I thought this was posted before, but could not find it if it did so...
http://www.gamegadget.net/developers/info_14.html
That is their dev´s page, I believe there will be an appstore for that and it being linux x86 ,320x240, no opengl I believe there isn´t much needed to compile for that? Maybe the current caanoo or wiz or linux output could work out of the box?
Should they succeed, could it be another store/platform to support and make a buck?
Handheld floods!
No 3D acceleration? :'(
Up until two days ago it didn't even have 2D acceleration as people couldn't register it to actually use it!
I'd give this a very wide berth if you have any other handheld and certainly avoid it for a while until it has anything worth actually playing that's not Megadrive based (seeing as that's pretty mcu all it plays at the moment). Even then it's probably best avoided. It's pretty nasty by all accounts.
Little expensive... 99£
:S
It seems capable on putting out some simple 3d.
Yep they started up really bad, in a really ugly way by the way people are commenting.
It also is expensive at that price as Hark0 pointed out.
You could get a caanoo or a china handheld of better specs for the same or less.
My point is, in case they succeed to a certain level, there is an app-store for it and maybe this could generate a little extra buck for our multi platform games?
I was wondering that, producing simple games and apps nowadays, we are sure to benefit from the many app stores around GLB permit us to participate. Selling a few on each may amount to a good value at the end of the month as IMHO forking out to dev for i-phone only(as an example) may not cop up to the investment needed, not even considering the floods on the more traditional markets nowadays.
Now about this handheld, I wonder how much work should go to support it since it is a linux box, maybe it can already be supported by the current level of GLB outputs? If it happens to sell a good deed and even if only megadrive games are available, maybe that can help homebrew get a better sales chance.
I saw on another thread, that sales of an app was quite good on webos and it is a very worthwhile platform to support, even with all that HP BS. I know this is a bad comparison, but IMHO they do share somethings in common.
Of course more possibilities to generate revenue for us are good, but it's only worth supporting at the moment if GLB (and our output) don't need any drastic changes, because I suspect that the number of GameGadgets sold will be low for some considerable time, due to the price, lack of games and poor sales service so far. Things can only get better though (for everyone's sake).
WebOS accounts for a tiny portion of the mobile phone and tablet sector, but it's still sizable amount and huge compared to the GameGadget's market share at the moment. Obviously that will change, but I don't think it'll ever reach the number of units of webOS devices. However, people buying a GameGadget ARE more likely to purchase games (and more of them). WebOS users want more serious apps and novelties rather than paying for games.
I suspect that the GameGadget market could be more profitable than the Android games market (for us) within a year, as Android users tend to want their stuff for free.
Time will tell.
I have one on order, they are doing it for £66 if you register as a dev. But I am concerned it will just become an emulation machine once they get the store bugs sorted out. It is not a promising start though and possibly not a must buy as an android phone can do pretty much everything the gamegadget can do and more
I registered as dev too.
I just wish the final price would be lower at lest by half. Then it would be closer to what the Nd proposal is.
Then I think it could succeed really fast. But there are good sides, at least their handheld exists and is on sale.
Gary, I received and email today about the dev registration,
here is what they said: "Don't forget - as a registered developer you are entitled to an exclusive price of £55 (EX VAT) including free delivery."
So there is a £10 cut, no VAT?
Did you include VAT on you price offer?
or do they have different dev´s prices according to countries? and I´m in Brazil.
I agree with yours and Ian´s opinions and still, £55 can end up amounting to R$165 which is US$100 and if taxed it could get to US$200.
Funky uh?
Other then the troubled start, they seem to be going ok now.
I think should they have more then 1k sales, there will be a need of software on their app-store and jumping early (not too early) can be good for us, specially as I suspect GLB can run on it (can people share a light on this?).
It is the kind of stuff that would come nice for the caanoo, unfortunantly GPH´s app store is crap and they don´t seem to be bothering it at all.
When you get to your device, let us know how it goes.
