Support NeoGAF

[Argyle]

I don't think charge backs are a good idea... don't ruin this for the rest of us who haven't had theirs sent out yet. Let's all be patient... together.

While I am probably going to ride this out, I rode out my Pandora pre-order. Now I am being told that I should pretend I never made a pre-order (so I shouldn't feel bad about losing $400+) and be grateful for the opportunity to drop hundreds more dollars to finally get mine by people on their forums who didn't get screwed as badly as I did.

Hearing that the Kickstarter money is gone is giving me flashbacks...

I don't blame anyone who decides to pursue a chargeback. I will probably also never back a hardware project ever again.

 

[tensuke]

While I am probably going to ride this out, I rode out my Pandora pre-order. Now I am being told that I should pretend I never made a pre-order (so I shouldn't feel bad about losing $400+) and be grateful for the opportunity to drop hundreds more dollars to finally get mine by people on their forums who didn't get screwed as badly as I did.

The biggest problem with that project was Craigix. The problem is ED has taken over Craig's orders and there's no money to produce/ship all the remaining preorders because Craig's money is seemingly gone and ED simply doesn't have that much money himself. You can still choose to wait and eventually your order should get funded through the preorder fund or ED's shop, but, that's completely dependent on how much people donate. Or you can buy one at production-cost (~$400 for GHz, ~$130 for CC) which is the best ED can do given his lack of funds from Craig. It's shitty all around, but, he's trying his best to make things right. I have the same sentiments about not funding hardware projects like this again, I did back Craig's iControlPad 2 last year which was probably a mistake after all the OP stuff, but I thought maybe he'd do a little better this time. Nope.

 

[Tobor]

You would be too if you had to deal with shipping units back to China for the d-pad replacement on your own dime, and random people asshats on the internet hated you for the delay it caused. There are no more Kickstarter funds -- that's why shipping has been delayed.

The amount of hate this guy is getting is really starting to irk me. He's not the best communicator, and yeah, that makes things seem shady, but he's gotten better at transparency as the project's progressed. There's been a bit of a lack of contingency planning, and I think he'll put a bit more padding into the budget and cost estimates on the next project. I haven't seen anything yet that tells me he's trying to pull any shenanigans.

Just wait until you get the Zero in your hands. It's actually really cool, and I'm glad Justin has been able to see his dream through.

Who in their right mind would back anything from this guy again? You've understated the issues he's having. He has yet to, even once, give us the most basic information regarding how many he's shipped, or how many he's shipping a day. The closest he's ever come to it is in telling someone in person at PAX a vague number range.

He posted a huge update letting us know he had no money and was struggling to ship units by himself, then paid to fly to Seattle for media promotion! He neglected to tell us about PAX at all until he was called out on it, and then again played the victim.

This is not a properly run business, plain and simple. I wouldn't buy anything from Justin directly in the future, let alone back him on another Kickstarter campaign.

 

[polyh3dron]

Who in their right mind would back anything from this guy again? You've understated the issues he's having. He has yet to, even once, give us the most basic information regarding how many he's shipped, or how many he's shipping a day. The closest he's ever come to it is in telling someone in person at PAX a vague number range.

He posted a huge update letting us know he had no money and was struggling to ship units by himself, then paid to fly to Seattle for media promotion! He neglected to tell us about PAX at all until he was called out on it, and then again played the victim.

This is not a properly run business, plain and simple. I wouldn't buy anything from Justin directly in the future, let alone back him on another Kickstarter campaign.

+1

 

[Rich!]

As I've said before, if I hadn't cancelled my backing (back in February!), I can say to an almost certainty that I still wouldn't have anything to show for my £130 today. And at this point I'd definitely be issuing a chargeback from my bank, giving the reason of fraud.

Anyone who is still holding on has a saintly amount of patience.

 

[MBison]

So should I just expect not to get anything at this point? I've been following this loosely and thought things were getting sent out. Guess not?

I supported at $135. I'm a naive son of a bitch.

What would be the process for doing a charge back with the bank?

 

[Rich!]

So should I just expect not to get anything at this point? I've been following this loosely and thought things were getting sent out. Guess not?

I supported at $135. I'm a naive son of a bitch.

What would be the process for doing a charge back with the bank?

Just call their fraud team and explain it. Basically state this guy took your money, and seems to have no intention of ever supplying a product.

 

[Atolm]

And to think I was excited about this...this project is the very definition of a scam.

