Messages

[General Gaming / Re: Pandora (retro utopia, on shiny new hardware?)]

The gp32x forum sucks.

There's so many jerks there I only check up on the Pandora's stat about once a day sometimes.

Half of the time people are trying to stir trouble and spread rumours it's bogus.

I understand a lot of people going nuts because they have invested cash into the project, but I did as well.  None of them should have paid up if it was money they weren't willing to risk.  But, some people don't get that.

I was personally more agitated about losing a few dollars from exchange rates when I was refunded.  Only when I realized I only had to send back what I got was I cool with it.

[General Gaming / Re: Pandora (retro utopia, on shiny new hardware?)]

Egh.  People standing around with their hands in their pockets isn't going to make the project come alive.

I saved up for about a month and set the cash aside for it and considered it gone regardless if I get a product or not, so it's not an issue for myself I've already taken it out of the equation.

Fortunately there seems to be enough persons like myself to ensure it is going to happen, so the first round is pretty much guaranteed.

I'm going to be happy playing Gate of Thunder on it like in the old magazines where a Turbo Express was advertised with Gate of Thunder on the LCD.  Remember those ads?   

Also looking forward to having it at the office, I can have it shoved in a bag and wear a bluetooth headset walking around doing stuff listening to my favourite music tracks with no trendy assed iPod or other comparable item.  Heheh.   

[General Gaming / Re: Pandora (retro utopia, on shiny new hardware?)]

Good news, my money order arrived and Debs (one of the two OpenPandora front desk ladies) notified me yesterday it made it to the UK.

That was a bit stressing.  I had a $293.xx money order somewhere between the USA and the UK with no idea where it was since I didn't have tracking on it, and no confirmation.

But, it did make it there in 5 days flat using standard U.S.A. 1st class mail.

Still need to get the S-Video / Composite cable that's made to attach to Pandora's EXT. Port but I'm gonna wait until CC orders are accepted again.  Not gonna rock the boat at this point.

[General Gaming / Re: Pandora (retro utopia, on shiny new hardware?)]

what can it do?

Emulation: PSX, Jaguar, N64 most likely at some point with everything below them.  Can use DOSBOX as well, the Pandora will perform roughly like a 486 in DOSBOX.  I think there's an Amiga emulator working.  If not, someone will.

Quake 2 has already been shown running months ago.  With hardware acceleration Quake 3 should spin like a top, but that's just my own speculation nothing definite.

Pretty much it can do anything that can be compiled for ARM.

Technically it should be able to emulate the DS due to native support without blinking, but I'm not sure how you handle the dual screens.  I reckon you could fit both screens on Pandoras high resolution screen.

And there's a working MAME port.

It has svideo support so I plan on playing a lot of crap on my TV with a usb controller plugged into the Pandora when I'm at home.

Then there's the nifty fact it's a complete computer with WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, and you don't have to use Angstrom Linux if there's another OS that can be compiled for ARM if you want.  It's an open system.

And the screen is the best there is on any hand held gaming console, and no peculiar weird native resolution so old games can fit the screen perfectly.  You can play old vertical arcade games on the screen sideways if you are really inclined.

Also, with the exception of the case (maybe the buttons?  I dunno ...) being made in China, everything else is made in the USA.  The quality should be the best around.  This is one particular thing that pissed off the people making the Pandora, crap quality of other comparable hand held units.

Concerning the hardware I expect a good solid product the first time around ... These guys can't really afford to screw that up, at least software can be worked on at a later point.  Although, supposedly the early adopters are going to be covered if anything disasterous does occur free of charge minus shipping I guess.  On top of the roughly 4 thousand Pandoras being assembled they're ordering extra parts as well for fixing stuff.

Considering all it can do, and I probably left things out $330 isn't such a bad deal.  I'm sure there's things that don't even interest me that it could do.

Basically it's a gaming console + computer in one.  I don't know if any native games will ever be developed, I don't really care.  With just the Amiga library I could probably play a new game every day until I die and not play the same game twice anyway.