I currently can´t afford, but wouldn´t be great if we could just port our stuff and it gets to work out of the box?
look like its have no hardware acceleration, and its was not designed to do that since its marketing as a retro device.
However for me its seen its should been pretty easy to add this as a another platform since its linux as well SDL based all-ready, but 3d commands would been gone of course (no surprise), but not required if you ask me.
Their website is a bit dodgy - repeating specifications and spelling errors...
Quote from: spacefractal on 2012-Apr-18
look like its have no hardware acceleration, and its was not designed to do that since its marketing as a retro device.
However for me its seen its should been pretty easy to add this as a another platform since its linux as well SDL based all-ready, but 3d commands would been gone of course (no surprise), but not required if you ask me.
But isn´t it similar to the caanoo? GLB does not use hardware acceleration there either and I recall Gernot saying it all goes software render and by my tests it goes on quite fast.
Yep their site is quite rushed, I´m still trying to see good into this all as if we consider NDs in comparison, nice site, no device, I guess here is the opposite :P
I also have never seen a no-big-industry attempt at a handheld that actually goes out without problems somewhere.
2D shouldn't be too taxing without hardware acceleration. I guess I'll wait for a review. I do want a 'retro' games device so maybe.
Since I own a caanoo, I don´t need another retro device, my interest relies on the store and its possible niche.
Lets wait for Gary´s review :-[
Quote from: MrTAToad on 2012-Apr-18
Their website is a bit dodgy - repeating specifications and spelling errors...
IMHO +1
an independent(?) look at the GameGadget
if it really is being distributed by Blaze, it should be okay.
At least it's available, unlike the ND :)
With such price. I think I'll take a second-handed Xperia PLAY or and use half price to buy an Android Game Console.....
Even a dev version is still a bit expensive.
I think should they do good sales to begin with, price should drop.
This just looks like a slightly more powerful Dingoo A320, which things like the Yinlips YDPG16 (Android-based console) is heaps better with a not much higher price tag.
Oh, I've become so disilusioned with all these homebrew handhelds. There's always some stupid little thing that ruins the experience. Screen tearing on Wiz, cut off pixels on canoo, sound lag on Yinlips, the list goes on and on.
The less "mainstream" the device is, more stupid things show up.
I guess some widespread android phone plus wireless gamepad is stil the best option for retro gaming.
Hmm, just noticed you are waiting for me to do a review. Well here I go lol
First the offer was £55 plus vat at 20% (£11), hence the £66 price.
I will post here the comments I have emailed Blaze. My main concern is over how the development software works. Basically, you have to put the device into sandbox mode (boot with an sd card in with the sandbox firmware) then telnet into the device using linux (the whole dev system needs Linux to run) then manually run the program. You cannot just add the game to the sd card and run it without a computer. So useless for testing on the bus
Here is my mail to them, I will let you know the reply
Mark,
I have been reading the comments on Facebook while I have been waiting for
my Game Gadget to arrive and felt that a few people were being over harsh
but refrained from commenting as I didn't have the device. I picked the
console up from the post office tonight and I would like to share my first
impression views. I am also a prospective developer so will include that
view in my comments
Box - Probably one of the best boxes I have seen on a handheld console. On
the shelf this would stand out. One thing that I will admit to though is I
slid the outer sleeve off and then spent a minute trying to push the box out
of what I thought was an inner sleeve :( But I would say a definite 10 out
of 10 for the box
Console - First impressions is it is light, maybe too light giving the
impression of a cheap build. The battery cover does not fit right on my
console. The plastic looks like a test moulding rather than a finished
product. Maybe a bit of shine on it would help, it also seems very thin
which is backed up by the power lights shining through the side of the case.
The SD slot looks ugly. I would have gone for a micro SD or an SD card slot
that can be covered up. The buttons are acceptable, shoulder buttons seem a
little loose though. The USB port seems very tight. My screen is not fitted
totally straight with a couple of pixels hidden under the case on the left.
