Dingoo bites!

By -

A wave of negative sentiment seems to be emerging around Dingoo Digital Company’s approach to a few things, here:

http://a320.freeforums.org/they-ve-now-known-about-the-y-b-button-issue-for-3-months-t191.html

and here:

http://a320.freeforums.org/i-am-beginning-to-dislike-dingoo-ethics-t192.html

… to which I say that Dingoo Digital has indeed been rather silent on things like development information and the X/B button bug, which is a shame. Jim and Sofia, it would be nice to hear from you about these issues!

Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 22, 2009 at 8:18 AM

    All source code for the systems os and firmware should be made public so anyone with the skills required can make improvements if they feel like it. Leaving it up to the official Dingoo devs will most likely result in people getting pissed off and turning their backs on what is a good device despite the lack of real support. They are using software that should be GPL and not even acknowledging the devs responsible for it, and they are closely guarding their own crappy code because it's their "commercial secret". They are making things unnecessarily difficult and unpleasant for everyone, including themselves.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousApril 22, 2009 at 9:26 AM

    What has already been suggested by other people is more likely IMHO: They simply do not have access to the firmware, because it was made by someone else. The "commercial secret" is therefore be merely an excuse, for the fact that tehy don't even know whether the thing runs on MicroCO/S II, Linux, custom OS or something else.

    It makes me even wonder whether they really had any programmers working on the dingoo at all.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousApril 22, 2009 at 9:35 AM

    It seems like they must know something about it if they made the 7 days game. Also, while I agree with the sentiment..I don't think it will help. Saying negative things will reduce sales and ultimately drive the Dingoo to assured failure. Which means definitely no progress in homebrew for those of us that already have one.

    If everyone starts bashing we will be looking at the same "scene" as jxd 301..which is nothing basically. Not that there is much proven growth for Dingoo as of yet, but at least there is still talk.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousApril 22, 2009 at 10:05 AM

    I think we should be as honest as possible about the device. Saying negative things should not be a problem unless it isn't the truth. If it ultimately reduces the sales of the unit, then whose fault is it? Dingoo needs to be more supportive of the machine because being secretive and hiding information only makes them look bad. It's nice that they've actually come out and answered a few of the communities questions, but that talk really doesn't mean much in the end unless they do something about it. Also, the consumers have a right to know about the problems of the device before they purchase it. This device has potential, but they themselves are holding it back.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousApril 22, 2009 at 10:16 AM

    I'm not saying it isn't Dingoo's own fault. I'm just saying that ultimately bad sales of the unit at this point is bad for all of us.

    I would love to see some talk from independent developers about what things they may be working on. As it stands there haven't been any big developments and that itself is discouraging.

    Since the device supports flash, there should at least be a huge library of those kind of games that simply need button remapping to work just fine on it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. NatroxApril 22, 2009 at 1:41 PM

    The firmware is openable with a HEX editor and even extractable. Couldn't it be possible that some people tried to fix it on their own? If the problem lies within the firmware, this may be possible, not?

    I looked into it myself, but I could not find anything that references to the A/B/X/Y buttons.

    Perhaps someone else?

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousApril 22, 2009 at 2:18 PM

    Well GNX, every file, provided you have read access to it, can be opened in a hex editor ;) The numbers won't make any sense however, if you do not know what they mean in their context.

    Unless you want to decode the instructions and data by hand using reference docs of the CPU part of the Dingoo, you'll have to load it in a disassembler like IDA PRO to make any sense out of the whole thing. That being said, I don't know if IDA currently supports the binary format of the firmware and/or the instruction set used by the dingoo.

    If the problem really lies in the firmware (lets hope it does) then it could be indeed be fixed by tracking down the bug using the dissassembly.

    Unfortunately there aren't many people that have these type of skills and lot of time to spare, but I sincerely hope someone does. I have something similar happing with a DVD player (Proview 858) for which the manufacterer didn't release updates, but other people hacked the firmware into something marvelous.

    The reason you didn't find anything related to the A/B/X/Y buttons, is because those are very likely referred to with a number, something like this: A=0, B=2, X=4, Y=8, etc. not the letter itself.

