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First Pandora Console Reaches Customer

Posted by Soulskill on from the insert-pandora's-unboxing-pun-here dept.

neogramps writes "It's been a long time coming, but the first Pandora consoles are finally rolling off of the production line. (Well, this one actually walked out the door to a customer who lived near the 'factory.') Initial estimates had put production and development at taking two months, but Murphy had other ideas. Banking issues, design problems, problems communicating with the Chinese moulding company, escalating assembly costs, and even a volcano all managed to get in the way, but the small and dedicated team soldiered on, and just over a year and a half later, the wait is coming to an end for the 4,000 pre-orderers."

37 of 271 comments (clear)

  1. Soldiered? by TeknoHog · · Score: 4, Funny

    Shouldn't that be "soldered"?-)

    --
    Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
    1. Re:Soldiered? by nacturation · · Score: 3, Funny

      I don't know about that, but the summary should read "Murphy goes down on Pandora's box".

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  2. Already seems obsolete.... by ZosX · · Score: 4, Insightful

    2 years ago these specs would have been exciting, but with smartphones already pushing over 1ghz and 512mb ram, I don't see the appeal. Pandora seems destined to be an emulator lover's delight and not much more. Sure you can run android on it, but it only has a 600mhz processor and 256mb ram. The same specs as a motorola droid. I guess $300 is an ok price to play every console game before the playstation, but my laptop does that and has a nice big screen too. 2 years ago I would have drooled at this machine (and I did), but anymore it seems like it will be so radically obsolete in a short period of time. My phone is already portable internet enough for me. If anything, I'd much rather have a nice 8-10" tablet that I can share my phone's 3g connection with. Once the tablets start getting near the $300 price point, I think things will get pretty interesting. I guess you could say that the pandora is like the ultimate portable console, but only if you don't want to play any newer games.

    --
    zosxavius photography
    1. Re:Already seems obsolete.... by Drethon · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Specs may not longer be the best but personally I want the full keyboard and analog controls. Perhaps if this version is successful the package can be upgraded to something more cutting edge with less delays.

    2. Re:Already seems obsolete.... by Jaysyn · · Score: 2, Insightful

      My PSP does that & plays all my old PSX games. I got it for $100 used. True it's a little slower & doesn't have a touchscreen, but it works really good for what I need it for. I do hope the Pandora takes off however, I'd like to see every kind of consumer entertainment electronics with an open version legally available.

      --
      There is a war going on for your mind.
    3. Re:Already seems obsolete.... by gilesjuk · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's still a good unit because of the controls, the fact it is open and the fact that the CPU is good enough to run numerous emulators.

    4. Re:Already seems obsolete.... by ThoughtMonster · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Are you implying that our needs have changed so much during these two years?

      I'm pretty sure that the Pandora is still the most powerful portable game console out there. The battery is a dog (10+ hours of gaming), the controls are said to be more than solid, and the platform (ARM Cortex-A8) is far from obsolete.

    5. Re:Already seems obsolete.... by negRo_slim · · Score: 2, Interesting

      2 years ago these specs would have been exciting

      Yeah it's time to live in the now and solder together your own Fusebox.

      --
      On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days
    6. Re:Already seems obsolete.... by Hurricane78 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Except for the analog controls, I don’t see where the N900 does not beat it in any way...

      --
      Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
    7. Re:Already seems obsolete.... by Darkness404 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      iPhone - Tied into an expensive contract, needs jailbroken to actually run anything decent, no hardware buttons

      Kin - Tied into an expensive contract, UI fails, not open

      Zune HD - Less RAM, less open, no hardware buttons

      Viliv S5 - expensive, smaller, less dedicated community, expensive


      The Pandora fills an important role: giving a reasonably powerful cheap-ish device in the hands of programmers and users. Its not going to outsell the DS or PSP, its not a phone, etc.

      Yeah, the Pandora would have been much nicer had it shipped on time, but its still not a terrible device.

      --
      Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    8. Re:Already seems obsolete.... by migla · · Score: 2, Informative

      > Except for the analog controls, I don't see where the N900 does not beat it in any way...

      Keyboard and price, also.

