Nvidia's Project Shield - 'Android & Tegra 4 inside'

[alucart1984]

This thing is shaping up to be the handheld of choice, anyone play Dead Trigger 2 yet?

Not really. I have had 3 of these since launch day and barely used them. I still use my Pandora way more often. I still like emulation on the pandora way better. I know it's just me because SNESFAN and CoCoCreekFisherman like it a lot.

Edit: And now ptitSeb is porting all kinds of awesome PC games to the Pandora, my Shields will be shelved for quite some time

Dead Trigger 2 is not out for public release as of yet. I saw YouTube videos of it and it looks better than Dead Trigger 1. I will buy that one for sure.
As much as I love and respect what ptitSeb is doing I must say that i have played all of those games before. It is awesome that the 1 gig Pandora plays them as well as they do.They are not perfectly ran though. It is fun playing them again as it is with most old school games from my past.Sadly, multiplayer is problematic for the Pandora regarding these games.


The attraction of the Shield for me is that this is the future of handheld gaming.Not only that but it looks and feels so quality like. Honestly how many times can I play RTCW or Mario 64? In addition I have found that the Shield can emulate almost as


good or better in some cases [to my surprise] than the Pandora. Like I said before, the SHield has only been out now for what 2 weeks and we are already comparing it to a powerhouse emulator like the Pandora. But from a graphical and gameplay standpoint....in the coming months there will be games that the Pandora will never be able to run and the Shield will. I happen to be a Max Payne fan and that game runs magnificently on the Shield...and that is just one small example....and those Sonic games ....oh my fricking gid they are beautiful !!! Oh yes Virtua Tennis and House of the Dead OverKill !!


There has only been a few games made for Tegra 4 and they look and play amazing.


I really do consider these 2 consoles in 2 different categories. Again I see the Shield as a future device to not only emulate PS2,Dreamcast,Xbox and Gamecube games very well but produce mind blowing new games with the quad Tegra 4 power it has. And don't forget that screen and sound!!!....puts the Pandora to shame. Sorry but it just does. I also think the weaknesses emulation wise the Shield might demonstrate can be fixed easily by the developers just because of the sheer power the SHield has now. Yes there are adjustments to be made...


The potential is mind blowing and I think the Pandora is maxing out slowly. I know I am pissing some folks off by saying this. Also I admit I do not use my Pandora as a PC because my Blackberry Q10 4G does all that work for me when I am on the go. I can't see myself or feel comfortable carrying a Pandora and a smart phone because I feel it is overkill but that is just me. Plus the Pandora is so damn delicate I am afraid I will crack a 5th one...so it stays home and I will surf with Firefox on occasion on it.


I do still like my Pandora very much and will never sell it. I will wait and see if a Pandora 2 ever comes out but I am very skeptical.

This is exactly how I feel. I just sold my Rebirth Pandora to buy the Nvidia Shield. I am more than happy with the Shield and I definitely find it to be better at almost everything than the Pandora. The Pandora has top notch emulation and the Shield has some improvements to be made but I feel it has more room for improvement were as the Pandora has hit its ceiling even with the 1Ghz. Max Payne is an excellent example, while the Pandora can run it and run it decent it can't run with every thing maxed out. Dead Trigger on Ultra is amazing and I am super excited for Dead Trigger 2. I am not sure about those other systems being emulated though. The Tegra 4 is strong but is it that strong? Either way Pandora definitely has something above and beyond the Nvidia Shield that I doubt it will ever have, but wished it did, and that is this amazing community of amazing developers that make amazing software. If it ever had a strong Tegra 4 specific community then it would own the Pandora no questions asked.

