Pandora's Box 4S+ Arcade Stick Console Review - Rerez

Pandora's Box is a JAMMA Arcade Board with 815 games built in! Is it good?
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Special thanks to Banggood.com for sending this in!
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Rerez is a KZbin channel presented by Shane Luis all about video games. Presenting you the newest, strangest and most unique gaming topics. Featuring high quality reviews of new video games, consoles, previews, oddities, rare titles, unknown hardware, classic and retro games, and much more!
Credits:
Directed & Edited by - Adam K (It's a Dog and Game!)
Written and Voiced by - Shane Luis
Produced by - Shane Luis & Robin Luis
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[@rerez]

We've had a number of people write in saying that you can re-activate the attract screens for the games. The issue is that when you start a game it automatically inserts a coin bypassing the intro. Some games have also been altered with apparent auto loaded save states to also bypass the boot screens you normally see from MAME roms. I've personally gone through several different options and I can't find any solution on this model of Pandora's Box to reactive the attract screens. The problem with these kinds of devices is that you're likely never going to know what you get due to it's bootleg nature. You can find one that looks exactly like the model we showed off and it'll be different internally. This is a very buyer beware type of device. I'll continue to hunt for better models and when I find one I'll show it off on the channel. Also, at around 4:45 we show of Donkey Kong JR (a game that also doesn't play well) when talking about Donkey Kong 3 using it's music. Some folks are mistaken in thinking that was DK3. Donkey Kong 3 is unique in the series as it features Stanley the Bugman and not Mario or DK JR. as the protagonist.

[@qzh30d]

Rerez W W W W W Ww W Ww W Q

[@gonzalotorres5282]

Rerez you know what's worse? The NeoGeo input label is wrong. That kinda sucks for KOF players that use the left square of buttons.

[@gonzalotorres5282]

Ah, and you can't save the settings on each game. Always on default, and that sucks because of SSF2T.

[@redserventx922]

honestly earlier this year i wanted one of those but then i did some research and found the same word you used bootleg and i don't what a bootleg item form china but the part i did not know but suspected was the games were not lawfully uploaded and this item was hot in a bad way. but thank you for review this item because the more gamers know the better.

[@hakureicirno6059]

Rerez some of the Pandora Boxes got a "maintenance mode" that allow you to adjust system settings. On a product like this it is sometimes triggered by a little button on the rear panel, and on a real arcade machine (not joking, there are commercial arcade machines in China using Pandora Boxes as their logic board), you have to open the cabient to trigger it. In the maintenance mode you can set the console to non-free-play mode and then assign a button on the front panel as "coin button",which will solve your problem.

[@cannonballkid]

Ok as an owner of a Pandoras Box 4S+ thought I would throw my tow cents in... 1.For starters the 4S+ is an updaye of the 4S and should have 845 games as opposed to 815. 2. If you are interested in one of these get them only from aliexpress. People selling these on amazon,ebay, their own websites etc are price gouging them. The seller who sent him this are charging $250 USD. I paid $170 for mine. No need for a middle man, just get it directly from China. 3. For the look of it, you can customize it, I had mine done in the style of a Sega City Astro Pad and the finish isnt pixelated or anything. Also the joysticks on his model look really cheap. The ones are received are standard length from what I can tell. Also this unit shown does not have a puase button, that is standard on the 4S+. Leads me to beleive this is a knockoff of the 4S. Yeah imagine that a knockoff of a knockoff but there are 'fake' Pandoras Boxes floating around out there. 4. Some games have screen tearing but not all of them. No you arent getting a 1:1 experience with these games, you want that, buy the boards! 5. The software on it, while pretty basic does allow you to create a playlist of your favourite titles. And you can even hide games from the overall list that you have no interest in. 6. Last with the whole morality thing...yeah a good chunk of these games are not available to purchase anywhere legitimately. Like the only way you can play some of these would literally involve buying an expensive arcade board. Screw that noise. These are just video games, you arent stealing Christmas presents from orphans. Do I enjoy this thing? Yes I do. 845 games for $170 bucks do the math on that. Anyway though I would weigh in and share my own experience with this thing.

