Bored Already?

[silverspring]

Just wondering if anyone who has had their Pandora for a while is now starting to get bored of it? For me, I installed a few emulators and played the games I remembered and enjoyed back in the day (ie Mario, Sonic etc), but since I've been playing them recently anyway on the PC, they don't seem to be as enjoyable. I have been trying to get into the other games from the NES, SNES and Megadrive era that I didn't originally play back in the day, however it seems that no matter how hard I try, those games just seem dull. Maybe it's just a nostalgia thing where playing old games simply brings back memories, even though they might be crap games?
I can see me making use of the Pandora whilst away from home, eg travelling on a train or by plane, but I don't do much of that. Everything else I need such as web browsing I do on the home PC. I think it's probably just that the Pandora is a portable device and probably better suits people who are away from home for long periods of time maybe? Don't get me wrong, I'm sure the Pandora will come in handy for me as I could potentially see myself watching a few videos on it when I know I'm going to be away from home for a few days without a TV or computer, but right now, it's not really coming in that useful.

How are other peeps finding the experience? I keep thinking I would maybe have more use for an Ipad right now - could easily see myself on the bed browsing web pages on that lovely screen, or reading ebooks and pdfs in portrait mode. I just can't justify the expense at the moment!

 

[joseluisjazz]

In my short experience with it I found that EVERYTHING seems more enjoyable doing with the Pandora. Specially with the games that doesn't appear as fun when you play them in the computer. I find my self enjoying them with the same feeling as when I was a child. And the rest it's just the same. Up to the point that even if the video player doesn't play a video as smoothly as my laptop I prefer to watch it in the pandora. Call me a romantic! Up to the point that even if I could download a torrent with the laptop I prefer to do download it with the pandora . It's very handy. And I totally see it as a useful toy equally balanced between its usefulness, its toyness and its awesomeness.

I miss her!


EDIT: it->her (pandora is a lady)

 

[SomeGuy99]

The other night I lied down in bed, proped my head up with a pillow and sat the Pandora on my belly. I quite happily watched an entire film, in a sort of half-sleepy daze. The film was a standard div-x, and looked great by the way!

I can't think of anything else I own, or anything else out there which would be as good as a Pandora for this.

Just one of many things which make me happy I own one.

 

[verm71]

I was all excited yesterday when I got myself a small USB keyboard to play Frodo C64 Emulator on Homebrew Wii. I played about 4 or 5 games, each about 2 or 3 lives. Then I fizzled out. Then I remembered that my favorite stuff to do on the C64 was to program in BASIC and write music. I'd spend hours typing programs from magazines, then I wouldn't care much to play the resulting game itself.

Every now and then, someone in the forums posted stuff like "I know I can get it now for my PC, but I'm waiting to get my Pandora before I check this out or that out". What that tells me is that this person might have been more interested in the Pandora experience itself than in the nostalgia. I'm finding myself thinking the same way in a lot of respects. I've got a Gameboy Advance in the basement collecting dust, yet I'm waiting to get my Pandora to play my games again. Maybe because I just hate the reflective (non-backlit) screen from the GBA.

 

[Asiyura]

That's the reason many of us stopped playing emulated games on their computer to enjoy playing them on the Pandora.
Have you tried Amiga games or ScummVM games or Battle for Wesnoth or learning SDL to try to make your own pandora games?

Most of all, remember that at the moment most of the games/emulators are fast ports. Many game devs are still waiting their pandora to get motivation and start making original games designed for pandora.

EDIT: h34r: h34r: h34r: 'd

 

[silverspring]

That's the reason many of us stopped playing emulated games on their computer to enjoy playing them on the Pandora.
Have you tried Amiga games or ScummVM games or Battle for Wesnoth or learning SDL to try to make your own pandora games?

Most of all, remember that at the moment most of the games/emulators are fast ports. Many game devs are still waiting their pandora to get motivation and start making original games designed for pandora.

Yeah I've got my small collection of Amiga games and the emulator on the Pandora. I've been playing them, but like with the NES, SNES and Megadrive, the games don't seem to be as good as I remember them to be. I have to say, I hadn't really played many emulated games on the PC before I got the Pandora, just dabbled a bit in preparation. Maybe it's just me? It's the same with all games for me though - for example, when I got my Dreamcast back in 2000 I got really stuck into Metropolis Street Racer (MSR). I could play it for hours at a time. Just unboxed the Dreamcast again the other night for the first time in several years, and had a go of MSR once again. A much different experience this time around. Yes, it brought back a couple of memories about where I was and what I was doing at that time in my life, but I just couldn't really get into it after an hour or so. The physics of the cars are actually quite poor, and what seemed like a great game back then is now a shadow of a distant memory.

I will probably look to program a bit for the Pandora when I get more motivated. Just waiting to see what happens on the scene over the coming months to see if the device holds it in the long term and has the support it should have after several years in development.

