A certain rarity...

[Grench]

https://www.fudzilla.com/news/mobile/20402-panasonic-jungle-gaming-console-has-tegra

So - likely an Nvidia Tegra CPU?

 

[AVahne]

@levi
Back? Do you mean that array in the front? If so, it's a micro USB port, and the thing next to it is a micro HDMI port. And ahahah...I'm getting more conflicted on whether I should take it apart. For now I'll just wait til I don't feel so tired and I might at least just take off the bottom.
I've tried holding various key combos before booting and have tried tapping things like ESC and whatnot while booting and nothing really brings up the bootloader :/
My OTG cable is currently missing, so I haven't plugged anything into the micro USB port yet.

@gpb @directive0 @TeDaDeS @CommanderB
Thanks! This is a somewhat depressingly expensive hobby though lol.
Though, I'm not one to really record video and it doesn't help that the One Plus 5T has a terrible camera. Though, if I have time I'll record a short one tomorrow.
I don't think there's any kind of key combination for skipping the activation step. Back then I would assume that they would have a dummy server setup for testing.
And wifi DOES indeed work! But despite hanging around this website, I'm not well versed in using Linux, so even something like SSHing and doing a port scan is new to me. I could do it, but that'll have to come tomorrow; much too tired today.

@Grench
It would be damn cool if it had a Tegra 2, though that would put it below the Vita in terms of raw horsepower huh?
Hopefully we can find out the truth soon.




Also:

OpenEmbedded Linux tsunami-ff3 tty1

pana notag-49349c7 tsunami-ff3 tty1

tsunami-ff3 login:



This is the first thing the screen displays when booting, then disappears after a couple seconds before booting into that activation thing.

 

[pmprog]

I've tried taking photos of that screen, but my 5T is slow to focus.

Easiest way to overcome this - record it as a video. You can always pause frames

 

[pengo]

Whoa! Didn't know there would be anyone out there with an actual Jungle and to remember about it!

Thank you very much for the pictures and history.

Amazing unit and beautiful collection!

 

[EvilDragon]

Whooot... Didn't think prototypes existed!
I always thought it was still in concept stage!
That's a nice collectors item!

Sent from my Moto Z using Tapatalk

 

[AVahne]

Whooot... Didn't think prototypes existed!
I always thought it was still in concept stage!
That's a nice collectors item!

Sent from my Moto Z using Tapatalk

I saw a photo, a small one, where a guy was holding one up and it looked like the screen was powered on, so i kept holding out hope that at least one prototype existed and that it wasn't destroyed... And well, here I am now
[doublepost=1529412601,1529412451][/doublepost]

Whoa! Didn't know there would be anyone out there with an actual Jungle and to remember about it!

Thank you very much for the pictures and history.

Amazing unit and beautiful collection!

Thanks! Now I just need a Pyra...

 

[Grench]

Whooot... Didn't think prototypes existed!
I always thought it was still in concept stage!
That's a nice collectors item!

Sent from my Moto Z using Tapatalk

And a seemingly operational near 100% production prototype at that.

Back in the day there was a lot of hubbub about how the Jungle was going to be the device that allowed mobile MMORPG playing. However, the release titles were less than stellar choices.

I have the odd suspicion that some exec at Panasonic asked, "Does it play World of Warcraft?", got a "No, but..." and canceled it.

Very interesting bit of handheld device history - and handheld gaming history. The people on this forum could start a virtual museum on that topic. I'm betting my Tapwave Zodiac 2 will still power on enough to show off, but that is far more common than this Jungle. The Jungle is likely one of only dozens produced.

 

[TeDaDeS]

@levi
I don't think there's any kind of key combination for skipping the activation step. Back then I would assume that they would have a dummy server setup for testing.
And wifi DOES indeed work! But despite hanging around this website, I'm not well versed in using Linux, so even something like SSHing and doing a port scan is new to me. I could do it, but that'll have to come tomorrow; much too tired today.

