Our New Machine, Pandora

[DaveC]

DaveC, do you actually believe that there wont be a dpad at all or are you just making things up so that you can leverage people to hate analog sticks because they are what killed the dpad on the device (based off no actual info) so that analog sticks wont be included and 3d games wont be playable so that zodttd will abandon pushing the hardwares limits and become your personal emulation optimizer slave who will make sure that not a single sound in a single game is slightly off pitch for any of the game consoles released before 1993?

Um no, not even close. I am just saying all we have been hearing about is analog. Craig has not said anything about a pad or digital control lately. When he does it will dispel rumors either way.

 

[atomicthumbs]

Oh, and the stick does have a center click, plus it spins like a scroll feature.

EMULATION PADDLE CONTROLLER TIME! ARKANOID HERE I COME!

Hey man i don't get how your going to afford to make a new system and finance it successfully and not end like GP or zodiac or so on. Are you rich or took out a lot of bonds, partner with someone or what. Whats the name of your company. Seriously how are you going to not go bankrupt especially with the economy of today and finance it successfully. I know you run a good business of selling gp2xs and maybe you have another business on the side. Your system looks awesome dont get me wrong i don't get how you are planing to manufacture it and advertise it without you loosing money and going essentially bankrupt .

Not everybody works/lives in the US.

The economy isn't that bad in the UK/Europe.

 

[MWeston]

The etch-a-sketch idea or steering wheel for a racing game sounds cool but I think I may have been wrong about how scrolling works. I think I read the datasheet wrong and the nub still needs to be moved from the center position for scroll to work. It spins freely to make it feel smoother when moving through the field of travel which may or may not be an advantage over the PSP nub. It will be personal preference I guess.

I apologize for this. Maybe we can make it work like a steering wheel with some crafty software but maybe not. I know this is the reason why Craig likes to give information in small amounts because if you say something wrong, it will bite you in the ass!

Icurafu: The tag for the videos is Craiginator only because I think it's a funny name. It's not the official name. I think that isn't released yet because some "entrepreneur" out there will reserve DNS names for website choices Craig might want and then try to extort him to buy them back!

DaveC: D-pad is part of the design. Trust me.....it is.....Squidge said it right; who would make a retro-game playing handheld without digital controls? By comparison, I personally don't like the Zodiac controls for emulation. It's too slippery and Nintendo got it right when they patented the D-pad all those years ago!

 

[DaveC]

DaveC: D-pad is part of the design. Trust me.....it is.....Squidge said it right; who would make a retro-game playing handheld without digital controls? By comparison, I personally don't like the Zodiac controls for emulation. It's too slippery and Nintendo got it right when they patented the D-pad all those years ago!

Well ok that is encouraging if you have some credible inside info. I hope that the pad what ever it may be will be decent. That is what we need is some *real* info so all of the guessing and speculation can end.

Yes I had a zodiac too and dumped it because trying to play SNES with that analog stick was an excercise in frustration. It had the precision of a hog on ice. I don't like playing retro games on the PSP analog nub either (tried it because the PSP d-pad is pants) .

 

[TyBO!]

Hello everyone, sorry this took so long.

Here is the analogue pad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i26UXJOTkTk

-Craig

The scrolling feature is brilliant! I've never seen an analog pad do that.

I'm really excited for this handheld.

 

[Exophase]

Um no, not even close. I am just saying all we have been hearing about is analog. Craig has not said anything about a pad or digital control lately. When he does it will dispel rumors either way.

That's because the digital pad was a GIVEN and confirmed early on, and the analog wasn't. Please, please stop being paranoid. I know you're not happy with a handheld that caters to anything you're not interested in but that doesn't mean it's going to suck for you. If I hear another word about how craig only cares about PS1 emulation or whatever I'm going to completely lose it on you ;P

 

[X-Code]

Nice analogue stick, melikes

 

[God Ginrai]

Hello everyone, sorry this took so long.

Here is the analogue pad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i26UXJOTkTk

-Craig

The scrolling feature is brilliant! I've never seen an analog pad do that.

I'm really excited for this handheld.


Read MWeston's earlier post. He said he was mistaken about there being a scroll feature:

QUOTE
The etch-a-sketch idea or steering wheel for a racing game sounds cool but I think I may have been wrong about how scrolling works. I think I read the datasheet wrong and the nub still needs to be moved from the center position for scroll to work. It spins freely to make it feel smoother when moving through the field of travel which may or may not be an advantage over the PSP nub. It will be personal preference I guess.



