Author Archive
January 24, 2012
Posted by: foxblock
Update:
All developers get an extra month to brew up something awesome:
Okay, [deadline] extended until end of March.
Source
Also erico and quatercast have been working hard on a banner (top image) and all sorts of other graphics for the competition, which you can check out here – this is not officially approved yet, though.
Meanwhile this topic is to collect ideas/wishes for software you want to see from the competition.
Original post:
It’s ON!
EvilDragon just announced an official OpenPandora software competition with the first price being a new and shiny Pandora right off the prototype production run in a unique golden or pearl-white case (photos to be uploaded soon).
Everything is good in this competition, may it be an original game, a port, new software, ported software, an emulator, a whole OS or a digitalized unicorn spreading love and peace, as long as it follows the rules posted by EvilDragon (see below).
You can enter alone or as a team, but hurry, the deadline is the 29th of February! That is not as much time as it might seem now, so better get started immediately!
If you are good friends with pixels, listen up as EvilDragon is looking for someone to create a nice banner and splash screen for the submissions. Head to the forum thread for more details.
Here is the full quote with all prices and rules (read them if you are considering submitting anything):
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Posted in Community, Official, Pandora | Tagged competition, game, golden Pandora, prizes, rebirth, Software, white Pandora | 23 Comments »
January 9, 2012
Posted by: foxblock
In case Replay Expo was not near you, there is another opportunity coming up to meet the team behind OpenPandora (okay, so far only EvilDragon): The Free And Open-Source Software Developers’ European Meeting or FOSDEM in short.
It will take place in Brussels, Belgium on the 4th and 5th of February.
EvilDragon will hold a talk about the Pandora on Sunday the 5th (12:40 to 13:25) and you will also have the opportunity to meet Ivanovic and several other people of the Wesnoth and Frogatto development team in the Hackers Room.
Several other community members will surely be there, too (the crowd is just gathering).
More details here:
Announcement post (OP board)
FOSDEM website
Posted in Community, Pandora | Tagged convention, FOSDEM, team, wesnoth | Comments Off
December 29, 2011
Posted by: foxblock
…aaand we are back. Sorry for the prolonged downtime, seems like I jinxed it in my last update (and everyone was busy with Christmas to fix it).
A lot of stuff has happened in the last week and as I am in a rush to get some things done before the New Year, I won’t summarize it here, but redirect you to the forum (which we always just copied anyway…).
Let’s just say the prototype run in Germany appears to be complete success, even after some initial problems and hick-ups.
Following are two news posts by EvilDragon on the official boards, as well as a video giving you insight into the production facility.
Finally, rom everyone here at PandoraPress, we wish you a good celebration of the passing year and an even better start into the new one. See you guys in 2012!
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Posted in Blog, Official, Pandora, Software | Tagged Boards, GC, hotfix, no copy-pasta this time, production, prototypes, psx, VVVVVV | 7 Comments »
December 16, 2011
Posted by: foxblock
First of all, sorry about the recent downtimes, the WordPress set-up was getting old and unstable and needed a reset every now in a while. Admin atomicthumbs now upgraded to a new version (thanks!), so those problems are hopefully a thing of the past.
In the meantime we missed two blog posts by EvilDragon, which I will try to summarize in the following. You can find the full quotes after the break.
The preparation for the prototype run are full steam ahead, the parts being held back at CC’s finally passed customs and are on their way to a new destination: GC. Other parts needed for the mass production run are on their way, too and should arrive over Christmas and New Year. With them there should be enough for the first run of 1000 Pandoras.
He also got a sample of the new version of the case, which should prevent the cracks users have been reporting – another 4000 will be ordered of those, they will be used when he runs out of the remaining ones (Source).
Concerning TV-out cables he is still waiting for a quotation and a sample before New Year, so fingers crossed on that.
Sadly this was followed by some bad news, some less, but still bad news and some very bad news.
First of all the RAM did not arrive as ordered, so ED had to get a quick replacement, which will arrive Friday or Monday pushing the prototype run back to that date.
Loading the machines with the parts (minus RAM) was still done and during that GC noticed that the Pick and Place files (data telling the machine which parts got on on which position) were incompatible, MWeston is contacted to make some slight (and easy) changes to them.
This quick line of communication is also a nice change as EvilDragon is now in direct contact with all necessary people and information has not travel over multiple stations (like it did before).
Last there is the mentioned very bad news, which is not production related:
A member of the community, jonai, has been murdered a few weeks ago. He was active on the German and gp32x.com boards as well as in ICQ contact with EvilDragon.
His death was cruel and inhuman and sadly the police has no clue so far, in case you knew him closely and might have important information contact EvilDragon who is in contact with the police about this.
My sincere condolences to the family and friends of the victim. Let’s think about him for a minute.
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Posted in Official, Pandora | Tagged CC, GC, jonai, parts, production, prototype | 10 Comments »
December 12, 2011
Posted by: foxblock
Here is something we failed to mention so far: There is an online shop solely dedicated to the Pandora.
Community member Link has set up a site for you to get all kinds of accessories on, from earphones to cases (he claims those to be bombproof, mcobit, B-Zar and I can confirm that), from cables to solar chargers, he got it all and everything is suited for the Pandora.
The idea of the shop is not to make as much profit as possible, rather to “give something back to the community” which Link started to like over the years he has been waiting for his device.
iThic.com is the name of the shop and it’s based in the USA, so as a citizen of the US this might also be a good place to actually get your Pandora as Link sells those at their official price (though due to the production relocation he is out of stock at the time of writing). You can also get EXT connectors (including a tiny BoB) from him you can use to build your own TV-out cable in case you don’t want to wait until that situation is resolved.
International orders are also gladly accepted, but you will have to pay some additional shipping costs.
Last but not least and probably best of all, Link is currently having a solstice sale running until the 21st of December with the following conditions:
i-Ecko earbuds, earclips, and speakers are buy 1 get 1 Free
40% OFF ALL Pelican Products, buy any Pelican case and get a choice of a FREE i-Ecko product (earbuds, earclips, or speakers)
25 % OFF All Underwater Kinetic UltraBoxes, buy any UnderWater Kinetics case and get your pick of a FREE i-Ecko product (earbuds, earclips, or speakers)
Following is an interview with the owner of iThic.com, Link:
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Posted in Misc | Tagged accessories, ithic, link, Pandora, sale, shop | 8 Comments »
November 22, 2011
Posted by: foxblock
Update:
If you are like me wondering what out-of-production parts ED was talking about, here is the answer:
Some Diodes (no big deal) and only one important part: The Memory.
But Micron (the manufacturer of the memory we used) has replacements for those as well, so nothing serious, nope.
Source
Original post:
In short: Production in Germany is still in schedule with the different parts needed being shiped from all over the world (Parts from CircuitCo are being handled as we speak and proper replacements for parts already out of production have already been ordered).
The TV-Out cables, which ED promised to order after production at GC is fully set-up, are the new troublemaker, though.
For some reason the company making those is now refusing to take the order, which means that the already produced tools have to be shipped to another manufacturer, which obviously has to be found first. As the cables are not that much more expensive to produce over here in Germany, ED is looking into that possibility as well.
Some random news bits: Socket-able nubs are currently off the table as the new and improved nubs seem to perform nicely so far.
If your Pandora is currently in RMA you should expect a bit of wait, a user recently reported getting his Pandora back after about one month. ED currently fixes about 8 Pandoras a week in his spare time (between his regular job, organizing the production, sending out contracts and actually getting some sleep).
Here is the full quote with all the gory bits:
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Posted in Official, Pandora | Tagged cable, GC, parts, production, tv out | 23 Comments »
November 1, 2011
Posted by: foxblock
No news, but an announcement: Replay Expo (Arcade, Video Games, Retro) will be happening on 5th and 6th of November in Blackpool (UK) and part of the Pandora Team (Craig and EvilDragon) as well as a few members of the community will be attending.
EvilDragon also managed to secure a table in the “tournament hall”, so there will be an official Pandora “booth” and a Super Geometry Dust tournament. Additionally he will give a talk about the Pandora on Sunday.
The Expo itself holds numerous arcade machines, consoles and computer from all generations for you to play as well as a few tournaments and talks.
You can find more details and discussion here and here, official announcement post after the break.
Oh and Craig is bringing Cake and you should, too.
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Posted in Community, Official, Pandora | Tagged Community, craig, evildragon, expo, meet, replay, team | 10 Comments »
October 20, 2011
Posted by: foxblock
EvilDragon announces enough investments have been gathered to start the production in Germany – you can still invest if you want to, this would decease production costs further. The first big run of boards is still anticipated for January 2012.
ED will also meet with a parts distributor to discuss how to move the remaining batch2 parts from CircuitCo (Texas) to Germany.
Last but not least a reminder that him, Craig and a few guys from the community will be attending Replay Expo in Blackpool (GB), tickets are still available -check this thread for more details on who is coming and a planned meet-up.
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Posted in Official, Pandora | Tagged GC, global components, investments, production, replay expo | 24 Comments »
October 15, 2011
Posted by: foxblock
So at this point it’s more of a Game of the Whenever-we-feel-like-it, but here is a new episode anyway, including a video to make up for the break.
(part two at the bottom)
Presenting LemmingsSDL, a “Pandora original” homebrew and a complete rewrite of the original Amiga Lemmings (meaning the code is all new and original, the levels and assets are not).
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Posted in Games, Pandora, Releases, Software | Tagged amiga, game, Homebrew, Lemmings, miner49er, week | 9 Comments »
October 14, 2011
Posted by: foxblock
EvilDragon reports the progress being made in the current activities.
Details include the ordering of the prototype run at GC’s, an update on the investments, confirmation of the first 250 new pre-orders and a chance to meet the team and some members of the community at Replay Expo in Blackpool, UK.
- Bare PCBs ordered and paid!
- Investments coming along
- Preorders also coming along
- Moving parts
- Meet us in UK!
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Posted in Official, Pandora | Tagged expo, global components, investments, parts, pcb, pre-order, replay | 18 Comments »
