From GP2X to contemplating Pandora...


ThorC

Member
Joined
Nov 21, 2005
Messages
106
Hey all,

Bit of an old GP2Xer here who used to live on GP32X, got excited about the Pandora many years ago, but decided to hold off pre-ordering as I was happy with my GP2X for the time being so was going to see what happened and then life happened!

Anyway, this Christmas, I remembered my Christmas a good few years ago when I got my GP2X and all the happy memories, tried to dig up my old GP2X and it seems that the battery contacts have died as I can't get it to do anything even with new strong recharagable batteries. That then suddenly got me to check out the Pandora again!

So I've been left with a few questions which I've struggled to find definitive (or at least, in-date) answers on.

1) I'm in the UK. Can I actually buy and receive a Pandora any time soon?

2) There were so many things I loved on my GP2X, which with it being dead are now unplayable. Is there GP2X compatability on the Pandora? I've read about GINGE in the past, but there doesn't seem to be anything recent on it. Is it still maintained/alive? How well does it work? Can I play old classics like Wind and Water? sqdef? Sleuth Slots? gmenu2x!

3) How active and alive is Pandora development these days? From a casual browse, it looks like a lot of the homemade scene has disappeared and the community has moved on? Will the Pandora scene grow or decline? Has it passed it's peak or is it just reaching it?

4) In the good old GP32X days, I loved the gp32x.de home page, with it's pretty screenshots and active developments every day getting me excited for what was coming up for my GP2X. Is there any equivelant for Pandora? GP32X seems sadly dead these days...

Sorry for asking what are probably obvious questions to all of you and for not searching hard enough (I have tried, but I'll be honest, as a newcomer to the Pandora scene, it is a bit confusing)

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to read this :)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
1) From dragonbox.de in stock

2) GINGE exists. I dont know about compatiblity or stuff because I'm not GP2X-knowledgeable. Somebody else can answer this. 

3) There seems to be something like a handful (... 8-25 my guess.. bad guess) of active devs depending on what counts as active. I dont really know whether it will grow or how much. I'm hoping it will grow as we get more devices out there. Supply problems have been resolved only recently (2012).  

4) repo.openpandora.org has recently updated and most downloaded etc

EDIT: Typo fixed. I should have proofread better...
 
Last edited by a moderator:
1) From dragonbox.de in stock

2) GINGE exists. I dont know about compatiblity or stuff because I'm not GP2X-knowledgeable. Somebody else can answer this. 

3) There seems to be something like a handful (... 8-25 my guess.. bad guess) of active devs depending on what counts as active. I dont really know whether it will grow or how much. I'm hoping it will grow as we get more devices out there. Supply problems have been resolved only recently (2012).  

4) repo.opepandora.org has recently updated and most downloaded etc
Theres a typo in number 4: repo.openpandora.org
 
2) There were so many things I loved on my GP2X, which with it being dead are now unplayable. Is there GP2X compatability on the Pandora? I've read about GINGE in the past, but there doesn't seem to be anything recent on it. Is it still maintained/alive? How well does it work? Can I play old classics like Wind and Water? sqdef? Sleuth Slots? gmenu2x!
The Wiz version of Wind and Water is available for the Pandora as a PND and can be downloaded here.   According to comments in this thread, it plays very well.

- Neelix
 
Last edited by a moderator:
All I can say is that with the amount of software available on the Pandora you won't regret getting one.

The sheer volume of titles that can be emulated is overwhelming.

A picture is worth a thousand words so check out ED's you tube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/EvilDragon1717 for an insight into what can be run.
 
Just wanted the great controls to be mentioned, because it is not enough just to be able to run a game on a device.

All these chinese Android-gadgets can run loads of stuff, but their controls suck.

I have got really good gamepads for my PC, but prefer to play most of the stuff on my Pandora by now.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
There may not be a list of thousands of active developers currently, but the ones we have are brilliant.


Also, with the giant catalog of software; even if the scene was dead (it isn't) you would be busy for years on it anyway.
 
Notaz did a great job with Ginge. A lot of GP2X homebrew works pretty good. W+W and Sqdef are working fine. Not sure about Sleuth Slots. 

Most emulators are already ported or have better versions on the Pandora so you don't need the GP2X versions for that. 

Pandora is certainly a great upgrade. Battery life and d-pad are fantastic. Shoulder buttons of the GP2X were better though.  

 
 
Plus there's always Android if you really demand a huge list of devs .
 
A picture is worth a thousand words so check out ED's you tube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/EvilDragon1717 for an insight into what can be run.
What can be run and played properly with these fine controls. :)
 Well I've had no issues with anything on mame which has the most varied controls(trackballs/spinners/wheels etc.)

I don't use consoles as much but PSX stuff runs fine for me.
I've only had issues with three MAME games.

Continental Circus won't even run when clocked at 800...too slow. And I don't clock over 800.

Outrun did not work, either...too slow. But you can use Cannonball to play Outrun. Works great at 800.

Altered Beast doesn't work...and I really wish it would!

Altered Beast does not work on ANY MAME platform out there, except the original version of MAME4ALL - when they released Version 2, Altered Beast quit working, ran slow.

And it never DID work on MAME4ALL Beta, or on PanMAME or on MAME-EX.

Wonder if anyone would be willing to do an "Altered Beast" thing similar to Cannonball?
 
Just tried Altered Beast & both versions on mame4all ran fine for me.

All 3 versions of outrun also ran ok but did quit back to the desktop after exiting.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
 
Nothing special, I did only play through part of level 1 though as it's not my kind of game.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
 
Nothing special, I did only play through part of level 1 though as it's not my kind of game.Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
Would you please disable your "Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2" signature? You can disable it in tapatalk settings.


It is advertising spam on these boards. Thank you.
 
Back
Top