Analog Nubs - Poll

[Trip]

The company who made the old nubs will not make them, we even offered to buy 100,000 in one bulk order. They have said no matter what they won't do it.

The minimal cost for making a custom nub is $25,000.

So yes, if you can find an off the shelf 2mm nub it would be very very helpful right now

You could always add a short article (shout for help) to a site like Digg or Slashdot craigix. There's always a chance that some one already knows where to get the parts you need and will throw you a bone

 

[Prophet]

In the real world, companies (even small companies like this) have to get products out there at some point. Compromises have to be made, and you have to accept what is on offer.

It isn't fair to expect the team to wait forever because a few people are being picky at best, anal at worst, and all about something relatively minor.

Good controls are not "minor." They matter very much. If we want to pretend Pandora is not gaming-centric first and foremost, maybe not. But that would be pretending.

And your opinion doesn't trump the 80% of "anal" people who voted in the poll.

The $25,000 is just for the development, then we will have the cost of the nubs on top of that. ie 6000x~$4.

Craig,

What are the realistic options then? Perhaps we could all agree to give up something.

I think I'd be willing to give up center click for example (i.e. PSP nubs), to have more travel (for precise control). But I'm pretty sure that 1mm travel would be a disappointment.

 

[declaration]

In the real world, companies (even small companies like this) have to get products out there at some point. Compromises have to be made, and you have to accept what is on offer.

It isn't fair to expect the team to wait forever because a few people are being picky at best, anal at worst, and all about something relatively minor.

Good controls are not "minor." They matter very much. If we want to pretend Pandora is not gaming-centric first and foremost, maybe not. But that would be pretending.

And your opinion doesn't trump the 80% of "anal" people who voted in the poll.

Obviously I'm not suggesting that they release it broken.

But, if you listened to everything that the relatively small number of contributors on this forum wanted, you'd have a £1000 machine that never gets released.

Sometimes hard decisions have to be made. Perfection is not achievable, no matter how admirable a goal it is.

 

[Kyo]

Oh. Well I would definitely pay 10 or even 20 bucks more for custom ones, but ultimately, it's up to you and whether or not you're ready to make that kind of deal.

However, in case we do not get custom ones or find good ones, I ask you to buy the psp replacement or whatever with a travel of at least 2mm, even if it has no center click. Being able to properly control the character is way more important than yet another button on there

 

[JerryG20]

Sometimes hard decisions have to be made. Perfection is not achievable, no matter how admirable a goal it is.

Yeah, but there's no point in moving one large step away from perfection just because some people are too antsy and eager to get a Pandora.

Does anybody else think that people are acting irrationally on this issue because of the proximity to the release date? I wouldn't be surprised if these people would go with the delay if we were farther away from the release.

The analog controls are a very important part of the Pandora, as it was discussed in the first few huge threads on the Pandora/Craiginator. Yet, when we're like a month or two away from release, people suddenly could care less about the analog controls and just want to get their Pandora now, now, NOW!

 

[sindbad]

Obviously perfect nubs are ideal. But if that is not possible within a reasonable amount of time, maybe a compromise would be best. Does that fly?

 

[nexferret]

I think that the PSP replacement nubs look like a good option. They're not perfect, but what else is?

 

[emil10001]

I would be willing to drop the center click for something with more travel. I also like the idea of posting on a couple of the tech blogs like slashdot. Doing an 'Ask Slashdot' might get you some good results, and it can't hurt to try.

 

[CronoTriggerfan]

Ugh. Guys, it's not about being "antsy" or "impatient". It's about the fact that these custom nubs that you're all praying for are an economic impossibility. If anyone here has 30k+ to shell out on development and production, awesome, but I highly doubt you do.

 

[_VWV_]

And your opinion doesn't trump the 80% of "anal" people who voted in the poll.

Don't you find it striking, that more than 20% of total votes on the homebrew-emulation-gaming forum are against a delay.