[General Gaming / Re: Pandora (retro utopia, on shiny new hardware?)]

Sent out my re-pre-order today.  Was gonna hold off until Monday, but wanted to get that damn thing in the mail like yesterday.

Hopefully arrives before April.  Majority of it is done now.

Just need the CNC case, WiFi drivers, and an OS package thrown together and flashed and off we go to the races with mass production.

There's a re-order deadline in effect, if anyone has cash laying around to burn and wants to score one before the 2nd batch arrives sometime later in '09.  There's some people not re-pre-ordering, so, some slots open I believe.

[General Gaming / Pandora (retro utopia, on shiny new hardware?)]

I used search to see if anyone had mentioned this handheld console / computer and didn't see anything.

I never got a Turbo Express so this is what I'm using to fill the void.  I nor my family had enough money to buy a Turbo Express.  I placed a preorder on it (the Pandora), saved up in advance to do it.

It looks like I'll be able to replace the PSX on down with it.   

I just need to order some memory cards and the S-Video cable and I'll be set.

Cool thing is ... it was supposed to originally have 128MB of memory, the guys putting this out have upped it to 256MB of memory at no charge to anybody.  The main guy (Craig) has said they're making no money on this thing the first round.  How unbelievable is that?  Anyway ...

---> Link <---

I was originally looking for like a Micro-ITX form factor motherboard to cram in a MAME controller, and use solid state storage and basically have an arcade in a box (literally).  Then I ran across the ARM based Beagleboard, and then I stumbled across somebody mentioning the OpenPandora project ... and low and behold I placed a preorder on it.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Dragon Slayer]

Not sure on the lottery ticket bit.

The only voice acting I did not like in the game was when Sonya talked.  She made me cringe.

I thought the rest was pretty good.  Even very amusing if not hilarious in some parts.

I'd rather take a fun, basic, solid foundation of a game than one where it has been glossed over in some multi million dollar Hollywood studio that sounds and looks great but entertains me only for a few hours until I can see through the gloss.

This is probably why my 360 & Wii have taken the back burner to the Duo lately.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Dragon Slayer]

Funny thing is my Logan looks like Logan in the game.  Bright blonde hair, face and all.  Except has brown eyes.

And Ethan, well, funny enough looks like Ethan in the game.  Except has blue eyes.

(how the hell my blonde son has brown eyes and the brown hair one has blue eyes I don't know)

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Dragon Slayer]

I bought Dragon Slayer when it was released in the USA and invested a lot of time into playing it.

I think it's a great game.  I think Ys's 1/2 & CF2 are good games too.  I'd probably rank them Ys, DS, then CF.  I've beat all many times.  I even played so much in DS I found a couple reproduceable bugs.

Anyway, I like Dragon Slayer so much I named my 2 sons Logan & Ethan.

For real.   

[General Gaming / Re: Hate that awful Master System?]

In my area the SMS didn't have exposure plus you couldn't buy one even if you wanted as all the stores didn't stock.

I did eventually get one.  Around a year ago I threw it in the trash.

The thing was so ugly that my eyes couldn't handle looking at it any longer.

Looking back, I could had just put a brown bag over it.  You know, just the same for women.  Didn't come to mind at the time.

[Off-Topic / Re: Favorite game babes.]

Man law:  One shall not discriminate oblongs!

[General Gaming / Re: Your main computer/gaming computer?]

Primarily the reason for dual cores in the general consumer market is AMD & Intel trying to one-up each other to gain market share.

They're aware Billy Jean & Bubba Brown have enough smarts to realize that "dual" is better than "non-dual", thus, buy their product!

People who can actually use the dual cores (whatever their application) benefit of course.

Like I built a new box for my mother over a month ago.  And before I did my dad (who is more of a mechanic than PC person by far) comes up to my talking about "dual cores".  I had no idea he even knew of the term.  Obviously some PR ads got to him.  But he was very resolute in that I needed to build his wife / my mother a dual core box, because 2 is better than 1 and all.

