Arcade1up Attack From Mars Pinball - RAPID REVIEW!

RetroRalph·video·4m 42s·analyzed·May 17, 2021

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.020

TL;DR

Arcade1Up Attack from Mars has great games but significant screen/display quality issues that prevent recommendation.

Summary

RetroRalph delivers a rapid 3.5-minute review of the Arcade1Up Attack from Mars pinball cabinet, the third in their home pinball series. While praising the game lineup (10 tables including the historically significant Attack from Mars), he identifies multiple quality issues: degraded 720p graphics output on a 1080p panel, inconsistent artwork quality on backbox panels, non-functional Whitewater game, cheaper plexiglass causing visible horizontal line artifacts, and DMD display with black bars. Despite Attack from Mars having the strongest table selection versus Star Wars and Marvel versions, these issues prevent a recommendation.

Key Claims

Arcade1Up's Attack from Mars cabinet outputs 720p on a 1080p panel, resulting in degraded graphics compared to Nintendo Switch or Steam versions
high confidence · Direct observation during review; speaker compares to other digital pinball platforms
Whitewater game on the Attack from Mars cabinet does not work at all
high confidence · Direct statement: 'Whitewater does not work'
The plexiglass used on Attack from Mars is cheaper quality than on Marvel and Star Wars versions, causing visible horizontal line artifacts
high confidence · Direct comparison and visual inspection during review
Attack from Mars has the best table lineup of the three Arcade1Up pinball machines (Attack from Mars, Marvel, Star Wars)
high confidence · Speaker states: 'I think this one has the best table lineup'
Arcade1Up's firmware update track record is not strong enough to instill confidence in fixes
medium confidence · Speaker expresses doubt about Arcade1Up's commitment despite Zen Studios' promise of updates

Notable Quotes

“They were outputting 720p... you're not getting the best quality of the gameplay”
RetroRalph (Jon)@ 1:48 — Core technical criticism of Arcade1Up's display implementation
“It looks like they used different artwork on the side panels of the back box and then the actual back box... some of it's a little stretched and it's a little pixelated”
RetroRalph (Jon)@ 2:38 — Quality control issue with artwork consistency
“You be looking at the monitor and you like what are these horizontal lines I seeing... There nothing wrong with your screen. It's the plexiglass.”
RetroRalph (Jon) @ ~2:45 — Identifies misleading visual artifact from cheaper plexiglass material
“I think this one has the best table lineup, but with the issues that I have here... I can't recommend it”
RetroRalph (Jon)@ 3:58 — Final verdict balancing game selection against hardware quality problems

Entities

RetroRalphpersonArcade1Upcompany Attack from MarsgameZen StudioscompanyStar Warsgame Marvelgame Whitewatergame Tales of the Arabian Nightsgame

Signals

$
market_signal: Arcade1Up's material cost-cutting appears inconsistent across product lines; Attack from Mars uses cheaper plexiglass than Marvel and Star Wars versions without clear justification
medium · Direct comparison of plexiglass quality between three Arcade1Up pinball cabinet versions
?
product_concern: Multiple quality control issues identified: 720p output on 1080p panel, cheaper plexiglass material causing visual artifacts, inconsistent artwork quality between backbox panels, and non-functional Whitewater game
high · Direct visual inspection and comparison during hands-on review of Arcade1Up Attack from Mars cabinet
~
sentiment_shift: Community enthusiasm for Attack from Mars Arcade1Up cabinet based on superior game lineup appears misplaced given hardware execution issues
medium · Speaker acknowledges 'a lot of people waited for this one' but identifies why the excitement may be premature due to quality problems
?
technology_signal: Display implementation compromises: black bars on DMD screen due to aspect ratio adherence, and 720p output degradation versus native platform experience
high · Speaker compares to Star Wars version and Nintendo Switch/Steam versions, notes Arcade1Up could implement simple firmware update but has poor track record

Topics

Arcade1Up cabinet quality issuesprimaryDisplay and screen technology in home pinballprimaryGame selection and table lineupssecondaryFirmware update reliabilitysecondaryBuild quality and materials (plexiglass, artwork)primary

