Have We Got A Tracking Number For The Cases?

[bengoodson]

Long time forum / project follower, first time poster.

I'm really glad to be supporting the pandora project and I'm looking forward to finding out how I'm going to use it. I think I'm going to use it to teach myself programming and to play a few retro games mostly. Mame on the go . I've just been reading a couple of my favourite video game sites and I feel like this is the last generation of consoles I will buy into. Which is depressing as I've been a video game addict since intelliision (tron deadly disks and tennis to be ULTRA precise!). Consoles are now more like cash registers living under your television set. Technically games get more impressive. And I think Fallout 3 might just be the greatest video game I have ever played. But the business part of the console business leaves me cold. EA's decision to charge second-hand video game purchasers more money to actually play the game they have purchased online infuriates me. It infuriates me because I understand it. I know why they are doing it. But it makes me long for a time when playing video games was uncomplicated fun. Everyone made money and mostly the market worked and was relatively happy. Yes people went out of business for one reason or another. But this constant bullying by the big publishers makes me think "okay then, enough". It's like holding the customer upside down by the ankles to wring the last bit of change from their pockets. I know consumers have a choice. They can choose not to buy the products and try to change the business practices. Unfortunately when presented with a choice consumers don't always make good choices, inflating the market in a direction that leaves me cold. I don't particularly like the second hand market but I like publishers trying to control the market even less.

So I'm glad I'll be taking delivery a pandora soon. It will be a constant reminder of why I fell in love with video games.

 

[rabidpoobear]

Awesome first post Beng.

I agree 100%. I'm abhorred at the direction the gaming industry is going. The horrific DRM's around every corner, ridiculous pricing for everything... Why don't they just spend less money on games so they can pass the savings on to us? Photorealistic stuff is cool, but EVERY game doesn't have to be like that, with artist teams 10x as large as the programming teams in some cases.

What I really think they should do is to start reusing stuff in games the same as they do with movie sets and such. For example, one of the planet of the apes movies was filmed on a set for a different movie, with very few alterations.

I'm not saying they should reuse everything, but some stuff needs to be more generic. I really think that if a company started providing extremely high quality assets that it would really take off.
For example, if you could license a line of characters for 1/5th the price of developing them in-house, wouldn't that be desirable? They reuse people in movies, and if anything that just makes it MORE awesome. Like I KNOW i'm going to enjoy a movie with Bruce Willis in it, and I know I'm going to enjoy a game with Mario in it. But the funny thing is, Nintendo's the ones NOT paying to make photorealistic games and they're the ones who are reusing characters like crazy, and it's just awesome! You have all this shared history with the characters, and the games aren't even necessarily sequels. For example, Smash Bros. has nothing to do with the other games the characters come from. Or Sonic and Mario at the Olympics, wtf does that have to do with anything?

 

[Poem58]

I agree Beng. My last console was the Dreamcast. While Still having a DS and a PSP, I gave up due to the fact that games were usually too expensive to collect and there were far too many games that when I did manage to buy one it had bad gameplay or problems to the point where I felt ripped off. Also we were about to have a child and I was going to school again so I knew TV time for games was not going to be much of an option anymore.

Handheld games were far more enjoyable which is why I really enjoyed my Hacked PSP. being able to play the older systems on it again from my first system Atari 2600 on. Once I found the Pandora which was everything I wanted in a handheld I realized this is the way of the future for me. Which is why I feel so strongly for wanting success for this device and a future successor.

I will be able to discover even more systems and games with this device and thankfully they are not just the new eye candy, but titles from back when games were less complicated and more fun.

 

[Caine]

Welcome to the community Beng.

Indeed, I believe we're witnessing the decline of gaming as we know it. Games used to be challenging, sometimes even brutally hard. Finishing a game meant bragging rights. As a gamer you were forced to learn. Learn new gameplay mechanics, new worlds with their own laws of physics. Games all had a unique feeling and exposed you to new experiences. Naturally, we were young and hadn't nearly seen and experienced as much as we have today, but I think that tells only part of the story.

When 3D started to become popular, driven mainly by 3D shooters, everything changed. Today, its all about realism. Realism in graphics, although beautiful at times, makes all games look alike. Realism in physics restricts creativity of developers (why? where is the imagination?). Development cost skyrocket and gameplay is the first to suffer because it's all about sales numbers and first impressions.

Gaming is an industry today and this has caused it to lose its charm. The jewels of gaming come from homebrew and independent developers these days.

 

[matzesu]

there is a new twitter from Craig

Off to pickup the Pandora shipment from the airport this afternoon!

(wy is the html code for qoute names in gp32x.de diverent to gp2x.de???)

Sounds like the Cases are ready..

 

[Sugar_Kane]

It might be the box containing the parts of MWeston's android body

 

[Caine]

It might be the box containing the parts of MWeston's android body

I hope they included all the screws.

 

[Sugar_Kane]

and the all important 12" front mounted antennae

 

[Monk]

Off to pickup the Pandora shipment from the airport this afternoon!

so... someone remind me, did they get the batteries out of customs yet?

 

[paddy]

Craig's twitter sounds to me like the batteries ,good news all round and those cases should be expected tommorow as stated from Craig yesterday or the day before ,so it's really just a waiting game with fingers crossed for OPT that those cases are good quality and no problems getting them from newcastle to Craig's stores.

 

[matzesu]

No, not the Batteries, there should be in craigs house until last monday

Craigix:
The 4000 batteries have been released by customs. I'm expecting them to get here on monday.

My link

Meybe MWeston in parts, because he must be an Android.. B)

 

[Sphinxter]

I hate and loathe guessing.

 

[LeChuck87]

Twitterix:

Craigix: I now have the cases.

 

[mafia-man]

It might be the box containing the parts of MWeston's android body

I hope they included all the screws.

Paint before assembly?