OUYA - $99 USD Game Console

[Udderdude]

More like project bullshit. :3

It's been looked into and that was input lag related to the interface and touchscreen, on mobile devices which would reduce CPU clock speed.

[BryanM]

Hurm. Microsoft is paying people $100 to make some applications for its Windows Phone and Windows 8.

... which leads to this SA quote:

I knew this already but every time I see this mentioned I can't NOT laugh. A big throaty fisherman's laugh.

If fucking MICROSOFT has to PAY developers to even CONSIDER developing for their platform why would anyone make shit for the Ouya?

Oh, and word on the street is they haven't started production yet.

[Udderdude]

Are you saying the existing Ouyas were all put together by hand?

[BryanM]

The final assembly very well might be a dozen guys with screwdrivers (and magnets!); that'd still be a faster output than the trickle that seems to be coming in. The gossip is they're mailing out just the test run, with a priority at getting it into the hands of reviewers.

There are two primary theories as to why

a. They got bumped back by one of their manufacturers in favor of a larger, repeat customer.

b. They're out of money and are just buying time to grab onto some funding to keep their heads above water.

I guess you could also speculate they just didn't have enough time, as they'd given themselves a pretty aggressive schedule. A subset/cousin of A), since you can't really expect ideal treatment in the queue as a guppy.

[Friendly]

I was among the early backers (5XXX backer number), before they talked with their supplier and first increased the number of Ouyas available during the kickstarter to 20,000 and then eventually to 80,000.
I have yet to receive a shipping confirmation. Does that mean they haven't even shipped ~5,000 units yet? That doesn't exactly bode well, considering they were planning to start selling Ouya in stores 6 weeks from now. Not cool.

As far as programming for Ouya (=Android) is concerned, I can think of several reasons for going for Android instead of Windows Mobile. Android's market share is one: Windows Mobile has what, 3%? Another reason would be that Windows Mobile is by fucking Microsoft. I think that one is rather self-explanatory.

[TransatlanticFoe]

Because Google is a paragon of virtue!

Android's market share is precisely why Microsoft want to get people developing for their platform, evidently enough for them to be handing out the dosh.

[Friendly]

evidently enough for them to be handing out the dosh.

And to think of all the fun you could have with such a crisp new $100 bill (maybe even pay an Indian programmer for a couple of hours to do the porting for you)! Reminds me of the 20 Microsoft points (25 cents) they give to Xbox Live Gold subscribers as a birthday gift. Say what you will, this is one generous company. Makes you wonder how they ever amassed their billions, with them practically giving away every last cent of their hard-earned and well-deserved money...

[Udderdude]

Microsoft's current pathetic industry-sinking flailing could be it's own thread at this point ..

[Friendly]

It’s Friday -- that means it’s time for this week’s update on early backer OUYA shipments.

OUYAs continue to crank off the production lines, and I’m happy to report that 32 percent of all early backer orders will be on the move by the end of this week (slightly ahead of our original estimates).

And ... as a result of this week’s momentum, we’re now estimating that 50 percent of all orders will be on the way to early backers by the end of next week!

Finally, I wanted to confirm that your Limited Edition OUYAs willl start shipping next week.

AND, no matter where you live, UK, Canada, Japan, or Germany, or the US, I’m happy to report those shipments pick up steam next week.

We understand that, for many of you, this process can’t move quickly enough. Thank you for your patience and support as our team continues to do everything humanly possible to get orders out the door and to your doorstep.

Until next week!

Julie

[gct]

I really look forward to the Friday updates to see if Uhrman and company can drag the MS Paint graph out for yet another week. I still can't believe this stuff is real. It's the gift that keeps on giving.

On a more serious note, I don't know if anyone has said this yet, but from the start this seemed to me like it wasn't about making a hardware platform for games but more about making $$MAD DOLLARZZZ$$ from microtransactions. It's like Uhrman realized "Hey look at all these fools who are willing to spend a buck or two on games in the Apple store and Google Play, I gotta get in on that too". Otherwise I cannot see any legitimate reason why Ouya needs its own ecosystem away from Google Play. If it was Google Play compatible, then Ouya could only make money from hardware sales, but to keep the gravy train rolling they needed a way to make sure money from game purchases wouldn't just go straight to Google.

Still, I'm sure every manufacturer of any clone of a stick running vanilla Android is making more money from hardware alone than Ouya Inc. will make ever, since I don't think the Chinese would be doing it if there wasn't money to be made.

[BryanM]

OuyaPants made a graph too. I'm not sure what it's about.



I may be the biggest sperglord on the planet, I may have written a FAQ for Last Battle for GameFAQs.... I have never made a graph about some vidya game console for a forum post.

