Pandora Box 3 Multi-Game 520-1 PCB

Xian Xi

JammaNationX,
15 Year Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2005
Posts
27,748
The Jamma version of the Pandora's Box 5 finally went live, but according to a post over on jammaplus it is NOT compatible with CGA monitors. That sucks.

It says the orange version doesn't support CGA which kinda means there will be other colors.
 

neo_X7

Disciple Of Orochi
Joined
Jan 5, 2004
Posts
3,285
Does anyone know if the non JAMMA version of the Pandora's Box 5 borad is a straight swap out with the 4S model? The wiring harness looks the same in the pictures.
 

Heinz

Parteizeit
15 Year Member
Joined
Feb 13, 2005
Posts
22,333
No CGA? ahh man that's poo. Guess I'll wait for the purple version then.
 

jinx5

n00b
Joined
Dec 6, 2017
Posts
18
Interesting?
Sorry if this has been answered alot here, don't want to go throu all the pages but
how is the input lag. It's running off a emulator? What will be better jamma one or hdmi version for the Pandora 5 if you got both options to deal with. What pandora version is more perfect to get. Is it better then a mame raspberry pi.
 

kevlo9

New Challenger
Joined
Nov 27, 2016
Posts
53
I have the Orange PB5 (jamma version) getting delivered on Wednesday. It will be going in my New Sega Astro City connected to an LCD (via VGA). Currently I have a PB4S+ in there. Really hopping the 5 will fix some of the issues with the 4S+.
 
Joined
Jun 11, 2015
Posts
46
Interesting?
Sorry if this has been answered alot here, don't want to go throu all the pages but
how is the input lag. It's running off a emulator? What will be better jamma one or hdmi version for the Pandora 5 if you got both options to deal with. What pandora version is more perfect to get. Is it better then a mame raspberry pi.

Better or worse is a very subjective thing. If you're talking pure emulation quality, I would still go for a Pi 3 over one of these any day.

From what I've heard the PB5 still has screen tearing issues, which is just inexcusable given we're up to the 5th incarnation of the hardware and it should be more than fast enough to handle running games without screen tearing. Also, the Pandora's Box products run at a single resolution which generally favour CPS1/2/3 hardware, everything else gets squashed/stretched which end up with artefacts that could have been avoided by using a very high horizontal resolution (I run my Pi 3 at 1920x240, which allows you to run both CPS-based and NeoGeo-based games with pixel level accuracy).

Emulation quality aside, these Pandora's Box products are super convenient and really very good value for money. If you want to get up and running quickly, this is the way to do it. In terms of Jamma vs. HDMI, they're all going to be about the same, so it mostly comes down to the display you end up pairing it with. A CRT is always going to be faster than an LCD-based monitor or HDTV, on the other hand, modern displays are sharper, but whether you prefer one or the other is up to you, so pick your poison.

A Pandora's Box doesn't offer a lot of flexibility though. So if you want to run a game it should *technically* be able to run, like MK2, well, you're out of luck. Whereas a Pi 3 can run MK2 if you use the Mame 2003 core (oh, and the sound buffering issue has been solved recently, so now it actually plays without the sound going crazy on you). Or if you want to access all the different settings that a game offers, well, the Pandora's Box products restrict you to only some very basic settings. Like if on Super Street Fighter II Turbo you want to turn on the music for the intro, well, you simply can't do that as it's not an option the device provides and there is no other way to enter the games' setup menu.

In short, the PB5 is super simple and really affordable for a complete end-to-end Jamma solution, but inflexible and the emulation quality questionable. A Pi 3 is a pain to set up as you have to do it all yourself, and if you want to pair it with a JPAC & VGA HAT like Gert's adapter to make it Jamma compatible it would be more expensive, but probably worth it in the end if you have the time and patience to set it all up.

Again, just my opinions so take them with a grain of salt.
 
Last edited:

Professor Denim

Atro Ego
Joined
Oct 15, 2005
Posts
1,612
i use to have a PB 3... Can you already Tate the vertical shooters on these new PB?
Has any of you tried the "king of air" pandora box?
 

kevlo9

New Challenger
Joined
Nov 27, 2016
Posts
53
I just received my Orange PB5 (jamma version). I installed it in my Astro City (hooked to an LCD via VGA). I only was able to test out a couple games before work. Vampire Hunter 2, Ninja Baseball Batman, & NBA Jam. All played good. The colors are improved in this version (over the PB4)...not as dull.

The 8GB USB stick has 1.5GB free and you can view the ROMS (.zip) and the MOVIES (.avi) folders via your PC. I'm going to test out adding some games later tonight.

I will report back later with my findings.
 

scgon

Benimaru's Hairdresser
10 Year Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2008
Posts
776
I'm shocked it doesn't seem to have standard res video off the jamma edge, only VGA and HDMI.... someone needs to sell a nice all in one jamma-pi set up with a decent front end etc will see about this yellow CGA version, hope its good
 
Last edited:

Xian Xi

JammaNationX,
15 Year Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2005
Posts
27,748
I'm shocked it doesn't seem to have standard res video off the jamma edge, only VGA and HDMI.... someone needs to sell a nice all in one jamma-pi set up with a decent front end etc will see about this yellow CGA version, hope its good

The CGA version is being released soon according to the seller.
 

scgon

Benimaru's Hairdresser
10 Year Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2008
Posts
776
ah good, the games list on 5 really sold me, hope the quality is decent, I will edit it down to like 60-80 games...
 

