The Real Pandora Niche

[SomeGuy99]

Slobbing out.

No wait... I'm being serious!

You know when you zone out on your couch, lying back, playing console games, and you have your pad propped up on your belly? Just do that with your Pandora. It's easily the best way to play it.

PSP, GP2X, Wiz, Dingoo... any handheld you care to mention... this doesn't work. The screen is too low, and you have to strain your eyes looking down. Even the DS has it's lower screen, and the angle of the top screen isn't right (in both positions, I tried just to be sure). Or what about an Iphone or Ipod Touch? You'll be holding it in the air and getting a tired arm.

The angle of the Pandora screen becomes a blessing. The screen is the perfect distance from your eyes, and double scaled games look really nice. Because of the height and distance of the screen, it feels like playing old consoles on a perfectly upscaled HD television. The loud speakers add to this, as does the Dpad which feels very old-school (in a good way).

Not sure why, but it makes me feel like a kid again - slobbing out all day with my mates playing on the Snes. I almost expect my mum to come in any minute and tell me to get some fresh air, open the curtains and say what a nice day it is outside.

 

[r00tw00t]

Thank you for this insight I can't wait for my Pandora to arrive

 

[SomeGuy99]

In desktop nub-for-mouse mode, I find myself looking straight down at the machine. It's just one of those things... when you instinctively learn the best positions to use every handheld (I have loads, and I think I hold them all differently).

 

[gruso]

This information has warmed my heart.

 

[Trevsweb]

i was using it last night like that just iming away keyboard takes a while to get used to and finding the - _ etc is a pain but very fast to type

 

[Pleng]

i was using it last night like that just iming away keyboard takes a while to get used to and finding the - _ etc is a pain but very fast to type

What IM are you using? Pidgin? Which protocol?

It's constantly crashing for me when trying to use it with MSN

 

[SomeGuy99]

For ultimate laziness, I remapped the buttons for Picodrive so I never have to move my hands in the slob position.

I'm using:

Q = Picodrive Menu
P = Fast Forward (laziness and impatience!)
Enter = Start

It's weird, I completely forget I'm playing on a an emulator, a handheld, a Pandora or a nice new peice of hardware. It's very natural. The D-pad is awesome for Shmups by the way... it really is the way gaming was intended. Playing Thunderforce, I was totally immersed in the game and nothing else.

 

[craigix]

For ultimate laziness, I remapped the buttons for Picodrive so I never have to move my hands in the slob position.

I'm using:

Q = Picodrive Menu
P = Fast Forward (laziness and impatience!)
Enter = Start

It's weird, I completely forget I'm playing on a an emulator, a handheld, a Pandora or a nice new peice of hardware. It's very natural. The D-pad is awesome for Shmups by the way... it really is the way gaming was intended. Playing Thunderforce, I was totally immersed in the game and nothing else.

I'm really happy that people are getting used to the controls. It's easy to forget that it's all new to the customers while all us developers have been using them for years.

I think you will find having all those controls at your fingertips only gets better too

 

[SomeGuy99]

For ultimate laziness, I remapped the buttons for Picodrive so I never have to move my hands in the slob position.

I'm using:

Q = Picodrive Menu
P = Fast Forward (laziness and impatience!)
Enter = Start

It's weird, I completely forget I'm playing on a an emulator, a handheld, a Pandora or a nice new peice of hardware. It's very natural. The D-pad is awesome for Shmups by the way... it really is the way gaming was intended. Playing Thunderforce, I was totally immersed in the game and nothing else.

I'm really happy that people are getting used to the controls. It's easy to forget that it's all new to the customers while all us developers have been using them for years.

I think you will find having all those controls at your fingertips only gets better too

I was sceptical about the nubs, as they seem a bit flakey when using them as a mouse cursor, but when I booted up Quake 2 I totally fell in love. I'm not sure, but I think XFCE (or some component of the firmware) is to blame for the strange mouse nub stuff - for example, the cursor will speed or slow down quite a lot.

 

[WizardStan]

It's easy to forget that ... us developers have been using them for years.

Maybe for you it is, but not for us still waiting. :angry:

 

[craigix]

Due to the way the nubs work, if you power off (ie remove the battery) they need to be calibrated again. You can do this by just pushing them up/down/left right then in a few circles.

Software is going to have to 'catch up' with the nubs and be tweaked to make them feel perfect. It will happen, enjoy watching the evolution.

 

[SomeGuy99]

Due to the way the nubs work, if you power off (ie remove the battery) they need to be calibrated again. You can do this by just pushing them up/down/left right then in a few circles.

