# Data East my Arcade Mini playing neo geo games :P



## WD_GASTER2 (Dec 13, 2018)

anybody got one of these? it seems adb is fully functional and you can load your own apps with this.

I got a rough port of my generations dash (i still need to polish it) to load neo.emu and play windjammers from there


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## 1NOOB (Dec 13, 2018)

idk about that one but i would touch their product after seing that https://oldmachinery.blogspot.com/2018/06/data-east-hits-8-bit-gaming-my-arcade.html     at walmart ,   for 20$ , the boxart are arcade version but the games are all nes version .


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## WD_GASTER2 (Dec 13, 2018)

this one is the "10 mini" i got this one out of boredom at a local target. these go for 89 though.


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## WD_GASTER2 (Dec 26, 2018)

update for 1 week later. the chipset on this thing is really capable. sorry for the 360p video youtube decided to crunch this real badly.


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## PSX_Specter (Mar 13, 2019)

@WD_GASTER2 , I have one of these on order. Hope to compare notes soon. Any luck getting USB ethernet or wireless dongle working?


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## WD_GASTER2 (Mar 16, 2019)

well... what i ended up discovering on this was the following:

there is 2 variants of this (board revisions) one plays super nice with usb external devices and the other one reboots (kernel panic?) the moment you plug in a usb device. i never managed to find the revision that plays nicely with usb devices in the wild but they do exist. I am currently in a major project restoring a batch of 20 sega saturns (they need to be retrobrited and drives restored) once i am done with that i will be back on working on this littly bugger. (they are nice once h4x3d btw... i keep one of them running neo geo games in attract mode in a loop in the background as decoration in one of my rooms)
let me know once you get it and lets see if we can do some more progress on it.


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## PSX_Specter (Mar 17, 2019)

WD_GASTER2 said:


> well... what i ended up discovering on this was the following:
> 
> there is 2 variants of this (board revisions) one plays super nice with usb external devices and the other one reboots (kernel panic?) the moment you plug in a usb device. i never managed to find the revision that plays nicely with usb devices in the wild but they do exist. I am currently in a major project restoring a batch of 20 sega saturns (they need to be retrobrited and drives restored) once i am done with that i will be back on working on this littly bugger. (they are nice once h4x3d btw... i keep one of them running neo geo games in attract mode in a loop in the background as decoration in one of my rooms)
> let me know once you get it and lets see if we can do some more progress on it.


Got mine today. Mine is the easily hacked version. Made a hole in the back and hot glued the OTG cable to it. Made the wires for the internal speaker longer for better access. So far I have a small four port USB hub working, USB ethernet adapter, USB keyboard and mouse, and a USB 2.0 8GB flash drive. The keyboard and ethernet adapter don't play well together but everything else does. Taking a break from a long day of messing with it and kicking back watching some sling tv on my data east arcade mini


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## WD_GASTER2 (Mar 17, 2019)

thats real nice. may i ask if you bought it from an online retailer? i would like to have one that plays nice with usb devices.


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## PSX_Specter (Mar 17, 2019)

WD_GASTER2 said:


> thats real nice. may i ask if you bought it from an online retailer? i would like to have one that plays nice with usb devices.


It came from ebay. I wasn't even aware of the different models when I ordered it. Just got lucky.
Edit #1- Just ordered another one from ebay, let's see what version I get this time. 
Looks like Retroarch runs ok if you use an external USB controller. Playstation runs fairly well. I seem to get better performance with MAME4Droid than Retroarch emulating arcade games.
@WD_GASTER2 You're an android guy... can you see what if any WIFI drivers come installed on it? Or can you tell me where to look?
Edit #2= I now realize that the device is not rooted, and apologize for my android illiterate request 
I guess figuring out what WIFI adapter if any works is going to be a treat unless there's a way to root it.
 If anyone suffers from audio crackling with MAME4Droid, there is hope. In settings, go to advanced- sound engine. From there, choose audio engine. Then select Audio Track high latency (safe). Go back to advanced, and choose main thread priority. Set it to high. Small, old games like donkey kong that run quite well but kill your ears with the popping and cracking will benefit immensely from this.


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## PSX_Specter (Mar 26, 2019)

My second unit arrived today. It appears to also be the more easily hacked revision. I guess one should stay away from the ones they sell at Target? Can anyone else chime in with their experiences? Where did you buy yours? Was it hack-able via the internal micro USB? Did it have a decal on the power button, or just the two red lights? If yours was one of the units hack-able via the internal USB, what emulators and software have you had the best results with? What peripherals have you found to be working via USB?


