How About Them Games on Pandora?


As Dunny already pretty much said, that the Pandora is running an ARM chip rather than an x86 chip is less of a penalty for gamers that you or I might expect. If the source has been released then it can be recompiled, and it's surprising the number of older games that have has their engine code released. If the engine's been released but not the graphics, publishers can still make more money off it, as you still have to buy the game to get the graphics/levels etc, so a number of publishers actually see it as an investment.


But even excluding the open sourced engines, there are a surprising number of good open source games. The Pandora's release has pretty nicely tied up with the rise of the indie game, and a surprising number of those are open source, and not all of them push the Pandora to its limits hardware-wise, so the Pandora has benefited from a lot of recent games that way too.
 
I really need to start bringing my Pandora to work with me >_<  Would make this much easier.

So games I would recommend or talk about or even bring attention to for the pandora:

Jagged Alliance (I think it is the second one) runs smooth on a rebirth (not 1GHz) but requires the data files from the installation to play

Heretic  Requires the installation to play

Doom (there are different ports of doom, http://www.pandoralive.info/ has a recent article which compares a bunch of doom mods and recommends which ones are playable on the Pandora, i.e. which ones don't spawn ten ba-jillion enemies)

the not-games, not-pacman and not-tetris are an interesting sort of game, where instead of controlling the character/block you rotate the screen and let gravity do the moving for you.

Aqua Venture (name of this one might be wrong) was one designed during the coding competition (Dragon Box I think?) which was surprisingly addicitive

They have roguelikes as well, Brogue, Cataclysm, Stone Soup, and ToME was just ported but needs further testing (which I forgot to do yesterday)

for rpg's there is Valyria Tear which I haven't played much of yet but seems to be a well polished port.

Transdimensional Hellspider is a fun game where you pilot a spaceship and destroy giant transdimensional hellspiders... yeap.

there is a game similar to scorched earth (two tanks shooting at one-another) called Scherwants or something I can't spell... anywho, instead of being two tanks shooting at one another, you are two stationary spaceships shooting across a randomly generated map with gas giants, asteroids and planets which all have differing gravity which affects your shots.

I'm just going to end my recommended game list there as my spelling of the names will only get more horrible from here on in.

But honestly, there is a fairly deep list of games for you to choose from with the Pandora that I was surprised to find out about.

It would be easier for us to recommend game titles if you would post what types of games you like to play.

Kind Regards,

-Xaeo

Edit:
I forgot Ghosts and Ghouls remix!! How could I? I hang my head in shame  =(
 
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Are y'all ninjas seriously bickering over game listings? Really? Good gravy, I can only imagine how many topics on here blew up. But game listings? Is this IGN?

_wb_ said:
DatNOBoi said:
So, OpenPandoraBoardsFolk, help a Boi out and clarify the Pandora's gaming status, emulators not included. Pretty please?
Click to expand...
Do you have any specific genres in mind?

I wrote three games specifically for the Pandora: Microbes (a relatively complex tower defense game), NubNub (an original arcade game) and NanoLemmings (an Lemmings-inspired game with less micro-management; not yet finished but already playable). You may want to check them out. It's also interesting to note that they were coded completely on-the-go on the Pandora itself, mostly on the train while all the other passengers were playing Candy Crush on their phones ;)
Click to expand...
As long as they're not glorified timesinks like most mobile phone games, I could care less about genre. However, the closer to a console experience, the better. I'm not expecting some Half-Minute Hero or Pokemon action on this thing, but something close enough would be nice. Onto your games though.

I heard there was a decent port of Lemmings already, so I think I'll pass on this one. I very much enjoy tower defense games as long as I can upgrade my towers (customization would be nice though). I generally like arcade games, so I may check that one out when I get a Pandora.

ZXDunny said:
There's lots of games available for the Pandora. They vary in quality -

If the game was developed originally for DOS/Windows commercially and has since been made open-source and ported to Pandora, then the game is almost always of a high quality (Doom, Quake, Quake III, Homeworld, AvP etc) assuming the Pandora hardware can handle it.

If the game is open-source and available for many different platforms, then the quality can vary considerably and it's something of a hit and miss. Battle for Wesnoth is visually appealing at least, whereas some other ports are not so well done.

Then at the bottom of the scale, you have games developed specifically for linux - they tend to be poor clones of popular franchises with the main character replaced by a tux penguin. These games are almost all very poorly done. They're written mostly so that the linux crowd can say that they've got an equivalent of whatever it is they're copying and development generally tends not to go much further than that.

Sitting off to the side there are the games that have been written especially for the Pandora. Don't expect commercial quality - these are all homebrew, but generally of a higher standard than say, anything with "tux" in the title. Most of the authors inhabit the boards and are rightly proud of their work. Pandora-specific software is sadly lacking though, at least in comparison with everything else.

