Ouya: The $99, Android-Powered TV Game Console

That's a criticism that can be levelled at every console at launch, ever.

true. here's the full conclusion, though:

For $99, everyone who backed Ouya's Kickstarter has unwittingly signed up to beta-test a game console. Alpha-test, even: this is a product with some good ideas and a potentially promising future, but it's a million miles away from something worth spending your money on. Even if the concept is right, the Ouya misses the mark. The controller needs work, the interface is a mess, and have I mentioned there's really nothing to do with the thing? I'm not even sure the concept is right, either: there are plenty of fun Android games, but currently few that work well with a controller and even fewer that look good on your television.

Let's say everything goes exactly right for Ouya. Every good game in the Play Store becomes available to Ouya, Netflix and Amazon decide to play nice with the device, and the ROM and hacker community explode and make every app and many more available to the nascent platform. Then and only then, Ouya can be viable — if it can combine a decent set-top box with a decent gaming platform, it may have a case to make for your $99. But those are a lot of cards that have to fall a particular way, and without them the Ouya is a lot more like a Raspberry Pi than an Xbox 360.

To its credit, the company says loudly and often that this is only the beginning of a long road for Ouya — and I'll be watching its progress with interest. But the device is currently being sold as a product, not a prototype, and that's just wrong. Ouya isn't a viable gaming platform, or a good console, or even a nice TV interface. I don't know what it is, but until Ouya figures it out, it's not worth $99.

I don't think anyone's unwittingly signed up to be a beta tester - people who have an Ouya now know what they're getting into. In no way have Ouya mis-sold or mis-represented what this console is or it's immediate future capabilities. The interface problems are likely one of the top priorities and will probably be sorted by June 4. After that, maybe there'd be cause for complaint if the interface isn't any better. But the PS3 had a terrible interface for a long time (and arguably still has a terrible interface).

without them the Ouya is a lot more like a Raspberry Pi than an Xbox 360.

I sort of get what the writer is saying here, but these three platforms are all very unlike each other. The Pi is a hacker box, while the Ouya is only that secondarily. With the 360, it would be fairer to compare the Ouya to XBLA. Or maybe compare it to a supercharged version of one of those no-name HDMI Android dongles, but with way better support and investment.
OTOH I have to agree that the battery compartments in the controller look terrible, and could have been put around the back like on a 360 controller.

haven't read their review yet, but the verge panned it

http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/4/4180242/ouya-review

dude, that is what was linked and quoted a few posts above

great link! ;)

Yeah I dunno, my support for this was totally raspberry pi style. I want a low powered TV-connected machine with a game pad which I can hack around with and play emulators on. If I'd bought into it thinking "yes! new console!" then I guess I'd be rightly disappointed but has anyone actually done that? (Mine hasn't actually shipped yet, may change my tune when it arrives).

probably should've actually looked at the thread tbh

I don't think anyone's unwittingly signed up to be a beta tester - people who have an Ouya now know what they're getting into.

Yup. It's $99 - not $599. People know what they're getting, especially people who dropped money into the kickstarter.

I only watched the video review, but complaining it took some effort to get emulators and ROMs to work, but that they were able to, was a weird complaint - did they think you could just press a button and have every old game downloaded and running on the console (or maybe that they would be preloaded)?

that d-pad looks as crappy as the 360 one, can you pair up other controllers with this thing?

I've heard you can, any bluetooth controller (including the ps3 one), or the wired 360 one will work (not the wireless 360 one yet though). The problem is the other controllers don't have the touchpad you need to navigate menus and play some games...

It's Bluetooth so I'm sure someone will hack it. The touchpad might be an issue though. OTOH if someone got a PS4 controller working with this that'd be hilarious.

The PS4 controller is gonna cost at least $60 alone

Yeah I know, but surely someone will hack it to show off their skills. Just because a hack is expensive and has limited value doesn't stop people.

man, if it can run an NES/SNES/Genesis/Turbographix emulator we're all good

i really just want a retro system for roms, the end.

related: http://neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=528855

plain old hacked wii is pretty good at running the roms...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hKKCoTlDjHo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59CjuKmGwyo

related: http://neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=528855

― I offer about as much diversity as a saltine cracker. (forksclovetofu), Friday, 5 April 2013 03:48 (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol at people complaining about how nes games look in hd

i know how that sounds, but old systems often look really bad on HDTVs, worse than they did on CRTs

Old CRTs did add a certain fuzziness to the picture which can be hard to separate from the whole aesthetic of retro games. The first time I ran a BBC Micro emulator full screen on a PC with an LCD display, it was a bit of a shock, because everything was so crisp and someone how much blockier that I remembered.

Some LCD TVs (and emulators) try to "solve" the blocky sharpness by curving the lines and it looks even worse.

