Truly excellent reviews of the KOA. I'm probably picking one up based on your video. I completely agree with your suggestions for future versions to remove any and all filtering, and to focus on 15khz. A few slight tweaks and the King of Air could be the greatest multi-board ever made.
Looks like they're on the right path in trying to constantly improve these multi-pcbs, I've gotta say, while, definitely not perfect, I'm pleasantly surprised they seem to be listening to vids like yours man. For pcbs that I either can't find or are a bit more expensive than I'd like them to be, I'll still stick with mame as a substitute for now, but if they keep improving this board, I'd seriously consider a purchase. Great vid!
+CRTcade Hi Dave, great comments as always man. Yeah right now a mame setup still leaves this for dead, however i do like the fact that this doesn't need any external power to run. Hopefully we will more improvements going forward. Im pretty happy overall with this board. It certainly has its problems but there's definitely a place for it in my gameroom
Did you know that there is a new version called "Pandora's box 4S" its "680 in 1". its only been out for abit and theres no information about it online yet, available on Alixpress. It would be interesting to see if they have removed the filter on 15khz or improved the overall emulation. Would love to see a review on it and your opinions.
+DJ Fob Fresh yes that is correct. make sure you specify the 15khz version just so there are no surprises. let me know how your experience goes once you get it
bones yep, I had the VGA version - made a video of that too which has the intro - but I sent it back. This version, the CGA one, the intro is gone and all the broken games are working. they must have released an update
Got one of these boards on the way and will be building a vertical cab. Just wondering how many buttons for each player? I'm assuming it's 3 before I start cutting out a control panel.
Thanks for uploading this. Just out of interest, can the screen be flipped so that the monitor can be rotated either clockwise or anticlockwise into the TATE position? I only ask because some monitor stands only rotate in one direction. Thanks.
+StuTheRetroGamer great question! - no unfortunately it cannot. i came across this issue you are talking about with the HD version. my dell 4:3 LCD display was rotateable but only in one direction . there is no option to rotate it the other way and as it turns out i had to rotate the entire monitor on its stand..its definitely an oversight
Any idea if the 15khz version works on a VGA setup? I'm assuming it has a DIP switch to switch to a CRT arcade monitor, but I wanted to throw it on my LCD station until I can get the arcade setup going at a later date. Thanks!
I'm taking interest in purchase one of these 15 kHz but I don't see the point of this versus a Raspberry Pi with RGB pi for example, since this pcb is running emulated roms and doesn't run at 240p ( I think) It runs at 640x480 so I supose there will be flickering in a 15 kHz crt.
Hold down the 1 player start button and player one fire button 2 at startup. You should see some text on the screen. Use the joystick to change and player one fire button 1 to select.
Hi, i have a question. In that Pandoras Box "King of Air" Menu, can you rotate the image screen up and down to use in a LCD Screen (By VGA) already put it in a arcade bartop? i cant change the position again of the lcd tv, beacause it is already put in the bartop furnature. so my only choise will be rotate the screen image into the menu setup.
I'm after an upgrade from 60 in 1 vertical jamma board but I just can't find anything that's got a better selection of really old school classics on. Anyone got any suggestions, Im talking like Star wars, joust, tempest kinda thing or am I just gonna have to stick a mame32 unit unless I want dedicated authentic arcade PCB?
Curious of your experiences with input lag on this unit... I asked on shmups forums about it, and someone there posted their video of this unit: ua-cam.com/video/TAHF7Ph4k40/v-deo.html lag seems.....really bad
+DrunkNinja there is definetly input lag there, but i didnt think it was too bad under normal conditions. games play and feel fine to me. i would get one and send it back if you're not satified
So I picked one up, and I definitely don't mind it, one question though, is there any way to get into the test menus for the actual games? So I can do things like enable the C button for Dodonpachi and such.
Dang....far as the lag goes, it seems to depend on the game, I can play Don/Dodonpachi alright, but battle garegga/bakraid seem to be a bit more laggy, least in my experience. But overall, for the games I care about, I'm happy with it.
Truly excellent reviews of the KOA. I'm probably picking one up based on your video. I completely agree with your suggestions for future versions to remove any and all filtering, and to focus on 15khz. A few slight tweaks and the King of Air could be the greatest multi-board ever made.
Looks like they're on the right path in trying to constantly improve these multi-pcbs, I've gotta say, while, definitely not perfect, I'm pleasantly surprised they seem to be listening to vids like yours man. For pcbs that I either can't find or are a bit more expensive than I'd like them to be, I'll still stick with mame as a substitute for now, but if they keep improving this board, I'd seriously consider a purchase. Great vid!
+CRTcade Hi Dave, great comments as always man. Yeah right now a mame setup still leaves this for dead, however i do like the fact that this doesn't need any external power to run. Hopefully we will more improvements going forward. Im pretty happy overall with this board. It certainly has its problems but there's definitely a place for it in my gameroom
Awesome vid as always. Im waiting for my 15KHZ version to arrive any day now. Hopefully its the updated version.
Nice man keep em coming
+Arcade Obsessed thank you!
