PoisonedV
Yeah, I'm a GIRL gamer, what of it?
a usb hub, lollulzfish said:
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Console Wars
- Thread starter marko
- Start date
I've been thinking of this all along myself. They have atari and sega 'classic' setups you can buy in the store with a controller or two, plug them into your tv and power (or the one I saw runs on battery). The downside is there's 10-16 classic games and that's all the box does. I just searched and found http://www.stepmania.com/wiki/USB_Adapters
I have one of these currently for my windows machine to play emulators. The page above reports some users did have them (at least some) working under linux...no reports that it didn't work. (I searched for usb to game ps2 adapter, nothing to do with DDR, that's what popped up) Some of those even already sport 4 ps2 ports to 1 usb connection. Last I checked, there's plenty of options still out there for ps2 game controllers for whatever types of console-ish input devices you might want, depending on how hardcore you are. Not saying this would be as fancy as a bluetooth controller going directly to pandora's bluetooth, but since I'm already cable tethered to the tv's input when I'm doing this, it won't bother me.
Now, I haven't actually done game controllers under linux before, to be fair to everyone and myself there's no guarantee this will work (as probably most of the 'extra' things we're thinking of trying with pandora). But after seeing these sega and atari retro setups, (I couldn't find the sega one a friend had) http://www.amazon.com/Atari-26519-Flashback-2....
I figured I would be plugging in some usb controllers and hooking the pandora up to the tv for some classic gaming with friends (and then take it with me on the go)
Edit: I got my psx to usb adapter out (looks like the super dual box in the above link, with a HVG2 label) and got it running in linux with zsnes. Very simple, 2 controllers to 1 usb port. I think 4+ player games won't be a problem on the tv.
I have one of these currently for my windows machine to play emulators. The page above reports some users did have them (at least some) working under linux...no reports that it didn't work. (I searched for usb to game ps2 adapter, nothing to do with DDR, that's what popped up) Some of those even already sport 4 ps2 ports to 1 usb connection. Last I checked, there's plenty of options still out there for ps2 game controllers for whatever types of console-ish input devices you might want, depending on how hardcore you are. Not saying this would be as fancy as a bluetooth controller going directly to pandora's bluetooth, but since I'm already cable tethered to the tv's input when I'm doing this, it won't bother me.
Now, I haven't actually done game controllers under linux before, to be fair to everyone and myself there's no guarantee this will work (as probably most of the 'extra' things we're thinking of trying with pandora). But after seeing these sega and atari retro setups, (I couldn't find the sega one a friend had) http://www.amazon.com/Atari-26519-Flashback-2....
I figured I would be plugging in some usb controllers and hooking the pandora up to the tv for some classic gaming with friends (and then take it with me on the go)
Edit: I got my psx to usb adapter out (looks like the super dual box in the above link, with a HVG2 label) and got it running in linux with zsnes. Very simple, 2 controllers to 1 usb port. I think 4+ player games won't be a problem on the tv.
White Demon
Sandy Wich's Boy
I could plug 10 USB controllers into my PC if I wanted to, without even needing a hub.
conso
Active Member
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- 758
add a pci-socket and a proper case and you have actually two markets:
1. vdr-entusiasts that search for a payable, low-power, relativly small and nice looking base for their htpc
2. pandora users that want a modified version of the pandora for home usage.
1. vdr-entusiasts that search for a payable, low-power, relativly small and nice looking base for their htpc
2. pandora users that want a modified version of the pandora for home usage.
Er... (blink, blink)--wha? That's just a Linux PC. I mean, seriously--I have one for a DVR, with a homemade arcade console (two arcade-style controls, player 3 and 4 can use wireless gamepads, plus trackball and spinner for games like missile command/tempest or some "gun" shooters). Runs Stella, NES, PS1, all MAME games, etc, plus plenty of open-source games, plus acts as my DVR, movie playback, music jukebox, etc. No one's going to make a point of releasing something like that because you can build it with off-the-shelf parts and there's no profit to be made. With a mini-itx board and a good case you could have a very pretty box if you don't like the large rackmount ATX case I use...joa said:
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torpor
hack hack hack, the little machines fight back
.. overlooking of course, the fact that the Beagleboard has huge software problems that prevent it from actually, you know, being *used* like a console, today: no 3D Graphics drivers, very difficult system to set up for development that will exploit all the hardware (sure you can 'just use SDL', but then whats the DSP good for.. the PVR.. etc.)Svartalf said:
Please don't forget: the last 5% of the Beagleboard project is yet to be done, and until it is done, the Beagleboard is for developers only. There is no way someone is sitting there playing games happily on BB without having spent a week or two at least, setting it up with a custom build configuration and distribution and apps and so on ..
(And, damnit, if someone has done this and gotten MAME at least to work properly, SHARE YOUR IMAGES, curse you!)
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marko
Still Fresh
How much does it cost in time and hard cash to build and configure a linux pc like that?