So Intel & AMD pretty much have no choice BUT to make dual core processors.  Or their share holders will get a noose around their respective CEO.

Quad core is out now.  WooWoo.

Mind you we have had multi core CPU's for a while now, but not for the "average consumer".

Gonna use much of it?  For programs maybe like distributed.net RC5 and perhaps eloquently multi threaded applications.

Just a matter of time until 8-core processors are common.

Yea there are limitations on how fast you can make current processors, a certain threshold that cannot be crossed despite how efficient you build your processors.  But I've also been reading news articles where some of these issues are being addressed.  But it takes time to get new manufacturing processes on the assembly line, and/or complete research.

[Off-Topic / Re: Any usenet nerds here?]

Wouldn't specify myself as a USENET nerd but when I 1st got on the Internet in 1992 I thought USENET was the Internet (aside from eMail).  You know, like the main attraction.

I was aware of web pages, but I was using DOS back in those days (386sx 16MHz ftw) and everything was text based anyway.  USENET was a lot less static-appearing than the web because people responded quickly on USENET typically, so USENET was much more exciting.

At the time, local BBS's had better graphical qualities.  ANSI art and all.

[General Gaming / Re: Your main computer/gaming computer?]

Seldane what case is that?  Looks like a Cooler Master.  Nice cases, imho.

My PC:

Athlon XP-M 2500+ @ 2GHz (does 2.2 reliably but pretty darn hot)
Shuttle AN35 Ultra nForce 2 Socket-A motherboard
1GB Mushkin Level 2 DDR PC3200
Sapphire Radeon x1600 Pro AGP card
Whatever flavour HDD of the month
Win2K Pro
Widescreen 19" Viewsonic LCD 2ms refresh
2 DVD drives.  One ROM, one -RW.

I primarily play EverQuest & Tie Fighter Collector's CD-ROM (using DOSBOX) on this computer.

That and ripping DVD's.

BTW I have two of those Radeon 7200's, plus a couple 9200's also.  (threw 1 in the trash, thanks kids)

Spare CPU's Athlon Thunderbird AXIA core 1GHz (does 1.4) one Duron 1.6 (unlocked) one Duron 1.8 (locked)

House is a bloody mess, carriers over into other peoples houses with my computer crap too.  Lots more junk.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Insane price for so called mint Turbo Duo!?]

If you can shrink wrap, what's interesting is that the box is probably more valueable than the system is itself.

We should do a manufacturing run on boxes and buy broken Duo's and fix them and become millionaires selling them each upwards of 1K USDollars.  (make a rotating list of who's turn it is to sell to reduce lost profits)

J/K

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Girls don't dig Bonk]

I don't actually know a girl that owns a TG16 or Duo, but you can as well say that not many guys do, or even know that it exists, neither.

But at any rate, there was a girl who played Bonk on my Duo quite extensively.

She played video games about as much as me (well, almost).

Might sound mythical, but it's true.

[General Gaming / Re: Wanna help compile a crappy ebay game/laserdisc/arcade buyer/seller list?]

I had a tremendously bad experience with a seller over Christmas.

Basically I had managed to get an XBOX 360 and paid for it and all, for wife for Christmas.

Seller never ships.  Had "good" feedback (like 98% positive or so).  You know, out of the other 2% at least some of those buyers were probably asinine anyway.

But that isn't my point.

The funny part is, right before the seller went MIA with my cash and undoubtedly many other people, on eBay he purchased a damn ROLEX!  Which costed 3/4 thousand dollars.

Then turns up no longer a registered member.

Friggin ROLEX, man.  May he burn in whatever infinite pain.  That SOB ruined Christmas for many people.

What I don't get why spend so much time building yourself up to become overall appropriately presentable on eBay and what not, only to turn around and accept cash from lots of people (and not ship) and use it on a watch then hit the road?

Insane.

But man a ROLEX.   