Yet.

[gct]

Something Awful is going through one of its closed phases, so you need to be registered to read threads on the forum. Yes, I paid $10 so I could continue to be entertained by Ouya Inc.'s antics.

This is one of the latest gifts from the SA Ouya thread:


For those not up-to-date, the "O" is a plot of the analog stick's registered movement coordinates, the "U" is a poke at the weekly MS Paint graphs, the "Y" references the Y button's tendency to get stuck under the controller faceplate, and the "A" is a portrait of hopeful flagship title Visorman.

It's glorious.

[Udderdude]

Apparently the problem with the deadzone is with the controller itself; if you swap in a non-Ouya analog controller, it works fine.

Ouya - Non-shit controllers not included .. D:

[Friendly]

I guess PS4 controllers should be nice in the future.

Btw, "To feel envy is human, to savor schadenfreude is devilish." - Schopenhauer

[Friendly]

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/05/09/ouya- ... ing-fixed/

Uhrman also addressed one of Ouya's stickier issues, notably that the controller's buttons can get stuck underneath its faceplate. The problem has already been fixed, she says, and has been implemented in production. The solution: larger button holes. "I don't know what the exact millimeter is, but we've increased the size just a little bit, so now the buttons don't stick under it. We made that change very early so all the units are being produced with those larger button holes." The corrected controllers will ship alongside Ouya's retail launch units.

[DJ Incompetent]

Apparently the problem with the deadzone is with the controller itself; if you swap in a non-Ouya analog controller, it works fine.

Ouya - Non-shit controllers not included .. D:

Weird. Wired 360 controllers finally have a purpose.

Got my tracking number a week ago. DHL's tracker section of their site has been down for the whole week. 'Convenient of them...

[Udderdude]

Wired 360 controllers finally have a purpose.

I was using them as an official controller for my PS2 to 360 adapter ..

[DJ Incompetent]

Big fan of dem concave grips huh?

I can vouch for the d-pad of the uncolored clear plastic dualshock2. No idea why that build quality feels so much better than my 8 other dualshocks. I don't have a Playstation-to-USB converter. I totally should.

I guess I'd be internet-salty at the Ouya controller if Sony and Microsoft didn't already have massive histories of fucking up their own controllers.

[Udderdude]

Big fan of dem concave grips huh?

I can vouch for the d-pad of the uncolored clear plastic dualshock2. No idea why that build quality feels so much better than my 8 other dualshocks. I don't have a Playstation-to-USB converter. I totally should.

No, it's to hook up a HRAP 2 SA.

[DJ Incompetent]

ohhhh.
I was talking about stock wired 360 controllers earlier.

All is well.

[Specineff]

I can vouch for the d-pad of the uncolored clear plastic dualshock2. No idea why that build quality feels so much better than my 8 other dualshocks.

If it's made of the same material as the PSP 2000's D-pad, it may be because it feels more dense, at least IMHO. I am not sure if they've applied the same redesign as they did from the PSP 1000, though.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/05/09/ouya- ... ing-fixed/

Uhrman also addressed one of Ouya's stickier issues, notably that the controller's buttons can get stuck underneath its faceplate. The problem has already been fixed, she says, and has been implemented in production. The solution: larger button holes. "I don't know what the exact millimeter is, but we've increased the size just a little bit, so now the buttons don't stick under it.

Does this not strike anyone else as extremely worrying? I can't think of any other controllers, regardless of the size of the button holes, where the buttons can be pushed down so far as to go flush with the controller faceplate or even into the controller! I don't recall the NES/SNES/GB, etc, having buttons that went down that far. The Xbox style of having the button still have a good bit sticking up when pressed seems like a much better idea than letting the controller's buttons go down that far to register (not even the P1/PS2 controller buttons are that bad, and even they feel less 'solid' than I'd like). The solution really ought to have been to design better buttons I think...

[BryanM]

Does this not strike anyone else as extremely worrying? I can't think of any other controllers, regardless of the size of the button holes, where the buttons can be pushed down so far as to go flush with the controller faceplate or even into the controller! I don't recall the NES/SNES/GB, etc, having buttons that went down that far.

Ouya: The console designed by a guy who never used a game console before in his life; for people to make games who never played a game before in their lives.

Frankly, I think the ASCiistrix would make a better console. Develop games in ASCii! Glorious 3 bit color!

You laugh, but you can make fantastic games with ASCii. And it'd do something a sprite-based business plan can't: Games simple enough for the console's company to develop without having to spend a billion dollars.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

It's still not as bad as the colecovision controller, at least. I have no idea how you're supposed to even use that comfortably for any games requiring reaction speed.

