FAQs & Troubleshooting The Pandora Box Platinum

The Pandora Box Arcade was designed for VGA and HDMI. In the event your unit(s) power on, but there is no display please check your HDMI or VGA connection. The Pandora Box Arcade technology and mainboard have been tested against many HDMI TV models from the past 10+ years. Every once in a great while, we notice that an older lower end brand TV many not support the HDMI out. 

To troubleshoot properly if there is no display, please connect to a VGA PC monitor or another newer HDMI enabled TV. If the HDMI works on another TV, it could mean that it is not compatible with the older HDMI enabled TV. 

The Pandora Box Arcade Platinum Wired Dual Panel is connected by a serial cable. Sometimes strong movements, constant connection or disconnection or pulling on the cable between the 2 units can cause it to not be "Fully Connected".

This means that the serial cable is not making a Full and Secure connection to the 2nd player panel. Sometimes this may prevent the 2nd player controller from moving in a certain direction, or a Start/Select or another one of the buttons to not register.

The first step to troubleshooting this is to basically disconnect both sides of the cable and then check all the pins to make sure they are not bent. Then, once making sure all the pins are undamaged, then re-securing the connection with the serial cable with a firm insertion and fully screwed in. 

Sometimes, even if the "2nd player is lighting up with the LEDs" does not mean it is a 100% secure connection.

Before contacting us for a non-working second player with a separated panel, please try and re-secure the connection between the 2 controllers.

If your official archive card (selected by us here from the following game lists) is not showing your games, it could need a hard reset. Please do the following:

1: Remove Archive Card Fully by Clicking it out of Place

2: Turn off the Power on Your Pandora Console

3: Re-Insert (or Re-Seat) your Pandora Archive Card

4: Power Unit Back on 

Once You do this, most of the time you should see your archived games list pop up. If this is not the case, and you have done this correctly you may need a new archive memory card. Please contact us for solutions.

*Please Note Again: We do not warranty archive cards, especially if you have accessed the archive with a PC in any way. We condone discovery of your archive however we do not troubleshoot anything you or any external device may have done to it in the process of reading or accidental formatting.

The V1 Pandora Platinum (Not Pro Version) has the ability to only add "3D Games" in the form of any region PS1 games. Outside of the below video tutorial, we can not troubleshoot, offer more advice, or tell you "what you are doing wrong". Creating a larger software or homebrew archive is simply on the user. We know many different computers may handle text characters differently, so you may be doing something wrong during that process. 

We do not warranty or guarantee archival cards in any form, however if you need a replacement then contact us and we can help with getting you a paid replacement for your correct version of the V1 model of the Pandora Box Arcade Platinum home console.

We are officially sunsetting the Pandora Platinum V1 Console and mainboard. We feel that as technology progresses and as our retro gaming enthusiasts demand a better experience that the V1 was good for it's time but does not deliver the must-have advanced performance and operational functions that the Pandora Platinum Pro mainboard has. That said all Pandora Platinum consoles will only have a Pro board contained. If you need a functioning software archive card for the V1, please contact customer service for help and they can point you in the right direction for a replacement. 

The Pandora Platinum Pro is a hardware based mini TV computer meaning that is was developed to work with monitors, TVs and other video devices. It does not have "Pre Loaded Games" built into it.  The console can "Archive" Software you own or have purchased in the past or on other consoles. 

What does this mean?

This means that we meticulously test every game and piece of software that this little super computer can run. So you can literally run a slew of emulation from the following tech stack.

Mame

Dreamcast

Sega Naomi

Final Burn Alpha

Playstation Portable

Playstation 1

Sega Genesis

Super Nintendo

Original NES

Gameboy Advance

PC Engine

Nintendo 64

Neo Geo 

and many more.

With that understanding, we offer an "Archiving Service" for software you own that we know work in the proper format that is tested for performance. You can see the games list we can archive for you here at Pandora Box Game Lists

The Pandora Box Arcade Pro is "pro" for a reason!  While their may be imitators just handing over low performing hardware and software, the Pandora Box Arcade Platinum Pro has a consistently tried and true restoration experience.

This means that we only offer our Archiving Service for games that we know will have a good experience.  Our product listings show the potential gameplay with the shown game and has been tested for performance. 

Remember, we are ARCADE GURUs!  So we want to experience retro gaming preservation the way it was meant to be played for the most part. So the game list is always growing, and you can see here often when we play a new game and how it performs within an Archived state.

If you want to see some of the Archive Possibilities click here. 

You can do this, but we don't guarantee performance and we do not offer tutorials or "help" for each and every person looking to become a arcade tech. That said, that is why we offer the Archival Cards as a service because we test them thorougly based on your request once you purchase your hardware as well as the integrity of the memory. 

Remember, sometimes it's just "more fun to drive the car, then learning how to change the oil and the brakes".

That is why we make it easy for you and offer  peace of mind knowing that you can get a top notch game archival card service here.

If a game has been shown in a video demonstration then there IT IS a game that can be played with the Pandora Platinum. The archivable "game lists" have the games in the videos. Just check an archive that would fall into that category of game, and click on the "I" and you'll see the listing for your games of interest.

Please see Pandora Box Game Lists Here.

Since the Pandora Platinum is true arcade hardware and can play versions of real arcade games sometimes the buttons are not set to the normal 6 button layout that you may be familiar with in some games (like some Street Fighters, versus games, Mortal Kombat, etc). However the Pandora Platinum is the only home arcade console that can help you set the buttons the way you want. Please watch the below tutorial video of how to access different arcade emulator backends so you can set the buttons how you would like.

Most Arcade Games Do the Following to Access Button Mapping and Advanced Arcade Options:

For Neo Geo Game Options:

Once you "Save Your State" for each game, and reload in the future you usually do not have to configure your controller for the future. (not guaranteed for all compatible games)

Pandora Platinum was designed to be played on modern day TV sets. This means that we put special SUPER HD functions to display the characters less pixelated and fill up the full screen. We appreciate both modern and new resolution styles so we have built in the ability to change the 16:9 screen size to 4:3 (the more traditional arcade screen size) with a few simple menu selections. Please refer to the below video to change your game image and screen options:

Pandora Platinum Resolution Screen Change to 4:3 Option

The Pandora Platinum not only supports thousands of games, but it also supports a variety of additional supported controllers. Since the Pandora Platinum can play many different types of games for a variety of consoles, sometimes a regular arcade joystick just does not work right because the original game was developed for a controller with many more buttons. However, fret not because below you can see some of the additional supported controllers that can be used and mapped to work with PSP games, N64, Dreamcast and even PS1 games. So if you just want to change your main controller of your Pandora Platinum, now you can by watching the below videos:

Super Nintendo USB Controller for SNES Games (can be purchased here)

Playstation 4 Controller for PS1, PSP, N64, or Dreamcast Games (PS4 Compatible Controllers here)

Adding a 3rd Supported Wired Joystick for Pandora Platinum (Click Here for 3rd Player Wired Joystick)