minimize screen burn. Without a dedicated exit button (which is an option I chose not to use), you will lose your credit at this when you have to hold in the start button to get back to the menu. No biggie in a home setting, and hopefully noone is really putting these on location.
Exiting back to the menu is as simple as holding in the P1 start for 5 seconds. Since I am so used to the 48/1 boards, it was a pleasant surprise to know the machine stays in the game until you exit to the menu.
I played a good majority of the games, and they played true to form as expected. Of course they should, since it is just a MAME PC. I would probably turn about half the games off since I wouldn't play them and still have quite a good selection of games to play. About 100-150 games is all a Multicade should have anyways.
I do wish the Mortal Kombat games and NBA Jam made the gamelist cut. They did include Tattoo assasins though (unfortunately). I can officially say I have played that total and utter train derailment now. Wow...
One last note, the board does have a few gun games and driving games on it. They are fully integrated to use the joystick controls. And yes, it makes them darn near unplayable. To a kid though they would still be fun.
I need to borrow my Father-in-laws video recorder thing to make a video for you guys. I'll ask him tonight for it. Hope this helps anyone who was wondering about ordering one.
First off, the unit is a PC ( a 900mhz I believe) with a custom arcadeVGA card. It makes no attempt to hide it either, because upon powering up you see the bios screen for about 10-15 seconds. I find that to be a minor annoyance, but I can live with it. It would be nice though to have some sort of interface board that would block the video signal for 15 seconds to hide it.
Functionally, it is simple but nice. It loads into the menu and you're off. It does keep track of overall coinage on the menu, which is super nice. I need to do a bit more testing to see what happens if I leave coins on a game, exit to the menu, then go back into the game. The load screens can be lengthy depending on the game, just like in MAME. That probably is due to the low PC specs used. It also gives you a time limit to select a game or it will pick a random one. While it can be annoying since you don't have time to read the whole list, long term it is a good thing to minimize screen burn. Without a dedicated exit button (which is an option I chose not to use), you will lose your credit at this when you have to hold in the start button to get back to the menu. No biggie in a home setting, and hopefully noone is really putting these on location.
Exiting back to the menu is as simple as holding in the P1 start for 5 seconds. Since I am so used to the 48/1 boards, it was a pleasant surprise to know the machine stays in the game until you exit to the menu.
I played a good majority of the games, and they played true to form as expected. Of course they should, since it is just a MAME PC. I would probably turn about half the games off since I wouldn't play them and still have quite a good selection of games to play. About 100-150 games is all a Multicade should have anyways.
I do wish the Mortal Kombat games and NBA Jam made the gamelist cut. They did include Tattoo assasins though (unfortunately). I can officially say I have played that total and utter train derailment now. Wow...
One last note, the board does have a few gun games and driving games on it. They are fully integrated to use the joystick controls. And yes, it makes them darn near unplayable. To a kid though they would still be fun.
I need to borrow my Father-in-laws video recorder thing to make a video for you guys. I'll ask him tonight for it. Hope this helps anyone who was wondering about ordering one.

