Choosing the best retro arcade machine – retro gaming console for home

Every setup on this page plays retro games. What separates them is the hardware doing the work – the board or chip inside, what it outputs, what you can plug into it, and where its emulation runs out. This page is the hardware layer across the whole range, from a stick that runs off your TV’s USB port to a full-size cabinet with a desktop Ryzen in it.

Two companions, so you are in the right place: for which Pandora board is in a unit and whether it is any good, use the Pandora’s Box buying guide – it covers every version, motherboard IDs and the ones to avoid. For what fits your room and your household, use the home arcade machine buying guide.

Quick Answer – Which Setup Fits You

Short on time? This page is about what is inside each machine. If you want it matched to your room, your budget and how many people play, that is the home arcade machine buying guide. Here, start with how much you want to get your hands dirty.

Plug it in and play	Pandora decks and MiniBeast	Fast board, locked down, nothing to configure and very little to break. The trade is that accessories are limited to what the board supports.
Tinker from the sofa	Super Console X3 Stick or X3 Plus	EmuELEC puts cores, per-game button mapping and display settings in the interface. Go as deep as RetroArch allows. The X3 Plus adds ports, its own power and better colour.
Light guns first	Arcade+ Light Gun	A Windows PC rather than a gameboard, with a more demanding, broader light gun library.
No ceiling	MegaBeast or BeastCore	Batocera on a Ryzen. Most things up to PS3, the broadest accessory support, and settings that are actually easy to reach.
Build it yourself	King Arcade Deck or BeastCore	No fixed brain. Drop in a Pandora board, a Raspberry Pi or a mini PC and drive your own screen.

Performance tiers – and why speed is half the story

Game counts tell you nothing. A box advertising 60,000 titles on a weak chip plays fewer games well than one advertising 10,000 on a strong one. But raw speed is only one axis, and ranking a TV stick against a Ryzen on a single ladder is misleading anyway. There are really two classes of machine here. Appliances are fixed-function: fast, simple, and closed. PCs have an operating system you can get at. The slowest PC still sits above the fastest appliance on raw capability, but it asks more of you in return – which is what the next section is about.

Appliances – fixed function, nothing to administer

Tier	Silicon	In this range	Runs well	Runs out at
Entry	Amlogic S905X3, 2GB	Super Console X3 Stick	2D arcade, 8-bit and 16-bit consoles, lighter PS1	Demanding 3D – N64 and PS1 heavy titles stutter
Mid	Amlogic S905X3, 4GB	Super Console X3 Plus	PS1, N64, full arcade libraries; Dreamcast with some frame drops	PSP is patchy
Top	RK3566 Alpha 3D Max+ Cortex-A55, Mali-G52, 64-bit	XL Steel Deck, Dual Decks, MiniBeast, MiniBeast Lux	PSP and 3D arcade on top of everything above, running clean	The top of the Pandora line – there is nothing above it in this class

PCs – an operating system you can get at

Tier	Silicon	In this range	Runs well	Runs out at
Entry PC	Intel N5095, 4GB, 256GB Windows	Arcade+ Light Gun	Dreamcast, Naomi and Atomiswave, plus a broad light gun library	Set by the PC fitted, not by the platform
Mid PC	AMD Ryzen 5 7430U, 16GB, 512GB Windows 11 Pro	Arcade+ Light Gun – upgrade option, coming	Everything the entry PC does, with real headroom above it	PS2
High-end PC	AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS, Radeon 780M Batocera	MegaBeast, BeastCore	Most titles up to PS3, and everything below it	Nothing in the retro library

What you can change, and what is locked down

This is the part spec sheets never cover, and for a lot of buyers it matters more than the chip. A locked-down system is harder to break and harder to improve. An open one rewards tinkering and punishes a careless afternoon. Neither is better – they suit different people.

