Galaga is my favorite "bottom-to-up" arcade shooter ever. The satisfaction of getting a perfect score really would get me pumped. I once scored close to 200,000 on one quarter and it remained the high score until the machine was taken out of my local pizzeria.
As a kid I agreed buy now I like galaxian better. Also I think I've only ever played galplus once. I miss the very unique iOS app from like 2012 or something.
Thanks for bringing this up since I was going to. I don't understand why all of these ports so far keep leaving out the awesome "Galaga 88". I wonder if it's a licensing issue.
Really looking forward to getting my grubby little mits on this! I really enjoyed the three game NES pocket player. The chance to have two of the games arcade versions is very exciting!
This version of Galaxian has a *very* interesting problem. Namely, the sounds are played back at a higher Hz rate than the original recorded sounds! Note how the pitch is slightly higher than the original, and the tempo in which it's played is slightly higher than the original. Playing at Hz rate higher than the original recording will do this. As for Galaga, the instruments are exactly the same, but sound distortion is removed from all the musical notes *and* musical sound effects (The explosion sound uses different hardware altogether, so it uses a different routine to play the sound). Like NES hardware, the original Galaga "overdrove" the sound volume to make it easier to hear, but the audio had distortion as a consequence. Thumbs up to MyArcade for correcting this problem ... because Nintendo didn't do that with the NES Classic.
I guess the sound hardware is just different... and the differences in sound are most notably about these lines of games. The original arcade games had that Namco sound chip which for its time was very advanced in that it had different waveforms included (or supplied in an extra small ROM) you could choose from, even if they only consisted of 32 4-bit samples each. At least some of these waveforms are clearly not faithfully reproduced here, instead they have been turned into simple square waves. This may also have caused the need to reprogram the audio output at least in parts so that some sounds sound more "off" than others, maybe they had to do this because some sounds would otherwise fall outside the range of the available hardware.
Classic Galaxian is a ton of fun, too bd the audio is hooped on this rig. My personal favourite of the Gal-series has to be Galaga 88. Triple-firing space ships, level warps and end of stage bosses! What's not to love?
Really want to see that Galaga with the giant trigger controller. It's $50, fairly steep for an unknown controller. I applaud My Arcade for trying something new.
@@GenXGrownUp they don't love you enough then, lol! They should've sent that already! Wonder if they're worried about how it will do? I can't think that the trigger button will be as effective for mashing the fire button as frequently as Galaga requires? Or, maybe it's better? Guess we wait to find out
@@cryptocoffee13 Not nearly enough! 🤣 Seriously, I haven't even seen a listing so I'm guessing it's just not quite through production yet. I'm also dubious, but interested.
I think I like the handheld better. just seems to work with the Galaga gameplay better all around. Better action, better visibility, better comfort and convenience. The console does look nice though. they went all out with that design, but I'll stick with the handheld.
Thanks for this! I'm also an old gamer kid from the 80ies. Galaga an Galaxian i can play again and again. Still have got the same feeling like back in the days just fascinating!
Good product! Jon, you keep mentioning it is a "re-written" arcade ROM. You are underselling what they did. I highly doubt they did anything to the ROMs other than changing the text on the copyright screen to BNEI (Bandai Namco). Almost no chance that they rewrote the ROMs - more accurately is that they had to rewrite the emulator for the specific hardware. The sounds for the crashes for both Galaga and Galaxian were a challenge to emulate even in Mame and they used a .wav file for these effects for a long time. Those crash sounds are discrete logic circuits instead of a sound chip that creates the music and other sound effects.
I'm intrigued. You seem to know quite a bit more than I about the technicalities. So please allow me to pick your brain. Everything you describe makes sense to me, until I get to the Ms. Pac-Man Pro, which actually has some different logic than the OG arcade ROM (ghost movement rules, blue ghost overlap behavior, etc.). Doesn't that suggest to you something re-written (or at least edited) with some loss of accuracy? (Also, now that you mention it, I do recall that Galaga needed a WAV for MAME back in the '90s! That and some Donkey Kong sounds I recall. Maybe a couple more.)
About Ms. Pac-Man, I didn't notice any obvious ghost rule changes in the playthrough, but maybe there were. If so, this suggests to me that either they used a bootleg ROMset or the emulation of the CPU timing wasn't perfect. They blue ghost overlap could have been a priority emulation bug. I still would suggest that there is little chance they rewrote the game (i.e., the "ROM") - it would be much, much easier for them to modify an open source arcade emulator and use an authentic ROMset, especially when they have a license for the game.
This is nice, arcade roms or close enough to the arcade ROM, this is what we needed from day one. I want to see Nintendo make one of these but have donkey Kong, donkey Kong Jr, donkey Kong 3, Mario bros, and Popeye all in one handheld.
I have these games on my Arcade1up. There was a different system sold temporarily by Cracker Barrel where you could solder jumpers inside and get differnet games. All the different game systems had the same ROM. Only the jumper settings were different.
Great Review. Love your work from halfway across the world. No High Score Save was definitely an own goal on their part. That was always one of the reasons for just one more go (coin) in the past. The other option that I always like to see is the dip switch settings. No of Lives, Difficulty, etc. It didn’t seem to have that. Did you test to see if it had the no enemy shots cheat mode in the Galaga rom? That would be one test of how “company-brew” the rom used was.
