Pandora's Design

[atomicthumbs]

Ugh. A handheld should be a game controller with a screen, not a fucking laptop. This is seriously the gayest design I've ever seen.

 

[Yrx]

Ugh. A handheld should be a game controller with a screen, not a fucking laptop. This is seriously the gayest design I've ever seen.

Is a DS a laptop? How does replacing one of the screens with a keyboard make it one? Same size, even. Yeah, gtfo.

 

[Jaguarandine]

I agree with naples39. This thing is pretty ugly, and it has so many complicated-looking buttons I'll probably look like an uber-nerd while using it. But, as long as it does what it's supposed to do, who cares?

The people saying, "OMG, this is SO disgusting, I'm not buying it now!!!", get over yourselves and stop being such drama queens. The device still has the same features as before, just not as pretty as you imagined it. There's still time to change things up..

To the others flaming people for having a different viewpoint than theirs, dudes, that is uncalled for. Let's try to keep this civil, shall we?

 

[xcen]

Ugly is a very hard word! =o

It's just not techno-sexual compatible =D

Edit: BLah: where's the keyboard? ; ]

 

[davidgutierrez]

And you know, while I'm at it, are there actually any PSX games that USE all 4 shoulder buttons? Because there are a lot of people complaining for them, and I honestly don't see why they're even necessary.

Colony Wars (one of my favourites games). So please, we need 4 shoulder buttons. Using keys as shoulder buttons for this game would not be very comfortable.

 

[X-Code]

It may look like a beast to some of you, but it's beauty lies within. I for one think that the design is great.

I can't quite imagine how to improve it, if anything more curves as peviously stated... BUT if the curves make the machine bigger, I don't want them.

Mewants

 

[davidgutierrez]

Look any better? The problem is that you would have to redesign the hinge completely....maybe not what you want to do at this point.





I've voted "it's ok", but if you do this little change I'will change my vote to "I love it".

 

[kingbuzzo]

I don't want to have to press my hand on top of a keyboard to play all my fav arcade games. I would like it to go away.

I'm a bit upset that I can't play any vertical games on this, but obviously the average joe knows nothing about those awesome games and could care less. At the very least I can use the tv out to play them.

www.shmups.com

it's ugly, and looks cluttered with wayy to much crap. If there isn't a way to make somethings go away to make the device anything but a painful experience then it shouldn't all be there. I still don't get the dual analogs. Are people really planning to play some cheesey psx fps games on this? Or any fps on this?

I voted for the HATE, but I'm glad to know that it's not a final design.

keep at it, I have faith!

 

[b._.o._.b]

Voted it's ok as well. Certainly didn't expect the design to be like this. I expected a sliding keyboard.
This looks ok, seems very functional and I will certainly buy it. IMO the keyboard should have the same color as the rest of the box. Black keys on the white pandora makes it toyish.

The black Pandora looks the best to me.

 

[Yuglooc]

I like the general design. I don't like that this superb machine will seem a wanabe ds for many people.
I would like not so "squarish". More tapwave zodiac.

Square is *in* dood. Ever seen a DS lite? An Ipod? last I checked those were kind of popular A mac book?

The other thing is that it is just more efficient to get everything to fit in a small package. More curvy means bigger size for the same thing.

As I mentioned before, ergonomics should be taken into consideration as well. I'm sure you could fit all the electronics of the original Playstation controller in a simple rectangle, but they gave it those handles to hold onto as well. That's definitely something to consider, even if CraigIX just decides to later produce a snap-on shell with a grip.

Maybe there will be a grip shell. Maybe there will be a clip-on MAME arcade shell to play vertical games and include a trackball and spinner. The thing can always be accessorized.

Is this DaveC being optimistic? Nah, can't be, must be Ironic, or has hell finally frozen over?

 

[synkro]

It is ugly, no doubt about it. But why would I want dual DS-slot with LEDs? what ever. BUT you won't be able to use the two stick for any good. Imaging controlling a FPS with those? Crap! With all the stupid stuff this baby will be expensive and you can't handle it. mark my word on that one. NO FPS!

 

[Yrx]

I don't want to have to press my hand on top of a keyboard to play all my fav arcade games. I would like it to go away.

I'm a bit upset that I can't play any vertical games on this, but obviously the average joe knows nothing about those awesome games and could care less. At the very least I can use the tv out to play them.

www.shmups.com

it's ugly, and looks cluttered with wayy to much crap. If there isn't a way to make somethings go away to make the device anything but a painful experience then it shouldn't all be there. I still don't get the dual analogs. Are people really planning to play some cheesey psx fps games on this? Or any fps on this?

I voted for the HATE, but I'm glad to know that it's not a final design.

keep at it, I have faith!

Can I ask what you mean, "press my hand on top of a keyboard"? I kind of doubt your hand would even touch the keyboard while you're holding it for game use. The only thing I can think of is if you have the wrong impression about the size, maybe?

And is the cluttered "crap" you're referring to the keyboard? lol, Because that's definitely kind of going to be there.

 

[Nova]

Not sure if this has been posted, but:

Moar Picz: openpandora.ca/images

 

[zaffercharles]

And you know, while I'm at it, are there actually any PSX games that USE all 4 shoulder buttons? Because there are a lot of people complaining for them, and I honestly don't see why they're even necessary.

Colony Wars (one of my favourites games). So please, we need 4 shoulder buttons. Using keys as shoulder buttons for this game would not be very comfortable.