Platform	How you change things	Accessories	Who it suits
Pandora Alpha 3D Max+ decks, MiniBeast, Lux	Locked down. It can be tweaked, but that means editing configuration files by hand – technical, and not through any interface. The good news is that unlike most Pandora Boxes the microSD card is not encrypted, so every file can be viewed and edited on your computer – with the utmost caution.	Minimal. Specific compatible gamepads, trackball and light gun kits only, not any USB device.	Anyone who wants the fastest board here with nothing to break. Being locked down is the feature. Plug and play, hassle free.
Super Console X3 Stick EmuELEC	Ships in kiosk mode to keep the settings safe, and can be unlocked from there. Settings, emulator cores and per-game button mapping are all changeable from the interface. Deep dive into RetroArch and it goes as far as you want.	Limited by having one USB port – a controller dongle, or a powered hub.	Tinkerers on a budget who want to learn the settings.
Super Console X3 Plus EmuELEC	Also ships in kiosk mode. The same EmuELEC as the stick underneath, so the same settings and the same depth once unlocked.	Broadest of the non-PC units. Two USB ports and its own power supply, so it runs more at once. Better chip gives noticeably more vibrant colour.	Tinkerers who want the accessories, ours or your own, more vibrant colour, the ability to boot into Android, and settings on both the Android and Linux sides.
Arcade+ Light Gun Windows	Mixed. Faster than the Pandora boards and both Super Consoles, but adding games, cores or remapping buttons is manual work through a database editor. The upside is that it is Windows – ordinary editing tools, keyboard and mouse all work.	Anything Windows supports, once you have set it up.	Light gun players, and anyone comfortable in Windows.
MegaBeast and BeastCore Batocera	Open and easy. Batocera puts most configuration within easy reach instead of behind a file editor. Plug in a mouse and keyboard to get at the deeper levels.	The best here. Broad controller support including steering wheels, plus mouse and keyboard.	Anyone who wants both the ceiling and the control, without the manual work.

Full range – hardware comparison

Everything we stock, on the specs that decide performance. Physical size, player comfort and pricing are on the buying guide.

Super Console X3 Stick

The smallest thing in the range that is still worth owning, and a deliberately cut-down one. No panel, no cabinet – an HDMI stick powered over USB, with a barebones OS built purely for emulation. It boots straight to the game interface with no Android layer in the way, which is why it feels faster than its spec sheet suggests. The trade is ports and flexibility: one USB socket, one power input, and that is the lot. If you want the Android side, more connectivity and better colour, that is the X3 Plus below.

Chip	Amlogic S905X3	2GB RAM. EmuELEC 4.3, no Android layer. Boots directly into the game interface. Ships in KIOSK mode so settings are hidden from accidental damage.
Output	720p HDMI	True 4:3 on classic titles with console-specific bezels filling the rest of a 16:9 screen. 2x upscaling applied, 3x plus widescreen hack on PlayStation.
Ports	1x USB-A, 1x micro USB	The USB-A port takes the dongle for the pair of wireless controllers; micro USB is power only. Runs off your TV’s USB port or a 5V 1A to 2.5A phone charger – no power brick. Short HDMI extension cable included for awkward port positions.
Controllers	2x wireless included	2.4GHz PlayStation-style pads, 2x AA each, single USB dongle. Up to 4 pads via a powered hub. Wired Xbox-style pads, Ipega PG-9156 and USB fight sticks all tested working.
Games	30,000+ across 40+ systems	Arcade, C64, Atari, Capcom, Dreamcast, Famicom, Game Boy / Color / Advance, Mega Drive, MSX, N64, NES, Neo Geo, SNES, Sega 32X, WonderSwan Color and more. Dreamcast, Naomi, N64 and Atomiswave all handled. PSP is where it runs out.

Super Console X3 Stick specifications and pricing

Super Console X3 Plus

Where the stick is cut down, this is the full box. Same S905X3 silicon, double the memory, its own power supply, and a proper Android device underneath – it boots into Android whenever you want it to. That is the reason to choose it: display calibration, colour settings and streaming apps alongside the emulation front end, richer colour output, more ports, and the broadest controller compatibility in the range.

Chip	Amlogic S905X3	4GB RAM. Boots into EmuELEC 4.3 by default, with full Android available as a boot option. Supports newer EmuELEC builds than the stick.
Ports	2x USB-A, RJ45, 3.5mm	Its own power supply rather than drawing from the TV. Two USB ports instead of one, a 3.5mm audio jack, and an ethernet port for adding games over your network. Richer colour output than the stick.
Controllers	BYO, broadest support	Controllers are not included. Not every controller will work: your best chance is one that supports DInput or XInput. Even then, you may find the D-pad and the analogue stick do not both work on every console.
Games	30,000+ across 40+ systems	Arcade, 16-bit, PS1 and N64 all run properly. Dreamcast is supported, with some titles showing lower frame rates.

