General Questions About Emulation On The Pandora

[Dodle]

I am new to the forum and have a few questions about Pandora and emulation. I am interested in purchasing one if it can do what I want.

Here is a little background for my questions: I have been a fan of the Final Fantasy series since 1997, and since have collected all of the games for the platforms that I own (PSX, PS2). I have collected all of the re-releases (1-6) that were made available for the PSX. The only game in the series that was not released for the PSX/PS2 was Final Fantasy 4. When I heard that it was a DS exclusive title, I was really upset. I didn't want to buy another system so that I could play 1 or 2 games. Also, there was another title the was released exclusively for the PSP that I would have liked to play: Crisis Core. Now another, Dissidia Final Fantasy (which will probably be the last FF game that I play), has been released. So no, I don't want to pay $300-$400 dollars for two new systems that may or may not be able to play future releases. I have been making the switch to PC gaming and have therefore adopted emulation. Also, my PSX has started acting funny, and I am sure that my PS2 won't last forever. So that is another reason that I am all for emulating systems; when (not if) my hardware breaks down, I can still play my games on an emulator. I am all for doing things legally, so I'll buy their $20 (greatest hits/platinum hits/whatever), but I just want one system.

So here are my questions; I see a lot of talk about NintendoDS, Nintendo64 & Sony Playstation, that is good, but I haven't heard anything about PSP emulation. Is there a future for it on the Pandora? As far as I have found, there aren't any well-developed PSP emulators yet. Also, how good is the DS emulation on the Pandora? I used a couple of emulators on my PC, but neither ran at full speed.

 

[fischju2000]

First, have you tried the latest No$GBA DS emulator? Is has very good compatibility and runs (dare I say) most games.

There is no DS emulator currently being developed for the Pandora that we know of, a port of the open source emulator for PC running at maybe 10% normal speed is all we can expect at launch. It could be done eventually however. JayFoxRox is developing a PSP emulator for the Pandora, you can see all of the related posts in his blog: http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/blog/37-pandora-psp/- It's a very early WIP as you can see. Commercial games may eventually be possible.

 

[second exodous]

Oh man, you're going to be ripped apart. PSP is coming along, depends on who you ask, ask someone that's working on one and they say likely but ask someone who isn't and they rip you a new one and tell you how impossible it is.

DS, I just don't think so because of the configuration of the two screens, Nintendo was genius when they came up with that anti-emulator scheme. Just get a acekard or something like that for your DS.

But you're about to hear this a zillion times 'use the search'. I'm too lazy, I guess I'm just as bad as you for not using it to answer your question.

 

[lulzfish]

I am new to the forum and have a few questions about Pandora and emulation. I am interested in purchasing one if it can do what I want.

blah blah blah

So here are my questions; I see a lot of talk about NintendoDS, Nintendo64 & Sony Playstation, that is good, but I haven't heard anything about PSP emulation. Is there a future for it on the Pandora? As far as I have found, there aren't any well-developed PSP emulators yet. Also, how good is the DS emulation on the Pandora? I used a couple of emulators on my PC, but neither ran at full speed.

NDS is not happening at all yet, N64 is work-in-progress, Playstation 1 is working near perfectly.
PSP emulation is not happening, but one guy is working on it off and on.

Please read the information threads and "ask your questions here" thread, as these questions have been asked and answered countless times on the first fucking page of this very forum.

 

[JayFoxRox]

I'm working on a PSP Emulator which is doing good progress these days.
You might never get the chance to emulate crisis core in a good way in the next years tho. And if you do, its probably slow until the emulator is highly optimized (and we don't even know the performance then).

If you want to emulate PS2 etc anyway, just stick to PSPPlayer and JCPSP instead of waiting for the Pandora to emulate PSP. DS is not going to happen that soon neither I think.
There won't be any good PSP / DS Emulator on Pandora before a PC emulator probably.

 

[second exodous]

. . .questions have been asked and answered countless times on the first f*ing page of this very forum.

Wow, this forum doesn't have a language filter? I kinda edited the quote, made my own filter. What did I say, don't ask questions before searching.

 

[Dodle]

First, have you tried the latest No$GBA DS emulator? Is has very good compatibility and runs (dare I say) most games.

I have used No$GBA on my PC and was very impressed. But I think that I need to upgrade my hardware to run it at %100.

Oh man, you're going to be ripped apart...

...

But you're about to hear this a zillion times 'use the search'. I'm too lazy, I guess I'm just as bad as you for not using it to answer your question.

Meh, I'm used to being "ripped apart". Unfortunately, my searches didn't reveal what I was searching for: I didn't find anything in the forums about PSP emulation, and apparently I mis-interpreted what I found about DS emulation from this thread: http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/50262-nintendo-ds-emulation-on-pandora/. They were going off on the orientation of the screens, and somehow I got to thinking that Pandora DS emulators were further advanced. Thanks for the warnings, I don't really care if anyone thinks I didn't do any searching.