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## WD_GASTER2 (Mar 29, 2019)

PSX_Specter said:


> My second unit arrived today. It appears to also be the more easily hacked revision. I guess one should stay away from the ones they sell at Target? Can anyone else chime in with their experiences? Where did you buy yours? Was it hack-able via the internal micro USB? Did it have a decal on the power button, or just the two red lights? If yours was one of the units hack-able via the internal USB, what emulators and software have you had the best results with? What peripherals have you found to be working via USB?


i bought mine at Target. as for wifi i wonder what are the differences between the target model and the others. could you pm me a link to the ebay seller you got yours from. i understand that there is no warranty i will get one of the nice models, but i am willing to take a risk. if i get one of those i could actually see what could be done to root it. the one that i have does is nice but usb peripherals would be great.


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## PSX_Specter (Mar 29, 2019)

I agree, you need one. I bought both of them from two individuals that each only had one for sale  The exact formula I used to get mine was to look for one that was $65 US and shipped to me by the weekend  Maybe you could check around second hand stores for one that doesn't have the decal with coin doors? Both of the ebay units I bought were pictured in the box and I had no view of the power button, so it was a complete lottery.

Edit- The onboard audio amp in unit #1 has spewed forth it's magic smoke. Headphone output still works, so I am currently working on fitting a stereo amp and small speakers from some usb powered pc speakers via the board side of the headphone jack. Will probably have to upgrade my power supply to keep everything happy, we'll see how it goes. Volume Booster app works wonders to bring the headphone output up to a reasonable level (It is pretty quiet by default) . I wouldn't use the Volume Booster app with the onboard audio though, as it dies easily enough without any outside help.
 I wonder if pressing the reset button on the main board along with vol + and vol - while powering on invokes recovery mode? Not brave enough to try it myself.

Edit 2- @WD_GASTER2 I pm'd you a link to a great candidate.


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## PSX_Specter (May 5, 2019)

The amp install resulted in a noisy mess that only sounded decent at full volume. Something to do with sharing the same power supply as the 10" arcade and ground loop. Many posts around the web of people having the same issue with raspberry pi projects. For it's transgressions, this unit will be gutted and have a raspberry pi 2 installed... and will probably still need the audio amp to be powered separately. Probably a fixable issue. Small price to pay for that sweet, sweet emulationstation menu (and KODI!). 
Volume+ and Volume- on power up does invoke the recovery menu. I couldn't make much happen in there, though.
@WD_GASTER2 , did you manage to find a unit that plays nice with USB devices?


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## WD_GASTER2 (May 5, 2019)

never did sadly. when time came around for me to buy the one you linked me to on ebay (had to wait til payday) it was sold out :S


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## WD_GASTER2 (May 12, 2019)

got my new model. Thanks man. what ethernet adapter did you use? working on wifi as well at this time.


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## WD_GASTER2 (May 12, 2019)

Boom! wifi working over a vonets  now to make it fit all internally!


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## WD_GASTER2 (May 12, 2019)

and just like that I can now ftp into it!  this is raspberry pi levels awesome


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## PSX_Specter (May 15, 2019)

I also ended up using a vonets for wifi. The power supply that comes with the unit is pretty strong. Using it to power the raspberry pi 2 and 3.5" screen I transplanted into my defective one. That went off without a hitch. The controls are much more manageable, and I can run Daphne.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M2VGO8I/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 that's the usb ethernet adapter I'm using.


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## fixingmytoys (May 15, 2019)

time to go hunting again, any clues to which unit is the good one


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## PSX_Specter (May 16, 2019)

fixingmytoys said:


> time to go hunting again, any clues to which unit is the good one



Look for one with Lock N Chase on the bottom right corner of the back of the box.


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## WD_GASTER2 (May 20, 2019)

Just an example of how amusing it looks now. 128gb storage, wifi, and wireless controller


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## WD_GASTER2 (May 30, 2019)

@PSX_Specter 
running retroarch under the hood now:



@rrifonas thanks so much for the help with this. Missing piece indeed for a lot of these devices


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## Deleted User (May 30, 2019)

WD_GASTER2 said:


> @PSX_Specter
> running retroarch under the hood now:
> 
> 
> ...





Customer just dropped one of these off.  About to take a stab at it.  Looking sweet guys.


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## WD_GASTER2 (May 30, 2019)

im actually flabergasted.

supports wifi over a vonets supports pokken controllers/Speedlink Torid controllers for wireless support. USB stick for expansion
full speed pcsx re-armed. full speed gba on gpsp full speek on snes9x2002 core fbalpha2012 fullspeed. its impressive.

oh yeah you can also ftp into it.


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## Deleted User (May 30, 2019)

WD_GASTER2 said:


> im actually flabergasted.
> 
> supports wifi over a vonets supports pokken controllers/Speedlink Torid controllers for wireless support. USB stick for expansion
> full speed pcsx re-armed. full speed gba on gpsp full speek on snes9x2002 core fbalpha2012 fullspeed. its impressive.