[@joesaycanseco7987]

Which one from aliexpress did you get? They have several types...

[@mrblonde609]

"For starters the 4S+ is an updaye of the 4S and should have 845 games as opposed to 815. " The 4s has 680 games and the 4s+ has 815 games: bootleggames.wikia.com/wiki/Pandora%27s_Box I have bought the legit 4s+ from 3A Game and it has 815 games on it. ;) Check out their shop on aliexpress you will see, there is no version with 845 games. Seems, like you've got a bootleg yourself. xD

[@WarrentheGunner]

Blister Monde very true!!

[@jetisbae2164]

Anyone here who knew about Ninja Baseball Bat Men before because of the AVGN?

[@jeramiah6244]

Sakujima Iwata no, I only heard about it from AVGN

[@TheMamaluigi300]

Sakujima Iwata Yes

[@Wflash00]

AVGN reviewed this game? How long ago?

[@ideitbawxproductions1880]

@@Wflash00 I forget how long ago it was (it wasn't an official episode, it was kind of a one-off mini review with the Nerd talking about how he just discovered the "greatest arcade game ever made"), but it was quite a while ago now. don't know if you managed to find it since you originally posted your comment (I mean, it's been 3 years lol), but if I find the link again I'll be sure to let you know

[@Wflash00]

@@ideitbawxproductions1880 Yeah, I realized that soon after writing this comment lol. In the moment, I was hoping he did an actual review

[@philscomputerlab]

You're the first reviewer that mentioned the tearing. I've seen a few videos, and I wasn't sure if it's because of how they captured, but now I know, thanks for confirming!

[@SS3Dman]

Pay the original developer ? Most of the time they don't get payed for a release of there game usually it's just the publisher or the rights holder

[@striderle]

Great review Rerez, I bought the same exact machine, not bad for the money spent, fighting games played pretty decent for emulation. I swapped out the joysticks and buttons to Sanwa and much better feel and response.

[@HyperTriggerEx]

A thumbs up just for being honest. Too many youtubers get free stuff and do these sugar coated reviews out of the fear of offending the people that sent them the goods. I was actually looking at one of these, but having having seen your review I'll give it a miss. Thanks Rerez :)

[@lincolnnoronha4128]

The original Mortal Kombat has trouble running in all of these pirate arcade joystick systems that I have encountered.

[@theknife69]

Tekken yea or nay

[@beanwithbacon]

ROFL, NO!!!

[@goonerlegend1504]

Get the new pandoras box 5 960-1 they have fixed all the issues with hardware. 👍👍

[@AP101083]

Indeed we have the pandoras box 5 and its almost perfect now and very good playable! We made a review on our channel! Check it out on our channel: Wicked Gamer & Collector. Please only buy the original 3A versions and not those fake clones they have horrible emulation with some games and not very good hardware!

[@goonerlegend1504]

Alphons Potters excellent review. Thank you.

[@TMS5100]

...and it was the last thing banggood.com ever sent to this channel.

[@GatorRay]

Or at least the last thing they sent Shane that was gaming related. After this they're probably only gonna send him stuff like RC cars & dildos (Still can't believe they sell those things)

[@SeeJayAre]

Ninja Baseball Bat Man is my favorite arcade game of all-time.

[@stridermt2k]

Yes indeed! That and TwinBee

[@Vimame999]

Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean is the U.S. version of Puyo Puyo. I remember playing many of the arcade games as a kid, at local bowling alley's, arcades, Chuck E' Cheese, pizza parlors, liquors stores, Great America, you name it, there are too many types of places to name to be honest. For now I get these games on PC, or on a console, but I've been looking for at device that has loads of games, and does a good job emulating, running them

[@cubanman2009]

Hey rerez just to give you a heads up the allwinner A13 chipset that’s on that board is the cpu it’s supposed to come with a heat sink on it so it won’t overheat that also causes it to lag or slow down

[@GameSack]

That Pandora stuff has always been crap. I tried one or two of their multi-game boxes and the emulation is very sub par. What's even worse is that there's screen-tearing. No v-sync on games that should have v-sync... like friggin' E-SWAT. The video output is also very problematic and waaaaaay out of spec. Avoid like the plague.

