# Modding your Arcade1up?  Pandora's Box...RetroPi... 60 in 1... Game Elf... What one should I choose?

**Source:** RetroRalph  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2018-12-23  
**Duration:** 17m 43s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPfsNDG9C8Y

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## Analysis

Retro Ralph reviews the GameElf multi-game arcade board as a potential Arcade1Up cabinet modification, testing it with classic arcade games like X-Men, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Metal Slug. He concludes the GameElf performs poorly due to slow emulation speed and audio issues, giving it a thumbs down and recommending other options like Pandora's Box or RetroPi in future episodes.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] GameElf board runs approximately 750 games — _Ralph states 'this thing runs about 750 games' and later corrects himself: 'with 750 games, 60 seconds'_
- [HIGH] GameElf uses JAMA style connector, different from typical Arcade1Up modification approaches — _Ralph explains 'The GameElf is interesting. It uses a JAMA style connector, so this is a little bit different than a lot of the modifications that people have been following'_
- [HIGH] GameElf emulation speed is noticeably slower than original arcade hardware and other emulation boards — _Ralph repeatedly notes slow performance on multiple games: 'I am noticing the audio's at least halfway decent, but it is slower than it should be' and 'The audio is so bad. It's playing so slow!'_
- [HIGH] GameElf audio quality is poor across tested games — _Ralph criticizes audio on multiple occasions: 'The audio is so bad' on X-Men, and 'It sounds like—remember when you serve a Walkman and you kind of wouldn't push play all the way?' on TMNT_
- [MEDIUM] X-Men and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles emulate better on Pandora's Box and RetroPi builds — _Ralph states 'Metal Slug is awesome, and it's emulated fairly well on both the Pandora's Box and any Raspberry Pi RetroPie build. I've tried most of them. Play this game amazingly well.'_

### Notable Quotes

> "The GameElf is interesting. It uses a JAMA style connector, so this is a little bit different than a lot of the modifications that people have been following with ETA Prime."
> — **Retro Ralph**, early segment
> _Explains the unique hardware approach that differentiates GameElf from common Arcade1Up mod solutions_

> "The audio is so bad. It's playing so slow! Come on, man! You can't mess up one of my favorite games!"
> — **Retro Ralph**, X-Men gameplay section
> _Expresses frustration with GameElf's emulation quality on a flagship arcade title_

> "I almost don't even want to try another game because most people are gonna want Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to play well. They're gonna want to play X-Men."
> — **Retro Ralph**, mid-review
> _Identifies core expectation problem: popular games perform poorly, which undermines the board's viability_

> "The GameElf is the damn elf. Don't bother with it—at least this version, so 750 and one. Done!"
> — **Retro Ralph**, conclusion
> _Final verdict: emphatic rejection of GameElf as a viable Arcade1Up mod option_

> "I feel pretty strongly about both of those, but there's definitely reasons why someone might want to go Pandora's Box over Raspberry Pi and vice versa, depending on what it is exactly you're trying to achieve."
> — **Retro Ralph**, closing segment
> _Sets up future episodes; indicates balanced perspective on alternative solutions despite GameElf rejection_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Retro Ralph | person | Content creator and host; conducting Arcade1Up modification board reviews; established presence on Facebook live streams |
| GameElf | product | Multi-game arcade emulation board for Arcade1Up cabinet modifications; supports 750 games; uses JAMA connector; evaluated as performing poorly in this review |
| Pandora's Box | product | Alternative arcade emulation board for Arcade1Up mods; mentioned as superior alternative to GameElf; planned for detailed coverage in future episode |
| Raspberry Pi | product | Single-board computer platform commonly used for Arcade1Up modifications; mentioned as popular option with strong RetroPi emulation support |
| RetroPi | product | Emulation software platform for Raspberry Pi; performs well on arcade titles like Metal Slug, X-Men, and TMNT per Ralph's experience |
| Arcade1Up | product | Compact arcade cabinet product line; subject of this modification review series; end-users seeking expanded game libraries through board swaps |
| ETA Prime | person | Content creator/personality known for Arcade1Up modification guidance; referenced for establishing popular modification practices with RetroPi |
| X-Men | game | Classic Capcom arcade beat-em-up; test title for GameElf; performs poorly on GameElf with slow speed and bad audio |
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | game | Classic Konami arcade beat-em-up; key test title for GameElf; demonstrates poor emulation with audio artifacts and slow speed |
| Metal Slug | game | SNK arcade shooter; tested on GameElf; performs better than other tested titles but still slower than original arcade hardware |
| MVS | product | Multi Video System arcade hardware platform; Ralph references owning original MVS board for performance comparison with GameElf emulation |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Arcade1Up cabinet modifications and hardware options, Emulation board comparison and performance evaluation, Classic arcade game emulation quality, GameElf multi-game board specifics and capabilities, Audio and speed issues in arcade emulation
- **Secondary:** Alternative emulation solutions: Pandora's Box vs RetroPi, Content creator product review methodology