Holy molly - That's great to hear!


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## PSX_Specter (Jun 1, 2019)

I run retroarch for picodrive and a few other emulators, but I seem to get the best performance from standalone emulators like mame4droid. The issues with the unit's control layout are really discouraging to me. I can run Pit Fighter in mame4Droid, but I can't press three buttons at once in order to perform a special move? Twin stick shooters are also out of the question. I realize these issues can be circumvented by using an external controller. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but putting a raspberry pi 2 in one of mine was an incredible upgrade. I can switch between onboard and external controls on the fly. I used a simple PAM8403 amplifier and some small speakers I had laying around to upgrade to stereo sound. I also used a 3.5" 4:3 aspect backup camera monitor. Adding extra buttons to the cabinet can be done with ease. I added a soft power button and volume buttons. The cabinet's controls interface seamlessly with the pi's GPIO pins using GPIOnext software to map everything. I will be adding an HDMI port to the cabinet at some point. Like I said, it's probably not for everyone, but I've been having a blast with it. The sling tv app got an update and ceased to function on my "stock" unit, but kodi works great on my modded one. Any luck obtaining root? I think that's all that needs to be done to determine what wifi chip(s) the OS supports so the vonets situation can possibly be remedied.


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## WD_GASTER2 (Jun 1, 2019)

PSX_Specter said:


> I run retroarch for picodrive and a few other emulators, but I seem to get the best performance from standalone emulators like mame4droid. The issues with the unit's control layout are really discouraging to me. I can run Pit Fighter in mame4Droid, but I can't press three buttons at once in order to perform a special move? Twin stick shooters are also out of the question. I realize these issues can be circumvented by using an external controller. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but putting a raspberry pi 2 in one of mine was an incredible upgrade. I can switch between onboard and external controls on the fly. I used a simple PAM8403 amplifier and some small speakers I had laying around to upgrade to stereo sound. I also used a 3.5" 4:3 aspect backup camera monitor. Adding extra buttons to the cabinet can be done with ease. I added a soft power button and volume buttons. The cabinet's controls interface seamlessly with the pi's GPIO pins using GPIOnext software to map everything. I will be adding an HDMI port to the cabinet at some point. Like I said, it's probably not for everyone, but I've been having a blast with it. The sling tv app got an update and ceased to function on my "stock" unit, but kodi works great on my modded one. Any luck obtaining root? I thinks that's all that needs to be done to determine what wifi chip(s) the OS supports so the vonets situation can possibly be remedied.




working on it at the moment. I had an old script that i am pretty positive will work. I need to dig it up. Root should be relatively easy to attain(hopefully)

i had 60 fps running retroarch cores all the way up to playstation. however i was not running retroarch itself as the launcher. I wonder if that contributed to the performance boost.


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## Deleted User (Jun 1, 2019)

Just finished modding mine

Button controllers would unbind after a reboot

Figured it out after trial and error - Have to set to multi controller in mame settings and bindings are all good now after reboots / power downs


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## WD_GASTER2 (Jun 1, 2019)

On my end I am implementing an ftp service to my dashboard. That way i can seemlessly ftp into it without using a 3rd party app. if anybody knows apache mina please pm me as I am having issues with authentication (code is working)


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## Speedro1804 (Jun 5, 2019)

WD_GASTER2 said:


> Just an example of how amusing it looks now. 128gb storage, wifi, and wireless controller



Hey I need badly with my mini arcade unfortunately I have the problem that you had with your device ,when I plug the internal USB its goes to panic mode and I'm basically stuck there. Can you please help me mod it

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WD_GASTER2 said:


> Just an example of how amusing it looks now. 128gb storage, wifi, and wireless controller



Nb


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## WD_GASTER2 (Jun 5, 2019)

that unfortunately is the revision 2 board. modding on it is rather limited.


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## Speedro1804 (Jun 5, 2019)

Speedro1804 said:


> Hey I need badly with my mini arcade unfortunately I have the problem that you had with your device ,when I plug the internal USB its goes to panic mode and I'm basically stuck there. Can you please help me mod it
> 
> --------------------- MERGED ---------------------------





WD_GASTER2 said:


> that unfortunately is the revision 2 board. modding on it is rather limited.


Therefore my best bet is to get the 1 board in order to mod it ...and I had purchased it at target


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## PSX_Specter (Jun 6, 2019)

Speedro1804 said:


> Therefore my best bet is to get the 1 board in order to mod it ...and I had purchased it at target


RetroPie that sucker !


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## WD_GASTER2 (Jun 6, 2019)

PSX_Specter said:


> RetroPie that sucker !


"samuel adams" always a good choice! 

