The Archos Gamepad.

[kuru]

Too bad they dropped the awesome kickstand. Great device though. Who needs a PS Vita

 

[vcoleiro1]

Looks to be using a RK3066 SOC which is a very decent SOC. I thought from initial specs it would be a single core al cheapo SOC, but it looks like they have gone for the Rockchip Soc instead.


For those interested there is an effort at the moment to get Linux Ported for RK3066 devices. You can see the progress here:


http://www.slatedroi...g007-imito-mx1/

 

[Fzero]

I am tempted...


Worth selling my Versus 7" tablet to fund toward this I think

 

[monstercameron]

hopefully archos revs this thing quick( hw & sw) to fix the battery woes and offer higher performance (a 28nm quad core rockchip can solve both)

 

[Exophase]

After watching some videos it seems to clear to me that the d-pad is separate buttons. Also hinted by the fact that Archos themselves say it has 12 face buttons. I don't know how these companies fail to make even minimally passing d-pads over and over again. You'd think they'd do even the tiniest bit of research before making something that they've had no experience with, but no, you can practically depend on first time gaming portables to screw up the controls (except Pandora).

hopefully archos revs this thing quick( hw & sw) to fix the battery woes and offer higher performance (a 28nm quad core rockchip can solve both)

Wouldn't hold your breath.. clearly they used too small a battery. Upgrading the SoC will only do so much.

 

[EvilDragon]

Bummer... so we have another gaming device with mostly unusable gaming controls... (well, except for playing puzzle and RPGs).


Somehow it reminds me of the double D-Pad WIZ, even though it was the other way round there

 

[hailrazer]

Bummer... so we have another gaming device with mostly unusable gaming controls... (well, except for playing puzzle and RPGs).


Somehow it reminds me of the double D-Pad WIZ, even though it was the other way round there

I don't put much stock in reviews of the controls. Everyone has their own opinion of what they like. Some love "hard" buttons some want "soft" buttons. Some love PS1 style pads, others want Sega style pads. Some love loose analogs some want tight.


I try the device myself and come to my own conclusions.

 

[EvilDragon]

Bummer... so we have another gaming device with mostly unusable gaming controls... (well, except for playing puzzle and RPGs).


Somehow it reminds me of the double D-Pad WIZ, even though it was the other way round there

I don't put much stock in reviews of the controls. Everyone has their own opinion of what they like. Some love "hard" buttons some want "soft" buttons. Some love PS1 style pads, others want Sega style pads. Some love loose analogs some want tight.


I try the device myself and come to my own conclusions.

I usually agree, but if these buttons are individual ones, then it's clear they can't be good.


It's not the way they look like - it's the way they behave.


The PS1 pads look similar, but it's one pad, not four individual buttons.


It's pretty much known that individual buttons are unplayable when used as a DPad.

 

[gibberish]

Nobody likes 4 seperate buttons instead of a d-pad though.


edit// Ed beat me to it.

 

[hailrazer]

I hav no problem using a separate button d-pad.


Of course with an analog joystick I never use the d-pad anyway .


Like I said everyone has different needs and opinions.

 

[monstercameron]

I kinda wish more people would use the caanoo style analogue...rather than psp/3ds slide pad. hell it was even clickable.

 

[Garrett]

Must admit I'm tempted, now that I'm bereft of my Pandora & Nexus 7 & have an increasing mobile gaming itch to scratch.


That £130 price point is attractive too, but I would like to hear some reviews & user feedback first.


Not to keen on the look of the Dpad & the psp style nubs, but I guess that depends on your preference & who knows they may turn out to be fantastic.


Anybody ordered or planning to order one..?

 

[monstercameron]

Must admit I'm tempted, now that I'm bereft of my Pandora & Nexus 7 & have an increasing mobile gaming itch to scratch.


That £130 price point is attractive too, but I would like to hear some reviews & user feedback first.


Not to keen on the look of the Dpad & the psp style nubs, but I guess that depends on your preference & who knows they may turn out to be fantastic.


