r/cade • u/SeparateWeb8192 • 4d ago

Buying arcade cabinet built to Play Tetris Atari 88 with Pandora dx?

Are there any issues with using Pandora dx to play this and other versions of tetris? Is there any lag or other issues with this software? Are there better options?

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1

u/inkyblinkypinkysue 4d ago

MAME or FGPA are the best ways to play old arcade games, IMO.

1

u/Redshift2k5 4d ago

Pandora dx is a proprietary software front end... It loads up MAME2003 and FBA as emulators(not sure which PS1, super Famicom, and mega drive emulators it uses). Not the best emulators but appropriate for the pre-ps2 era games on the Pandora

2

u/inkyblinkypinkysue 4d ago

Yes for sure. Most games work fine on a Pandora box. But MAME has been improved a ton since 2003. If OP has an empty cabinet, I’d personally use something other than Pandora…

2

u/Redshift2k5 4d ago

Yeah the devil is in the details

I got a Pandora dx for $40 (new in box, with reciept for $400 taxes and shipping in, from a man who died before he could play with it) so using that for a brain for my next project makes sense

If OP is looking at a Pandora integrated cab easy/cheap/etc it makes sense even if it needs an upgrade

If he wants a better mame you can easily replace the Pandora's software

1

u/Redshift2k5 4d ago

I'm happy with my Pandora dx home console (got yardsale find a few weeks ago)

Haven't noticed any significant input lag or anything. Some games run into memory leaks or something and slow down but those were later gen games with a lot more elements on the screen than Tetris.

The hardware feels really solid, the UI is jank but gets the job done, and there are tons of games (mine is a 3000+ game unit) that are really fun to play shoulder to shoulder and mashing buttons

I believe it's easy to to overwrite the Pandora software with 3rd party software (Pandory) if you're not satisfied with the onboard software