      --
      Some of my favourite people are from th US; Vonnegut, Chomsky, Bill Hicks.
    9. Re:Already seems obsolete.... by Darkness404 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      And who -doesn't- want to have a dev board with sharp solder points stuck in their pocket? And who -doesn't- want to compile everything themselves and send it via the serial port? A dev board has its place, the one you linked to would be great for a small robotics project or even a little web-enabled alarm clock or something. For replacing the Pandora? No. The entire point why we buy "consumer" electronics is that most things are simply there, we download a few binaries a few ROMs and soon we are playing Super Mario World on it. We don't need to compile the kernel, fiddle around till we get X working, spend time optimizing it for speed, etc. There is a time and place for such things, the Pandora is filling a different niche.

      --
      Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
    10. Re:Already seems obsolete.... by BikeHelmet · · Score: 5, Informative

      My PSP does that & plays all my old PSX games. I got it for $100 used.

      But can your PSP play N64 games? Can it browse the web, or use 3G sticks? Nope?

      Will it have tons of homebrew games? (you might think so, but gp32x's community pumps out way more homebrew stuff than the PSP community does. Source: The devs coming over from the PSP community)

      Does your PSP have awesome controls, a great screen, a 14 hour battery life? Nope?

      Does it run hackable linux, with off-the-shelf compatibility with your favourite tools? Nope?

      There's many features that make a Pandora desirable. If you want enough of them, its value shoots up far above other handhelds.

    11. Re:Already seems obsolete.... by KDR_11k · · Score: 2, Insightful

      iPhone - Tied into an expensive contract

      iPod Touch - Same thing without the contract and cheaper (and fits in regular sized pockets too! Convenient for listening to audio files on the go).

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    12. Re:Already seems obsolete.... by Jaysyn · · Score: 2, Informative

      But can your PSP play N64 games?

      Uh, yes? I'm sure it's slow, but there you go.
      http://sourceforge.net/projects/daedalus-n64/

      Can it browse the web

      Yes again, PSP have been able to get online via WiFi from day one.

      or use 3G sticks

      Don't you already own a cell phone?

      Does your PSP have awesome controls

      I don't think they are too bad.

      a great screen

      4.3" is the same size as the Pandora, albeit @ 1/2 rez.

      a 14 hour battery life?

      No, but it does have a 10 hour battery life. And the batteries are cheap.
      http://www.circuitcentral.com.au/sony-psp-high-capacity-battery-3650mah-aftermarket.html

      Does it run hackable linux, with off-the-shelf compatibility with your favourite tools?

      Uh, yes again.
      http://www.linux-mips.org/wiki/PSP

      There's many features that make a Pandora desirable.

      Did you miss the part where I said I wanted it to succeed?

      If you want enough of them, its value shoots up far above other handhelds.

      Yes & right now there is a $200 difference. No where near enough value for the cost compared to a cracked PSP Slim if all you want to do with it is play games.

      --
      There is a war going on for your mind.
    13. Re:Already seems obsolete.... by BikeHelmet · · Score: 3, Informative

      But can your PSP play N64 games?

      Uh, yes? I'm sure it's slow, but there you go.
      http://sourceforge.net/projects/daedalus-n64/ [sourceforge.net]

      ...

      This doesn't even deserve a response. I'm talking about a playable framerate. Not 5fps.

      Yes again, PSP have been able to get online via WiFi from day one.

      Browsing the web wouldn't be fun with such a horribly low resolution.

      or use 3G sticks

      Don't you already own a cell phone?

      How is this a response? Most cellphones can't tether, so how does that help?

      Does your PSP have awesome controls

      I don't think they are too bad.

      Then you've never tried a Pandora.

      a great screen

      4.3" is the same size as the Pandora, albeit @ 1/2 rez.

      PSP screens used to have HORRIBLE ghosting, and an awful colour gamut. It's still bad, and the resolution is low, but it is better than before.

      You can't argue this one. The Pandora's screen is far superior to the PSP's, in every way. (including power consumption, excluding price)

      No, but it does have a 10 hour battery life. And the batteries are cheap.
      http://www.circuitcentral.com.au/sony-psp-high-capacity-battery-3650mah-aftermarket.html [circuitcentral.com.au]

      Pandora batteries cost half as much. Mine was $19.99 shipped, 4250mah.

      These batteries get 14-16 hours in real-world tests with WiFi off - so it's not like a netbook where "14 hours" actually only gives 6 if you're running the CPU 100%. This is an actual 14-16 hours. I assume those batteries you linked do indeed give the PSP 10 hours of actual play time?... if you don't mind paying twice as much, each.