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousApril 22, 2009 at 2:21 PM

    To complement my post above: I'd would look in hunting the bug myself, but my assembly skills suck. I'm however looking into porting some stuff the dingoo: I have the SDK up and running in VS2008 here.

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousApril 22, 2009 at 5:17 PM

    the chances are pretty good that the coding was outsourced and what they have is too confusing for them to figure out so they just used it.

    ReplyDelete
  10. NatroxApril 22, 2009 at 9:58 PM

    When I snooped around in the file, the code was pretty much possible to read. I believe there is a HXF binary template for 010 editor somewhere.

    ReplyDelete
  11. AnonymousApril 23, 2009 at 5:02 AM

    What do you mean by pretty much possible to read? Just hexadecimal numbers are useless and the ascii representation normally isn't good for anything but reading literal strings.

    ReplyDelete
  12. AnonymousApril 23, 2009 at 5:47 AM

    //--------------------------------------
    //--- 010 Editor v2.1.3 Binary Template
    //
    // File: HXF template
    // Author: mcuelenaere
    // Revision: 0.1
    // Purpose:
    //--------------------------------------


    http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/ChinaChip

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dingoo A380 Review

By -
Image
The nice folk at isharegifts gracefully sent me a sample Dingoo A380 for review. Having declared my pecuniary interest, in truth though, after playing with this new Dingoo, bribery and graft is strictly unnecessary for its promotion.  IMHO, the product does stand on its own merits.  It remains a testament to the original A320, and its rabid, passionate community (hey, that’s us dudes) that even in 2011, some 3 years after the word “Dingoo” became somewhat a part of the English language,  that it still remains the best Dingoo-type device.  This is because it is still the best supported, thanks to Booboo’s original Dingux, and now OpenDingux.  Dingux means access to emulators and software other than those that came with the original A320’s native uCos firmware.  Dingux allows for ports of games like Doom and Duke Nukem.  Dingux is what turned the A320 from a glorified media player into the device we know and love. It’s still necessary to put Dingu...
Read more

Mancala for Dingux released (Mandingoo was released in 1975)

By -
Image
A somewhat new game for Dingux from ZX-81: Dingux-Mancala: A Mancala Game v1.1.0 for Dingoo/Dingux Hi All, Mancala is a board game familly, originated in East Africa. The word "Mancala" came from arabic word "naqalah" that means literaly "To move". Dingux-Mancala is the "Awari" variant, and even if the rule of this game is simple, the complexity can be compared to chess Game. The AI is based on the source code of H. Huseby & G.T. Lines, for their implementation of the classical Minimax algorithm. How to use it ? Everything is in the README.txt file. Sources are included, and this package is under the GNU public license, read COPYING.txt file for more information about it. How to play ? Here is the rules available from awari.cs.vu.nl : Awari is played on a board where each pla...
Read more

Idiot’s Guide to installing Dingux using Windows released

By -
Image
With the release of FAT Dingux, it is now possible to install Dingux using only Windows!  As promised, here is The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Installing Dingux – Using Windoze Edition.  Grab the guide here in PDF , zipped here , or here for HTML . 18 October 2009 Update:   The above links will always contain the latest version of this guide . While the guide was written in July 2009, the technique shown in it remains the same as at the update date shown in green.  However, the guide refers to toddler’s or warped flash’s “local.zip” files, and contains links to these files, which are outdated. The links used to point to the A320 freeforums, until the dastardly Dan deleted them ! Grab the latest version of the critical local.zip file, referred to in the guide here: http://boards.dingoonity.org/index.php/topic,32.msg80.html#msg80
Read more

The Dingoo-Scene JXD S7800B (Rockchip 3188 SoC) Android Gaming Console Review

By -
Image
1. Introduction      Since the introduction of the somewhat venerable Yinlips YDPG18, Android handheld gaming devices have been released pretty much continuously, by any number of Chinese manufacturers.      They’re not released with retrogaming in mind however.  Dedicated Android handhelds with physical controls for the consumption of nostalgic childhood memories are simply not in great demand in China, and accordingly, these devices have never been well supported by their makers, as far as the multitude of little tweaks and twerks that the Western retrogamer demands in the quest for ultimate emulation fidelity are concerned.  The view of China based manufacturers seems to be that the physical controls are an adjunct to the primary function of the device – hey, it’s an Android tablet, what else do you want?  Foremost among such frustrations has been OASS: “ornamental analog stick syndrome”, which sadly afflicts many of the de...
Read more