Nice to see Galaxian included, it really holds it's playing strength after all those years for me. Like almost all other publishers, it also seems to use the way more difficult rom version 1 (aka Mame set 1) instead of the more slowly building up difficulty of set 2. It really can be a bit discouraging for new (and older?) players how hard it quickly gets.
I think instad of beening "homebrews" they are modifications of the original ones to acomplish the copyright laws and things like that, and the sound issues are caused by the hardware limitations and the speaker quality
As a Galaxian Quarter Arcade owner, I confirm that the sound is very high-pitched than the original version, but I also confirm that the gameplay is 100% arcade accurate! Oh Geez, what a surprise from My Arcade! If it wasn't altready owning old Galaxian and Galaga cabinets from My Arcade (plus the Numskull Galaxian and a a Tiny Galaga Arcade) I would have picked this up. Maybe, when it will be discounted...why not? 😃
I just found your channel and I love it. I have been collecting sega and Nintendo for 30 years but when I was a kid my first system was the 2600 and the intellivision. I don’t know why but I never felt compelled to collect atari until this year. I forgot how good games like H.E.R.O and pitfall 2 are. Enduro is pretty good also.
Just got this game. I have the older version with 3 games. Here's my gripes: The fire button needs to be higher up for more comfort. There's no Pause function. The screen that they're using is from the older games and now that it's rotated, it goes light or dark when you tilt the game even a little. The older games don't have this problem. I think the older version (with 3 games) is more comfortable (with 2 fire buttons to choose from), perfect screen, and a very handy pause function. The new game's size is good, it feels nice in the hands but it's heavier.
Awesome pocket player. Would have looked better in black. Should have high scores saved. When do these get released to stores? Thanks Jon, never thought I would say this but…can’t wait till Monday!
Nice!! And OMG what memories of playing both games where I was working at a bowling alley. I was 14 then. Every Friday night me and a childhood friend would go to Pizza Hut after work, scarf down a large pan super supreme between us (salivating 💦). Head back to work to the arcade and play pinball and video games until 3am. This was new and exciting things at this age. That was around 1980-81. 😢 now I’m an old fart💨
Wow! Those Pocket Player Pros this year are so brilliant! And I must say, they're far better then the 2018 and 2019 releases! In fact, they look and sound just like the arcade, even the it was the Sega Genesis Hardware, but I'd recommend I'll buy the Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga Nano Player Pro ones! Nice video!
It almost sounds like the explosion sounds were swapped between Galaxian and Galaga. Galaxian's sounds seemed accurate but a few keys too high. Galaga seemed spot on to me except for the aforementioned explosion sound. Would be nice if there was a DIP switch menu
great video as always. was half hoping for a comparison with the old one. yea that had the nes version, but those arent that bad, and it had xevious... I dont have it so now kinda want both haha. probably will order this one tho as soon as available in my area. i ordered street fighter 2 pocket after watching your review and it will arrive this weekend 😅 if these sell well hopefully namco and capcom etc will license more games. i have fond memories of new rally x so it would be great to see that in this format. Heres hoping 😅
I never picked up most of the first wave of Pocket Players, so didn't have it for reference. I do have the old Pac-Man, so I'll likely break that out for comparison when I get to reviewing that one.
I really like all of your reviews. They're really good. The only thing that is frustrating is all these products seem to always be out of stock. So if there's something that people are interested in you can't even buy it. It's not your fault but these companies really should have a lot of these things in stock.
Thanks for watching. These are just brand new and selling out quickly. They'll be restocked soon, so please be patient and I thank you for clicking thru my links. 😁
Another great addition to the Pro line, great to see that Galaga is getting the same arcade rom equivalent as Ms. Pac Man. Btw Jon, are you going to review the General Mills monster cereals this year? I got a box of the new Carmela Creeper (caramel apple) and it’s pretty tasty. Don’t care for the box art this year though, not retro enough.
I think I will review the cereals if I can make time. I haven't seen them in my stores yet, but I'm keeping an eye out. From what I've seen the new monster (Carmella) is kind of modern and hip - doesn't she have an iPod or something?
@@GenXGrownUp Yeah, she’s like a gothic hipster DJ rave character and is supposed to be Frankenberry’s cousin, it’s pretty lame. I much preferred last year’s art by Kaws which looked really cool and modern yet also retro and more in line with the classic ‘80s box art.
This looks fantastic! Love that it includes both games, love the fidelity, love the nice loud speaker, and love the look of the unit as a whole How do the buttons feel? I'm not a fan of squishy fire buttons.
Boy, it's hard to explain buttons in text, but I'll try. 😁 First of all, certainly not clicky, but also not mushy. The throw is just a few millimeters (as you might imagine from the size) and it bottoms out with a light cushion. And by cushion I mean the give of plastic, not any sort of mushy bumper that I can detect. I hope that's helpful, but I know it's no substitute for getting hands-on.
These not saving high scores is such a bummer. You’d want to pass this thing off to someone and say, beat that! That aside, I can tell it’s worth it. Glad to see arcade ROMs.
I'm absolutely a Galaga fan seeing this game being very well port in a portable way puts a smile on my face unfortunately for who lives out of the USA it's kinda hard to buy these other wise I would have already bought a few of those
I have no idea what type of sorcery is involved being able to fit 2 classic arcade cabinets into a single pocket. I just made a purchase of the Galaga/Galaxian Pocket Pro Player and will soon find out. Abracadabra.
@@GenXGrownUp No worries at all. Just happened to check out your link and made an observation. I’m a bit interested but I don’t know if I’ll ever pull the trigger.
