Thinking of buying, would like your advice


G

Gaz

Guest
Hi guys. I found out about the Pandora purely by accident on a forum, but ended up liking it the more I read.

I've played with emulators for various systems for games I like or didn't get the chance to play, I also saw that there were some old games I own that run on the Pandora like AvP. It's kind of a pain to run it on the newer PCs, so that looked quite tempting too. Kind of like the idea of an ultra-portable internet-capable machine too.

The only thing is that I've read some issues. One poster mentioned something about the casing around the screen needing to be put into place, there's a topic about wifi issues, that kind of thing.

So, i'm planning on ordering this week, but there's a couple of things I'd like to ask. I couldn't find much on the subject, so I thought I should ask before making such an investment. I apologise in advance if I've missed anything on these subjects.

First, how's the Genesis/Megadrive emulation, do the available emus run 32X or CD games okay? I read something about FMV-based games not running so well, was curious about how the other "addon" emulation is.

How hard is it to use the analog nubs? Call me strange, but they look like they'd require a little of an awkward grip, perhaps I'm misjudging the scale though.

Is it possible to use the analogs for games like AvP similar to modern console FPSs? Would certainly make things slightly easier to play.

What's the limit as far as DOSBox emulation goes? Would Desert Strike run, or perhaps Magic Carpet?

Is it relatively straightforward to update the firmware or applications?

Last, is there anything important that people here think a serious newbie to the Pandora (like me) needs to know?

Thanks for indulging an ignorant rude newbie. (Apologies to all for the ignorant and rude parts of my questions.)
 
The WiFi is a weak point; it works, but its not the most blazing fast around (though you can pick up a $20 USB wifi adaptor that may bring you into the high speed wifi league, anyway, at the cost of using up your USB port.)

On the other hand, see one of the community projectsw I'm driving :)

http://c4a.openpandora.org/

How many mobiles will let you compete with your forum buddies in arcade and indie title high score tables? :)

jeff
 
In regards to Picodrive(Genesis/32X,Sega CD), it's probably one of the best emu's we've got(PSX rearmed being the other). Standard cart emulation is perfect, as is Sega CD, but there are a few games that may not work in the most recent build, due to certain compatibility issues(fix one game, and another stops working). There are work arounds by using "Ginge" and running older GP2X versions of Picodrive, where the games run without issue.

32X runs well, but is not optimized, so you may have to overclock to get games to run full speed, but they all seem to run accurately(at least in my experience).

I'm sure others can chime in with regards to your other questions, as my expertise is strictly in gaming :lol:   

https://www.youtube.com/embed/hm0vyRl1AMQ?feature=oembed

Chris
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I never had any problems with the casing. Stuff has generally worked without problems.

I like using the nubs, it's pretty comfortable. Using the dpad and buttons however is awkward in my experience, might vary depending on the length of your thumbs.

One issue I've had is with clicking, my right nub has misregistered clicks rather frequently. Such as clicking when I don't even touch it or double clicking because I didn't press it quite in the right way.

The stylus is also hard to use, I much prefer the nubs.

The problem is I don't know how to comfortably hold the Pandora while stylusing.
 
I never had any problems with the casing. Stuff has generally worked without problems.

I like using the nubs, it's pretty comfortable. Using the dpad and buttons however is awkward in my experience, might vary depending on the length of your thumbs.

One issue I've had is with clicking, my right nub has misregistered clicks rather frequently. Such as clicking when I don't even touch it or double clicking because I didn't press it quite in the right way.

The stylus is also hard to use, I much prefer the nubs.

The problem is I don't know how to comfortably hold the Pandora while stylusing.
Most of the time I use Nubs as mouse (or a real mouse), but Stylus can be used sometimes: try Dune Dynasty for example, it works well with it !
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Just don't expect a pick up and play device. Some emulators require a bit of getting accustomed to.

Updating firmware or apps is easily done via the Repo. 

I would buy the 1 gig model and stay away from ebay.

I do not think there is one emulator on any system that plays every bit of software flawlessly that was ever produced. The bunch you mentioned play most very well though.

Go for it!
 
Last edited:
The wifi is hit-or-miss. Some people have great wifi, others have slow but stable, and a disturbing number of people have entirely unstable wifi. The weird thing is that every single Pandora is checked before it leaves, so we have no idea what is going on (although resident kernel genius Notaz has some ideas and is always working).

DosBox is basically limited to 486 compatibility, 386 for best results. Desert Strike will probably work with no problem but Magic Carpet would be pushing it and probably wouldn't run very well.

