Non-premium batch one pandoras

[ZarkGhost]

I'm not actually worried about what the percentage is. I believe that Craig intends to ship Pandoras out to all of his customers as quickly as he can and that's good enough for me. I'm not complaining about the pace. I just felt that this particular comment was poorly conceived.

But that's exactly what I want to know. Ashens positive review, whilst great for Panora's cause has come too early.


If is it open-ended and Craig gains 500 new customers to ship Pandoras out to as quickly as he can then us poor sods in the queue continue to wait.


If OPT stick to 10% of weekly production this would be a fair balance. Make 200, ship 160 to the queue, 20 RMA etc and 20 premium.


And it would really be nice to see weekly figures. We had a couple of weeks some great details from ED. But Boards Received, returned, WIP, shipped (Queue/Premuim, would give us guys waiting some visibility of the progress. This yet another demand for information from busy people and I'm sure these idealistically simple figures are harder to obtain in a busy production environment.

What exactly do you think all your bitching and moaning is going to accomplish. If you believe that they're liars who are trying to swindle you, then just take your refund and go. Otherwise, stop being an ass.


You have a way out. You always have. Nobody is forcing you to buy a Pandora. Grow up.

The problem is if u "bought" already, and you see how instead send to you, they are making business selling to others and keeping your money for more time. I am sorry, but counting with the time, 2 years and a half, the preorders have paid this 500$ already, and without count the risk of lose everything. I would take refund if they pay me this 500$.


I really dont think what they are doing is legal. If someone know about, i would join to a legal complaint.


And it is not about patient, i was enough patient i think. And they should be more patient, about start to earn money from this and be fair with the people that thrust in them for all these years.

 

[EvilDragon]

The problem is if u "bought" already, and you see how instead send to you, they are making business selling to others and keeping your money for more time. I am sorry, but counting with the time, 2 years and a half, the preorders have paid this 500$ already, and without count the risk of lose everything. I would take refund if they pay me this 500$.


I really dont think what they are doing is legal. If someone know about, i would join to a legal complaint.


And it is not about patient, i was enough patient i think. And they should be more patient, about start to earn money from this and be fair with the people that thrust in them for all these years.

Well, we're not exactly happy we have to do this, but would you rather see us go bust AND lose your money without getting a Pandora instead?


We invested WAY more money than we'll ever get back with the Pandora so far, thanks to issues that had happened (first nubs company going bust after getting our money, then the massive amount of nub failures, etc.), what we're trying to do is keep this project alive and make sure you all get your units. It's definately no easy task doing something like the Pandora.

 

[TJFBryant]

The problem is if u "bought" already, and you see how instead send to you, they are making business selling to others and keeping your money for more time. I am sorry, but counting with the time, 2 years and a half, the preorders have paid this 500$ already, and without count the risk of lose everything. I would take refund if they pay me this 500$.


I really dont think what they are doing is legal. If someone know about, i would join to a legal complaint.


And it is not about patient, i was enough patient i think. And they should be more patient, about start to earn money from this and be fair with the people that thrust in them for all these years.

Well, we're not exactly happy we have to do this, but would you rather see us go bust AND lose your money without getting a Pandora instead?


We invested WAY more money than we'll ever get back with the Pandora so far, thanks to issues that had happened (first nubs company going bust after getting our money, then the massive amount of nub failures, etc.), what we're trying to do is keep this project alive and make sure you all get your units. It's definately no easy task doing something like the Pandora.

EvilDragon,


There are far more thankful and gratified customers with the way you handled this situation.


If I had to do it all over again, and wait longer than I did for my Pandora, I would still purchase, sit and wait for the finalized Pandora.


Even with the increased cost.


If only those patient people waiting for this device understood EXACTLY what they are waiting for, what they invested their money into.


I swear it was worth every cent and every second I spent worrying about Pandora.


First and formost THIS "Pandora" is a project. It is a "bit of kit", not something you can buy at your local Best Buy here in the states or local electronics store over in Europe.


Its not a DS


Its not a netbook


Its not a PSP


or a Dingoo


or a Caanoo


or Ipad


Its something entirely custom built to satisfy a niche market.


Through my experience, If you want an IPAD or Netbook with Emu capabilities.... go buy one.


If you want a Pandora then...


Purchase the Premium Pandora, support the Project like I did.


These guys are good for their word, and they are dedicated and I am sorry no one trusts that anymore.

 

[andyhamer]

The problem is if u "bought" already, and you see how instead send to you, they are making business selling to others and keeping your money for more time. I am sorry, but counting with the time, 2 years and a half, the preorders have paid this 500$ already, and without count the risk of lose everything. I would take refund if they pay me this 500$.


I really dont think what they are doing is legal. If someone know about, i would join to a legal complaint.


