Is There A Problem?

[EvilDragon]

I've been wanting to write a game for the Pandora. I thought that I might get it out before my Pandora arrives, and it still looks likely that I will. To that end, I'm writing a BASIC interpreter for the Pandora, based on Sinclair BASIC and Amiga AMOS which I'll use to write my game. The interpreter is nearly done (I'm working on the linux port now), and I'll be writing the game in the next few months, ready for when mine arrives.

D.

I would love a basic interpreter on the pandora B)

Hmm, what about FreeBasic?

AFAIR it also worked on the GP2X, shouldn't be hard to be ported onto the Pandora.

 

[Bosbeetle]

It's just that BASIC brings some nice fuzzy retro feelings to my hart.

 

[Nintendo]

I think a lot of people are too busy playing their PS3 or XBOX 360 consoles.

 

[Miner49er]

For me, I have to say I'm losing interest in the whole thing. I hate to sound negative, I honestly do because I really believe that nobody is trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes.

I Ordered, I dunno, 2 years ago or something. So, I started hacking together my Lemmings rip-off as it was something that I thought would go down well - being able to play lemmings 2-player over the internet with other Pandora owners. Well, I spent about 10 months on and off coding that up and it's 99% finished. Trouble is, a year later (after feeling that my game was complete) and I'm still without a Pandora!!

I'm afriad to say it's left a bitter taste in my mouth. I wanted (and still want) this whole project to be succesfull but I'm finding it very difficult to find enthusiasm right now...I hope that will change when (if) I get my console but something deep-down inside me is telling me otherwise.

This is why I, for one, have stopped checking this forum out every day as I used to (up until about a month ago)

 

[WarmFluffyUK]

I think the OpenPandora team should donate a Pandora to the Gadget Show and get them to show it off. This may pick up media interest and possibly motivate more devs to get the old coding hats on

 

[andyB911]

I think the OpenPandora team should donate a Pandora to the Gadget Show and get them to show it off. This may pick up media interest and possibly motivate more devs to get the old coding hats on

Won't that just create more demand that can't be met?

As of today the problem is very simple - lack of units. Unfortunately until that is resolved, any publicity will make things worse rather than better.

 

[ceepeeuk]

For me, I have to say I'm losing interest in the whole thing. I hate to sound negative, I honestly do because I really believe that nobody is trying to pull the wool over anyone's eyes.

I agree, I can't believe that I ordered this TWO years ago and am still waiting, with no better idea now than I had back then, of when it might arrive.

I got my hopes up in April, when it actually seemed like production was finally getting in full swing, but its again slowed to a crawl. Dates keep being mentioned (eg. 100 will ship this week etc, etc), then everyone rakes over them trying to understand what is really happening, then cryptic messages have to be clarified and we all still wait.

I'm afraid I have almost no hope of receiving my first batch 14-1500 unit before Christmas.

 

[Dunny]

I've been wanting to write a game for the Pandora. I thought that I might get it out before my Pandora arrives, and it still looks likely that I will. To that end, I'm writing a BASIC interpreter for the Pandora, based on Sinclair BASIC and Amiga AMOS which I'll use to write my game. The interpreter is nearly done (I'm working on the linux port now), and I'll be writing the game in the next few months, ready for when mine arrives.

D.

I would love a basic interpreter on the pandora B)

Then feel free to check out SpecOS from here (window binary, runs well in WINE):

https://sites.google.com/site/pauldunn/SpecOS_245.zip

Which I must stress is still in alpha - no sound yet, and things like sprites are conspicuous in their absence. This was originally going to be a standalone OS, but is doing quite well as an interpreter for windows. I'm currently porting to Linux via Lazarus/FPC.

The eventual goal will be a small BASIC interpreter able to produce fast 2D games which can be programmed directly on the pandora. And yes, the editor is shit at the moment, but that's waaaaay down the list of things to improve.

D.

 

[CPUnltd]

Qemu doesn't have full support for the omap3[...]

hence my suggestion that OP collab with the QEMU devs... or even build off the options you posted here where some of the work has already been done... Whatever's most efficient to get as close to a full Pnd enviro as possible... that's all that's necessary. And I'm sure that the work done in itself will contribute back to the original devs (and they can add Pnd to their list of emulatable platforms... if not for full functionality, at least for R&D purposes...

