thaddius' Console Roast 2014 Edition - Round 10

Worst Handheld of the Seventh Generation

  • The Game Park Holdings Wiz/Caanoo

    Votes: 226 52.6%
  • The Dingoo A320

    Votes: 50 11.6%
  • The OpenPandora Pandora

    Votes: 103 24.0%
  • The Nintendo DS

    Votes: 21 4.9%
  • The Sony PSP

    Votes: 30 7.0%

  • Total voters
    430
  • Poll closed .

TheCasketMan

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The PSP was an awesome system. It was one of the first commercial console to to implement multi-media, such as photos, music, videos, radio, and internet browser along with free online play. Nowadays all handheld systems(DSi, 3DS, Vita) & smart phones follows the PSP direction in multi-media. Apart from that, the PSP was the first handheld console to also implement console like 3D graphics, due to its specs and max UMD size of 2GB, something which the DS's cards couldn't hold. This may seem bias and an opinion since the DS could also do 3D graphics, but they were not as good and as console like as the PSP, until games like Okamiden came out. The PSP also had an analog nub, which is the first in a handheld and even the 3DS copied that in a better way, and if we talk about the PSP's homebrew support, this post would be as long as an essay. Anyway, my point is that both the PSP and the DS were awesome handhelds and i expect them to be the less worse from the other three. I am kinda freaking out because the PSP votes are getting close to the Dingoo!!!
 

codezer0

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I do remember the battery issue being pretty prominent on the first gen PSP's but didn't the 2nd and 3rd gen ones somewhat fix that issue? I know the PSP Go fixed it by removing the optical drive....

I know I liked my DS but to me the DS really was best once the DS Lite revision hit, such an awesome system due to the games... but the battery on the DS seem to last just the right amount (by that I mean any less and I would find it annoying.)
The PSP 2000 did address a lot of it at first... but then Sony made the battery it came with weaker, so it was no better than the 1000 with the original factory battery.

It was only much, much later that Sony finally addressed it by even offering an extended battery of their own. But the fact that they spent so long trying to deny that it was a problem left a sour taste in my mouth.

The DS lite's battery life was nothing short of epic. It really leaves to question why the DSi's battery was so bad, when the XL manages to do much, much better. Same with the vanilla 3DS's factory battery vs. the 3DS XL.
 
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Pleng

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a vote for the Open Pandora here
while the hardware and the functions where immense, the project was too ambitious and the poor handheld wrecked by his own weight. also didn't helped that was too big and heavy, has the weight and dimensions of a 3DS XL and for the time that wasn't appealing.
another example of what happen when you try to make something ahead of the time.

I'd say it's biggest downfall was the total psychopath (and I'm not exaggerating) who ran the operation.

If what I'm seeing are two analogue sticks in the middle then those mustn't be comfortable at all due to their placement. It looks somewhat painful for human hands.

A lot of people voiced that concern on the official forums. Anybody who ever played one said it was a non-issue. Try holding a DS-lite in your hands and see if your thumbs can comfortably reach the middle. I had one but never play games that need two analogues so I can't personally give an opinion.
 
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cracker

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Full disclosure: I don't own nor have I used any open hardware in this poll.

I had to vote for the Pandora due to the price, production problems, cramped controls, seemingly poor-response touchscreen (from video reviews) and its quick demise from "the scene". It would be nice to have one for the sake of just having it for my collection... to collect dust.
 

omgpwn666

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Sometimes I think people just choose the "worst" gaming system based on the brand name. I wasn't a big fan of the PSP, but no matter how much mental Olympics I do, I can't convince myself that it is the worst. Same with the Nintendo DS, that thing was pretty great. Due to the amount of Xbox hate I see on this website, I knew from the time the last topic was created that Xbox was gonna lose. The post above mine is perfect, but for most votes, I think people just vote for the opposing company of the console they favor. Just my thoughts though, I hope I'm wrong.
 
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Foxi4

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Sometimes I think people just choose the "worst" gaming system based on the brand name. I wasn't a big fan of the PSP, but no matter how much mental Olympics I do, I can't convince myself that it is the worst. Same with the Nintendo DS, that thing was pretty great. Due to the amount of Xbox hate I see on this website, I knew from the time the last topic was created that Xbox was gonna lose. The post above mine is perfect, but for most votes, I think people just vote for the opposing company of the console they favor. Just my thoughts though, I hope I'm wrong.
The last poll was pretty much a contest between the Dreamcast and the Xbox, and out of those two systems it's a matter of preference which one you consider to be more polished or which one has the games that you like in particular - it's a very close call. To me, the Xbox was a good first entry, but an unpolished one. It was very clear that Microsoft never made a console before - the controller was clearly inspired by their Side Winder series and the Dreamcast controller while the actual system stood out like a sore thumb. In addition, they simply didn't have too many franchises to call their own at the time of release... So I can see why people would vote for it - I certainly did. I'm going to buy one in the nearby future, it's the only system out of the four that I don't have yet, it didn't seem compelling enough in comparison to the many other systems that are still missing in my collection.
 

