Main Restorations Software Audio/Jukebox/MP3 Everything Else Buy/Sell/Trade
Project Announcements Monitor/Video GroovyMAME Merit/JVL Touchscreen Meet Up Retail Vendors
Driving & Racing Woodworking Software Support Forums Consoles Project Arcade Reviews
Automated Projects Artwork Frontend Support Forums Pinball Forum Discussion Old Boards
Raspberry Pi & Dev Board controls.dat Linux Miscellaneous Arcade Wiki Discussion Old Archives
Lightguns Arcade1Up Try the site in https mode Site News

Unread posts | New Replies | Recent posts | Rules | Chatroom | Wiki | File Repository | RSS | Submit news

  

Author Topic: Pandora's Box V3 review  (Read 24002 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

maxnew40

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 35
  • Last login:November 23, 2015, 08:21:24 am
  • I want to build my own arcade controls!
Pandora's Box V3 review
« on: August 19, 2015, 10:33:37 am »
I just installed a Pandora's Box V3 and figured i would start a review thread.

First off this is a 520 in 1 Jamma board from China. It has a whole slew of fighter games, some shooters, and some puzzle games. For some reason they also included some vertical games which don't display all that well on a horizontal game monitor.

The board has a build in amp and VGA connector as well as the Jamma audio and video. It has support for a joystick and six buttons for each player.

I installed this board in a old Sega Buck Rogers cabinet that had been gutted of everything but the monitor and power supply.

I bought the Jamma wiring harness from the same company as the Pandora's Box and I did not have to disconnect any ground wires.

There does not appear to be any Free Play mode, so wiring up a coin switch is required.

The installation was easy and the only issue I had was not a board problem (I had a scrambled screen when I first powered it up, but found a connector had come loose on the monitor chassis board).

First impressions:
It boots up real quick and runs a short video.
After selecting a game the game loads pretty quickly (just a few seconds).
The volume level on the games is all over the place, some being very loud and other being very quiet.
Most of the game I tried seemed to play well, but I did notice some slow down when fighting a boss in I think it was Metal Slug.
I can't seem to get games to continue with player one, but have no problems with player two (I think this might be because the player one button also gets used to display a menu to exit the game).

I will post more when after I get some more time in to playing with the various games.

-Max

opt2not

  • Trade Count: (+15)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 6173
  • Last login:February 15, 2024, 07:31:21 pm
Re: Pandora's Box V3 review
« Reply #1 on: August 19, 2015, 02:32:00 pm »
For some reason they also included some vertical games which don't display all that well on a horizontal game monitor.
Yeah, it's because it's scaling the image to maintain the proper aspect ratio. So some pixels with be uneven with other.
If only it had an option to play those games in their normal orientation... :-\

I installed this board in a old Sega Buck Rogers cabinet that had been gutted of everything but the monitor and power supply.

I bought the Jamma wiring harness from the same company as the Pandora's Box and I did not have to disconnect any ground wires.
This is great if you're wiring a cabinet from scratch. But for those who already have a JAMMA cabinet and looking to not re-wire anything, you can get a nifty adapter from JammaNationX called the JNX v1.1 Atlas Adapter:

  • This is the JNX Atlas. It is both a Voltmeter and Pandora/Blue Elf JAMMA adapter. The pinout can be changed between Pandora/Blue Elf and JAMMA pass through simply by moving two jumpers. The JNX Atlas supports both CPS1 and CPS2 kick harnesses. Just plug and play.
Anyone who knows James aka XianXi, you know how top quality his stuff is, definitely deserves a plug.

Most of the game I tried seemed to play well, but I did notice some slow down when fighting a boss in I think it was Metal Slug.
There have been reports that Final Fight and Sunset Riders has some screen tearing, only via 15khz RGB and not VGA.  Could you confirm this?


maxnew40

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 35
  • Last login:November 23, 2015, 08:21:24 am
  • I want to build my own arcade controls!
Re: Pandora's Box V3 review
« Reply #2 on: August 20, 2015, 12:16:01 pm »
For some reason they also included some vertical games which don't display all that well on a horizontal game monitor.
Yeah, it's because it's scaling the image to maintain the proper aspect ratio. So some pixels with be uneven with other.
If only it had an option to play those games in their normal orientation... :-\

I installed this board in a old Sega Buck Rogers cabinet that had been gutted of everything but the monitor and power supply.