Software is going to have to 'catch up' with the nubs and be tweaked to make them feel perfect. It will happen, enjoy watching the evolution.

No, it's not that. Sometimes I have to go into the nub settings and reset them... and this seems to fix it, but often not.

It's weird though, like say if I move the mouse cursor repeatedly up and down then it will slow down and speed up randomly.

 

[r00tw00t]

sounds a bit like mouse acceleration is enabled

 

[craigix]

Due to the way the nubs work, if you power off (ie remove the battery) they need to be calibrated again. You can do this by just pushing them up/down/left right then in a few circles.

Software is going to have to 'catch up' with the nubs and be tweaked to make them feel perfect. It will happen, enjoy watching the evolution.

No, it's not that. Sometimes I have to go into the nub settings and reset them... and this seems to fix it, but often not.

It's weird though, like say if I move the mouse cursor repeatedly up and down then it will slow down and speed up randomly.

The software for the mouse could probably be a bit more simple, ie 3 speeds in each direction would work.

Throwing the nubs about in a non-game like crazy way (ie just whacking extremes quickly and constantly, never letting them rest in the middle) could make them configure themselves to very fast movement almost all the time.

 

[SomeGuy99]

sounds a bit like mouse acceleration is enabled

I will investigate this!

Yes, I think that was it. Well done, I wouldn't have thought of that, but it's obvious now. :lol:

I'll let you know if this fixes it.

Due to the way the nubs work, if you power off (ie remove the battery) they need to be calibrated again. You can do this by just pushing them up/down/left right then in a few circles.

Software is going to have to 'catch up' with the nubs and be tweaked to make them feel perfect. It will happen, enjoy watching the evolution.

No, it's not that. Sometimes I have to go into the nub settings and reset them... and this seems to fix it, but often not.

It's weird though, like say if I move the mouse cursor repeatedly up and down then it will slow down and speed up randomly.

The software for the mouse could probably be a bit more simple, ie 3 speeds in each direction would work.

Throwing the nubs about in a non-game like crazy way (ie just whacking extremes quickly and constantly, never letting them rest in the middle) could make them configure themselves to very fast movement almost all the time.

Wait, so the nubs are auto-configuring? That's pretty posh.

No, the mouse speed was in normal use without whacking the nubs around in a crazy fashion. I think switching the mouse acceleration off for the nubs has helped (probably something to consider as a default setting) with this.

Also, I was using the nubs in this crazy way you mention for Quake 2, and that was working perfectly!

 

[fusion_power]

Due to the way the nubs work, if you power off (ie remove the battery) they need to be calibrated again. You can do this by just pushing them up/down/left right then in a few circles.

Does this mean, I always have to move the nubs, when I tured off the Pandora completely before? No way to save the last setting somewhere?
Because I'm a fan of turning devices completely off (over night for example). Will there be a way that each app stores the last NUB calibration or at least the Firmware does? I'm lazy you know... :lol:

 

[craigix]

Due to the way the nubs work, if you power off (ie remove the battery) they need to be calibrated again. You can do this by just pushing them up/down/left right then in a few circles.

Does this mean, I always have to move the nubs, when I tured off the Pandora completely before? No way to save the last setting somewhere?
Because I'm a fan of turning devices completely off (over night for example). Will there be a way that each app stores the last NUB calibration or at least the Firmware does? I'm lazy you know... :lol:

They just need to be calibrated once per boot, which just involves moving them about.

This is because the other method of making nubs work is patented. Yes I'm sure plenty of companies ignore the patent and just use someone elses tech, but we didn't.

 

[fusion_power]

This is because the other method of making nubs work is patented. Yes I'm sure plenty of companies ignore the patent and just use someone elses tech, but we didn't.

Psst, I wouldn't tell anyone.
Today, everything seems to patented. :lol: Who came to the Idea to patent a way how a analog-nub stores his calibration? Some people seems to have to much spare-time. XD

 

[renwils]

If that method is patented, that wouldn't keep an individual from implementing it, would it? Though Open Pandora wouldn't be able to sell it preinstalled, much like the codec pack. I don't know enough about the hardware to know if this is possible.

 

[Aninhumer]

If that method is patented, that wouldn't keep an individual from implementing it, would it? Though Open Pandora wouldn't be able to sell it preinstalled, much like the codec pack. I don't know enough about the hardware to know if this is possible.

From what I've heard, changing this would require reflashing the firmware on the nubs themselves, which would require hardware access.
If this is truly patented, my already damaged faith in the patent system is destroyed once again. <_<