I don't like the way when the console is off and you insert the usb lead it
turns it on, surely having the screen on all the time when it is charging
will reduce the life of the backlight and take longer to charge fully? The
lack of volume buttons is a big minus, maybe when in the main menu you could
have a setting that allows you to use the shoulder buttons as a volume
control? I have the GP2X console which I consider is a similar console to
yours and the build seems a lot better than the Game Gadget. For the look
and feel of the console I would only give it a 4 out of 10
Activation - All went well with activation but I have ended up with all the
games being listed twice and every time I connect the console I am
downloading an update which is the same as the one I received the last time
I plugged it in. Any tips on how to solve these problems would be
appreciated
Store - The lack of store is disappointing but will pass no further
judgement until you have it up and running, but the lack of store and no
projected date is a disappointment and I can see why the negative comments
on FaceBook regarding this.
The Megadrive emulator - As this is the only software that can be run it
should be 100% to showcase the console, unfortunately it isnt. It is slow
and seems unoptimised for the device. When the volume is muted on the device
the emulator seems to override that and still play sounds. It does not bode
well for the future emulators.
Finally from a developers point of view your dev system is poor. Only
available on Linux is a bad point, if I do graphics and sound the best
utilities are on windows or mac not linux. If you are going to persist on
sticking to Linux only for compiling then at least provide a complete
virtual box virtual machine with the dev system preinstalled so users of
other OS can run it with minimal hassle. Also the sandbox system is not
acceptable. This means every time I want to run a game I have to be
connected to a PC to run it. What if I want to test a game I have written
while on the bus or the train? You have totally removed the portability of
the system. I am hoping this will be resolved in future updates so you can
fully install your own games but I fear it wont because then there would be
nothing stopping anyone writing their own emulator and therefore bypass the
purchases from the store. I hope I am wrong though.
I hope you will pick the good and bad points out of this email, the Game
Gadget has the potential to be a great product but you need to iron out all
the issues
Gary
The price of the GG has been slashed due to "phenomenal demand and support". Yeah right! Successful consoles always cut their prices just weeks after launching.
http://www.dcemu.co.uk/content/98674-Blaze-slashes-GameGadget-price-promises-refunds-for-existing-owners
I guess most likely they started their campaing on a higher price to take on the first users willing to get it.
I had a hunch they would drop their prices as soon as sales drop from a certain point.
Altough I agree with Gary´s point of view, I sense it may be a little harsh (I may be wrong). Not on the company but on the product itself.
Every small open handheld has problems, every single one of them, I take that as a feature hehe.
If the drawback is no compromising, then I just go around.
For example, I got a caanoo last year, I´m quite happy with it!
Case is solid and heavy and it is made of good quality, got quite impressed about that to be thruthful.
People complain about ~4 pixels lost on the bevel of the case on the top.
I don´t care, you should actually have a safe area on your game for all important content and text, and this safe area is usually higher the 4 pixels. GPH´s support for the caanoo on their ´app store´ is greatly ridiculous and it seems no one wants to change that.
The app store would be quite a hit and that is my hope on gamegadget.
There are many few quibbles all possible to go around.
One last thing about quality on the caanoo, it is great, but if you hold an xbox controlled on your hands, you will clearly see that caanoo´s control could be a lot better then it is.
If their appstore goes nice, I might consider getting a dev device maybe.
Let´s hope they pull this of
EDIT: price is now 100 dollars, similar to the caanoo, I take gamegadget guys can cut this further to 50 dollars and still profit.
Apparently they are refunding the difference to all the early adopters as well, how this will work with the people who bought with the dev discount I don't know.
I had no reply to my email to them but they are busy trying to get everything done for the 1st May deadline they have given themselves to get everything working. If they miss that after going silent on the forums and websites after promising so much I think people will give up on it. So far its looking like a portable Megadrive with 30 average games (the last update removed the function of being able to play any SMD file on the sd card, so you are stuck with what they give you now)
Quote from: Gary on 2012-Apr-29
Apparently they are refunding the difference to all the early adopters as well, how this will work with the people who bought with the dev discount I don't know.
