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Main => Reviews => Topic started by: Phouglas on April 11, 2017, 04:14:33 am

Title: Anyone buy a bartop from Evoarcades? If not, don't.
Post by: Phouglas on April 11, 2017, 04:14:33 am
Here's the website:

http://evoarcades.wixsite.com/evoarcades/about (http://evoarcades.wixsite.com/evoarcades/about)

Before anyone starts, yes I should have just built my own.

I posted on Cade awhile back about looking for a hyperspin bartop. I ended up finding this guy's website. I went back and forth with him. He sent pics, everything sounded good. Said it would take about 2 weeks.

Ended up taking 6. Fine. First red flag. Originally told me FedEx shipping would be $250. After he shipped he said it was actually $320 and I needed to PayPal him the $70. Ok great. I probably should asked why the ---fudgesicle--- it cost so much considering I had a 60 lb control panel shipped to me in a bigger box and it was only $125. Anyhow.

So it arrives finally. Open up the packing and it's not exactly packed great and upon inspection I see the monitor had fallen inside the bartop. Looks like the bracket he made for the monitor broke off and the monitor and bracket crashed into the motherboard. I looked and the screws he used were way too small to hold up the monitor they were barely into the bracket. I fixed the bracket and monitor myself.

Turn it on and it works fine for about 30 seconds. It freezes hard and then won't boot. Windows just hangs at start up. Never boots. Try several times. I take the bartop to a pc repair shop and they diagnose the hard drive and it's shot. Evoarcades sends me another hard drive to boot. I get it installed and we are back up.

I start testing and turns out like 80% of the emulators don't work. He didn't install directx properly on the new drive. Fine I'll do that. So now most of them now work.

But.

The left joystick, first player, has a dead spot on the upper left. It basically won't go that direction so all 8 way games are basically pointless. Evoarcades claims it was tested with fighting games and such. Hard to believe considering it would be noticed within the first 5 seconds of playing. The first game I tried was Street Fighter and when I couldn't jump backward well, it was obviously something was wrong instantly.

Turns out I believe one of the switches' metal arm that hits the switch is really loose and just not hitting properly. Again not something that would have happened during shipping and should have been noticed easily. Now another thing I have to repair.

Oh and some of the buttons aren't mapped properly and the side artwork vinyl stickers are all bubbled and look terrible as does the sticker bezel he uses cause it's misaligned and done extremely sloppy.

I'll give him some credit that he has attempted to help somewhat with shipping the hard drive etc but the multitude of issues is just too much and I want to make sure if anyone considers purchasing one in the future they know they aren't made with the utmost of care and expect problems. Especially considering the cost. I purchased this for the family to enjoy and it's basically been useless since it arrived. Spring break vacation money was used and well, hasn't gone over well :)
Title: Re: Anyone buy a bartop from Evoarcades? If not, don't.
Post by: Mike A on April 11, 2017, 05:15:55 am
You should demand a full refund immediately. You should not have tried to cobble it together. You can dispute the charge with your credit card company. He sent you garbage.
Title: Re: Anyone buy a bartop from Evoarcades? If not, don't.
Post by: Phouglas on April 11, 2017, 05:44:34 am
I don't disagree with you. I've been trying to make the most of it but yes it has been frustrating.
Title: Re: Anyone buy a bartop from Evoarcades? If not, don't.
Post by: Mike A on April 11, 2017, 07:55:40 am
Just call your credit card company. They side with the consumer 99 percent of the time.
I looked at his website. His packing photos look bad.
Title: Re: Anyone buy a bartop from Evoarcades? If not, don't.
Post by: Mike A on April 11, 2017, 07:56:38 am
You definitely should not have sent him more money after he shipped.
Title: Re: Anyone buy a bartop from Evoarcades? If not, don't.
Post by: Mike A on April 11, 2017, 08:02:44 am
You are much nicer than I am. For that kind of money I would have flown out there with the bartop and demanded a replacement. It is easy to be a jerk from behind a keyboard. He would have a harder time being a jerk if you were standing in front of him.
Title: Re: Anyone buy a bartop from Evoarcades? If not, don't.
Post by: pbj on April 11, 2017, 09:16:07 am
That seller has gone to considerable lengths to conceal his identity.

 :dunno
Title: Re: Anyone buy a bartop from Evoarcades? If not, don't.
Post by: Titchgamer on April 11, 2017, 09:39:35 am
Dont think the pics of his work on his site sing praise tbh.

Pre configured HDD's rarely work properly tbh.
Every machine I have ever done has always been set up and configured 100% from scratch and tested fully.
But the down side to that is it takes considerable time :p
Title: Re: Anyone buy a bartop from Evoarcades? If not, don't.
Post by: yotsuya on April 11, 2017, 09:40:16 am
I'm almost afraid to ask you how much you paid for it.
Title: Re: Anyone buy a bartop from Evoarcades? If not, don't.
Post by: 8BitMonk on April 11, 2017, 10:00:38 am
The site says $1200 for the bartop the OP describes plus $320 for shipping!? Good lord.
Title: Re: Anyone buy a bartop from Evoarcades? If not, don't.
Post by: pbj on April 11, 2017, 10:32:46 am
Less than $800 shipped for a Chinese bartop that's plug and play with a Pandora in it. 

Why anyone would buy from some jackass named We cutting out cabinets in a garage with his jigsaw is beyond me...




Title: Re: Anyone buy a bartop from Evoarcades? If not, don't.
Post by: 8BitMonk on April 11, 2017, 10:52:30 am
Problem is if you don't have the time or motivation to build then you typically don't have the expertise to fully vet a seller.