[@benjismith593]

Game Sack Ok. I respect the hell out of you guys. I about bought this. Thank you for changing my mind. I'll stick to the Raspberry pi.

[@JosiahIsWrite]

What do you suggest for the most arcade-like experience at home? That is, other than a room full of arcade cabinets.

[@neldog7735]

there's a new version of this, Pandora's Box 5 with new Quad Core board (vs 2) - this guy has a quick review: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qYrZZKeAetOLeac , it fixes issues like the Mortal Kombat slowdown. You're right not the best but it's getting better.

[@Clay3613]

Did you inform Tech Moan?

[@mrblonde609]

The only crap is your elitist nonsense. I have the real 4s+ and the emulation is very good for 95 percent of the 815 games. Only really bad example is "Mortal Kombat". No trouble with the video output whatsoever. Screen tearing is true though. Of course you can't have fun with such systems if you are an elitist or bought a knockoff. PB 5 (960games) has also better hardware with a 4 core CPU and runs "Mortal Kombat" flawless. To the people that are interested in these things: try them for yourselves and just have fun or don't. Just buy the original ones.

[@NoirEtBlancVie]

While I miss some of the high production value of old Rerez, BUT, this episode was great! The humor comes through as always!

[@savagebeastb.m.f7156]

Mine hooks up hdmi to any t.v love it I think it's worth a pick up for sure

[@chronosanaki5174]

Duuuuude, AVGN made a little review about Ninja Baseball Batman. He LOVED it fuck yes, it's amazing to see that someone else they knows about this game.

[@Lawgordon]

I got pretty much the same one once you replace the buttons and stick it’s pretty good 3rd strike players and fighting game fans in general will love it besides mortal kombat of course

[@epicjake3522]

Hey Rerez, if you see this comment I just wanted to say that I noticed on the wall a poster for the ill-fated Gizmondo console saying "Coming Soon". Would you ever consider reviewing that console in the future? I think it would be really interesting and there's no professional game reviewer that has done a video on it. Plus, since you already reviewed the Nuon, I think it'd be right up your alley. Thanks in advance!

[@liesureleeminis8268]

Ninja baseball Batman has been one of, if not my favorite beat em ups ever

[@NoVaCXG]

My friend has an actual arcade cabinet loaded with Pandora’s Box. He also has Skee-Ball and an arcade cabinet with old Namco games (PAC-Man, Galaga), the first three Donkey Kongs, and some odd ones like Pool and Pinball.

[@PubstarHero]

The size of that lollipop joystick is pretty offputting. Typically they are much shorter. It looks like they went with a post for the joystick that belongs on an American bat style one instead of the JP style lollipops. Not sure how much you go to arcades, but if you read this, could you weigh in on the size of the stick on there versus the more conventional JP style joysticks?

[@gazog1]

PubstarHero yep that's what caught my eye, the sticks look a bit too long,

[@bruceaskew2107]

I own 1 it's awesome

[@spring-trap_8683]

I really love ur KZbin channel no lie u funny as hell

[@ThatConfused1]

Oh man, I remember Ninja Baseball Batman being at a local arcade. It is very good for such an obscure title. Thank you for reminding me of it!

[@TheBigDynamo]

Man, I just love the music you have produced and used in your videos, Shane. Is there anywhere I can listen to them all? I've been digging it since your 200 in 1 worst ever plug n play review.

[@dw840]

Pandora's box is an artifact in Greek mythology connected with the myth of Pandora in Hesiod's Works and Days.[1] The container mentioned in the original story was actually a large storage jar but the word was later mistranslated as "box".