And it is not about patient, i was enough patient i think. And they should be more patient, about start to earn money from this and be fair with the people that thrust in them for all these years.

Well, we're not exactly happy we have to do this, but would you rather see us go bust AND lose your money without getting a Pandora instead?


We invested WAY more money than we'll ever get back with the Pandora so far, thanks to issues that had happened (first nubs company going bust after getting our money, then the massive amount of nub failures, etc.), what we're trying to do is keep this project alive and make sure you all get your units. It's definately no easy task doing something like the Pandora.

EvilDragon,


There are far more thankful and gratified customers with the way you handled this situation.


If I had to do it all over again, and wait longer than I did for my Pandora, I would still purchase, sit and wait for the finalized Pandora.


Even with the increased cost.


If only those patient people waiting for this device understood EXACTLY what they are waiting for, what they invested their money into.


I swear it was worth every cent and every second I spent worrying about Pandora.


First and formost THIS "Pandora" is a project. It is a "bit of kit", not something you can buy at your local Best Buy here in the states or local electronics store over in Europe.


Its not a DS


Its not a netbook


Its not a PSP


or a Dingoo


or a Caanoo


or Ipad


Its something entirely custom built to satisfy a niche market.


Through my experience, If you want an IPAD or Netbook with Emu capabilities.... go buy one.


If you want a Pandora then...


Purchase the Premium Pandora, support the Project like I did.


These guys are good for their word, and they are dedicated and I am sorry no one trusts that anymore.

I am noticing more & more posts, that imply unless you are a premium upgrader you are not really supporting the project.


This isn't really helpful (or correct for that matter) all it's going to do is create resentment on these boards, i'm not that naive to ignore the fact that there will be plenty, who couldn't care less what happens to the project as long as they get their unit in a timely fashion.


I (one small example) am not one of them, a day 2 pre-orderer (and active GP2X user/forum member before) am full of admiration for what has been achieved by the guys (and girl) with the development of the Pandora, how on earth they kept marching on throughout all that has befallen this project, is beyond me & i am eternally grateful to them for it.


Unfortunately my current financial situation prevents me from upgrading (cruel VAT also in UK) having recently been made redundant & a yong family.. etc, etc (for the record i did make two donations along with my original pre-order)


I am certain there are many others that fully appreciate everything the team has done and wholeheartedly support this entire (and fingers crossed pandora 2) project, but just find themselves unable to offer financial support at the moment.


If you are able to upgrade fantastic!, the team most certainly needs (and deserves) this additional support, but please don't suggest that those of us that are unable to upgrade, aren't supporting the project.. let's face it why would you still be waiting 2 years & 6 months down the line, if that was the case?

 

[ZarkGhost]

well, and why not to look for someone that want to join to the project, investing money getting % of the company? of course it is better to try to continue using the investing of the costumers. everything is advantages. that in the world exist people able of support this doesnt mean that it is fair or ethical.


I am that over that i dont care in my pandora, and i dont want the money cause it will be better only for u. If the project go to the shit and you lose money, is not my problem and i dont care. And you know why? Cause we are suffering as investors with all the disadvantages and no advantage and at the same time, suffering how the people laugh of us. two months more?


To be a bit fair, you should send the email to all the costumers, instead sell to new ones with the new advertising. But of course, is better keep the money of us, and get more from others. I see everything with this amount of shit... that i dont care any more..


And yes, i know what is a pandora, cause a friend have one and got broken 3 times already. And i am sorry, but to recycle parts of broken pandoras and sell as new is not fair neither.


4 weeks ago i said i was going to be patient, i am in the position 1150-1250, and is suppose that you risk the 1000 more than a month ago. So, when you will ship the last pre order?

 

[ZarkGhost]

4 weeks ago i said i was going to be patient, i am in the position 1150-1250, and is suppose that you risk the 1000 more than a month ago. So, when you will ship the last pre order?

you should get have your pandora shipped in the next couple of weeks, 300 new pandoras are being assembled as we speak, so chill out and enjoy the ride

Yes, 3 months ago craigix told he will risk the 1100 soon.... and since then, they where preparing a lot each week...like this pack of 300, telling how they suffer working on sundays just to make our pandoras.(i suffer too in my job, and studying at the same time, and i do it for some reason, not for free) . And yes, maybe they send mine, but the last one of the second batch?

 

[Prosthetic_Mind]

The only reason any of this is an issue right now is that for the moment we're stuck with CircuitCo, who aren't producing boards fast enough. That being said, there were even longer delays in other areas leading up to this, particularly the nubs and case, which are reasons we haven't all had our pandoras for over a year now, not to mention the difficulty in getting a loan starting out and all the payment fiascoes.


