I Feel Down


shillbert

shillbert

Still Fresh
Joined
Jun 2, 2008
Messages
73
Location
UK
I'm tempted to stop visiting these forums, a lack of definite updates and any worthwhile progress is really getting me down.

My partner knows I've been watching the Pandora's progress for a long while and she has now said why bother, just get a net-book (9" model) and run your emulators on that.
Please don't say about controls as I grew up using ZX81 & Rubber key ZX Spectrum so have no fear of gaming with buttons.

It comes to something when my other half is sick of the Pandora, she was going to buy me one last Christmas, you can guess how that ended.

My other gripe goes back to a post I did a while ago about emulators, the ones I am interested in have been shown on YouTube running full speed but they haven't had a release (Jaguar & FinalBurn)

A comment made by craigx shocked me: Replies #8 onward
80% of developers have done nothing with their hardware, yes 20% are amazing but the stuff I want looks like it was shown on YouTube by some of the 80%

That made me think that maybe developers wanted a free bit of kit.(who wouldn't) Surely the kit should be returned to the OPT and re-distributed to other developers. (Come on OPT grow some balls and get the hardware back)

Overall I think that the Pandora is an amazing achievement, I'll more than likely be back to eat my own words but I can't see that happening for at least another 6 months.

By then we will have the 3DS and possibly the PSP2, who knows what else is on the horizon, yes those are closed source but they have the volume of sales to mean they make a difference.

I think of the Pandora as I did my beloved Amiga (Commodore you fools, you blew it!) it has an amazing community and the Pandora offers so much more than any other hand-held currently available (as did the Amiga in it's early days) but it looks like it will be an also ran, beaten out by the volume of other devices on the market (Cheap & more powerful PC's beat the Amiga)

At the moment I'm sitting on these forums hitting refresh and reading every new post, I've grown tired of it, the only rest-bite was seeing new YouTube video's of emulators. And I haven't seen anything new in a while.

I love the Pandora I truly do but it's slow progress is killing me, come October if/when I can get one who knows what else will be out.

Let the flaming begin ;)

Ian
 
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Didn't you just order :blink:
Will be a hard wait for you till you get your 2nd batch Pandora when you run out of patience after merely a week ;)
 
^ That's even more amazing :huh:

Sorry, I have to leave you suffering now, we have to beat Spain ;)
 
I waited nearly 2 years to get my pandora.
I though about cancelling many times. My wife said me that it should be a scam more than once ( which I answered : with Exophase and co on board, I can't believe this is a scam).
Then I completely forgot, thinking about a "dead" investment.

Now I have my pandora, I love it. It was worth the wait...
My wife hate it as much as I love it... until she can play with :D
 
I can't really explain how seeing this after another 16 hour day makes me feel.

Oh. I can.

But since I have a warning level these days may I refer you to Arkell v. Pressdram.
 
It feels all very anticlimax to some people. The following, the waiting, the anticipation. Then.... well, it's just another device really.
Honestly, I feel the Pandora makes a really nice portable 8 and 16 bit emulator. If that's all you want, great. For me however, there has to be more. Can I really see myself sitting and watching a movie on it? Not really - unless I am going to be away from home for a few days in the middle of nowhere with no TV and Internet. Can I really see myself browsing the web to any great degree on it? Again, no - screen too small for serious browsing. I'm not ever likely to really make much use of the other functions.
The Pandora is a really good community effort and there are some great folks on these boards following it, but as a serious device, I don't think it cuts it. The problem with the device itself is that everything it does has all been done before. Emulators are fun for a period, but once you've played them on the GP32, GP2x, PSP, or such, well it's all been done before and becomes old hat. And with browsing the web, listening to MP3s, watching videos, well again it's been there for a long time with mobile phones. The Pandora would have been quite revolutionary if the year was 1999, but many other ideas have came forward and are being implemented which show the Pandora just how old the concept is. Personally, I'm waiting for something like the Notion Ink Adam or similar to arrive as I like to read ebooks and pdf's in portrait mode, and sometimes I would like to do it whilst sitting in the garden on a lovely sunny day - the new screens are transreflective and very readable outdoors under bright sunlight.
 
silverspring said:
It feels all very anticlimax to some people. The following, the waiting, the anticipation. Then.... well, it's just another device really.
Honestly, I feel the Pandora makes a really nice portable 8 and 16 bit emulator. If that's all you want, great. For me however, there has to be more. Can I really see myself sitting and watching a movie on it? Not really - unless I am going to be away from home for a few days in the middle of nowhere with no TV and Internet. Can I really see myself browsing the web to any great degree on it? Again, no - screen too small for serious browsing. I'm not ever likely to really make much use of the other functions.
The Pandora is a really good community effort and there are some great folks on these boards following it, but as a serious device, I don't think it cuts it. The problem with the device itself is that everything it does has all been done before. Emulators are fun for a period, but once you've played them on the GP32, GP2x, PSP, or such, well it's all been done before and becomes old hat. And with browsing the web, listening to MP3s, watching videos, well again it's been there for a long time with mobile phones. The Pandora would have been quite revolutionary if the year was 1999, but many other ideas have came forward and are being implemented which show the Pandora just how old the concept is. Personally, I'm waiting for something like the Notion Ink Adam or similar to arrive as I like to read ebooks and pdf's in portrait mode, and sometimes I would like to do it whilst sitting in the garden on a lovely sunny day - the new screens are transreflective and very readable outdoors under bright sunlight.
Click to expand...

