Gaming Is the Pandora (handheld) still much of a fuss?

[Die Antwoord]

I was gonna post this in the handheld section.. but the general section seemed way too dead..

I'm talking about this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora_%28console%29

I remember first hearing about it way back, probably like 5 years ago or something. I wanted a portable N64 player and came across that. I always wanted one but just never got around to getting one.. but seeing how long ago it was, is it outdated now, is there something else? Is it still having homebrew developed? Are they even available anymore?

 

[RodrigoDavy]

You can find out the answers to these questions on the forums section of the official site: http://openpandora.org/

And, yes, apparently they do sell pandora nowadays. I would acquire one myself weren't it so expensive, I actually prefer one of these than a video game since I can use it as a portable ARM PC (so much possibilities *.*). Unfortunately I don't see much future for it now that there are small size computers like Raspberry pi with similar hardware specs but 1/3 the price.

 

[Pleng]

Pandora got killed by poor management, poor UI concepulization, a nut job team leader, and the slew of Android based devices that came out between the date the Pandora should have been available, and the date it finally did become available.

I had one. It was pretty cool. But it never really lived up to its promise.

 

[Magsor]

Android is the future. I would not bother with pandora.

 

[Die Antwoord]

What kind of android based devices are there? Are they similar in design to this pandora? With buttons and keys and all.. i'm not a fan of touch screen-only devices.

Pandora got killed by poor management, poor UI concepulization, a nut job team leader, and the slew of Android based devices that came out between the date the Pandora should have been available, and the date it finally did become available.

I had one. It was pretty cool. But it never really lived up to its promise.

How was it though? Was it good for emulation and homebrew, and as a portable n64 player?

 

[Zetta_x]

Pandora got killed by poor management, poor UI concepulization, a nut job team leader, and the slew of Android based devices that came out between the date the Pandora should have been available, and the date it finally did become available.

I had one. It was pretty cool. But it never really lived up to its promise.

You should give us a video review

 

[ILuvGames]

Not worth it unless you can afford the 1GHZ units. I've had a 600MHZ one for a while. They were gonna make a move towards a more generic Linux OS which would help because without it (emulator wise) you are stuck with GP32/2X ports of ports and most weren't stable enough for me. I've shelved mine until this happens even though they've got Android up and running fine it's IMO not worth a toss without a 1GHZ unit. Don't get me wrong it's a lovely machine (build quality issues aside), it's just nowhere near as usable as I would have liked. I've used/programmed/worked with computers for over 30 years, so i am used to working around the technical limits of hardware/software but nothing I used on my Pandora was stable from the OS to most of the apps. Customer support for me has been minimal (read almost non-existant) unless you count the help I had from other users on the forum. I received an SD card with my order that is known to have a bad controller and has problems with the Pandora so why are they still sending them out to people ? I also had the privilege of paying £30 originallly for that SD card which I could have bought for about £6 when I got my Pandora. I'm not trying to sound mean but inflation hasn't gone up that much . I won't say whether I bought my Pandora from Craig or EvilDragon but, let's just say that there 'appears' to be some bad blood because of that persons attitude towards the way they run their business and the way they have treated their customers in the past under Game Park Holdings and I consider that nothing has changed.

 

[Pleng]

Pandora got killed by poor management, poor UI concepulization, a nut job team leader, and the slew of Android based devices that came out between the date the Pandora should have been available, and the date it finally did become available.

I had one. It was pretty cool. But it never really lived up to its promise.

You should give us a video review

Well that would be a little difficult now. Besides, I'm sure there are plenty around

 

[Magsor]

What kind of android based devices are there? Are they similar in design to this pandora? With buttons and keys and all.. i'm not a fan of touch screen-only devices.

You can check for Yinlips and JXD devices on youtube i don't know others that makes android gaming handhelds(theres xperia play) I have a JXD cortex A9 1.2ghz and it plays N64 better than any handhelds I know of and it only costed me 85$!!!. I plan to make a extended test and review during my vacation in 2-3 weeks.
Its also 100% sure that better devices will come out in the near future not breaking your bank like pandora.

 

[Pleng]

What kind of android based devices are there? Are they similar in design to this pandora? With buttons and keys and all.. i'm not a fan of touch screen-only devices.

There are android devices like the yinlips with built in gaming controls. No keyboard. I don't know if you could use a bluetooth one or not. There' tht iControlPad 2 from the same team as Pandora. If that ever comes out, it can clip on to any Android phone and is basically the bottom half of the Pandroa (Keyboard & controls)

Pandora got killed by poor management, poor UI concepulization, a nut job team leader, and the slew of Android based devices that came out between the date the Pandora should have been available, and the date it finally did become available.

I had one. It was pretty cool. But it never really lived up to its promise.

How was it though? Was it good for emulation and homebrew, and as a portable n64 player?

Homebrew was s**t. The keyboard made developers bring over sloppy ports where you had the navigate impossible to read menus that were designed to be played on computers with great big screens.

Emulators were OK but I never got much joy out of N64 emulation, or even PSX. So all in all, I was using it for SNES and MegaDrive. Which I had been using my GP2X and Dingoo for before. Still, F-Zero did look nice on that big old screen there...

 

[clegion]

I got the 800 ghz stuff (the second gen one), its quite good for the purpose , that is a portable full computer that is also a gaming device. Its damned expensive thought for its prize and their specs

 

[LightyKD]

I think that the 1 GHZ version is interesting but without a capacitive screen and at it's current price, it's not worth it. You can a find cheaper Android device with more goodies, elsewhere.

 

[dickfour]

Lets face it UMPCs are expensive no matter how you slice it. I just got a killer deal on a Pandora. I have very specific reasons for wanting a ful keyboard and I'm happy with it for what I payed. The thing is what options do you rally have for a device like Pandora ? It fills a need that's really neglected I just hope someone in China makes a device like Pandora for $200 but I doubt that's going to happen. Anyway they seem to have their shit together now. They're planning a price drop in the 1ghz model and Pandora 2 is in the planning stages. I hole their successful. A world with only shitty Chinese android devices will be a pretty bleak place. It's going to be at least another ten years before jxd or yinlips figure out how to make a real analog stick

 

[clegion]

I would wait for the pandora 2 to have a definitive person rather than get what I get now , that is a 800 mhz version with the 1ghz version coming like 1 month after I got mine , but eh lets see