Tech Will Save Us Arcade Coder | Educational STEM Game and Coding Console for Boys, Girls, Kids Ages 6-12 and up

There are a lot of really good things to say about this product.The short version: Highly recommended for kids who are interested in playing games and love being creative - because it fuses those things with an introduction to programming new games themselves. Its also a separate product to the iPad - so its a very different experience than being sat in front of a screen all day. The best part is my son makes things and actively wants to show them to me / asks me to be his play tester. Win / Win :-)Great:- Portable (can take it anywhere - and it really intrigues people wherever its played with)- Looks amazing and has survived some immediate abuse from two kids- The app works really well - havent had any surprises with it.- App tells you when the battery is low- super fun to design pixel art on (parents might have enjoyed this too :-)- some great old school games to immediately play with together as a family.- its fun fun fun (and lots of learning embedded in that fun!)Not as Great- needs a semi recent ipad (> 2016)- seems expensive in the beginning (but debunks this very quickly)- no android (yet)Longer version:Tablet: It needs a relatively new iPad, and latest iOS (this is clearly stated in the listing so for those of you with Android tablets - dont buy it now, you'll be disappointed. That said, the manufacturer mentioned that android will be launched sometime next year - so you wont have to wait too long :-). We used a first gen iPad Pro 12" from 2016 - and it worked perfectly on there.Unboxing: The experience is pretty awesome. My son turned it on immediately before we got the iPad out and he had ages of fun shooting fireworks on the waiting state - a nice out of the box experience while dad finds the app. Also turns out to be perfect for my < 1 year old son who loved hitting it and creating fireworks :-) Also, worth mentioning the design. Feels robust and managed to survive my kids hitting it pretty intensely. The circuit board is visible and honestly super cool with its graphics that reference the history of computer games. Nice effort!The experience: The Games Studio app is pretty fantastic. It connects to the Arcade Coder over bluetooth, and makes it clear when its connected. There are a few areas to navigate to in the studio once you've signed up - the arcade where you can load games to the product that are already in the app, the painting area where kids can paint with pixels to their hearts content (this has already proven to be a real hit), and then the coding area with 4 tutorials to learn how to actually program games using block based coding.These tutorials range from drawing and then animating a character using the code to programming a maze game. This one was my son's favourite so far because he had to make a game that he could control with the motion sensor to move through the maze that he just created! Drawing, coding, and then testing a game all in one afternoon - is pretty impressive that it makes it so easy for kids to be able to do...This is an excellent product that introduces great programming principles while looking like a game in its own right - my son never once though he was learning something but could easily explain concepts to me not long after seeing them in the demo's and using them himself.It seems a little expensive, but compared to some other products I've seen / bought, the experience is worth more than the ticket price.

this is a nice game and it is useful to illustrate the basic idea behind coding for young children. However, the instruction for the game are really poor. Firstly there's no written instruction of what is the best way to use it. When you finally manage to set it up, the instruction continue to be presented poorly. The app has few options of games to it but it doesn't state from where one should begin and how one should progress. It takes a while to understand the different option on the app as those are marked by colours rather than a menu. Overall its a nice toy but slightly over-priced and not easy to understand how to use. I would suggest to parents to set it up themselves and learn how to use it before introducing it to their children as otherwise you are both puzzled and the child may lose interest before starting.

As can be seen from the image, they sent a “pre production sample”, clearly marked “not for sale”Item obviously did not work.Their helpline is email only, they refuse to call back. Any issues need to be referred to “developers” and just adds to delay.Their only on-line advice was to “force quit and reboot”.It took a month to get a prepaid return label from the sellerThey said they don’t have replacements, but that they would refund. However, I noticed they continue to accept new orders on their website! Not sure why they wouldn’t replace my orderA week after returning there was still no refund. More emails and they tell me they cannot find my order or addressFinally got refund 7 weeks after ordering.Overall a very unpleasant experience.

Brought on sale so yes value for money but without the discount sorry it’s not

We LOVE this product! Originally heard about the Arcade Coder on Kickstarter but was too late to pledge for it before the campaign ended. The item was delivered this morning and we (my 6 year old son, husband and I) have been playing on it for hours already!The Game Studio app is hard to find if you're searching for it via the App Store but there's a link in the literature inside the box that takes you straight there - dead easy! Once installed, we got started with an awesome game of whack a mole and then our son decided to go through some of the coding projects. Apparently we're getting a game of 'Mega Snake' later! There's tonnes of projects to go through and the way you can modify existing games or create new ones means this will last us a long time.What I love the most about Arcade Coder is that it's a perfect blend of video gaming and board gaming... it holds our son's attention very well just like the Switch but also involves the whole family like our regular games of Monopoly. Finally we have something that works with our new iPad and doesn't consume all of our child's time and we can get involved too!He's also just started using Scratch Jr at school so the coding education part of this couldn't come at a better time.A big two thumbs up from our family!