Commercial Games

[Svartalf]

Spend the money on making a very developer friendly site, with everything a developer needs to know to develop on the Pandora, and a place to host and showcase the latest and greatest games and applications for it. This is one of the biggest reasons for wanting to buy a Pandora, the software, so push for an official and professional site for one! If this doesn't come to be, perhaps a few people in the community are interested in doing one ourselves?

I'll second that line of thought. Anything past this would be the cherry on the top.

 

[emcp]

Spend the money on making a very developer friendly site, with everything a developer needs to know to develop on the Pandora, and a place to host and showcase the latest and greatest games and applications for it. This is one of the biggest reasons for wanting to buy a Pandora, the software, so push for an official and professional site for one! If this doesn't come to be, perhaps a few people in the community are interested in doing one ourselves?

I'll second that line of thought. Anything past this would be the cherry on the top.


yeah the great thing about the internet is its pretty cheap to do such a thing
it basically time, and im pretty sure the pandora team would be more than skilled and if not another member of the community

the only time it will cost loads is when you start accepting sh*t, like a million exact same pong and snake games

 

[Svartalf]

And make sure EVERY codec for video playback is available. Don't mention Mplayer.. AFAIK they use the windows codecs. We need optiomised DSP codecs for the oMAP. Talkin gbout 720p or 1080p here. Yeah, we can't replay it in this resolution, but when I get a file which usses 720p i don't want to transcode it before I watch it.

Heh... Most of the codecs, with the exception of the VP3/Theora codec and the Dirac codec and a few others like the h.261/h.263 codec have a per unit royalty (in addition to possibly a dev library or dsp code library license fee...) that MUST be paid for a commercial or commercial-like venture. Things like MPEG1 technically have this sort of royalty too. There's nowhere near the money we'd need for that in the kitty. Don't pay those royalties and you face the music just like Verizon and Actiontec did with their misappropriation of Busybox.

This stuff has teeth and the only reason MPlayer gets away with it is that Microsoft's paying the requisite royalties for anything that they don't produce themselves and we probably don't want to go there with the ones they do.

 

[garethofthedead]

You get try to get the rigth port these, they did bad or it should be cheap but you will have to find someone else to do it.

Amped 2 or Amped 3(if the pandora can run)
It is a run fun and funny snowboading game, Indie Built who makes the game has been closed so you got get it cheap of take two.

Beyond Good & Evil
Good game, alot like zelda. They give it away with chesee so you should be able to get it cheap)

Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy
Good game and with midway going uder you could get the rigths cheap

Psychonauts
Good game but did bad in sales

Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee and Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath
Good game and Oddworld Inhabitants don't make game but are make a movie so they may sell you the rigths to post them.

 

[lulzfish]

Those royalties are a bitch.
Dammit, Theora, why aren't you popular yet?!

 

[PoisonedV]

Spend the money on making a very developer friendly site, with everything a developer needs to know to develop on the Pandora, and a place to host and showcase the latest and greatest games and applications for it. This is one of the biggest reasons for wanting to buy a Pandora, the software, so push for an official and professional site for one! If this doesn't come to be, perhaps a few people in the community are interested in doing one ourselves?

This. (and the other similar posts like it earlier in thread)
also, monk, i know... thats what i was trying to say.
for examples of site, see
http://www.allegro.cc/
http://www.create-games.com/
http://www.moddb.com
http://www.yoyogames.com/make

 

[Tom`]

Heh... Most of the codecs, with the exception of the VP3/Theora codec and the Dirac codec and a few others like the h.261/h.263 codec have a per unit royalty (in addition to possibly a dev library or dsp code library license fee...) that MUST be paid for a commercial or commercial-like venture. Things like MPEG1 technically have this sort of royalty too. There's nowhere near the money we'd need for that in the kitty. Don't pay those royalties and you face the music just like Verizon and Actiontec did with their misappropriation of Busybox.

This stuff has teeth and the only reason MPlayer gets away with it is that Microsoft's paying the requisite royalties for anything that they don't produce themselves and we probably don't want to go there with the ones they do.

I am not familiar with the legal situation, but - if you are using FOSS codecs, like VLC does (I assume, since I could never install the w32codecs package on my 64-bit system), then there would not be any issues, as long as they weren't using proprietary code. (as opposed to Busybox where they failed to comply with the GPL.)
Of course in the US there could be patent issues, but I thought that was resolved in the EU (which is why they could still distribute VLC, I seem to remember something about that on their site).

 

[Monk]

also, monk, i know... thats what i was trying to say.

Yup Understood, I just get verbose sometime s(it's a known fault of mine )

Ta

 

[dj51d]

I am not familiar with the legal situation, but - if you are using FOSS codecs, like VLC does (I assume, since I could never install the w32codecs package on my 64-bit system), then there would not be any issues, as long as they weren't using proprietary code.

Unfortunately that is not the case. Most modern codecs are covered by patents, and are therefore they are typically subject to licensing fees.

 

[Tom`]

I am not familiar with the legal situation, but - if you are using FOSS codecs, like VLC does (I assume, since I could never install the w32codecs package on my 64-bit system), then there would not be any issues, as long as they weren't using proprietary code.

Unfortunately that is not the case. Most modern codecs are covered by patents, and are therefore they are typically subject to licensing fees.

Yeah, but only in certain juridictions. They clearly could not be distributed with the device, but why not pay someone to develop/optimize a codec for the DSP, and just distribute it from France or whatever? Ubuntu does this with codecs (for patent reasons) as well as libdvdcss (because of the DMCA).

