So not sure if I should start a new thread or not regarding this, but since I originally posted here with feedback...I'll continue.
A month or so ago, I ordered the King of Air vertical PCB and was told by the seller it did in fact support CGA. When it arrived it did not. I was then told that it was an error and a CGA was coming, they would exchange it. Well it arrived today and I am really quite impressed. I played for about 30 minutes real quick today and here's what I found -
PROS
- No adapter was needed to make this work, no ground issues...worked directly off my JAMMA harness.
- The boot sequence is short and to the point. Not nearly as obnoxious as the PB4
- The menu is actually very pleasing IMO. It's a short game list which is nice and it looks good.
- FREEPLAY actually works properly! Shocking I know. It even works correctly on the few games I tried with continues as well.
- Autofire is an option. Although it does not play well with CAVE games that have a secondary shot that is activated by holding the button down like - DP, DDP or Guwange
- Setup button can be depressed at any time and be loaded. Not just at bootup like other multiboards. Very nice to see finally (Most of the settings out of the box you will want to change (ie - freeplay, exit to menu, autofire, game select mode)
- If you change the settings to menu for exit, when you hold down P1 start it will actually pause the game and give you a choice to exit or return to the game. Another nice feature.
- I did not test removing all the games and having it boot to a single game, not sure if it's possible? But you can configure it to remain in the game after your credit is over and not return to the main menu. I think that is an important feature.
- PSYKIO games like Strikers and Gunbird seem to play really well.
CONS
- Volume levels still vary and are a little all over the place.
- About half the games have some noticeable scaling. It seems to be more obvious and present in the games that allow the screen to scroll horizontally as well as vertically. Sadly most of the CAVE games I tried you can see it.
- One of the games I was most excited about - Thunder Dragon 2 seems to play great but is missing all the speech sounds and possibly more.
Honestly all in all, with the prices of vertical SHMUPS this seems like a steal of a board. Some of these titles I feel like I will never have the opportunity to own. I'm really impressed. I obviously need to spend more time with it. But first impression is it's the best chinese multiboard I've ever tried. I've had the PB2, PB4, Blue Elf 619 and 412 and 60 in 1
I own several of these titles including DonPachi, I can tell it's not 100% by any means but I'd say for the $100 cost it's definitely worth it.