Wicked Awesome Bartop PINBALL!

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

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.022

TL;DR

RetroRalph reviews Sharpen Ultra Android tabletop pinball with Zen/Arcade games, modular Kickstarter coming.

Summary

RetroRalph reviews the Sharpen Ultra, an Android-based tabletop pinball cabinet featuring Zen Pinball and Pinball Arcade. The device uses a Beelink GT King processor, includes a 24-inch Samsung monitor and stereo speakers, and allows a la carte game purchases ($2 per table). Sharpen is launching a modular Kickstarter option and offering a $100 discount with coupon code "Ralph 100."

Key Claims

The Sharpen Ultra runs Android on a Beelink GT King processor and performs well at 60fps with no slowdown.
high confidence · RetroRalph demonstrated gameplay and confirmed performance metrics during hands-on play.
Zen Pinball and Pinball Arcade are the two best-performing apps on the Sharpen Ultra cabinet.
high confidence · RetroRalph tested both apps and explicitly stated they work best compared to other Android pinball options.
Individual Zen Pinball games cost $2 to purchase a la carte through Google Play Store integration.
high confidence · RetroRalph demonstrated the purchasing flow on screen and showed a $2 purchase prompt.
Sharpen is offering a modular Kickstarter version where customers can source their own components.
high confidence · RetroRalph explicitly mentioned an ongoing Kickstarter for a modular option and promised links in description.
Coupon code 'Ralph 100' provides approximately $100 USD discount on the Sharpen Ultra.
high confidence · RetroRalph stated the exact coupon code and discount amount multiple times throughout the review.
The Sharpen Ultra is compatible with Nintendo Switch and PC via optional encoder boards.
medium confidence · RetroRalph mentioned compatibility but noted the standard encoder doesn't support Switch; upgrade by SJATJX available separately.
Sharpen's customer service replaced a unit that was lost during COVID shipping.
high confidence · RetroRalph personally experienced this service recovery and praised the company's response.

Notable Quotes

“Oh my gosh, it's glorious. It's glorious. Do you know what this means? It means that this damn thing plays pinball!”
RetroRalph @ 0:00-0:10 — Opening enthusiasm establishes positive tone for the review.
“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.”
RetroRalph @ 0:20-0:35 — Highlights the air mouse as a standout feature of the device's usability.
“This is actually a toned down version of the FX3. So if you've played this via FX3 on like a Nintendo Switch or a PlayStation 4 or an Xbox, it is slightly toned down when it comes to graphics, but it's still really fun to play.”
RetroRalph @ 3:45-4:10 — Sets expectations about graphical fidelity relative to console versions.
“Everything's running at the right frame rate. There's no slowdown. There's no choppiness. The sound is really good.”
RetroRalph @ 7:30-7:50 — Key performance validation across multiple technical dimensions.
“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.”
RetroRalph @ 10:00-10:20 — Primary criticism is price, but immediately mitigated by promotional discount.
“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.”
RetroRalph @ 11:15-11:35 — Indicates strong personal relationship and trust in the manufacturer, contextualizing review positivity.

Entities

RetroRalphpersonSharpencompanyZen PinballproductPinball ArcadeproductBeelink GT KingproductSharpen UltraproductSharpen LiteproductWicked Gamer and CollectorpersonSJATJXcompanyGoogle Play Storeproduct

Signals

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product_launch: Sharpen Ultra Android-based pinball cabinet officially available with pre-loaded Zen Pinball and Pinball Arcade support.
high · RetroRalph conducted hands-on review of retail unit; coupon code distribution and Kickstarter variant indicate active market launch.
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technology_signal: Android-based pinball platform using Beelink GT King processor achieves 60fps performance with Zen Pinball and Pinball Arcade.
high · Demonstrated gameplay at 60fps with no slowdown or choppiness on both apps.
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product_strategy: Sharpen employs low-cost a la carte game purchasing model ($2 per Zen table) via Google Play Store integration.
high · RetroRalph explicitly demonstrated purchasing flow and stated pricing; contrasted favorably with all-inclusive bundled alternatives.
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product_strategy: Sharpen launching modular Kickstarter variant allowing customers to source own components at lower cost.
high · RetroRalph confirmed ongoing Kickstarter and promised description links; positioned as solution to price concerns on Ultra model.
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market_signal: Growing ecosystem of virtual pinball cabinets competing in consumer market; RetroRalph noted 'so many virtual pinball products coming out.'
high · Review explicitly acknowledged crowded market of competing virtual pinball devices; Sharpen positioned as quality differentiator.
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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!