Diy Kits

[marcusl]

Hi

First post, hello everyone, first I'd like to say congratulations to everyone on the OP team for getting this far, I've been following the Open Pandora site religiously for months since placing my order sometime back. I'm constantly amazed how much positive energy comes from the team given the amount of setbacks you've hit yet you're still positive and forging ahead.

I've been in the games industry for just over 15 years now and haved watched projects being born and then suffocate under misdirection and lack of enthusiasm and these have costs 10 of millions sometime pushing 100s of millions. Yet with this project I always feel there is a strong sense of direction and of teamwork.

Anyway, enough gushing and to my actual point, it may be worth considering an opt in DIY solution. For people who are happy and consider themselves skilled enough to build their own Pandora, so the component parts are shipped to them with a clear step by step guide, I know I for one would be happy to have a final hand in the construction of my own Pandora as it not only gives me one of the most unique devices around but the knowledge that I had a small part in its creation.

I don't know how feasible this is but something to consider.

Anyway, Good Luck and hopefully will get a chance to meet you all someday (and Craig you're nuts but funny)

Marcus
Lionhead/Microsoft Technical Director

 

[mali]

Hi Marcus and welcome
This has been discussed before and was dismissed.

 

[renegadechic]

For the best i think too, after all those warranty related discussions, this would just throw yet another point of contention in. If this were to happen it would be very hard to provide a warranty for any failures.

 

[rabidpoobear]

Lionhead/Microsoft Technical Director

Crap, now I feel bad for saying all those things about Peter Molyneux

Seriously though, guy's eccentric but he's got passion. I hope Natal's as good as he says.

 

[Game_over]

Would have been a nice idea, I would have loved to put together my Pandora. Guess we will have to watch the OP team build the units one by one. It wouldn't be horrible for them to just do all the sensitive parts such as the speakers and ship it along with instructions to have us to the rest. but I understand that runs the risk of it getting damaged or parts get lost in the process.

Hmm Marcus from lionhead...

Marcus Lynn???

Going to GDC this year man?

 

[marcusl]

Would have been a nice idea, I would have loved to put together my Pandora. Guess we will have to watch the OP team build the units one by one. It wouldn't be horrible for them to just do all the sensitive parts such as the speakers and ship it along with instructions to have us to the rest. but I understand that runs the risk of it getting damaged or parts get lost in the process.

Hmm Marcus from lionhead...

Marcus Lynn???

Going to GDC this year man?

Yes, that's me. Unfortunately I won't be going to GDC this year, too busy working on Milo & Kate, all work and no play :-(

M.

 

[rabidpoobear]

It's nice to see industry people interested in the Pandora already, even if it's just for their own satisfaction... I know that not much commercial stuff will probably come with the first Pandora but I really feel like we're coming in at the start of a new success story (a'la Apple, Microsoft, etc.) I think the OP guys are gonna be a huge hit in the future and I'm really looking forward to seeing what they come up with next.

Also, the thought of a Pandora hanging out at Lionhead is just... at the same time comical and extremely badass.
Thanks for speakin' up Marcus, nice to hear from you, and I hope you continue to post! It's always nice to have more people in the community.

 

[shunun]

HE'S FROM MICROSOFT, GET HIM!

SEIZE HIM!!

CONVERT HIM TO LINUX!

 

[Fishbong]

Lionhead/Microsoft Technical Director

Crap, now I feel bad for saying all those things about Peter Molyneux

I think hes a git for not bringing Fable II to the PC.

 

[Mqark]

Have a word with your boss and see if he's willing to port Black and White, Fable 1 and Syndicate to the Pandora - there's a good chap (only kidding - welcome to the community and hope you have a blast with your Pandora!).

 

[slygamer]

Yes, that's me. Unfortunately I won't be going to GDC this year, too busy working on Milo & Kate, all work and no play :-(

M.

I know what that's like. We've just finished Game Room, and for me it's straight on to the next project. I don't get to go to GDC either, but I did get to Gamefest a few weeks back. Saw your boss while I was visiting MGS as well.

Not sure when I'll get time to play with the Pandora, but it should be a nice diversion.

 

[senorgomez]

Since the first batch will not be silkscreened, you can paint on your own icons to the case. That is kind of DIY


(I don't mind having no silkscreen, its a better 'first batch' badge than the planned icon)

 

[WizardStan]

On the other hand, Craig did say that they intended to sell replacement parts. If they sell ALL the parts you could need (and really, there aren't that many of them: board, nubs, speakers, LCD, case, and battery) you could just buy them piecewise and assemble from scratch. I don't know if that'd be any cheaper than buying an assembled Pandora though.

 

[Mithrildor]

Please tell Peter Molyneux to stop working on Milo and work more on Fable III, Fable 2 was a fun game, but I expected more. Please make Fable 3 awesome.

 

[Sphinxter]

Hi

First post, hello everyone, first I'd like to say congratulations to everyone on the OP team for getting this far, I've been following the Open Pandora site religiously for months since placing my order sometime back. I'm constantly amazed how much positive energy comes from the team given the amount of setbacks you've hit yet you're still positive and forging ahead.

I've been in the games industry for just over 15 years now and haved watched projects being born and then suffocate under misdirection and lack of enthusiasm and these have costs 10 of millions sometime pushing 100s of millions. Yet with this project I always feel there is a strong sense of direction and of teamwork.

Anyway, enough gushing and to my actual point, it may be worth considering an opt in DIY solution. For people who are happy and consider themselves skilled enough to build their own Pandora, so the component parts are shipped to them with a clear step by step guide, I know I for one would be happy to have a final hand in the construction of my own Pandora as it not only gives me one of the most unique devices around but the knowledge that I had a small part in its creation.

I don't know how feasible this is but something to consider.

Anyway, Good Luck and hopefully will get a chance to meet you all someday (and Craig you're nuts but funny)

Marcus
Lionhead/Microsoft Technical Director

With you 100% Marcus, that is indeed high praise and a most excellent idea that should definitely be reconsidered by the team with the current plan, I would be overjoyed to receive my pandoras in kit form. As to the warranty how much people outside of the EU will have seems to be a bit in flux anyway. Maybe a warranty of the parts and not the unit will suffice.

The Cartfather; http://fullsack.com/cart

 

[hobbyman II]

kits should be possible, Sinclair did nothing but kits initially, then (later)they got Timex? to assemble them, I built my original Z80, the kit came in a huge polystyrene case in a paper slip cover, had to buy a ceramic cored soldering iron from RS, Antex brand, still got the iron, my white toaster died though, but if Sinclair was selling kits, then OP could if they wanted, you wouldn,t even need to solder the speaker wires if they soldered the wires to the MOBO and provided a crimp connecter to join em to the speakers (not too sure about soldering irons near surface mount stuff)

 

[mali]

The real question is, if finding out people who'd accept a kit, doing the soldering and packaging the parts properly would be much faster than actually just assembling that stuff in their shed

 

[cbox]

That Milo & Kate game looks kinda gay.

 

[Mithrildor]

That Milo & Kate game looks kinda gay.

+1, Fable 3 >>>>>>>>>> Milo

 

[wermy]

That Milo & Kate game looks kinda gay.

What's the point in saying this?

I think it's cool to have industry people on these boards -- makes me wonder how many more are lurking around here.
Marcus, if you were to accidentally leak the source code to something like Fable I so it could be ported, you would be a god on here. (j/k, obviously)

edit: typo