Our New Machine, Pandora

[icurafu]

Can we have it play hi-def videos via the (HD)TV-Out?

The OMAP chip will decode MPEG4 at 480p.

I has an interface for s-video, but that's not saying digital. It can handle a max of XGA.

 

[Alex.]

Six action buttons would be way too cluttered. It would look exaggerated and unprofessional. There are only 3 or 4 Genesis games that make full use of six face buttons, and that doesn't warrant such an unintuitive design choice. (it also looks horrible)

Four shoulder buttons are also too much. The shoulder buttons are good for a more relaxed style of input, where you don't specifically target a specific button like you do with the action buttons or the joypad, but simply press a whole finger down. Again, unnecessary clutter that only few games use.

It would be wrong to design a system to perfectly match the interfaces of emulated systems. This system should establish itself as more than just a do-it-all in terms of emulation. By the sounds of it, it will be an open powerhouse capable of far greater things.

 

[Billy Lee]

Is this discussion going to carry on right through to Spring 2008 when Craigix said it will come out (if he chooses to use OMAP)?

 

[jimid2]

Is this discussion going to carry on right through to Spring 2008 when Craigix said it will come out (if he chooses to use OMAP)?

They don't have a chipset or a rough shell design settled on, but they're going to have them on the shelf in the spring of 2008? Like, 6 months from now?!? He must have some very, very good friends in the manufacturing world...

Color me skeptical... <_<

 

[Billy Lee]

Is this discussion going to carry on right through to Spring 2008 when Craigix said it will come out (if he chooses to use OMAP)?

They don't have a chipset or a rough shell design settled on, but they're going to have them on the shelf in the spring of 2008? Like, 6 months from now?!? He must have some very, very good friends in the manufacturing world...

Color me skeptical... <_<


Well he said he was aiming for December 2007 before the suggestion of using OMAP. He himself said Spring 2008 if OMAP was chosen.

 

[Vimacs]

Is this discussion going to carry on right through to Spring 2008 when Craigix said it will come out (if he chooses to use OMAP)?

YES!

 

[sold]

If this thing is going to handle gaming/media/PDA tasks, and the design is well thought out, I think we're gonna see an open device stick it to all the big companies who limit themselves by taking the approach that gaming controls make their devices look less "professional".

Gaming requires more button inputs than, for example business productivity applications because there is more going on and more to interact with at one time in a game.

The only reason PDAs, UMPCs and similar electronics devices suck and make the price unjustified imho is the control layout. I've been looking at a UMPC recently and it would do a lot of the things I want, but the controls suck. I for one am not prepared to spend nearly $2000 on a device that wont even let me play mario 3 without f*cking about. Why make a device portable and then cripple it by forcing the user to need to use peripherals all the time for something as basic as a Super Nintendo game or even text input in some cases?

I hope this device sees the gap in the market that big companies have created themselves and sticks it to 'em. And to all the nay-sayers, a multipurpose device that performs all its intended functions well is just what the consumer electronics market needs. Up until now, there is no such thing. And maybe because the craiginator will focus on gaming, it will show bigger manufacturers a trick or two.

 

[Eolair]

That second image looks about right, the others seem to have the buttons at uncomfortable positions

How about something like this?

( It would need straightening a little, but at least it keeps the buttons away from the edge of the machine and within reach of the thumb )

Yeah, looking at those pics again the groups could do with moving away from the edge. Having the 2 smaller buttons on the inside wouldent be ideal for N64 but it would work.

If we were going to have 4 shoulder buttons it could probably manage with just the group of 4, but with this design that would mean a total of 8 shoulder buttons...


Maybe I'm missing something but have you thought much about the scale of things? By having the 4.3" screen vertically cover almost the entire front, the buttons will be really small. I estimate that the larger of the buttons are about 0.2" (5mm) in radius. That's way too small. The buttons on the gp2x which are 0.31" (8mm) in radius already feel tiny.

Just to help out this what a gp2x sized button would look on that design:

 

[X-Code]

I didn't originally consider the original GP2X size buttons, I think that we could manage with something slightly smaller , even so, this six button design that I posted up above could be "adjusted" as it's only for demonstration purposes ( proof of concept ).

The two small buttons could be the same as the others and moved a little more to the right.

I personally consider 2 triggers, 4 main game buttons + 2 system buttons that can double up as game buttons. I don't think that we really need more.