Probably a lot less than you'd think. My parents bought a new computer for $400 that can handle most of that. Granted it's not a small form factor machine, but it's not going to be that much more expensive to do it as an itx machine. And it isn't running Linux, but making it run Linux isn't really that much trouble.Marko said:
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torpor said:
AFAIK the 3D graphics drivers are the same for both pandora and the beagleboard, so as soon as one is ready the other will be very soon.
Please don't forget: the last 5% of the Beagleboard project is yet to be done, and until it is done, the Beagleboard is for developers only. There is no way someone is sitting there playing games happily on BB without having spent a week or two at least, setting it up with a custom build configuration and distribution and apps and so on ..I wonder how hard will it be to build the pandora system for the beagleboard: that would solve some problems and allow to create a console with maximum compatibility (e.g. with games with pxml packaging)
well, it is enought for one person to do it so, and then everybody can build his own non-portable pandora easily
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marko
Still Fresh
hedwards said:
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conso
Active Member
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Marko said:hedwards said:Probably a lot less than you'd think. My parents bought a new computer for $400 that can handle most of that. Granted it's not a small form factor machine, but it's not going to be that much more expensive to do it as an itx machine. And it isn't running Linux, but making it run Linux isn't really that much trouble.Marko said:
Cool. I really need to spend time trying to come up with something as I feel that my 360 and PS3 don't really fill all the needs I want. I do have an old Xbox that I may be able to something with but again it's a bit of monster.
I suppose I'm just being lazy and should really consider this myself but I don't really have much know how with linux and hacking together a custom system.....might ask Ben Heck!!
Well, everybody in my family, excapt me
For my parents, i just bought a mini-pc with an amd64, put in a skystar2 hd, installed easyvdr and ubuntu in dualboot and well, it works great. If they want to use ubuntu, they have to choose it with a combined bluetooth keyboard/trackball, but to make use of a desktop distribution, they need this thing anyway. otherwise easyvdr is directly booted into vdr and gives the joy of a perfect hdtv-hdd-dvd-recorder.
Costs: mini-pc 200€, skystar2 hd 100 €
Only thing i might change in the future is replacing the 250 gb hdd with a bigger one, will see.
All recievers are connected over lan, so if we want to burn a recording to a dvd, it's just moved to the recording-dir on the mini-pc.
About retro gaming: yes that's all possible with a mini-pc. As far as I know, mandriva is the distribution of choice for linux gaming and should give you some good tutorials about how to set up mame with wahcade and all that. joypad-adapters and usb-input devices 99% just work on linux.
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marko
Still Fresh
Fantastic. Need to put a shopping list together. Didn't really know such stuff existed.
CyruzDraxs
Member
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- 37
It's pretty easy actually. Just use C and SDL. The last time I checked it was easier to develop for than the PSP.fiveseven said:
Also, I think making an open source console just wouldn't be a very good idea. Maybe if it was just a mini x86 computer, but I think it'd be better to just focus on making a gaming-dedicated linux distro and sell it on an eeebox or something like that. If it's dedicated to gaming there is probably quite a bit of significant components that could be removed for efficiency or stripped down somewhat, like the file manager.
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Svartalf
Active Member
Excuse me... The 3D and DSP drivers got released just recently. And not just for Pandora.torpor said:
What Beagle does, we can do and vice versa- and they're showing DSP based video playback and 3D support amongst other things.
QUOTE
Please don't forget: the last 5% of the Beagleboard project is yet to be done, and until it is done, the Beagleboard is for developers only. There is no way someone is sitting there playing games happily on BB without having spent a week or two at least, setting it up with a custom build configuration and distribution and apps and so on ..
Considering that we're doing that last 5% ourselves here...
Really... Why are you posting in THIS particular forum then?CyruzDraxs said:
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Svartalf
Active Member
It's not in the size that matters, it's what it can do. If you apply the same premise that you're trying to apply here, the Wii isn't a console.Phawx said:
Performance-wise, it's probably shy of a Wii, but it's definitely weighing in as a console class device that fits in the palm of your hand.
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lulzfish
Pandora Defense Squad
Open-source handhelds are a great idea because there's almost nothing in the handheld market, and even less nothing that's easy to program.
A full console is basically just a PC. It would hardly make a difference, unless a lot of really good games are developed for it. [Which could be easily ported to a PC]
The Pandora's really not a game console, it's a portable personal computer, and it's awesome because nobody's ever done portable computing this way before. Desktop-like systems HAVE been done before. So much so that you can build your own from Newegg parts.
A full console is basically just a PC. It would hardly make a difference, unless a lot of really good games are developed for it. [Which could be easily ported to a PC]
The Pandora's really not a game console, it's a portable personal computer, and it's awesome because nobody's ever done portable computing this way before. Desktop-like systems HAVE been done before. So much so that you can build your own from Newegg parts.
