Games On Pandora

[paddy]

Hiya all ...

I would like to know more about what games can be running on pandora through linux
or otherwise ,i had imagined quake3 running full speed so i then thought other windows
based games would also run ,but what i didnt realise was windows x86 games and
programs cant run or if they were to be emulated the speed would be poor.

I dont know alot about linux ,so i am guessing that quake3 has been previously
ported to linux and that is why evil dragon has said as much that quake3 should
be full speed when it has been ported to pandora.


What i would love to know is can the original halflife possibly plus mods and counter strike
be made to run on pandora in the same way quake 2 and quake 3 are ,also games like diablo 2
warcraft 2 and 3 original black and white and others ? does it come down to these games
needing to have been ported over to linux first before they have a chance to run ?

i know this is a big question ,but can some of you guys think of some cool desktop games
that are not DOS that would run fairly well on pandora ,this is a big thing for me as
tho i love emulation ,the older classic pc game from the late 90s and up would be so
amazing to have on a portable device.

peace

 

[Tinnus]

What i would love to know is can the original halflife possibly plus mods and counter strike
be made to run on pandora in the same way quake 2 and quake 3 are ,also games like diablo 2
warcraft 2 and 3 original black and white and others ? does it come down to these games
needing to have been ported over to linux first before they have a chance to run ?

i know this is a big question ,but can some of you guys think of some cool desktop games
that are not DOS that would run fairly well on pandora ,this is a big thing for me as
tho i love emulation ,the older classic pc game from the late 90s and up would be so
amazing to have on a portable device.

peace

No, nothing of that will happen. Only games that could run in the Pandora need to have SOURCE CODE available (if you don't know what that is, just do a quick googling or wikipediaing).

Quake 1-3, Doom, etc had their source codes opened by iD.

 

[greendots]

Some DOS software will work with dosbox ported. Warcraft 1 and 2 may run in dosbox.

There is a half-life like mod for quake 3... Thanks to id, linux (OSS) has many FPS games.

 

[paddy]

so what you are saying is ,no linux cant run halflife or something of that nature unless the source has been released to the public,also if pandora was running a full version of a linux distro ,does this not mean it should be able to do anything linux can do in a desktop or notebook or does the pandora cpu limit this in terms of running winex and other linux programs.

http://lhl.linuxgames.com/

this link refers to halflife running on a linux distro does it not ?
and if it does run on linux and pandora can run linux does this not mean
we CAN play halflife ?

 

[greendots]

Windows is for the x86 platform (CPU architecture). Windows applications are made only for Windows on x86 platform.

Linux is typically run on x86, using a compatibility layer called wine, it can run some Windows software.

Pandora is an ARM platform, so any software that you want to run must be made to run specifically for it.

No, you can not run half-life.

 

[Tom`]

so what you are saying is ,no linux cant run halflife or something of that nature unless the source has been released to the public,also if pandora was running a full version of a linux distro ,does this not mean it should be able to do anything linux can do in a desktop or notebook or does the pandora cpu limit this in terms of running winex and other linux programs.

http://lhl.linuxgames.com/

this link refers to halflife running on a linux distro does it not ?
and if it does run on linux and pandora can run linux does this not mean
we CAN play halflife ?


In this case, Wine/Cedega (formerly WineX) runs Windows software by essentially re-implementing the parts of the Windows OS that software need to run. This still requires the processor to be compatible - since the processor itself is the same on a desktop computer whether Windows or Linux is being run, no software needs to be written to translate the actual instructions sent to the processor, just the ones to the OS. (something of an oversimplification, I suppose, but pretty close.)

Half-Life will not run on the Pandora because the CPU is an ARM CPU, which has its own instruction set that's different than the one used by x86 CPUs. In this case it doesn't have anything to do with Linux.

Now, most software that runs on Linux can probably be ported, since most software that runs on Linux has source code available. However, it has to be ported, which involves both changing the software to run on the ARM CPU and possibly other things, like reducing the memory requirements since the Pandora only has 128 MB, or reducing the screen resolution necessary to run, or making the software work better with the Pandora's controls.

 

[paddy]

Thanks for the info Greendots ,i feel sick now as this was the main reason i wanted to buy a pandora ,i thought when it was stated a full linux distro would be possible with pandora that this meant all the other good things linux can do would also be a possibility and you cant blame anyone for thinking such a thing.

so the pandora will be mostly for emulators ,and i already have a fine
handheld that can do most of my emulation needs at full speed,so i guess im out.


can i ask why i have received this PM from PoisonV ?


(yes, you can. you made ridiculous correlations with not even a fundamental grasp of the basics of computers, integrated electronics, or software. if you ever suspected that it was possible to play closed source, windows only games like half life you really aren't the type of audience the pandora community would want, anyway)


so let me get this ,i need to be right up there when it comes to understanding linux and cpu instructions
and other such things before i get any kind of respect of my views ? and further to that this also means
i am less worthy of buying a pandora ?????? is this true becase this is a sure fire way of alienating people
from buying a device.

not very fair ,i am already gutted about the limited games that i will be able to play
on my pandora, if hmmm i will be allowed to buy one,seeing as this PosionV person
has told me good riddens.