[@davybones7912]

Ha! I someone would crack that Pandoras box of humour open

[@Wongwrangler64]

I don't think it would be possible to pay the original developers of most of these games anyway. Even the company's that own the right's to the games wouldn't pass on a penny to the hard working programmers so I'd rather give it to a Chinese company trying to make a good value product than some huge corporation over charging for someone else's work.

[@LynxxLancer]

That Ninja Baseball Bat Man reminds me of my Childhood. Also, AVGN has a review of that game.

[@GatorRay]

+LynzzLancer There's also a full playthrough on Brainscratch commentaries.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

Some of those companies don't even exist anymore.

[@StuartsTRAVELvideos]

Great review, thanks!

[@jamesa800]

I have an older model of this from last year, it isn’t 4S+ it’s 4S - and it’s incredible It runs all the games great, they have the intros, and I am super happy with it The unorganized menu is a real pain however

[@capt_howdy]

Need to put Sanwa parts on that thing, those joysticks look sus af

[@NewportBox100s]

Pandora Box 5 fixed everything. So epic. 💪💪💪

[@jacksawack6724]

Legality?

[@Riz2336]

Looks pretty cool being an arcade fan myself

[@twistedbld]

It is a single board computer, similar to a raspberry pi, the allwinner a13 gives it away, it runs fba and mame4all on a custom Linux distro with a graphical shell.

[@garry12gg]

There's a newer version called the Pandora's Box 5.

[@rerez]

We're gonna look into that one eventually as well.

[@garry12gg]

Rerez Okay.

[@Herowebcomics]

WOW! This arcade setup is SO cool! Just be careful when two people are playing!

[@HandlebarOrionX]

I kinda wanna get this now

[@dariusq8894]

The attract modes aren't really gone. The Pandora's Box boots games directly into a state as though someone inserted a credit so it just skips the attract mode. After the 'Game Over' screen the attract modes will run as normal (assuming you change the settings to NOT automatically insert credits).

[@MissPlayAndWatch]

Progear is one of my favorite bullet hells ever so I'm glad to see it here. It works on Final Burn Alpha if that's your bag.

[@kenterminateddq5311]

Damn, it has Ninja Baseball Batman????? AVGN recommend the game and now, Shane Luis recommend it. I might buy this Arcade Stick. :)

[@dcb99filmz]

Eightman is based on an old anime about a RoboCop-esque hero who smokes energy cigs to power up...

[@chrisnizer1885]

That's always been my concern with systems that advertise several HUNDRED games. Too many unplayable, repetitious games to beef up the menu and make it look impressive. I went with the Super Retro-cade that I saw you review. It ships with 90 games but has the ALL IMPORTANT SD CARD SLOT so I can customize my own playlist. Thanks for another great review!

[@IndygoEEI]

Wow, you played all the games? Cool and I appreciate hearing about the issues. Another guy did a review of this (He does gaming stuff like this from china) and in his review (He didn't play everything) you can actually see the intros if you switch off Free play mode. Granted you'll have to use one of the buttons to insert coins, but you get the intros.

[@rerez]

Our version still bypasses the intros. I tried everything including turning off free play mode. :(

[@josephfanning1241]

On a pandora's box, try going into settings and turning of all games, then re-enabling one. It should auto-boot into that game and it will show the attract mode.

[@benily7803]

Dead connection's character portraits look like they were made in Open TTD

[@JomasterTheSecond]

This arcade stick has a JoJo reference?!

[@arbi9506]

Jomaster The Second No theres actually an jojo game in it

[@LermaBean]

Riolu So it counts as a JoJo reference.

[@CaseyGarnerGaming]

been thinking about getting one

[@ostertag89]

I just wanna play these old games and enjoy them I would gladly buy and entire arcade set up if I had the money right next to my pool in my mansion besides that i can finally play almost all the games I loved as a kid xmen vs street fighter marvel super heroes metal slug all of them darkstalkers all the alphas 97 bucks well spent and I got the best clone of a clone one 999 games

[@Bobson_Dugnutt_Esq]

Ninja Baseball Bat Man is wonderful. I would buy it legitimately on steam or elsewhere in a heartbeat (for a reasonable price)

[@tba6]

I love the new song outro

[@TheRealDustinNunn]

I recommend crown levers and sanwa buttons to be installed into this arcade stick.