 

[lizard808uk]

I'd say try for an exclusive agreement with Byulbram Creatures. Wait 3 years for a demo and then never release the full version of the game. I'm still waiting for Blood Cross..

 

[Alpha2]

are any of those guys even still alive?

 

[Svartalf]

Yeah, but only in certain juridictions. They clearly could not be distributed with the device, but why not pay someone to develop/optimize a codec for the DSP, and just distribute it from France or whatever? Ubuntu does this with codecs (for patent reasons) as well as libdvdcss (because of the DMCA).

Here's a hint: Most of the people CAPABLE of doing that work for the Pandora reside in one of those selfsame jurisdictions and moreover can't ask or pay someone outside of the same to do the work for them. Doing so opens yourself up to litigation. If you live in one of those jurisdictions, fine. Bring it on. However, I can't ask you to do so directly and we sure as HELL can't make it available directly for the Pandora firmware either.

 

[Oscaruzzo]

Spend the money on making a very developer friendly site, with everything a developer needs to know to develop on the Pandora, and a place to host and showcase the latest and greatest games and applications for it. This is one of the biggest reasons for wanting to buy a Pandora, the software, so push for an official and professional site for one! If this doesn't come to be, perhaps a few people in the community are interested in doing one ourselves?

I'll second that line of thought. Anything past this would be the cherry on the top.

yeah the great thing about the internet is its pretty cheap to do such a thing
it basically time, and im pretty sure the pandora team would be more than skilled and if not another member of the community


Time is a cost. You need to spend A LOT of time, if you want to create and maintain a serious SDK and a serious site (see maemo for example). That would require some full-time effort for some months (at least)...

 

[Eso Rimmer]

I think it question of what should be achieved by this commercial port.

Do you want to attract mainstream, hardcore or casual gamers? Each of these groups prefer something else.

I believe the goal of this port it to convice people to buy the Pandora. From this point of view the ported game should be known among wider audience so some older AAA commercial title would be better than any newer independent game. It should also show what's Pandora capable of (graphics, wifi).

My tips (in no order):
Dreamcast ports
Typing of the dead - ideal for Pandora's QWERTY
Space Channel 5 (part 2)
Jet Set Radio
Rez - well, it's on XBLA now, so probably impossible. Still wonderful game with nice grapics and sound.
Soul Calibur - same as Rez.
...
- there are so many great games on DC it's hard to choose one

PC:
Ultima Online - this one is older but could nicely show potential of wifi/3G multiplayer and QWERTY.
Doom 3/Half-life - I don't think anyone would play these on Pandora. It would be rather techdemo.
Re-Volt - someone mentioned already. The best RC racing game up to date. Still beautiful graphics.
Starcraft - some people are still mad about this one.

But to be honest, I don't think any of these games will make it to Pandora as it's question of money. Little consumer base means only few potentional costumers...

 

[garethofthedead]

I thinking about inde game and emu will be cheaper and easyer to get.

nullDC
full speed dreamcast emu

A n64 emu

Braid

Penny Arcade Adventures

The Maw

world of goo

Crayon Physics Deluxe

SSF
Full speed sega saturn emu

 

[Mithrildor]

I think we need to use a part of dev funds for a full speed n64 emu and a full speed sega saturn emulator. 1 full speed emulator > 1 fullspeed homebrew/indie game

 

[anniegoat]

Probably final fantasy XIII when it's released. Does anybody know if it would be possible to run a PSP emulator on Pandora?

 

[OrR]

Impossible.

Spend the money on making a very developer friendly site, with everything a developer needs to know to develop on the Pandora, and a place to host and showcase the latest and greatest games and applications for it. This is one of the biggest reasons for wanting to buy a Pandora, the software, so push for an official and professional site for one! If this doesn't come to be, perhaps a few people in the community are interested in doing one ourselves?

I need to quote this once more. This is very important. A central unified site with news about every important new release, perhaps different categories for commercial games, ports, homebrew, emulators, applications. The biggest news need to be delivered to every Pandora as well as every Pandora user via email. It should be easy to disable this but it should be enabled by default.
The central site should include a complete database of commercial games and apps. If they are not sold on the site directly, a link to the place where you can buy it (Clickgamer, developer's site, ...) needs to be provided. For non-commercial stuff, there is the classic file archive.
Design is somewhat important. As much as I like the functionality of the file archives, they could look better.
The content can be partially provided by the community. We need a robust content management system that is well administered but the bulk of the work of inputting a game's info etc. could be done by random people.

Some content management systems that we might be able to build on:
CODE
http://gbatemp.net/
- While we do not need to number our releases, what I really like about GBAtemp is the different news & release categories as well as the integration with the forum community.
CODE
http://db.tigsource.com/
- Designed to promote games and works well for this purpose. You can find what you are looking for and are always encouraged to discover new games. They are open for cooperation to make their code work for other projects!

 

[WizardStan]

I tell you what, NO ONE on this earth would buy a Handheld for over $300 to play ONE game.

Don't underestimate the foolishness of the masses. I had a friend who bought a PS3 for the seemingly sole purpose of playing FFXII. He also bought other games, but they were all second string to Final Fantasy.
Shortly after I pointed out that FFXII was a PS2 game, he accused me of sleeping with his fiance. We're no longer friends.
Moral of the story: if you pick the right game, yes, someone out there will spend $300 (or $600 as the case may be) just to play that game, whether they need to or not.