Pandora at Replay 2011 - Retro Gaming Expo - Let's meet up


Hi Guys & Gals,


I just wanted to give my thoughts on the recent forum get together at the Replay Expo 2011 in Blackpool.


Myself and my better half Jane went along on Saturday and had a thoroughly enjoyable time.


I have not been very active posting on the forums (lurking on GP2X then on here) as I have been quite frustrated with the lack of progress on the shipping of the Pandora. I pre-ordered then cancelled but after the meet up on Saturday and my 1st hands-on play with the Pandora I can honestly say I made a big mistake.


Build Quality


This was one of my concerns with the Pandora, don’t get me wrong I’m no Apple snob but I do like my tech and was a bit concerned with some of the feedback from the forum members that had received their units. I can say now that all of my fears have been dispelled, the build quality, weight and feel of the unit and the controls are really excellent.


Case


Ed took 5 units all looked well put together and none showed any signs of cracking, the hinges were more than stiff enough to hold the screen at any angle while using the Pandora.


D-Pad


My favourite D-pad of any console / controller I’ve ever used was on the Turbo Express / PC Engine GT, that was until the Pandora. I used the D-pad for around 30 minutes and not once did I get killed / make a mistake and feel that it was due to any reason other than my own incompetence. Even after a full 30 minutes gaming my thumb wasn’t raw or tender, something I can’t say of my DS Lite.


Analogue Nubs


WOW, what a revelation, having used the PSP I can honestly say these are awesome, twin stick shooters must be a real pleasure to play with these.


OS


I tried launching games / apps from both the quick menu and the full desktop and even to me being a complete linux noob nothing seemed too tricky. All emu’s& games ran fine (yes they had been installed / configured before I got my hands on the units) but having seen ED’s 1 video per day particularly the PND one I can’t see anyone having too big an issue getting stuff running.


Emulators


Playstation - I mainly played Wipeout & Ridge Racer, both ran fine and I can honestly see me digging out my box of Playstation games from the garage to rip to an SD card, this is an excellent emulator and with such a massive back catalogue of games for the PSX and titles readily available at most car boots for only a couple of pounds I’d be happy if that was the only thing I wanted the P for.


Amiga


I’m a complete Amiga nut so had to try out a couple games, Turrican 2 & Superfrog both ran fine and as ever the controls were 100% accurate.


Neo Geo


Metal slug ran like a dream which made Jane very happy as she loves the series, next step is to check if a 2nd pad plugged in would work for 2 players so that we could use it on the big screen with a TV out lead.


I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone involved in bringing the Pandora to us, my doubts on build quality and whether it’s a device I would get much use out of have been 100% dismissed.


I have not been so excited about a piece of technology in quite a while. For me tablets and apple products hold no interest, there is nothing on a tablet I can’t do on my laptop and my android phone allows me the flexibility to do what I want not what the manufacturer dictates I can do with it.


This is what excites me about the Pandora, there is nothing out there that can compete with it. Yes there are products that do some of the things the Pandora can do but none that cover everything.


It was really great to meet a group of like minded people (Nerds :D - in the nicest possible sense) and it took me back to the good old days of the Amiga and many happy hours spent sharing / swapping software (scene demo’s), whilst talking about the latest Amiga news / developments. I love the community aspect of the Pandora and would love to learn more about what makes the Pandora OS tick and get more involved with the community.


ED - Jane says let her know if you need help organising any events ;)


PokeParadox - Big thanks for the loan of your Pandora to try out games on the day and for putting up with my rambles about retro gaming on the way to dropping you off home.


Mr_Loon - Thank you for the badges, they have taken pride of place on our fridge, hopefully we'll get another chance to use them at another meet up.


Craigix - You are one "special" person, but without you the Pandora would not exist so I can't hold that against you ;) Thank you for buns.


To anyone else we’ve missed apologies, but it was a hectic day.


Ian & Jane
 
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WOW, looks like everyone had a great time. I wish I was on the other side of the pond, but sadly I'm stuck in Vegas.


It's so cool to see that after so many years, this little wonorous device is still bringing members together, and is still hanging in there fighting the good fight.


PANDORA FOREVER!


Chris
 
The most awesome thing for me (apart from the community members showing up there) was the following:


Team17 had a booth there, so I took the Pandora with me, fired up Superfrog and went to their booth.


They had weird looks at first, probably wondering who ported the game to that weird handheld, when I told them it's Amiga emulation...


"THAT is Amiga emulation?" (apparently, they couldn't believe it works so well on a system),


I explained a bit about the Pandora, had to get them some flyers (as they are interested in them). While we were talking about it, another guy from the booth beneath them turned around and said "You haven't heard of the Pandora yet?"


Well, the other booth was Llamasoft and the guy was Jeff Minter - and he heard of the Pandora already. That was pretty cool :)


Had a nice chat with him afterwards, really enjoyed it :)
 
I can also confirm that the Pandora is as amazing - it really impressed me. I really can't wait to get mine now!


It was also really cool to meet up with a few of you guys as well, Shame I couldn't make it for the booze-up sesh though :-(


Edit: strange wording :)
 
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It was great meeting everyone too. Had a good chat with dave1234 and milkshake. Its good to put some faces to the avatars.


Thanks evil dragon too for fixing my pandora. Its working like a charm now. Sorry I couldn't make it to the after party. Had a friend visiting and had to get back home early. I was going to say bye to everyone but I think everyone had gone. Deided to eat a cake though seeming as there were quite a few left :)


@milkshake,good to see you found the pub ok.


Looking forward to watching the video.
 