Lastly, you should bear in mind that the quality of a ported game (be it from Windows or even from x86 to ARM linux) depends on how much effort the porting author puts in. Does it make good use of the 800x480 screen? Are you forced to endure black bars at the edges or has the author added an option to stretch if necessary? Does it make good use of the nubs, or is the author just lazy and relying on you having them set to mouse and mouse buttons mode? Has the author made a decent assessment of the speed of the port, and modified the code to optimise or disable particular enhancements in order to make the experience smoother? Has an option been added to facilitate this?

Many, many ports are frankly shit - especially the early stuff where authors were just cranking out port after port in quick succession with little to no testing. It's better these days with more effort being made, and there's some excellent software out there.

D.
Click to expand...
Heh. Sounds a lot like the PSP days. Should be very interesting.
 
Levi said:
As Dunny already pretty much said, that the Pandora is running an ARM chip rather than an x86 chip is less of a penalty for gamers that you or I might expect. If the source has been released then it can be recompiled, and it's surprising the number of older games that have has their engine code released. If the engine's been released but not the graphics, publishers can still make more money off it, as you still have to buy the game to get the graphics/levels etc, so a number of publishers actually see it as an investment.


But even excluding the open sourced engines, there are a surprising number of good open source games. The Pandora's release has pretty nicely tied up with the rise of the indie game, and a surprising number of those are open source, and not all of them push the Pandora to its limits hardware-wise, so the Pandora has benefited from a lot of recent games that way too.
Click to expand...
I'm always looking for indie games, but I'm always paranoid of the ones that use resources from other games. But still, thanks for the straightforward answer.

Xaeo said:
I really need to start bringing my Pandora to work with me >_<  Would make this much easier.

So games I would recommend or talk about or even bring attention to for the pandora:

Jagged Alliance (I think it is the second one) runs smooth on a rebirth (not 1GHz) but requires the data files from the installation to play

Heretic  Requires the installation to play

Doom (there are different ports of doom, http://www.pandoralive.info/ has a recent article which compares a bunch of doom mods and recommends which ones are playable on the Pandora, i.e. which ones don't spawn ten ba-jillion enemies)

the not-games, not-pacman and not-tetris are an interesting sort of game, where instead of controlling the character/block you rotate the screen and let gravity do the moving for you.

Aqua Venture (name of this one might be wrong) was one designed during the coding competition (Dragon Box I think?) which was surprisingly addicitive

They have roguelikes as well, Brogue, Cataclysm, Stone Soup, and ToME was just ported but needs further testing (which I forgot to do yesterday)

for rpg's there is Valyria Tear which I haven't played much of yet but seems to be a well polished port.

Transdimensional Hellspider is a fun game where you pilot a spaceship and destroy giant transdimensional hellspiders... yeap.

there is a game similar to scorched earth (two tanks shooting at one-another) called Scherwants or something I can't spell... anywho, instead of being two tanks shooting at one another, you are two stationary spaceships shooting across a randomly generated map with gas giants, asteroids and planets which all have differing gravity which affects your shots.

I'm just going to end my recommended game list there as my spelling of the names will only get more horrible from here on in.

But honestly, there is a fairly deep list of games for you to choose from with the Pandora that I was surprised to find out about.

It would be easier for us to recommend game titles if you would post what types of games you like to play.

Kind Regards,

-Xaeo

Edit:


I forgot Ghosts and Ghouls remix!! How could I? I hang my head in shame  =(
Click to expand...
Psst....there's an Enter key somewhere on your keyboard...

*Ahem* anyway, besides that nitpick, thank you, kind sir/madam!
 
I apologize for triple-posting, but there's something that needs clarification.

As long as the games are better than 95% of the iOS App Store, 90% of the Android Marketplace, and all of Windows Live Games, I don't care about the genre. However, if you really wanna know what kind of games razzle my dazzles, here ya go:

-RPGs (of any kind, whether, turn-based strategy, action, or part-platformer. My favorite genre)

-arcade style games (shmups, on-rail shooters, anything of that nature. Fighting games are alright)

-racing games (I favor sim racers, but arcade racers are always fun)

-tower defense games (as long as it's not homogenized to be like every other goddamn tower defense game ever)

-platformers (love me some platformers)

-most stuff sci-fi or even fantasy (love both. Prefer sci-fi, but as long as the fantasy lore's well thought-out, I can rock with it too)
 
DatNOBoi said:
I'm always looking for indie games, but I'm always paranoid of the ones that use resources from other games. But still, thanks for the straightforward answer.
Click to expand...

What could possible be a cause of paranoia? we're talking about games dating from the early 90's to early 00's here. So you think iD software back in 1993 put malware in their data files ready to be detonated 21 years later?