I have a question about your Shield: How is the Dpad? Mine pops and doesn't seem accurate, like when I push up sometimes I go left or right as well. (This is an area the Pandora owns in....miss that dpad for retro gaming)

No problems with my d-pad as of yet. It works very smoothly and responsive and feels solid.I rate it as good as any xbox or Pandora pad I ever used. It does make a slight clicking noise during movement but it does not impair anything gameplay wise.
Yes I do think this device will take emulation up a notch with Dreamcast, Xbox,Gamecube and Ps2....if I can play Powerstone on my PS Vita and play the best looking version of Max Payne on my Shield then I say yes it is possible. It will take time and some negotiating but I believe the processing power is there.People will have to learn how to develop for it since it is new technology. Again this device is an infant now.....we are lucky to own one and I think this time next year things will have improved markedly.


and those Sonic games are beautiful on that screen as is Virtua Tennis if you like that sort of game. It is the best looking version I ever laid my eyes on. B)


Even if my predictions are wrong I know there will be a bunch of Tegra 4 optimized games for the Shield that will blow any other handheld device out of the water. Either way for me it's a win/win situation.

Hmmm.....sounds like my DPAD might be defective because I never had the issues I am having with this. I am going to see if I can get an advanced RMA so I don't have to stop using my Nvidia Shield. I would love if I could play Power Stone on my Nvidia Shield. Today I was in the break room at work and every who saw my Shield was impressed with the quality of the screen and when I turned up the speakers they were equally impressed by the loudness and quality.

 

[CocoCreekFisherman]

^ or wait a year and get the Shield v2

Or a Pandora successor

NEWS: EvilDragon announced Pandora successor for 2014.

Will never happen. I think many things need to be sorted out with this Pandora.

I will eat my hat if it happens in one year. ...seriously I will. I will make a vid of it too. :lol:

Even if it did happen [which it won't] I don't know if i could tolerate everything all over again.....TRUST is a big issue here.

I am just happy I finally have a unit that is not damaged.

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

This thing is shaping up to be the handheld of choice, anyone play Dead Trigger 2 yet?

Not really. I have had 3 of these since launch day and barely used them. I still use my Pandora way more often. I still like emulation on the pandora way better. I know it's just me because SNESFAN and CoCoCreekFisherman like it a lot.

Edit: And now ptitSeb is porting all kinds of awesome PC games to the Pandora, my Shields will be shelved for quite some time

Dead Trigger 2 is not out for public release as of yet. I saw YouTube videos of it and it looks better than Dead Trigger 1. I will buy that one for sure.
As much as I love and respect what ptitSeb is doing I must say that i have played all of those games before. It is awesome that the 1 gig Pandora plays them as well as they do.They are not perfectly ran though. It is fun playing them again as it is with most old school games from my past.Sadly, multiplayer is problematic for the Pandora regarding these games.


The attraction of the Shield for me is that this is the future of handheld gaming.Not only that but it looks and feels so quality like. Honestly how many times can I play RTCW or Mario 64? In addition I have found that the Shield can emulate almost as


good or better in some cases [to my surprise] than the Pandora. Like I said before, the SHield has only been out now for what 2 weeks and we are already comparing it to a powerhouse emulator like the Pandora. But from a graphical and gameplay standpoint....in the coming months there will be games that the Pandora will never be able to run and the Shield will. I happen to be a Max Payne fan and that game runs magnificently on the Shield...and that is just one small example....and those Sonic games ....oh my fricking gid they are beautiful !!! Oh yes Virtua Tennis and House of the Dead OverKill !!


There has only been a few games made for Tegra 4 and they look and play amazing.


I really do consider these 2 consoles in 2 different categories. Again I see the Shield as a future device to not only emulate PS2,Dreamcast,Xbox and Gamecube games very well but produce mind blowing new games with the quad Tegra 4 power it has. And don't forget that screen and sound!!!....puts the Pandora to shame. Sorry but it just does. I also think the weaknesses emulation wise the Shield might demonstrate can be fixed easily by the developers just because of the sheer power the SHield has now. Yes there are adjustments to be made...


The potential is mind blowing and I think the Pandora is maxing out slowly. I know I am pissing some folks off by saying this. Also I admit I do not use my Pandora as a PC because my Blackberry Q10 4G does all that work for me when I am on the go. I can't see myself or feel comfortable carrying a Pandora and a smart phone because I feel it is overkill but that is just me. Plus the Pandora is so damn delicate I am afraid I will crack a 5th one...so it stays home and I will surf with Firefox on occasion on it.


I do still like my Pandora very much and will never sell it. I will wait and see if a Pandora 2 ever comes out but I am very skeptical.