      Does it run hackable linux, with off-the-shelf compatibility with your favourite tools?

      Uh, yes again.

      That would be a "No". Thanks for the link though.

      Let me make this clear - the Pandora will almost be suitable as a desktop replacement. (form factor ignored) At launch it'll run software like OpenOffice, Firefox, Chromium, etc. - you could load it up with pen testing tools, use VNC/SSH... basically, you've got a fully featured desktop environment preinstalled on it, ready for linux apps to be loaded.

      If you want enough of them, its value shoots up far above other handhelds.

      Yes & right now there is a $200 difference. No where near enough value for the cost compared to a cracked PSP Slim if all you want to do with it is play games.

      If all you want to do is play $50 commercial games, buy a PSP or NDS or some other big-name console and play it. This is a device for developers first, users second. Not the other way around.

      I think you've just proven you're a user.

    14. Re:Already seems obsolete.... by Mr.+DOS · · Score: 2, Informative

      Others have replied to your other points, but I just had to reply to this one...

      Yes again, PSP have been able to get online via WiFi from day one.

      Seriously? Have you ever tried surfing with the PSP's browser? It is painful. It's a horrid implementation of the Gecko engine on top of a poor Wi-Fi stack. It takes over thirty seconds to download a ~5MB file from another machine on the network, and yet it's somehow still faster to view webpages through a web-based proxy running on another computer on the network than it is to go to a page directly. It can take upwards of a minute to load and render a few-dozen-kilobyte-long page of text. The PSP can “get online” in the most rudimentary sense of the word, but you cannot sanely give it any more credit than that.

    15. Re:Already seems obsolete.... by Jesus_666 · · Score: 3, Informative

      The netbook also doesn't fit in my pocket, weighs much more and doesn't have built-in gaming controls. In other terms it doesn't occupy the same niche as the Pandora. (And, by the way, the Pandora also does Bluettoth.))

      The Pandora serves three niches:
      - Emulator and handheld homebrew lovers
      - People who want a UMPC with a physical keyboard
      - People who want a very small HTPC and are content with S-Video (yes, some of those have popped up in the forums)

      Yes, these days netbooks offer more bang for the buck specs-wise but then again so did desktops even when the team started. It's obvious that desktops serve a different niche than notebooks and netbooks. However, so does the Pandora.

      Remember, this is explicitly a niche device. The first batch was originally planned to encompass a grand total of 3,000 units, later expanded to 4,000. There will be a second batch but nobody knows if there will ever be more than 10,000 units in total. There is no intention to directly compete against Nintendo, Sony and netbook manufacturers. The main competition consists of the Gamepark Wiz and the Dingoo A320 (for the homebrew lovers) or is mostly nonexistent (for the UMPC lovers).

      --
      USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
    16. Re:Already seems obsolete.... by Jesus_666 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Er, no. It's doomed to failure if you measure success by how much money it makes the manufacturer. That's reasonable as this is the measure most manufacturers use - however, the Pandora was never designed as a money-maker but to scratch an itch the community had. Since the device is now becoming available and the developers are already busy cranking out softare it's reasonable to assume that the itch is in the process of being scratched.

      People often make the mistake of assuming that OpenPandora Ltd. wants to be the next Nintendo. In fact, they merely aspire to be the next GamePark.

      --
      USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
    17. Re:Already seems obsolete.... by BikeHelmet · · Score: 2, Insightful

      How many commercially successful devices have been launched that were aimed at developers first, users second. Unless you find favour with the 99% of users that are mere "users", it's going to be very hard to sell enough to keep the bottom line black.

      Beats me - but this device isn't intended to be "commercially successful" in the way you refer.

      About 25% of the people pre-ordering are developers. There could potentially be hundreds to thousands of homebrew projects within the first year - some very high quality.

      The reward for us developers, is other developers creating their own dream apps.

      Face it, average Joe would rather use $600 on a dedicated gaming console that fits in his pocket, a few games, and a case of beer. The Pandora doesn't have that appeal, and is doomed to failure no matter how good it may be for developers.

      You clearly don't understand what "for developers first" means. Your mindset is absolutely correct for a device being sold primarily to users.