And Indie games that been open sourced.. we can see the source code it's compiled with.. If anything was malicious in the code it can be seen.
 
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TrashyMG said:
DatNOBoi said:
I'm always looking for indie games, but I'm always paranoid of the ones that use resources from other games. But still, thanks for the straightforward answer.
Click to expand...

What could possible be a cause of paranoia? we're talking about games dating from the early 90's to early 00's here. So you think iD software back in 1993 put malware in their data files ready to be detonated 21 years later?


And Indie games that been open sourced.. we can see the source code it's compiled with.. If anything was malicious in the code it can be seen.
Click to expand...
Short answer: clones and crap games. I don't wanna go into detail, so take it for what you will. Just know it has nothing to do with whether or not the developer wants to know what I ate for breakfast and what my bank account's lookin' like. Especially on Linux.
 
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Another posting, now with twice the amount of enters than my last post!

Well, if you enjoy Arcade games then you will enjoy the Pandora.

I find myself playing arcade games on the Pandora most often, due to being able to quickly pick up and play.

The Pandora also seems to have a huge amount of arcade games.

The only racing game I can think of off the top of my head is Cannon Ball.

I will post my rpg list here late tonight as I've found some good ones.

For sci-fi or fantasy I would really recommend these roguelikes: Cataclysm and Brogue, Stone Soup is fun too but I would start with Brogue.

The only tower defense game I know of is Dino Defense and I only have the beta version of that (haven't updated yet)

There are some beat-em-up games too, the only one I've played is Paintown though, which is interesting to say the least. I haven't been able to get Open Streets of Rage to work yet.

For platformers I would highly recommend Metal Blob Solid (name might be wrong, it's a play on another game's name) which is crazy fun! blobs with guns and jetpacks!

I don't think I've played many on the rail shooters before, could you give me some examples? (like typing of the dead and the like?)

Anywho, that's a quick update suited to your game tastes.

-Xaeo
 
Xaeo said:
Another posting, now with twice the amount of enters than my last post!

Well, if you enjoy Arcade games then you will enjoy the Pandora.

I find myself playing arcade games on the Pandora most often, due to being able to quickly pick up and play.

The Pandora also seems to have a huge amount of arcade games.

The only racing game I can think of off the top of my head is Cannon Ball.

I will post my rpg list here late tonight as I've found some good ones.

For sci-fi or fantasy I would really recommend these roguelikes: Cataclysm and Brogue, Stone Soup is fun too but I would start with Brogue.

The only tower defense game I know of is Dino Defense and I only have the beta version of that (haven't updated yet)

There are some beat-em-up games too, the only one I've played is Paintown though, which is interesting to say the least. I haven't been able to get Open Streets of Rage to work yet.

For platformers I would highly recommend Metal Blob Solid (name might be wrong, it's a play on another game's name) which is crazy fun! blobs with guns and jetpacks!

I don't think I've played many on the rail shooters before, could you give me some examples? (like typing of the dead and the like?)

Anywho, that's a quick update suited to your game tastes.

-Xaeo
Click to expand...

 Yay! Dat spacing! :D

Oh, I forgot to mention, but I'm not too keen on beat-em-ups. I know there's some good ones, but I get bored quickly from those games.

I like rougelikes as well, so I'll be checking those out too.

Two legendary examples of on-rails shooters are Panzer Dragoon and Sin & Punishment. Excellent, excellent games. Can't wait for you to post some RPGs!

~~~~~~~~~

Also, if any of you could point me to a game that's similar to Rogue Squadron on the Gamecube, that would be amazing.
 
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TrashyMG said:
DatNOBoi said:
elwing said:
RPG? what about Baldur's gate 1 & 2?
Click to expand...
Wait, hold up!

I can play Baldur's Gate on a PANDORA?!?! o_O
Click to expand...
Also Icewind Dale, Planescape Torment..: http://repo.openpandora.org/?page=detail&app=gemrb-31292  


Don't mind the comments from CCF he's against anything that requires original data files.. copying files from one directory to an SD card seems to confuse him.


more info on GemRB: http://www.gemrb.org/wiki/doku.php?id=start
Click to expand...
...wat?...

Playing Planescape Torment on a handheld with a full keyboard...that's hype!

Ziz said:
DatNOBoi said:
-platformers (love me some platformers)
Click to expand...
In that case I will blatantly advertise for my own game, a 2.5D Platformer about a Snowman, in which you have to economize your jumps and shoots, because you loose snow (==health) if you do so: http://repo.openpandora.org/?page=detail&app=snowman-reloaded
Click to expand...
Shameless advertisement away!
 
Planescape Torment is not fully supported by GemRB right now. It's mostly working but there are things that are not working, and I don't know if the game can be finished with the current version.
 
there's also the various Monkey island, maniac mansion and other games that run on SCUMM
 
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