Got My Pandora. First Impressions.

[craigix]

I've no idea how a light pipe was missed out. You mean there is an inch long hole on one side of the LCD?

Gads!

 

[MonkeyChops]

thanks for the review. You say it crashed at 900. What was it stable at?

Congrats on getting your new toy

 

[MDave]

Great review

Interesting how the device feels weird (and some saying they hate it!) when they first get it, but then grow to really like it.

 

[Jumpman]

Well, I'm going to piggy back P's thread until I get a chance to right a full review myself.

So far my thoughts are:

I can't believe these guys pulled this off! The Pandora is way better quality wise than I ever thought it would be. The unit is very solid, and sturdy. The paint is a rough matt finish, and I can see it leaving prints or not, depending on your sweat levels. No complaints on the finsh quality.

My shoulder buttons seem to be OK, I have yet to try any games, so I'm doing everything on a dry run. I had a small space at the bottom of my screen, like some of those early units, but I pushed on it, and it seems perfect again. Seems like the adhesive just wasn't pressed down hard enough.

My left nub seemed a little wonky at first, as it moved smoothly in every direction but down, but after moving it for awhile, it works perfectly. I'm guessing it just needed to be broken in.

I have done nothing but turn it on, and play with the nubs and such. This is so much more than I originally expected. Way more than the GP2X, and Wiz. But you all knew that right? :lol: Honestly, I don't even know where to start playing with this thing. It's a mini computer in the palm of my hand. I think it's gonna take me the weekend at least, to do a proper write up.

I've actually got a ton of ebaying to do these next 2 days(as it is my current source of income), so my time will be limited. I am gonna try and list one of my extra units today. If I get time I'll post it in the ebay section.

I need to get back to work and such, but I just want to say to everyone waiting, I have not played a game or done anything but mess with the desktop, and I'm already in heaven. Craig, Ed, Michael, Fatih and everyone else involved in this project, you guys have really made something special here, and should feel very proud. Please do the best you can to complete those remaining 3000 units, and beyond. As everyone deserves to play with this special little device. Pandora was a perfect name choice. The industry should really stand up and take notice. It did take awhile, but I will go on record and say "IT WAS WORTH THE WAIT"!

Congrats on a job well done! Further thoughts and review "coming soon"!

Chris

 

[GizmoTheGreen]

prometheus is a girl? hmm, i wonder if shes single

 

[may88]

Thank for the review Prometheus and encouraging words from Jumpman.

Let's hope it raises the spirits of the OPT as they deserve the kudos after there hard work. But in the immortal words of S'Club7 "Don't Stop!".

 

[SomeGuy99]

prometheus is a girl? hmm, i wonder if shes single

Spoiler

 

[Exophase]

prometheus is a girl? hmm, i wonder if shes single

And so it begins...

Nice review Prometheus. The control quality is probably the most important personal unknown to me, and your roughly SNES-level description sounds good to me. One question - do you think it benefits in having a circular pad over a pure cross Nintendo style d-pad?

 

[Prometheus]

Alright, I've added the photographs and some additional commentary and impressions to the first post, now. My apologies in advance for my unco-operative photo-box.

Thankyou and/or you're welcome (delete as appropriate ) to everyone who said "Thanks" and "Congratulations".

I'm breaking this into two posts because I've hit the quote limit, so please pardon the fact that I'll be double-posting.

do the games you've tested work at full speed? (especially n64 and mame ones)

I haven't tried any N64 titles yet, because I forgot to unzip the emulator when I put it on my card! I'll do that later or tomorrow. :lol: Everything I've tried in MAME so far was full-speed, although I did have the CPU speed upped for some titles.

CPS2 games work nicely at 850MHz, and CPS1 titles are silky smooth at that speed, but I suspect the latter will probably do fine with less. I was eager to try these especially, since I have a couple of genuine boards and official compilation discs full of titles for those two pieces of hardware.

I also tried out Mappy, which is a vertical game, and thus can't be size-doubled if you're viewing it on the display without rotating it. That said, it wasn't any more difficult to see than when it's displayed in the middle of a television on the other side of the room when played on the Wii (I purchased the game on the Virtual Console service, you see ) - it's just on a smaller scale because it's on a handheld.

Out of interest how well was Star Fox running and more given the paint related sticky shoulder buttons how well can you "do a barrel roll!"?

Star Fox runs a bit too choppy at 500MHz for me, but even there it is *way too fast*. It's an old Snes9x issue - the audio is not in sync with the visuals, and the visuals are running far too quickly (if you have a real SNES handy, compare the two - the framerate for this game is not smooth, and should never be. It differs ever-so-slightly between Super FX revisions, but it's not perfectly smooth in any one of them). This should still be present in some recent x86 versions, too, so it's not something introduced by the Dingoo and Pandora ports.

