Ouya console review: "Pass on it" | Hacker News Reader

Ouya console review: "Pass on it"

gdgt.com

40 pointscpeterso43 comments

I actually think that as an inexpensive XBMC TV device + emulator gaming Ouya is an outstanding offering for its price. But if someone expected current gen console compatition here - it means that the product was misunderstood.

Yes, I've been thinking about getting one specifically for that purpose: a cheap way to play NES/SNES/GBA/etc. games on my TV (I'd imagine that a Ouya filled with such games would be a great present to a niece/nephew whose family can't afford to pay for modern consoles + games). The Ouya also has Towerfall, which is apparently a fantastic game.

Comparing it to PS3/Xbox/Wii U is missing the point.

NES/SNES/GBA? Since you mentioned costs of original games, where will you get legal ROMs for those consoles?

Who said anything about legal?

Anyway, he could perhaps rip ROMs himself if he really wanted to bother.

where will you get legal ROMs for those consoles?

You don't. You put on your eyepatch, grab your cutlass, and raise the Jolly Roger.

You've both missed his point, which is: why pirate SNES games but not Xbox 360 games?

Because people love classics.

I can't speak for the OP but the main reason for me would probably be nostalgia. The second reason is that I could probably download every single ROM ever produced for these systems and store it on an average sized flash drive. Finally, I don't know much about pirating on the 360 but I'm personally not inclined (read: lazy) to mod an XBox.

Whose point?

People don't pirate 360 games because it's probably fairly annoying - you need a 360 console to begin with, then mod it which might need an older one running an out-of-date OS, and likely can't play multiplayer without the risk of your account being banned. Plus the size of games means torrents which means letters to your ISP. And if it's a couple years old you can probably buy the game for $10-20.

Pirating games for older consoles is trivial in comparison - any computer you have and most smartphones can emulate a PS1 or older almost perfectly. And the game sizes are tiny.

If you were asking about a moral justification, there's always the "it's not being sold new, so the makers won't get my money if I buy it used anyway." Though by now at least 95% of games that people actually play have been re-released, so that justification doesn't hold much water.

The "makers" of the games (i.e. developers) don't get the money for re-released games, just the publishers do. It does not cost them anything, it's full profit and they own all rights to their distribution. I don't think it makes it more reasonable to support them for making fresh, full money out of completely outdated games.

I, for one, have zero moral qualms about pirating something that isn't being produced any more. I'd even argue that pirating abandonware is a net-positive to society--it keeps the past intact (much like a museum or a library) and as a bonus, the people that work on the (usually open source) emulators get to dig in and understand yesterdays technology.

There's pretty much zero downside.

http://www.retrode.org/

Even ripping your own, legality is still probably a bit of a grey area.

Why do this when the Wii with Homebrew is perfectly capable of running a myriad of emulators that are a pleasure to use, has a superior controller, and runs it all really well?

Another cheap way to play SNES games; your computer and a $10 controller.

Sometimes I leave my primary laptop at work.

Sometimes my girlfriend may want to play a SNES game while I'm using my laptop.

Sometimes I want to reinstall my laptop and don't want that to impact my gaming console.

Sometimes I may not want to bother with having to plug in my laptop in the TV and find the controller, to play 20 minutes of Dr. Mario. (I'm very lazy)

I'd rather have several cheap, interchangeable devices rather than everything from a single one :) (that applies to my laptop too; I did all of my programming and work from a 300$ netbook for a couple years, that was nice and I wasn't too heartbroken when my gf at the time spilled water on it and killed it)

I found this forum [0] that lists Android USB sticks, which are more portable than the Ouya, and cheaper. This "Tronsmart CX-919 Quad Core Google Android 4.2.2 OS Rockchip RK3188 Cortex A9 1.6GHz Mini TV BOX Dongle HDMI HDD Player 2G/8G BT/HDMI/External Wifi Antenna-Blackis" is $65 [1].

[0] http://forums.redflagdeals.com/android-tv-stick-convert-norm... [1] http://www.geekbuying.com/item/Tronsmart-CX-919-Quad-Core-Go...

Oh that's neat, thank you! (although I may pay the Ouya premium because Towerfall looks really fun)

Yeah, no sweat. Supposedly games like FF will be Ouya optimized so I'm imagining FFIV will have better graphics. We'll see, it might turn out like the 3DS and have games come a little late.

It's not super cheap, unfortunately (well, apart from the used models you can get), but the Open Pandora would nicely fit some of your requirements. It's excellent for emulation, among many other things. It also plays many Android games pretty well.

Mine still crashes XBMC, but once that's fixed I'll be happy with it.

I couldn't agree more: mine runs XBMC well and, for me, is worth the $100 just for that. That there are emulators that work well and some fun games are pure bonuses, really.

It's something that slots in alongside other consoles rather than replacing or even competing with them.

Is its 1080p performance perfect? It'd be an interesting option here, if so. The Pi isn't up to the job, which seems to leave something of a toss-up between this and an Apple TV, suitably jailbroken for Matroska support.

