The Nvidia Shield portable thing..... what the heck is this !

[WCP]

What do you guys think about this crazy thing ?

[Damaniel]

Honestly, I think it's dead on arrival. If it costs much over $200 then nobody will buy it, and I don't see it selling for any less than that. Ouya's already got the 'playing Android games on TV' angle covered, and you can buy controllers for Android phones (at some cost to portability), so the only unique thing it has going for it is the PC game streaming part.

If the pricing is right I could see myself buying one for the novelty value, but I don't expect there to be an actual consumer market for the device.

[Kitsune Sniper]

It's a PORTABLE EMULATION MACHINE.

You know, if someone ports emulators to Android first.

[Bojay1997]

Honestly, I think it's dead on arrival. If it costs much over $200 then nobody will buy it, and I don't see it selling for any less than that. Ouya's already got the 'playing Android games on TV' angle covered, and you can buy controllers for Android phones (at some cost to portability), so the only unique thing it has going for it is the PC game streaming part.

If the pricing is right I could see myself buying one for the novelty value, but I don't expect there to be an actual consumer market for the device.

Actually I see this as being an Ouya and Gamestick killer. It's a completely new Tegra as opposed to an existing older architecture like those two projects and it works as both a handheld and a console with TV output, as well as a Steam PC game streaming console. Ouya and Gamestick require a TV or monitor. To the extent any of these Android gaming units will succeed, I would bet on NVidia rather than the other underfunded startups.

[Frankie_Says_Relax]

It's a PORTABLE EMULATION MACHINE.

You know, if someone ports emulators to Android first.

You're kidding right? Android has crazy good emulators.

[Kitsune Sniper]

You're kidding right? Android has crazy good emulators.

Well I don't own a cell phone or care about Android so I just threw that little comment in.

[Tupin]

Between this, Ouya, and Gamestick, I hope Android gaming moves beyond clones of popular console games and games that really are just upscaled phone games.

Especially with the Ouya and Gamestick being so cheap, who does this appeal to?

[WCP]

For awhile, I was kinda interested in getting an Archos GamePad





I'm not sure how much the Archos Gamepad costs, but I saw a YouTube video of Mario 64 and Wave Race 64 running on it, and it looked damn good. I'm sure this thing will cost double the Archos, but it might be worth it. I'll still wait for the inevitable price slash.

[Bojay1997]

Between this, Ouya, and Gamestick, I hope Android gaming moves beyond clones of popular console games and games that really are just upscaled phone games.

Especially with the Ouya and Gamestick being so cheap, who does this appeal to?

The Tegra 4 theoretically has 6X the processing power of the Tegra 3 Ouya and Gamestick are based around. Ouya and Gamestick are also limited to being tethered to a TV. If this thing comes out at $200 or less, I think it will blow both the Ouya and the Gamestick out of the water. Of course, for any of them to succeed will require some really new and innovative games and sadly I don't see anything on the horizon that looks even close to that.

[Tupin]

Well, we'll just have to see. I got burned on the Xperia Play, so I'm slightly apprehensive about portable Android gaming platforms. I just looked it up, and the streaming function is only available if you have an Nvidia video card.

I still do question where this is going to go, especially once Valve comes out with their Steam Box. The market is just becoming saturated with machines that are essentially tablets masquerading as consoles or are very similar. Someone isn't going to make it, and I'd put my money on Valve, who could release literally anything regardless of quality to critical acclaim, to come out on top.

Unrelated, but anyone else remember the Panasonic Jungle? I'm kind of getting those sort of vibes from this thing. Maybe it was just a few years early...

[buzz_n64]

Unrelated, but anyone else remember the Panasonic Jungle? I'm kind of getting those sort of vibes from this thing. Maybe it was just a few years early...

Yup, made a thread about it. I figured it would be a dead system, but would have loved to have picked it up at a clearance price. http://www.digitpress.com/forum/show...he-Jungle-quot

[IHatedSega]

WHY are there SO many of these machines popping up? I guess the technology got cheap as hell to make so everyoen is jumping on the bandwagon. I dont get it. People have been making emulators for other handheld emulation devices, so theyre gonna make them for these? I wonder which one will out live the others?

[Ed Oscuro]

I like the idea behind Android, but getting 2 frames of lag (or so) unavoidably is not a good thing.

This is being touted as PC or console gaming on the go. Totally different sort of market really.

I think it's a neat idea - and possibly nVidia has the contacts to go into the handheld business themselves. I'm keeping an eye on it.

[WCP]

Speaking of emulators, don't you wish that there was somebody that made a portable with a really nice 4:3 screen ? I know it would seem kinda crazy in this day and age to not have a 16:9 screen, but if you're serious about emulation, a 4:3 screen would be much better. Letterboxing or stretching stuff to fit 16:9 is both kinda crappy. I wish there was a company out there, that saw this market for something that could emulate all the classic systems, and actually give us a 4:3 screen.