This is exactly how I feel. I just sold my Rebirth Pandora to buy the Nvidia Shield. I am more than happy with the Shield and I definitely find it to be better at almost everything than the Pandora. The Pandora has top notch emulation and the Shield has some improvements to be made but I feel it has more room for improvement were as the Pandora has hit its ceiling even with the 1Ghz. Max Payne is an excellent example, while the Pandora can run it and run it decent it can't run with every thing maxed out. Dead Trigger on Ultra is amazing and I am super excited for Dead Trigger 2. I am not sure about those other systems being emulated though. The Tegra 4 is strong but is it that strong? Either way Pandora definitely has something above and beyond the Nvidia Shield that I doubt it will ever have, but wished it did, and that is this amazing community of amazing developers that make amazing software. If it ever had a strong Tegra 4 specific community then it would own the Pandora no questions asked.

I have a question about your Shield: How is the Dpad? Mine pops and doesn't seem accurate, like when I push up sometimes I go left or right as well. (This is an area the Pandora owns in....miss that dpad for retro gaming)

No problems with my d-pad as of yet. It works very smoothly and responsive and feels solid.I rate it as good as any xbox or Pandora pad I ever used. It does make a slight clicking noise during movement but it does not impair anything gameplay wise.
Yes I do think this device will take emulation up a notch with Dreamcast, Xbox,Gamecube and Ps2....if I can play Powerstone on my PS Vita and play the best looking version of Max Payne on my Shield then I say yes it is possible. It will take time and some negotiating but I believe the processing power is there.People will have to learn how to develop for it since it is new technology. Again this device is an infant now.....we are lucky to own one and I think this time next year things will have improved markedly.


and those Sonic games are beautiful on that screen as is Virtua Tennis if you like that sort of game. It is the best looking version I ever laid my eyes on. B)


Even if my predictions are wrong I know there will be a bunch of Tegra 4 optimized games for the Shield that will blow any other handheld device out of the water. Either way for me it's a win/win situation.

Hmmm.....sounds like my DPAD might be defective because I never had the issues I am having with this. I am going to see if I can get an advanced RMA so I don't have to stop using my Nvidia Shield. I would love if I could play Power Stone on my Nvidia Shield. Today I was in the break room at work and every who saw my Shield was impressed with the quality of the screen and when I turned up the speakers they were equally impressed by the loudness and quality.

I wouldn't dare bringing my Shield to work as I will get a pink slip the next day.  But no problem with the pandora.  I bring it to work and take notes on it everyday and my boss always said he love my gadget!  I laughed to myself:  "What a dumb boss, its an ultmate retro-gaming device! But you'll never find out!" 

 

[EvilDragon]

Even if it did happen [which it won't] I don't know if i could tolerate everything all over again.....TRUST is a big issue here.
I am just happy I finally have a unit that is not damaged.

Well, what reason do you have to NOT trust me?
Anything that I did caused issues?

And what would you need to tolerate? Buy it off stock once it's available and that's it.

Not that big deal

 

[CocoCreekFisherman]

Even if it did happen [which it won't] I don't know if i could tolerate everything all over again.....TRUST is a big issue here.


I am just happy I finally have a unit that is not damaged.

Well, what reason do you have to NOT trust me?


Anything that I did caused issues?


And what would you need to tolerate? Buy it off stock once it's available and that's it.


Not that big deal

I had 5 Pandoras my friend. I sold four of them  because they unexpectedly cracked...for no reason. ...I had 3 blacks[all 256] and I silver gig. They all developed cracks. I now own another 1 gig I bought from Link and thus far it is as perfect as it gets. When I say trust it is not that I do not trust you...rather I do not trust the product. Honestly in my entire gaming life I have never bought 5 of the same product!!!!...neve ever never. Let alone the reasons I had to get rid of the first 4.I did nothing unusual to bring on the cracking. I just could not play a on a Pandora I thought was going to crack apart at any time so rather than wait for it to get worse[which a couple did anyhow] I sold them for a reasonable price on ebay. ...Yes I sold 4. I could not fix this problem but tried using different adhesives but the crack would spread!! I even tried sugru.,,adhesives,re- painting. Nothing stopped the cracking.

and yes on ebay I told of and showed the cracks ..I am an honest seller.