I am also working to see if i can fix that stupid kernel panic issue on the revision 2 board. no promises though


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## Speedro1804 (Jun 19, 2019)

WD_GASTER2 said:


> "samuel adams" always a good choice!
> 
> I am also working to see if i can fix that stupid kernel panic issue on the revision 2 board. no promises though


Than you please let me know when you fix it


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## PSX_Specter (Jul 3, 2019)

WD_GASTER2 said:


> "samuel adams" always a good choice!
> 
> I am also working to see if i can fix that stupid kernel panic issue on the revision 2 board. no promises though



Have you played around in the recovery menu at all? I can't seem to find the "enter" key. Trying to do an open gapps pico install to see if that fixes sling tv.


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## dirtytony (Aug 5, 2019)

Just an example of how amusing it looks now. 128gb storage, wifi, and wireless controller[/QUOTE]

Just curious how you did these hardware mods. How did you get the OTG cable to remain in the micro USB port and still be able to close the machine back up? I am thinking of cutting some of the plastic away, but does a right angle micro usb work maybe? I have a usb hub, usb drive, etc but just not sure how to get it all to fit. 

Also what snes are you running, I can’t get snes9x to do anything but crash.


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## ReelBigNilla (Nov 2, 2019)

I have the revision 2 board from target... i used Vysor to get into in and so far i have been using dig for a frontend on all my emulators.  cannot get retroarch to recognize internal controller.  just tried with new version 1.8.0.  everything was going smoothly until today dig would not recognize any systems or emulators and just left me with a series of menus with a (0) count.  i am working on getting everything working again.  this device, at least the 2.0 board can be rooted with KingoRoot.  it is an Allwinner a23 board, and mine is rooted.  i am working on getting everything optimized and working again, and plan on using LuckyPatcher to move all my emulators, etc. to the internal storage.  i haven't opened mine up, so i don't know if i can use a usb hub on the inside now that i have it rooted and factory reset.  if anyone knows of another frontend that works on this board please let me know, because dig is functional, but not very visually appealing.  will be happy to help anyone here as much as i can with anything i can help with.


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## WD_GASTER2 (Nov 2, 2019)

ReelBigNilla said:


> I have the revision 2 board from target... i used Vysor to get into in and so far i have been using dig for a frontend on all my emulators.  cannot get retroarch to recognize internal controller.  just tried with new version 1.8.0.  everything was going smoothly until today dig would not recognize any systems or emulators and just left me with a series of menus with a (0) count.  i am working on getting everything working again.  this device, at least the 2.0 board can be rooted with KingoRoot.  it is an Allwinner a23 board, and mine is rooted.  i am working on getting everything optimized and working again, and plan on using LuckyPatcher to move all my emulators, etc. to the internal storage.  i haven't opened mine up, so i don't know if i can use a usb hub on the inside now that i have it rooted and factory reset.  if anyone knows of another frontend that works on this board please let me know, because dig is functional, but not very visually appealing.  will be happy to help anyone here as much as i can with anything i can help with.


You don’t need lucky patcher. You can install everything via adb. The only current issue atm with revision 2 is the possible kernel panic that occurs when plugging an external device


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## japoro (Nov 3, 2019)

Is there a way to add bluetooth to this?


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## WD_GASTER2 (Nov 3, 2019)

no. 2.4ghz wireless controllers work though. (rev 1 only)


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## Speedro1804 (Dec 5, 2019)

ReelBigNilla ..can you please help me .. to get into the revision 2  ..with vysor ...that were talking about


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## WD_GASTER2 (Dec 6, 2019)

Speedro1804 said:


> ReelBigNilla ..can you please help me .. to get into the revision 2  ..with vysor ...that were talking about


you can get into it with android commander dude. plug it in directly to a pc (yes rev 2)
your issue is gonna be when trying to add usb devices to expand storage.
if you can live with the 4gb you will be fine.


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## Slurdvizion (Dec 21, 2019)

sooo i need a backup of the stock firmware... v2 box. flashed twrp and now its wonky... WSOD
 hoping i can recover... do not use twrp.me allwinner recovery on it lol

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i have internet on the v2 box via reverse tether no root. also using vyzor for control. still no peripheral support?


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## kagedmonkey (May 21, 2020)

has anyone figured out how to hack revision 2 yet?


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## Retromania (Aug 4, 2020)

Apparently Version 2 can be hacked without opening the case, but seems there is no guide how to do it outside of various facebook groups.

Can anyone point to a how-to?


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## WD_GASTER2 (Aug 5, 2020)

Retromania said:


> Apparently Version 2 can be hacked without opening the case, but seems there is no guide how to do it outside of various facebook groups.
> 
> Can anyone point to a how-to?




as my posts said earlier.

You can install everything via adb. The only current issue atm with revision 2 is the possible kernel panic that occurs when plugging an external device (i.E. keyboard or mount an external usb storage device)


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