RecRoomMasters - 32" Vertical Arcade w/ CoinOPS!!

RetroRalph·video·12m 38s·analyzed·Jun 26, 2020

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.028

TL;DR

Rec Room Masters 32" vertical cabinet excels for CoinOPS but needs encoder mod for pinball

Summary

RetroRalph reviews the Rec Room Masters 32-inch vertical arcade cabinet configured with CoinOPS emulation. The cabinet features arcade, pinball (FX3), and console games with Happ competition components and side flipper/launch buttons—a significant upgrade over previous models. However, the IPAC2 encoder board requires hardware modification (wire rerouting) to properly map flipper and launch buttons for pinball gameplay, and budget PC specs limit performance to 720p.

Key Claims

The 32-inch Rec Room Masters cabinet is RetroRalph's number one vertical cabinet going forward
high confidence · Direct statement: 'this thing is by far my number one vertical cabinet from here forward. I'm super stoked about this.'
The cabinet ships July 22nd and customers who miss that cutoff will be held until the next shipment
high confidence · Stated: 'it is available for pre-order now, and then it ships on July 22nd... if you miss that July 22nd cutoff you gonna be you know held until the next shipment'
IPAC2 encoder board requires hardware modification to properly map flipper and launch buttons for pinball
high confidence · Technical explanation: 'you do have to modify the encoder board in order for the flipper and nudge and launch button to actually work' and detailed wire rerouting instructions provided
Budget i3 PC without dedicated GPU cannot run CoinOPS at 1080p, only 720p
high confidence · Direct: 'I couldn't get this to run 1080p, unfortunately, with the budget PC' and 'it can do coin ops and 720p But if you need to go to higher resolutions it just doesn't support it'
Minimum CoinOPS requirements are i3 with 8GB RAM and dedicated GPU with 2GB RAM
high confidence · Stated: 'the minimum requirements for coinops is actually an i3 with 2 gigs of memory on a GPU' and later 'the minimum requirements would be for coin ops an i3 with about 8 gigs of RAM and then a dedicated GPU with about 2 gigs of RAM'
The cabinet uses all Happ competition components including sticks, buttons, and Cherry micro switches
high confidence · 'It's all Happ components. So you have Happ competition sticks, you have Happ buttons, Cherry micro switches.'
Rec Room Masters packs their cabinets extremely thoroughly with exceptional packaging
high confidence · 'huge props to that... Rec Room Masters does an amazing job packing stuff. I've never seen a company pack stuff so thoroughly'
The cabinet is a huge improvement over the previous three-quarter scale model due to added flipper/nudge buttons and launch button

Notable Quotes

“this thing is by far my number one vertical cabinet from here forward. I'm super stoked about this.”
RetroRalph@ 8:54 — Clear endorsement and recommendation of the cabinet as his top choice
“you do have to modify the encoder board in order for the flipper and nudge and launch button to actually work”
RetroRalph@ 3:02 — Critical technical detail about required hardware modification for pinball functionality
“I couldn't get this to run 1080p, unfortunately, with the budget PC. but you make some compromises when you're on a budget and i'm okay with it”
RetroRalph@ 1:27 — Transparency about budget constraints and performance tradeoffs
“I've never seen a company pack stuff so thoroughly this thing. There's literally no way it could have gotten damaged”
RetroRalph@ 9:40 — High praise for Rec Room Masters' packaging quality and attention to detail
“the cabinet was designed for other things other than coin ops, but I prefer using coin ops. So I just figure I'll hardwire it that way.”
RetroRalph@ 7:45 — Explains the rationale for hardware modification rather than software configuration
“These cabinets probably wouldn't be as popular if it wasn't for builds like that.”
RetroRalph@ 11:13 — Acknowledges CoinOPS as the primary driver of vertical cabinet popularity in the enthusiast market

Entities

RetroRalphpersonRec Room MasterscompanyCoinOPSproductPinball FX 3productHappcompanyIPAC2productCherrycompanyIntelcompanyDreamcastproductSega GenesisproductGame BoyproductSuper Nintendoproduct