### Sentiment

**Negative** (0.15) — Retro Ralph's review is predominantly negative regarding the GameElf board. Strong criticism of emulation quality, audio, and speed across multiple test games. Final verdict is an emphatic thumbs-down recommendation. Minor positive sentiment around the Metal Slug experience and acknowledgment of the board's unique JAMA connector approach, but overwhelmed by performance criticism.

### Signals

- **[competitive_signal]** GameElf positioned as inferior alternative to Pandora's Box and Raspberry Pi RetroPi solutions for Arcade1Up modifications; Ralph plans detailed Pandora's Box review next, indicating consumer decision-making between alternatives (confidence: high) — Ralph concludes 'there's so many other boards that are worthy of going in your Arcade 1UP cabinet, and I don't think this one's it' and promises future Pandora's Box episode
- **[market_signal]** Despite being available as a modification option, GameElf appears underutilized in Arcade1Up community; Ralph expresses surprise that people buy it and notes Pandora's Box and Raspberry Pi dominate user adoption (confidence: medium) — Ralph states 'I'm actually surprised a lot of people even buy this board' and 'I don't really familiar with it and I know it's an option out there' and 'everyone's going down the Raspberry Pi route'
- **[product_strategy]** GameElf uses JAMA-style connector and traditional arcade cabinet-oriented design, positioning it differently from typical Raspberry Pi-based RetroPi modifications gaining popularity in Arcade1Up modding community (confidence: high) — Ralph explains 'It uses a JAMA style connector, so this is a little bit different than a lot of the modifications that people have been following with ETA Prime' and notes it was 'really intended to go into an arcade cabinet'
- **[product_concern]** GameElf board exhibits consistent emulation problems across multiple arcade titles including slow speed, audio artifacts, and performance degradation compared to original hardware and competing emulation solutions (confidence: high) — Ralph reports X-Men 'almost unplayable' with 'so bad' audio, TMNT has audio 'sounds like a Walkman wouldn't push play all the way', Metal Slug is 'slower than it should be' compared to original MVS hardware