Updating the firmware is very easy now, provided you have a working wifi: it's just a simple menu option which does everything. Without wifi there are periodic full updates you can download on your PC and copy to your SD card via USB to install. Alternatively, there is a way to get internet via USB (ie, connect to your desktop to act as an access point) but that's a slightly more complex setup and can be taken care of later if needed.

The only problem with the new screens is that it has a different gamma from the old ones, and is less sensitive. The gamma can be fixed with some tweaking (I don't know if anyone else has gotten it quite right yet, I'm still mucking with it a bit, it's just a matter of time until we figure out the optimal settings) and the touch sensitivity is only really a problem in applications that use dynamic sensitivity, which so far is only mtPaint.

I have no complaints about the nubs. Comfortable enough for me to lay in bed, on back and side, but I'm not a major FPS player.

The most important advice I can give a newbie is to have patience. The hardware was designed by a few guys with no previous experience building a console but had great ideas on what they wanted: for the most part those great ideas translated well, but some things (like the wifi) they just didn't have the experience to know about ahead of time, so expect some quirks.

The software is designed by a bunch of really smart guys that absolutely know everything about what they're doing, so a newbie might have some problems understanding without that same knowledge: if you've got a problem, do a search and see if it's been solved, but if not don't be afraid to ask the stupid questions. :) And forgive us if someone responds with "RTFM" or something.
 
  • PND files and PNDmanager are beautifully easy to use
  • Stuff generally works, and the pandora is an extremely capable device, but...
  • ... you won't be able to get the most out of it without fiddling around and putting up with unpolished software
  • The hardware's strengths are largely concealed; the dpad and audio quality are wonderful, but the case is a little flakey. Huge battery, unpredictable Wifi. etc.
  • Customer service from ED's (Dragonbox) shop is excellent
 
Oh ya, that's another thing. You can't get better customer service than what's available with the Pandora. You get to talk DIRECTLY with the developers (like ED). I love that aspect of the device
 
  • PND files and PNDmanager are beautifully easy to use
  • Stuff generally works, and the pandora is an extremely capable device, but...
  • ... you won't be able to get the most out of it without fiddling around and putting up with unpolished software
  • The hardware's strengths are largely concealed; the dpad and audio quality are wonderful, but the case is a little flakey. Huge battery, unpredictable Wifi. etc.
  • Customer service from ED's (Dragonbox) shop is excellent
This sums it up well; but this is all good in my books ..  I'm glad its worked out as a tinkerers heaven. Its not the smoothly polished Sony or Nintendo device, but those devices make you fight to do what you want!

(I'll never forgive Sony for greedy games like.. playing a video file from memstick will show it at reduced quality for no reason than to promote their UMD video failed service. We may struggle in Pandora land for some things, but at least its all things we can struggle in the building of, not struggle against!)

jeff
 
I can't recommend anything less than the 1ghz model. Personally, even the 1ghz is a bit slow, but it works nicely.
That's because you're using it to run android… or using firefox as you main browser.


(or trying to play N64 games…) ;)


Well, most of the older consoles emulated are fullspeed except some of the more recent and/or quirky ones (Saturn, N64 I'm looking at you! <_< ). On a rebirth edition pandora you can emulate an amiga 500 fullspeed, on the GHZ edition, you'll be able to emulate a 1200 (amiga 500 is perfect to play desert strike, Dune and many many other games that were better on amiga than on pc :p  ).

PSone is almost perfect, since you can even render 3D games at twice their original resolution. Like always with emulators, some games get fixed, other get broken in the process… but the most popular games are always working. 

About megadrive/genesis and mega CD, I've played Sonic CD without any problem (except that I've ripped the music as separate audio files and forgot to copy them, so I only have FX sounds lol). Never tried any 32X games… from what I heard I didn't loose anything :D

About AvP, it's a port, so I think the controls have been tweaked for pandora. From what I've got, they made it similar to current fps on consoles (one nub to move the character, the other to move the head).
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Thanks for the replies guys. I really appreciate it. A few things I'd like to reply to:

DosBox is basically limited to 486 compatibility, 386 for best results. Desert Strike will probably work with no problem but Magic Carpet would be pushing it and probably wouldn't run very well.
Didn't think MC would work, worth a shot though.

Customer service from ED's (Dragonbox) shop is excellent
Oh ya, that's another thing. You can't get better customer service than what's available with the Pandora. You get to talk DIRECTLY with the developers (like ED). I love that aspect of the device
 

 

I did like this aspect of the Pandora. I've read a few of the topics where ED explained how he's been getting the Pandora to pre-order customers. Despite the few issues along the way, he kept at it. I'd say his dedication to the project is laudable, I wish we could see more of his attitude in hardware developers.