Thanks for the answers everyone, very helpful

Edit: I don't know if anyone else is having this problem, but here is what I get when I do a search for "psp" in the forums: No results found for 'psp'.

 

[-Tj-]

Edit: I don't know if anyone else is having this problem, but here is what I get when I do a search for "psp" in the forums: No results found for 'psp'.

The search function here is very picky. Everyone says "use the search" for good reason, but it's not a very good search. Maybe there should be a sticky just on how to use the search. :lol:

I got the same thing for "PSP" but got loads of posts for "PSP Pandora." Go figure.

 

[juniorm33]

Funny thing is they don't read the "Read First" Sticky or whatever it's called.
So no chance on a sticky about search.
There was even a post "Will <insert name here> work on Pandora" on the first page which wasn't used.

 

[bzar]

How about a sticky called:

Do not start new topics!
Before reading this one

I think people might read it more than "Read First" because of the wording.

 

[Paradox]

I'm working on a PSP Emulator which is doing good progress these days.
You might never get the chance to emulate crisis core in a good way in the next years tho. And if you do, its probably slow until the emulator is highly optimized (and we don't even know the performance then).

If you want to emulate PS2 etc anyway, just stick to PSPPlayer and JCPSP instead of waiting for the Pandora to emulate PSP. DS is not going to happen that soon neither I think.
There won't be any good PSP / DS Emulator on Pandora before a PC emulator probably.

damn, and here I was hoping PSP emulation was further along.. so we've got no DS, no PSP, N64 isn't going to be able to play games like Starfox, what's next, news that Dreamcast emulation has hit a wall aswell? I didn't buy the Pandora just to get a different looking GP2X that has PSX emulation..

 

[fiori_musicali]

How about a sticky called:

Do not start new topics!
Before reading this one

I think people might read it more than "Read First" because of the wording.

Excellent idea. People should stop littering the forum. Just lock these threads with a short explanation.

 

[Prometheus]

Edit: I don't know if anyone else is having this problem, but here is what I get when I do a search for "psp" in the forums: No results found for 'psp'.

Your best bet here is to go to Google, and use the following syntax;

site:gp32x.de/board "your search terms"

Hope this helps.

N64 isn't going to be able to play games like Starfox

This is from page three of "Mupen64 Will It Have...";

EDIT: While I'm here... Ari64, I hope you don't mind me asking, but does Star Fox 64 run ok, by any chance?

Starfox 64 is one of the better running games. Currently the training mission is about 12-15 fps@500mhz and 20-25 fps@850mhz with no frameskip. Games without many textures seem to have the best performance. Its a pity our sgx driver always converts to a swizzled format, i suspect this is a bottleneck for Mario Kart 64.

 

[juniorm33]

damn, and here I was hoping PSP emulation was further along.. so we've got no DS, no PSP, N64 isn't going to be able to play games like Starfox, what's next, news that Dreamcast emulation has hit a wall aswell? I didn't buy the Pandora just to get a different looking GP2X that has PSX emulation..

Maybe you should cancel then, because your out of luck for now :lol:
Luckily I wasn't in it just for the games.
By the sounds of it you would be better off with either something like a wiz/dingoo, or a netbook if you really need to play the more recent emulators on the go.
I'm more than happy with the progress(what ever that may be) being made on the emulators that you mentioned.

 

[Bosbeetle]

Im hoping for some nice native games no need for emulation then!

 

[-Tj-]

Your best bet here is to go to Google, and use the following syntax;

site:gp32x.de/board "your search terms"

Hope this helps.

Problem with that is most people couldn't be bothered to search that way, let alone know about it. Maybe Chip or Tobriand could add some search stuff to the "READ THIS FIRST" sticky post?

 

[juniorm33]

Considering the amount of emulators already running I can't wait for the homebrew stuff myself either.
Although that doesn't mean I would let the dev's working on the new emu's out of the dungeon just yet.

Edit:
Half the time, you don't even need to do a search as it's on the 1st page 2nd at most! :lol:
(Not including the sticky)

 

[Prometheus]

Problem with that is most people couldn't be bothered to search that way, let alone know about it. Maybe Chip or Tobriand could add some search stuff to the "READ THIS FIRST" sticky post?

Well, it took me about three seconds to say how it's done - it's no great effort, at least from my perspective.

 

[juniorm33]

Well, it took me about three seconds to say how it's done - it's no great effort, at least from my perspective.

Glad you've nominated yourself for the job. :lol:
Although I tend to answer, but for the people that are always having to do it for the same topic day in day out, month in month out, I can see why they'd get fed up with it.
I've not been posting long myself and I'm starting to understand the frustration, more so than when I just lurked, popped in and read things.

 

[Exophase]

DS, I just don't think so because of the configuration of the two screens, Nintendo was genius when they came up with that anti-emulator scheme. Just get a acekard or something like that for your DS.

Guess that explains why I like playing DS games on emulators more than my real DS..