-this is probably not easy enough-
If there is a dummy server you could probably see by introducing a proxy server or wireshark-session to the wifi connection. With a http-proxy you can setup a dummy server yourself and maybe fake the activation server.
I would assume the server wasn't finished as you see the lorum ipsum text in the client, I would assume the server was is a similar state.

 

[AVahne]

And a seemingly operational near 100% production prototype at that.

Back in the day there was a lot of hubbub about how the Jungle was going to be the device that allowed mobile MMORPG playing. However, the release titles were less than stellar choices.

I have the odd suspicion that some exec at Panasonic asked, "Does it play World of Warcraft?", got a "No, but..." and canceled it.

Very interesting bit of handheld device history - and handheld gaming history. The people on this forum could start a virtual museum on that topic. I'm betting my Tapwave Zodiac 2 will still power on enough to show off, but that is far more common than this Jungle. The Jungle is likely one of only dozens produced.

It is too bad they didn't go through with it. They could've gotten support from mobile MMORPG makers from Korea and even Gameloft with their WoW clone. Nowadays MMORPGs of all kinds are everywhere on mobile, so Panasonic lost their chance to make some kind of name for themselves in this space. Then again, the Jungle is so bulky that only the type of people who bought the Shield would've bought it.

 

[Grench]

Then again, the Jungle is so bulky that only the type of people who bought the Shield would've bought it.

True - and it was nearing production, with a Tegra SoC, right around the time that Nvidia was preparing to launch the Shield... Maybe Nvidia helped the squash it?

 

[NetBLOKS]

Or maybe the NVidia shield is the end-product of the jungle?
Just speculating here.

 

[klapse]

I need a greasemonkey script or something that will filter-out any line containing the word Tapatalk

 

[comradekingu]

Are there any positive takeaways to be had?

 

[Grench]

Are there any positive takeaways to be had?

Other than the general fascination that a forum member got his hands on a unicorn device?

 

[AVahne]

Erm...it's been rather loud in the house as of late so I haven't really had much of an opportunity to make shoot a video without getting any background noise, so I'll have to put that on hold for now. Sorry guys
For now please just make do with these photos of the packaging...which I completely forgot to mention also exists ahahah.........
Also haven't gotten around to seeing if I can SSH into the Jungle or do anything else network related with it, but I have seen everyone's suggestions and will try them out sometime soon. Thank you all
The photos will be added to the original post.

 

[FBnil]

I need a greasemonkey script or something that will filter-out any line containing the word Tapatalk

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/foxreplace/
only for new FF

 

[Nintendo]

Disappointing photos.

 

[NetBLOKS]

Disappointing photos.

It's only disappointing if you expect too much.
So, what was your unmet expectation, so that it may be met by a humble, photo-taking servant?

 

[Jumpman]

WOW, I had never heard of this device until now, and as such, what a killer buy!

To see an item like this, that is so complete, it makes you want to learn more about how it came to be, and how many of these in a similar state made it to the wild so to speak? I would love to learn more about a situation like this, but information is probably next to impossible to discover. Oh well, one of life's mysteries I suppose. LOL This is almost like the SNES/CD combo by Sony/N that was found years ago, as you just never know how or why prototypes like this are found in history, and sadly most of the stories that go with them are lost to time.

This does remind me of years ago when I first started Vectrex collecting, as a copy of Mr. Boston(Vectrex Holy Grail Item), was listed with and actual unit, and was sold for a few hundred, instead of the thousands it should have. All because the person listing it didn't know it was special, and it took an observant buyer to notice it, and win the bid. I had a similar issue happen to me as well, as back during my N-Gage collecting days, I got a rare Virtua Cop preview/press only copy in a similar situation. As it was listed with tons of common games, and I just happened to notice it in the pics some how, and got the set for cheap. Of course that wasn't anything like this, or Mr. Boston for that matter, but it was a cool item to get as I don't believe many had noticed it, if any.

Chris

 

[Nintendo]

how many of these in a similar state made it to the wild so to speak?

Panasonic Jungle...