 

[Rich!]

To be honest, with all the Kickstarter nonsense being thrown around in the media right now, this case might be a good one to recommend to Eurogamer or Kotaku. Got a good story to it, and if they pick it up, it may well get something done.

Because your £130 has not gained you a console. It's paid for this guy to go to PAX. It's paid for him to do whatever he wants in his private life. Apart from actually getting the consoles out, of course.

Maybe he just can't be fucked, and has given up. Who knows.

 

[Tobor]

So should I just expect not to get anything at this point? I've been following this loosely and thought things were getting sent out. Guess not?

I supported at $135. I'm a naive son of a bitch.

What would be the process for doing a charge back with the bank?

Units are supposedly being sent out. What the time frame is that you should expect something is unknown, as is how many have been shipped to date, how many are shipping a day, or anything else.

 

[Harteex]

So should I just expect not to get anything at this point? I've been following this loosely and thought things were getting sent out. Guess not?

Consoles are still being sent out, I'm not sure where richisawesome got the impression they were not.

 

[Lhadatt]

Yeah, there's a bunch of angry in this thread. I think I'm out.

 

[Rich!]

Consoles are still being sent out, I'm not sure where richisawesome got the impression they were not.

It's the sheer unnaceptable pace of things, that's what the issue is.

 

[Argyle]

The biggest problem with that project was Craigix. The problem is ED has taken over Craig's orders and there's no money to produce/ship all the remaining preorders because Craig's money is seemingly gone and ED simply doesn't have that much money himself. You can still choose to wait and eventually your order should get funded through the preorder fund or ED's shop, but, that's completely dependent on how much people donate. Or you can buy one at production-cost (~$400 for GHz, ~$130 for CC) which is the best ED can do given his lack of funds from Craig. It's shitty all around, but, he's trying his best to make things right. I have the same sentiments about not funding hardware projects like this again, I did back Craig's iControlPad 2 last year which was probably a mistake after all the OP stuff, but I thought maybe he'd do a little better this time. Nope.

(sorry for the mini derail but..)

I am fully aware of all of that.

I honestly don't give a shit. It's borderline insulting to be told that my only hope to get anything for giving them $400 years ago is to give them a sum total of MORE money than someone who just orders the exact same thing from the webstore today. Why am I being penalized for preordering and helping to get that project off the ground?

Good on ED for trying his best to make things right - but this isn't making anything right, not at all. If he offered to sell me a 1GHz Pandora for the same total price as what a new customer would pay I would seriously take him up on that tomorrow, but I'm not paying a cent more.

Again, sorry folks for the derail - but the Pandora project ran into similar (but so far it seems more severe) funding issues where they ran out of money partway through, and had to take new orders to try to ship the existing preorders. Now on that project one of the partners has more or less split town, and the hardware is now very obsolete, so no one wants it at that price...meaning my preorder is NEVER going to be filled.

 

[TreIII]

Yeah, there's a bunch of angry in this thread. I think I'm out.

Can't blame them, though.

Such as it is, at least my friend has his KS Ouya, and got it on time. Yet I'm the one left wondering when the hell I'm ever going to get my GCW Zero...if ever.

This guy's got like one more week to at least give us a definitive date.

 

[krae_man]

I'm honestly surprised anyone even backed the Pandora. It was so ridiculously overpriced, and it's even more ridiculously overpriced now. Gamepark and Dingoo were making comparable systems for 1/3 the price.

Still ridiculous that some people are still waiting for their preorder after waiting almost 5 years, but man putting up what was it $330 upfront for that?

 

[tensuke]

I'm honestly surprised anyone even backed the Pandora. It was so ridiculously overpriced, and it's even more ridiculously overpriced now. Gamepark and Dingoo were making comparable systems for 1/3 the price.

Still ridiculous that some people are still waiting for their preorder after waiting almost 5 years, but man putting up what was it $330 upfront for that?

$330 in 2008 was a steal for what you got, Dingoo and GPH were in no way comparable, OP's speed, form factor, and features blew away what any other open handheld was doing. It blew away the specs of the Dingoo, GP2X, Wiz, even the PSP, and would have been about as or more powerful than then-current smartphones. It wasn't until around late 2009 saw the rise of snapdragons and GHz-class smartphones that they were more powerful. Unfortunately with all the delays, the price was pushed up higher for retail units and the 1GHz units started at $700, and by that time smartphones easily outclassed it in terms of raw power. It's still unbeatable when you consider the form-factor and entire-value proposition, but it's a very niche device and for most the price is a turn off. It's really a shame what happened there.