Might wanna get another email going, it is bad if they don´t reply to the original but if they are really busy on the may deadline, then I guess IMHO waiting a bit should be ok.
Quote from: Gary on 2012-Apr-29
... So far its looking like a portable Megadrive with 30 average games (the last update removed the function of being able to play any SMD file on the sd card, so you are stuck with what they give you now)
Pretty not-open hand held that way, but people will find a way to ´open´ it.
So far I heard dingux things can work without recompiling, like here two examples:
http://forum.gamegadget.net/showthread.php/106-Proof-of-concept-SNES-(Super-Mario-World)
http://forum.gamegadget.net/showthread.php/103-OpenDingux
...which brings me thoughts that maybe a GLBasic game compiled for such could work out of the box too?
Could you give a try on such Gary?
I´m sorry to ask, but I sense we could have our stuff going there easy and if their store picks up, could be another niche for us.
I REALLY would like to see such a product succeed.
Apparently the GameGadget is nothing but a Dinguu/Dingoo in a new case, with new a menu scheme (some of it still in Chinese!). Anything that worked on a Dinguu/Dingoo also works on the GameGadget.
So not all the text has been converted yet then ? Sounds like they've got a bit of work to do!
QuoteSo not all the text has been converted yet then ?
Considering that Blaze are hailing it as a machine "Made in Britain" it really shouldn't need the text converting really.
Someone's been telling porkies.
hehe, everything eletronic comes from korea or china (even my amiga 4000 did), so maybe made in the UK means designed in the UK? or assembled in the UK? sold by UK?
edit: most complains I hear about is that it is a re-branded expensive dingoo. But one good thing is that should it pick up, there is already software for it, and both communities could merge.
I have just been reading that opendingux runs on the GG with no modification so I looked about and found it is simple to do and works a treat.
This has basically just removed the need for Blaze to open their emulator store as you can get everything you need for opendingux. The console is truely open.
If anyone has a file for the dingoo written with GLB I am more than happy to try it out
If it really is just a Dingoo, they cat's now out of the bag and the GG will die - hardware sales alone won't support it at that price, surely? Why would anyone pay for a software title now from their app store when they can get it and emulators for free via other means?
As for the "Made In The UK" bit - dunno. I never believe that crap anyway. What does it ever mean?
well as I said it runs opendingux, plays dingoo games, so where it leaves Blaze I don't know.
If they really were stupid enough to copy the Dingoo I cant see how they would have got away with it but I have now gone from being disappointed with the console to being reasonably happy. Its a shame they have revoked the developers discount code as for 1 hour you could buy the console after discount for £26!!! But not sure if they have honoured those orders if any were placed.
Oh and im still waiting for the refund for the difference in price
I´m not sure they will die.
Only people hardcore into open systems ever know what a dingo is, the majority has no idea.
On the other hand, people who tend to look for such devices usually knows a few.
So I believe it will depend on their marketing.
Should they start selling such for the likes of 50 dollars or less, and have a true app store going, it would be very close to what the Nd proposal is and then I believe it can pick up for good.
I actually see the fact that it is a dingoo as a good thing as that platform has a lot of stuff for it.
Another question, is GLB capable of compiling to a dingo? Would a caanoo/gp2x/wiz compiled program work?
Blaze could save the day by managing to get the device into high street stores where parents of the kids that buy the games for the 3ds, xbox etc will see it on the shelf and think I used to play that and buy one.
The problem is though I cannot see how any of the Grade A retro games can appear on it. Nintendo want everything decent from the back catalogue for the Wii and 3ds, so no GB, Nes or Snes top titles, Sega will want too much for Sonic titles, Rare wont allow any of Ultimates Spectrum games on there. And arcade emulation is a minefield. You will be left with a few MSX, spectrum, amstrad and c64 games but even then there is the issue of kernal roms for the emulators.
