Folks, here's some input I've made about Pandora, unfortunately I haven't use the program myself, and can only really offer stuff which is in Magazines about Pandora and the Review of it (by Pat McDonald in AA47), so if you want to use it or clean it up for a Page about Pandora then please feel free! --CPM User 11:58, 29 August 2010 (CEST)
Pandora as Described from Swift Software is described as:
The Program that takes the lid off your micro
- Write Arcade games - without knowing any assembler!
- Multi-featured sprite designer
- Animated Sprites
- Compile stand-alone programs
- Can compile directly from Protext
- Free games and examples supplied
- Comprehensive Manual
Overview
Just like Swift Software have put it, it was built customary as a tool for people who wanted to write something better than BASIC, without having the byte Assembly language has. This particular package is perhaps one of the earlier ones which allows people to generate Arcade style games, though unlike Sprites Alive came with it's own Language, comparable to something you'd find in BASIC though to be used as a standard alone package. Unsure how advanced Pandora got, I only ever heard about version 1 of the program, some issues relating to that concerned how Sprites would react while moving over one another causing flicker. The software wasn't cheap either - fetching to around £25 on Tape and something like £30 on Disc! In it's defense the package was quite comprehensive (as the features show) and also came with it's own editing package to generate your own programs (so Protext wasn't essentially required).
Stories About Pandora
As with anything which can generate something - a program in this situation, it's always interesting to hear if anyone brought this package and managed to create something from it, so people can get some sort of idea of what it's like to generate programs from it. Obviously it's not going to be something to the standard of Assembly language, though any stories people have about Pandora would make for interesting reading!