It's borderline insulting to be told that my only hope to get anything for giving them $400 years ago is to give them a sum total of MORE money than someone who just orders the exact same thing from the webstore today. Why am I being penalized for preordering and helping to get that project off the ground?

I know how you feel though. I hate the order limbo but at this point there's no money for a refund, either, so short of paying double I have to sit and wait until hell freezes over for the original order to ship, too. I've given up being angry at this point, though, and one day maybe it'll arrive at my doorstep, maybe it won't.

Don't wanna derail this thread any longer with OP stuff though so I'll bow out. Good luck to all the GCW backers, I hope there's some good news in your future about all this. :/

 

[pje122]

I can't wait until we actually are able to start talking about the thing. Maybe Vitacat will start posting again.
I know personally I'm going to need help setting up all the emulators.

 

[Surkow]

I can't wait until we actually are able to start talking about the thing. Maybe Vitacat will start posting again.
I know personally I'm going to need help setting up all the emulators.

We are working on a community wiki that will give you a hand after unboxing the unit. It'll be focused on both consumers and developers.

 

[Vorg]

It's still unbeatable when you consider the form-factor and entire-value proposition, but it's a very niche device and for most the price is a turn off. It's really a shame what happened there.

Are you kidding me? No it isn't. It's robbery.

They are insane to be charging that price. It's an insanely inflated price.

 

[Fularu]

Yeah, there's a bunch of angry in this thread. I think I'm out.

Later Justin

 

[Noisepurge]

I'm in the market for a portable emulator machine, and was interested on the GCW Zero, but it doesn't seem to be worth it at this point. Is there any other emulator device that works well?

Edit: That's not a PSP.

Dingoo A320 has a big scene and pretty much all emulators you can think of:

 

[Surkow]

Dingoo A320 has a big scene and pretty much all emulators you can think of:

The A320 scene _is_ the GCW Zero scene. All developers are now working on software for the GCW Zero.

 

[Noisepurge]

The A320 scene _is_ the GCW Zero scene. All developers are now working on software for the GCW Zero.

Yeah, but it is a big scene with pretty much everything already developed. Plus the device is readily available for cheap!

 

[polyh3dron]

And to think I was excited about this...this project is the very definition of a scam.

Ok calling it a scam is going a bit too far. Susan Wilson with her 9-year old daughter thing was a scam. This guy is just not sending our units out as fast as he should be and isn't prioritizing his backers highly enough. That's all. There's nothing nefarious going on here that I know of.

 

[Noisepurge]

Ok calling it a scam is going a bit too far. Susan Wilson with her 9-year old daughter thing was a scam. This guy is just not sending our units out as fast as he should be and isn't prioritizing his backers highly enough. That's all. There's nothing nefarious going on here that I know of.

indeed, the devices exist and are as promised. the "corporation" around the device was just unprepared and new to this whole business side of things

the Gizmodo was a scam ;D

 

[polyh3dron]

indeed, the devices exist and are as promised. the "corporation" around the device was just unprepared and new to this whole business side of things

the Gizmodo was a scam ;D

Gizmondo you mean.

Also, AFAIK, Dingoo software works on the GCW Zero.

 

[Surkow]

Yeah, but it is a big scene with pretty much everything already developed. Plus the device is readily available for cheap!

The Dingoo A320 is discontinued. You might be able to find a second hand unit, but they are not readily available for cheap.

Gizmondo you mean.

Also, AFAIK, Dingoo software works on the GCW Zero.

After a recompile with the supplied toolchain. The jz4770 supports hardfloat (while the jz4740 in the Dingoo a320 does not). Software not using floats might work.

 

[Argyle]

Ok calling it a scam is going a bit too far. Susan Wilson with her 9-year old daughter thing was a scam. This guy is just not sending our units out as fast as he should be and isn't prioritizing his backers highly enough. That's all. There's nothing nefarious going on here that I know of.

I agree, but Open Pandora was a real product that more or less turned into a Ponzi scheme. I hope we don't get left holding the bag

 

[Surkow]

We finally got a public release of the GPU drivers.

Today was both Programmers' Day and Friday the 13th, so it seems appropriate to release the new OpenDingux firmware update for the GCW Zero ;D

Download and instructions can be found on gcw-zero.com as usual.