Tauon PC-1 review

By -
Image
You should give this a chance. It deserves one. Welcome to the Tauon PC-1. A Tauon is an incredibly  geeky sciency thing , as it happens, and has nothing to do with the  Great Eastern Philosopher . You won't find it for sale anywhere other than on Tauon's website , and on ebay so far as I can see,  and then only if you're a regular visitor of the ebay "vintage computer hardware" category.  It won't even turn up on ebay if you search for the product name: "Tauon PC1"  - you'll just stumble upon it one day, when you're looking for a replacement floppy drive, or a C64.  So, what is it? It's a computer in a dinky little case! Hardware wise, it has: Allwinner H3 Quad Core SOC [1ghz to 1.2ghz/1gb RAM/8GB internal NAND storage] SD slot USB slot,  HDMI and composite out Ethernet Wifi UART (send/receive signals through terminal commands) I2C (drivers aren't ready yet, but promised).   Inside the case - y...
Read more

Dingoo representative at a320.freeforums.org !

By -
Sofia, a representative of Dingoo, is now available at http://a320.freeforums.org/ ! This is her post: Hello every one, Good day there! This is Sofia from Shenzhen Dingoo Digital Product Company. Thank you all of you have so much interesting on our Dingoo A320 firstly! And , I'd like to be your friend helping you to know this item well. Our company is really a leading manufacturer of 3D game consolers in China. I guess all of you already knew this ,right? ^_^ Thus, I hope I can do as much as possible to lead you feel easy on A320. Also, I expect to discuss and share with all of you in order to improve my professionality. If , any of you need to buy this for try or wholesale, it will be my greatest honor to service for you ! P.S:My email address is : sofia@dingoo888.com " Have fun ! This is an excellent development! Any other questions for Dingoo? Join the discussion at this thread: http://a320.freeforums.org/hi-let-me-introduce-myself-t15-10.html#p63
Read more

An interview with the creator of the Tauon PC-1, Volodymyr Mishin

By -
I'll bet you don't roll out of bed and think about making your own PC before breakfast.  Even you do, I bet you haven't actually  shipped . Here's someone who has.   I reached out to the creator of the  Tauon PC-1 , Volodymyr Mishyn who kindly took more than a little time to answer some detailed questions about the PC-1, how it came to be, the challenges of a project like this, his future plans for Tauon OS and what is clearly a very personal labour of love.   Many thanks Volodymyr.   Your  news blog  suggests 30 days to prototype, and 6 months to ship! If that is right, it is very impressive, given the technical and logistical activities that had to occur.  Is there more to this story? I was looking for available options before I started the project. I got myself a couple PI (3B, Zero) OrangePi, C-SKY. And tried to build some kind of educational PC for my kid. Unfortunately, the performance was awful, using...
Read more

How to show all your 17,083 c64 games from the c64 romset (archive.org) on the C64 Mini or C64 Maxi loader

By -
Image
Update 4 January 2020: ================================================================== New, much friendlier GUI version released - see this post: https://dingoo-scene.blogspot.com/2020/01/gui-version-of-gadgetmisers-c64-romset.html ================================================================== Hello, friends, it's been awhile.  A happy 2020 to you all. If Santa was kind this year, he may have brought you one of these:   If Santa did, you'll have worked out by now that 64 built-in games, classics though some of them are, is simply  not enough .   Your travels may have led you to this c64 romset:  https://archive.org/details/C64Romset , which contains 17,068 games. If you pop them on a USB stick and slip it into your c64 Maxi/Mini, only the first 256 games will appear.  This is because there is a limit of 256 items per folder that can be displayed on the c64 mini/maxi loader. So you need to split the games into individual ...
Read more