This is the only device I have ever owned that every time I go to turn it on I hope that nothing will crack or that the lcd cables remain working..etc..Seriously ED this is a trust issue with the product not you. But weirdly enough I still love it for some reason.

I really enjoy my unit and have donated and try to be a proper member in these forums. It's just that there has been so many hiccups I have read and experienced myself that I worry about this happening all over again with yet another Pandora.

Sorry EvilDragon but i feel this way for real. I am sorry you feel I am so negative.

 

[Klumpen]

I had 5 Pandoras my friend. I sold four of them  because they unexpectedly cracked...for no reason. ...I had 3 blacks[all 256] and I silver gig. They all developed cracks. I now own another 1 gig I bought from Link and thus far it is as perfect as it gets. When I say trust it is not that I do not trust you...rather I do not trust the product. Honestly in my entire gaming life I have never bought 5 of the same product!!!!...neve ever never. Let alone the reasons I had to get rid of the first 4.I did nothing unusual to bring on the cracking. I just could not play a on a Pandora I thought was going to crack apart at any time so rather than wait for it to get worse[which a couple did anyhow] I sold them for a reasonable price on ebay. ...Yes I sold 4. I could not fix this problem but tried using different adhesives but the crack would spread!! I even tried sugaru.

This is the only device I have ever owned that every time I go to turn it on I hope that nothing will crack or that the lcd cables remain working..etc..Seriously ED this is a trust issue with the product not you. But weirdly enough I still love it for some reason.

I really enjoy my unit and have donated and try to be a proper member in these forums. It's just that there has been so many hiccups I have read and experienced myself that I worry about this happening all over again with yet another Pandora.

Sorry EvilDragon but i feel this way for real.

Are you living in a desert or another area with extreme temperature variation or regular climatic changes in very short timespans?

I bought a used black classic pandora back then, had some cracks but they were no real problem and later (not regarding an RMA because of damage because of one of the old power supplys which exploded a bit) upgraded so 1Ghz and the new platinum case and everything is just fine.

 

[TrashyMG]

My CC developed some cosmetic cracks, my Rebirth (black cased - one of the first out of Germany) is still in perfect shape and my 1Ghz is in mint condition.. although I only had that one since March. 

 

 

[Hồng Thất Công]

Would be nice if there's another case that's really good and shiny (fingerprint-resistant) and sturdy (sturdier than the platinum case).  The "guts" of the pandora is good but the "skin" is bad.  That's why I've been on a mission (a failed mission) to ask ED if he could produce stronger cases, like an aluminum-mixed-plastic case

 

[CocoCreekFisherman]

I had 5 Pandoras my friend. I sold four of them  because they unexpectedly cracked...for no reason. ...I had 3 blacks[all 256] and I silver gig. They all developed cracks. I now own another 1 gig I bought from Link and thus far it is as perfect as it gets. When I say trust it is not that I do not trust you...rather I do not trust the product. Honestly in my entire gaming life I have never bought 5 of the same product!!!!...neve ever never. Let alone the reasons I had to get rid of the first 4.I did nothing unusual to bring on the cracking. I just could not play a on a Pandora I thought was going to crack apart at any time so rather than wait for it to get worse[which a couple did anyhow] I sold them for a reasonable price on ebay. ...Yes I sold 4. I could not fix this problem but tried using different adhesives but the crack would spread!! I even tried sugaru.

This is the only device I have ever owned that every time I go to turn it on I hope that nothing will crack or that the lcd cables remain working..etc..Seriously ED this is a trust issue with the product not you. But weirdly enough I still love it for some reason.

I really enjoy my unit and have donated and try to be a proper member in these forums. It's just that there has been so many hiccups I have read and experienced myself that I worry about this happening all over again with yet another Pandora.

Sorry EvilDragon but i feel this way for real.

Are you living in a desert or another area with extreme temperature variation or regular climatic changes in very short timespans?

I bought a used black classic pandora back then, had some cracks but they were no real problem and later (not regarding an RMA because of damage because of one of the old power supplys which exploded a bit) upgraded so 1Ghz and the new platinum case and everything is just fine.