      This is not such a device. It is a dream machine - a handheld console that has everything the gp32x community wants. It was designed for that community. The team needs about 12k sales to break even. (which should be doable - there's quite a lot of interest) Once they hit that, it's officially a success. ;)

      Anything beyond that is just groovy - but if it's users rather than developers, they won't be contributing awesome homebrew, will they?

  3. Poor pandorapress... by TrevorB · · Score: 4, Informative

    Looks like Gruso's blog got slashdotted pretty quickly.

    Here's some more links to keep people occupied:

    Official Site: http://www.open-pandora.org/
    Wikipedia Page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pandora_(console)
    Pandora forums on GP32X: http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?/forum/61-pandora/
    Craig Rothwell's Twitter feed (all kids of pics there): http://twitter.com/craigix

  4. Pandora? by gyrogeerloose · · Score: 4, Funny

    Don't open the box!

    --
    This ain't rocket surgery.
  5. Re:That's nice... by TrevorB · · Score: 3, Informative

    "but where are the games?"

    http://dl.openhandhelds.org/cgi-bin/pandora.cgi

    It's an "open source" handheld with an eager development community, and games and other apps will come quickly once the hardware is released to the wild. By the time the pre-orders are complete and anyone not in the queue will be able to purchase one (and that will take a few months at this rate), there will be dozens of games available. Give it some time.

  6. Dead link fix by masterwit · · Score: 2, Informative

    Lovely accessed denied... just a snapshot of site:

    http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Oa6IgGHvHHUJ:pandorapress.net/+site:pandorapress.net+pandorapress.net&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
    That is Google cache version, not really helpful imo.

    http://www.engadget.com/2007/12/20/gp2x-community-system-dubbed-pandora/
    There is your engadget version, they always have nice pretty pictures there.

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  7. Re:Seems underwhelming. by TrevorB · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "fitting in a pocket comfortably. Just add a game controller..."

    I don't mean to sound too sarcastic, but if you have a link for a game controller that fits comfortably in a pocket, I'd like to see it.

  8. Riiiiight...... by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Because there is such a vibrant open source game selection. I mean there's Tux Racer, that Civ 2 clone, that Puzzle Bobble Clone... ummm, did I mention Tux Racer?

    Seriously, gaming is one area that OSS does not seem to do well in. There are very few OSS games out there, and they tend to be of poor quality and/or knockoff of old commercial games. Now compare that to the Nintendo DS's games library, which is what this will have to compete with by the way.

    I just do not see the appeal.

    I mean if you want a portable game unit, well then DS has this beat hands down. Not only does it have far, far, FAR more games and most of those are of professional quality, but it is cheaper too. It is between $170 (for the unit) to $200 (for the unit and all accessories).

    Now this thing would also work as a simple, netbook type computer. Ok, except there again you can get another, better device: An actual netbook. For the same price ($330) you can get an MSI Wind U135 which has an Atom, 250GB HD, and Windows on it. There are far more games that'll run on that than this Pandora device.

    As I said, I just fail to see the appeal.

    1. Re:Riiiiight...... by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I mean if you want a portable game unit, well then DS has this beat hands down. Not only does it have far, far, FAR more games and most of those are of professional quality...

      There isn't a single part of that statement that is true. The appeal of the Pandora is emulation. It can run MAME, SNES, DOS, Genesis, NES, Amiga, and a whole gaggle of stuff I think other people here have mentioned before. More importantly, it has a set of controls that really make that setup ideal to an enthusiast to somebody like me. It could probably even do N64, which would be totally tits.

      I have a GP2X Wiz right now. It can run most of the stuff the Pandora can. Although I am a Nintendo fanboy and I love the DS, the Wiz is already far more likely to get put in my pocket for a long trip than the DS is. The Pandora is like the Wiz only with a broader emulation capability and much better controls.

      The Pandora has a very strong and fairly unique appeal.