Did you know that there is a new version called "Pandora's box 4S" its "680 in 1". its only been out for abit and theres no information about it online yet, available on Alixpress. It would be interesting to see if they have removed the filter on 15khz or improved the overall emulation. Would love to see a review on it and your opinions.
thanks ! ill definitely look into it
Thanks for your reviews of the pandoras 4 and King of air, I have pandoras 3 and I thing seriously to buy the King of air looks very good.
Thank you for the update. The link to purchase for this particular 15KHz unit is in your earlier review video, correct?
+DJ Fob Fresh yes that is correct. make sure you specify the 15khz version just so there are no surprises. let me know how your experience goes once you get it
They got rid of the intro? Hallelujah! Glad to hear they are actually listening to the community and improving this stuff. Good video buddy.
+Todd Gill yeah they did. i was surprised when i first saw that they removed it. thanks man :)
+Modern Vintage Gamer The flashy intro is still there in VGA mode on my cart. Glad to see they have fixed the 5 broken games!
bones yep, I had the VGA version - made a video of that too which has the intro - but I sent it back. This version, the CGA one, the intro is gone and all the broken games are working. they must have released an update
+Modern Vintage Gamer I got my VGA only version replaced with a CGA & VGA version. In CGA mode there is no intro. In VGA mode there is.
+bones ahhh thats good to know. do those 5 games work for you now also?
Got one of these boards on the way and will be building a vertical cab. Just wondering how many buttons for each player? I'm assuming it's 3 before I start cutting out a control panel.
Great review! Do these games play right with 2 players? And how many buttons do most of the games use? Might toss one in my 1943 cabinet for fun.
7.8/10...great!!
One day Jim will find his dream Jamma board... 🤣
Looks pretty good !! i think it's worth the asking price. Thanks for the video mate :)
Thanks for uploading this. Just out of interest, can the screen be flipped so that the monitor can be rotated either clockwise or anticlockwise into the TATE position? I only ask because some monitor stands only rotate in one direction. Thanks.
+StuTheRetroGamer great question! - no unfortunately it cannot. i came across this issue you are talking about with the HD version. my dell 4:3 LCD display was rotateable but only in one direction . there is no option to rotate it the other way and as it turns out i had to rotate the entire monitor on its stand..its definitely an oversight
+Modern Vintage Gamer Thanks for the quick reply. Quality channel by the way.
Any idea if the 15khz version works on a VGA setup? I'm assuming it has a DIP switch to switch to a CRT arcade monitor, but I wanted to throw it on my LCD station until I can get the arcade setup going at a later date. Thanks!
huh, all the sudden this looks really interesting, how much did you paid for it? great review btw =)
+MetalTiger88 75 + shipping from AliExpress. not a bad price
I'm taking interest in purchase one of these 15 kHz but I don't see the point of this versus a Raspberry Pi with RGB pi for example, since this pcb is running emulated roms and doesn't run at 240p ( I think) It runs at 640x480 so I supose there will be flickering in a 15 kHz crt.
good stuff :)
Hold down the 1 player start button and player one fire button 2 at startup. You should see some text on the screen. Use the joystick to change and player one fire button 1 to select.
Hi, i have a question. In that Pandoras Box "King of Air" Menu, can you rotate the image screen up and down to use in a LCD Screen (By VGA) already put it in a arcade bartop? i cant change the position again of the lcd tv, beacause it is already put in the bartop furnature. so my only choise will be rotate the screen image into the menu setup.
Is there a list of all the games?
Hello.This one you have then have cga 15khz and 31khz vga output like the old pandoras, or is only cga
+bernardon2005 15khz and 31khz. I dont believe there is a 15khz only version
I wish this board came with Viper Phase 1.
I'm after an upgrade from 60 in 1 vertical jamma board but I just can't find anything that's got a better selection of really old school classics on. Anyone got any suggestions, Im talking like Star wars, joust, tempest kinda thing or am I just gonna have to stick a mame32 unit unless I want dedicated authentic arcade PCB?
where do you buy it?
Can anyone confirm if the resolution via cga is 240p ? Thank you.
Where do you buy this at?
+Kurt Mauer check AliExpress for the King of Air cartridges
+Modern Vintage Gamer There's a few on there. How do I know it's the newest version? Thanks
Waoooo en el video se ve al lag que tiene del mando al video
Curious of your experiences with input lag on this unit... I asked on shmups forums about it, and someone there posted their video of this unit: ua-cam.com/video/TAHF7Ph4k40/v-deo.html lag seems.....really bad
+DrunkNinja there is definetly input lag there, but i didnt think it was too bad under normal conditions. games play and feel fine to me. i would get one and send it back if you're not satified
So I picked one up, and I definitely don't mind it, one question though, is there any way to get into the test menus for the actual games? So I can do things like enable the C button for Dodonpachi and such.
+DrunkNinja no unfortunately there isn't..or at least I haven't found a way to do so. what do you think of the input lag? noticeable?
Dang....far as the lag goes, it seems to depend on the game, I can play Don/Dodonpachi alright, but battle garegga/bakraid seem to be a bit more laggy, least in my experience. But overall, for the games I care about, I'm happy with it.
where do you buy it?