[@shogunfox7141]

Now as of December 2017, they got a Pandora's Key 5s with 999 games.

[@mrblonde609]

Yeah, and it is garbage and not the real deal. The only real Pandoras 5 is the one with 960 games. it has a complete new mainboard, Quad Corec CPU etc. 5s with 999 games is literally a 4s with more games and the old single core cpu.

[@natejoe9924]

Oh you're doing it right now I didn't know I thought was a good device

[@bluein_]

It runs on an A13 chip. it's one of the most popular chips for cheap android tablets and odd consoles in the asian market, so it makes sense why they'd choose it for this kind of thing. It's fast, but not fast enough to live up to everything the 4S+ promises it can do. I'd say the person who designed it decided to go cheaper the board to get better build quality on sticks and buttons.

[@jonah8651]

Yay a new awesome vid from Rerez

[@Chaos89P]

I'm gathering that this arcade stick is basically what it's named after, a Pandora's box of sorts. If it was legal, I'd be all over it.

[@TheWack74]

Turn off free play and set the credits to 1:1. After the game u play is over, the attract mode will run.

[@YosefASelim]

The attraction screens are likely only missing due to the games being on freeplay... Often that locks a game onto the start screen.

[@zebedeetotty]

Rerez please bring back "The Hook" it is one of my fav talk shows on youtube

[@PlaidX]

Is it me or does Shane become more and more tan with each new video?

[@nycjt6267]

Review was like a roller coaster..Good..bad...good...bad....good.....bad.......

[@MrChuChuRocket]

it’s funny i bought this it was gonna be sent to my house but it never delivered 80$ down the drain looked fun to play wit buddys

[@jonathanrupe8399]

Tetris: the Grand Master would play great with this thing.

[@txcforever]

The issue is that even though it's illegal what's the alternative if you want the arcade version of some obscure game you played as a kid? Yeah you can find your Pac Man or Metal Slug or Street Fighter, but what if I want to play Outrunners or World Rally or the original Wonder Boy? Unless someone creates a Netflix kind of platform where every arcade game is available to the public, then MAME or devices like the Pandora is the only way to do it.

[@bit-ishbulldog2089]

To get intro's to work on each game, change the options so its not free to play.. Something I see on someone's KZbin channel (RetroCore) The stick also works with PlayStation 3..

[@MarkMarkMark]

Thank yooooou for the review. Just bought it. Needed to know if it is usb compatible with all games

[@SianaGearz]

Well, not quite Raspberry Pi, but the Pandora's Jamma board is very similar to a modified Orange Pi with Jamma peripherals, different video output, audio amplifier, stuff like that.

[@jasonhowe1697]

screen tear is likely bad hdmi cable or hdmi spec mismatch between virtual board and Tv check both patch cable from internal and check extension lead you are using I have seen screen tearing in consoles due crap cables not being up to standard... KOF especially in later games with sf additions to the roster had to adapt to capcoms button layout remap their player to that format for ease of use in the arcades

[@LynxxLancer]

There's one on a local mall nearby. Shane you should try playing Gals Panic. I'm sure it's there. There are a bunch of version but the anime style is what I like (Gals Panic S, S2)

[@awesomefai2798]

He's alive!

[@jacksawack6724]

6:21 Is that a Jo-

[@udyr106]

This is so cool !!!

[@kingdedede933]

...btw it has the 2d Street Fighter games all the way to Marvel vs Capcom. (This includes Children of the Atom and Marvel Super Heroes)

[@bhavanashukla8740]

RGB Linus will be Happy

[@lagoz4762]

oh yeah , pandora's box kratos played with this thing.

[@btr3k]

9:43 Funny thing with Altered Beast - the arcade game definitely looks better than the Genesis one, however only the Genesis version has a parallax scrolling background. Weird!

