Personally I would want to see the production of games made specifically for the pandora before getting the license to another game or games. I'm actually pretty opposed to the idea of android on the pandora but I'll get back to that. Basically we already have a million and a half existing games for the pandora because of its nack for emulation, not to mention the ongoing development of emulators by our much appreciated contributors here on the site.
And I love playing old games in all their original glory. But Something I love even more is seeing old ideas made fresh or fusing old ideas to make something new. Super Geometry Dust was the first game I played on the pandora and it is one of my favorites. Then later on I discovered pandora panic. Then Wind and Water (yes, a gp2x game but you get the point). I freaking love wind and water. These games all recieved a special amount of attention and I gladly would have paid money to download them. Which gives me the idea that to focus more attention to making original produced games for the pandora there should be some kind of arrangement to donate to ongoing projects (obviously for smaller parties that would accept this kind of thing). I know this isnt exactly my most thought out idea but if I personally were able to fund or donate to ongoing pandora software products in the same way I contributed and plan to contribute to the pandora project itself then I certainly would. The pandora has always been community driven like this.
And if we could get companies like yuan works (who I think made water and wind but I could be wrong) to produce more games for the pandora could we not do something similar to fund that effort? I dont know, but it's a cool idea.
As for why I am opposed to the android os coming to the pandora, I personally think it would confuse things. Obviously the pandora is meant for personalization to work however you want it, but I think that blurring the lines between it and existing devices in the way that mimicking android would also destroys the identity that the pandora has. This, I feel, is mainly an approachability issue because once these things become openly available to the point of making the pandora appealing as a result it confuses people about how the pandora works, and therefore their willingness to find out. The pandora is not a complicated device to set up. Especially not with all the pnds readily available for it. Will all the games made to play on the pandora you dont even need to properly know how to use emulators to have fun on it. PNDs like the pndmanager which was in the rebirth competition are examples of ways the pandora is becoming more accessible and also independant from devces like android tablets or (a strange comparison, I know) the nintendo ds.
speaking of the nintendo ds, shouldnt any new games we feature on the pandora have the same appeal as popular games released on the ds? ok, thats an extremely broad statement. I mean games that are graphically appealing but simple, usualy old school gameplay (which the pandora has no problems doing), logic, rpg, or puzzle games. Going back, super geometry dust, pandora panic, and water and wind all fit into one of these categories. It's their accessibility that I think makes them so fun in this format. People are always (ok not always) complaining about how theres no way to emulate nds games but we dont need to. we can have equaly fun if not more fun games made for the pandora that incorporate all of the controls depending on what the games need. Hell, we can mix genres in ways not done before with the keyboard and controls combined. I dont know, I'm just spit balling.
All of this, I think, could be applied to applications as well, not just games.
Well, thats just my two cents.
PS forgot to name drop the excellent games submitted in the rebirth competition, my two favorites being thruster and hurrican. Opendune was also impressive. Also, There are aot of games for the pandora that I'm still discovering that are both beautiful and entertaining. I now that some are just ports of linux games and some of those are ports of other games, but the sentiment is still there. They look good and are easy to play on the pandora. More of that please.
