What Should The Pandora File Archive Look Like?

[Squidge]

Well, the Pandora has been molded around your ideas and suggestions, so its now time for the file archive

Several people are creating such an archive, but it would be nice if people gave there opinion of what they wanted, with sample pictures of what they expect.

NOTE: No rabbits pictures to be posted!

 

[dockthepod]

It needs to look good at 800x480 and allow downloading directly to pandora

 

[squeakypants]

I think our best option is a dual system: A wiki and a Deb Repository. The Wiki would be for documentation, even of unsupported software. The Debian repository would be just that, and allow for direct downloading (instead of using a browser+wiki).

 

[jdh2550]

This is probably going to be shot down in flames... However, are we talking about archives of the emulator or of the ROMs (or other binary images produced from copyrighted material necessary to use the emulator - in the rest of this I'll just use ROM as shorthand).

It would be great to have a solid ROM archive. I'm sure this presents a thorny problem from a legal point of view - however, there are so many really awful/nasty/dangerous (as in spyware ladened) ROM sites that it would be great if there was a good ROM archive to support the p&|a.

Where do folks get their ROMs today (for the games they already own of course)?

My experience with getting ROMs for Project64 was that it was a PITA. But of course that might just be because I couldn't find the right repository that didn't want to spam me or infect my PC with spyware.

 

[atomicthumbs]

+1 wiki+repository.

I would host a MediaWiki if I had a server with something better than 700mhz and 256kbps upload.

I nominate myself for main admin and content creator (at the start) for the Wikia wiki (which I have requested: http://pandora.wikia.com). It's a free, ad-supported MediaWiki hosting service.

It would be great to have a solid ROM archive. I'm sure this presents a thorny problem from a legal point of view - however, there are so many really awful/nasty/dangerous (as in spyware ladened) ROM sites that it would be great if there was a good ROM archive to support the p&|a.

Not so much thorny as COMPLETELY ILLEGAL

 

[goobers]

Umm yeah... a rom archive is just asking for trouble I think. You can make one if you want. Just don't have anything about Pandora on it at all, or craig will get a load of crap.

As for the file archive, I think that it should be better organized than the one that we have at the moment- perhaps be able to have a page for each piece of software and have each different version of the software on the same page, with information etc, and have the page link to the wiki page on the software. (or perhaps have the wiki and the file archive combined somehow?)

 

[Orkie]

+1 wiki+repository.

I would host a MediaWiki if I had a server with something better than 700mhz and 256kbps upload.

I nominate myself for main admin and content creator (at the start) for the Wikia wiki (which I have requested: http://pandora.wikia.com). It's a free, ad-supported MediaWiki hosting service.


I wasn't going to make this public until I'd added a little more content when I get a developer board (since a lot of your stuff is speculation right now) but I wouldn't want for you to waste your time: http://www.pandorawiki.org/Main_Page. That is free, not ad supported and on the same rock solid server ED uses for the archives.

 

[atomicthumbs]

I wasn't going to make this public until I'd added a little more content when I get a developer board (since a lot of your stuff is speculation right now) but I wouldn't want for you to waste your time: http://www.pandorawiki.org/Main_Page



Request canceled.

 

[Alex.]

Here's my layout idea

- Categories directed towards end-users are labeled against the developer downloads, and vice versa.

- The login toolbar gives access to a list of your most recent downloads, and a complete list of what you uploaded so far.

- The newest files in the most popular categories are displayed at the top of the main page, with links leading to similar downloads.

- Clicking on an author's name leads to a list of all that author's uploads.

- Rating a file forces you to leave a written comment as well.

 

[zacaj]

Make it accessable and look good on the Pandora and a computer

 

[jdh2550]

It would be great to have a solid ROM archive. I'm sure this presents a thorny problem from a legal point of view - however, there are so many really awful/nasty/dangerous (as in spyware ladened) ROM sites that it would be great if there was a good ROM archive to support the p&|a.

