Time For Another Pandora Review?


MDave

ZEQ2 Lite Developer
Joined
Sep 21, 2008
Messages
1,131
Age
39
Location
United Kingdom, North East Wales, Buckley
Website
www.zeq2.com
When I opened Pandora's box for the first time, my god it was beautiful :D Even if the Pandora wasn't designed with looks as top priority, it still looks beautiful to me. Seeing the cute shiny key pad buttons and the really nice matte finish on everything, really stands out as something that looks solid and sturdy to use. And it really is.

The only blemishes on my unit, is that I have the protrusion on the screen bezel and a missing bottom left screw cap on the lid, nothing to worry about too much :)

My buttons all work perfectly fine, although pressing the ABXY buttons down produces a squeaky friction sort of sound if I press the buttons down while rubbing the case. It doesn't harm the functionality of the buttons at all, but if you play in a quiet room with the sound down its a little bit noticeable ;)

My god, the D-Pad is the best D-Pad I've ever used, and I own a lot of consoles and handhelds! It's perfect! The size of it was a concern when I first looked at it, but no, the size is perfect for my large hands. Perfect everything!

I will shoot anyone that complains about it in the slightest on behalf of DaveC, well done and thanks for making it so great :)

Onwards! I have a habit of pushing the keypad buttons down all the way (so I get the full tactile feedback) although this isn't necessary, as it registers at half a press down for me. I need to adjust! :D

You can find my review of the nubs in the One Nub thread :p Here's a quote from me:

I can confirm what exactly the problem is, and it sounds like it MIGHT also applies to the fully working Pandoras.

My guess was spot on, the sticks need to be dead on center by the nano meter to fully work when you turn the unit on / restart it.

Even the slightest bit of the nubs going off-center causes weird sensitivity problems.

So the one way to remedy this in hardware is to have the nubs tighter, spring back to the center position as accurately as possible.

Perhaps it does do this properly on the fully working units? And the 1 nub units are just a bit more looser?

Besides that, my nubs work pretty good!

Is there a way to adjust the deadzone, acceleration, tolerance and speed of the nubs? I think it just needs a little tweaking and they'll be perfect (despite the centering problem).

If you don't mind centering the nubs yourself each time you restart or power on the unit (don't have to do it coming out of sleep mode!) then jump in :p

Hardware wise, I love it.

Software wise, everything seems pretty stable for what I've used on it so far. Sleep mode seems to cause me some issues, so I just shut down when I want to put it away. It boots up and shuts down fast enough for me :)

I've been playing Picodrive more then anything so far, I'm really impressed with how near perfect the emulation is, and with such great sound too! For me, this is the best way to play Megadrive on the go hands down. Same for SNES too! Great work Notaz, skeezix and SiENcE!

Haven't really gotten around to doing much else, but I'm getting there :) Quake 2 runs perfectly fine, need some more nub settings though! Deadzone is too small for me, and accleration is too high, it feels like a digital stick at times :p Quake 3 runs pretty good, though there is room for optimizing! Nub settings in here would be nice too. ioquake3 has what appears to be depth sorting problems, seems like it could be fixed pretty easy somewhere in the code. Performance seems slower then the normal Quake 3 port. Might be worth taking a look at the n900 port! ;)

XFCE is a blast to mess around in :) Trying to customize what applications to show on the panel (taskbar for you windows only guys) but having limited success.

I'm 100% happy with my purchase, and I wish Open Pandora all the best in making this a major product for the masses. Make millions of these things quick! It certainly has the potential, if the OS is tighten up a bit and it is easier to get games and apps.

Awesome to see the wallpaper design I made is used for the first boot wizard :D

Now, to start looking into ioquake3 and porting ZEQ2Lite! :)
 
MDave said:
Aw, now you've gone and done it. You've just opened a Pandora's box of jealousy.

OK, that was wrong, I'm leaving now. Thanks for the review.
 
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MDave said:
Now, to start looking into ioquake3 and porting ZEQ2Lite! :)

*big smile*

It's reassuring that you're happy with it.

These next couple of months are going to be even more excruciating, seeing software releases coming thick and fast already, and no unit of my own to test them out on. At least we'll have a greater variety of software than the earliest of adopters.
 
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MDave said:
Haven't really gotten around to doing much else, but I'm getting there :) Quake 2 runs perfectly fine, need some more nub settings though! Deadzone is too small for me, and accleration is too high, it feels like a digital stick at times :p Quake 3 runs pretty good, though there is room for optimizing! Nub settings in here would be nice too. ioquake3 has what appears to be depth sorting problems, seems like it could be fixed pretty easy somewhere in the code. Performance seems slower then the normal Quake 3 port. Might be worth taking a look at the n900 port! ;)

Now, to start looking into ioquake3 and porting ZEQ2Lite! :)

Ive got no problem adding nub configuration, and i should rather than be hardcoded. Consider it on the todo list ;-)
The ioquake3 like you might know is based off the n900 version, if you can find the transparent wall problem that would be great.

Let me know if you want to see my latest source code for either.
 
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This is a nice review, thanks. Keeps our spirits up!

I'm hoping many people will 're-review' the Pandora after about a month of ownership, once they are used to how it works and have had time to try some software and have seen how we are constantly working to make the OS as near to perfect as we can.
 