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Gradius]

Is Gradius anything like Life Force on the NES?  The powerup system and general design looks the same.

Life Force was spectacular.

I'd really like to check out Gradius PCE if it's anything like Life Force was/is.

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Re: Thanks guys]

Thanks for the welcome guys.

BTW on the Robotech part, I probably only watched like 3 episodes or so on TV.

But on the other hand, I've read 26 of the books.  That was the last count that was released when I quit keeping tabs on the series.  (mid 90's or so)

I was 13 and with my uncle and cousins at a book store and I saw this 3-in-1 book with ROBOTECH across the top with a picture of the SDF-1 or something on the front cover and I thought "Damn that looks neat, I'll check it out".

Afterwards complete obcession.

I never really read books, - ever, prior to that.  My mother was so curious what the hell I was doing actually reading and picked up the ROBOTECH books that I had read when I was done with them, then read them herself and enjoyed them.  Although she absolutely hated the hoe on the SDF-1, Lin Minmie(sp).

[PCE/TG-16|CD/SGX Discussion / Thanks guys]

This is probably exceptionally cheesy, if not lame.  But, thanks.

After stumbling across this site (bored at work, trying to occupy self) I couldn't resist temptation any longer.

I went out to my garage and dug and digged through many boxes of video game and computer equipment until I relocated my Turbo Duo that I begged and begged my mother to buy when it was going to be released.

My parents actually ordered it directly from NEC when the Turbo Duo was released in the states.

Before then I had a TG-16 (which I sold after getting the Turbo Duo).

Mind you back in those days (well, "sort of" now too) we were piss poor but they somehow managed to pinch pennies and bring a dream into a reality for me.  Something to this date I am eternally greatful for.

So fast forward and these days I'm married with 2 kids and have collected quite an assortment of game stuff ever since I started playing when I was 3 (Atari 2600 / Coleco).

Most recently the wife and I have a 360 (bought for wife for xMas) and a Wii (that wife stood outside over night for, for me for xMas) to add to the collection.

But I gotta tell ya, even after the new systems and such the Duo is still my all time favorite system for pure fun.

Even my kids are ignoring the 360 & Wii, PS2, etc.

Funny enough they didn't even know I had a Turbo Duo hidden away in the garage collecting a massive amount of dust!  Hell, I think I still have the original boxing at my parents in their shed.  Styrofoam and all.

I did drag it out once when they were super young (like 1/3) in an attempt to educate them on gaming.  But they were a bit too young to appreciate.

Man it was so fun to play Gates of Thunder again.  I picked it up and promptly blew through it and you would had thought I was God to my kids.  Then I played Bonks Revenge and promptly blew through it (gaming is like riding a bicycle) and managed to maintain my God status.

Then I reluctantly finally realized I should let the kids play, too.

So out comes all the Duo pads and tap and we start going at it in Bomberman '93 (which ironically was a Christmas present to my father back in 93/94).

I had some half.com gift certificates that my aunt gave me for Christmas but couldn't think of what to buy until just yesterday.  Trying to re-fill out my Grafx collection so I just re-bought Galaga '90 & Alien Crush that I sold long ago with the old TG-16.

So who needs a Wii/360/PS-whatever when you got a Duo?

It certainly makes me feel pretty damn warm and fuzzy every time I walk through the living room and the kids are ripping it up on the Duo.

The original reason why I did stash the Duo though was the laser mechanism was all the way to the right, so after reading advice I figured I might actually get it to work.  I pushed to the left with a decent bit of force and fired it up with a pen in the drive tray enclosure to monitor what it was doing and BAM the thing re-aligned itself to the left where apparently it is supposed to be.  OH MAN talk about HAPPY!  It was quite the emotional experience.

I went ahead and ordered a 4.5mm security gamebit though in anticipation I may need to buy a new HOP-M3 laser mechanism though.

Now maybe I can mod it up a bit.  =)

So a big thanks to you guys.  Even if cheesy, if not lame.