 

[DaveC]

I think a lot of people are too busy playing their PS3 or XBOX 360 consoles.

Or coding for the Caanoo, they are actually more active there even. It is strange how everyone is over the moon for a re-built Wiz with worse performance and part of the screen clipped off.

 

[Iorgy77]

I think a lot of people are too busy playing their PS3 or XBOX 360 consoles.

Or coding for the Caanoo, they are actually more active there even. It is strange how everyone is over the moon for a re-built Wiz with worse performance and part of the screen clipped off.

The fact you can actually buy a caanoo and not have to wait over two years might have something to do with it.

Craigix and Ed are saying there are 900-1000 pandoras out there, I dont believe it, there are people waiting who are still 400 or so in craigs queue, that would mean ED and Fatih's customers are getting more than the advised alotment or a hell of a lot of pandoras are being RMA'd, more than craigix and Ed are willing to admit. I purchased a secondhand pandora with various small faults, but I am not willing to send it back until my actual pre-order arrives. I was told I was 650-700 in the queue by the way.

 

[torpor]

I find the Caanoo a nicer machine to hold and play with, frankly. The Pandora definitely has its place, but its a lot less 'solid' in construction than the Caanoo and that translates generally to a bit more affinity for the tougher console. I have one Pandora in constant use, playing MAME and so on, and one in the corner being used for development only, and the in-use Pandora is rattly and creaky, has cracking problems around the USB, and so on .. compared to the developer Pandora, entropy (its only been a few months) is very definitely evident. This is a source of disaffection, in my case anyway .. the Caanoo, though less powerful, just feels a lot more solid and durable compared to a definite fragility in the Pandora design ..

 

[EvilDragon]

I think a lot of people are too busy playing their PS3 or XBOX 360 consoles.

Or coding for the Caanoo, they are actually more active there even. It is strange how everyone is over the moon for a re-built Wiz with worse performance and part of the screen clipped off.

I don't see too much coding going on for the Caanoo right now. Most of the releases are quick ports at the moment.
The same happened with the WIZ at the beginning and also with the Pandora.
After those quick ports are done, things will slow down and real coding will begin.
It's been the same on all of the handhelds we had here so far.

But sure, the Caanoo is more easily available, which adds more devs to the system right now.

Craigix and Ed are saying there are 900-1000 pandoras out there, I dont believe it, there are people waiting who are still 400 or so in craigs queue, that would mean ED and Fatih's customers are getting more than the advised alotment or a hell of a lot of pandoras are being RMA'd, more than craigix and Ed are willing to admit. I purchased a secondhand pandora with various small faults, but I am not willing to send it back until my actual pre-order arrives. I was told I was 650-700 in the queue by the way.

There are, but don't forget: About 150 - 200 from the first 400 were one-nubbers where people could skip the queue.
About 10% were RMAs so far, that's about 100.
Then from those 900 we delivered so far, I get a fourth which is about 225 units.

So basically: 900 - 150 - 100 - 225 = 425 (approx. Craig's queue)

Some from the one-nubbers might've been in that area as well, so it might even be at 500.

Those 10% were mostly nub RMAs, since we can fix the other problems (mostly only LCD cable) by replacing the cable, but broken nub boards need to go back to Texas so we need a board to replace until then.

That's the reason we decided to FIRST get the new nubs before delivering the units - the returns were just way too many.

I find the Caanoo a nicer machine to hold and play with, frankly. The Pandora definitely has its place, but its a lot less 'solid' in construction than the Caanoo and that translates generally to a bit more affinity for the tougher console. I have one Pandora in constant use, playing MAME and so on, and one in the corner being used for development only, and the in-use Pandora is rattly and creaky, has cracking problems around the USB, and so on .. compared to the developer Pandora, entropy (its only been a few months) is very definitely evident. This is a source of disaffection, in my case anyway .. the Caanoo, though less powerful, just feels a lot more solid and durable compared to a definite fragility in the Pandora design ..