Phouglas, I'm curious why you didn't go with one of the reputable vendors on here or ask for some community guidance BEFORE plunking down that much cash.
Title: Re: Anyone buy a bartop from Evoarcades? If not, don't.
Post by: JDFan on April 11, 2017, 11:00:52 am
You definitely should not have sent him more money after he shipped.

^this -- once quoted a price It shouldn't go up another $70 ! ( Especially when the reason for the extra charge is the way he packed the thing making it an odd shape so it doesn't fit in with other packages in the truck - just asking for it to get smashed when another package falls into the odd shape space - should be a rectangular box with foam/packing to keep the top in place not a bartop shaped cardboard wrap ! )
Title: Re: Anyone buy a bartop from Evoarcades? If not, don't.
Post by: smass on April 11, 2017, 12:09:55 pm
Wait.  Hyperspin with roms pre-loaded?  Just sick Ark on this dude. Should have him out of business and in federal prison inside of a week  ::)
Title: Re: Anyone buy a bartop from Evoarcades? If not, don't.
Post by: Titchgamer on April 11, 2017, 03:33:38 pm
Tell the guys who he is on the HS forums and someone prob will.

Pre loaded HS HDD's are very much frowned upon over there (with good reason tbh)
Title: Re: Anyone buy a bartop from Evoarcades? If not, don't.
Post by: pbj on April 11, 2017, 03:41:42 pm
 ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) ::) @ Titchgamer
Title: Re: Anyone buy a bartop from Evoarcades? If not, don't.
Post by: SNAAKE on April 11, 2017, 06:34:02 pm
"tell the guys at hs forums"  ::)

those guys are scumbags too. they act like they INVENTED mame just because they patented a damn frontend menu. mame and other emulators that go with hyperspin frontend is "their creation" too..apparently  ::) ::) "our system play so many games bro!" as in its a "system" they developed overnight that play thousands of arcade and console games.

they make money from selling ftp membership where they offer roms downloading service with the hyperspin setup. in case anyone didn't know how people at hyperspin forums make money. they are not any better than someone selling roms on ebay or whatever.
Title: Re: Anyone buy a bartop from Evoarcades? If not, don't.
Post by: Titchgamer on April 11, 2017, 07:24:50 pm
"tell the guys at hs forums"  ::)

those guys are scumbags too. they act like they INVENTED mame just because they patented a damn frontend menu. mame and other emulators that go with hyperspin frontend is "their creation" too..apparently  ::) ::) "our system play so many games bro!" as in its a "system" they developed overnight that play thousands of arcade and console games.

they make money from selling ftp membership where they offer roms downloading service with the hyperspin setup. in case anyone didn't know how people at hyperspin forums make money. they are not any better than someone selling roms on ebay or whatever.

I spent quite a bit of time over there when I first started off on the HS route (used maximus for years until it no longer did what I needed it to.
Anyways I cant say I found any of them to be shady or trying to profit from mame etc.

But I did see much anger aimed at people selling pre configured HDD's etc and endless threads from people who had brought them and had problems with them.

I also have FTP access for there and Emumovies and cant say I found any roms.
Admittedly I was not looking for any (I have other sources for them) but still.

Either way its like I said before, Pre configs rarely work properly and you really need to invest the time and effort to do it yourself.

I took about 3 weeks sorting all mine out last time and ime pretty sure nobody is going to invest that sorta time to sort out a HDD for someone else.
Title: Re: Anyone buy a bartop from Evoarcades? If not, don't.
Post by: Phouglas on April 12, 2017, 01:46:05 pm
Lol yes yes keep piling on my regret and shame.
Title: Re: Anyone buy a bartop from Evoarcades? If not, don't.
Post by: Phouglas on April 12, 2017, 01:57:12 pm
Problem is if you don't have the time or motivation to build then you typically don't have the expertise to fully vet a seller.

Phouglas, I'm curious why you didn't go with one of the reputable vendors on here or ask for some community guidance BEFORE plunking down that much cash.

I totally understand. I tried to vet but obviously that didn't work out. And yes I should have investigated here some and asked around. I obviously made a mistake.
Title: Re: Anyone buy a bartop from Evoarcades? If not, don't.
Post by: Phouglas on April 12, 2017, 01:59:30 pm
Less than $800 shipped for a Chinese bartop that's plug and play with a Pandora in it. 

Why anyone would buy from some jackass named We cutting out cabinets in a garage with his jigsaw is beyond me...

I understand. Again I tried to vet with tons of pics and samples and all that stuff but obviously I have a little too much faith into it all.
Title: Re: Anyone buy a bartop from Evoarcades? If not, don't.
Post by: Mike A on April 12, 2017, 02:04:50 pm
Why haven't you tried to dispute the charge?
Title: Re: Anyone buy a bartop from Evoarcades? If not, don't.
Post by: lilshawn on April 12, 2017, 02:17:48 pm
we make cocktails and sell them for 1200. I wouldn't charge 1200 for a bartop.

all things considered, we can buy already done cocktails from china with xxx-in-1's in them for ~600ea and save ourselves the time and effort to build them. to be quite honest, a chinaman with a CNC machine cutting these things out will do a better job than we would. i'm considering the push to the boss to just buy completed cabs for resale just to not have to deal with it.
Title: Re: Anyone buy a bartop from Evoarcades? If not, don't.
Post by: pbj on April 12, 2017, 02:53:35 pm
Why haven't you tried to dispute the charge?

Man, I'm slacking.  Captain Chargeback to the rescue!  No more direct communication with the seller.

 :cheers: