The Pandora And Its History

[pubzombie]

Hi Guys,
I have been away from the forums for a few weeks due to working in rural France with not even a mobile telephone signal. Long story short I am a historian who is going to write a brief history of the Open Pandora as it relates to the open source scene in general and the concept of end users as software preservers and incidental archivists. I have always been a passionate gamer and retro gamer (which is why I purchased a GP2X what seems a lifetime ago) and have pre-ordered a panny myself. Craig and team have agreed to answer questions etc and as the community is such a big part of the project I am interested in your thoughts and ideas. questions, issues or direction warmly welcomed. Also this is not a journalistic piece per see and I am not writing it for money, or even recognition, i am doing it for the historical process itself and the fact I dont get out much.
cheers

 

[lulzfish]

Question:
Are you going to license the movie rights to anyone?
Can we have Michael Bay direct it?

 

[Pickle]

This should be interesting, I think you have a lot of research ahead of you . Digging through the forums, blogs, etc.

I think the most interesting phase to me personally would be the initial design phase. For example the initial project was expected to use a MES chipset not much better than the GP2X, which of course changed and OMAP was landed. Things like that on how the whole thing started, initial ideas that could have been, but were changed from what we know know.
There was one interview with Craig that gave some details, but if you can get the full story and background it will be excellent.
I think this the major piece of the history we are missing, most everything post preorder has been documented pretty well.

 

[Esn]

I think that the roots of the Pandora project really lie in the beginnings of the GP32, 8 years ago. Although it was not an open-source handheld, it really was the first major step of the evolution that led here (remember that the only competitor at the time was the GBA). The use of SMCs as a storage medium to which users could copy any files they wished was absolutely revolutionary at the time, as was the fact that user-created software could easily run on the hardware. This community, on these very forums, was built up back then, and there was a really disproportionate number of talented coders here compared to the actual user-base. One could see this every year at the GBAX Coding Competitions, when the GP32 entries would frequently be more impressive and more numerous than the GBA entries, despite the GBA's far greater userbase.

The Pandora would never have seen the light of day if this community had not existed. Most of the people working on it started off as just regular members here (EvilDragon, for example) and gradually built up trust with the community to the point when they could start a crazy project like the Pandora and have people believe in them enough to take pre-orders for it. Craig Rothwell, though he had the GBAX store before he came here, also spent many years here, in which time people came to trust him (despite his used-car-salesman look! ). See if you can get a hold of Hando (creator of GP32X) and interview him.

Also, I remember that some of the same members who're behind the Pandora now were already talking of making a super-handheld back in the late GP32 era, before the GP2X was yet announced. See if you can find that discussion; it should be still on these forums somewhere. Once the GP2X was announced, it mostly satisfied what people wanted and those discussions basically died down, only to start up again a while later with more ambitious plans.

 

[fusion_power]

This could be a very interesting Book, if someone with Talent starts to write the whole Pandora-Story in all of it's Details, including early concept art and User-Suggestion Art pages and so on...

And there can be only ONE name for such an Book: "IN BED WITH PANDORA"

 

[Trip]

And there can be only ONE name for such an Book: "IN BED WITH PANDORA"


:lol: nice.

Sounds great, I'd give it a read in a heart beat. Good luck

 

[PoisonedV]

the pandora 'story' does seem very fantastic... not every day, that for sure

 

[Screeny]

A german version will be nice too
or..hmm..
maybe i'm writing a german version ^^

we will see...

 

[conso]

Hehe.

Pandora in two months, the new movie by Michael Bay.

Keanu Reeves as CraigX
Joe Pantoliano as MWeston
Benicio del Torro as MJW
and Weird Al Yankovich as Evil Dragon

Sorry, couldn't hold

 

[Warpshade]

You really see Craig as that emotionless? Ouch.

 

[PSyMastR]

I don't think Keanu can pull of craig's accent

Craig doesn't seem to be the type to go... Uhhh.... Im Neo. Im special... Uh... no way!

 

[conso]

ok, ok.

Chuck Norris as CraigX
Insane Clown Posse as quasist
Dennis Hopper as PoisonedV

hehe

 

[God Ginrai]

Hi Guys,
I have been away from the forums for a few weeks due to working in rural France with not even a mobile telephone signal. Long story short I am a historian who is going to write a brief history of the Open Pandora as it relates to the open source scene in general and the concept of end users as software preservers and incidental archivists. I have always been a passionate gamer and retro gamer (which is why I purchased a GP2X what seems a lifetime ago) and have pre-ordered a panny myself. Craig and team have agreed to answer questions etc and as the community is such a big part of the project I am interested in your thoughts and ideas. questions, issues or direction warmly welcomed. Also this is not a journalistic piece per see and I am not writing it for money, or even recognition, i am doing it for the historical process itself and the fact I dont get out much.
cheers

That's great. I'm looking forward to reading it. Any idea about how long it will be? Because if it turns out to be the length of a nice book, I would pay for a hardcopy in a heartbeat.

One suggestion I would make in doing your research is to read through the whole Our New Machine, The Pandora topic. That topic is where almost all of the community's interaction with Craig and Co. took place during the early part of the design phase. It's a couple hundred pages, but it's a really good read. It's got everything, from the talk about the MagicEyes chip to the suggestion of the i.MX31, to the post by that guy from TI talking about getting that deal for the OMAP. You can also find the analog vs. dpad and 2 vs. 4 shoulder arguments there. It's a gold mine as far as the history of the Pandora is concerned.

-God Ginrai

 

[Username]

Sounds like you'll have to do a lot more reading than you will be doing writing. I wish you luck.

 

[Esn]

Sounds like you'll have to do a lot more reading than you will be doing writing. I wish you luck.

Par for the course for any history book or article.

 

[Raz]

The story of the Pandora ehh.... AFAIK, this project is 2-3 years old but the idea must have been before that.. Anyways, I would find it a nice read

 

[MonkeyChops]

Chuck Norris as CraigX
and Weird Al Yankovich as Evil Dragon

:lol: Made me LOL! Someone should make Flash animation of that, it would be classic!