 

[iprice]

I suspect a lot of people will quickly tire of the Pandora being an emulation station and hunger for more original stuff. However, when I mentioned this in another thread I was quickly shot down. Time will tell.

 

[skeezix]

Call it the hard drive problem -

Be excited all you want, but buying a hard drive.. It comes empty. Merely offers potential, like a utility a hdd is immediately useful, but not a toy - fun all on its own. Question: wouldnt hard drives be way cooler if they came full of crazy random shit?

Anyway - a pandora has potential and can do a bunch if stuff right away but what you do with it defines how much value it has - its not a tv show that will sit and entertain you passively. Its a tool, make of it what you will

But yeah, you can only play some retro so many times - shifting the device may only make 2600's E.T. playable for so long

Jeffphone

 

[Eniko]

Well it is a mobile device. If you spend your entire day at a desktop, I don't think it's that odd the Pandora doesn't add much. Personally whenever I see my friends I have to travel for over 2 hours, and lug around a lot of stuff. My Pandora means I can ditch the extra weight of a netbook and just bring my Pandora, which is way better. And when I start going to school again I'll have a 30 minute commute so again, handy Pandy!

But I figure it can be very helpful around the house too, if you don't want to spend all your time at your desktop. Of course if you're fine with that and feel no need to be elsewhere, it's not so good again.

I do have to say that playing old games on Pandora is more fun for me personally though.

 

[tsh]

i love mine for surfing the web in the garden. Hardly used it for games at all yet, and there is also the potential to get a bit more involved in contributing stuff to the community, although that requires more time and learning more. Certainly not bored, and the novelty hasn't worn off yet either.

 

[Bosbeetle]

At home its fun for browsing. I use it the most for in the train and there its unrivalled I did have a laptop a few years ago but it is so big and you just don't game on it, the pandora is really born to be played and you notice that.

Another thing why I think it wont get old soon is the linux bash tinkering Ive seen this bash voodoo a lot in all sorts of forums etc. Now I can try it myself it feels a bit like the dos days are back, where you made things happen if you stuck to it not just everything by default. However it does basic stuff by default and thats fun as wel.

 

[EmuGuy]

I'm enjoying PicoDrive so far, and the D-Pad is excellent! But my true love was the Amiga & C64, but I've only dabbled in that stuff so far.

I'll enjoy web browsing more once Chrome supports HTTPS...need to sync my bookmarks, etc. Haven't tried playing videos yet. But yeah, I wouldn't say I'm bored...I'm excited about all the potential...I hope production ramps up quickly!

 

[OrR]

Go out into the park to do some web surfing while enjoying the weather! Watch a movie in bed! You could do that sitting at your PC but would it be as enjoyable? The Pandora can't really do much my PC can't. However, it can do it everywhere, anytime.

 

[Sarlix]

Yeah I've got my small collection of Amiga games and the emulator on the Pandora. I've been playing them, but like with the NES, SNES and Megadrive, the games don't seem to be as good as I remember them to be. I have to say, I hadn't really played many emulated games on the PC before I got the Pandora, just dabbled a bit in preparation. Maybe it's just me? It's the same with all games for me though - for example, when I got my Dreamcast back in 2000 I got really stuck into Metropolis Street Racer (MSR). I could play it for hours at a time. Just unboxed the Dreamcast again the other night for the first time in several years, and had a go of MSR once again. A much different experience this time around. Yes, it brought back a couple of memories about where I was and what I was doing at that time in my life, but I just couldn't really get into it after an hour or so. The physics of the cars are actually quite poor, and what seemed like a great game back then is now a shadow of a distant memory.

For the most part with Console/Arcade games you are basically moving colored pixels around a screen which requires eye-hand coordination and reaction times to achieve set goals of some sort. Whether it's shooting, jumping or steering, you are doing the same thing over and over again just with a different visual flavor. After a while it can become hard to get excited about such an activity, as you are feeling.

However there are some classics that go beyond being merely a game and give you an experience hard to forget. If you've never played it go to http://www.scummvm.org/downloads/ and Download Beneath A Steel Sky. This game will give you unforgettable characters and a story line worthy of a novel. If you don't want to do the puzzle aspects of the game just use a walk through guide and follow the story line. If you can't get any joy out of playing this then you need to give your pandora away and find another past time, finger painting perhaps.

Also of note Disc World 1/2

 

[torpor]

I'm not bored of the Pandora at all .. and if I ever get bored with it, I'll just switch into developer mode and put some new software on it.


I've got two original game ideas planned for the Pandora. Its just a matter of weeks until I get something done on them ..

 

[second exodous]

I get bored of my DS but that is only a game machine. When I get sick of games I just on the computer to try new software or browse the net or read books(well, I ordered a nook so from now on books will be on my nook). I can do all of that on a Pandora. If all you want to do is play games then logically when you get bored of games you'll get bored of the Pandora.