Great as usual. I love galaga too. But I honestly didn't know that My Arcade would lauunch new consoles. So I have the previous pocket version from My Arcade too. Never mind. By the way, I bought the new pocket street fighter. As soon as you told me it was available on amazon, I bought it. Thanks for everything. God bless you.
I don't think it's the case they're aiming to get custom shell molds for each game otherwise they would have saved costs in this one by only having a rocker rather than a DPad, so that probably means they are looking into further single-button upright screen arcade games to use this mold for. Arkanoid or Rally-X on one like these would be great
Good observation. I don't expect there are custom controls, though, so the d-pad is likely standard. Certainly no longer taking a one-size-fits-all approach, though. 😀 Thank you for watching!
@@paulphillips546 You make me think... The menu could've easily supported left/right for game selection if MA had wanted. All good data points for improving the NEXT wave of these! 😀
An almost-perfect arcade port of Galaga on modern hardware that can fit in my pocket? And the sound's not outright trash? This screams "pick me up" to me. Maybe after getting my new place set up.
I have the original Galaga pocket player and really enjoy it. I know it’s the NES rom, but I grew up with that so I have fun with it. Plus it comes with Xevious. I do like that Tate orientation of the screen on this. I wonder why they wouldn’t just use the same ROM from the Namco Museum mini cab they made for this.
I’m ok with sound variations if it’s genuine (even if modified) ROM since it isn’t the full cabinet. Too bad about the high scores but didn’t the cabinets lose their high scores if they lost power completely? I can’t remember I’m getting old 😂
I used to work at the bowling alley when I was a young teen and playing different versions of cabs or cocktail table ones, some world reset and some would not. Believe they may of started putting battery packs to save the score memory like pinball machines had leaking their hearts out in back boxes across America. 😅
Really enjoying your reviews of this new line, but I don’t think you are mentioning the price. Sure, they’re better than their previous models, but how much more do they cost? Is value for money considered in your final rating?
Thanks for watching. The price can vary depending on retailer and when someone watches the video, so I provide links in the description where you can see the current price.
But he passed over the one question that is not answered in the Instructions. How do you enter your high score initials after playing Galaga? In other words, how do you select the letters, aka initials ??
As good a review as possible without taking the unit apart. Nice little beast and the gameplay looks good and Galaga at least sounds good (except that super-low bitrate explosion) but the Galaxian audio is completely off and throws me out of the experience. Thanks for highlighting it. Also unsure about that fire button for my gameplay style. I tend to play shmups only on consoles that feature arcade type buttons because of what I call my 'two-tap' firing technique developed as a kid where I rapidly alternate hitting the button with my pointer and middle fingers. This gives me the maximum fire rate possible in games that allow it. It wouldn't matter for single shot Galaxian, but I wonder if the button could stand up to it in Galaga play, or else be too stiff to allow it.
Thanks for watching. I couldn't speak to the longevity of the buttons on this particular unit, but I have had good luck with button life on previous releases from the manufacturer.
I ordered the street fighter model you recently reviewed and this looks temping, but man, it’s super lame that these pocket players don’t save your high score…nothing “Pro” about that. Also, why would they leave out xevious and bosconian? They were on the other non-pro version. 🤔
When you plugged in the the head phone jack playing galaxian . When the ships dive at you they sound the same as dropping a bomb on the atari 5200 the dreadnaught factor. I wish i could attach a video of it lol
Hey Jon, quick question. I have the OLED switch…I have the Namco museum, which contains Galaga. Galaga is my main jam. I’m sure you’ve played Galaga on the Switch. Is there a lag that you experience on the Switch? And if so, is there even a tiny bit on the new handheld hardware you just reviewed? I’m sure I’m hypersensitive because I’m so used to playing the stand up arcade version, but I feel like there’s a lag on the Switch that I’m hoping is not going to be on the handheld myarcade. What do you say about that? BTW - the joycons are plugged in. If you experience no lag on the myarcade, I’m seriously considering selling my Switch and just picking up a few of these handhelds for my arcade fix. Thanks!
This is just my opinion but hear me out, I reckon this Galaga/Galaxian Pocket Player Pro is better than all of them, it is probably more likely because my favorite Arcade game is Galaga, but the Pocket Player itself plays Galaga and Galaxian too well, the d-pad control works so smooth, the Fire button looks so stylish and feels good too. The features, and everything about this Pocket Player Pro that gives you is too good. Spot on.
It took me a minute, but I think I may have the answer to the high score not being saved. Since the ROM is booting up as if it’s the beginning of the day at an arcade it starts fresh and that the arcade cabinet is on the entire day while that place is open. Power goes off and it doesn’t save any previous high scores from the day it was on. I mean I could be wrong, but it sounds like the modified arcade ROM is working as if you were in an arcade.
You're spot on - without a doubt. High score preservation used to mean leaving the machine on for long durations. That worked for a cabinet plugged into the wall, but remembering the high score between sessions on a portable unit with limited power capacity would, for me at least, be a welcome deviation from the original to preseve the "high score hunt" nature of these games.
@@GenXGrownUp I totally agree with that. We have the technology to preserve our high scores and maybe even have the option to reset them if we wanted to. Still I’m sure that something could be worked around to get that correct.
Hey Jon: do you have any knowledge of anywhere else one might be able to purchase one? I clicked your Amazon link and it says they are currently unavailable. Thanks!!