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## Transcript

hey guys this is retro Ralph the inaugural episode really excited to do this and thank you so much arcade 1up fans for making this a reality okay so what is this episode all about you just got your arcade one up but you played your games but there's something missing you want to play more so what are your options that's what we're gonna cover today so stay tuned we're gonna cover modding your arcade one up okay so when it comes to modifications is a lot of different things that we can talk about we could talk about joysticks we could talk about buttons but in this particular episode we're gonna talk about what options you have for the brains of the operation so the printed circuit board that's running the emulation software what should we choose well there's a lot of options out there I'm gonna tell you about three we're gonna focus on just one of the three right now and then we'll cover the other ones in future episodes so Raspberry Pi lots of people on the boards use this it's a very valid option then you've got the Pandora's box there's some mystery around this one I don't know why this is less popular and we'll talk about that and maybe the reasons why that might be and then the one that I want to focus on today it's backwards is the game elf so the game elf is interesting it uses a Jama style connector so this is a little bit different than a lot of the modifications that people been following with ETA prime so a little bit different different style connector really more of a traditional arcade system type of a board this thing runs about 715 games so let's see is this thing they game elf worthy of sitting in your arcade 1up cabinet let's find out okay everyone we're about to check out let's do it I just powered it on those of you have watched my live streams on Facebook probably know what room I'm in of my house I'm in my guest room which is the room that my mom stays in when she's visiting from Rhode Island so yeah not ideal filming situation but we got a kind of a low budget right now we'll fix that later anyhow let's dive into this thing that's not good no signal sweet super rad oh there it is All Right game elf look at cute little elves it's gonna be awesome can already tell super pumped okay this thing boots up kind of slow not gonna lie Pandora's box BAM done Raspberry Pi they have done this thing I'm gonna fall asleep well maybe because it's like midnight but what is this oh [ __ ] alright this is my fault I set the service mode on so it's gonna do this every time so just ignore that that wouldn't normally be there it would just boot up Wow okay so we're here we're in the game elf the menu system doesn't look so bad oh no it's okay I will say prior to recording this I did set a couple options so there's this really annoying timer that you can see in the bottom right hand side there it's not moving well it normally only gives you 60 seconds to select the game with 750 games correction from earlier I think I said 715 it's actually 750 with 750 games 60 seconds there's a whole lot of time so you can shut that off you can also put it on free play this board was really intended to go into an arcade cabinet traditional arcade cabinet so you can set it up to take coins and things like that so anyway we shut all that stuff off okay let's try a couple games let's see what this thing is all about so looking through the list there's like your traditional fighters there's a bunch of beat'em ups you can edit this list so as you weed through the games that maybe you don't like you can take them off this so you're not going through 750 I find that kind of cumbersome so well we're on cattle oxen door dinosaurs a lot of people like that game let's give it a shot you will notice it's gonna do this this dip switch setting I actually told it to do this when I did the setup you don't have to but this is kind of cool though cuz for games that have dip switch settings you can actually set them before you start playing so I kind of like that that's a little unique to this board I think all right let's get it going hmm that dinosaur roar sounded a little weird anyway okay who should we play eyes her just kind of attractive we go with her all right [Music] watch this random kicked his watch off alright punched is on top noticing the games playing had a hundred percent of the speed I remember it playing at this games emulated on a lot of different systems retro pies and adores box actually plays pretty well on most endures box system so you know this is a pretty popular title I don't feel like it's playing as great as it could here super random these old eat them ups this kind of stuff that falls out of guys like a turkey leg and stuff I know what that is what just happened jump the hole okay so we're not gonna play through this whole game but at my initial observations that are running a little slow it's totally smoking a cigar sup they remade this game hundred percent sold on the emulation of this game on the game elf so [Music] let's try a different game but that one's not getting my approval that's for sure let's give another beat about the trials trying to find x-men x-men is a great game everyone likes x-men and that games typically emulated pretty well so ok so this is why these multi boards gonna suck sometimes because you got to scroll through out billion games to get to what you want and a lot of it ends up being alright there it is alright 1:18 this this board does ship with I don't know where it is a sheet of paper that this isn't it this is the user manual but there is another sheet of paper that comes with it that has all the games and you can kind of go through the list and see what you want to you know take away it off