Signals

?
business_signal: Rec Room Masters pre-order availability with July 22 shipment cutoff; customers missing deadline held until next shipment
high · RetroRalph: 'it is available for pre-order now, and then it ships on July 22nd... if you miss that July 22nd cutoff you gonna be held until the next shipment'
?
community_signal: RetroRalph plans multiple follow-up videos on cabinet configuration and CoinOPS builds, indicating sustained content creation around this platform
high · RetroRalph: 'This isn't the first, this isn't the last time you're going to see this cabinet. We are going to do lots of videos. Anytime I do a coin ops build that's vertical, it's going on this thing'
?
design_philosophy: RetroRalph prioritizes hardware solutions over software configuration for pinball controls to ensure reliability and eliminate failure modes
medium · RetroRalph: 'I just figured, those buttons are only going to be used for that, so why bother with software? So I do it in hardware... it's not a software solution can't fail on you it's just gonna work every time'
$
market_signal: CoinOPS vertical arcade builds driving demand and popularity of vertical cabinet category among enthusiasts
high · RetroRalph: 'These cabinets probably wouldn't be as popular if it wasn't for builds like that'
?
product_strategy: Rec Room Masters 32-inch cabinet strategically adds flipper/nudge/launch buttons absent in prior model, directly addressing pinball gameplay gap
high · RetroRalph: 'a huge shift between what we saw before. So now you have the flippers, you have the nudge buttons, and you have a launch button right there in the front'

Topics

Vertical arcade cabinet hardware and designprimaryCoinOPS emulation platform and configurationprimaryPinball gameplay on custom arcade cabinetsprimaryArcade control panel components and encoder boardsprimaryPC hardware specifications and performance requirementssecondaryCabinet packaging and shipping logisticssecondaryMulti-game emulation (arcade, pinball, consoles) on custom hardwaresecondaryDIY arcade cabinet assembly and modificationsecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.87)— RetroRalph is enthusiastic about the cabinet, giving it a strong endorsement ('two thumbs up', 'number one vertical cabinet'). Only minor criticism regarding the encoder board modification requirement and lack of built-in speaker options. Overall tone is appreciative of design improvements and quality.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.038