Anybody ordered or planning to order one..?

bafelton had on overview up..and here is full review.http://www.arctablet.com/blog/featured/archos-gamepad-android-portable-console-review-part-1-introduction/

 

[Fzero]

I ordered one. .. about 2 minutes after my post a few up ^^^


I've offered my Versus tablet, which is what I use currently for bit of browsing and some casual Android app games when not using my phone, to my mate for a good deal - so I'm hoping this is good.


it's my festive prezzie to myself

 

[Garrett]

I ordered one. .. about 2 minutes after my post a few up ^^^


I've offered my Versus tablet, which is what I use currently for bit of browsing and some casual Android app games when not using my phone, to my mate for a good deal - so I'm hoping this is good.


it's my festive prezzie to myself

Seems like they've sold out in the places I've looked.. any chance of getting a little feedback when you receive yours.. I'm particularly interested in the build/screen/sound quality, how good (or not) are the controls, battery life (I've heard this isn't great) & the various emulator performance.

 

[Fzero]

Yeah of course mate, I'll be d/l the emus straight away and using those, pretty much what I will be using this for mainly, along with a handful of Android specific games I play.


I think it said will be available on 18th, so probably be a couple weeks before i get it, soon as I do though I'll let you know

 

[Garrett]

Yeah of course mate, I'll be d/l the emus straight away and using those, pretty much what I will be using this for mainly, along with a handful of Android specific games I play.


I think it said will be available on 18th, so probably be a couple weeks before i get it, soon as I do though I'll let you know

Cheers.. I've more or less decided I want one (much to my significant others dismay) but it's always nice to get some feedback from folks here.

 

[Fzero]

Yeah, first thing I'll be looking to test all emus that I have running on my phone at moment;


ePSXe


NEO


MD


PCE


MAME4droid


2600


Marvin


GBC


John NES


SNESDroid


Mupen64 Plus


My Boy


UAE4Droid


Frodo C64


SToid


ColEm


Beebdroid


Then will try some of the big Android games and see how they play.


Thinking they will run a little nicer too, as my phone [Xperia Play] isn't as good spec. [still my phone of choice though right now, only iCP2 will sway me to a better spec phone]


It seems pretty good for the cost of it, my main concern now is that battery - Doubt it's likely that anything would've improved on that score either since the beta versions that the demo models were running under [like on that review].


The build looks good to me, though will see when I get it, but from the pics/vids I seen it does look solid. Got expectations on the speakers too, other Archos players I've had have been decent enough.


We shall see...

 

[vcoleiro1]

From the review posted above it looks excellent except for one thing, battery life. I think they put to small a battery in it. Their results for battery life were as follows:


From a fully charged tablet, we played this video file big_buck_bunny_720p_AAC.mp4(Big Buck Bunny 720p, stereo sound in AAC format) in loop until the tablet battery gets empty.


More details about the test conditions:


- using latest firmware (20121126) available on the pre-production device


- machine started after a fresh reboot


- tablet fully charged (lockscreen says “Charged”, Settings / About tablet / Status says Battery level100%)


- media sound volume set to half (Settings/Sound/Volume, set Media bar to middle position)


- brightness set to half (Settings/Display/Brightness)


- Wi-FI disabled


During this test, on our pre-production Archos GamePad, we have measured an effective battery life of 4 hours and 36 minutes. For comparison, most other Archos and Arnova tablets of all sizes also give it up after 4-6 hours. We have used our ArcTools application to run the battery test for the details of the discharge curve, see below:

When it comes to battery life with gaming, it is worse. Running Asphalt 7 with full brightness and Wi-Fi on, the GamePad could only handle it for slightly more than two hours. Nova Battery Tester standard benchmark measured 1% drop per 72 seconds, or a battery life of 2 hours with maximum brightness and maximum CPU load(all the networks off). Archos 80G9 got more than the double in the same benchmark(results from Nova Battery Tester page). We can only say we would like to have a bigger battery in here.

 

[Nintendo]

I can't be bothered reading the all the past posts in this thread or reading the thread on Dingoonity...but where is the best place to import a Gamepad?