Leaving aside emulation, I know that any one of my coding projects will at least need 4 or 5 buttons.

 

[Jarska333]

Here's a question, does it need to be symmetrical? Could the right side be sligthly wider, for example?

 

[thepope]

Using the OMAP chip may result in a system which would be around £199. Opinions?

Come to Daddy.

 

[Javacat]

Using the OMAP chip may result in a system which would be around £199. Opinions?

Come to Daddy.

Damn you and your name making everything sound like an amusing sexual innuendo.

 

[Rivroner]

Talking again about resolution, i don´t think 800x480 (1.66) is the proper resolution.

What about 720x480 (1.5)? SO we can have an intermediate resolution than will adjust quite well to 4:3 format games and to 16:9 games.

If people in general want widescreen i think 720x480 (1.5) is a good solution.

I prefer 4:3 (1.33) like the GP2X but.....

 

[Orkie]

Talking again about resolution, i don´t think 800x480 (1.66) is the proper resolution.

What about 720x480 (1.5)? SO we can have an intermediate resolution than will adjust quite well to 4:3 format games and to 16:9 games.

If people in general want widescreen i think 720x480 (1.5) is a good solution.

I prefer 4:3 (1.33) like the GP2X but.....

But which resolution do you think is cheapest and can be bought in low numbers?

 

[Rivroner]

Talking again about resolution, i don´t think 800x480 (1.66) is the proper resolution.

What about 720x480 (1.5)? SO we can have an intermediate resolution than will adjust quite well to 4:3 format games and to 16:9 games.

If people in general want widescreen i think 720x480 (1.5) is a good solution.

I prefer 4:3 (1.33) like the GP2X but.....

But which resolution do you think is cheapest and can be bought in low numbers?



That´s the problem, i suppose

I read in this huge thread that 4:3 resolution was a big money problem (copyrights, etc), but a 720x480 screen?

 

[Orkie]

I expect a lot more 800x480 screens are made due to their being used in things like the N800 and UMPCs.

 

[lubidog]

Using the OMAP chip may result in a system which would be around £199. Opinions?

Come to Daddy.

Damn you and your name making everything sound like an amusing sexual innuendo.



Talking of sexual innuendo, aren't girls great!

 

[mavsman4457]

Hi guys it's great to see all of these button layouts that people are proposing and I can't wait for this device since it has convinced me not to buy a Slim PSP. Anyways, I've got a few opinions and a couple of ideas. I think two analog sticks are definitely necessary along with clicks in them, if possible, and four shoulder buttons. I think that the 6 buttons on the right side would be ideal, although it may look a little crowded, but if we don't want to have six buttons then instead of having up, down, left, and right C for N64 we could just use the right analog stick as the C stick as was done for gamecube. I know this would be a bit strange but it could be done and R2 or L2 could obviously be used for Z. As for start and select, I think they should either go on the bottom of the screen like on the PSP, which is my first choice, or if we don't want to add anymore buttons we could just map start and select to the left and right sides of the touch screen. Even though I didn't like using my Zire 72's screen for SNES buttons like R and L I don't think it would be that difficult to adjust to using left and right side as start and select.

Edit: Also, just two quick questions. Assuming that this has a mini usb port, would it be possible to utilize the mini usb addons for the PSP like GPS or a camera? That would be great if it could be achieved. Is bluetooth being considered for this? It would be great for multiplayer play and for use with a bluetooth keyboard and mouse and other peripherals. Oh ya and I think that the volume and brightness buttons, if there will be brightness buttons, and any other system buttons should go on the side or something because they don't really need to be in a convenient place. And if there isn't going to be a built in keyboard of some sort I'm sure someone could design an easy to use custom keyboard using the analog stick and other buttons like the danzeff keyboard for the PSP.

 

[Alex.]

I think this has been begged to death, but the volume ought to be a wheel!

 

[mavsman4457]

I don't really care about mimicking the ipod that much but as long as we're trying to make the N64 and PS1/2 controls fit perfectly in this thing then here is an idea for the ipod fanatics. We could have a volume up and down button on the side or it could be a scroller but in addition to that you could touch the screen and move your finger like the click wheel and the volume would go up. There could also be an mp3 player that just looks and acts exactly like an iPod. I am not a huge iPod fan but I think this might be cool and I'm sure some people would love it. Also it would make friends think this thing is "cool" since it acts like an iPod a little bit.