Best for emulation?


Myk

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Hey guys,


Kinda new here and tried searching but the search won't let me use 3 letter searches so couldn't look up my question..


Just wondering what peoples views are on emulation on the pandora. I only want it for emulation but don't know whether to use the pandora or psp. The consoles I'd like to emulate are...


Megadrive, nes, snes, master system, playstation 1, arcade emulation.


Bonus would be SCUMMVM, N64, Dreamcast (probably not possible on anything...).


Anyway, what do you think would be best for this, Pandora? PSP? Just wondering people's views. I've played a PSP before, and I do like them. I'm just wondering how the pandora compares. Desperate to get my hands on my preorder just to see.
 
"Megadrive, nes, snes, master system, playstation 1, arcade emulation."


All of these work perfectly.


" SCUMMVM, N64"


These also work, although the current N64 emulation could still use some work.
 
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Pandora - all day long.


I dont actually have my own Pandora yet but ive seen enough videos to know*.


I did have a PSP though, which i used solely for emus, which i sold a couple years back to add some funds to my Pandora order.


Just check out some of the old videos from ED - I think there is still a sticky post for his 'Pandora One Video A Day' thread - you will see a lot of the emus shown there and you will see just how nice they run.


* Ive not seen enough videos, keep uploading them guys :)
 
Mega Drive:


Runs pretty well on PSP, although does lag from time to time. Sometimes throws garbage graphics and bad audio.


Runs perfect on pandora, never encountered any of those issues.


Nes:


Not much to say, virtually perfect on both.


Snes:


On PSP a good few games slow down, and some have graphical issues (No map on Zelda ALTTP)


On Pandora neither of these are an issue, haven't had an issue so far.


Master System:


Runs perfect on both.


PS1:


PSP has POPSLoader, runs nearly all games with no problem without overclocking. Limited to POPSLoaders settings though, ROMs need to be converted.


Pandora has a high compatibility but a lot will require overclocking (a small amount, 800mhz).


Arcade:


Haven't run into an issue on either.


N64:


Barely runs on psp, a lot more work is needed.


Runs better on Pandora, although still far from perfect.


I've never used SCUMMVM so I can't help there.
 
@iceburn3000- you know when you break it down like that it all comes down to how much you want snes and n64 emulation to be perfect


unfortunately for me... that's a lot haha


while expensive and have to wait in line for years.. the pandora is tits when it comes to retro console emulation
 
Thanks for the replys. I've seen some of the videos for the Pandora and thats what originally made me pre-order.


I just wanted to make sure that I deffinetly had the right device - Which it seems that I certainly do!


Does anyone know if xenogears plays ok on the playstation emulator? The reason that I ask is I got almost to the end of the game on the PSP and then a glitch caused it to crash and be unplayable - If I had realised this before I tried to play it then I wouldnt have bothered and was really disappointed that I couldnt.


Its been a few years since I used a PSP though and didnt know how much the emulation had advanced as to compare it to the pandora.


And Grim Fandango on the pandora would be worth it for me alone! haha
 
I hoenstly cannot wait for this!


I have a thing for the lucas arts games (so much so I actually have a sam and max tattoo haha) and contributed $500 to the Double Fine Kickstarter project even.


I just cant wait to have portable grim fandango - No matter how many times I complete this or monkey island I never get sick of it!
 
Snes:


On Pandora neither of these are an issue, haven't had an issue so far.
SNES needs either overclocking or frameskip for a lot of games, though not that much, to run at full speed (it's not noticeable in most gameplay, but sound becomes a bit off with the slight slowdown). I personally use frameskip; works just fine.

PS1:


Pandora has a high compatibility but a lot will require overclocking (a small amount, 800mhz).
You can also use frameskip for PSX, which I tend to do (it can cause glitches or choppiness potentially, but I find that the slowdown is small enough that it doesn't cause noticeable problems).
 
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I have both a Pandora and a PSP.


Since the Pandora is actually meant for homebrew and emulators, they naturally run a lot better on the Pandora. With the PSP you have to install a custom firmware, then search around for various versions of each emulator to find which one is best for you. After all that, only a few games actually run at full speed, even on emulators like the SNES.


NES and SNES emulation on the Pandora is pretty much perfect. The only game that hasn't run that I've tried so far is Starwing, but good luck trying to get that to run on the PSP.