No Sir. My climate is relatively stable and consistent. I do not live anywhere where the climate is so unstable as you infer. I will say it is very warm here and tropical....always. ..and it wasn't that I was sitting all day under a coconut tree using my Pandora. Actually I really took care of it and after reading other people had had crack problems I thought well they must have done something to bring it on. But I did nothing and I was always careful with all of them. I own many other handheld devices and never had such a problem.

What really shocked me was when my 1gig silver model cracked in between the sd card slots. Actually I had posted that picture in another thread. I noticed a crack had developed on the 1 gig in between the sd slots. One night I took out a card and the whole piece fell off. One black model[256mb] started cracking at the corner and it got progressively worse with time, the other black model [256mb]cracked at the hinge and the 3rd black one[256mb] cracked by the battery door...just above the latch.

Like I said earlier I did try many techniques to repair. I was able to cover the cracks but eventually the cracks grew past the repair sight. So I sold each one on ebay revealing the cracks with typed explanation and pictures.....and no returns

I am not exaggerating either.

 

[Klumpen]

You need to invest some more points in your "luck"-skills at the next character creation, my good sir.

 

[CocoCreekFisherman]

You need to invest some more points in your "luck"-skills at the next character creation, my good sir.

I don't think it is a matter of just my 'luck' since many others have had the same problem except they did not own as many as I did. Perhaps if the average person bought 5 Pandoras maybe 3 or 4 would have cracked too. At least I never had the LCD cable problem.

Nothing to do with luck but rather it is a defect with the Pandora...a device that I still like very much.

 

[Jumpman]

Hopefully this thread will get back on track, but let me add my 2 cents while we're on Pandora quality issues. I love the Pandora, and I've had a few in my possession, and everyone had minor to major cosmetic problems. To say otherwise, is to be in denial or just not listening to the masses. The Pandora I have currently is the best of the ones I had, and it has begin to crack in several locations. I may order a new silver case at some point and replace this one, but it's not so bad that I really need to.

I knew when I bought this device, it was never going to be Apple quality, and that was OK, as I would take 10 defective Pandora's to 1 Apple device any day of the week. I would take part in a P2 if one is ever produced and if the maker can show a head strong business plan that is in no way like what we went through the first time. I wouldn't think it would be Shield or Vita quality, but I would hope it could be made better than the P1 for sure.

Chris

 

[Jumpman]

FYI...........For those of you who are having clicky D-Pad issues, the sound is normal, but if the movement isn't accurate, you may have a deeper issue. There is a thread over in the Shield Nvidia forums, and they have been issuing tons of RMA's for the issue(everyone is stating CS is Awesome BTW), but they did come forward to state the noise is part of the overall design and shouldn't effect the controls in any way. 

I'm guessing they issued the statement as the returns where getting out of hand. Many customers are now waiting on their 3rd returns to arrive, as the 2nd was louder or worse in sound than the first. I don't think I'll mind the clicking as long as the movement is right on the game end.

Chris

 

[CocoCreekFisherman]

Actually I like the clicking sound and the pad feels right to me. Like you said it is a end click and hardly noticeable. 

It does not impair any movement for me.

My  Shield d-pad clicks exactly like my PS Vita d-pad. It provides a sort of tactile feedback as far as I am concerned.

BTW....BloodSword Sword of Ruin HD is a pretty awesome medieval overhead slasher for the Shield!!!

Hope all those with problems get things sorted out soon.

 

[Jumpman]

Actually I like the clicking sound and it feels right to me. Like you said it is a end click. It sort of provides a feedback for me.

It does not impair any movement for me. Hope all those with problems get it sorted out soon.

BTW....BloodSword Sword of Ruin HD is a pretty awesome medieval overhead slasher for the Shield!!!

Most of the returns to Nvidia where from those who just didn't like the sound, and thought it may get worse or effect movement over time. I understand this, as this device was $300(originally $350 in the beginning), so the end consumer shouldn't have to think something "may" or "may not" be right with such an expensive device.