Firstly, thanks for the click! 😉 They're on the way to retailers currently, and I expect Amazon to get restock very shortly. It's the GenXGrownUp effect, I guess -- I review it and they fly off the shelves! 🤣
Is it me or does the playing field for both original pocket player and the pro appear to be the same size and aspect ratio. It would appear that they just placed the score and player above the top of the playing field and then the level and number of lives left at the bottom, just below the playing field. It almost looks like it’s then the same.
Hm... I bet these aren't "rewrites" or custom homebrews as much as they might be emulation with the actual original ROM. Especially with the no shoot glitch you found to be active in the Micro Player Pro. I wonder if the audio oddness is something to do with how they implemented the audio. Way back in the day in MAME, you had to have samples which I believe were wav files because it wasn't possible at the time to reproduce the audio via emulation. I wonder if they're using wav playback and the wav player is just odd. Or now maybe it is emulating the audio, but it's emulating it oddly.
I think "Galaga 90" is just the name for a port of Galaga 88 - which would make much more sense here as it's the original arcade version. Either way, yes! 😀
While I love Galaga, Galaxian never really did much for me. $40 isn't bad I suppose for the hardware though I wonder what kind of mod ability they have? With only one button this one may be limited to Atari 2600 games mostly.
It's close, but it's 2023. If they have a license for the arcade, give us the arcade rom. And like others have said, just two roms is pretty underwhelming. I can forgive the lack of a rechargeable battery, especially from an e-waste perspective, but for $20 more, we'll have the Super Pockets from Blaze that have multiple Taito or Capcom arcades along with an Evercade slot. I really want to like My Arcade, but they leave a lot to be desired. They make a passable impulse buy, for an uniformed buyer.
![Game Gear Longplay Asterix and the Secret Mission [a]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/AWr_qgBpp0M/mqdefault.jpg)
Galaga is my favorite "bottom-to-up" arcade shooter ever. The satisfaction of getting a perfect score really would get me pumped. I once scored close to 200,000 on one quarter and it remained the high score until the machine was taken out of my local pizzeria.
Did you ever play Satan's Hollow? That game was really good as well.
George Costanza?
@@edwardmclaughlin719 And then RC went on to... well its a good game...
As a kid I agreed buy now I like galaxian better. Also I think I've only ever played galplus once.
I miss the very unique iOS app from like 2012 or something.
@@bland9876 Galaxian? Really? Where you can fire only one shot at once? It seems super-lame to me compared to Galaga.
I love the arcade ROM, the coin sound effect and the bootscreen, these bring more authenticity to the game.
Exactly!
Another great review, Jon. It looks like MyArcade has listened to what the consumers are wanting. This one looks great as well.
Great video Jon! Really love Galaxians and Galaga. I think this one's a keeper :-) Keep up the awesome work!
I spent alot of my mom's quarters on this game when I was little. I might have to get this Galaga machine. Great video
Cool although they should have included Gaplus and Galaga 88 to complete the set.
Thanks for bringing this up since I was going to. I don't understand why all of these ports so far keep leaving out the awesome "Galaga 88". I wonder if it's a licensing issue.
Let's hope that these do well and we see more games in a third wave of releases.......fingers crossed!
I have played Gaplus at a friends birthday party, it was at arcade/backroom of a gymnastic center
Galaxian and King & Balloon
@jakepyrett1715 people like what they like... that includes mentioning King & Balloon which moat people have no idea what I am referencing.
Really looking forward to getting my grubby little mits on this! I really enjoyed the three game NES pocket player. The chance to have two of the games arcade versions is very exciting!
This version of Galaxian has a *very* interesting problem. Namely, the sounds are played back at a higher Hz rate than the original recorded sounds! Note how the pitch is slightly higher than the original, and the tempo in which it's played is slightly higher than the original. Playing at Hz rate higher than the original recording will do this. As for Galaga, the instruments are exactly the same, but sound distortion is removed from all the musical notes *and* musical sound effects (The explosion sound uses different hardware altogether, so it uses a different routine to play the sound). Like NES hardware, the original Galaga "overdrove" the sound volume to make it easier to hear, but the audio had distortion as a consequence. Thumbs up to MyArcade for correcting this problem ... because Nintendo didn't do that with the NES Classic.
I guess the sound hardware is just different... and the differences in sound are most notably about these lines of games. The original arcade games had that Namco sound chip which for its time was very advanced in that it had different waveforms included (or supplied in an extra small ROM) you could choose from, even if they only consisted of 32 4-bit samples each. At least some of these waveforms are clearly not faithfully reproduced here, instead they have been turned into simple square waves. This may also have caused the need to reprogram the audio output at least in parts so that some sounds sound more "off" than others, maybe they had to do this because some sounds would otherwise fall outside the range of the available hardware.
The Galaga coin sound would make a great text tone
two arcade classics in the palm of your hand!
So glad they included Galaxian! That’s still my favorite in the Galaxian/Galaga/Gaplus series.
Classic Galaxian is a ton of fun, too bd the audio is hooped on this rig. My personal favourite of the Gal-series has to be Galaga 88. Triple-firing space ships, level warps and end of stage bosses! What's not to love?
Really want to see that Galaga with the giant trigger controller. It's $50, fairly steep for an unknown controller. I applaud My Arcade for trying something new.
I'm very curious, too! I don't even have that one in the studio yet. I think it'll come along in a few weeks.