Jumpman and Kodeln also gave some nice information on the emulation capabilities of the Pandora. I was going to spring for the 1GHz model anyway, but the Amiga emulation description clinched it. Tempted to plug in a USB mini mouse and play Space Crusade.

Couple of other questions:

How do you find the non-emulator aspects of the Pandora? For example, I've seen office programs offered, are they okay?

What kind of things would you recommend doing "out of the box"?
 
How do you find the non-emulator aspects of the Pandora? For example, I've seen office programs offered, are they okay?


What kind of things would you recommend doing "out of the box"?
If you want to do normal things like web browsing or office programs, you've come to the wrong place. Unless you want to carry a regular keyboard and mouse with you, the Pandora is just not good for email/word documents. It's a gaming machine that CAN do other things, it just can't do them very well. Get a smartphone if you don't already have one. That'll serve you better for more common computer-like functions.
 
Well, once again I disagree with Seejay…

The keyboard works well for thumb typing, it takes a few days to get used to the keymap. But once you're used to it… it's fast (and FAAAAR better than those awful on-screen keyboards -_- )

I wrote quite long text on the pandora and even coded on PandaBas without major problems (I sometimes have troubles since I'm used to azerty keymap and it's qwerty ;) ).

LibreOffice isn't the fastest software ever, but it works well and is easy to use. Some people here even made large "powerpoints" files during a trip to the presentation they had to make on their pandora.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
How do you find the non-emulator aspects of the Pandora? For example, I've seen office programs offered, are they okay?


What kind of things would you recommend doing "out of the box"?
If you want to do normal things like web browsing or office programs, you've come to the wrong place. Unless you want to carry a regular keyboard and mouse with you, the Pandora is just not good for email/word documents. It's a gaming machine that CAN do other things, it just can't do them very well. Get a smartphone if you don't already have one. That'll serve you better for more common computer-like functions.
More often then not, I am just browsing the web or taking notes for work on my Pandora. I find the keyboard adequate for quick notes and such. I use ssh / X forwarding to check on my scripts that I run on unix/Linux boxes at work.. often I'm on the Pandora IRC chat channel and have no issues typing in responses fast enough.


so yeah I highly disagree with seejay
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I have wrote the "How to port Arkanoid on Pandora" on the Pandora. I do half of my port directly on the Pandora (the other Half with SSH). So yes, Keyboard is usable. And don't forget _wb_ was has written 2 full games on the Pandora!
 
I regularly take notes in LibreOffice at meetings on the Pandora keyboard. I have also done quite a lot of coding on the Pandora keyboard. It is great for things like IRC or writing emails.

Of course, if you're going to write long documents where the bottleneck is not your brain but your typing speed, then nothing beats a big full keyboard. But most of the time, your speed is brain-limited and not typing-limited. And in those cases, the Pandora keyboard is just as good as a full keyboard.

The Pandora keyboard takes a while to get used to though, especially for coding where you need all those symbols.

It beats any smartphone or tablet any time. Hell, it even beats my laptop: my laptop has home/end/pgup/pgdn in weird spots and I always hit the wrong button when I'm not looking - on the Pandora keyboard those keys are in very logical spots. Many shortcut combinations I frequently need like shift-pgup/dn, ctrl-pgup/dn, ctrl-shift-T, etc. are easier on the Pandora keyboard (thanks to the shoulder buttons) than on my laptop.
 
yeah Seejay is nuts there ;)

Pandora has a keyboard, so pretty much by definition is better off than tablets or smartphones in general; jack in a usb keyboard (probabyl via a hub, since most keyboards are not usb2 and up) and you're off to the races. Some tablets can also do that, and some like the Transformer have it as part of their schtick; but in general most phonestablets are not great with keyboards (and even the Transformer keyboard doesn't really work all that well, at least for coding; some of the keys do not map right!) .. anyway, so yeah, the Pandora is a general purpose device; its got a fair number of emus and indie titles (no big AAA games, except where some of the Android ones work alright), but it can _Also_ watch video fairly well (or be a video server!), or run office apps (Libre Office is actually pretty good), or run a webserver; you can write code and compile it on device. You've got two SD slots and can go nuts with storage (dual 64GB if you like, though I rock 2 32GB cards myself), and jack in a USB hard drive if you like. Its fairly robust (better than laptopts were not that many years back) but not as beefy a cpu as some of the new phones out there (come on, phones with dual or quad core is sick :)

So .. you weigh it out; its an indie made device, it has a lot of quirks, but it has a lot of love too. It is expensive though.

jeff

(disclosure: I'm one of the guys who helped build it, the firmware anyway, so may be biased)
 
Back
Top