PacMan Arcade1Up Partycade NEW BOARDS! | Is The Problem Solved?  

Thanks so much for the kind words, JD.

Damn, Ben. Thanks for refilling the tank today. ⛽ Glad we found one another!

Thanks, DC. I hope we continue to see improvement!

To be super technical, it turned out to be neither latency nor slowdown (though slowness is the symptom). In one of the videos in this series, I lay out the waveform on screen and show the drop-outs in sound that represent multi-millisecond pauses in the sound. This is consistent with the CPU unable to keep up with the instructions and having little choke points. All of those little pauses add up to seeming slower overall when in reality there are just dozens of little undesired pauses!

Great news, Gamers Reckoning! I always like to hear about a happy ending. Appreciate you watching and the kind words.

Thanks, Alex. Yes, I saw than HSN had snuck out a couple new units. Kind of burns to see the new (refreshed?) unit with 4 games selling for the same price as the busted unit with 3. But that's the plight of the early adopter!

Glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks, sjt66. Glad you got something out of the vid. 😀 If you haven't already I hope you will subscribe and check out much more of our GenX-inspired content!

LOL!

@@GenXGrownUp :)

Great to have you here, Ronnie. Thanks! 😀 I can't take any credit for that poster -- found the great cartridge box collage online somewhere years ago and took it to Walgreens to get printed as a poster. One frame later and it's a permanent part of my decor!

Thanks, BlackSuit021. I just got my replacement a couple days ago, so it'll be interesting to compare my experience to that of others. Stay tuned!

Yes, for sure. Let me know how it goes.

@@GenXGrownUp Hi Jon... how do I order a circuit card for my Arcade 1 Up 8 game Party Cade Portable Arcade Machine? .... Thank you, Jesse

@@jessemartinez7176 I'm not affiliate with A1U in any way, so I recommend you contact them via their support page: arcade1up.com/pages/contact-us

Who's Matthew?

Different models. The 3-in-1 reviewed here is no longer available. Glad you found one you liked!

@@GenXGrownUp What do you think about the one on HSN I hope it’s good I bought the extended warranty just in case

And above ALL, you need premium customer support!!! I ordered a pcb that took three months to receive. That's not acceptable in my book. Lack of good customer support is their biggest downfall imho... And great video Jon!!!

Yeah, I get hatemail when I mention all the things you just did. LOL.

That's seems like good news, GreenMonkey. Good luck!

Hiya, Eric. Yes, it's my understanding from viewers that the problems I experienced with the first-generation Partycade (that 3-in-1 Pac-Man) have been hammered out with the most recent releases. If you can find one you like at a reasonable price, I wouldn't expect you to run into any of those performance issues I reported early on. Thanks for watching!

@@GenXGrownUp Good to know, thanks!

Thanks, mekman4. 😀 I hope you will subscribe and check out much more of our GenX-inspired content!

Hahaha! As "that dude," let me say that I'm trying to give a very honest assessment and evaluation of my experience with this product. I don't mean to be a nightmare for A1U! 😀 I hope you will subscribe and check out much more of our GenX-inspired content!

Thanks for asking, John. There were ultimately seven (!) videos in this saga. You can see the rest of the story in this playlist: bit.ly/3sq9h6x

@@GenXGrownUp excellent thanks, just ordered the Miss Pac-Man version for the wifey. I'm kind of afraid to watch those last two as problem may not be solved? But I'll look at them, thanks, I guess I got there too late for the hundred 99 deal, I paid like 260 All In

You will first need to go to the arcade1up.com website contact section and create a Support Portal account, log in then create a ticket and request a replacement Partycade PCB board. They will require proof of purchase (a photo of the receipt) and some video evidence of the issue, a short cell phone video clip is fine. You can upload and attach these when you create your ticket. They may not always respond immediately, you may need to log back in occasionally to send a reminder. To replace the PCB itself the only tool you usually need is a philip's head screwdriver, but in the case of the partycade you'll also need a knife, I'll explain in a minute. To start off with you unscrew the back panel off, this will include unscrewing the two rubber bumpers located at the bottom of the back cover. Once the back cover is removed you will see a small metallic box screwed to the back of the screen, you will need to unscrew this. You may also see some silver tape holding the box to the back of the screen. I had to cut mine with a knife. One the box is removed, turn it over and you will see the PCB screwed to the inside in each corner plus various small cables attached. You will need to unscrew the PCB and carefully remove all the cables, remembering which cable go to which connector for when you install the new PCB. As you unscrew the PCB board from the box, take note that there is a small ground wire attached to one of the corner screws, make sure to screw this back in the same place when you install the new board. Once the board and cables have been removed, you insert the new replacement PCB board in the box reattach the cables to the connectors, and screw the board back into place, not forgetting to screw the ground wire back in it's original location. Before you reattach the box and back panel you may want to switch on the Partycade to see if it boots up ok. If it does you can go ahead and screw the box the the back of the screen and replace the back panel and screw it back into place. Then your all done.

Yes, sir, James. Open a support ticket at A1U through their website to get the ball rolling. Change-out is drop-dead simple with standard household tools (i.e. screwdriver).

@@simonmcuk Thanks for all the valuable info!. I got the ball rolling on that replacement. Yeah, based on everything John has already stated about this company, I'm not expecting a lightning quick response from them, but I'm a patient man. Thanks again!

@@GenXGrownUp Thanks, John. Major props to you for creating these videos and bringing this issue to light. I just got the replacement process started. The Partycade was a Christmas gift from a loved one and it burns me up that they paid top dollar for something second rate. If I have to hound Arcade1Up incessantly from now to St. Hubbins Day to resolve this issue I will. Thanks again.