Paddy

 

[VRAndy]

can i ask why i have received this PM from PoisonV ?

Probably because PoisonV is being an ass.
Obviously, you don't need his permission for anything.

Edit : Haha! Now mister PoisonV has PMed me to defend himself and explain that he has the right to be an ass. I wonder why he cares what I think. Funny he didn't do it in public.

QUOTE
i am already gutted about the limited games that i will be able to play
on my pandora,

By this time next year there could be a lot of cool stuff running on the Pandora, but unless Valve does something very unexpected HalfLife won't be one of them.

 

[Mithrildor]

We will be able to run Warcraft II !!!! The Playstation version and the DOS version !!!

 

[Pleng]

can i ask why i have received this PM from PoisonV ?


(yes, you can. you made ridiculous correlations with not even a fundamental grasp of the basics of computers, integrated electronics, or software. if you ever suspected that it was possible to play closed source, windows only games like half life you really aren't the type of audience the pandora community would want, anyway)





That's really lame. Poisoned gets told off for making comments in the forums so he goes into private messaging? What is he, like 12?

Anyway if you want to play mostly Windows games from the 90s then a Pandora probably isn't for you, I'm afraid. You'd be better off with something like an EEE and an external gamepad. You unfortunately then loose out in the portability and battery life departments.

 

[VRAndy]

Haha. Now PoisonedV has registered a new account (goblin22) so that he could send send PMs to me (and others?) after I've blocked PMs from him.

Nice.

 

[Mithrildor]

Are we possible to ewmulate a pocket pc on the Pandora? Then we could play Age of Empires Pocket PC version on it!

 

[Kyo]

Well every forum needs a PoisonedV, and ours is a good one!

Anyway yeah, he has a point, though. Not because the author does not understand much about computers, that's not the problem. The problem is that the author brought up a problem that has been dealt with multiple times in the forum, so while this community will gladly try to answer your questions, you should check if it already has first, by using the search function

I'll explain to you why the pandora won't be able to run these programs in even simpler terms, imagine microsoft porting windows XP or whatever to the pandora, it still would not be able to run the windows programs, because it has a different processor architecture, what that means is that it doesn't matter what the pandora runs, "real" linux distro or not, it's not possible, not even for microsoft itself.

That being said, no the pandora is not just for emulation. The pandora, while having emulation as a huge aspect, is also for linux games (like quake, but also homemade ones), for the use as UMPC (browsing the internet, instant messengers, emails) and for whatever you want it to do. That's the idea behind it, you can choose what you use it for.

 

[Ryzure]

Well every forum needs a PoisonedV, and ours is a good one!

Who Chad78? :lol:

 

[atomicthumbs]

PoisonedV is not a representative of this forum's opinion. That is all.

 

[Kyo]

Well every forum needs a PoisonedV, and ours is a good one!

Who Chad78? :lol:

No, chad is our chad. It's these kind of people that every forum has, chad is the whiny kid and poisonedV is the grumpy old man

Where's chad anyway? Haven't seen him in a while

 

[plopperz]

Haha. Now PoisonedV has registered a new account (goblin22) so that he could send send PMs to me (and others?) after I've blocked PMs from him.

Nice. Is that sort of sock-puppeting even allowed on these forums?

Actually, he probably registered that account because he is fed-up with being banned long after it expired.

 

[paddy]

Hi , thankyou to everyone that replyed i now have a better understanding of the cpu differencies and why it would not be possible
for anything to be run unless the source was free to port,this is where
i got my confusion as i didnt understand that the entire quake 1 2 (3) engine had been made free open source.

I dont know much about linux or the games that run on it but i am looking into this now and realise there are games i have never heard of
that look very good ,they are not windows games so i would imagine
they are natively open source and could then be ported to ARM for pandora if ofcourse the right requirments are met ,mem/gfx.

I have messed with xdsl-xbox linux and im going to get a live disc
of some distro for my laptop and try to get into linux ,so while i wait
for my pandora,wether it be nxt month after my preorder or jan-feb 09
i at least can get into somme of these linux games and play some of
them ,so that will keep be busy for a while i am sure.

I know this aint the place to ask but i shal ask anyway -
any ideas on a good linux build for a noob like me ?

thanks again to everyone for clearing up that crap with Poison ---

 

[Kyo]

ubuntu is good to starters

 

[conso]

There is one additional thing to be mentioned: Most opensource 3D-games are based on openGL1/2, some even on directX. All those games need to be ported to openGL ES 1.1/2 to run on the pandora. While this isn't impossible in any ways, it's still work for advanced programmers, so it will take some time, till you see a big repo of 3d-games for P. Still, the possibilities are awesome.

If you want a good overview of good open-source-games for linux, take a look at the blog and wiki of freegamer.blogspot.com. It's an awesome resource of information.

You can also visit happypenguin.org, browse the categories and if a game seems interesting to you, just look in the details, if the source is available. If it isn't, you can still mail the devs about the pandora and see, if they have interest in porting.