Not so much thorny as COMPLETELY ILLEGAL

Yeah, OK - I know, dumb idea - but man it's a PITA - and we all know that not everyone has access to the hardware necessary to dump out the contents of a console cartridge.

I wish there were some way around it (no, not to bring down capitalism and the fall of Western society - but to get a somehow "blessed" resource of files to run on an emulator).

The record companies finally got behind opening up their back catalogs for 99 cent downloads. Nintendo built that same idea into the Wii. Why can't software license holders see it as a way to extend the life of their property?

Oh well.

 

[Squidge]

Where do folks get their ROMs today (for the games they already own of course)?

Well, from the cartridges they already own, of course.

 

[Hooka]

I'd say a repository would be awesome, having a web archive just incase the repository doesn't work or somebody can't access the internet from their pandora would be optimal...

having the archive viewable at 800X480 as previously mentioned would be very nice aswell

 

[Game_over]

It would be great to have a solid ROM archive. I'm sure this presents a thorny problem from a legal point of view - however, there are so many really awful/nasty/dangerous (as in spyware ladened) ROM sites that it would be great if there was a good ROM archive to support the p&|a.

Not so much thorny as COMPLETELY ILLEGAL

Yeah, OK - I know, dumb idea - but man it's a PITA - and we all know that not everyone has access to the hardware necessary to dump out the contents of a console cartridge.

I wish there were some way around it (no, not to bring down capitalism and the fall of Western society - but to get a somehow "blessed" resource of files to run on an emulator).

The record companies finally got behind opening up their back catalogs for 99 cent downloads. Nintendo built that same idea into the Wii. Why can't software license holders see it as a way to extend the life of their property?

Oh well.



Well because there are so many ways of getting said property free, as illegal as it may be.

But lets make something clear- there are legal ROMS out there made by homebrew developers available through public domain. PDROMS are a way people could learn how to code towards a specific emulator (which is again...legal). We can have a PDROMS section of the file archive that could just branch out from each emulated system in the emulator section.

 

[atomicthumbs]

Orkie: the wiki has thumbnail problems.

 

[scarath]

erm ... cant we just port over 'synaptic package manager'?

Synaptic + Clone of the Debian achives .... call me stale but why reinvent the wheel?

 

[Orkie]

Orkie: the wiki has thumbnail problems.

Yep, I replied to you on my talk page, I'll fix it ASAP.

 

[God Ginrai]

I like the Idea of a wiki+repository, but I also think that a web archive like what we currently have for the GP2X is needed as well. (with hopefully a couple of changes to the archive so that it's a little more user friendly)

-God Ginrai

 

[atomicthumbs]

erm ... cant we just port over 'synaptic package manager'?

Synaptic + Clone of the Debian achives .... call me stale but why reinvent the wheel?

1. Aptitude > Synaptic

2. Debian Archives and Pandora Archives will be seperate. Debian will be Debian, and Pandora will have software with ARM ASM and Pandora-specific optimizations and Pandora homebrew and Pandora ports.

 

[JakeK]

Here's my layout idea

- Categories directed towards end-users are labeled against the developer downloads, and vice versa.

- The login toolbar gives access to a list of your most recent downloads, and a complete list of what you uploaded so far.

- The newest files in the most popular categories are displayed at the top of the main page, with links leading to similar downloads.

- Clicking on an author's name leads to a list of all that author's uploads.

- Rating a file forces you to leave a written comment as well.

Excellent, I like it. +1 for Alex's idea.

Btw from my knowledge hosting ROM's is not illegal, it just has to abide by copyright set out by the publisherof the ROM. However I do not wish for there to be ROMS hosted on this archive.

Just remember, this archive is just not for developers, it needs to be user friendly. I have no idea about Debian and all that stuff so just take into account that the average user needs to know what is going on and doesn't require further knowledge to use the archive.

KEEP IT SIMPLE