[substantial_snake]

Speaking of emulators, don't you wish that there was somebody that made a portable with a really nice 4:3 screen ? I know it would seem kinda crazy in this day and age to not have a 16:9 screen, but if you're serious about emulation, a 4:3 screen would be much better. Letterboxing or stretching stuff to fit 16:9 is both kinda crappy. I wish there was a company out there, that saw this market for something that could emulate all the classic systems, and actually give us a 4:3 screen.

There is a thread in classic gaming to Kickstart a portable designed with emulation in mind using a 4/3 screen:

http://www.digitpress.com/forum/show...light=GCW-Zero

Anyways the Shield looks interesting as a dedicated portable android gaming device from someone that isn't based in Shenzen/Hong Kong. It might work anda niche but if you looking for a really solid portable machine purely for emulation it would seem that the Kickstarter mentioned above is exactly what your looking for. As a game's machine in itself mobile developers that are interested in investing in decent graphics also need to prove that they are willing to design games that are more then just 5-10 minute touch control time wasters. Maybe then something like this can take off pending price, which surely wont be cheap, as a portable android non-phone platform.

[Ed Oscuro]

People who are following the product closely already know this, but one of my recent goofs is in stating it has the ability to play PC games - the answer is "not in a meaningful way." You basically have to be tethered to a PC with the right specs and nVidia hardware. It connects via WiFi, which may be reasonable for getting the lag to a useful level (for many games) but then you're basically left playing on an inferior system for no apparent reason.

Android...I've been pretty interested in the Android series of phones but I don't like the reported 2 frames of lag you get on those devices.

Speaking of emulators, don't you wish that there was somebody that made a portable with a really nice 4:3 screen ? I know it would seem kinda crazy in this day and age to not have a 16:9 screen, but if you're serious about emulation, a 4:3 screen would be much better. Letterboxing or stretching stuff to fit 16:9 is both kinda crappy. I wish there was a company out there, that saw this market for something that could emulate all the classic systems, and actually give us a 4:3 screen.

16:9 is no problem so long as it has a reasonable resolution to fit the actual console's resolution. I think it's kind of astonishing, but it seems that 16:9 is taking over even in handheld screen production (which in a way makes sense if it's pocketable or meant to be carried in some small bag - longer is not inconvenient, but bigger in both directions starts to become a problem).

Also, a 4:3 screen will still have to be rather high resolution to try to get old games to look decent - that or you treat pixels as square (which is incorrect to the original hardware, but may have some advantages).

[Bojay1997]

People who are following the product closely already know this, but one of my recent goofs is in stating it has the ability to play PC games - the answer is "not in a meaningful way." You basically have to be tethered to a PC with the right specs and nVidia hardware. It connects via WiFi, which may be reasonable for getting the lag to a useful level (for many games) but then you're basically left playing on an inferior system for no apparent reason.

Android...I've been pretty interested in the Android series of phones but I don't like the reported 2 frames of lag you get on those devices.

16:9 is no problem so long as it has a reasonable resolution to fit the actual console's resolution. I think it's kind of astonishing, but it seems that 16:9 is taking over even in handheld screen production (which in a way makes sense if it's pocketable or meant to be carried in some small bag - longer is not inconvenient, but bigger in both directions starts to become a problem).

Also, a 4:3 screen will still have to be rather high resolution to try to get old games to look decent - that or you treat pixels as square (which is incorrect to the original hardware, but may have some advantages).

I don't think anyone thinks it can "play" PC games. It can, however, stream them which is a really exciting feature for anyone who doesn't want to have to sit in front of the PC all the time to play games. The public has already been exposed to something similar with OnLive, so it's not like some mysterious feature. Yes, it requires a certain family of NVidia graphic cards, but they are pretty common and not crazy expensive. Yes, unlike OnLive you need to actually provide the PC, so there's an added expense. It's not going to be a feature most people use, but it marks an improvement over things like Ouya and Gamestick that not only require a TV or monitor, but can't be used as handhelds. Like I said earlier, I don't expect any of these Android systems to be very successful, but if any of them has the features and backing to be moderately successful, it's this one.

[Dr. BaconStein]

I know I've said bad things about my JXD S5110 before, but it is a really good device, and it's shown me how capable devices like these are for running both emulators and Android games. The only problem I have with Shield is that it uses a console-style controller. I would have preferred a more handheld- or tablet-like design, so that it doesn't look so odd for playing on the go.

I'm still interested in this device, but it probably won't be the next one I get. I am waiting for JXD to release their S7300 (7" Wii U-style tablet) and I am somewhat skeptical about how nVidia will price this. Oddly, the design reminds me of the RetroDuo Portable.