If anything, we should be optimistic, because right now we all know that we're going to receive our pandoras (excluding the incredibly low odds that everyone in OP.org gets on the same plane and it crashes or something). At pretty much any point in the past, Craig or ED could have just said fuck it, taken our money, and walked away from this whole mess, but they didn't, despite getting repeatedly fucked over and having the project labeled vaporware by most other people. They stuck with a gamble that I don't think most of us would have had the faith and dedication to see through, and as a result we're seeing these excellent (though slightly outdated) devices being assembled and shipped out. The reviews have been overwhelmingly positive, and I can personally say that though the hardware limitations chafe a little, and much of the software is still in alpha and beta stages, that the interface is the best I've used on any handheld device, bar none. It's easy to be impatient, and if it's that painful for you then you probably should try upgrading to premium, but either way your pandora is going to arrive, and the longer you wait the better the build quality will be.


Whether you like it or not, the premium orders ensure that OP.org doesn't go bankrupt before yours ships, and allows people who are more excited about the pandora to join the community and replace the many people who ordered all those years ago and eventually forgot about it or wrote it off. As was said, they have currently put batch 1 back less than a week, and are helping cover some of the slots from cancellations in batch 2. Good things come to those who wait.

 

[Link]

@Zarkghost,


Hopefully you get a solid unit with a new LCD cable that has zero issues because while waiting longer, all the kinks/flaws have been resolved through the production delays. The que is being worked on from both sides due to upgrades as well.

 

[EvilDragon]

I am noticing more & more posts, that imply unless you are a premium upgrader you are not really supporting the project.

Nope, that's not right. EVERY preorderer helped A LOT. Without those preorders, it wouldn't have been possible, and that's what most people say here as well, nobody denies that.


And I've seen no one saying that you aren't supporting if you don't upgrade to premium here as well.


However, there are some who basically tell us to stop the premium thing, as we have to fulfill the preorders first!


But that's the issue - without those premium orders, who knows if we would survive long enough to fulfill all the preorders?


Sure, might be, depending on the number of refunds and the speed CC delivers the boards, but we're rather safe than sorry here.


So both was needed: The Premiums as well as the preorderers to make sure everyone gets a Pandora.


We're not trying to scam anyone here - it's the other way round: We're trying to make sure everyone gets a unit.


Though I know this sounds wrong for some who paid years ago, but we couldn't help it. If we could've avoided that, we would've done that. Believe me.

well, and why not to look for someone that want to join to the project, investing money getting % of the company? of course it is better to try to continue using the investing of the costumers. everything is advantages. that in the world exist people able of support this doesnt mean that it is fair or ethical.

We tried. But nothing really came up so far. Craig planned to do that with the community - but with the laws and bureaucrazy there is, it wasn't possible.


We'd need one or two big supporters, but we haven't been able to find those yet.

 

[WizardStan]

We tried. But nothing really came up so far. Craig planned to do that with the community - but with the laws and bureaucrazy there is, it wasn't possible.


We'd need one or two big supporters, but we haven't been able to find those yet.

Anyone can produce a bond for any reason. I want to add an addition to my house, need $20'000 but the bank wants to set me up with a huge interest rate? I can talk to an investment lawyer and set up bonds with a lower rate and sell them. Realistically, no one is likely to buy my bonds, I don't have the contacts nor the history to prove I'm a safe investment, but I could do it in theory. You've got people lined up around the block willing to invest. There is absolutely no legal reason I can think of that you shouldn't be able to do this.


Of course, I'm working on North American (Canada and USA) financial laws here, but I'd be surprised if the lawyer he talked to couldn't have found some way to make it work in the UK.


edit: to clarify, I'm a little mistaken here. I can't issue a "bond", that's just the word that comes to mind. I can't remember what the actual legal name for a personal loan of this type is off the top of my head, but they function exactly like bonds but for private entities.

 

[andyhamer]

"Nope, that's not right. EVERY preorderer helped A LOT. Without those preorders, it wouldn't have been possible, and that's what most people say here as well, nobody denies that.


And I've seen no one saying that you aren't supporting if you don't upgrade to premium here as well."


I think you misunderstand me, i wasn't suggesting that the team are implying this & i know the project wouldn't exist without the pre-orders.


But there have been several (i suspect late arrivals, to the project) forum member posts which do insinuate, that there is a kind of hierarchy of support (or perhaps i am just being a little over sensitive) all this achieves is to anger those of us who would love to upgade (not only to fasttrack their order, but also to support all the teams hard work & future endeavours) but are unable for whatever reason to do so.

 

[Linopoly]

But that's exactly what I want to know. Ashens positive review, whilst great for Panora's cause has come too early.


If is it open-ended and Craig gains 500 new customers to ship Pandoras out to as quickly as he can then us poor sods in the queue continue to wait.


If OPT stick to 10% of weekly production this would be a fair balance. Make 200, ship 160 to the queue, 20 RMA etc and 20 premium.