@@GenXGrownUp they don't love you enough then, lol! They should've sent that already! Wonder if they're worried about how it will do? I can't think that the trigger button will be as effective for mashing the fire button as frequently as Galaga requires? Or, maybe it's better? Guess we wait to find out
@@cryptocoffee13 Not nearly enough! 🤣 Seriously, I haven't even seen a listing so I'm guessing it's just not quite through production yet. I'm also dubious, but interested.
I think I like the handheld better. just seems to work with the Galaga gameplay better all around. Better action, better visibility, better comfort and convenience. The console does look nice though. they went all out with that design, but I'll stick with the handheld.
If an arcade port of centipede was released I would buy
Thanks for this! I'm also an old gamer kid from the 80ies. Galaga an Galaxian i can play again and again. Still have got the same feeling like back in the days just fascinating!
Good product! Jon, you keep mentioning it is a "re-written" arcade ROM. You are underselling what they did. I highly doubt they did anything to the ROMs other than changing the text on the copyright screen to BNEI (Bandai Namco). Almost no chance that they rewrote the ROMs - more accurately is that they had to rewrite the emulator for the specific hardware. The sounds for the crashes for both Galaga and Galaxian were a challenge to emulate even in Mame and they used a .wav file for these effects for a long time. Those crash sounds are discrete logic circuits instead of a sound chip that creates the music and other sound effects.
I'm intrigued. You seem to know quite a bit more than I about the technicalities. So please allow me to pick your brain. Everything you describe makes sense to me, until I get to the Ms. Pac-Man Pro, which actually has some different logic than the OG arcade ROM (ghost movement rules, blue ghost overlap behavior, etc.). Doesn't that suggest to you something re-written (or at least edited) with some loss of accuracy? (Also, now that you mention it, I do recall that Galaga needed a WAV for MAME back in the '90s! That and some Donkey Kong sounds I recall. Maybe a couple more.)
About Ms. Pac-Man, I didn't notice any obvious ghost rule changes in the playthrough, but maybe there were. If so, this suggests to me that either they used a bootleg ROMset or the emulation of the CPU timing wasn't perfect. They blue ghost overlap could have been a priority emulation bug. I still would suggest that there is little chance they rewrote the game (i.e., the "ROM") - it would be much, much easier for them to modify an open source arcade emulator and use an authentic ROMset, especially when they have a license for the game.
Looks like the only thing that would make this better would be to add the sequels Galaga 3 and Galaga 88, but really that's just being greedy
Indeed - and save my high scores! 😀 Thanks for watching.
Maybe if these do well enough we will see a third wave.
That's awesome! I already have Galga downloaded on my 3DS though...I'm great at that game.
Galaga is one of my all time favorite video games
We'd get along well.
This is nice, arcade roms or close enough to the arcade ROM, this is what we needed from day one.
I want to see Nintendo make one of these but have donkey Kong, donkey Kong Jr, donkey Kong 3, Mario bros, and Popeye all in one handheld.
I have these games on my Arcade1up.
There was a different system sold temporarily by Cracker Barrel where you could solder jumpers inside and get differnet games. All the different game systems had the same ROM. Only the jumper settings were different.
Great review, my friend! I actually won one, new in box, last night on eBay for $5.00! I can't wait to get it in!
Great Review. Love your work from halfway across the world. No High Score Save was definitely an own goal on their part. That was always one of the reasons for just one more go (coin) in the past. The other option that I always like to see is the dip switch settings. No of Lives, Difficulty, etc. It didn’t seem to have that. Did you test to see if it had the no enemy shots cheat mode in the Galaga rom? That would be one test of how “company-brew” the rom used was.
Nice to see Galaxian included, it really holds it's playing strength after all those years for me.
Like almost all other publishers, it also seems to use the way more difficult rom version 1 (aka Mame set 1) instead of the more slowly building up difficulty of set 2.
It really can be a bit discouraging for new (and older?) players how hard it quickly gets.
I think instad of beening "homebrews" they are modifications of the original ones to acomplish the copyright laws and things like that, and the sound issues are caused by the hardware limitations and the speaker quality
Indeed. Speaker quality doesn't factor in, though, as evidenced when I take a direct output. It's all in the audio chipset of the hardware, methinks.
Yup. Buying it. ❤
One of my favourite games as a kid and I still play it now
Same!
As a Galaxian Quarter Arcade owner, I confirm that the sound is very high-pitched than the original version, but I also confirm that the gameplay is 100% arcade accurate! Oh Geez, what a surprise from My Arcade! If it wasn't altready owning old Galaxian and Galaga cabinets from My Arcade (plus the Numskull Galaxian and a a Tiny Galaga Arcade) I would have picked this up. Maybe, when it will be discounted...why not? 😃
Nice to see it's decent. I think I'm gonna hold out and get that weird joystick one that's coming sometime.
That’s so cool that it’s pretty much the same programming as the arcade version.
I just found your channel and I love it. I have been collecting sega and Nintendo for 30 years but when I was a kid my first system was the 2600 and the intellivision. I don’t know why but I never felt compelled to collect atari until this year. I forgot how good games like H.E.R.O and pitfall 2 are. Enduro is pretty good also.
Happy to have you here, James. Welcome!
This is the one title I think I’ll get the pocket version and micro version. :)
Looks good! Too bad they didn't have a screw in removable joystick for this.
Another idea! Have technos or whoever owns technos now do a handheld that has the arcade games WWF superstars and WWF wrestlefest.
Instant win!
That would be ace.....but I bet the licensing would be an issue. I would love a Double Dragon Pocket Player!