      --

      "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

    2. Re:Riiiiight...... by KDR_11k · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The problem is the lack of a unifying vision. With an original project you need a project leader who can decide on the design but when the workers don't like the design dictated by the leader they leave (in a company they keep working because they're paid to work on things that may not strike their fancy). If you let everybody have a say you get design by committee or just a katamari of incompatible ideas. Deriving from an existing game, whether by making a clone or an opened codebase, at least gives a specific vision that any developer joining the project can see right away and most likely enjoys. I've seen a project where the gameplay was handled opensource style, the result is an ever-morphing mess that gains and sheds features as the participants see shiny objects and that got dominated by a derivative work that was rudimentarily maintained by one dude who followed the vision of the work it was derived from. Meanwhile players complained that the well-maintained project changed too much and was a different game every week.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
  9. Insightful? by SmallFurryCreature · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yeah, it is a far better game platform, except for the controls but who needs controls to play a game?

    Talk about not getting the point. This ain't about CPU power, it is about having all those controls available on the hardware.

    What next, an article on a sports car being slammed because a jet fighter is far faster so race that instead?

    --

    MMO Quests are like orgasms:

    You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.

  10. How open is the software/hardware? by Qubit · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I've been looking at their site and wikipedia and I haven't dug much up. There are a number of commercial chips in there, so the hardware is largely closed.

    They're using a "PowerVR SGX530" in there, and IIRC the PowerVR chips don't usually have FOSS drivers, so you might be SOL on that software front.

    Anyone have links or notes for the rest of the drivers?

    --

    coding is life /* the rest is */
    1. Re:How open is the software/hardware? by BitZtream · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Jesus Christ.

      Do you want a useful portable game console that promotes OSS

      or

      Do you want a box full of crappy, buggy, half implemented OSS chips that don't do anything good, a lot of things partially, and are all around useless because the devs realized that there isn't an opensource 3d graphics chip thats ready, with all the supporting hardware and software NOW. There isn't an opensource processor with supporting hardware and reference implementations NOW.

      Get the fuck over the whole 'IT MUST BE ALL OSS OR IT SUCKS" thing guys. You have to build pieces and there will always be 'better' closed alternatives, they can take ALL the knowledge and learning from the OSS stuff (not code, knowledge) and add in their own special sauce without telling you the knowledge they gained.

      And to put it bluntly, you're a pretty shitty dev if you haven't yet figured out how to hook binary blobs into OSS code without violating any licensing constraints.

      So ... do you want it to suck for now but be 100% or be usable for now, not 100% open, but taking some of the first steps towards making a place for other open source hardware to work with it and replace the commercial bits there are now.

      Might not want to cut off your face to save your nose.

      --
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  11. Re:Seems underwhelming. by migla · · Score: 5, Insightful

    > the market will be a final arbiter of this beastie...

    Market schmarket. This is the most powerful handheld gaming device out there, running linux, developed by and for an enthusiast community. As far as I'm concerned it is allready a success.

    --
    Some of my favourite people are from th US; Vonnegut, Chomsky, Bill Hicks.
  12. So... by pat_trick · · Score: 2, Funny

    Will it run nethack?

    1. Re:So... by wertigon · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yes.

      --
      systemd is not an init system. It's a GNU replacement.
    2. Re:So... by Alex777 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Serious answer should get modded up. Really, the Pandora is a godsend for all roguelikes, not just Nethack.

  13. dangit slashdot. by atomicthumbs · · Score: 3, Informative

    I fixed my blog, kinda. Thanks for breaking it :P

    --
    http://pinopsida.com
  14. The Pandora... by wardred · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What you're getting with the Pandora is a hand-held, arm powered laptop - umpc if you prefer - with OpenGLES 2.xaccelerated graphics. Play your videos and music with it. Mix music, browse the web, do your normal desktop stuff with it, emulate arcade games, NES games, or, potentially, N64 games. Tinker with it to your heart's content. Put Android OS on it. Develop your own games for it. Or play some of the games the development community's been working on, or ported.

    It's not for everybody, but it's one of the first open consoles to have accelerated 3D which makes it exciting for a bunch of us home brew guys. It also has wifi and bluetooth. The wifi is a nice touch as I anticipate decent network play on some of the games.

    It'll never rival the PSP or DS for sales, which eliminates the larger software houses as developers, but there are independent developers who've expressed interest in it.

    What'll be interesting to see is how much interest it has two months(tm) after the first batchers have their Pandoras in their hands and some of the projects targeted for it get released. Even if round 2 doesn't have many orders, I believe the current batch of developers will give the hand-held their enthusiastic support. If it DOES have decent sales, the potential to interest at least a few published independent game developers increases dramatically.