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EvilDragon said:
The most awesome thing for me (apart from the community members showing up there) was the following:


Team17 had a booth there, so I took the Pandora with me, fired up Superfrog and went to their booth.


They had weird looks at first, probably wondering who ported the game to that weird handheld, when I told them it's Amiga emulation...


"THAT is Amiga emulation?" (apparently, they couldn't believe it works so well on a system),


I explained a bit about the Pandora, had to get them some flyers (as they are interested in them). While we were talking about it, another guy from the booth beneath them turned around and said "You haven't heard of the Pandora yet?"


Well, the other booth was Llamasoft and the guy was Jeff Minter - and he heard of the Pandora already. That was pretty cool :)


Had a nice chat with him afterwards, really enjoyed it :)
Click to expand...
EvilDragon said:
The most awesome thing for me (apart from the community members showing up there) was the following:


Team17 had a booth there, so I took the Pandora with me, fired up Superfrog and went to their booth.


They had weird looks at first, probably wondering who ported the game to that weird handheld, when I told them it's Amiga emulation...


"THAT is Amiga emulation?" (apparently, they couldn't believe it works so well on a system),


I explained a bit about the Pandora, had to get them some flyers (as they are interested in them). While we were talking about it, another guy from the booth beneath them turned around and said "You haven't heard of the Pandora yet?"


Well, the other booth was Llamasoft and the guy was Jeff Minter - and he heard of the Pandora already. That was pretty cool :)


Had a nice chat with him afterwards, really enjoyed it :)
Click to expand...
That sounds like fun.Meeting team 17 guys is something i wanted to do.Alas i did not have the funds to go to replay this year.But there is always next year.Glad ye guys enjoyed yourselves
 
milkshake said:
I enjoyed having a drink in the pub with ed, craig, mr loon and others too :)
Click to expand...
It would have been good to have gone to that, But I still had plenty of chances to speak to most people there, so I don't think I missed too much - and cake, there was cake! No giant alcoholic jaffa cake (unless I missed it), but there were definately cakes


Oh, and even though little to none of you are interested, I'll tell you anyway :p . I was out first round in the Street Fighter 2 Turbo (SNES) and Mortal Kombat 9 (Xbox360, I'd never played this version) tournaments, but I did come 2nd in Mario Kart (SNES) battles. I possibly could have taken first, but by the time we were starting the final round (best to 7!) was 2:10, and we needed to be leaving at 2:30. Tough call though, that guy was pretty good, so I don't want to detract from him.


See you all next year :lol: :p
 
EvilDragon said:
The most awesome thing for me (apart from the community members showing up there) was the following:


Team17 had a booth there, so I took the Pandora with me, fired up Superfrog and went to their booth.


They had weird looks at first, probably wondering who ported the game to that weird handheld, when I told them it's Amiga emulation...


"THAT is Amiga emulation?" (apparently, they couldn't believe it works so well on a system),


I explained a bit about the Pandora, had to get them some flyers (as they are interested in them). While we were talking about it, another guy from the booth beneath them turned around and said "You haven't heard of the Pandora yet?"


Well, the other booth was Llamasoft and the guy was Jeff Minter - and he heard of the Pandora already. That was pretty cool :)


Had a nice chat with him afterwards, really enjoyed it :)
Click to expand...
Team17 is still alive? Cool, give them a Pandora and ask for a decent Worms Game for our Handheld. ;) I play Worms since the very first game and I even enjoyed Worms 3D. ^^ Worms is one of the "you always can play it" games. :D
 
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Fusion_Power said:
Team17 is still alive? Cool, give them a Pandora and ask for a decent Worms Game for our Handheld. ;) I play Worms since the very first game and I even enjoyed Worms 3D. ^^ Worms is one of the "you always can play it" games. :D
Click to expand...
Very much, they've just release Worms Crazy Golf - I bought it on Steam; Though if you're expecting a crazy golf game, prepare to be slightly disappointed. It's more of a puzzle game that a golf game. Don't get me wrong, I still think it's pretty good, just not what I was expecting, or hoping for (and there was no demo on Steam to try it first)
 
Replay itself was truly awesome for anyone addicted to ancient computers/consoles/arcades like myself. SOooo many machines available for playing on. I absolutely loved it and will definately be going again next year...without the kids! Whilst my eldest son enjoyed playing many of the games, even really ancient stuff like 'Fire Ant' on the C64 (he loved the Pandora as well!) - he eventually became bored (mainly when I met up with all you guys - sorry*). I managed to have a chat with Jeff Minter and I tried to convince him to release some new stuff for PC/Linux - that was pretty damn cool. I also managed to say hello to Oliver Frey and thank him for the great artwork I enjoyed in Crash magazine (and also Eagle comic from my even younger days!).


I wish I could've hung around with you lot a bit more but I chose to bring my family along and whilst it was nice doing other stuff around Blackpool (me and missus had a great go on Out Run 2 - I won), I wish I could've just spent the whole time at the Expo. Hopefully it will be on again next year and I will make sure I spend as much time as humanely possible on each and every machine!


And please, stop giving Craig a hard time - he's obviously a sound dude and I feel that the constant negativity has pushed him out and I for one will miss his wacky videos (please do another Christmasy video to make us all feel festive when it starts snowing up you way!)


Ed is also a righteous dude and as he was staying in the same hotel as me and the family it was nice to have a chat on the Sunday morning.


But yes, all in all a totally fantasic weekend...I want my Pandora more than ever now!!!


* If you're reading this years later Danny (my son) - don't feel bad, you were a little kid and it was a long day old mate :)
 
Well butter my buns, I'm sorry to have missed it and no mistake. I did have a nice time in London though.


Did anyone stay at the crazy South African lady's b&b?
 
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