Hey! You looking for a cabinet for that coin ops vertical build? Yeah! Look no further! All right guys, here it is, the Rec Room Masters Extension 32 inch vertical arcade cabinet. So this replaces the three quarter scale one that I've showed you guys on the channel before. Now they added some unique features that really are appealing if you're someone that loves these coin ops vertical images like I do. So it was lacking side buttons on the old one there were no side buttons for flippers and nudge and there was no way to launch you know the pinball if you're playing pinball games. You could do it but you'd have to use different keys so it really wasn't set up for pinball. This one is. So that's a huge shift between what we saw before. So now you have the flippers, you have the nudge buttons, and you have a launch button right in the front. The great thing about these cabinets is they use quality components in their control panels. It's all HAP components. So you got HAP competition sticks, you got HAP buttons, Cherry micro switches. The thing is money out of the box. The other cool thing is it uses a 32-inch screen. Now, I'm trying to keep this on a budget, so I'm using this budget PC. I couldn't get this to run in 1080p, unfortunately, with the budget PC. but hey you make some compromises when you're on a budget and i'm okay with it it still looks really good if you want it in 1080p we're going to have to talk about up in the budget just a tiny bit the other thing that you that it has it has sort of an access door in the front you certainly could add a coin door if you want and i'll probably do that i love it i love these things these are so cool these vertical images from coin ops are changing every day there's pinball versus arcade there's pinball versus arcade versus consoles and that's actually what i loaded on here as you can see you've got Dreamcast, you've got Game Boy, you've got Sega Genesis and you can add whatever else you want and you've got pinball the more important thing. So I'm going to show you a little bit of the gameplay of this thing we'll go through it this is going to be a basic 101 video and I will do another subsequent video diving a bit deeper into the cabinet but I'm pretty stoked and I think you guys will be too. Let's check it out. Alright guys so I'm going to do a quick introduction to pinball versus arcade versus consoles so you can see just like other coin ops builds right now I'm on main basically so it's all my main game so this is a combination of horizontal and vertical arcade games which is really awesome so this is this this does have that mix already incorporated into it so if you're looking for things like Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat those things are gonna be in here as well as like some great shmups and stuff like that now if I move over to my next section you've got all your pinball stuff and this is mostly FX 3 stuff in here so you're gonna have all of your FX3 pinball stuff. I will tell you this, you do have to modify the encoder board in order for the flipper and nudge and launch button to actually work I going to actually put in the description where you need to move the wires to so you do need to move them Unless you want to do things in software, I just figured, hey, those buttons are only going to be used for that, so why bother with software? So I do it in hardware, and I will have the mappings of what wires you need to move where. So when you move it right along here, I actually added on Dreamcast. The reason why I did is because there's so many awesome Dreamcast arcade games. So keep in mind, this is not in Pinball vs. Arcade vs. Consoles. You do have to add this as an add-on pack, but if you join the CoinOps Discord and then you actually join backups, you can download this once you get Pinball vs. Arcade vs. Console working. Now, as we go through here, there's also this stuff is actually loaded on there by default. So Game Boy is actually loaded on default on the image. Sega Genesis is there already by default. So there's a pretty good selection of Sega Genesis games. And then you've got Super Nintendo as well. And then I think it goes back to arcade. So really cool. And these games all play really well. So out of the box, the MAME stuff will work with the stock encoder inside this Rec Room Masters. It's just when you're talking about pinball that things get a little squirrely. So I'll go over to pinball real quick. And you can play any of these pinball games. They all work awesome. But keep in mind, if you don't do the little modification that I'm going to give you, certain parts of it won't work. Like your flippers won't actually be flippers. Now, you could do it with T-tap connections. I decided not to do that. I just actually doubled up the wires where they needed to go. So I'll have, again, in the notes of the show video, you'll actually see. Now one thing I wanted to mention, I am using kind of a cheaper i3 PC that I bought, but keep in mind, I wouldn't go that route. So the minimum requirements for coinops is actually an i3 with 2 gigs of memory on a GPU. So this doesn't have a dedicated GPU, it's using like that Intel 5500, and it does share memory with the system memory, and this machine has 8 gigs of memory. So what I would suggest is you're probably better off just buying a cheap old Dell or something and then putting a low profile graphics card or something in it like a 1050. You'll be more than good. I would recommend an i5 instead of an i3 just because if you're playing more modern games you can kind of do that. But the minimum requirements would be for coin ops an i3 with about 8 gigs of RAM and then a dedicated GPU with about 2 gigs of RAM. Usually if you meet those minimum requirements you'll be okay. Okay so I want to clarify something real quick about the control panel. So the control panel has what's called an IPAC2 encoder board. It has several modes it can be in. It can be in keyboard mode, direct input, and X or X input. You going to want to have it on X input here so that it emulates an Xbox controller So you probably wondering well why do I have to mod it for the side buttons and the launch button Because the button configuration actually doesn these aren actually mapped to the right buttons