[brentsg]

It's still not as bad as the colecovision controller, at least. I have no idea how you're supposed to even use that comfortably for any games requiring reaction speed.

There were some mods that made then not so bad, especially in comparison to what was available at that time.

[BryanM]

Oh god, the friggin' keypad fetish.

The one that makes absolutely no sense at all is the keypad on the Atari Jaguar. WTF. Did they get the memo that no one used that, ever?

"You come across a bubbling brook. In a small island sits a MERMAID in the shape of Hilary Clinton. A strange awkwardness consumes you, and you pause a moment to reflect on how you should react.

To punch her in the with a Benghazi Punch, press 1.

To ask for an autograph on your man boob, press 2.

To ask her if she likes daggers, press 3.

To hear these options again, press 4."

[Super Laydock]

Got mail that mine has actually shipped.
Expected delivery May 31.
Can't wait to finally check it out.
(which will be 15 days later, due to holday.

[gct]

A recent official Twitter status update from OUYASupport:

LMFAO.

Also now reporting problems with the shaft of analog sticks experiencing greatly accelerated wear on the side which contacts the aluminum faceplate. No problem! Just send it back to Ouya Support and they will lubricate it for you. Turnaround should be great since this process can be trivially integrated into their regular redtube workflow.

[DJ Incompetent]

Got mail that mine has actually shipped.
Expected delivery May 31.
Can't wait to finally check it out.
(which will be 15 days later, due to holday.

When you first get it, it'll have you connect wifi. This will probably give you trouble. Go to the advanced settings that will look like a android phone menu and connect to wifi from there. That's how I got it to work.


Impressions so far -

Ouya takes me back to 6 years old, like the end-2600 or early NES era, a time where there's little gaming press telling you what's good or even what exists. Many of the games on there I have never seen before. This sense of quick and blind exploration makes the $100 worth it. Ouya is unfit for competitive gaming so far, but I have other means for doing that. Updates could change the nature of this product at anytime.

Games tested: Pinball Arcade, Pix 'n Love Rush, Organ Trail, Radiant
TV tested: old 32" Samsung HDTV and newer 42" Samsung HDTV
- Overscan issues on everything (the size of the game screen is bigger than the TV, cutting off text and HUD at the borders). The Ouya's design intentionally places text in places it would cut text off, confusing people into saying there is no issue.
- Ouya controller is comfy, but worthless. No faceplate or button sticking issues. Everything lines up correctly on the casings. It's just horrid input lag. The dpad reminds me of a typical crappy dualshock dpad.
- Tried wired 360 controller. Slightly reduces input lag, but still a noticeable delay. The controller PCB is not the same as Ouya's controller PCB, so button functions and analog stick functions are not the same. Programmers would have to manually accommodate for different controllers for mix-n-matching different controllers to work perfectly. STG developers prolly wouldn't have to do much different, as face buttons and dpad still work fine.
- no mandatory credit card info required on bootup.
- all invitations to purchase on credit card had a popup asking to confirm the purchase.
- I've had 2 auto console updates so far, clearly meaning they're still actively fixing things. They last a few minutes. These auto updates happen on Ouya bootup, so the "impulse play" nature of the console is twarted a bit.
- Lazy, rushed ports of all games. Significant bugs in everything I tried. They're buggy enough, I can't tell if Ouya games just need more polish before testing the input lag issue further, or to accept that Ouya/Android just cannot put out smooth framerates and solid control.
- All games I downloaded are from the genres sections, not the free-for-all sandbox. This means games being "graduated" to a genre just need to be popular, not work correctly. I even found a game graduated to genres that the description claimed was "in pre alpha." Ouya curation needs a "nintendo seal of quality" badly.
- Downloading a game and installing a game are two steps in separate sections and must be done one at a time. Luckily each step is quick since the games are so small.
- Screen scrolling on anything is rarely smooth. It's like there's frame studders constantly.

So far, Ouya is only good at small-time uncompetitive or turn-based thrills. No point in emulation if you can't control a twitch-based game.

Unanswered Questions:
- Why can I beat Super Hexagon on my droid phone, but Pinball Arcade is laggy-unplayable on Ouya?

Current theory:
- 4.1 Android project butter input lag reduction was intended for touch screens only, not button input.

Input Lag Research To Do:
- order part to connect Ouya to my projector
- Try more controllers
- Find a first actually polished non-Unity Ouya game and use that as basis for input lag testing.
- Sideload some worthy tests
- The Contra Test

[Friendly]

Thanks for the impressions; I still haven't even got shipping confirmation for mine.
Please give XBMC a try if you get a chance, that's what interests me most.