Hello all.. I have been following the Pandora project since day one. I never commented and not to long a go I created an account on the board. I was so happy when I received the e-mail that you can now pre-order the Pandora, that was back in 199x. I took a wait and see approach. waited and waited, followed all the problems that the team had to endured. In 2010, I pre-order a Pandora and followed all the problems with cases, china, 2 plus week. In late 2010, I canceled my order because I could not take the drama anymore. I kept on following the Pandora, problems with China, Texas, production on Germany now. I'm happy to see all the news and sad to see the Pandora price point, $500 is way to much for my pocket and I was not sure if the pandara was for me any more. I was also discouraged by the failure rate and RMA. I would hate to place an order and then have to return the unit for repairs.
My approach to getting a pandora was simple.. I wanted a unit that was already used and everything worked as it should and had no surprises. A board member in the trading section was selling a Pandora and he described that the unit had a problem with the A button (mushi button) but that the button worked. I paypal the amount and the member send me the pandora which I received the next day. It was a quick process and no problems. My first impression where positive on the look and feel on the unit. I power it on and started playing some MAME and SNES. At first I was like, that sucks no SNES at full speed? The previews owner then told me that SNES runs at full speed. I researched everything that I could on the pandora. I re-flashed the Pandora with the newest software and added the latest emulators. I was able to run MAME and SNES at full speed.
But as I started playing more and more, I was getting very frustrated with the A button problem. It got to the point where I had enough, I opened up the Pandora and took a look inside. My heart was going extremely fast and I was being very careful. I was thinking that if I damaged the pandora it would not make a difference because the A button problem made the Pandora useless to me. I took apart and put the Pandora back about 10 times and nothing worked to fix the A button. I then had an idea, I opened up my icontrolpad and took the A button and replaced the Pandora A button with it, I was shocked to find out that this process did the trick. The A button was now perfect on the pandora. I was very happy to play MAME and SNES with a perfect A button but while playing SNES I pressed the right shoulder button and guess what? The button does not click right/correctly, it seems stock. I do not know if that problem was there to begin with or if I cause that problem when I opened up the Pandora to fix the A button. I open the Pandora a few more times trying to fix this issue but I could not. I looked under the help section and there is a fix for it, you have to sand down the inner part of the right shoulder button because it does not align bla bla bla. I have not try that fix and the right shoulder button is not something that I use that much so no big deal there.
Now lets go back to the main reason why I wanted a pandora, I love MAME and sold one of my MAME cab, the other cab is currently in craiglist. I gave away my Nintendo wii because I do not touch it. I have a PS3 which I will be giving away. I just do not have the time to myself due to family, to play on a console or MAMEcab. I wanted the Pandora to replace my MAME cabs which I play shinobi, kof, SFA, SF and galaga and to play SNES. It is a very cool device and has the best dpad on any device, it is small, portable and I can play in the leaving room while my son trashes the living room without much interruption.
What I am trying to say is - to the Pandora team, when you ship these units make sure that the units are 100% without defects because this will make or break the user experience. The previews owner mentioned that this was his second pandora and his first was sent for repairs. I can imagine how he felt and the frustration.
My advice to anyone thinking on buying a Pandora - think about how you are going to use the pandora before buying one. Look at the trading section and purchase a use pandora that has been tested and with zero defects, then flash the firmware to the latest and use the latest emulators.
I love the Pandora and it is a very cool hand held device and to me it is a replacement for Arcade MAME games and SNES. I have not tried amiga but looking forward to. Overall, thank you Pandora team for a great system and I will keep on with development and monitor your progress.
My approach to getting a pandora was simple.. I wanted a unit that was already used and everything worked as it should and had no surprises. A board member in the trading section was selling a Pandora and he described that the unit had a problem with the A button (mushi button) but that the button worked. I paypal the amount and the member send me the pandora which I received the next day. It was a quick process and no problems. My first impression where positive on the look and feel on the unit. I power it on and started playing some MAME and SNES. At first I was like, that sucks no SNES at full speed? The previews owner then told me that SNES runs at full speed. I researched everything that I could on the pandora. I re-flashed the Pandora with the newest software and added the latest emulators. I was able to run MAME and SNES at full speed.
But as I started playing more and more, I was getting very frustrated with the A button problem. It got to the point where I had enough, I opened up the Pandora and took a look inside. My heart was going extremely fast and I was being very careful. I was thinking that if I damaged the pandora it would not make a difference because the A button problem made the Pandora useless to me. I took apart and put the Pandora back about 10 times and nothing worked to fix the A button. I then had an idea, I opened up my icontrolpad and took the A button and replaced the Pandora A button with it, I was shocked to find out that this process did the trick. The A button was now perfect on the pandora. I was very happy to play MAME and SNES with a perfect A button but while playing SNES I pressed the right shoulder button and guess what? The button does not click right/correctly, it seems stock. I do not know if that problem was there to begin with or if I cause that problem when I opened up the Pandora to fix the A button. I open the Pandora a few more times trying to fix this issue but I could not. I looked under the help section and there is a fix for it, you have to sand down the inner part of the right shoulder button because it does not align bla bla bla. I have not try that fix and the right shoulder button is not something that I use that much so no big deal there.
Now lets go back to the main reason why I wanted a pandora, I love MAME and sold one of my MAME cab, the other cab is currently in craiglist. I gave away my Nintendo wii because I do not touch it. I have a PS3 which I will be giving away. I just do not have the time to myself due to family, to play on a console or MAMEcab. I wanted the Pandora to replace my MAME cabs which I play shinobi, kof, SFA, SF and galaga and to play SNES. It is a very cool device and has the best dpad on any device, it is small, portable and I can play in the leaving room while my son trashes the living room without much interruption.
What I am trying to say is - to the Pandora team, when you ship these units make sure that the units are 100% without defects because this will make or break the user experience. The previews owner mentioned that this was his second pandora and his first was sent for repairs. I can imagine how he felt and the frustration.
My advice to anyone thinking on buying a Pandora - think about how you are going to use the pandora before buying one. Look at the trading section and purchase a use pandora that has been tested and with zero defects, then flash the firmware to the latest and use the latest emulators.
I love the Pandora and it is a very cool hand held device and to me it is a replacement for Arcade MAME games and SNES. I have not tried amiga but looking forward to. Overall, thank you Pandora team for a great system and I will keep on with development and monitor your progress.
