Wicked Awesome Bartop PINBALL!

RetroRalph·video·8m 39s·analyzed·Jul 3, 2020

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.024

TL;DR

RetroRalph reviews Sharpen Ultra tabletop pinball arcade with Android, Zen, and Pinball Arcade support.

Summary

RetroRalph reviews the Sharpen Ultra, an Android-based tabletop pinball device that runs Zen Studios and Pinball Arcade games. The review covers hardware specs, game purchasing, performance, build quality, and pricing, highlighting the device's strengths while noting cost as the primary drawback. A new modular Kickstarter option is mentioned as addressing the price concern.

Key Claims

The Sharpen Ultra runs on a Beelink GT The King Android box and is powerful enough for pinball gaming
high confidence · Direct hardware specification and demonstration in review
Zen Studios and Pinball Arcade are the best-performing titles on the Sharpen Ultra
high confidence · Tested and demonstrated during gameplay; noted for performance and frame rates
Games on Zen Studios run at 60 FPS with good graphics and sound quality
high confidence · Direct observation during Back to the Future gameplay demonstration
Zen Studios games are slightly toned down from FX3 versions but still look and play well
medium confidence · RetroRalph's comparison statement about Android version versus console versions
Individual Zen games are available for purchase at $2 each via Google Play Store a la carte
high confidence · Demonstrated purchasing process in the review

Notable Quotes

“The Sharpen Ultra tabletop pinball device... It is running on Android, so it's running on this Beelink GT The King little Android box. And surprisingly, this thing is Papa Duke powerful.”
RetroRalph@ 0:12 — Introduces the device and emphasizes its processing power relative to expectations
“Everything is playing at 60 frames per second. So it's playing at the right frame rate. It looks great. It sounds good.”
RetroRalph@ 2:43 — Confirms technical performance standards are met for pinball gaming
“The one thing, if I had to give it a negative, is the price”
RetroRalph@ 6:16 — Primary criticism of the product
“The guys at Sharpen are not stopping here. They actually are offering a modular device. So if you want to source your own components, it's gonna be about US [price]”
RetroRalph @ ~14:00 — Announces new product variant addressing the price concern
“He literally was like, 'Oh my gosh, let me make this right,' and he sent me out a new unit super fast. So thank you so much for that. His customer service has been awesome.”
RetroRalph@ 7:36 — Positive feedback on Sharpen's customer service and willingness to resolve issues

Entities

RetroRalphpersonSharpencompanyZen StudioscompanyPinball ArcadeproductFarSight StudioscompanyBack to the FuturegameBeelink GT The KingproductLights Camera ActiongameSharpen UltraproductSharpen Liteproduct

Signals

?
community_signal: RetroRalph receiving promotional partnerships with manufacturers (Sharpen coupon code, customer service goodwill gestures)
high · Sharpen provided coupon code and had previously replaced a lost unit for RetroRalph; represents direct industry-creator engagement
$
market_signal: Sharpen Ultra's primary drawback is cost; Sharpen offering $100 USD discount via coupon code 'Ralph Blackwater 100'
high · RetroRalph explicitly names price as the single negative and mentions discount: 'The one thing, if I had to give it a negative, is the price... about a hundred dollars or about a hundred dollars US off by using the coupon code Ralph Blackwater 100'
?
announcement: Sharpen is launching a new modular Kickstarter campaign offering a more affordable, component-sourced alternative to the pre-built Ultra
high · RetroRalph states: 'They actually are offering a modular device. So if you want to source your own components, it's gonna be about US, and I will have a link in the description to that Kickstarter.'
?
product_strategy: Zen Studios pinball games and Pinball Arcade are clearly the best-performing and most popular titles on Android-based pinball devices
high · RetroRalph states: 'Between Pinball Arcade and Zen, you'll have a really good experience. Everything's running at the right frame rate. There's no slowdown. There's no choppiness.'
?
technology_signal: Android-powered tabletop pinball devices emerging as viable alternative to dedicated arcade cabinet hardware, supporting multiple virtual pinball platforms

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.026

0:00

Oh my gosh, it's glorious. It's glorious. Do you know what this means? It means that this damn thing plays pinball! Pinball! all right guys here it is the sharpen ultra tabletop pinball device so this thing is really cool it is running on android so it's running on this be link gt king little android box And surprisingly, this thing is pretty powerful. The interface you get is this air mouse, which I kind of feel like is complete magic, and I'm totally stoked on how this thing works. But you can interface with the cabinet with the buttons too. So you've got up and down, and then you've got enter and left and right and everything. But I kind of find this is the best way to interface with the cabinet. So let's get started. How do I get games on this thing? Well, first you go to the Google Play Store. So you'll need a Google Play Store account. And then what you can do is you can search for pinball and you're gonna notice there is a lot of Android pinball games The ones that I prefer is Zen and pinball arcade. So I pre-loaded Zen on here So we'll go to Zen first, but if you go back to my main menu, you'll see I already have Zen pre-loaded I added it to my favorites. So I simply just click on Zen and it launches the Zen pinball app Alright, so Zen pinball is launched. So I'm on my main menu here now just so I can show you you can use the buttons These are gonna be your up and down So if I want to go up and down in the menu I can go up and down that way. If I want to go right to left, I can use my plunger buttons here on the side. Now, because it is Back to the Future's 35th anniversary today, I want to play Universal. So I'm going to hit enter here.