brad808

n00b
Joined
Nov 7, 2016
Posts
38
You guys need to skip the pd and get into groovymame. I've bought as many different multis as I could find from pd, god of game, the bootleg pds, elf, whatever else just to test them all and every single one has had terrible emulation, games running the wrong speed, screen tearing, bad or missing sounds, etc. Every single one. Have not bought the pb5 yet, and I will, but I have very little faith that it will be any different. After I'm done thoroughly testing them I usually put them in a cab and sell them to recoup the money for my actual emulation systems. Groovymame will require more work to setup but if you are into arcade games at all the quality of emulation is substantially higher.
 

scgon

Benimaru's Hairdresser
10 Year Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2008
Posts
776
You guys need to skip the pd and get into groovymame. I've bought as many different multis as I could find from pd, god of game, the bootleg pds, elf, whatever else just to test them all and every single one has had terrible emulation, games running the wrong speed, screen tearing, bad or missing sounds, etc. Every single one. Have not bought the pb5 yet, and I will, but I have very little faith that it will be any different. After I'm done thoroughly testing them I usually put them in a cab and sell them to recoup the money for my actual emulation systems. Groovymame will require more work to setup but if you are into arcade games at all the quality of emulation is substantially higher.

I absolutely hear you, just feel like there is no time for me to do all that....plug and play is very appealing for now, interested to see where the jamma pi stuff goes, that has potential, who knows, may go deep into groovymame at some point
 

brad808

n00b
Joined
Nov 7, 2016
Posts
38
Full disclosure I have never actually used the jammapie. From my research there will still be quite a few areas where it is still lacking vs a properly setup groovymame system. I'm hopeful within next 3-4-5 years there will be something that makes up it's shortcomings.
 

aoiddr

Over Top Auto Mechanic
Joined
Jan 10, 2013
Posts
855
I picked up an ArPiCade (that Raspberry Pi to Jamma adapter) from highscoresaves at the end of December along with one of their pre-setup SD Cards. The Raspberry Pi 3 tends to struggle with PGM-era CAVE titles and can't play Tetris TGM2 without severe lag... but for anything older, it is really quite solid.

That said, I am glad I bought a pre-setup SD Card, as I tried to install the default ARpiCADE OS image and found it to be a huge pain in the butt to get even a handful of roms working properly.
 

kevlo9

New Challenger
Joined
Nov 27, 2016
Posts
53
I picked up an ArPiCade (that Raspberry Pi to Jamma adapter) from highscoresaves at the end of December along with one of their pre-setup SD Cards. The Raspberry Pi 3 tends to struggle with PGM-era CAVE titles and can't play Tetris TGM2 without severe lag... but for anything older, it is really quite solid.

That said, I am glad I bought a pre-setup SD Card, as I tried to install the default ARpiCADE OS image and found it to be a huge pain in the butt to get even a handful of roms working properly.

I'm interested in one of these. What kind of setup/configuration is needed (I would like to use in my Sega Astro City). I'm very familiar with Raspberry Pi's and have setup many different images.
 
Last edited:

aoiddr

Over Top Auto Mechanic
Joined
Jan 10, 2013
Posts
855
I'm interested in one of these. What kind of setup/configuration is needed (I would like to use in my Sega Astro City). I'm very familiar with Raspberry Pi's and have setup many different images.

The site with the OS Software is here: https://arpicade.com
It's a pre-made linux image, so you just write it to an SD card like you would RetroPie. From there, you can plug it into your PC/Mac and there are some folders where you can put the roms. There are a bunch of folders, and it's really...just figuring out which version of mame works with which version of which rom.

The actual ArPiCade device, though, is simple to set-up. Just attach the Raspberry Pi 3, pop in the SD Card, and plug it into your cabinet. It'll boot right up to a game select menu.
 

kevlo9

New Challenger
Joined
Nov 27, 2016
Posts
53
The site with the OS Software is here: https://arpicade.com
It's a pre-made linux image, so you just write it to an SD card like you would RetroPie. From there, you can plug it into your PC/Mac and there are some folders where you can put the roms. There are a bunch of folders, and it's really...just figuring out which version of mame works with which version of which rom.

The actual ArPiCade device, though, is simple to set-up. Just attach the Raspberry Pi 3, pop in the SD Card, and plug it into your cabinet. It'll boot right up to a game select menu.

Thanks for the info! Planning to get an ArPiCade in the next week or so.
 

c0nn0r

If I could have, My time back, I'd keep it in ma'
10 Year Member
Joined
Jul 8, 2012
Posts
835

aoiddr

Over Top Auto Mechanic
Joined
Jan 10, 2013
Posts
855
I've been researching the Pi2JAMMA device (http://arcadeforge.net/Pi2Jamma:::51.html -- https://www.facebook.com/groups/1649021265123737/) and it seems to be superior to the RaspberryJAMMA device - which converts from HDMI, then to RGB for the JAMMA edge. The Pi2JAMMA gets RGB direct from the GPIO pins on the Pi. Might be worth checking out for yourself. I don't see it talked about much here.

Honestly, I didn't like the fact that the Pi2Jamma doesn't key the Jamma edge so you don't plug it in backwards. And they routed Buttons 4/5 through the Jamma edge, while Button 6 have a screw terminal. That's mainly why I went with the ArPiCade.

Neither way of pulling video would introduce any lag, though, right? Just slightly sharper picture?
 
Last edited:
Top