Craig this machine really awesome. Firstly I got a faulty unit but everyone was so helpful and my new machine was quickly dispatched. And I just love it controls are perfect, except shoulder buttons are too clicky for me but that's just personal taste. You see how much these machines are going on ebay and its easy for my gf, parents to say sell it and make a profit. However why would I when I have my whole gaming childhood in the palm of my hands at a click of a button. Thankyou and the team for making this happen.
 
Sphinxter said:
Every positive point seems to have a negative being overlooked.
well open your mouth
 
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skeezix said:
What advantages are there to ioquake3 over quake3 proper?

ie: quake3 works great, so why use ioq3? :)

jeff
Supports better/different mods, I think.
 
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Pickle said:
MDave said:
Haven't really gotten around to doing much else, but I'm getting there :) Quake 2 runs perfectly fine, need some more nub settings though! Deadzone is too small for me, and accleration is too high, it feels like a digital stick at times :p Quake 3 runs pretty good, though there is room for optimizing! Nub settings in here would be nice too. ioquake3 has what appears to be depth sorting problems, seems like it could be fixed pretty easy somewhere in the code. Performance seems slower then the normal Quake 3 port. Might be worth taking a look at the n900 port! ;)

Now, to start looking into ioquake3 and porting ZEQ2Lite! :)

Ive got no problem adding nub configuration, and i should rather than be hardcoded. Consider it on the todo list ;-)
The ioquake3 like you might know is based off the n900 version, if you can find the transparent wall problem that would be great.

Let me know if you want to see my latest source code for either.

Yeah, seeing the latest sources for both would be handy! :D

skeezix said:
What advantages are there to ioquake3 over quake3 proper?

ie: quake3 works great, so why use ioq3? :)

jeff

quake3 is the original source code id released, ioquake3 is a community updated version of the source code that adds some new features, and also fixes some bugs and security exploits, and much better mutliplatform support ;)
 
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MDave said:
Now, to start looking into ioquake3 and porting ZEQ2Lite! :)
Whoo hoo ZEQ2Lite, get to work! :lol:
Thanks for review.
 
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MDave said:
The only blemishes on my unit, is that I have the protrusion on the screen bezel
Has there been any official explanation from the team why this is still happening to units shipped given the new quality controls?
 
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rmm21 said:
MDave said:
The only blemishes on my unit, is that I have the protrusion on the screen bezel
Has there been any official explanation from the team why this is still happening to units shipped given the new quality controls?
I guess it's because of to many paint at the wrong places, OPT can't do much there. Maybe removing the paint so the bezel fit like it would be with an unpainted piece. maybe the Factory can cover backsides and sensitive connection parts better in the future, who knows. ^^""
DaveC sayed it's not a design issue. OK, he has designed the case so I guess I can trust him there. :)

MDave said:
quake3 is the original source code id released, ioquake3 is a community updated version of the source code that adds some new features, and also fixes some bugs and security exploits, and much better mutliplatform support ;)
So when I only want one Q3 port onto my Pandora, which one should I choose in the Future? I want solid walls AND flawless NUB actions. ^^""""
 
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fusion_power said:
rmm21 said:
MDave said:
The only blemishes on my unit, is that I have the protrusion on the screen bezel
Has there been any official explanation from the team why this is still happening to units shipped given the new quality controls?
I guess it's because of to many paint at the wrong places, OPT can't do much there. Maybe removing the paint so the bezel fit like it would be with an unpainted piece. maybe the Factory can cover backsides and sensitive connection parts better in the future, who knows. ^^""
DaveC sayed it's not a design issue. OK, he has designed the case so I guess I can trust him there. :)

MDave said:
quake3 is the original source code id released, ioquake3 is a community updated version of the source code that adds some new features, and also fixes some bugs and security exploits, and much better mutliplatform support ;)
So when I only want one Q3 port onto my Pandora, which one should I choose in the Future? I want solid walls AND flawless NUB actions. ^^""""

They're packaged in the same PND, so I don't think you have to choose.

-God Ginrai
 
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fusion_power said:
rmm21 said:
MDave said:
The only blemishes on my unit, is that I have the protrusion on the screen bezel
Has there been any official explanation from the team why this is still happening to units shipped given the new quality controls?
I guess it's because of to many paint at the wrong places, OPT can't do much there. Maybe removing the paint so the bezel fit like it would be with an unpainted piece. maybe the Factory can cover backsides and sensitive connection parts better in the future, who knows. ^^""
DaveC sayed it's not a design issue. OK, he has designed the case so I guess I can trust him there. :)

Was this a unit sent before the issue was dealt with? It's not on all units, and ED specifically said it only affected a few;

http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php...andora-review/page__view__findpost__p__868377
 
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Mdave,

Thanks for the review, it has set my mind at ease somewhat as I am a fellow one-nubber. I am looking forward to ZEQ2Lite when my Pandora finally arrives (west coast, U.S.A.).
 
If the one nub pandoras nubs are off centre and calibration is needed at startup,is it possible to
just have software to detect where the nub is and calibrate this as the starting point.Like a dot on a screen whose position can be save.(Or am i talking rubbish here.)
 
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