I bought the Jamma wiring harness from the same company as the Pandora's Box and I did not have to disconnect any ground wires.
This is great if you're wiring a cabinet from scratch. But for those who already have a JAMMA cabinet and looking to not re-wire anything, you can get a nifty adapter from JammaNationX called the JNX v1.1 Atlas Adapter:

  • This is the JNX Atlas. It is both a Voltmeter and Pandora/Blue Elf JAMMA adapter. The pinout can be changed between Pandora/Blue Elf and JAMMA pass through simply by moving two jumpers. The JNX Atlas supports both CPS1 and CPS2 kick harnesses. Just plug and play.
Anyone who knows James aka XianXi, you know how top quality his stuff is, definitely deserves a plug.

Most of the game I tried seemed to play well, but I did notice some slow down when fighting a boss in I think it was Metal Slug.
There have been reports that Final Fight and Sunset Riders has some screen tearing, only via 15khz RGB and not VGA.  Could you confirm this?

I will see if I can take a look at those games as soon as possible. I am running the right monitor to reproduce the issue.

-Max

monkeybomb

  • PM me to find out how to get a custom title like mine!
  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1236
  • Last login:January 03, 2018, 07:16:29 pm
Re: Pandora's Box V3 review
« Reply #3 on: September 23, 2015, 12:10:39 pm »
It looks like there are 2 different boards being sold under the name Pandora's Box 3.   They have slightly different cases and game lists.  I didn't know that and I think I have a cheap Chinese ripoff of a cheap Chinese ripoff.  I was hoping for the original cheap Chinese ripoff.  I'm probably going to hide everything other than a few puzzle games and just make it function like a neo geo 6 slot.  Very few fighters run correctly. 

ChanceKJ

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3229
  • Last login:August 07, 2021, 02:52:06 pm
Re: Pandora's Box V3 review
« Reply #4 on: October 06, 2015, 11:42:06 pm »
I have one of these. I honestly don't know hat i should do with it.  Might use it to multi a Namco cab from 96' and sell it. pretty cool. just really bad translations.  And i wish there was more documentation in actual english.  :)

leapinlew

  • Some questionable things going on in this room with cheetos
  • Trade Count: (+4)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 7906
  • Last login:March 19, 2024, 06:19:27 pm
Re: Pandora's Box V3 review
« Reply #5 on: December 05, 2015, 10:44:10 pm »
I bought the Jamma wiring harness from the same company as the Pandora's Box and I did not have to disconnect any ground wires.

There does not appear to be any Free Play mode, so wiring up a coin switch is required.

Hey Max, I'm struggling with this board. What do you mean disconnect any ground wires?

I can't get my coin-up button to work.

FrizzleFried

  • no one listens to me anyway.
  • Trade Count: (+4)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 5144
  • Last login:May 30, 2023, 01:14:24 pm
    • Idaho Garagecade
Re: Pandora's Box V3 review
« Reply #6 on: December 24, 2015, 06:47:16 pm »
I bought the Jamma wiring harness from the same company as the Pandora's Box and I did not have to disconnect any ground wires.

There does not appear to be any Free Play mode, so wiring up a coin switch is required.

Hey Max, I'm struggling with this board. What do you mean disconnect any ground wires?

I can't get my coin-up button to work.

Lew,

Evidently these aren't 100% JAMMA.  They utilize one of the ground wires as one of the 4-5-6 buttons.  If your coin switch used the ground line that is now designated as at button circuit,  I am guessing it wouldn't work.   Try changing ground wires going to the coin switch.

Visit my arcade blog at: www.idahogaragecade.com (Updated 10-28-21)

Torkuno

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 17
  • Last login:March 20, 2016, 09:13:51 am
  • I want to build my own arcade controls!
Re: Pandora's Box V3 review
« Reply #7 on: December 25, 2015, 02:57:07 pm »
Hi. Please sorry fo my english.
Please, can you help me with one question?

Is there any way, how to disable menu sound effects on Pandora 3 or Pandora 4? I mean, I would disable sound effect when arcade cab is idle and PB3/4 just switching game list. This is really terrible, every few seconds I hear sound during PCB switching to another game preview.
Many thanks.

opt2not

  • Trade Count: (+15)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 6173
  • Last login:February 15, 2024, 07:31:21 pm
Re: Pandora's Box V3 review
« Reply #8 on: December 25, 2015, 04:37:09 pm »
Unfortunately there is no way to disable the menu sounds.

Torkuno

  • Trade Count: (0)
  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 17
  • Last login:March 20, 2016, 09:13:51 am
  • I want to build my own arcade controls!
Re: Pandora's Box V3 review
« Reply #9 on: December 25, 2015, 05:01:32 pm »
Unfortunately there is no way to disable the menu sounds.
Thanks, I hope that there is some way, something like deleting sound files on the SD card. I found on the SD card only file with music played during settings page. But I cannot found file with this stupid sound effect :(