I don't see any reason why you couldn't, David. You might not even have to swap the monitor (I'm not familiar with the size of monitor in the 3/4 scale units). But worst-case scenario would be that if you transplant all the guys, you would have a Partycade 4-in-1 Pac in the shell of your old stand-up unit.

I'm sure it's gotta be a financial choice. These little PCBs must be dirt cheap in volume.

Huh? These are all emulation boards. The ATM7051H is a Cortex-A7 ARM processors. All Arcade1Ups run a stripped Linux based kernel and a ARM MAME emulator. V02 is the same processor. They just optimized the emulator software, changed a frame rate or frame skip setting probably.

Randy Smith that is for clarifying , I was confused as to what they were actually using in these things and how it was different from the 3/4 scale units.

Not yet. Still got it in the box.

To that point, there are dozens of way to play these games -- but this is one way it's being provided to consumers as a plug-and-play device and there's intrinsic value in preserving the integrity of the game when it's packaged like this.

There's been a lot of that going around lately. It's unfortunate, but not entirely uncommon for products to announce at a trade event and then never actually see the light of day.

Hey, Dean. What is Basic Arcade? Are you talking about maybe Basic Fun or My Aracade?

GenXGrownUp sorry, yes basic fun arcade

Yep. Go into the test mode and look for V02 under "Version". Test mode can be entered by ensuring the volume is set to the middle position, holding down all three buttons, and powering the unit on. (I do this in a later video in this series: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-wGyAsSlF1YI.html )

@@GenXGrownUp Thanks. Asked a slightly different question in another post I made and didn't combine them. If you can answer the 2 questions there I'd appreciate it Jon. I'm new at this sorry about that.

@@MoviePropCollector No worries. I think I replied to all your comments, but if I miss something, just reply to the comment I didn't answer and I'll follow up.

You can certainly buy a later version, but it has no cross-compatibility or expansion connectivity to this rev 1.

Oh, no! Would you be willing to provide photos of the old & new boards and some gameplay?

@@GenXGrownUp Sent!

I would recommend just upgrading to a nice replacement stick like this one: amzn.to/3vYe5Bo

Can I replace it myself?

I never presented my receipt, so it's worth a shot if the price is right.

The last video in this series shows a step-by-step take-apart, but you can't tell which board you have by looking at it -- they're labelled inconsistently. What you can do is have a look at the version by doing the power-on board test (also seen in that same video). Have a look!

@@GenXGrownUp Thank you!

Depends on how much modification you're willing to do.

@@GenXGrownUp what can the stock casing hold ?

Hey, Martin. There aren't any commercially-available units at retail that have Pac-Man & DK. Nintendo has mostly stopped licensing its games for use by third parties, and especially not bundled with Namco titles. There are other emulation solutions out there but they tend to cost substantially more than an A1U or similar device. And P.S., there are a LOT more great games out there, so don't restrict yourself to just Pac & DK!

No, it won't say in any retailer description. But since this model is no longer available through HSN, I'd have to hope that the next retail wave will rock the new board.

GenXGrownUp what model isn’t available, the older one or the newer one ?

Neither is currently available. The HSN is out of stock, and the second wave haven't yet started shipping.

GenXGrownUp man i really want this to work properly , maybe they are working on a third version ?

No. To be very clear again, the "first" version (this one I got) came through the Home Shopping Network. Those are no longer available. The "second" version has not yet been made available for pre-order or purchase, but was shown at a trade show. Obviously, I can't comment on the quality of those since I haven't had my hands on them, but I would hope they use the updated PCB on those.

Unfortunately no. That's true to the arcade experience, but would be a feature I think a lot of users would appreciate.

Assuming you mean a link to where you can purchase the product, I removed the link from the description when it became broken due to going out-of-stock.

@@GenXGrownUp i just ordered it on HSN 👍

What you ordered on HSN would have to be either the 4-in-1 or the 8-in1, because the original 3-in-1 I fought with is now discontinued. I hope what you get is awesome!

Haha! In my defense, it was 100% accurate compared to the real thing. That should count for something!😆

Arcade1Up IS MAME!

Randy Smith they are not running mame, it’s something else proprietary.

Why do you ask?

@@GenXGrownUp Just wanting to know if my intuition is right or wrong. But I also wanted to know if there's a way you can check the version of board you have without opening up your gaming machine,as I don't have MAME to compare mine to

@@redman4076 Heh. As to the board number, in a later video in this series, I put the system into self-test mode and show the board version on-screen. Jump ahead to the last video and you'll see both the old & new versions.

@@GenXGrownUp Lol ...But ok I just didn't want to open my cabinet up

So far there's only been a version 1 of the Partycade.

@@GenXGrownUp oh ok sorry about that. I wish I could afford one of those.

I worry about the customer experience for owners who aren't comfortable opening the unit and working on simple electronics.

@@GenXGrownUp - Most of them though have never played the real thing so will probably not even notice it (or at least will not for more than the 90 day warranty period !) - Which is probably what A1U is hoping for since it will allow them to only replace a few dozen of the few thousand machines that were sold with the problem - similar to the original 3/4scale Galaga machine that had the Galaxian freeze/Galaga high score save not storing the 6th digit problems that even the CS reps would not acknowledge they had fixed until the majority of machines were off warranty.

:)

My wife wouldn't approve.

I find that they're hit or miss. Sometimes they're great, but then they stumble. I suspect they have been overwhelmed with unexpected growth and are having trouble keeping up.

If you want a solution you can purchase, the Galaga Quarter Arcade is pretty magnificent: numskull.com/galaga-arcade-cabinet/