[@kyfeam]

the new Pandora's box 960 in 1 is way more powerful than the older Pandoras box systems.. it just released a few weeks ago.. can play MK1 with no slowdown.. Google it..

[@kyles8524]

you can get to the intro screens but since you have to start a game with a coin you just have to lose the credit and die in the game as long as freeplay isnt on and it will restart the game as if it needs credits

[@vn417]

I REMEMBER SEEING IT AT A LAUNDROMAT IN GRAND PRAIRIE TX!!!

[@Supertimegamingify]

It has Miraie no Isan? Kool.

[@MegAmi24]

Us Puyo fans call Puyo Puyo 2 “Puyo Puyo Tsu” ;)

[@819slayer]

WAS THAT. A MOTHERFUCKING. JOJO REFERENCE?!

[@dominicsoto8755]

i just wanted this for fighting games but with what he said I don't know.

[@benjismith593]

Is this the guy from Blue's Clues?

[@skaared02]

@MPSecare best reply lol

[@StylesLee]

i made a song for Pandora's Box 4S+ good box

[@ChaseMC215]

I see a poster of Gorden Freeman

[@MrOskrDJ]

Gee man I dont know, Something tells me you just didnt do this review right.. I got the same ver of pandora box and; 1. You are able to remove games from the list 2. You are able to start games without a coin already showing the title ( so you can see the simpsons vid)

[@MrOskrDJ]

Bit Bite Chomp Let me repeat my self, I got the SAME VERSION of pandora box

[@rerez]

I plugged it back in and went through every menu I could find. Our version doesn't appear to have any setting allowing us to see the intro for The Simpsons. How did you get it to work?

[@MrOskrDJ]

Rerez I will go ahead and upload a video to make it easier to explain. Even tho this is a "bootleg console" i know there is copies of the actual pandora box. I dont have any frame rate problems with any games neither. Love your videos man.. big fan

[@mrblonde609]

So where is your video? Or your solution for the problem?

[@RealCongH]

Review the real 3A version. This one is a knockoff

[@chriss2082]

C H I noticed that too when I seen the hardware

[@reddelta8321]

I'm confused as to why it uses a non standard arcade stick layout, you would think it would be east to copy Viewlix or noir layouts

[@JoeCnNd]

4:55 you're playing donkey kong Jr. Why didn't you show dk 3 playing with the jr music?

[@Retromander]

I have the same box ...swap it out and put the A3GAME 960 in 1 straight swap, new hardware runs alot faster.

[@xxxBURSTANGELxxx]

Is that easy 2 do? I did order the device and had the same idea ^^

[@B4dr4bbit]

I am sad that Moonwalker wasn't pointed out

[@tommyboy9998]

The pandoras run FBA and mame4all (etc.), and you can browse the Micro SD and swap out roms and tweak configs if You want to smooth it out a little, but it is what it is.. Also, the attract screens are missing because the pandora boots a game with a credit inserted, so the games all skip to the PUSH START bit.. if You just play and let the attract mode run after the game You will see it's still there. The older games all look and sound like a$$, the newer games are better.. A RetroPie mame build will pwn a pandora every time, but the pandora is designed to drop into a Jamma cab and take money, so it's all a bit safe and annoying..

[@otaking3582]

So basically only get this to use for spare parts for your own home-made arcade machine?

[@robert0380]

Spare parts don't cost that much. If you need parts , just buy parts.

[@scottpickens2597]

i like the concept it would be a must buy if the emulation was good.

[@scottpickens2597]

also first video i agree with from rerez

[@VIDEOgameDROME]

About what I expected. I'll just stick with my RPi 3 and a joystick.

[@MightyistheRCGamer]

First I use the light while playing get used to it learn it and then use it against my opponents by turning it on and blinding them while they play in the dark

[@PESBUL]

I saw another video where guys have PANDORA BOX 5 software on his Pandora box 4 and there is not that problem with screen and Mortal Kombat. Try to update firmware somehow.

[@nigelrichards14]

pls cld you explain wot the(C.F.G)button is for?on the 4s...