As far as barrel-rolling goes, it is no different to my SNES controllers, even on the slightly-stiffer right shoulder button, happy to say.

Are you sure your missing a light pipe and not just getting confused with the Mic hole?

I'm very, very sure - the photographs that I've now added to the first post demonstrate this.

PS, where is gnome-mplayer? I installed the codec pack but can't find it?

Which interface are you using?

I'm dieing of curiousity to know how many people are using minimenu, versus xfce

I'm going to switch over to it shortly, myself! I've just been so caught up in playing with the machine that I haven't gotten to it just yet. :lol:

(btw Prometheus -- promise me you'll hit Select -> About one of these days, in minimenu, okay?)

I promise. In fact, I'll do so as soon as I switch the interface over.

 

[Prometheus]

Are you SURE you're a girl? Have you actually checked, lately?

Thanks for the review

Hahaha... Yes, I'm very sure. And no problem.

Unfortunately the lightpipes are thicker on the LED side, so they have to be put in from the inside

Ah well, I don't mind. I actually find it very endearing. :lol:

I've no idea how a light pipe was missed out. You mean there is an inch long hole on one side of the LCD?

Gads!

Yep! I don't mind, though, as said above, and also in the first post now that I've edited it, I rather like the look it has.

thanks for the review. You say it crashed at 900. What was it stable at?

Congrats on getting your new toy

It's stable at 850MHz, for definite. I haven't tried going higher than that just yet, as I haven't had any need to.

prometheus is a girl?

Yes, I am.

hmm, i wonder if shes single

No, I'm not.

 

[Geuben]

Are you sure your missing a light pipe and not just getting confused with the Mic hole?

I'm very, very sure - the photographs that I've now added to the first post demonstrate this.

PS, where is gnome-mplayer? I installed the codec pack but can't find it?

Which interface are you using?

I found it, I think it may have required a restart. Or maybe I was just being an idiot.

 

[Prometheus]

Thank for the review Prometheus and encouraging words from Jumpman.

Let's hope it raises the spirits of the OPT as they deserve the kudos after there hard work. But in the immortal words of S'Club7 "Don't Stop!".

No problem. And thankyou so much, because now that song is stuck in my head. :lol:

prometheus is a girl? hmm, i wonder if shes single

And so it begins...

Nice review Prometheus. The control quality is probably the most important personal unknown to me, and your roughly SNES-level description sounds good to me. One question - do you think it benefits in having a circular pad over a pure cross Nintendo style d-pad?

I don't really know how to answer that one, to be honest. I've never really been sure that cross-key versus circular really matters too much as long as it works well and feels "right" (which this one does, on both counts) - I've never run into issues with either type. For what it's worth, before today, the only two controllers I have ever truly loved have been the SNES controllers, and in a close second place the smaller/Japanese Saturn ones, the latter of which has a circular d-pad. This is almost like combining those two.

 

[Exophase]

Wait, there were pictures of Prometheus but they're gone now? Does that mean I also have to post and quickly delete pictures now? :c

 

[GizmoTheGreen]

hmm, i wonder if shes single

No, I'm not.
[/quote]

aww, lucky guy

pm me if you ever get single, lol x3

and congrats to the pandora!

 

[Dead1nside]

Great review. So, so jealous of everybody who's received theirs already.

 

[may88]

Wait, there were pictures of Prometheus but they're gone now? Does that mean I also have to post and quickly delete pictures now? :c

Doh! I missed them. The mystery remains.
I did notice that all the pictures were carefully angled to reduce any reflective image of the elusive Ms. .

 

[fusion_power]

Nice Review.

I wonder, if this issue with the "unplain" closed lid can be solved, have seen this already at some photos yet

Was there already a reason discovered why it's not closing plain?

 

[funkyarif]

Love the in depth review Prometheus ....How does the SNES Emulator cope with super mario and Megaman series .....Is it ultra smooth or a little laggy like the dingoo....

 

[ste_167]

If Minimenu is run from xcfe, is it possible to launch a web browser from it without going back to the desktop?


Edit.. Xfce

 

[Aninhumer]

If Minimenu is run from xcfe, is it possible to launch a web browser from it without going back to the desktop?

Minimenu is not "run from xfce" as such. You can switch to it, but that means it closes xfce and opens minimenu.
However, I believe you can run a browser fine from either (might be wrong), although there would be no window in minimenu.