May I also refer you to the above.
 
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craigix said:
I can't really explain how seeing this after another 16 hour day makes me feel.

Oh. I can.

But since I have a warning level these days may I refer you to Arkell v. Pressdram.
Click to expand...

Come on Craig, get it off your chest, please.

PM me if you want.

Ian
 
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May I humbly disagree. I use mine every single day for almost everything (emulation, games, internet, music, DVD-rips). My main computer scarcely gets a look-in anymore. :p (Craig, I hope you saw my one-month re-review. :p)
 
"A comment made by craigx shocked me: Replies #8 onward
80% of developers have done nothing with their hardware, yes 20% are amazing but the stuff I want looks like it was shown on YouTube by some of the 80%

That made me think that maybe developers wanted a free bit of kit.(who wouldn't) Surely the kit should be returned to the OPT and re-distributed to other developers. (Come on OPT grow some balls and get the hardware back)"

I am surprised that OPT, did not get the devs to justify, them having one by by what they would give back to the community.

I say this as I donated to the dev fund, and some of those leeches (so far 80%), better give me a return for my donation. To any sponge reading this get coding or planning now, and redeem yourself (I can understand if you want to get a feel for the system first).

I want a list of these sponges, (name and shame - Craig). I understand Craig, wants to offer the carrot to the devs, but for all the "something for nothings", get the stick out. Nothing worse than an angry disgruntled community.

PS - I feel for you, and all the rest this position.
 
The Pandora scene feels like it's a slightly dead at the moment. This is some people's perception... now, a perception may be warped or uniformed, but the perception is real, and it exists.

Even Craig wanted to accelerate development with money.

Even some of the devs think the Pandora scene is too slow or not picking up momentum.

Tough words won't transform perceptions.
 
craigix said:
I can't really explain how seeing this after another 16 hour day makes me feel.

Oh. I can.
Click to expand...

Hmmm might be a good idea to not look at these kinda topics -even if you get too curious. It seems like people are getting more and more frustrated, but looking back over the last 6 months or so, it's always been like this. There'll always be a few people that vent their frustration (maybe in the wrong ways :p), but just look at the frustration as a good thing -people really really want what you and the rest of the OP team have created, so even if they voice it like this, it's still kind of a compliment.

If it helps -thanks so much for the Pandora, I've had mine for 2 weeks now, and have loved every moment. I've drained the battery 10 times or more, and it's the longest lasting battery any portable device I've owned has had (except a cheap mobile with monochrome screen :p). I also feel like I've barely touched on all that it can do. Might take several years before that happens :p (sorry if this makes those of you waiting more frustrated, also I'm a hypocrite 'cause I caved and went for a one-nub so I didn't really wait it out :p).
 
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Stuckie said:
I suppose I could come off of doing crazy AUFS and chroot hacks and actually make a game or something... there'd be a few prototype games running around for people to mess with if I ported my engine directly over at least :)
Click to expand...

Actually, if you think about it, what you're doing is providing a bigger base of software for people to access (debian repositories). Not much stuff is getting ported really, but I have a great deal of respect for the few devs who are.
 
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SomeGuy99 said:
The Pandora scene feels like it's a slightly dead at the moment. This is some people's perception... now, a perception may be warped or uniformed, but the perception is real, and it exists.
Click to expand...

I kinda agree here, though my theory is that some of the Devs don't have as much motivation to finish projects for the handful of current Pandora owners. Maybe as more people get the Pandora, there'll be a lot more going on, but maybe this is just a rare display of optimism on my part. Still, there's enough to be enjoying on the Pandora at the moment :)
 
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I havent canceled despite knowing that it'll still be awhile before my unit ships.

I wanted a Pandora for the trip that I went on this past week, but when I realized it wasnt going to be here in time despite the prediction of the ladies in the sales office, I figured I'd go and get myself a netbook which was roughly "the same" power as a pandora, at least for a windows machine with a 9 hour battery life, unfortunately I ended up with one with a 4 hour battery life since the one I wanted was sold out and wouldnt be instock before I actually had to leave. While it had a 10 inch screen and ran a bunch of emulators fairly well I still had to deal with windows related pains, spend hours uninstalling bloatware and installing more useful programs and figuring out how to get around with a device as big as it was. When someone asked me about my "cute little computer" I told them I had a smaller one on order and felt pride in that knowledge. Knowing that after buying a battery today that would give my netbook a 9 hour battery life I've still paid more for it than my pandora that is smaller and can do just about if not more than the netbook with better gaming controls and without the pain inherent in a widnows platform. Granted I dont feel like I wasted money on either device, I'm sure I can still find uses for it even after my Pandora arrives but I'm still eager for it and that makes me glad I put down my money.

(Quick point of fact! Windows starter edition doesnt even let you change the desktop image! I had to find a program online that lets you hack in your own image!)

So yeah, still proud to be a future pandora owner.
 
SomeGuy99 said:
We should have a bounty for who can provoke Craig into another outburst.

;)
Click to expand...

Sorry, that won't work ;)

Tbh, as a forum's junkie I don't quite see the scene losing momentum right now. It's a bit quiet, but that's most likely missing noise :p
 
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