If you have a 54.0 remote, Hopper Arcade games can be played on a Hopper Duo

[pattykay]

With the new U614 software, I was playing around with voice commands, seeing which apps I could get to launch with the new commands. Just for the heck of it, I tried saying "Hopper Arcade." (Keep in mind, Hopper Arcade is not supposed to work on the Hopper Duo, and it is not listed on the Apps screen.) To my surprise, it actually launched Hopper Arcade. (Simply saying "Arcade" also works.) Most of the games are not playable. When I select them, I either get the Loading screen for that game (but the game never loads) or only a black screen. After selecting each game to see what would happen, I found several that actually are playable, though.

The following games can be played in Hopper Arcade on a Hopper Duo:

• Gem Cracker
• Sahara Classic Solitaire
• Mahjongg
• Bahamas Scorpion
• China Towers Solitaire
• Slingo Classic
• Amazonas Pyramid Solitaire
• Bubble Jam
• Super Collapse II

It appears that they were working on developing Hopper Arcade for the Hopper Duo at some point, and they made it far enough to get these games (presumably the original set of Hopper Arcade games) working, while any games that have been added to Hopper Arcade since then do not work, since development of Hopper Arcade for the Hopper Duo was abandoned when they decided not to include it.

I just thought I should post this, in case anyone was interested, so that Hopper Duo users can enjoy these games while they are available. I am told that Dish is working on "fixing" this. (In other words, breaking this, since Hopper Arcade is not supposed to work on the Hopper Duo.) If you do play any of these games, keep in mind that the Quit (or Exit) selection does not work properly for any game. You will need to press and hold the Back button on the remote to go back to Live TV, or press the Home, DVR, or Guide button, to exit Hopper Arcade.

 

[HipKat]

Good find!

 

[pattykay]

Well, that didn't last long.

This is a shame, since the few games that were playable on the Hopper Duo actually performed better than the games on the Wally, with no sluggishness on the Hopper Duo at all. Since Hopper Arcade is also being removed from the Wally, I guess that is a moot point now, though.

 

[pattykay]

It is now 10/31/2018, and Hopper Arcade still works. I wonder what time today (or tomorrow) it is being removed.

 

[lucky86]

I assume it'll be pulled at midnight

 

[pattykay]

Maybe. The message was not exactly clear about whether 10/31/2018 would be the first day that Hopper Arcade is not available, or the last day that it is available. I assume that something like removing an app would require some kind of software update, so maybe there is a software download coming tonight to remove Hopper Arcade, among other things.

 

[lucky86]

It's going to be automatically removed from all Hopper and Wally receivers on 10/31/18.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Probably will be removed this afternoon when the uplink changes are done... (so in about an hour or so)

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

BTW I think some people may freak out this week... As I believe a number of Christmas Music channels are being added.

 

[pattykay]

Probably will be removed this afternoon when the uplink changes are done... (so in about an hour or so)

Well, as of 4:23 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Hopper Arcade is still working. Ironically, the ad in the upper-right corner still says that the 9 Ball Pool game is "Coming Soon."

 

[bluegras]

Hi guys here is this week's uplink report from James longs website with all the information that you are talking about Uplink Activity Updates » Blog Archive » 10/31/18 at 3:20pm ET (v07) – 83 changes seen

 

[pattykay]

From the above link:
25027 GAMES (96 Local) removed from 119° TP 13 (VOD XiP *TEST* Hidden)
25027 GAMES (96 Local) removed from 72.7° TP 5 (VOD XiP *TEST* Hidden)

All that did was remove the Hopper Arcade link on channel 96 from the guide on the Wally. The voice command to launch Hopper Arcade still works, and Hopper Arcade still appears on the Apps screen on the Wally.

 

[bluegras]

With dish alot they usually wait til overnight to get rid of some of the apps on the hopper 3 DVR

 

[pattykay]

Hopper Arcade has officially been removed. This is what comes up when I use the voice command to launch it:

I now wonder how long it will take to remove the Hopper Arcade icon from the Apps screen on the Wally, and change it so that the app no longer tries to launch at all with the voice command "Hopper Arcade."

 

[Bobby]

I'm so glad we're done with this particular obsession!

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I will miss playing Slingo on my TV.

 

[pattykay]

All I can say is that the "other great features" that are coming had better be really kick-ass. I am looking for YouTube and Picture-In-Picture to be added to the Wally.

 

[Bobby]

All I can say is that the "other great features" that are coming had better be really kick-ass. I am looking for YouTube and Picture-In-Picture to be added to the Wally.

and if they aren't?

 

[pattykay]

and if they aren't?

Then I will use the Hopper Duo instead.

 

[AlaJoe]

I could not believe they ever offered it to begin with. With literally 1000s of games available on smartphones these days I could not imagine why anyone would want to play basic games with a clumsy interface on there TV with Their TV remote as the controller to begin with. I am sure it was pulled because not even a full 1% of dish subscribers used it.