RE: Ouya tho, give it time. AFAIK there are a few big companies that are planning on supporting the thing.

xp Bear in mind that 8-bit/16-bit era games were designed visually with the limitation/feature of scanlines, so it is jarring when you see pixel perfect emulation. Sometimes it looks crisp and great, but other times it looks very strange. We discussed this a little bit in another thread, that some emulators now are trying to solve this problem with special filters and such, but it's a trickier problem than it sounds. In general, old analog inputs into modern HDTVs generally don't look so good

Most emulators have something like "X frames of motion blur" which doesn't really cut it. Though I'm definitely in the camp that doesn't want CRT-ification filters.

And in general interpolation/upscale filters on LCD TVs are terrible regardless of whether you're looking at a console or a TV programme.

I agree, but only because right now they're all terrible. I think at some point if they can solve the math problem or whatever it is to make it look the way it was originally did, it's an option we should have rather than everything being super-crisp or 4xAA.

that retron controller looks so uncomfortable

guys i know all this about scanlines

the solution is, get a CRT tv, and a NES

eh, putting roms on an SD card onto a flash cart is sooooooo cumbersome, who wants to do that?

yeh retron controller is rubbish, but you can plug in any NES, SNES or Genesis/Megadrive controller supposedly
i'm interested in how it turns out, but they seem to be promising a lot of stuff that looks hard to deliver

so, despite being one of the earliest fools kickstarters, I am apparently one of the very last set of people to receive the console. they send a weekly email update with the shipping stats, and the % of Ouyas that have been shipped to early funders is at around 90% or higher.

:(

That sucks. Couldn't they have sent out the consoles in the order that people paid?

i got mine. made so little of an impression that i didn't even think to post!

I'm basically going to use it to emulate older games, I guess. Sigh. and if someone figures out cool ways to hack it and blow my miiiiiind duuuuuude, then that as well.

What's your opinion on the controller?

the controller feels cheap as shit but it feels okay in the hands.
the only appeal so far (and it's a big one) is that there are genesis/snes/ds/gameboy/nes emulators available for immediate download so this is the no frills 100 buck emu console I've been waiting for. Now i just need another life where i can replay all my old games.

Yeah I've had no shipping notification yet, seems a bit of a shambles really. Apparently they e had to push back their retail launch date etc. But yeah, hard to get too miffed about delays given that I'm only going to be using it to play 10+ year old games.

would you guys get behind some kind of open gaming platform that ran on existing last-gen consoles (ps2,xbox,wii,etc...) through some sort of hackery? i always thought that the way to do this sort of thing would be to take advantage of the hardware that's already in most people's houses.

prefer Steambox-like "platform" to open up; their marketplace may be curated, but they have most of what you already need (open PC platform, TV output and controller input standards)

could ouya run steambox client?

now THAT is an interesting question.

btw, i don't dig that this thing is by default always online and reporting back so i basically unplug it whenever i'm not using it... it's also the fourth HDMI on a three HDMI tv soooo....

finally received my ouya in the mail. i tried a few emulators. the EMUya seems to work really well for NES - no complaints there. MUPEN64 is the first n64 emulator i've ever tried, and it doesn't appear to work at all (rogue squadron wouldn't even load, mario golf had visual chaos all over the screen, and mario tennis is like having a slow motion seizure).

of the modernish games, deep dungeons of doom is really fun!

how does the controller feel?

it feels fine to me, although i think probably more forgiving than most. there was a moment where one of the buttons got stuck, but that was because when i put the faceplate back on after inserting the batteries i didn't push it into the proper position. the d-pad feels good (which is especially important to me because i'm mainly playing old games and modern games with a retro feel). haven't really used the analog sticks much. the triggers feel good to me as well.

i kinda wish it had a start button! it has an ouya button which lets you exit out of games or back to the home screen, but a lot of older games are like "PRESS START!" at the beginning and it would be nice to..press start.

sorry, first sentence should read "...i think I'M probably more forgiving..."

in terms of the controller. in real life i am ruthless, don't blink, and drink blood

one thing that i wish existed (if someone knows of it, please let me know!) is some sort of website for reviews/recommendations of ouya games. the menu system for browsing through games to download is not so helpful. three of the categories (CHECK IT, STAFFPICKS, and FAVS) all seem to cover the same territory. i find myself wishing that there was a website that would just recommend 10 games to try out. actually, there sort of is already, but it is...not a good website.

another gripe - games need to be upfront about what is available as free content and what's going to cost extra. for example, like many people i downloaded Final Fantasy III immediately, and it lets you jump straight into the quest. upon launching the game i see that there's an option to purchase the full game for $15.99, but it doesn't offer any indication of how far you can go before it'll make you pay.

it just seems like that for a platform that is built on a model of free to try, purchase extra content/the full game, there should be a system in place that is clear about what you're getting and not getting for every game.