Super Console X3 Plus specifications and pricing

Pandora Box fight stick decks

A control panel in a box. Arcade sticks and buttons on a steel deck, one HDMI cable to the TV, one to power, playing in under a minute. The library sits on an internal card – no downloads, no network, no account. The board does the work, which is why the board is the only spec that matters here.

XL Steel Deck – one panel, two players

Gameboard	Pandora Alpha 3D Max+, RK3566	Quad-core Cortex-A55 up to 2.0GHz, 64-bit ARMv8.2 on 22nm. Mali-G52 graphics, 1GB LPDDR4. Board ID GBX109-V01, L-shaped. The top board in the Pandora line, patched in-house – factory builds ship with image stretching, problems on specific titles, and on some builds no save states at all.
Games	10,000+ titles	Arcade classics through N64, PS1, Dreamcast and SNES. Save and load state on supported titles.
Output	720p HDMI	Auto and manual 4:3 and 16:9 ratio setting, so classic titles are not stretched across a widescreen TV and newer ones still fill it.
Deck	Powder-coated steel, 5.2kg	76cm W x 24cm D x 6cm H, rubber feet included. Wider than a standard Pandora deck, so two players are not fighting for space, and slim enough to store in a cupboard.
Controls	2 players built in	Arcade joysticks and buttons, Sanwa-compatible, with LED direction arrows. P3 and P4 via USB gamepad. Optional Pandora light gun kit.
Audio	Internal speaker	Internal speaker, 3.5mm headphone jack and HDMI, with a volume dial so you can balance it against the TV, or listen through the speaker or headphones.
Power and setup	Plug and play	Australian certified 12V 3A power supply and a 3m HDMI cable both included. Dispatched from Melbourne, courier Australia-wide.

Dual Decks – two panels, one each

Same board and library as the XL, split across two independent decks joined by a link cable. Each player gets their own panel, so neither is reaching across the other. Player 1 holds the games and runs on its own when there is no second player.

Gameboard	Pandora Alpha 3D Max+, RK3566	Same top-tier board and the same in-house patching as the XL Steel Deck – Cortex-A55 to 2.0GHz, Mali-G52, 1GB LPDDR4. 10,000+ titles built in, with save and load on supported games.
Output	720p HDMI	The ratio is set automatically, with a manual override you can choose from the game list.
Decks	2 – Player 1 and Player 2	Player 1 runs the games. Metal base with an acrylic top, LED-lit panel and buttons with an on/off switch. Suction cups for hard surfaces, or play with it on your lap.
Link cable	1.35m included, 3m upgrade available	Sets how far apart the two players can sit.
Controls	1 or 2 on the decks	8-way arcade joysticks with 6 buttons, coin and start per deck. Third and fourth players on USB gamepads. Optional Pandora light gun kit.
Audio	Internal speaker	Internal speaker, 3.5mm headphone jack and HDMI, with a volume dial so you can balance it against the TV, or listen through the speaker or headphones.
Power and setup	Plug and play	One Australian certified power supply connects to Player 1 and powers both decks. HDMI to the TV, link cable between decks – all cables included plus its own on/off switch. Ships from Melbourne Australia-wide.

XL Steel Deck Dual Decks full Pandora’s Box range

MiniBeast bartop cabinets

A full arcade cabinet with the bottom section removed – built-in IPS screen behind tempered glass, arcade controls, its own amplifier and speakers. Both MiniBeast models run the same board as the fight stick decks, so the emulation is identical. The difference between them is the screen and what the cabinet is built to accept later. Both are wrapped front, sides and back, with an anti-scratch print on the control panel. That panel is piano hinged – release the clips from inside and it flips open, which together with the large rear door gives full access. Both also take a slide and lock mechanism so the matching stand sits secure, though we would still pick a sensible spot and treat it with care.

MiniBeast Bartop

Gameboard	Pandora Alpha 3D Max+, RK3566	Quad-core Cortex-A55 up to 2.0GHz, 64-bit ARMv8.2 on 22nm. Mali-G52 graphics, 1GB LPDDR4, 720p output. Board ID GBX109-V01, L-shaped. The same top-tier board as the fight stick decks, patched in-house. Linux, 128GB microSD.
Display	19″ IPS, 5:4, 60Hz	1920×1080 panel behind tempered glass, fed 720p by the board. Commonly called 4:3 – classic titles show in their correct shape, not stretched. VGA and HDMI inputs.
Audio	Independent 20W amplifier	Upgraded amp and stereo speakers, not a bolt-on buzzer.
Controls	2 players built in	Per player: 1 joystick, 6 buttons, coin and start. P3 and P4 via 2 rear USB ports, which also take a trackball or light gun depending on device. Sanwa-compatible, scratch-resistant vinyl-wrapped panel.
Build	Laminated 18mm MDF	Vinyl printed wrap, steel brackets, tempered glass screen cover, lockable rear door. Optional side coin mechanism. 56 x 49 x 65 cm, 26kg. Control panel sits 94cm from the ground on the stand.

