Closed Source Ports

[PoisonedV]

I asked a girl on a date, maybe shes going to marry me!

 

[atomicthumbs]

After seeing Cortex Command listed here, and reading a thread about it on another forum, I decided to buy it.

This game is amazing. I expect it to be one of the Pandora's killer apps.

see what I mean about presumptious?
the devs merely say"yeah, that looks cool, id like to see" and you expect a port will follow suit?


If you've forgotten:

Hi Adam,

Thanks for the heads up! I came across the Pandora project only a few weeks ago and we are looking forward to it hitting the market. We were just going to wait and see when we can get an end-user version and play with it, but now that you mention there’s interest in having at-launch games ready, we might look into getting started earlier.



Our porting guy just completed a universal binary Mac port of Cortex Command, so I’m guessing it would be easy enough to get it ported to Pandora as well. At first glance it seems the hardware should be able to handle it.



So, the only question is how and when can we get a devkit in our hands to get started?



- Dan Tabar

Data Realms, LLC

 

[ingrin]

After seeing Cortex Command listed here, and reading a thread about it on another forum, I decided to buy it.

This game is amazing. I expect it to be one of the Pandora's killer apps.

see what I mean about presumptious?
the devs merely say"yeah, that looks cool, id like to see" and you expect a port will follow suit?

A post by the Developer for Cortex Command actually influenced my decision to buy a GP2x. Back when Cortex Command was D.I.R.T. and the GP2X was first released, he mentioned wanting to port to the GP2x whenever Allegro was ported to GP2X, he woudl look into porting D.I.R.T.
Now, of course, that never happened, but I think the Gp2X probably didn't have enough horsepower, or controls, to pull it off. That, plus the game appears to have gone through some heavy refinement and is stable and he is actually charging money, I suspect he could devote some time to a port to the Pandora. As already has been demonstrated, this wasn't a 'yeah, that looks cool' response. It was a "yeah, I was going to port it at somepoint, but since there is interest, I will move it to higher on my queue.". Statements like " this could be the Pandora's killer app" are precisely what we want said in the forum if it will encourage a great game being ported by an interested developer...

 

[PoisonedV]

Exactly, you should learn a lesson from the previous game- it never made it to gp2x, and it probably wont end up making it to pandora

 

[atomicthumbs]

Exactly, you should learn a lesson from the previous game- it never made it to gp2x, and it probably wont end up making it to pandora

It never made it to the GP2X because the hardware was inadequate. 200mhz of ARM and 64MB of total RAM !enough power for Cortex Command's pixel physics.

 

[PoisonedV]

Yeah, excuse that post, I was tired and misenteprted it. i see what you mean now, but still, i think on alot of it people are jumping to conclusions

however, i would LOVE cortex command on pandora. one of my favorite non-free indie games, along with mount & blade.

 

[nightwheel]

SUCCESS!!! I got around to re-sending the emails to Dylan at AudioSurf guys and to Alawar.

Anyways, Here's the copy of the email I sent to the Dylan at AudioSurf:
QUOTE
Hello, I'm Nightwheel.

I got a question.

As you may or may not know. There is currently a open source 3D handheld gaming system being developed. And is about 3 months from being released. The people developing the console are from the site Open Pandora.org, Link: http://www.openpandora.org . And the system they are developing is called, Pandora. The systems specs can be found at their site.

So anyways, I was wondering if you guys would interested in doing a port of Audio Surf to the Pandora platform? Now I'm just wondering because I'm member at the forum there, and I think it will be cool to have a Pandora port of Audio Surf. But the decision is totally up to you guys if you want to make a port or not.

But, if you are interested in doing a port. There were Dev Kits for the Pandora. Not sure if they still have any at the moment. But I think I read they are making more. But anyway, if your wanting a dev kit. I can try to get you the information regarding how you could possible get one.

Anyways, Thank you for you time and have a nice day.


And Dylan from AudioSurf has responded back!! Here's the Email:
QUOTE
Thanks for the link. I'd actually heard of Pandora last week and I've
been looking at it as well.


I not sure what he means. But It sounds promising to me.

 

[conso]

I not sure what he means. But It sounds promising to me.

Well, just ask him if you should try to bring him in contact with craig&co for temporary access to a dev-unit or if he is just waiting to see if pandora will be successful enough to consider a port.