1:45

Oh, actually wrong one. See? It's actually this one is enter. Enter is your plunger button. Okay, so we're going to go Back to the Future. Now, keep in mind, if you're online, you will get all your local high scores. You'll get localized scores and leaderboards, which is pretty cool. So I'm going to say single player game. and then we'll launch this.

2:48

So it's playing at the right frame rate. It looks great. It sounds good. This thing comes with stereo speakers. You will notice, though, you do have to build this. So this is technically a DIY kit in the sense he gives you all the parts in the Sharpen Ultra, but you do have to build it yourself. He gives you this great Samsung 24-inch monitor. It looks awesome. He has some stereo speakers that fire out the back that sound really good. And all the buttons, everything's included. In this Sharpen Ultra kit, everything you need is included in it. So I'm having a lot of fun with this. So if you go back to the main menu, right, if I go back and exit out of this game and say go back to table guide, if there's games I don't have access to, I can buy those games. So here it shows you all the games in the catalog. Now, if there's a game I don't have, I can go here and it'll actually be grayed out. If I want to buy that game, I can click on that game and just say buy. And it's going to bring up my Google information and says it's going to cost me $2. So the games are really affordable. And I just say tap one tap buy. And then what it'll do is it'll download that table to this device and I'm ready to go and play it. So it's that easy to just add games a la carte. So you're not obligated to, let's say, you know, buy the table with so many built-in games. It's just you buy the ones that interest you. So I like that because it's more of an a la carte, you know, option versus, you know, buying something that you're, you know, it's that might be rather expensive because you're paying for all the licenses in that device. Okay, so we're back at the main menu here I wanted to show you Pinball Arcade real quick because on this cabinet Pinball Arcade and Zen are the ones that work the best so we gonna go start we gonna go navigate to our owned tables here so again these are your right and left and this is your up and down we're gonna choose lights camera action now keep in mind these are older tables and for me they don't have that nostalgia value to me I didn't play these as a kid nothing against these got tables but I'm just not as big a fan of these as you know the stuff on Zen pinball. Now you got your nudges or your top and then your flippers are right and left here.

5:02

You'll notice that performance is really good on these two so between pinball arcade and Zen you'll have a really good experience. You know everything's running at the right frame rate. There's no slowdown. There's no choppiness. The sound is really good, like I said before. The overall build quality of this Sharpen device is really good. And if you're watching this, you know, they have the Ultra and they have the Lite. Now, keep in mind, there's actually something new. There's a Kickstarter that's actually going on right now where they're going to offer this device in more of a modular fashion. And we will talk about that in final thoughts, and I'll have links. But the guys over at Sharpen actually are giving us a coupon code so if you want to buy the ultra you'll actually get about a hundred hundred dollars us off of this device so that's pretty cool but i think a lot of you are also going to be interested in the kickstarter because it's sort of a simple package to get you started and you put in all your own components all right guys it's final thoughts time so what do i think about the sharpen ultra tabletop pinball device this thing is really cool man he did a really good job putting this together the sharpen guys and i do really like it i love the fact that it's android powered this little Beelink GT King thing is pretty damn awesome and the little remote it comes with works great, too The build quality is great everything about this thing is really great The one thing if I had to give it a negative is the price and they are offering a hundred dollars or about a hundred Dollars us off by using the coupon code Ralph 100 to make sure you use that if you interested in this one But the guys at sharpen are not stopping here They actually offering a modular device So if you want to source your own components it going to be about US And I will have a link in the description to that Kickstarter. So I would really encourage you to maybe invest in that if you're like, hey, cost is a factor and I think I can get the parts cheaper myself. So this is really the only feedback I have was cost and there is no modular option, but now that's been sort of solved. So I'm really excited for this thing. I'm excited to see where it goes. There's other expansion options too. So you can also hook up your Nintendo Switch to it. The encoder board this one comes with won't support Nintendo Switch, but you can go buy one. It's rather cheap. It's a decent price. It's by sjatjx. I'll have a link in the description for that too. So you could totally build this machine out of a Nintendo Switch device at the heart instead of the Android device. You could also put your PC on it. The Sharpen Ultra is compatible with a PC. You could totally just put your PC on it and do that too. So I love this. there's so many virtual pinball products coming out but i had to give this one a look because i really like the guys at sharpen as a matter of fact props to sharpen because i ordered this during um during covid and it got lost it got stuck somewhere and he he literally was like oh my gosh let me make this right and he sent me out a new unit super fast so thank you so much for that his customer service has been awesome i'd also want to thank wicked gamer and collector i don't know if you noticed but he snuck some of his clips in there he's a good friend of mine he even has a video showing you how to connect your Nintendo Switch so maybe I will actually have that at the end of this video as well. That's it for now guys definitely let me know what you think about this device virtual pinball is awesome it's so much fun and this is just another way to play it so put your comments below let me know if you like it give me a thumbs up if you do enjoy the content consider subscribing to the channel and also turn on notifications so you can be a form of future videos just like this one. That's it for now guys we will see you on the next one!