Is the no big shoot present in the pocket pro version? They should make gaplus galaga88 as well😊
Just got this game. I have the older version with 3 games. Here's my gripes: The fire button needs to be higher up for more comfort. There's no Pause function. The screen that they're using is from the older games and now that it's rotated, it goes light or dark when you tilt the game even a little. The older games don't have this problem. I think the older version (with 3 games) is more comfortable (with 2 fire buttons to choose from), perfect screen, and a very handy pause function. The new game's size is good, it feels nice in the hands but it's heavier.
Good looking quality 👍
First oneee, what a nice device! I hope this Will arrive to Spain
Fantastically informative review as always. 👍🏻 Glad to learn about another device that I can try out.
Thanks for watching!
Awesome pocket player. Would have looked better in black. Should have high scores saved. When do these get released to stores? Thanks Jon, never thought I would say this but…can’t wait till Monday!
What would make this perfect is to combine Ms Pac Man and Galaga on one unit and include the normal and superfast versions of Ms Pac Man :)
Nice!! And OMG what memories of playing both games where I was working at a bowling alley. I was 14 then. Every Friday night me and a childhood friend would go to Pizza Hut after work, scarf down a large pan super supreme between us (salivating 💦). Head back to work to the arcade and play pinball and video games until 3am. This was new and exciting things at this age. That was around 1980-81.
😢 now I’m an old fart💨
But you're in good company. 😜
@@GenXGrownUp shhh 🤐! I’ll get put on restriction…
Galaga is my favorite arcade game it's the one game that I could put a really high score on.
Wow! Those Pocket Player Pros this year are so brilliant! And I must say, they're far better then the 2018 and 2019 releases! In fact, they look and sound just like the arcade, even the it was the Sega Genesis Hardware, but I'd recommend I'll buy the Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man and Galaga Nano Player Pro ones! Nice video!
Thanks for watching!
I kind of wish they had a Sinistar pocket player pro or mini arcade...
That would be cool. I HUNGER!
It almost sounds like the explosion sounds were swapped between Galaxian and Galaga. Galaxian's sounds seemed accurate but a few keys too high. Galaga seemed spot on to me except for the aforementioned explosion sound. Would be nice if there was a DIP switch menu
great video as always.
was half hoping for a comparison with the old one. yea that had the nes version, but those arent that bad, and it had xevious... I dont have it so now kinda want both haha.
probably will order this one tho as soon as available in my area. i ordered street fighter 2 pocket after watching your review and it will arrive this weekend 😅
if these sell well hopefully namco and capcom etc will license more games. i have fond memories of new rally x so it would be great to see that in this format. Heres hoping 😅
I never picked up most of the first wave of Pocket Players, so didn't have it for reference. I do have the old Pac-Man, so I'll likely break that out for comparison when I get to reviewing that one.
I really like all of your reviews. They're really good. The only thing that is frustrating is all these products seem to always be out of stock. So if there's something that people are interested in you can't even buy it. It's not your fault but these companies really should have a lot of these things in stock.
Thanks for watching. These are just brand new and selling out quickly. They'll be restocked soon, so please be patient and I thank you for clicking thru my links. 😁
Another great addition to the Pro line, great to see that Galaga is getting the same arcade rom equivalent as Ms. Pac Man. Btw Jon, are you going to review the General Mills monster cereals this year? I got a box of the new Carmela Creeper (caramel apple) and it’s pretty tasty. Don’t care for the box art this year though, not retro enough.
I think I will review the cereals if I can make time. I haven't seen them in my stores yet, but I'm keeping an eye out. From what I've seen the new monster (Carmella) is kind of modern and hip - doesn't she have an iPod or something?
@@GenXGrownUp Yeah, she’s like a gothic hipster DJ rave character and is supposed to be Frankenberry’s cousin, it’s pretty lame. I much preferred last year’s art by Kaws which looked really cool and modern yet also retro and more in line with the classic ‘80s box art.
This looks fantastic! Love that it includes both games, love the fidelity, love the nice loud speaker, and love the look of the unit as a whole
How do the buttons feel? I'm not a fan of squishy fire buttons.
Boy, it's hard to explain buttons in text, but I'll try. 😁 First of all, certainly not clicky, but also not mushy. The throw is just a few millimeters (as you might imagine from the size) and it bottoms out with a light cushion. And by cushion I mean the give of plastic, not any sort of mushy bumper that I can detect. I hope that's helpful, but I know it's no substitute for getting hands-on.
These not saving high scores is such a bummer. You’d want to pass this thing off to someone and say, beat that! That aside, I can tell it’s worth it. Glad to see arcade ROMs.
I'm absolutely a Galaga fan seeing this game being very well port in a portable way puts a smile on my face unfortunately for who lives out of the USA it's kinda hard to buy these other wise I would have already bought a few of those
Sorry about the availability. Best of luck importing!
13:58 I wonder if it's the Sega Genesis ports of those games by Piko Interactive.
🤔
I have no idea what type of sorcery is involved being able to fit 2 classic arcade cabinets into a single pocket. I just made a purchase of the Galaga/Galaxian Pocket Pro Player and will soon find out. Abracadabra.
Judging by that Amazon page you linked. They may not be making many of these. Almost every version is unavailable.
Oh, don't worry - they're making them. And lots of them! Stock will be replenished shortly.
@@GenXGrownUp No worries at all. Just happened to check out your link and made an observation. I’m a bit interested but I don’t know if I’ll ever pull the trigger.