I honestly love the true micro-switch game pads that exist in the world(NeoGeo Pocket, PDP 6 button PS3/360 pads, ect), for the same reasons you mention above. The click lets you know when an accurate press has been made. It seems like Nvidia was going for a similar feel, but without the true micro-switch components. Most of the customers who made returns, say the noise is only in certain directions, and can be louder or non existent in others, but the controls worked properly.

If the sound was intended, it should make the same noise in all directions, and at a similar decibel level. Oh well, I'll see how the shield measures up soon enough. Hopefully my D-Pad doesn't become an issue, as where most buyers may not use theirs much, do to FPS/PC streaming, where I'll be using mine mostly for emulation, and proper D-Pad controls are a must.

Chris

 

[alucart1984]

Actually I like the clicking sound and the pad feels right to me. Like you said it is a end click and hardly noticeable. 

It does not impair any movement for me.

My  Shield d-pad clicks exactly like my PS Vita d-pad. It provides a sort of tactile feedback as far as I am concerned.

BTW....BloodSword Sword of Ruin HD is a pretty awesome medieval overhead slasher for the Shield!!!

Hope all those with problems get things sorted out soon.

I fixed my dpad.  I took a can of air to it after seeing the pictures of a tear down of the Shield.  I looked at the rubber pad and the contacts in the picture and I was sure something just got inside it.  Mine came with some kind of saw dust like particles all over it and I think they got in the Dpad and caused my issue.  Now i can play Crash Bandicoot with the DPAD and go straight.  Loving my Shield so much.  Just put on Quake 3...runs, looks, and plays better than the Pandora's version.  I am going to buy Dos Box Turbo when I get paid and see how well it runs Daggerfall and Arena because neither of these are hardly playable on the Pandora.

 

[EvilDragon]

Did you try the latest ioquake3 release on the Pandora?

 

[SNESFAN]

checked out the latest nightly of ppsspp on nvidia shield and it brings with it an option for "multi-threading" in "experimental" mode.

So far it's making games loose their vsync and you get a lot of flickering, but performance wise it's a noticeable improvement. Some of the games that ran well with frameskip now run nearly as good without it on at all. I'm going to keep my eye on it for the next couple days and once they fix the flickering thing I'll have a new video up.

Those guys are machines.

 

[CocoCreekFisherman]

checked out the latest nightly of ppsspp on nvidia shield and it brings with it an option for "multi-threading" in "experimental" mode.

So far it's making games loose their vsync and you get a lot of flickering, but performance wise it's a noticeable improvement. Some of the games that ran well with frameskip now run nearly as good without it on at all. I'm going to keep my eye on it for the next couple days and once they fix the flickering thing I'll have a new video up.

Those guys are machines.

^ Yes they are and this is in it's infancy.....the best is yet to come and there is plenty of motivation from all involved to work to make improvements.

 

[CocoCreekFisherman]

Actually I like the clicking sound and the pad feels right to me. Like you said it is a end click and hardly noticeable. 

It does not impair any movement for me.

My  Shield d-pad clicks exactly like my PS Vita d-pad. It provides a sort of tactile feedback as far as I am concerned.

BTW....BloodSword Sword of Ruin HD is a pretty awesome medieval overhead slasher for the Shield!!!

Hope all those with problems get things sorted out soon.

I fixed my dpad.  I took a can of air to it after seeing the pictures of a tear down of the Shield.  I looked at the rubber pad and the contacts in the picture and I was sure something just got inside it.  Mine came with some kind of saw dust like particles all over it and I think they got in the Dpad and caused my issue.  Now i can play Crash Bandicoot with the DPAD and go straight.  Loving my Shield so much.  Just put on Quake 3...runs, looks, and plays better than the Pandora's version.  I am going to buy Dos Box Turbo when I get paid and see how well it runs Daggerfall and Arena because neither of these are hardly playable on the Pandora.

Glad you got it sorted out.   I am anxious to read how Dos Box Turbo runs because I really like Daggerfall. Yes Quake 3 just looks better on the Shield screen. That Shield screen makes the Pandora's look rather pale. But kudos for the Pandora to be able to run it as well as it does.....I don't want to Pandora bash here. :rolleyes: