How About Them Games on Pandora?


DatNOBoi

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Emulators everywhere, for it's the main way to use the nifty controls on the Pandora! As someone who's played his fair share of emulators on the PSP, getting a better emulation box would be rather nice. I really enjoy my Dreamcast, but I can't exactly carry it with me on-the-go like the folks in Typing of the Dead.

We all know about the emulation side of things, so there's no point in talking about that. Moving on.

How shallow/deep is the pool of games for the Pandora? I'm aware that Linux in general's on the up-and-up when it comes to gaming, but the Pandora doesn't use x86 architecture, not to mention that Linux isn't even messin' with Windows when it comes to games. At least not yet. While I don't know the main differences between x86 and ARM, I know they're both different in their own rights.

My first thought would be that since the Pandora is a Linux PC that's not even of the (supposedly) primary architecture for most PCs, the pool of games would be quite shallow. However, I also see that Android can cover that to an extent, so maybe my first thought's not really the most well-processed.

So, OpenPandoraBoardsFolk, help a Boi out and clarify the Pandora's gaming status, emulators not included. Pretty please?
 
the pool of games would be quite shallow.
There are many open source games running on Pandora, (see the recommended Games I mentioned above), and many game ports as well of older games that were made open source. Of course it all depends on your expectations and what kind of games you like to play. The Pandora is not a console, so you can't expect to have many games made FOR it, but still, there's quite some games out there made for Linux that run on it and are very enjoyable on Pandora. 
 
the pool of games would be quite shallow.
There are many open source games running on Pandora, (see the recommended Games I mentioned above), and many game ports as well of older games that were made open source. Of course it all depends on your expectations and what kind of games you like to play. The Pandora is not a console, so you can't expect to have many games made FOR it, but still, there's quite some games out there made for Linux that run on it and are very enjoyable on Pandora. 
Oh wow, you made it look like I was asserting that there isn't much on the Pandora. :(

And I'm not exactly expecting to play games like Skyrim on the Pandora, but I am expecting stuff a bit higher-quality than, say......Windows Live Games? I don't think that's setting the bar too high (if it is, then I'll just dump my hope in a corner somewhere). Maybe get some shmup/platformer/RPG/puzzle games up in the buildin'?

I know the Pandora's not a console. It's some sort of mutant half-breed that was concocted by a small circle of evil geniuses. Sort of like Mileena from Mortal Kombat, except the Pandora isn't menacing; it's humble and graceful. :D
 
Well, if you just want to find games, go on the repo and choose the game category.
 
> repo.openpandora.org
Not really a good recommendation if you want to find what's good out there. There's too much stuff on the repo and sorting by the ratings does not help much. That's why I created this page in the first place: http://pandoralive.info/?page_id=9 
No need for another add for your blog. You already gave that recommendation, so why should I link to it again ? I linked to the most complete pandora games list you can get. And on a more personal level: your recommendations are not very compelling to me, so my motivation isn't very high to link to it in the first place. But you are right, I could have been more constructive, like linking to the page FZERO made: PlayPandora
 
There's lots of games available for the Pandora. They vary in quality -

If the game was developed originally for DOS/Windows commercially and has since been made open-source and ported to Pandora, then the game is almost always of a high quality (Doom, Quake, Quake III, Homeworld, AvP etc) assuming the Pandora hardware can handle it.

If the game is open-source and available for many different platforms, then the quality can vary considerably and it's something of a hit and miss. Battle for Wesnoth is visually appealing at least, whereas some other ports are not so well done.

Then at the bottom of the scale, you have games developed specifically for linux - they tend to be poor clones of popular franchises with the main character replaced by a tux penguin. These games are almost all very poorly done. They're written mostly so that the linux crowd can say that they've got an equivalent of whatever it is they're copying and development generally tends not to go much further than that.

Sitting off to the side there are the games that have been written especially for the Pandora. Don't expect commercial quality - these are all homebrew, but generally of a higher standard than say, anything with "tux" in the title. Most of the authors inhabit the boards and are rightly proud of their work. Pandora-specific software is sadly lacking though, at least in comparison with everything else.

Lastly, you should bear in mind that the quality of a ported game (be it from Windows or even from x86 to ARM linux) depends on how much effort the porting author puts in. Does it make good use of the 800x480 screen? Are you forced to endure black bars at the edges or has the author added an option to stretch if necessary? Does it make good use of the nubs, or is the author just lazy and relying on you having them set to mouse and mouse buttons mode? Has the author made a decent assessment of the speed of the port, and modified the code to optimise or disable particular enhancements in order to make the experience smoother? Has an option been added to facilitate this?

Many, many ports are frankly shit - especially the early stuff where authors were just cranking out port after port in quick succession with little to no testing. It's better these days with more effort being made, and there's some excellent software out there.

D.
 
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Not sure I understand you comment. A list of recommended games on Pandora is rather fit for an "overview" rather than a whole list of hundred games on the repo.
?
 
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So, OpenPandoraBoardsFolk, help a Boi out and clarify the Pandora's gaming status, emulators not included. Pretty please?
Do you have any specific genres in mind?

I wrote three games specifically for the Pandora: Microbes (a relatively complex tower defense game), NubNub (an original arcade game) and NanoLemmings (an Lemmings-inspired game with less micro-management; not yet finished but already playable). You may want to check them out. It's also interesting to note that they were coded completely on-the-go on the Pandora itself, mostly on the train while all the other passengers were playing Candy Crush on their phones ;)
 
Not sure I understand you comment. A list of recommended games on Pandora is rather fit for an "overview" rather than a whole list of hundred games on the repo.
?
Your answer is irrelevant. It mixes emulators along with original games, The OP clearly mentioned he does not care about emulators. Hence my list is more relevant, because I clearly separate both.
 
@Ekianjo:

I have to support thatgui, unfortunately your list is quite small, subjective and incomplete. I e.g. miss the Arora webbroser and GMU Music player.

And yes, I know, these are no games. -_-
 
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Not sure I understand you comment. A list of recommended games on Pandora is rather fit for an "overview" rather than a whole list of hundred games on the repo.
?
 Your answer is irrelevant. It mixes emulators along with original games, The OP clearly mentioned he does not care about emulators. Hence my list is more relevant, because I clearly separate both.
Whats so difficult to understand ? You don't provide an overview about games on the Pandora, but a list of your very subjective favourites, thats all. The link in my last post provides an overview of the games available (small constraint: only those on the repo) conveniently ordered by rating. If there happens to be emulators in it, who cares ? I guess the thread creator can distinguish those from games, otherwise (please imagine a totally elitist and snobbish voice while reading) the Pandora may not be the best choice for him.
 
I have to support thatgui, unfortunately your list is quite small, subjective and incomplete. I e.g. miss the Arora webbroser and GMU Music player.
Read again what you posted. You say the list is "incomplete" well yeah since it's a list of recommended software, it's not a cut and paste from the repo. Therefore, it HAS to be subjective in some way if you choose to take a subset from a larger group, by definition. 

The Arora web browser is out for reasons I have already mentioned in the dedicated article where I compared all browsers on Pandora: http://pandoralive.info/?p=143 and the subsequent http://pandoralive.info/?p=1198.Besides, Arora is dead in terms of development so you might want to consider Qupzilla instead since it's very much alive and very fast as well. As for GMU, it's ok but the key bindings by default are not great and there are some songs title display issues.

I don't make recommendations just out of personal preferences, I usually select stuff that works WELL.

conveniently ordered by rating.
rating is pretty meaningless these days on the repo. 
 
I usually select stuff that works WELL.
Which is... your opinion, you know? Arora works very well for me. I tried Firefox (that was horrible, do you all have 1Ghz models?) and Qupzilla. Even after reading your browser post I don't see, why not to use Arora except for the SSL warnings, which I just click away as I browser with the stylus most of the time anyway. In fact you even recommend it. O_o (I know, later you revise your test result of Qupzilla. But this doesn't make Arora worse, just Qupzilla better.)
I know, this is nitpicking. But an example, why your list is subjective.
 
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