Great as usual. I love galaga too. But I honestly didn't know that My Arcade would lauunch new consoles. So I have the previous pocket version from My Arcade too. Never mind.
By the way, I bought the new pocket street fighter. As soon as you told me it was available on amazon, I bought it.
Thanks for everything.
God bless you.
Thanks for watching! 😀
@@GenXGrownUp it's a pleasure. Thanks for describing the connsoles on all of your videos.
Blessings.
I don't think it's the case they're aiming to get custom shell molds for each game otherwise they would have saved costs in this one by only having a rocker rather than a DPad, so that probably means they are looking into further single-button upright screen arcade games to use this mold for. Arkanoid or Rally-X on one like these would be great
Good observation. I don't expect there are custom controls, though, so the d-pad is likely standard. Certainly no longer taking a one-size-fits-all approach, though. 😀 Thank you for watching!
Though you do need the up and down for the menu so a rocker wouldn’t have worked, as always great video Jon thank you
@@paulphillips546 You make me think... The menu could've easily supported left/right for game selection if MA had wanted. All good data points for improving the NEXT wave of these! 😀
An almost-perfect arcade port of Galaga on modern hardware that can fit in my pocket? And the sound's not outright trash? This screams "pick me up" to me. Maybe after getting my new place set up.
Miyoo mini or something similar.
I have the original Galaga pocket player and really enjoy it. I know it’s the NES rom, but I grew up with that so I have fun with it. Plus it comes with Xevious. I do like that Tate orientation of the screen on this. I wonder why they wouldn’t just use the same ROM from the Namco Museum mini cab they made for this.
I get enjoying the version you knew best (NES if your case). I believe the internals of the Museum releases were quite a bit more expensive to source.
I’m ok with sound variations if it’s genuine (even if modified) ROM since it isn’t the full cabinet. Too bad about the high scores but didn’t the cabinets lose their high scores if they lost power completely? I can’t remember I’m getting old 😂
They likely did, Owl. I can't imagine it would be tough to save by adding a little 25¢ battery, though.
I used to work at the bowling alley when I was a young teen and playing different versions of cabs or cocktail table ones, some world reset and some would not. Believe they may of started putting battery packs to save the score memory like pinball machines had leaking their hearts out in back boxes across America. 😅
Really enjoying your reviews of this new line, but I don’t think you are mentioning the price. Sure, they’re better than their previous models, but how much more do they cost? Is value for money considered in your final rating?
Thanks for watching. The price can vary depending on retailer and when someone watches the video, so I provide links in the description where you can see the current price.
Pretty good, I just wish it had Xevious on board like the earlier NES based one had.
Galaxian and Galaga is my favorite game and Pac-man
But he passed over the one question that is not answered in the Instructions. How do you enter your high score initials after playing Galaga? In other words, how do you select the letters, aka initials ??
Bro these micro players and pocket player pros are now a true upgrade! W for my arcade
Edit: Galaga is sooo accurate!!! I love it
As good a review as possible without taking the unit apart. Nice little beast and the gameplay looks good and Galaga at least sounds good (except that super-low bitrate explosion) but the Galaxian audio is completely off and throws me out of the experience. Thanks for highlighting it.
Also unsure about that fire button for my gameplay style. I tend to play shmups only on consoles that feature arcade type buttons because of what I call my 'two-tap' firing technique developed as a kid where I rapidly alternate hitting the button with my pointer and middle fingers. This gives me the maximum fire rate possible in games that allow it. It wouldn't matter for single shot Galaxian, but I wonder if the button could stand up to it in Galaga play, or else be too stiff to allow it.
Thanks for watching. I couldn't speak to the longevity of the buttons on this particular unit, but I have had good luck with button life on previous releases from the manufacturer.
Pocket players = stocking stuffers finally worth my $$.
coin feature 😎
Really appreciate your reviews, thnx😊
I'm glad you enjoy them, and grateful that you click. Thanks for watching!
I think I want this..but the left button instead of the joystick makes me think. I dunno!
8:01 At least you can take a picture of a high score you got with your phone.
Haha! True. 😀
Imo they should have included galaga 88 Gaplus and galaga arrangement
Would have been great additions!
So....what's the benefit of this version against the non-pro version which includes Xevious?
Screen orientation.....takes AA instead of AAA.....🤔
I already have the first one, but I am really looking forward to this new one.
The near-perfect arcade versions of Galaxian & Galaga! If you don't have a port preference, then I expect that old unit will be on clearance shortly.
Hi Jon. Is the LCD screen on this the same size as the one on the My Arcade Galaga Micro Player Pro?
Yep, they're both 2.75" diagonal.
I ordered the street fighter model you recently reviewed and this looks temping, but man, it’s super lame that these pocket players don’t save your high score…nothing “Pro” about that. Also, why would they leave out xevious and bosconian? They were on the other non-pro version. 🤔
When you plugged in the the head phone jack playing galaxian . When the ships dive at you they sound the same as dropping a bomb on the atari 5200 the dreadnaught factor. I wish i could attach a video of it lol
I just listened to it again . Its very similar but not the same .