New in this release is OpenGL ES support, thanks to the hard work of Wladimir J. van der Laan and others on Etnaviv and the people testing it (Pickle, JohnnyonFlame, Zear). It's far from perfect yet, but you'll probably see some GL ES games being released in the coming weeks. Also getting this in the hands of developers means more testing which in turn helps Etnaviv improve.

A new version of the toolchain was released as well.

Some GLES (hardware accelerated) games that are currently being worked on:

Quake & Quake II

Quake 3 Arena & Open Arena

Descent 2 & Hurrican

 

[pje122]

That's good I guess.

 

[Korosenai]

Still nothing here. Anyone else get their confirmations yet?

 

[Argyle]

Still nothing here. Anyone else get their confirmations yet?

Nothing here either.

 

[Tobor]

No confirmation here either.

/tumbleweeds

 

[pje122]

 

[Lyte Edge]

Nothing. Not unexpected.

 

[Lettuce]

Nothing here either. Hoping i get it at least b4 xmas

 

[DrROBschiz]

Couple of related links for people looking for hardware/software in these scenes

http://obscurehandhelds.com/

Cool little site that reviews all of these emulator handhelds. There are a lot more devices out there than I previously imagined. Thinking of grabbing the best Android one available myself

http://forum.openhandhelds.net/index.php

Cool forum where you can find some really nice custom firmware/roms for android devices and possibly others. Create for cleaning out all the China Junkware and getting the best performance out of your handhelds

 

[polyh3dron]

so he should have about 950 out of 1600 units shipped now.. Mine will probably be one of the very last since I backed on the last day

 

[Marty Chinn]

so he should have about 950 out of 1600 units shipped now.. Mine will probably be one of the very last since I backed on the last day

According to someone's chart of dates relating to unit #, mine should have shipped if that 950 figure is correct. I wonder if he stopped sending tracking #s out to save time.

 

[Kaworu]

According to someone's chart of dates relating to unit #, mine should have shipped if that 950 figure is correct. I wonder if he stopped sending tracking #s out to save time.

Where can I find this chart?

 

[Marty Chinn]

Where can I find this chart?

Here it is:

01/08: 19
01/09: 83
01/10: 148
01/11: 201
01/12: 233
01/13: 281
01/14: 316
01/15: 374
01/16: 443
01/17: 552
01/18: 636
01/19: 695
01/20: 790
01/21: 915
01/22: 1,032
01/23: 1,106
01/24: 1,186
01/25: 1,275
01/26: 1,358
01/27: 1,485
01/28: 1,680

He probably backtracked the the number of pledges each day to figure this out.

 

[Marty Chinn]

I just got an e-mail with the subject:

Justin Barwick sent you a message about GCW-Zero: Open Source Gaming Handheld.

I got all excited until I opened the e-mail and all it said was:

Justin Barwick says:

Everyone I just got a new phone and was setting up linkedin please disregard the invite message.

The phone went haywire and send invites all over the place, If you recieved one please disregard it.

Bleh.

 

[SScorpio]

I backed on 1/17, and I got excited about the linked-in email as well.

However, when I got home I had a package shipped via USPS waiting for me. I never received shipping confirmation but they are shipping.

 

[Kaworu]

I backed the 21th so mine is hopefully on its way home.

 

[Korosenai]

What sucks for me about the GCW is that I don't even need it anymore. I expected to get it back in March/April, but since then i've gotten a Galaxy s4 (which can even do more than the gcw with the ds emulator). If anything, since I just started back to school, I could use that $130 to help pay for food or gas. Oh well.

 

[pje122]

What sucks for me about the GCW is that I don't even need it anymore. I expected to get it back in March/April, but since then i've gotten a Galaxy s4 (which can even do more than the gcw with the ds emulator). If anything, since I just started back to school, I could use that $130 to help pay for food or gas. Oh well.

Did you receive yours yet?

 

[Korosenai]

Did you receive yours yet?

Nope. I backed on the 28th of January, so I doubt i'll get mine for a while.

 

[Fularu]

Nope. I backed on the 28th of January, so I doubt i'll get mine for a while.

Backed on the 28th, so I'll get it last Probably in march next year

Edit : Actually I backed on the 24th! yeah! Maybe january then

 

[Tobor]

I pledged on January 16th. Nothing yet. WTF?