codezer0

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Sometimes I think people just choose the "worst" gaming system based on the brand name. I wasn't a big fan of the PSP, but no matter how much mental Olympics I do, I can't convince myself that it is the worst. Same with the Nintendo DS, that thing was pretty great. Due to the amount of Xbox hate I see on this website, I knew from the time the last topic was created that Xbox was gonna lose. The post above mine is perfect, but for most votes, I think people just vote for the opposing company of the console they favor. Just my thoughts though, I hope I'm wrong.
I also think that a lot of people seem to have disturbingly short memories and forget what kind of just heinously awful decisions some companies make in the process of marketing/releasing/supporting a system.
 

omgpwn666

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I also think that a lot of people seem to have disturbingly short memories and forget what kind of just heinously awful decisions some companies make in the process of marketing/releasing/supporting a system.

I have no idea if you're taking shots at me or not. lol
 

Psionic Roshambo

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The last poll was pretty much a contest between the Dreamcast and the Xbox, and out of those two systems it's a matter of preference which one you consider to be more polished or which one has the games that you like in particular - it's a very close call. To me, the Xbox was a good first entry, but an unpolished one. It was very clear that Microsoft never made a console before - the controller was clearly inspired by their Side Winder series and the Dreamcast controller while the actual system stood out like a sore thumb. In addition, they simply didn't have too many franchises to call their own at the time of release... So I can see why people would vote for it - I certainly did. I'm going to buy one in the nearby future, it's the only system out of the four that I don't have yet, it didn't seem compelling enough in comparison to the many other systems that are still missing in my collection.



In my opinion the DC had the edge over the Xbox in terms of the games I enjoyed.

I may have voted Xbox as the worst system out of this list, but that's not the same as saying it was a bad system.

I need to get my Xbox modded some day... lol
 

Pleng

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How so, out of curiosity (I'm not part of the scene, so I don't know)?

It's a loooong story but basically the guy turned into a kind of delusional megalomaniac. There were all sorts of bizarre events involving the guy simply lying about the status of the production. He'd never take responsibility for his mistakes and towards the end he started threatening to cancel the pre-orders of people who criticized the way the project. 'Give me your order number' became something of a meme on the unofficial forums.

When provided with constructive criticism by people he took it as a personal attack and, rather than address issues he'd just come out with some crap along the lines of "The Pandora is going to change the world, you wait and see. We will put every other device to shame"

My biggest gripe with the dude came about when they were having trouble with the Chinese factory that were assembling the units. All the units assembled there were being done shoddily, so they decided to move production to England. Fair enough, but then all of a sudden, despite the only reason they brought production to UK was because they tried and failed to make effective use of cheap Chinese labour, Craig turned it into some human-rights and pro-Britain statement; there was even information on their website saying how they were showing the world how it was possible. This really angered me because he was quite happy to be a part of the cheap labour train until he found out it wasn't producing good enough results. My 'British-Assembled' Pandroa came with a couple of tobacco flakes between the screen and keyboard, too...

Despite this, he managed to con yet another load of people into backing yet another one of his schemes
 
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TripleSMoon

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Thanks for the explanation. I had heard of a bunch of shady practices, like the selling of new ones before preorders were complete. I had no idea it was this bad, though.
 

thaddius

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And I still haven't received the system I paid for and I've been told I never will. I feel like such an idiot for trusting them with my money...
 

TripleSMoon

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Despite this, he managed to con yet another load of people into backing yet another one of his schemes

Whoa wait, the iControlpad 2 got cancelled? I'm glad I didn't back it, because I almost did. I bought an original iControlpad off thinkgeek in November 2011, and loved it for playing Zelda: Ocarina of Time on my smartphone. And after everything else you just said, I'm glad I didn't back it regardless.
And I still haven't received the system I paid for and I've been told I never will. I feel like such an idiot for trusting them with my money...

They literally told you that? I've heard multiple stories like this. Why is there no legal recourse?
 

Foxi4

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They literally told you that? I've heard multiple stories like this. Why is there no legal recourse?
The UK company went bust, they filed for bankrupcy, it's game over, man. The only possible "recourse" was filing a pre-order to the functioning German one, they offered pre-orders at a discounted price for the affected customers.
 

thaddius

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They literally told you that? I've heard multiple stories like this. Why is there no legal recourse?
Bankruptcy. craigx has no obligation to pay people back. EvilDragon's German company is not affiliated with craigx's UK-based one so he's not obligated to fulfill my order. I could pay EvilDragon for an 'upgrade' to a newer model or something, but if I'm too poor to litigate I'm too poor to 'upgrade'.

In the end it's only a few hundred dollars and I'd spend more than that dealing with an international lawsuit.
 

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