MiniBeast Lux

Same cabinet build and the same board as the standard MiniBeast, stepped up to a 21.5″ screen. The reason to choose it is the upgrade path rather than the screen: Dreamcast, PS1 and N64 already run as standard on the Pandora board, and the Lux is PC ready – encoder board included, cabinet built to take a PC when you want one. It is more than just an encoder board. How far that goes is down to the PC you fit: an entry build widens the library, mid and high-spec builds reach well beyond anything a Pandora board can touch, and the 16:9 panel earns its keep at that point running newer titles and widescreen hacks at full width.

Gameboard	Pandora Alpha 3D Max+, RK3566	Identical to the standard MiniBeast – quad-core Cortex-A55 up to 2.0GHz, Mali-G52, 1GB LPDDR4, 720p output, board ID GBX109-V01. Same patching, 128GB microSD, Linux – until you fit a PC.
Display	21.5″ IPS, 16:9, 60Hz	1920×1080 behind tempered glass. A true widescreen panel, which is what makes the PC path worth taking – a PC drives it at full 1080p, where the Pandora board outputs 720p.
PC ready	Encoder board included	The cabinet is wired and spaced to take a small PC without a new cabinet. Ceiling is set by the PC you fit, not by the Lux.
Build	Laminated 18mm MDF	Same wrap, steel bracketing, tempered glass and lockable rear door as the standard. 56 x 49 x 65 cm, 27kg. Control panel sits 94cm from the ground on the stand.

MiniBeast Bartop MiniBeast Lux

Arcade+ Light Gun – the pedestal

The first x86 machine in the range, and the point at which the Pandora ceiling stops applying. A mini PC running Windows replaces the gameboard, which unlocks the full light gun library rather than the 103 titles a Pandora kit supports. No built-in screen – it drives your own TV, which is deliberate, because light gun play wants a big picture.

CPU	Intel N5095	4 cores / 4 threads, 15W, 2.0 to 2.9GHz. Windows 10+ with a dedicated front end supporting sort by type, recent and favourite, search by name, and in-game pause, save, load and exit.
Graphics	Intel UHD	16 execution units, 450 to 750MHz. Output 1280×720.
Memory	4GB DDR4	256GB on an NVMe 2230 M.2 SSD – that is the total, not an add-on.
PC upgrade	Ryzen 5 7430U, coming	The pedestal will also be offered with a step-up PC – AMD Ryzen 5 7430U, 16GB RAM and a 512GB SSD on Windows 11 Pro – in place of the N5095. Same cabinet, same guns, more headroom, and PS2 comes into range.
Ports	6x USB-A, RJ45, RS232	HDMI 2.0 Type A x1, VGA x1, 3.5mm audio out. WiFi via USB.
Controls	4 players, 2 light guns	4 joysticks; 8 buttons each for P1 and P2, 4 each for P3 and P4; start button per player; 3″ LED trackball; single-button safe shutdown. 2x IR AimTrak-style light guns with recoil, and sensor bars that mount on any flatscreen.
Screen	Bring your own, up to 80″	Needs 2+ metres of clearance for the light guns to keep the whole picture in view. Keep it out of direct light – IR tracking does not like it.
Games	7,500+	Atomiswave, FBA, Game Boy / Color / Advance, Dreamcast, MAME, Mega Drive, Naomi, N64, NES, SNES, PC Engine, PlayStation. 100+ dedicated light gun titles.
Audio	HDMI out or internal	Upgraded speakers and amplifier with on/off, treble and bass controls, or log in to Windows and select external speaker to push audio to your TV or a sound system over HDMI.

Arcade+ Light Gun specifications and pricing

MegaBeast – full-size upright

A desktop-class Ryzen in a full-size cabinet, running a 2TB Batocera build. This is the only machine in the range where emulation is not the limiting factor – it handles most titles up to PS3, which is several tiers above anything a Pandora board reaches.