As for the Playstation 1, the PSP does have pretty much perfect support for that. PS1 games run really well on the PSP - probably because it's using something more powerful than emulation - but you get no CD audio. The Pandora's PSP emulator has a couple of imperfections, and a few games can slow down a bit at some points, but it's pretty much perfect, and you get CD audio and dual analogue sticks as well! :D - The pandora can also emulate the GunCon via the touch screen.


N64 emulation is kinda shit on both devices. All games I tried ran crap. But... if you find a game that works, you get a less awkward control system with the Pandora since there's enough buttons to map all the functions to.


So, in conclusion, definitely go with the Pandora. It may be a bit rough around the edges but it's ultimately worth it in the end. You can do so much more with it!
 
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PSP's PS1 emulation is obviously using the PSP 3D hardware to emulate the GPU. This can improve the graphics, but not really that much since the resolution isn't that high. PSP's GPU hardware maps a lot closer to PS1 than OpenGL ES 2 does, but invariably it's not perfect and there are some glitches that you won't get with Pandora's emulator. In the few games that do run pretty high resolution on the PS1, like 512x224-240 or especially 512x480 or 640x480 Pandora will actually have a resolution advantage. Pandora also has the advantage of having arguably better controls for it, since it can map L2 and R2 to real buttons instead of nubs (usually keys, I would expect, but still a massive improvement), and can map Dual Shock analog sticks to nubs. I think it also has more features.. I'm not aware that Sony's emulator has savestates, but I could be wrong. Or maybe the CFW savestate plugin for PSP games works on it.


Compatibility on PSP's emulator is all around lower because Sony never intended for the emulator to be used standalone on games of the user's choosing, and the games sold on PSN probably have hacks in them to improve compatibility. There are probably also at least some performance disadvantages because PSP is much slower than Pandora. I would say that it working as well as it does is a testament to quality engineering on Sony's part.
 
Wow - Thanks for all the replies!


I didnt realise the pandora was more powerfull than the psp. I really do want the PSone emulation to be as nice as possible as I have so many old games sat about and a lot of free time but I'm not at home so would like to run them portably. The NES and SNES was a bonus as I loved them, and weirdly I prefer the master system over the megadrive - But thats just because I spent more time on my master system when I was young.


I really am excited to get my pandora now though - hopefully ED will be sending my payment request across tonight - And I've just paid for a new case for my pandora from link at ithic.com. I still want the original case mind - this is going to be a piece of history so as much original gear is a plus :D
 
How do games like g-police play like on PSP without dual nubs, games that make full use of both?
 
Nes:


Not much to say, virtually perfect on both.
NES ... on the Pandora is pretty much perfect.

What emulator do you two use ? Did I miss something ? There are "gpFCE-GP2X", "Nesemu" and "mednafen-nes", with "mednafen-nes" beeing the only one without graphical issues, but very unpleasent to use. :(
 
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Xenogears runs a treat. In the early days of my handheld emu time I was also using a PSP running into the bug you mentioned. After the ambush at the village the game would just crash. PSXreARMed does it better than SONY. I just started three days ago and had no problem so far.


SNES works a lot better on the Pandora than it did on my PSP 1.5 back then, but a lot of time has passed since.


I have also used the GBA emu, it seemed to run perfectly on the Pandora.


In my mind the music and effects in scummVM sound great on pandora hw, I thoroughly enjoyed Indy 4 FoA again.


And, looking at your questions, most importantly: Having the option to use a resistive touch screen with precise stylus input surely is the bee's knees for ScummVM games.
 
I agree that Xenogears runs great. I haven't gotten more than a few hours into it though so I can't say if there are any bugs at the end of the game... I only overclocked the Pandora to 650 Mhz, and it actually seemed to run fine on the default 600 Mhz (the extra 50 Mhz made a difference in the battles in Chrono Cross, so I kept it running at that speed).
 
And, looking at your questions, most importantly: Having the option to use a resistive touch screen with precise stylus input surely is the bee's knees for ScummVM games.

not going to derail...but just wanted to note... this is the very first example I've seen of why someone would have a need of a resistive touch over capacitive touch (aside from those that didn't just sound like user preference) gui's and interfaces etc can be changed and optimized by app/theme/os developers to use the advantages of either technology... but roms and emulators... that's another story... you're pretty much not going to change those game interfaces and you need something precise for some of those games that used mice.


sorry... just wanted to say from the perspective of a person who thinks capacitive touch screens are a superior technology, that's a pretty solid argument against it.
 
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