that actually are the right and left flipper and the actual launch button And you can't actually change it other than these couple settings. So you'll see L, T, R, T, L, B, R, B. And then you can say L, T, L, B, R, T, R, B, L, T, and R, T. it's just it's not the right option so basically I'll show you why in a second so if I go back to the game and I say resume game all right you're gonna see my flippers work right here's my left one here's my right one now the question is what buttons on the control panel those map to I can't remember actually here it is so it's these two the problem is is these two buttons in the configuration are not mapped to these two buttons so what I'm doing is I'm basically just hijacking a wire from this button to this button and from this button to the other flipper. Now to launch the ball is actually the launch button, which is actually I think the A. Yeah, so it's actually A. So basically I've mapped A to the launch button. So this button does the same as this button. This button does the same as this top button. And And in order to achieve that, you can just T-tap in to do that. So there's a little bit of modification. It's not a big deal, but I just wanted to let you guys know that. So keep in mind, this cabinet was designed for other things other than coin ops, but I prefer using coin ops. So I just figure I'll hardwire it that way. So basically in a sense, when I press, I already forgot. When I press this button, it's doing the same as this button. So these two buttons are sort of like Y connected to each other, and so are these. And like I said, launch, which would be A, is actually mapped to this. There you go. So again, left flipper, left flipper, right flipper, right flipper. So you just need to do that. So basically, left, right, launch. Now, I didn't do nudge. I'll do that on the next video, but I just want to let you know. So you will have to do that. I'll show you the underside of this control panel so you can get an idea, and then I'll actually put how I wired things because these have terminal connectors so you're basically just doubling up the wires for these other buttons so that they use the same action and that way anytime you boot it up it's always going to work it's not a software solution can't fail on you it's just gonna work every time all right guys it's final thoughts time so what do I think about this 32 inch vertical cabinet by rec room masters this thing is by far my number one vertical cabinet from here forward. I'm super stoked about this. It's a huge improvement over the three-quarter scale one. That one's great too, but this one was really like a great version to upgrade. It gives you all the things that you wish the old one had, right? It gives you the flipper buttons. It gives you the launch button. It gives you the nudge buttons, and that's all really great. Still great components. It uses all the HAP stuff. I just want to thank Rec Room Masters for giving me early access to it. It is available for pre-order now, and then it ships on July 22nd So get in there if you really interested in this thing because if you miss this window you not going to get on until the next shipment That how they do things You can still order it but if you miss that July 22nd cutoff you gonna be you know held until the next shipment So again awesome and Rec Room Masters does an amazing job Packing stuff. I've never seen a company pack stuff so thoroughly this thing. There's literally no way it could have gotten damaged I mean you could a tombstone pile drive the damn box and it would have been fine So huge props to that other things I want to talk about on the PC front I did use this thing I had laying around from a separate project this i3 just didn't cut it it can do coin ops and 720p But if you need to go to higher resolutions it just doesn't support it and the reason why is that doesn't have a dedicated graphics Card it has the Intel 5500 that thing doesn't have a ton of memory So what I would do what I would suggest is get an i5 PC something that's cost-effective used or whatever whatever, get a 1050 graphics card or something like that, at least something that has two gigs of RAM, and you should be good. And you'll have a good experience with it. I don't know. I don't know what else to say other than I really love it. This isn't the first, this isn't the last time you're going to see this cabinet. We are going to do lots of videos. Anytime I do a coin ops build that's vertical, it's going on this thing. So we can check it out. There is that little caveat with the encoder boards. Keep in mind, you know, it's a DIY kit. And I get it. My only suggestion to record masters is probably going to be if it's possible to have an order option to order it as coin ops and they can wire it for coin ops that'd be great but i get why they do it the way they do it they have to support other operating environments like raspberry pies and stuff like that so you know it is what it is but i do want to actually you know tell them about that so maybe that could be an orderable option in the future that's it guys what do you think about this first of all you stoked on the coin ops builds they're they're vertical i mean these cabinets probably wouldn't be as popular if it wasn't for builds like that. So Rec Room did an awesome job, loving it, really, really great. I gotta give it two thumbs up. It's a very, very solid system, great controls, great design, great quality all around, and there's really no negative downside, maybe only that I had to manipulate the encoder board a little bit. Now the other thing just to mention that I didn't talk about in the video is it doesn't have options to put your speakers anywhere so I am using the TV speakers for now that is something they suggest you can easily modify the cabinet to do that on the other one behind me you can see it has a sound bar so that's always an option if you don't want to you know cut holes in the cabinet or anything like that alright guys that's it we're wrapping it up so put your comments below one note you think about this give us a thumbs up if you enjoy content like this and also hit the notification bell so you can form a future videos just like this one that's it for now guys we will see you on the next one. you