CPU	AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS	Linux, Batocera. Capable of most titles up to PS3 and everything below it.
Graphics	Radeon 780M	Integrated RDNA 3. Drives the built-in panel at native resolution.
Memory	16GB DDR5	2TB NVMe, with a spare NVMe slot.
Display	32″ IPS, 1920×1080	Full-viewing-angle panel, 16:9 with a 4:3 software setting for classic titles.
Ports	5x USB-A, 1x USB-C	3.5mm audio out and HDMI. WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n/ac on 2.4 and 5GHz, Bluetooth 5.0.
Controls	4 players, trackball built in	The largest control panel Electro Arcade builds. Light guns optional – Sinden, or step up to Retro Shooter RS3 Reapers. The Shooter Edition ships with RS3 Reapers and foot pedals included.
Audio	Soundbar and subwoofer	Integrated, with Bluetooth. Not a pair of cabinet speakers.
Build	Laminated 18mm MDF	Vinyl printed wrap, steel bracketing, tempered glass, lockable panels with coin mechanism. Assembled 107 x 88.9 x 176 cm; body alone 80 x 71 x 170 cm. 130kg shipped. Four wheels with locking mechanism, so it moves on a flat surface.

MegaBeast specifications and pricing

Coming soon

Two more are on the way. Neither has a product page yet, so get in touch if you want to be told when they land.

BeastCore	Ryzen 7 7840HS, 2TB Batocera	The MegaBeast’s hardware without the cabinet – straight to your TV, or dropped into your own build. Same PS3-and-below ceiling.
King Arcade Deck	Encoder board, BYO brain	84cm deck in 14mm black melamine with a genuine trackball. No fixed gameboard – runs a Pandora board, a Raspberry Pi or a mini PC, your choice. Hinged lid, with HDMI, USB and power brought out to the back.

What to look for – the five things that actually matter

Most buyers spend too long comparing game counts and not long enough on the five things that decide whether a unit is good to live with.

01	The board or chip	This is the engine. Underpowered silicon stutters on N64 and PS1 3D, chops audio and stretches images. Identify at least that much before buying. RK3566, S812 and S905X3-class chips handle the demanding library; H3 and A7 boards do not. You also want at least 1-2GB of RAM.
02	Whether it has been patched	Factory Pandora boards ship with known issues – image stretching, performance problems on specific titles, and on some builds no save state support. Ask specifically whether the board was patched in-house, and which version.
03	Local stock and local spares	Joysticks can get sloppy and buttons can fail. If the seller holds no spare parts in Australia you are waiting weeks for a $5 component from overseas. Everything we sell is stocked in Melbourne with spares on hand.
04	Control component quality	Sticks and buttons are the only parts you physically touch. Cheap buttons and joysticks take away from both the experience and the longevity of your console, and some are hard to upgrade without proprietary hardware. Our units use modular, high-quality arcade-compatible components throughout.
05	Warranty and support	A 12-month Australian warranty should cover parts, not just the right to contact someone. Ours is backed by local parts stock – if a button or joystick fails, the part ships from Melbourne. Beyond replacements, if something is not working the way you expect, we are here to help you get the most out of it.

Handhelds – the same emulation, pocket sized

Anbernic handhelds run the same console libraries on Linux or Android in a device with its own screen. Single player, no arcade stick feel, but genuinely portable. Chip tiers work the same way there as they do here, and we have dedicated comparisons rather than a summary:

• Anbernic H700 range – RG35XX SP, RG40XX, RG35XXH – full specs and game lists
• Unisoc T820 range – RG556, RG406H, RG406V – the Android tier, up to PS2 and Wii
• R36 range compared – the entry tier
• Best Anbernic handhelds ranked

Or browse the full retro handheld range.

Frequently asked questions

Stocked, patched and supported here

Everything on this page is stocked in our Melbourne warehouse – no dropshipping, no middlemen. Pandora boards are patched in-house before they ship, and every unit is individually tested. We hold spare parts for the life of the unit, so a failed button or joystick is a part in the post, not a freight job.

Not sure which tier you need, or which board is in a unit you already own? Get in touch.

Where to next

• Home arcade machine buying guide – footprint, player count, screen distance, sound and lighting, and what each setup costs.
• Pandora’s Box buying guide – every board version compared, motherboard IDs, and the ones to avoid.
• Bartop vs full-size – the format decision in detail.
• Arcade machines · arcade consoles · Pandora’s Box range