Obviously not many PSX lovers in here as I said before. When this thing has the potential to run games, and half the controls to play them as intended, you can understand there's some element of unbalance there cant you? even if you don't give a damn you can admit it. It will be a benefit to sales I bet you to put 4 on this th- I should stop calling it a thing.. on Pandora for those that do care and little effort! This will help sell it to people not so, how shall I say, mmph can't think of any better word than geeky. Don't worry I include myself in that category
I've waited a long time to have a handheld powerful enough to play the late 80's and onward arcade games properly, with real controls, and since it says on the wiki that fullspeed PSX should be a given, why shouldn't the PSX setup be a given also? tell me that. And don't mention 64 loses out still in defence to the argument because it is a different story there- we may or may not be able to get that going at a decent level.

I used 4 shoulders all the time, if you want a few examples then for Tomb Raider, Tony Hawk series, GT, Final Doom, VRally, if I had a better memory or looked up a few I could easily treble that number and it's not even including any proper FPS. Basically they were very useful. I can just see it in reviews, "but it loses points because it's only got 2 shoulders making some games awkward to play"

I'm responding to the post, and stating my opinion not trying to make ultimatums about only buying it with 4 so please don't have a go at me over this.


To whoever said the vol button type switch was a terrible idea, just don't take it so literally. I don't think anybody meant just put a couple of those on top! that was the basic idea to get the point across.

 

[Stainy]

Not sure if this has been posted, but:

Moar Picz: openpandora.ca/images




Dunno what it is.. but I`ve never been able to open up openpandora.ca since I found it !!

problem loading page all the time!

 

[Yrx]

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Was this directed at me? Well either way, I'm responding.

Why shouldn't a PSX capable device have full PSX style controls? Because it's not a fricking Playstation, lol. Seriously, PSX emulation is going to be nice (MMX4 woo!), but that's not the entire point of the Pandora.

I don't see how the lack of two shoulder buttons constitutes "half the controls ... as intended." Other than R2 and L2, there is a button on this device that directly corresponds to every button on a PSX controller. And then we have the keyboard on top of that. People are already saying it's far too cluttered. And like I said, how many games actually used all four shoulder buttons in a way that would make remapping two of them horrendous? Colony Wars was mentioned in specific, but are there that many others? And not saying that what you want to do with this device doesn't matter, David, but saying that we "need" them for a single piece of software seems a little out there. Are they really that crucial that they couldn't be remapped to something else? Oh, and I just saw the five others you mentioned. Funny, they somehow got Tony Hawk to work fine on a Gamecube pad... :rolleyes:... And I know Tomb Raider worked fine on Saturn, as well. The point I'm tring to get across is the idea that a lot of these uses are cases of familiarity as opposed to actually making you unable to play these games.

I also don't understand how four shoulder buttons is suddenly going to appeal to a mainstream consumer market. Forgive me if I'm mistaken, but there isn't a single handheld yet made that has had any more than two shoulders. Plus, as mentioned before, this device is already going to seem cluttered to a casual user, two more buttons won't help that impression at all. That's such a weird argument to make, I've never understood it... It doesn't really make sense.

It might be worth mentioning that I'm not saying this for any reason like "N64 will miss out," because that's absolutely ridiculous reasoning (although thank you for the straw man argument). N64 could benefit from extra shoulders as well, seeing as mapping the C buttons to an analog stick can be dreadful in some games. I'm not being ridiculous here and arguing my head off because of my specific wants (or really arguing my head off at all), I'm talking from the perspective of overall need and usability.

The main issue with having four shoulder buttons would be how cramped it would make the back of the system. We already need space for ports, unless you would like a headphone port on the side, or something else weird. The alternative, of course, is the standard front/back setup, but that will make the console thicker. By the way, that was me bemoaning the talk of a GP2X volume switch-style shoulder, but if you go back and read the actual post, I said don't use that particular example, because it's basically the worst example you could use. If they were going to put on the shoulder buttons like that, the best reference would likely be a PS2 RetroCon pad, as it uses a similar idea of parallel buttons.

Another alternative would be to make the console thicker and bevel the back so the second set is on a lower level behind the first. Almost like a trigger setup. This way, you would use the middle fingers to hit that set, and it would contribute to more of a grip. It would also give more room for ports, since there's an entire other level to work with. However, this would have to be finely tweaked so it's comfortable, and as I've expressed before, the actual need for more than two shoulder buttons is doubtful.

While I'm ranting, would someone like to make a mockup render with that layered back like I'm describing? If they decide to go with four shoulders, that might not be a bad design choice.

 

[javaJake]

It'll be interesting to hear MWeston's (or is it MJWeston?) comments on this. *hint hint*

 

[Magnulus]

Ugh. A handheld should be a game controller with a screen, not a fucking laptop. This is seriously the gayest design I've ever seen.

Heres a respectable design

the rectangles at the top are shoulder buttons, the round thing at the bottom is an analog stick, the rest is obvious.

Are you seriously saying that all those colours and the rounded curves make it LESS gay?
This is a grown-up system for adults. It's meant to be able to emulate a lot of different systems, including ones that use keyboards. I would be quite happy to use this thing in public. I would like some curved corners, but nowhere near as severe as these alternate designs.

 

[Yrx]

Are you seriously saying that all those colours and the rounded curves make it LESS gay?
This is a grown-up system for adults. It's meant to be able to emulate a lot of different systems, including ones that use keyboards. I would be quite happy to use this thing in public. I would like some curved corners, but nowhere near as severe as these alternate designs.

lol, Thank you.

 

[Null]

It looks like a wonderswan for pre-schoolers.