Pandora's Design

[Nova]

http://www.openpandora.org/

I'm sorry Craig and others, but I'm really disappointed by the design. In my opinion it looks dated and too eeepc-like. I was expecting something a lot more modern, and this has left me underwhelmed and majorly disappointed.

 

[fishybawb]

Agreed, it looks very much like they're trying to please everyone. A well meaning intention, but not practical. The button layout is far too cluttered for my liking, and the slide-out-keyboard designs suggested by some seem much more elegant to me.

 

[xcen]

*shyly agrees with nova*

this is an eeepc with a built in gamepad =/ I hate to have negative comments toward such hard working and motivated people though...

 

[Nova]

*shyly agrees with nova*

this is an eeepc with a built in gamepad =/ I hate to have negative comments toward such hard working and motivated people though...

It's not about negative comments. The guys have always wanted feedback from their target market, and from looking at the polls as it stands, the majority of the voting the target market don't like the design.

 

[Jaw]

i think the keypad is a bit OTT, the control system would benifit more with 6 face buttons rarther than just the 4. shoulder buttons are apsalute tosh for fighters.

 

[Alex.]

the control system would benifit more with 6 face buttons rarther than just the 4

You're right, having a cluttered soup of action buttons would be better than a clean group of 4. :rolleyes:

 

[MWeston]

I for one want to hear the comments good or bad. When I was first shown the layout, I was a little surprised too, but the more I thought about it, the more practical it became. I actually love it now. It has changed a fair bit since the first concept pictures I saw.

Everything is placed with functionality in mind. You can play with two analog sticks or the dpad and one analog stick or just d-pad and ABXY buttons. The keypad is low profile while the game buttons are raised to keep them out of the way plus you can map some of the close by keypad buttons for games if they are only needed on a limited basis (maybe L2 and R2 shoulder buttons for PSX?).

That big beautiful screen is protected when you want to toss Pandora into your pocket and go. That is something I don't like about most modern systems. You get this big color panel but you have to go out of your way to not scratch or break it! You also have to spend more money on protective cases.


This is just my opinion. I voted for "love it!". Please gush or bash away!

 

[Adventus]

I reckon the real thing holding it back is the ipod-white factor, it works for simplistic designs but with something as complex as this, it looks out of place. Go gloss black with silver/metallic highlights and i would be happy.

PS: 1 GB of RAM!

 

[Vorporeal]

I hope that the actual device will be a bit more elegant than the render. Functionally, the design is pretty good. I think that the whole device is a bit too blocky though - it needs some more curves. It looks a bit too square, and reminds me of a not-so-elegant single-screened DS.

 

[Dunny]

Gonna stick with my F100 and DS from now on :-(

Didn't buy the F200 simply because the new machine from CraigIX was sounding a lot better than GP's offering. However... No, shan't be buying this after all.

The thing's white (always a negative in my book, moreso with black controls), the keyboard is not the sliding affair I had hoped for, and will almost certainly get prodded when action games get going heavy. Those analog "things" look like I'm gonna have to stretch my thumbs to use them, too. A sliding keyboard would have enabled us to have a full spacebar too.

Thumbs up for the clamshell design, at least they got that right.

looks like the GP2X scene is now dead for me, then - F100 compatible software will get more and more scarce, and neither of the new machines is worth any of my hard-earned cash

D.

 

[Nova]

PS: 1 GB of RAM!

Nope, one Gb of ram which = 128 MB of ram.

 

[Shiny]

That's not 1GB, it's 1Gb, or 1Gigabit.
For those of you who don't know, 1Gb = 128MB.

QUOTE
Dual SDHC card slots

Whoah that's a shocker.


Here's some of my gripes/complaints/whathaveyou:
- ABXY buttons should be reorganized with A on the right and B on the bottom.
- Reaching for those Start and Select buttons will be a pain it seems, and I infer that most devs will decide to use the Del and 0 keys instead.
- The lights should be moved up a little so that they're still visible when the unit is closed.
- That color is just... meh :/ I'd prefer pure white or pure black, the latter being of being my preference.

 

[Vimacs]

Well.... i hate to say it... but that design is just ugly, i actually had the money put away for preordering it, but now?...

Also advertising ram size in bit... thats just pure lameness.

im shocked :-/

 

[Adventus]

QUOTE
Nope, one Gb of ram which = 128 MB of ram.
Yea just read that elsewheres.... thats retarded and not the kind of media hype i respect.

 

[norm]

im shocked but...i kinda like it

i think the controls should be the same colour as the rest of it

and some minor button rearrangement is needed me thinks

but il still be buying

 

[slaanesh]

Isn't it supposed to be a gaming machine? That's what I think I would use it for. That's what the GP32, GP2X is all about for me.

With a touchscreen I feel that a mini-keyboard is a bit redundant. You can always have a software keyboard.

No keyboard would be great. Save production costs too.

I wonder if we'll see this thing materialize or not.

How fast is that CPU compared to the 200Mhz ARMT920 in the GP2X? ie. what version of MAME will this thing run?

 

[piemaster]

I don't mind it too much but it does look a little cramed full with all the buttons but who knows it may work really well.
I was sceptic about the Wii when it was first annouced but look how well that plays.

 

[Tobriand]

In principle, it's good. As MWeston's said, it's very very functional (unless you're after vertical play - sorry DaveC).

That said, I must admit a touch of hesitancy. Once I read a review of someone who says it feels natural to play with, then I'll feel happy about getting one. And to be honest, I'd much rather it was mistaken for an NDS than a PSP any day...

Questions:
- How does touchscreen feel with the design? Does the screen not just bend back when you press on it?
- Can the screen be bent all the way over for tabletlike use? If so, it strikes me net-browsing would be much more natural.
- Do the buttons get in the way when trying to use the analogue sticks? They look like they would, but appearances are not always accurate.

On the other hand, obvious plusses:
- Keyboard protected, screen protected, neatness
- Keyboard actually very usable as extra buttons for game controls if needed - I suspect particularly 9,0,del,i,o, and p will get such uses assigned to them fairly regularly.
- Ability to set the screen at the right angle for avoiding or catching the sun.
- No need for the precarious balancing other devices need when watching movies.
- D-pad is a *real* d-pad, or if it *is* separate buttons, it's not obviously so. So that's a relief.

Basically, as it is, it looks designed by people who want it to do what it's supposed to do well, as opposed to aesthetes. This is both positive (barring concerns about touchscreen usability, it'll do what it's supposed to do perfectly), and negative (it doesn't look quite as cool as the typical brick design).

Aside from that, the specs are droolworthy. It actually has DualSDHC. It's had the ram boosted from 128mb to 1gb - I mean, what on EARTH are we going to use 1gb of ram for unless we can get some commercial devs to start attacking this properly. It's OpenGL2.0 compliant - not just the ES variant. Makes things a lot more attractive for aforementioned needed commercial devs.

Still no clockspeed though. We'll get it sooner or later.

EDIT: Just read the bit/byte thing. I'm afraid that's very underhand - if it is in bits, it should definitely be changed, because that'll piss potential newbies off. Let alone us lot.

 

[sensible GP32]

I'm kinda on the fence atm. My initial reaction was UGH SHIT, but it's kind of growing on me.

 

[mjau]

* The D-pad has only four ways. Why not use a design such as this? Still only four-way, but diagonals get a lot easier to use, which is very good for games.

* Analog joys doesn't look very accessible, specially for people with small hands.
* Also looks like using the touchscreen would be pretty awkward with the clamshell design.
* Keyboard just looks plain ugly. Also has no room for international keyboard layouts (eg on norwegian ones, there's an Å right of the P and Ø, Æ right of L).