-God Ginrai

 

[cappuchok]

Those videos are of a dev kit for the analog controller. The newer parts actually have a very nice rubber grip on the surface and it would be very hard to slip off of it unless your fingers are very sweaty.

In the video, my thumb isn't slipping off. I am quickly lifting my thumb to show how it recoils back to the center position quickly.

Oh, and the stick does have a center click, plus it spins like a scroll feature.

Looks very durable and professional, if the newer parts have better grip that's awesome. Between two of those plus a decent D-pad, a sensible 10-button layout (plus the two stick-clicks) and the touchscreen, should equal a very flexible control scheme suitable for most platforms, both consoles and computers, that will be possible to emulate on this thing.

*Feeling even more confident this thing will be a great successor to the GP2X*

EDIT: Sorry to hear it's not a real spinner - that would have made my day!

 

[IcoNyx]

I KNOW this has been asked but I cant see it in this thread...

I know about market variables and I know that timelines and deadlines can be hazardous, but is there any current target release date for this?

I know that any target RTS (release to sales) date would be completely based on a guess but Im looking for an estimate to decide if I want to fork out $200 (US) now (or in the next ~2 weeks) for a f200 or if the wait will not be so bad and thus I should wait for this...

[EDIT] just a thought...

I just realized, the specs on the craiginator page indicate this thing will be capable of PSX emulation... can I assume that this means that along with the dual analog sticks and the digital pad I can expect to see the obligatory 4 shoulder buttons as opposed to the usual 2... or is this PSX emulation a "capability" but not actually being planned for... I'm not interested in hearing a bunch of specs on this, I dont care... I just want to know if physically the thing will work. as in there are enough buttons for it... I am reminded of "snes emulation" on the GBA (which was crappy) which required the use of hotkeying to get the use of the "x" and "y" buttons

 

[Javacat]

I think Craig mentioned a few weeks/months ago that if they were to use the OMAP thing the release date would be pushed back to around April next year.

 

[IcoNyx]

I think Craig mentioned a few weeks/months ago that if they were to use the OMAP thing the release date would be pushed back to around April next year.

cool... I dont think I want to wait that long. I think Ill flip a coin and get both.

 

[craigix]

Here is the LCD:

 

[TyBO!]

ZOMG!

Looks very nice. About the same size as PSP's screen (but much higher resolution).

 

[StealthBagel]

Looks like the device will have to be a little larger at least than the GP2X to accomodate it, but that looks like a pretty manageable size.

A release date of April sounds more than reasonable from such a preliminary state as we're seeing right now. It's important to remember a good device takes time and I think that was forgotten in the GP2X and the GP32 before it. Honestly April sounds really early for such a project but I imagine it's just a ballpark figure.

Maybe some sort of a comprimise is in orderr as far as the chipset goes. The OMAP chip mentioned is extremely impressive but maybe a bit overkill for such a device. What I'm saying is when the GP2X came out it was overall pretty underpowered if it was meant to last longer than 2 years. People questioned if it was even that much of an improvement over the GP32 which 'competed' with the GBA at that time.

But people will just keep pushing it and pushing it and that's why it looks obsolete now. Because people have bright ideas about different higher-end systems to emulate. And the same thing will happen with even the most powerful chipset available. Might be better release price and overall better appeal for the system if a good middleground is found. $320 is a good investment if this handheld works as well as it could, but it would scare a lot of people off. And you could forget about preorders from most people until they saw some glowing reviews.....

Just food for thought.

 

[Eolair]

Nice... that's a big fat screen Do you know how the quality is compared to the gp2x's?

I also had another thought... what about adjustable backlight? That's one thing I really missed on the gp2x. I think a hardwired wheel would be perfect but a software solution would also suffice. Being able to adjust the backlight easily would also be a great way to save power.

 

[StealthBagel]

That's a good point. Changing the backlight level on my PocketPC makes a dramatic difference in battery life.... a matter of hours.

 

[PokeParadox]

That screen looks really really nice! Thanks for the teaser

 

[euro48k]

amazing ..
i sense a "personal crisis" . .. what next?
1.wait for the new console?
2.say goodbye&thankyou gph and pray for 30.000+ craiginator sales?
3.burry the gp2x console with 2gb card and all fantastic emus and homebrew?

 

[X-Code]

Nice looking screen Craig