How Are You Feeling About The Pandora Today?


My only regret is that the shoulder bag I bought from Panda-USB was stolenmysteriously lost by mail couriers so I can't keep it right next to me at all times. :(
 
I'm coming home for break until February 1, so I genuinely hope as 850-950 in the queue that I get mine.
 
Worried for its future; not the usual production problems (although clearly that is an issue) but on a much more personal level my kids keep taking mine and afraid they are going to break it (they are young) so in a tactical masterpiece I'm getting a Caanoo for Xmas which will hopefully distract them, and I can get the Pandora back.

Off topic (and I know its a second sentence) but anyone noticed how rabid the other forum is getting. Craig is going to need to move to a yet another one soon :D
 
Ooops - one sentence - its pretty fun :D

I've mostly been getting addicted to Klax on Mame. Any good Mame recommendations? Love the Pandora itself, though it needs some tweaks: boot time, nub accuracy (I can't control them and am very used to nipples!) and way of always killing foreground app (+ bouncing X) to get back to desktop. Thinking I should play with Dosbox again now the touchscreen is synced to position properly. Colonization and Civ run well, though I've not mastered the art of going diagonally. Wish the production issues would get fixed soon so the scene can take off. Not enough momentum for many devs to motivate themselves right now (ok, just speaking for myself - too busy/lazy!).
 
I'm concentrating on the wait for the Notion Ink Adam to help ease the pain of this wait.
 
I am kind of down on it and I even designed the case part of it, I should be a fanboi! The emus that are out have god awful interfaces that mostly consist of patched together inconsistant linux GUI modules. Many times you need to select the options everytime you start as it remembers none of the parameters! Getting to your ROMs is a hassle as many don't remember the paths and you need to dig out the stylus and navigate a bunch of linuxy directory path things like /media mmblk01oeiryt whatever, to get there. Then there are interfaces that were ported straight from PC requiring sloppy nub navigation or require you to dig out the stylus or mung up the screen with touchscreen navigation (I had an idea for an interface but was turned down on all fronts). It just makes using it annoying, it seems the WizGP2X was much easier and quicker and nicer to use software wise. When it takes 5 minutes to finally load and play the desired game after a bunch of GUI gymnastics it kind of takes the fun out.

Then there is the fact that the emus that are out are quick unoptimized very unfinished drive-by ports and they have been abandoned for ages (what happened to Amiga, PSX, N64, MAME?). Some havent even been ported natively like GBA, Turbo Grafx, Final burn, CPS2 etc.

It still has alot of potential it just seems not much is going on with it lately. The scene is terribly split between Caanoo, Wiz, iPhone, PSP, Dingoo etc which could be part of it. Hopefully someday it will get better.
 
Developers are unlikely to put much effort into it if they can't get one themselves, don't have many "customers" to give their programs to, have better platforms (in those respects) competing for their time and aiming at a 900-unit console is stupidity itself when you can aim at even the old GP2X and get thousands of more grateful users.

(Sorry, OP is still dead before it's even started - an "open source" console where most of the programmers don't have one, most of the programs aren't new, most of your potential users don't own the device, and most of the development effort is basically changing "x86" to "arm" in the Makefiles? No thanks. Where's the fun in that?).
 
My Pandora thought for the day: No news... damn... but despite being tired, I still scour the forums and tweets for something... Ah well, time to do some art, then it's off to bed!
 
Edit: (nearly) one sentence.

Amazed that its still taking this long get the first batch out the door AND wondering whether anyone that ordered has died in the time it's taken for it to be delivered.
 
I too wish the scene would take off .. if only there were a few thousand Pandora owners out there, instead of a few hundred. Ah, crap.
 
Today I am feeling a little more excited about getting mine back than I was yesterday.

(some people aren't quite getting the hang of the one sentence thing :p)
 
I'm still loving the fact that the most powerful hand held gaming system in the world is an open system brought to us (lucky few who have one) by a small team of enthusiasts.
 
Frustrated that I'm still waiting, and my order is about to enter it's 4th year, but still very, very excited and looking forward to finally getting a unit and contributing back.

DaveC said:
Then there is the fact that the emus that are out are quick unoptimized very unfinished drive-by ports and they have been abandoned for ages (what happened to Amiga, PSX, N64, MAME?). Some havent even been ported natively like GBA, Turbo Grafx, Final burn, CPS2 etc.

It still has alot of potential it just seems not much is going on with it lately. The scene is terribly split between Caanoo, Wiz, iPhone, PSP, Dingoo etc which could be part of it. Hopefully someday it will get better.
Click to expand...
I think that this is an unavoidable symptom of so few units getting our into the wild. Only a small, lucky, group have their Pandoras so far, early units have been pushed out to the most talented developers. But the truth is that these guys mostly get off on the complex stuff, not polishing UI's. The ordinary developers (like me) who don't have the time/knowledge to write JIT recompilers actually can (an want to) improve and polish UI's but don't have Pandoras yet.

The other problem is that we have two UI environments, so the developer will probably polish for the environment they preffer (not always to your taste) leading so some disjointed user experiences (i'e having to pop out the stylus to select a ROM and press start).

As long as we really are on the last delay now, I think the situation will really improve next year. Although I feel it will never reach the heights that could have been met if re really did get a Christmas 2008 release. As DaveC said, the potential is there.
 
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i hate the fact that im revolving my life around the pandora, that the only thing thats keeping me from making some huge changes in my life is me waiting to get my pandora, meanwhile im swirling in a whirlpool of nothingness waiting for that day......
 
I couldn't be any happier than with the pandora!
It is the perfect handheld for me. For all its features, not only gaming but also as mobile surfstiation and portable dictionary, notebook and general timekiller.
I got it very early on, so it had some of the early flaws, that are fixed now, except for a non-working led and some screwcovers.
 
DaveC said:
I am kind of down on it and I even designed the case part of it, I should be a fanboi!
Click to expand...
For what it's worth, I am very much loving the design, especially the D-pad. I have never had anything more comfortable to rest my thumb on :)
 
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