Audiosurf would be just awesome.

 

[atomicthumbs]

Audiosurf would be another killer app, especially since it's really popular and well-known.

I sure hope they aren't tied up using the SteamWorks library for high scores, or if they are, that it can work on Linux somehow.

 

[nightwheel]

I not sure what he means. But It sounds promising to me.

Well, just ask him if you should try to bring him in contact with craig&co for temporary access to a dev-unit or if he is just waiting to see if pandora will be successful enough to consider a port.

Audiosurf would be just awesome.

Ok, I'll ask him that tomorrow

 

[grif]

Toribash would be really good on the move.

I'm not that good with sending emails to companies and things, so i would like one of you guys to do it. But if nobody does ill think up something to write.

 

[Gilrad]

I sent an email to Bob, of the Bob's Game fame.

QUOTE

Hello. First off, sorry, no I am not a potential publisher.

I would, however, like to inform you of a community project that is nearing completion known as the OpenPandora project (web link: http://www.openpandora.org).

The device is internet ready, so I imagine it would be a snap to put up a paypal site, throw some basic copy protection scheme on it and distribute to the device yourself. I have even heard of games being sold to other open source consoles in read-only sd cards, if you prefer physical media. Either way, theres no license fees associated with the system.

Anyway, if you're interested, get in contact with Craigx (forum id link: http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showuser=116) for more logistics-minded information. I'm sure that once you mention you have a commercial game, he will perk right up

-Brian



Mostly interested in this because I fear what the big publishing companies would do to his game, and I want to be able to play it in it's most purest form.

edit-- and his reply:

QUOTE

Yeah, I've seen a lot about the gp32x, and I think I've heard of this. I'll definitely be looking into it! These devices are popular in Korea, or at least the gp32x? I might look into getting localized for there. Thanks, Brian!

 

[Soulkiller]

Make sure to tell him that Pandora isn't coming from the people who made the gp32x in Korea. Its made by Craig and co. and has much more worldwide appeal which doesn't require korean localization.

 

[psychodegu]

I would really like to see the game darwina, or his up coming game multiwinia done for the pandora.

 

[Mithrildor]

Since most of the games cost money , i have a question , will these games will cost money for the pandora? Or will they be free? And what about the other games on the pandora? Will the Emulators be free?

 

[ashdjones]

I would really like to see the game darwina, or his up coming game multiwinia done for the pandora.



+1

I've only played the demo, but I wanted more...

 

[Balzac2m]

Since most of the games cost money , i have a question , will these games will cost money for the pandora? Or will they be free? And what about the other games on the pandora? Will the Emulators be free?

Games that cost money will cost money on the pandora, too. Why would the developers give it to the pandora users for free?
Most emulators will be free but there is no way to stop someone from taking money for his.

 

[greenmikey]

I would pay for awesome programs any day. I heard rumor that there are some things on my computer not payed for but anything that is worth my time is payed for in full to support the developer and show my appreciation for his time.

Wind and water puzzle battles is an amazing piece of gp2x software that I'm going to buy for dreamcast and hopefully pandora. I can't wait to buy cool stuff. HORRAY DEVELOPERS!

 

[polkunus]

Since most of the games cost money , i have a question , will these games will cost money for the pandora? Or will they be free? And what about the other games on the pandora? Will the Emulators be free?

Games that cost money will cost money on the pandora, too. Why would the developers give it to the pandora users for free?
Most emulators will be free but there is no way to stop someone from taking money for his.


emulating games are partially illegal/ border line illegal. which is what the pandora is going to do.... this is why we love it. Governament doesnt have the right to say its illegal because we can all say we actually do own the game itself. So i dont know what everyone is hiding, but its really obvious

 

[Gilrad]

Wrong.

Emulation (or at least, the free distribution of roms) is illegal. Like most forms of IP infringement, however, it's a logistical nightmare to do anything about, so most of the action is left higher on the chain--distributors, hardware products that enable it, government lobbying to no real end, and a few 'scare cases' i.e. the RIAA suing a 12 year old girl for more money than any of us will ever make because she downloaded Britteny Spears.

I don't think the Pandora will have any problems with this, however. Going after the P because it makes it easy to run emulators and roms paves the way for the same distinction to be made for any other computer system--even the most overzealous lawyers wouldn't dream of spearheading such an outrageous claim.