Well, it's mostly the case material. We actually sent an ICP case (which is rocksolid as it should be) to the chinese company to ask them why their material breaks so easily and the ICP is so sturdy.
Both should be PC-ABS.

The Pandora basically is like the GP2X F100 First Edition: A first newcomer device - with some flaws, but a good basic idea
GPH had a few millions to spend working on the Caanoo and it's not their first handheld. Of course that adds to quality

But we're working on there. We WANT the Pandora to be great, and we're gonna work on that as much as we can.

 

[torpor]

Maybe a few competitions will help. Maybe you guys want to sponsor some good compos in the near future, this would help get motivation back, I think ..

 

[EvilDragon]

Maybe a few competitions will help. Maybe you guys want to sponsor some good compos in the near future, this would help get motivation back, I think ..

Yeah, we got some ideas about that, too. But first I want the nubs be fixed and know that board production works flawlessly and fast.
Then I can rest assured that we will deliver the rest of the units soon, and that's a good time for a compo

 

[D4damage]

Maybe a few competitions will help. Maybe you guys want to sponsor some good compos in the near future, this would help get motivation back, I think ..

Yeah, we got some ideas about that, too. But first I want the nubs be fixed and know that board production works flawlessly and fast.
Then I can rest assured that we will deliver the rest of the units soon, and that's a good time for a compo

So where is everything up to now we're half way through the week ?

 

[EvilDragon]

Maybe a few competitions will help. Maybe you guys want to sponsor some good compos in the near future, this would help get motivation back, I think ..

Yeah, we got some ideas about that, too. But first I want the nubs be fixed and know that board production works flawlessly and fast.
Then I can rest assured that we will deliver the rest of the units soon, and that's a good time for a compo

So where is everything up to now we're half way through the week ?

Check here

 

[EdCa22]

Craigix and Ed are saying there are 900-1000 pandoras out there, I dont believe it, there are people waiting who are still 400 or so in craigs queue, that would mean ED and Fatih's customers are getting more than the advised alotment or a hell of a lot of pandoras are being RMA'd, more than craigix and Ed are willing to admit. I purchased a secondhand pandora with various small faults, but I am not willing to send it back until my actual pre-order arrives. I was told I was 650-700 in the queue by the way.

There are, but don't forget: About 150 - 200 from the first 400 were one-nubbers where people could skip the queue.
About 10% were RMAs so far, that's about 100.
Then from those 900 we delivered so far, I get a fourth which is about 225 units.

So basically: 900 - 150 - 100 - 225 = 425 (approx. Craig's queue)

Some from the one-nubbers might've been in that area as well, so it might even be at 500.

Those 10% were mostly nub RMAs, since we can fix the other problems (mostly only LCD cable) by replacing the cable, but broken nub boards need to go back to Texas so we need a board to replace until then.

That's the reason we decided to FIRST get the new nubs before delivering the units - the returns were just way too many.

ED, I think I love you. I've been sceptical and overwhelmingly negative lately, and this explanation, while basically confirming my theory about many units not working, finally explains clearly where all the current 1000 units are and where in the queue we are. Thank you.

(I'm still a bit disappointed by Craig's email telling everyone that 1000 are about to ship. But nevermind)

 

[gibberish]

imo the pandora team has failed or is close to failing in their quest to deliver their dream machine. mine stays pretty much unused, on the shelf wrapped in a sock. the main reason? i'm scared of breaking it. it feels fragile, the hinge is weak, the plastic creaks, there are dusty gaps between the screen and the bezel. but also other things like the battery won't charge a lot of the time, the battery lasts less than 5 hours when charged from full, the os is still very buggy, development is slow because production has all but stopped. and some personal things too, i find it almost too heavy to use as a hand held, and the shoulder buttons are nothing short of crap. i applaud how far op team came but inforunately they didn't have the money or the staff to quite do it right. i am aware that most people probably don't feel the way i do, but i wanted to say my piece before i finally bow out of these forums, for the time being at least.

 

[Bosbeetle]

I've been using it daily for at least 3 hours a day, never had the feeling it was fragile in any way. Actually I even draw on it with mtpaint. I think its really solid.

my two cents.