the menu potentially all right let's give X min a shot love X min by the way like I said that already but love it I love it alright let's get into this thing come on common people are watching let's do this it's like 1 o'clock in the morning so I'm exhausted too so it seems like it's taken like a million years that's a lot of coins oh my god no oh gosh the audio is so bad it's playing so slow come on man you can't mess up one of my favorite games okay this is like almost unplayable this Oh God oh my gosh it's so bad all right nope done with you gosh the [ __ ] elf right now is what I'm gonna call it okay well that was good let's try Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles like I don't know to me that's gotta be good right that game is this game come on this game is emulated on tons of systems they all do it pretty well I think so game f you better hope that this [ __ ] goes well Wow x-men depressed me can you guys hear that I know this is the whole bag oh my god teenage mutant per hour Jim Raff oh my gosh this is [Music] it sounds like remember when you serve a Walkman that you you kind of wouldn't push play all the way this is so bad no can't do it guys seriously I think this you know what'll be cool about this video is clearly the game elf sucks so here's the thing I almost don't even want to try other games because most people are gonna want Turtles to play well they're gonna want to play x-men I mean I almost don't even want to try another game but we will let's try Metal Slug cuz Metal Slug is awesome and it's emulated fairly well on both the Pandora's box and any Raspberry Pi retropie build I've tried most of them play this game amazingly well so let's give it a shot actually I'm gonna crap sorry guys this joystick I have hooked up this really sucks and now I have no idea where it is cool well why don't you go make yourself a drink and come back and then by the time I you get back I might find the game I was gonna edit this video but it's like two o'clock in the morning so I'm not doing that alright Metal Slug for one of my personal favorites come on game elf there's no way you could mess this up it's no way you're the game out come on man freaking game elf what are these people in China like how'd they come up with this stuff like I know we'll call it call it the game I love this I love this game let's do metal slaw hits market I don't know why in some of the games that he is Markab this one he does now remember with 20 does that in play god I love this game if you just want a game it's just like an adrenaline shoot him up this is the one man to get you all pumped up feel like it's awesome the guns are awesome everything about everything about Metal Slug is awesome especially well you're like dude about beat them up I am noticing the audios at least halfway decent but it is slower than it should be and I have an actual MVS board the traditional arcade hardware and I'm pretty familiar with how this game should play yeah I mean it's not terrible but if you're even remotely picky like I am you wouldn't want to play like this I'm still having fun gosh I love this game you know just get reminds me of because it's like all about just firepower and guns it reminds me of that scene at predator where I think it's Jesse the body Ventura and he gets freaked out in the rain forest and a.m. he unloads that it's a minigun it's called the Gatling gun but he basically destroys the whole forest he goes through it's on [ __ ] ton of ammo but this is kind of like that this is like a contra that it's so serious a lot of people except you describe this game that way but it's an awesome game anyway oh no guys I don't even want to really play any other games in the game elf because I feel like there's so many other boards that are worthy of going in your arcade one of the cabinet and I don't think this one's it the reason why I wanted to cover this one is because I'm not really familiar with it and I know it's an options out there I'm actually surprised a lot of people even buy this board so there's other versions of the board there's a 750 which is this one there's like a 450 or 415 and then there's like a thousand 88 maybe those are better from what I can see they all run on the same hardware maybe they've updated the emulation software and some of them but guys I'm gonna give the game elf a thumbs down so at least I spent the money on it and you don't have to so yeah I'm gonna say this options out we'll cover the other options and future episodes but I think Pandora's box I think will be the next one I cover I have bought many Pandora's boxes and it seems like everyone's going down the Raspberry Pi route I'm feel pretty strongly about both those but there's definitely reasons why someone might want to go Pandora's box over Raspberry Pi and vice versa depending on what it is exactly you're trying to achieve so in our next episode we're gonna cover Pandora's box I'm gonna do that in more detail the game elf is the [ __ ] elf don't bother with it at least this version so 750 and one done alright guys I'll catch you on the next one I really appreciate everyone tuning in and if I'm posting this around the time I think I am it's really close to Christmas so Merry Christmas enjoy that time with your family and friends and I'll see you on the next one take care hey guys thanks again for watching I told we forgot to say please subscribe to the channel it'd be much appreciated and set up the notification so you can be aware of any videos that get published I'm hoping to get videos out on at least once a week basis so again thanks for watching and have a great holiday with your friends and family take care

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: e221a98e-7d79-4a64-baab-3e8928c66c01*