So it will be play a few poor titles or look to see how you can get more on there and its nothing more than copying a few files to an SD card, hold down A at boot up and job done
The Caanoo port *might* run. At least the compiler should do.
Their forum pages has been behaving extremely weird and un navegable for the past 3 days.
Is anyone getting this too or is it just me?
EDIT: It works now, it was an ISP issue on my corner.
The horror stories about the GG are building -
From Jamma+ forum
Quotetheyve pretty much closed their facebook page, their forums are run in a 'nazi' style with one customer being told when asked about what games to expect 'youre barking up the wrong tree - i wont warn you again, if you want to continue to complain please close the door on your way out'.
http://lionguardsolutions.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/buyer-beware-gamegadget.html
Yep, I read on their forum.
I have some mixed feelings for the case.
For once, GG is an attempt for a homebrew kind of console, even if it is quite similar to a dingoo.
It is really a tough thing to pull out, we saw on the pandora project some of the perils.
As for the ´store´ it gets even harder, attempting to find who owns the rights for old games can be quite hard.
The legallity for a world wide store is gray, some countries require special permissions to do so.
Also licenses may not permit things to be sold to a few countries.
So it is a lot of work and patience is a must.
The argumentation I get back from people is that it was advertised as an i-pod of retro games, and this people don´t have any patience at all when it comes to content.
Facebook and forum started becoming a mess of trolling so I guess they decided to focus on the forum only, as trolling on facebook can be quite bad.
I think it may be a similar reason pandora has its own boards for quite a while.
I guess the majority of people enjoy throwing gas at fire instead of water.
Now they are complaining about the hard forum rules or that they don´t have freedom of speech there.
...came ooooon, freedom of speech(that is old) is a tale and it dosen´t quite go like that. Everybody has to behave under a set of rules and rules change according to the places but there will always be rules to follow. Anyone´s freedom can not ovelap another one´s so you get rules and moderators to draw that line.
At the end I really don´t know, I guess it all depends on GG´s work.
They already have achieved something, the console, the marketing, but content is also important and to be close to their costumers is even more.
I know it is easy to hint on a soccer game if you are the one watching, not playing.
I hope they overcome such things and that their store would come to be a niche place for us to sell our prods.
To be fair to the consumers who actually purchased the unit, they were unfairly sold...
The device should have been delayed until they could at least have sorted out the free games that cam on the machine, even if the shop wasn't ready. Having to register (after a week or so of hair pulling) was a disaster. Sure a week isn't much in the grand scheme of things, but that first week is always important to new devices. They could and should have waited. Nintendo did this with the Wii, DS and 3DS - they stated that certain things would be available, but not necessarily from launch.
I'm not saying that launching something like this is easy or cheap, but they dropped the ball before day 1 and the poor consumer has been left holding the shattered remnants. Blaze should take the fall and state openly that they fecked up. Accept the criticism and apologize and offer users a reward for their loyalty and patience.
At the end of the day, the machine and it's shop did have potential - perhaps that now it's seen as an open console (seeing as they didn't fix the holes early enough), their fate is sealed. They could turn it around, but not with the lack of professionalism they've shown so far.
There is plenty of freedom of speech - not necessarily on the GG forums, but the internet cannot be silenced. If GG/Blaze had put their hands up, then much of the heat would have dissipated. I'm no longer sure that's possible. The machine may still sell well as an open-source console, but the likelihood of an app store to beat the likes of Apple's is but a pipe dream. It can't possibly happen now with this device.
Negative publicity of the sort shown above is not good publicity. Whoever said there's no such thin as bad publicity wasn't looking at it through the eyes of potential purchasers of a product!
It does sound as they are trying to come down hard on any criticism (valid or not), which is not going to help them...
Yep, I agree they erred a lot.
And also that their way of working with costumers is currently bad.
I mean, the forum was created and left for flies till a couple days ago, heck, they should have taken their forum as a direct contact/transparent vehicle with costumers from the very very first day, if not even before.
