12 Packages, 207Kg.

[Shaun]

I hope the emulator will handle full-motion video well. Because the best moments from the Final Fantasy titles incorporate the videos in the gameplay.

 

[Wolfsclaw]

What's with the May 3rd timestamp on this? Am i in a timewarp?

Peace n Blue Dream

Link

^ This, that was kind of confusing for me as well.

 

[NickLoTurco]

This is great! So if the emulators are going to be installed already, there will be no need to set them up like on the GP2X? To set them up on my F-200, you had to insert files here there and everywhere to get them to work (which was quite fun actually!).......so we're saying all we have to do is add the roms to the relevant folder within the emulator and we'll be ready to go? Fantastic!

 

[andyB911]

This is great! So if the emulators are going to be installed already, there will be no need to set them up like on the GP2X? To set them up on my F-200, you had to insert files here there and everywhere to get them to work (which was quite fun actually!).......so we're saying all we have to do is add the roms to the relevant folder within the emulator and we'll be ready to go? Fantastic!

I doubt the emulators will be pre-installed, but rather will be easy to download, install and run via pnd files. For legal reasons supplying with an emulator is courting a law court appearance.

But this is great news. So we can pencil in a trip to our favourite garden centre end of next week

 

[Asiyura]

Like it has been told countless of times, app will be packaged as PND files, that will be automagically discovered by the OS.
Most of time, all you have to do is put those PND files on a SD card, then put that SD in your pandora and voilà!
Some emu will ask for a BIOS of some kind, but IIRC there are help files that will explain you where to put it.

And there will be an appstore released when the pandora will be shipped, so all you'll have to do is startup your pandora, configure your wifi, lauch the appstore, select the games (pandora panic, pandjoust, ...), apps, emu (stella, uae4all, ...) you want.

 

[JayFoxRox]

andyB911: Supplying the emulator is completly legal. However, distributing the necessary bios / firmware / os and games is usually not. So, if the emulator implements its own bios (often done in HLE projects) its fine, otherwise you have to look for the bios yourself.
- Under any circumstances you would still have to get copyrighted games yourself.

 

[torpor]

There are legal emu's, also, by the way, where you can distribute the boot ROM *and* free/public/abandoned app roms and so on ..

I know for sure that I will be able to bundle Oricutron into a .PND file and distribute it legally, and there are others too.

We ought to start a "totally ready to go and fully legal emulator collection with real roms and thus instant gratification" section in the appstore, in my opinion.

 

[barnesy]

I've still not quite understood where ROMs go in the PND system. Do they count as appdata or are emulators expected to have a ROM path in their config so the ROMs just go wherever you want? That seems better when there's more than one emulator for a system. Or maybe both methods are likely? I guess it'll be a lot simpler once we actually get to see it in action. Can't wait! (well OK, I'm having to)

 

[Pleng]

Most will look in appdata by default I should guess.

But also most will allow you to configure your own default path. So there's no reason you couldn't have AwsoSNES and WondoSNES both look in appdata/WondoSNES for their ROMS

 

[Kangal]

For legal reasons supplying with an emulator is courting a law court appearance.

I see your point, but get sued on what grounds???
If they did come pre-installed:
The emulators were made by devs, so no copyright infringement
Emulator is just a piece of program, the ROMS are the illegal sections
If Emulators are illegal why is their no talk of legal action against such devs (eg Exophase=he did PSX for Zaurus B) , Zodtt=many works etc)

On a side note, in OPT's shoes I wouldn't include any emulators to be on the safe side.
Maybe I will as a big F*** UU!!! to corporate world, I don't know, must drink over it!

 

[gosse]

The volcano's at it again

 

[JayFoxRox]

Kangal: When I started to work on my PSP Emu I read up on the topic and you are wrong. There have been legal actions in some countries against the emulator developers in the past as reverse engineering is forbidden in some countries (I think the Bleemcast! devs also had problems with this - but not sure). However, distributing the final emulator is not a problem anymore (unless some code is "patented" or you want to include copyrighted material [famous examples: most bios and games]).

 

[Aninhumer]

I think some of the issues, particularly with PSX emulators, was because they were distributing the BIOS roms?

Nonetheless, OpenPandora should certainly not ship with emulators.
It's just asking for trouble, even if it is legal.

 

[Zotty]

That is just silly. It is legal, so no point in not including emulators. That's just what they (the ROM companies) want and they do this by spreading fear onto everyone letting people think it illegal. Well I for one am sick and tired of those practices. If it's included it saves me time downloading the emulators because they come pre-installed. Being able to use the Pandora out of the box would be great and I'm not silently letting those 'criminals' spoil my fun once again.

Completely offtopic, but you have to speak up somewhere

 

[juniorm33]

And taking up space with emu's that may or may not be wanted. Creating a bizarre base firmware.
Especially as it will be easy to download and use them.

 

[WizardStan]

That is just silly. It is legal, so no point in not including emulators. That's just what they (the ROM companies) want and they do this by spreading fear onto everyone letting people think it illegal.

Actually, they do it by suing developers, even if nothing illegal has actually happened. If OPT included a PSX emulator with it, and Sony found out, they could just have their lawyers draw up some fancy documents, and stop OPT from producing anymore while it goes to court. Even if OPT won and proved they were doing nothing wrong, it would still take months or even years, during which time they wouldn't be able to sell any Pandoras. Sony would get their way anyway.
Just don't tempt fate. Emulators should be easy enough to download.

 

[Zotty]

@Na-Noo
You've got a valid point there. All emulators bundled together, how much space would that take (rough estimate)?

@WizardStan
You're right, no questioning that. I was more thinking along the lines of public opinion. If the news reports reports something's illegal long enough (even if it's not, but news media usually have no clue at all what they're talking about and just quote some 'expert'), people will start to believe it's true. Once this happens the Sony's of this world (incl movie/music business) can get away with insane actions/lawsuits without many people objecting against how outrageous some of their actions actually are. Unfortunatly we've already crossed this line.

Anyhow, back on topic... must not get my hopes up until things are actually up in the air en route to the UK :rolleyes:

 

[paulguy]

Yeah, I'd just say keep he pandora base firmware relatively light. Getting emulators and shit off the app store would really just be a matter of a couple minutes if it's well designed, which I'm sure it is.

 

[Aninhumer]

It's kind of silly anyway, since to be able to use the "out of the box" emulators you still need to go and download some ROMs.
EDIT: By which of course I mean legally rip them from your carts.

Installing any emulators you want will already be as easy as possible thanks to the PND system, and hopefully the "appstore".

 

[Loonie]

The law favors the side with the best lawyers and the most money.