And it would really be nice to see weekly figures. We had a couple of weeks some great details from ED. But Boards Received, returned, WIP, shipped (Queue/Premuim, would give us guys waiting some visibility of the progress. This yet another demand for information from busy people and I'm sure these idealistically simple figures are harder to obtain in a busy production environment.

What exactly do you think all your bitching and moaning is going to accomplish. If you believe that they're liars who are trying to swindle you, then just take your refund and go. Otherwise, stop being an ass.


You have a way out. You always have. Nobody is forcing you to buy a Pandora. Grow up.

I think May88 has actually been pretty reasonable in voicing these concerns. We're all here for the same reason, so we might as well keep things civil.

 

[andmaz]

@Zarkghost,


Hopefully you get a solid unit with a new LCD cable that has zero issues because while waiting longer, all the kinks/flaws have been resolved through the production delays. The que is being worked on from both sides due to upgrades as well.

Well RMA level flaws is the major thing stopping me from upgading to premium at the moment - paying all the money to upgrade (approx £130 inc VAT) and then having to RMA and waiting weeks and weeks again really puts me off.


Still I am 1300-1400 so I may be in the next batch and if it is as good as everyone says then I will continue to support OPT by buying/getting others to buy additional units.


If software is of a good quality then the relevant devs will receive donations - I have done this previously on the GP32 and the Zodiac

 

[TooCoolToRule]

I've had enough, too. It seems the only ones with any community spirit now are the devs and coders, who I admire for doing their thing for the Pandora for free. I've never been the one to bitch and moan about anything, but I've been waiting since 5th October 2008 and all I can see is someone who can afford to pay the extra money and I can't. I would have no problem with the extra money that OP are getting for premium orders if more boards were forthcoming but they are not. I'll give it another two or three weeks and then cancel my order if I haven't received my Pandora by then. Unless of course someone can tell my why I should wait for a handheld that is already 'getting to be' underpowered and overpriced, just for the albeit 'reputedly excellent' controls. Well, can you ?

 

[vadsamoht]

Whether the continued wait is worth it is something you have to decide for yourself, but I would dispute your claim that there is no community spirit, in fact I would argue that the spirit has improved since units started regularly shipping.


All I'm going to say on the matter is that you really are close to getting your unit now that OP are regularly recieving boards and shipping as many as they can. I was in the same boat, but I'm glad I waited.

 

[Link]

I've had enough, too. It seems the only ones with any community spirit now are the devs and coders, who I admire for doing their thing for the Pandora for free. I've never been the one to bitch and moan about anything, but I've been waiting since 5th October 2008 and all I can see is someone who can afford to pay the extra money and I can't. I would have no problem with the extra money that OP are getting for premium orders if more boards were forthcoming but they are not. I'll give it another two or three weeks and then cancel my order if I haven't received my Pandora by then. Unless of course someone can tell my why I should wait for a handheld that is already 'getting to be' underpowered and overpriced, just for the albeit 'reputedly excellent' controls. Well, can you ?

I think you'll be getting your shipping email fairly soon. Religion and monarchy are slowing down progress right now.

 

[TooCoolToRule]

All I'm going to say on the matter is that you really are close to getting your unit now that OP are regularly recieving boards and shipping as many as they can. I was in the same boat, but I'm glad I waited.

I think you'll be getting your shipping email fairly soon. Religion and monarchy are slowing down progress right now.

I really do hope so and thanks for the replies. It means a lot to me.

Pandora is the best thing since electric shaver, though only if you are a real retrogamer.

Been gaming since I was 12 on the Sinclair ZX81 (learning Sinclair Basic and playing all those 1k games in black and white). Since then I have had a Commodore 128, Spectrum, Amiga 1200, Dreamcast, Gamecube, PS1,2 and 3, DS Lite, and an XBOX 360 so, yeah, I'm a 'real' retrogamer. That is the only reason I am still waiting for my Pandora.

 

[Nintendo]

Pandora is the best thing since electric shaver, though only if you are a real retrogamer.

 

[Trevster]

I see all of the happy people receiving their premium pandoras but no happy non-premium people receiving a pandora. Perhaps they don't care to brag?

Well they haven't shipped any for a few days now because Craig is waiting for the LCD cables.

Also where are you in the queue i.e. what order month are you now shipping?

October 2008.

I'm second batch and I ordered it Dec 2010. Should I even be expecting mine this year?

 

[ZarkGhost]

ok, i got mine and i recived the email exactly in the last day i will wait until. (yep, i will develop what ever i do thinking to port for the pandora...)


I will admit, that looks nice by the moment, without count the problem that i have, that for some reason normally dont detect any wifi (i live in Madrid, capital, so there should be some around) Neither my own wifi, and when it detects, is not able to connect, neither setting off the the security.


Anyway, another friend got at the same time than me, and we were 1150-1250 from day 2 (1 october) at 20:20.