So far so good — I threw a 1080p file at it last night and it did fine. Admittedly, most of my content is in 720p, because that was about all the Apple TV I used to use could deal with.

This review states the Ouya is "hacker friendly" and I think thats far from the truth. It comes with a locked bootloader and, as far as I've been able to research, no one has been able to put any other version of Linux on it.

I think piracy concerns ended up causing Ouya to close their system some, making it less hacker friendly.

Does it allow side-loading of unsigned apk's? That wold make it very friendly for some types of hackers.

I believe it does. I vaguely remember seeing something along those lines in the setup screens.

Not only is the bootloader locked, it has no recovery mode. It's dangerous to even update the system, let alone install custom OS-level software.

It does seem like they're interested actively enhancing their library: http://www.ouya.tv/freethegamesfund/

Can't help but feel Ouya's sitting in a niche that someone's going to snap up in 6 months or so like the iPad did to the ill-fated crunchPad/JooJoo. Be it the steam box or someone else.

Perfectly good market, fantastic vision, just not quite polished enough and with not enough money behind it to get over the technical hurdles & polish to win over the consumers (obviously excluding the drama with the crunchpad at the end, which didn't help).

I feel that the problem is the price, none of the major console manufacturers have tried (or at least succeeded) in building a console for that sort of money. There's probably a reason for that.

The reason the major players haven't made a cheap console is because they (Nintendo excepted) are pushing the boundaries of what "cheap enough" hardware can do. That's necessary for the type of games they want to sell -- but it's not necessary for all games.

I fully expect an Ouya/Google/Apple/GameBerryPi/etc to really find a fun loving, large market at a $100 price tag.

Problem is that you are trying to hit a middle ground between people who are gaming enthusiasts and want to play games on a dedicated device be it a console or PC with a fancy GPU. And a larger casual market; many of whom are probably looking to buy games for a system they already own like a laptop or tablet.

I'm not sure if it's more accurately described as a middle ground or as a niche: Casual gamers who want to play cheap games on their TV, with a controller, and/or with friends. (Another possible interpretation of "midcore.")

I think Towerfall's popularity is due in some measure to hitting that specific formula: cheap & fun same screen multiplayer; "mobile philosophy" on a television.

I do think overall you're right that the casual market wants to play on devices they already own. It would not surprise me if Apple released a WiFi controller & added a dedicated Games store on the AppleTV (using touch screens while looking at a TV just feels awkward).

The problem with having a niche market of people who buy your system because it is cheap is that it's not a particularly profitable thing for developers to target compared to a more serious console where you can charge $50 for a game or a smartphone/tablet where you make your money by selling many copies. So all of the best games end up being ported to other platforms anyway, which reduces the incentive to buy an Ouya unless you have the might to lock developers into exclusive deals.

I think Nintendo and Apple have both seen the future of this particular market: casual gamers don't want consoles; they want handhelds that can mirror-play onto their TV when they want a more enriching experience (which isn't necessarily all the time.)

Apple has the iPad+Apple TV set-up; Nintendo has the WiiU as a transitional console generation while increasingly moving all its flagship titles to the 3DS. I fully expect that the next console Nintendo ships will be a lot like the Apple TV--a bridge appliance to point your DS4 at.

Yeah, this market, back then was the handheld market. If I remember correctly the Gameboy Advance SP was around that price. Really, as processors go up and decent tablets become cheap, a mini 7 inch with a DualShock will suffice.

There are two games that we love: Amazing Frog and Bombsquad. The rest don't get played much. Hopefully this situation improves.

A few that I've really enjoyed so far, if you don't mind the suggestions:

* Antichromatic (hit and subsequently blasted out of the sandbox earlier this week, effectively Ikaruga mechanic applied to a platformer)

* Inferno & Ballistic SE (same author, same general gameplay, different world mechanics)

* Saturday Morning RPG

I'd love to see an actual vs fighter, but currently lack the free time to even care about hacking one up :/

"the idea of an Android console sounds great"

Does it though? Really?

Make a game editor, with a decent 2d editor and a nice integrated IDE.

That will surely remedy the lack of quality games.

Woaaaah, easy there sarcasmo!

That sorta sounds like Sony. Hey lets make our platform an entirely new platform, different from x86 and as hard as possible to get quality game developers.

Sounds familiar?

That's quite a stretch. I don't really know what you mean with the Sony comment so I'm going to guess you meant Playstation 3 which was widely considered hard to develop for. When PS3 was released there had been exactly one x86-based mainstream console on the market. Even Microsoft chose to abandon x86 for Xbox 360. PS3 was hard to develop for, but not because it wasn't based on an x86 architecture.

Anyway, to get back on topic: Ouya has a well-know architecture. It has a well-known operating system with good tool support. What sets it apart from an Android tablet is the controller and the fact that you plug it into a TV. When Ouya fails, it's not going to be because it lacked good tools.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com