 

[gaterooze]

While I hated the original PSP nub, I've heard the later ones are better quality. I would be happy with one of those with a better cap. Also happy to give up the stick click, I don't like using that much anyhow.

 

[Kyo]

it's hardly more than 20%
it's not even 20.5%, besides, this specific subforum is about the pandora, and thus many people who plan on using this as a UMPC are on this forum as well.

 

[JerryG20]

it's hardly more than 20%
it's not even 20.5%, besides, this specific subforum is about the pandora, and thus many people who plan on using this as a UMPC are on this forum as well.

And those gaming-oriented people that aren't that interested in analog controls on the Pandora (there's people interested much more in digital, much more in analog, and both), so I don't see the point you're trying to make, _VWV_.

 

[javaJake]

I'll take what I can get, and get what I can take. Craigix is doing his best, but it sounds like we'll be going with 1mm analog sticks, because that is his best.

What's so bad about 1mm sticks anyway?

 

[_VWV_]

it's hardly more than 20%
it's not even 20.5%, besides, this specific subforum is about the pandora, and thus many people who plan on using this as a UMPC are on this forum as well.

Well, google had to suffer from my "linux handheld 480*800" requests, befour I got here.
There are 14165 registered users here. I highly doubt, that UMPC-oriented newcomers contribute more than 50 accounts to this huge crowd.

 

[MagicPants]

I'd rather have 2mm nubs without no push buttons then those with. The few games I've played where you used the analog sticks as buttons were just annoying.

The buttons end up getting pressed all the time by accident. The only time it works is when the functions they control don't do anything until you've held the button down for a short time, in which case it's hard to use the analog part because the force of pressing down on the button tends to push it around.

The only game I played where it wasn't annoying at all was one where you held down both analog sticks at the same time to look backwards. Seems like a lot of trouble to go through for something of dubious use.

Seems like it would be less trouble and more reward to add R2 and L2 shoulder buttons than to get a nub custom made. But it's kind of a moot point given that the Pandora can't emulate a PS2.

And as much as I'm willing to wait for the Pandora to come out right, it does have a limited shelf life. It won't be too long before oled screens and parts like nVidia's Tegra start to date the thing.

 

[Kyo]

the ps1 had two shoulder buttons too, you know

 

[Prophet]

vwv, you have no point.

Over 80% prefer good controls even with delay. There will always be a few non-gamers and people who don't care or don't even understand the issue. 20% is meaningless compared to 80%.

Regardless, it seems many are willing to accept PSP style nubs if needed, myself included. So the "gotta have it now, done any old way" crowd can relax, you may get your way afterall.

 

[chad78]

Ok - I misunderstood - I thought the $25K would mean we could have the super awesome 2mm nubs... :rolleyes: ... immediately.

Let me restate my position.

I want this thing yesterday. 1 mm nubs mean nothing to me. if they work, use them. Delays, to me, and this poll is about each of us expressing his or her own opinion, so again I stress - *to me* - delays are not an option. Buy the currently available part and let do this thing. as has been pointed out - we already have been delayed from Spring to Fall - skipping Summer entirely.

Look at it this way, Craig, the longer you delay, the more time other companies have to create a more powerful product. Gaming is great and all - but seriously, I, and at least one other has mentioned on here, I am buying the Pandora because it is the most powerful UMPC in the price range. The nubs / game controls are a plus to me - not the selling point. If you keep pushing it back, the Nokia N900 or the Eee PC Tablet or some other newcomer is going to show up with a 800 Mhz Pocket Tablet for $300 - and you're going to lose customers.

Already the iPhone coming out at $200 is starting to look pretty good.

I'm not threatening to not buy one - I am sure my one sell isn't important either way. But I'm just a vocal member of potential customers. Delay is bad. Technology improves quickly. The longer you wait the more outdated the product becomes.

Look at what Nvidia is doing with portables already. Quake 3 at high res with no skipping....

 

[Kyo]

I'd wait, it just doesn't seem realistic, so I'm settling for the next best thing, which are psp nubs (preferably with a switched plastic nub)