Sentiment

negative(-0.7)— RetroRalph acknowledges the strength of the game lineup but ultimately cannot recommend the product due to accumulating hardware, display, and quality control issues. Tone is disappointed rather than angry, as he had anticipated this would be the best Arcade1Up option.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.014

Hey guys, welcome back to the channel. So today we're going to do something new. We're going to do a review of the Attack from Mars pinball, but I only have 3 minutes and 30 seconds to do it. So this is going to be called Retro Ralph's Rapid Reviews. So as soon as I'm done, that's it. There's no editing or trickery here. Whatever I say in 3 minutes and 30 seconds is what it is. So I'm going to try to pack in as much information as possible. Alright, let's get started. Okay, first of all, I want to show you how the room is set up. You have the Attack from Mars pinball machine and directly above me is a boom mic to capture my audio. You swing around the front, directly in front of me on the ground is going to be a laptop so I can monitor the video feed. And then on the right hand side, there's a counter that will count down that will be synchronized with what you see on your screen. And then this is the background. You'll see this is all the camera equipment and the lighting and such. All right, let's go. Okay, guys, here it is, the Attack from Mars pinball machine from Arcade 1-Up. Okay, this is the third one to come out in the series. There was Star Wars, there was Marvel, and then this one. Now a lot of people waited for this one for a good reason. They wanted tables that they could play digitally that represented their physical counterparts So these are real Williams tables and some of the ones that are really exciting would be Attack from Mars and Totan or Tales of the Arabian Nights A really great game. There's another, there's a bunch more games on here. There's eight more, and the lineup is actually really solid. So when I look at this machine, I can't help but compare it to the Star Wars because that's the other one that I've owned. Now, I had some issues with certain elements of the Star Wars machine. It was a 1080p panel, you know screen inside, but they were outputting 720p So you could obviously see there was degraded graphics that they were using so it wasn't gonna be the equivalent of what you've played If you've played these games on like a Nintendo switch or steam or something like that So you just have to know that going in you're not getting the best quality of the gameplay But for the Star Wars and the overall package, I thought it was pretty good Now there's one thing in particular on the Star Wars that a lot of people complained about and that was the DMD screen They're not giving you the entire screen. You can see there's black bars in the top and the bottom, and that's really to sort of adhere to the aspect ratio of the original artwork. Oh, two minutes. Of the original artwork. So I know they could stretch it That be a simple firmware update and I hope that they do that in the future because it been a common complaint If you gave me the screen I want to use the screen Now aesthetics this thing looks awesome because that what Arcade 1 does They're really good at making things look sexy for your game room. However, there's a little caveat to that on this particular unit, too. The rest of them, the artworks seem really good and high quality throughout, but it looks like they used different artwork on the side panels of the backbox and then the actual backbox, the backlit section. I'm not sure why. It looks like some of it's a little stretched and it's a little pixelated. I don't get that because that's usually Arcade 1UP's strong suit, so it wouldn't be something I would typically complain about, or really anybody would, but now at this point it became an issue with this particular machine. So there's another thing. You get the 10 games, but there's actually one that straight up doesn't work. So Whitewater does not work. Now keep in mind... Oh boy, we're getting up to 60 seconds. Now keep in mind, Arcade 1UP could release a firmware update, and Zen Studios has said they're going to do that, But Arcade 1UP's track record for doing firmware updates isn't exactly amazing, so you're gonna have to put your confidence in the fact that they're going to, and I don't know that I feel confident enough to tell you that right now, because their track record isn't awesome. The other thing that really bugs me about this machine is you be looking at the monitor and you like what are these horizontal lines I seeing Something must be wrong with my screen But guess what There nothing wrong with your screen It's the plexiglass. They used the cheaper plexiglass on this machine than they did the Marvel and the Star Wars, and I don't know why. I have no idea why, but it is very, very distracting, and that's another reason why it's really hard for me to recommend this screen. So if you're looking at these Arcade 1-Up pinball machines, and you know what you're getting yourself into, I would suggest looking at the Star Wars or the Marvel first. It's unfortunate because I think this one has the best table lineup, but with the issues that I have here with the screen resolution and then the screen issues, the plexiglass issues, and the fact that one game is not working, oh my gosh, seven seconds, I can't recommend it. So there you go. That's it. That's my review. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you enjoyed this format, and we will see you guys on the next one. We'll see you next time.