Pandora for children


hmc

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Bavaria, Germany
Hi guys,


I consider buying a Pandora for my children for gaming, to show them that there is another world than the common and very commercial Nintendo world.


Questions:


- Is there a specific (USB) joystick, which can be used on the Pandora for controlling simple games? (or are they al compatible)? I thought of something like this


- Which games, available as PND, can you recommend for children of age 6..9? The only game I found so far, which is really well suitable, is LPairs (Memory). Learning games, easy jump'n'runs etc. would be interesting.


- Also, can you recommend any other Linux game for younger children, which may be compileable on the Pandora? Then I would be happy to take the plunge and provide a PND of it.


- Any chance to have TuxRacer (or ExtremeTuxRacer) on the Pandora? It the favorite game of my younger daughter. But I guess, that it requires 3D graphics hardware.


Thank you!


Daniel
 
i think tux racer is on the pandora.A racing penguin ifirc.There are quite a few platform games for kids.Great giana sisters is one example.There are loads of games that can be played via emulators too.The paandoa is fairly expensive for a young kid though and could be broken.Depends on the kids age of course.
 
Every USB Joystick I have just seems to work, well depending if the game can map joystick controls.


The 3D capabilities of the Pandora should be able to handle Tuxracer without problems as Quake 3 runs decent with the hardware.. The only issues would be is that Tux Racer is programmed in regular OpenGL and it would need to be reprogrammed to use OpenGL ES to run on the Pandora. I looked for a PND of it, but couldn't find it.


I can't say exactly what would be good for kids, but I think Frogatto or SuperTux would be good starters.. There are plenty more on the repo.


One thing good about the Pandora, the amount of the free Linux software out there the console pays for itself if you consider with a Nintendo handheld you would have to pay $20-$50 dollars US for each game.
 
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i think tux racer is on the pandora.A racing penguin ifirc.There are quite a few platform games for kids.Great giana sisters is one example.There are loads of games that can be played via emulators too.The paandoa is fairly expensive for a young kid though and could be broken.Depends on the kids age of course.

A Nintendo DS is cheaper, I agree, but finally you pay more, because of the games you need to buy for the Nintendo.


And they should learn to handle a device carefully anyway. I don't buy cheap things for my children, because I know they will damage them. I rather try to teach them to handle precious things carefully. ;-)

Every USB Joystick I have just seems to work, well depending if the game can map joystick controls.


The 3D capabilities of the Pandora should be able to handle Tuxracer without problems as Quake 3 runs decent with the hardware.. The only issues would be is that Tux Racer is programmed in regular OpenGL and it would need to be reprogrammed to use OpenGL ES to run on the Pandora. I looked for a PND of it, but couldn't find it.

What's the difference between OpenGL and OpenGL ES? Well, the more suitable question for a games noob like me would be "how much efforts would this be to reprogram it for OpenGL ES?"

I can't say exactly what would be good for kids, but I think Frogatto or SuperTux would be good starters.. There are plenty more on the repo.


One thing good about the Pandora, the amount of the free Linux software out there the console pays for itself if you consider with a Nintendo handheld you would have to pay $20-$50 dollars US for each game.

Frogatto is very nice, but the German translation of the texts is not finished yet (as of the current PND). My older daughter can read, but only German, and the younger one cannot read anything yet (besides "PAPA" and her own name ;-).


SuperTux is indeed a nice starter.


Giana Sisters - well, it would be nice, but in a children's setup no emulators should be involved. Simply start the game and play. Giana's Return is quite complex for children...
 
What's the difference between OpenGL and OpenGL ES? Well, the more suitable question for a games noob like me would be "how much efforts would this be to reprogram it for OpenGL ES?"

Not entirely sure of the details, I may have a bit of programming skills, but have no experience in 3D. I know OpenGL ES is a more simplified implementation of OpenGL, it's used mostly in Mobile devices and such.. They're a handful people on these forums that have the skills and know how to do OpenGL to OpenGL ES conversions.. Perhaps they can be convinced to look at Tux Racer.
 
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Considering I was playing Pac Man, Berzerk, & Mr. Do when I was between 5-8 years old, I would recommend Forget Me Not.


Super Geometry Dust


VVVVV (might be a challenge, but fun as hell and I think if I was a kid, I would have enjoyed it).


White Butterfly & Garden of Colored Lights are some fun vertical shooters that are really tough so they might not like the difficulty
 
So are emulators out of the question?


Also, a GP2x might be a better buy if you want to give them something to play games on. Not because it is much cheaper (around $100 as opposed to the pandora) but becaus eit is made exclusively for gamed where the pandora is both capable of and built for alot more than gaming, although there is obviously a focus on games.


But f you are looking for a kid friendly game I highly


recommend "Wind and Water". it was originally made for the GP2x but it was ported to the pandora.


If you want I can personally come up with a much longer list of kid friendly games, but I couldn't tell you which ones work well with a joystick.
 
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Sebt3, I didn't know that you had your own collection of PNDs hidden away.. I just looked in all the repos I knew of.


Well glad you ported it already, that Maemo version had a lot of stupid dependencies anyway.
 
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Yes, but that TuxRacer-Port has that Inside-Out but, where 3D stuff is visible which should be hidden behind others.


The more complex 3D levels sadly become unplayable because of that.


I first thought it's our buggy 3D driver, but now we're using the Nokia one, nd it still has that issue (and it runs just fine on the N900)


So there's this one bug remaining.


Regarding games for children:


Gianas Return, Bubblechains, Crystalstacker, Angry Drunken Dwarfs, Bubble Pop, Bubble Train, Snowball, Frozen Bubble, Ri-Li, etc.


There are many suitable games :)
 
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Wow, thanks to sebt3 for porting Tuxracer. It has a few glitches, but it's fun anyway. However, it seems that Tux tends to drift to the left all the time while not pressing any button or key. I wonder why that is. Any idea?


And thanks to all for your suggestions about children-friendly games. I will have a look at them.


I just found GCompris. This is really great for younger children. I will immediately contact the author and ask, if he would be interested in porting that to the Pandora. I have not found the sources anywhere, so I cannot try myself (yet, at least). GCompris apperently has been developed with so much enthusiam and love for the detail. It's really amazing.
 
imo, investing in PSP 2000 [first slim ver] + TV Cable is much better than in OP, for youngsters. And cheaper..
 
Wow, thanks to sebt3 for porting Tuxracer. It has a few glitches, but it's fun anyway. However, it seems that Tux tends to drift to the left all the time while not pressing any button or key. I wonder why that is. Any idea?
I just ported the Iphone version. It use a conversion layer (like the 1st quake port...) aand have glitches. a propoer conversion would allow fixing thoses bugs
 
I want to get them something, which I have a faible for, too. Something we can talk about. Something connecting.


And since the Pandora is the only gaming device I really have a faible for, what else should I take care about? ;-)
 
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