Try this: don't turn on your computer for a few days and try to do everything on your Pandora. I think the main problem is you need to get used to the screen size just like you would a smart phone. Once you're used to doing computer tasks on your Pandora you'll appreciate it a lot better.

 

[Prometheus]

No boredom here!

My Pandora has become indispensable to me in a very short time indeed - it's the first time a machine of any sort has managed to do that since my first laptop.

I'm absolutely loving the emulation front. Much of what I'm playing is new or recent to me - i.e., stuff I've gotten into since early adulthood to right now (for the record, I'm just past my mid-twenties, to show how recent that is ). I bought quite a number of games (and also downloaded games that the original authors have made legally available, as per that link in my signature - do give it a look if you're interested, as there are a lot of great games of all sorts listed there) that I missed out on at the time, specifically to play them on my Pandora, even, and I'm having a blast with that. I never had a ZX Spectrum, I never had a Commodore Amiga, I've never even seen an Oric machine in person (I'm sorry torpor!), and so on. It's not nostalgia, since most of it is brand new to me, in spite of its age. Good games are timeless, anyway.

I'm finding the homebrew games I've been trying to be great, too - PandoraPanic! and Ceferino are equally new experiences to me as a lot of my old game collection is, and put together, I'm having great fun.

I've also been able to get back into writing. It's just something I do for my own entertainment - I've got no ambitions there - but I've simply not had the time, or practical enough tools, for years. I now get the chance to write at least a chapter a day, and I enjoy that greatly (I'm also rather pleased with how quickly my thumb-typing speed is rising ). I had had a long-lasting case of writer's block (it ran on for close to a decade or so), which my Pandora has now finally completely shattered.

It's also so, so incredibly handy for matching colours for fabrics for my sewing projects. I sometimes make obscure video game character dolls - it's rather handy to be able to refer to how they look so that I can match shades when I'm fabric shopping. (I bet I'm the only person here who can say that they use their Pandora for this. )

The video-playing is fantastic, too - I can finally work through my DVD collection, which I frequently don't feel like bothering with because the standard methods of watching them (via a television or computer) just doesn't fit into how I do things very well.

And sometimes it's just nice to crash out, fire up Firefox, use GNOME-mplayer's "Open folder" command, and instantly create a music playlist to web-browse to.

There are people who say "But you can do all of this on a laptop, anyway!", and yes, you can, but although my first laptop (which I got back in 1998) was revolutionary to me because it made my computing (and writing) a bit more practical, it seems to me that computing failed to continue becoming more useful and more practical after that. I soon found that laptops didn't lend themselves to my work as well, anymore, since they never got much smaller or lighter, and netbooks were equally impractical for me (this is why I fell out of writing, for a long time). Everything I play (or do) on my Pandora feels like it was made for it - it's a very different experience to, say, plugging a joypad into a laptop, for example. When you do that, it just feels like you're emulating something. When you play on the Pandora, it feels like all of those games were made for it (well, ok, I suppose it's the other way around really - the Pandora was made for what it does - but the outcome is still the same as far as I'm concerned ). Also, my laptops don't perform the same taks as well as the Pandora does - the Pandora comes from a place where people care about optimisation, whereas folks in the x86 world appear to operate under the assumption that everyone instantly buys the biggest-and-baddest new machine every few days, and these programs rarely seem to be well-optimised, there.

Perhaps it helps that I always imagined a machine like this since I was about six years old, watching Penny on Inspector Gadget with her "computer book" that could do computing tasks anywhere, whilst the Commodore 64 I had couldn't do that. :lol: I have that feeling of some cool science-fiction item becoming reality *every day* - it's no longer a daydream.

I know it sounds as corny as all hell, but my Pandora has genuinely made my life better for being there. There's no way I could ever get bored of that.

So yeah, no boredom here - that was quite a ramble, do pardon me.

 

[tds48]

The video-playing is fantastic, too - I can finally work through my DVD collection, which I frequently don't feel like bothering with because the standard methods of watching them (via a television or computer) just doesn't fit into how I do things very well.

Excuse me going off topic for a bit ... can i ask you what encoding settings you are using please? what app you are using?

thanks

 

[Prometheus]

I'll drop you a PM so as not to go off-topic. One moment, please.

 

[Barnaby]

The video-playing is fantastic, too - I can finally work through my DVD collection, which I frequently don't feel like bothering with because the standard methods of watching them (via a television or computer) just doesn't fit into how I do things very well.

Excuse me going off topic for a bit ... can i ask you what encoding settings you are using please? what app you are using?

thanks

This might help you:

http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/autogk.htm

I'm ripping my collection using this, but I don't have a Pandora yet. I imagine they'll work fine though . I tried one on my GP2X and it worked, but it was slow because the resolution of the video was too high for it.