It is really a messy situation going on.
They won´t be able to silence the internet I agree, but maybe it is an attempt to keep those with a head up around instead of those unsatisfied? People can always go for a refund instead of the rock-throwing attitude.
I really don´t know, but it sure makes for an interesting experience/situation for a good discussion.
I´m still not sure about how I feel to it (as if have the right to judge anything in this world :D), but I sure don´t like their attitude as much as I don´t like the people´s attitude around. For example one of the raged moderators there placed a sticky topic flaming everything on it and quite pushing people to do the same, come on, just go for a refund, I mean, it is not your company and they are not paying you as an advisor or consultant, if you don´t like it, take it back and learn. I fell this guy´s attitude is as bad as the current level of censor going on.
On another hand, there seems to be another attempt at a retrohandheld going on and it is said the guy behind it is a quite respectable chap. There is a post on our boards here:
http://www.glbasic.com/forum/index.php?topic=8120.0
hehe :P with an already post of mine which is bit on the wall kind of opinion. You know, all this Nd and GG things really gets me skeptical on the open handheld theme...
You get a longer conversations about it on the panda boards here:
http://boards.openpandora.org/index.php?/topic/8175-gcw-zero-prototype-teaser-video/
Well as you may know I *had* one of these consoles, I say had as I have returned it for a refund as they are just not delivering on their promises.
I sent a lengthy but nicely worded to their MD who, by his own words, always replies to emails, saying what I felt was good, what was bad and how to improve the console and the dev process, I heard nothing.
There was then the blatant lies on the FaceBook page, new update coming tomorrow then a post saying it had been delayed, then a list of new games was coming, that never showed. The new items in the store were all freeware with no emulated games being added except for the ones that Blaze already had licences for for their other consoles. All the freeware seems to be stuff that others had written and got running in the sandbox so they did nothing new themselves.
Mame has been ported but no information about how to use it was given and more importantly any requests for the source code were met with silence so therefore it is not a legal port of MAME.
They send Alan Sugar a tweet asking how they could licence Amstrad and Spectrum ZX (yes thats what they called it) games. A quick search on World of Spectrum would have given them email addresses of hundreds of ex developers and answer their questions.
Then there is the abusive message on the forum from GameGadget to someone asking a fairly civil question and then the drastic removal of posts to try to hide the damage done.
They shut down the facebook page but then seem to have abandoned the forums as well. Xploder seem to be handling everything now.
I would advise anyone thinking of getting one to get a Dingoo instead, they are cheaper and you dont have to boot it in sandbox to be able to do anything.
The product is a great idea but they have seriously messed it up by rushing the console out before it was ready, 2 weeks of not even being able to activate the console was a joke.
The amount of bad press that the GameGadget has got on the various gaming sites has already killed it in my view, they cannot recover from this and should just abandon the project
It's a real shame, but they really weren't ready to enter the (already pretty crowded, but still growing) consumer market. They had some good ideas, but just couldn't implement them. I'm pretty sure they won't be missed and that any gap in the market will be filled pretty quickly.
Really sad... :(
Some people stated ´company crew´ giving 5 stars on amazon review to try counter act the already going low grades.
The forums there are now full of useless gaming news posts. Last time checked about 168... :sick:
Hey it seems they are back cleaning up the mess.
http://forum.gamegadget.net/showthread.php/1584-New-PR-team-taking-over-the-Game-Gadget/page3
How many people around here still have one?
But the console finally it´s launch to the market... I read time ago, the project was stopped... :rant: :rant:
I´m still curious if a caanoo compile would work on it.
Until someone buys a device, we wont know...
Gary had one.
You around Gary? Do you still own it?
I read if you are a dev, and get a game on their appstore, you get a dev device for free.
This could be interesting, specially to those who have lot´s of games going already. :good:
Doesn't the GG run Android?
I think it runs some kind of linux.
It also seems capable of running opendingux.