Pretty good player. Not bad
Hey Jon, quick question. I have the OLED switch…I have the Namco museum, which contains Galaga. Galaga is my main jam. I’m sure you’ve played Galaga on the Switch. Is there a lag that you experience on the Switch? And if so, is there even a tiny bit on the new handheld hardware you just reviewed? I’m sure I’m hypersensitive because I’m so used to playing the stand up arcade version, but I feel like there’s a lag on the Switch that I’m hoping is not going to be on the handheld myarcade. What do you say about that? BTW - the joycons are plugged in. If you experience no lag on the myarcade, I’m seriously considering selling my Switch and just picking up a few of these handhelds for my arcade fix. Thanks!
Speaking of Namco Museum... ua-cam.com/video/sxFsCuvbwvk/v-deo.html
This is just my opinion but hear me out, I reckon this Galaga/Galaxian Pocket Player Pro is better than all of them, it is probably more likely because my favorite Arcade game is Galaga, but the Pocket Player itself plays Galaga and Galaxian too well, the d-pad control works so smooth, the Fire button looks so stylish and feels good too.
The features, and everything about this Pocket Player Pro that gives you is too good.
Spot on.
Does it have a Pause feature like the older one?
It took me a minute, but I think I may have the answer to the high score not being saved. Since the ROM is booting up as if it’s the beginning of the day at an arcade it starts fresh and that the arcade cabinet is on the entire day while that place is open. Power goes off and it doesn’t save any previous high scores from the day it was on. I mean I could be wrong, but it sounds like the modified arcade ROM is working as if you were in an arcade.
You're spot on - without a doubt. High score preservation used to mean leaving the machine on for long durations. That worked for a cabinet plugged into the wall, but remembering the high score between sessions on a portable unit with limited power capacity would, for me at least, be a welcome deviation from the original to preseve the "high score hunt" nature of these games.
@@GenXGrownUp I totally agree with that. We have the technology to preserve our high scores and maybe even have the option to reset them if we wanted to. Still I’m sure that something could be worked around to get that correct.
My hypothesis on why the sound might be a little off is that to me it sounds like the game is using a 16-bit sound chip, instead of 8-bit.
That's as good a theory as any I've heard.
The power pellet noise on the ms. Pac-man pro edition sounds straight out of a sega genesis or something.
And the sound used for the intro theme for Galaga sound like a sega genesis organ sound
I really like this one
wow that hand held is goin to sell out soo fast.
Sold out.
When you review any of the Pac-Man products, could you check if the safe zone trick works on them?
Good call - that was on my agenda! I suspect it won't work based on what we learned from Ms. Pac-Man, but I'll definitely try.
I Don't have Galaga Pocket Player Pro Portable Gaming System from My Arcade yet!!!?
👌
Hello!😃 and when is comming the my arcade galaga in france?🎮
Maybe My Arcade could answer that - I'm not privvy to global distribution plans.
If it saved high scores I would buy this.
Sold Out!!!
Yeah, they're very popular and brand new. Restock is coming shortly!
ty@@GenXGrownUp
Hey Jon: do you have any knowledge of anywhere else one might be able to purchase one? I clicked your Amazon link and it says they are currently unavailable. Thanks!!
Firstly, thanks for the click! 😉 They're on the way to retailers currently, and I expect Amazon to get restock very shortly. It's the GenXGrownUp effect, I guess -- I review it and they fly off the shelves! 🤣
@@GenXGrownUp gotta be…!! Thank you - I’ll keep checking back…
Is it me or does the playing field for both original pocket player and the pro appear to be the same size and aspect ratio. It would appear that they just placed the score and player above the top of the playing field and then the level and number of lives left at the bottom, just below the playing field. It almost looks like it’s then the same.
It's not so much about the size or position of the playfield, but in the accuracy of the original on a 3:4 display.
The previous pocket player did have 3 games. Galaga, Galaxian and Xevious
Yep. But all NES ports, yes?
Hm... I bet these aren't "rewrites" or custom homebrews as much as they might be emulation with the actual original ROM. Especially with the no shoot glitch you found to be active in the Micro Player Pro. I wonder if the audio oddness is something to do with how they implemented the audio. Way back in the day in MAME, you had to have samples which I believe were wav files because it wasn't possible at the time to reproduce the audio via emulation. I wonder if they're using wav playback and the wav player is just odd. Or now maybe it is emulating the audio, but it's emulating it oddly.
What you say makes a lot of sense with Galaga. It then begs the question why other titles like Pac-Man & Ms. Pac-Man are so much farther off.
Is the screen on the Pocket Player Pro the same size dimensions or different then the Micro Player Pro?
Same dimensions and (as far as I can tell) the same model screen.
Man if it had Bluetooth and was rechargeable I would get it
👌
I hope the screen doesn't break as easy as the Mario handheld.
they should do something with Galaga ‘90
I think "Galaga 90" is just the name for a port of Galaga 88 - which would make much more sense here as it's the original arcade version. Either way, yes! 😀
Yep, this looks fun.
I'm just happy they stopped using Nintendo roms.
Amen!
This be one I need to pick up
While I love Galaga, Galaxian never really did much for me. $40 isn't bad I suppose for the hardware though I wonder what kind of mod ability they have? With only one button this one may be limited to Atari 2600 games mostly.
Nice! 😎👍🏻
It's close, but it's 2023. If they have a license for the arcade, give us the arcade rom. And like others have said, just two roms is pretty underwhelming. I can forgive the lack of a rechargeable battery, especially from an e-waste perspective, but for $20 more, we'll have the Super Pockets from Blaze that have multiple Taito or Capcom arcades along with an Evercade slot. I really want to like My Arcade, but they leave a lot to be desired. They make a passable impulse buy, for an uniformed buyer.
🤔