Pandora's Box for Xmas?

[bsoder52]

Hi all!

Haven't been on the board much the last few years, but was thinking about getting a Pandora's box for Xmas for my family as my gaming PC set-up just took a crap on me.
I know Pandora's Box 3 was a big hit, but I didn't go for it before cause it didn't have Dragons Lair.  Is Pandora's Box 3 or 4 now I see the best all in one?
Thanks for any recommendations?  I'll need to jump on this quick to get one in time for the holidays.


Bsoder52

[bsoder52]

I should have added.... I don't have a Jamma Cab, I have a cab made from scratch with Tank Stick and a Dynex LCD TV Monitor. 

Is there an all in one MultiGame solution that will be optimal for this set-up? 

Thanks again!

[monkeybomb]

If you don't have your cabinet set-up for jamma, it wouldn't make any sense at all to buy a PB3.   You'd need to get an arcade powersupply and a fully populated jamma harness before redoing lots of connections that x-gaming has already done for you.  You have a control panel ready to plug into a PC and a monitor suited for a PC.  You need another pc.

[bsoder52]

Ok, thanks... I was a bit afraid of that.  I spend countless hours getting my last set-up up and running.  I don't feel like I have that much time.  Is there an easy front-end to use?  I saved the roms so hopefully could rebuild one on a PC. 

[bsoder52]

Better yet, is there website out there where you can just get a hard drive pre-loaded with the emulator, front-end and everything else you'd need?

[Slippyblade]

Better yet, is there website out there where you can just get a hard drive pre-loaded with the emulator, front-end and everything else you'd need?

Not legally. If there is such a site we'd not be able to talk about it on this board anyway.

[bsoder52]

Any PM's on this topic would be appreciated and confidential.

[yotsuya]

I thought we weren't even supposed to be talking about these multigame boards in the first place. Not that I care, just remember it being a pretty firm rule 5 years ago.

[opt2not]

Yeah I think talking about it here is a no-no. But if I can just sneak this in before it gets locked in Post Hell:

Pandora's boxes are crap anyway. The weird video filtering and scaling makes most games hard to look at, vertical games are the worst for obvious reasons. Some games (mainly CPS2-3) don't run at full speed, or have choppy sound emulation. Speaking of sound, all the volume settings are random for each game, some are blaring loud while others are quiet.
The menu system is not intuitive (runs on a credit system to even select a game), and if you're planning on getting the PB4, freeplay is kinda hacked in -- it automatically coins up to 99 credits rather than setting the game's dipswitch settings to freeplay. Also, you can't set it to one game and have it autoboot to that.
The PB4 is just the same as the PB3, just 100 or so extra games added and that hacked freeplay setting.

I just installed one into a cabinet not 3 months ago, and I can say it's not really that great. Good thing it's cheap, but for that price you might as well just replace your old set-up with a cheap thrift store PC find.

[pbj]

I thought we weren't even supposed to be talking about these multigame boards in the first place. Not that I care, just remember it being a pretty firm rule 5 years ago.

God bless you, yotsuya.  You are the brave warrior we need.

[Token]

I understand and accept the rules.

But how is talking about multi-game boards any different than talking about how I should filter a ROM-set? Or which version of a ROM I should be using?

[yotsuya]

I thought we weren't even supposed to be talking about these multigame boards in the first place. Not that I care, just remember it being a pretty firm rule 5 years ago.

God bless you, yotsuya.  You are the brave warrior we need.

Blah blah blah. You keep playing that record, Jimmy. Flip it over to the other side.

I was just making an observation. If I was gonna be a little ---smurfette---, I would have reported the thread to the mods. In fact, I specifically said "Not that I care," then followed it up with "just remember it being a pretty firm rule". That's all.

Token-

You're talking about using MAME normally; the other is talking about a board using MAME in an commercial product that isn't authorized by the dev team. My point is that I clearly recall 5 years ago or so that you dared not even mention those by name because of the relationship between Saint and this site and the MAME Devs. My observation, which Jimmy the Keyboard Commando likes to ---steaming pile of meadow muffin--- on, is that seems like that has been relaxed. I'm not pulling a "LET'S MAKE BYOAC GREAT AGAIN" move, I just made an observation.

[pbj]

The things are less than $100 shipped and plug and play.  Watch a video on Youtube and make your decision.



 

[PL1]

I thought we weren't even supposed to be talking about these multigame boards in the first place. Not that I care, just remember it being a pretty firm rule 5 years ago.

People posting about these x-in-1 boards makes things a whole lot harder for the mod team. 

My understanding is that Saint wants to deal with X-in-1 board information like we deal with ROM information.

The following examples are not all-inclusive but indicate the broad outlines of BYOAC standards regarding this topic.

  Acceptable:
- Wiring pinouts
- DIPswitch settings
- General purpose operational information

  Not acceptable:
- Posting an x-in-1 board or cabinet for sale in B/S/T
- Linking to an x-in-1 for sale page
- Direct mention or hint that a particular vendor sells them
- Images that reveal that a particular vendor sells them (watermark, embedded text, etc.)
- Link to x-in-1 information/images on a vendor site URL i.e. vendorsite.com/X-in-1_manual.pdf or vendorsite.com/X-in-1.jpg
- Posting that someone should check out a page/thread that you know has x-in-1 vendor info/links


Scott

[Token]

Token-

You're talking about using MAME normally; the other is talking about a board using MAME in an commercial product that isn't authorized by the dev team.

Good point. I didn't think about MAME being on those x-in-1 boards.

I'm not trying to start an argument. I'll leave that to pbj. Just genuinely curious where the lines are and why.

[yotsuya]

Token-

You're talking about using MAME normally; the other is talking about a board using MAME in an commercial product that isn't authorized by the dev team.

Good point. I didn't think about MAME being on those x-in-1 boards.

I'm not trying to start an argument. I'll leave that to pbj. Just genuinely curious where the lines are and why.

Yeah, me either. But you know, Jim's Gotta Jim and all that. Scott made a nice clarification post.

[Torkuno]

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]

I posted the answer to your question in the other thread. Please refrain from spamming multiple topics with the same question.

[Torkuno]

OK, sorry for this.