I May Pick One Up Because...

[Vince2501]

I had the F200 for a while, but I wasn't terribly impressed. Some emulators were better then others, getting Neo Geo games and Dracula X to run without problems was a big pain in the ass. The lack of a web browser, and the incredibly bad battery life all but killed it for me. I take a look at the PSP, some parts of it I like, but hacking it seems like a big hassle, then I have to worry about firmware updates and expensive/limited Sony memory cards.

So, it seems that I will be getting paid a lot more with my next job in the coming months, and I've been considering the Pandora. My reasons are:

Near-perfect emulation of all the classics up into the PSX. No more guessing games to over clock, pick the right bios, and hack into the rom and switch the pallette and files to get Metal Slug 3 full speed with blood.

GPS. I know, I need a Blue Tooth device to do so. But if someone were to develop this on the day of launch, I would pick it up. For my new job this will come more then handy.

Fast web browsing, probably better then the PSP and DS.

Quake 3 and it's many modifications... and don't forget new indie games that use the engine.

10 Hour battery life. Nice.

 

[Pickle]

GPS. I know, I need a Blue Tooth device to do so. But if someone were to develop this on the day of launch, I would pick it up. For my new job this will come more then handy.

It may have BT.

A lot your experiences/frustrations with other devices are one reason why Pandora is being started. Its a hardware developed by gamers with input from the community.

 

[gaterooze]

No more guessing games to over clock, pick the right bios, and hack into the rom and switch the pallette and files to get Metal Slug 3 full speed with blood.

It will surely be full speed, but you may still need to do the bios and filename stuff to make sure the rom is compatible. Regardless, "correct" versions of the rom will pop up being shared by users just as they did on GP2X.

QUOTE
Fast web browsing, probably better then the PSP and DS.


Almost certainly -- and having touch screen plus a large screen should make the interface superior to either, plus keyboard for messages etc.

 

[Vince2501]

So long as I can take that 70 MB rom of Metal Slug 3 off of popularromsite.net/com and stick it on the sd card with the bios and it will run. I'll be satisfied.

 

[Exophase]

Pandora isn't going to magically make bad ROMs/rips start working and it isn't going to necessarily produce a higher quality grade of software than what is available for GP2X (but it might anyway). At any rate, blaming F200 hardware because of having these kinds of problems with ROMs sounds kind of silly to me.

 

[azmodean]

GPS. I know, I need a Blue Tooth device to do so. But if someone were to develop this on the day of launch, I would pick it up. For my new job this will come more then handy.

THIS IS SPECULATIVE!
I'm hoping (wishing?) that you will be able to make the Pandora a GPS device with the addition of a SDIO GPS receiver, I've seen them online for as low as $75.

Basis of this:
FACT: 2 SD ports (one for drive, so leaves one free for SDIO if supported)
HEARSAY: SDIO support? (I've seen people saying it has it, but I don't know if they know what they are talking about, haven't seen any "official" statement that it will be supported)
FACT, but with a missing link: the linux kernel has SDIO support as of version 2.6.24, but don't know if Pandora will use this kernel (including support for GPS devices that use the "standard" interface, whatever that means)
[/SPECULATIVE]

I'll be getting one for:
Better movie playback
Better design
keyboard
wifi
more recent emulator support
porting my gp2x apps (2) to a new platform

 

[Exophase]

HEARSAY: SDIO support? (I've seen people saying it has it, but I don't know if they know what they are talking about, haven't seen any "official" statement that it will be supported)

MWeston and Squidge have both confirmed that the hardware supports SDIO.

 

[Vince2501]

Pandora isn't going to magically make bad ROMs/rips start working and it isn't going to necessarily produce a higher quality grade of software than what is available for GP2X (but it might anyway). At any rate, blaming F200 hardware because of having these kinds of problems with ROMs sounds kind of silly to me.

You seem to misunderstand, and I don't care for the sarcastic reply. I mean, I can take a good rom file (one that say, works perfectly with MAME or whatever else) and place that file in whatever emulator with the proper bios. Without anything else, such as hacking the file, splitting it up, etc. And it shall work.

 

[ldesnogu]

You seem to misunderstand, and I don't care for the sarcastic reply. I mean, I can take a good rom file (one that say, works perfectly with MAME or whatever else) and place that file in whatever emulator with the proper bios. Without anything else, such as hacking the file, splitting it up, etc. And it shall work.

You are wrong, because many ROMs have been dumped multiple times, and have had, for instance, color proms added, and so on.
So many ROMs that work with current MAME won't work with Franxis' MAME even if the game is supported; and vice versa; why do you think there are dedicated gp2x MAME bittorrents?

 

[Prophet]

You seem to misunderstand, and I don't care for the sarcastic reply. I mean, I can take a good rom file (one that say, works perfectly with MAME or whatever else) and place that file in whatever emulator with the proper bios. Without anything else, such as hacking the file, splitting it up, etc. And it shall work.

It's not that simple though. Pandora's emulators may or may not be any "better" in this regard, because MAME ROM sets are constantly evolving. Unfortunately many users don't understand or care WHY this happens, but it's for a good reason - accuracy and documentation. MAME's primary interest is not pleasing gamers - and believe it or not, that's a good thing.

Anyway... the real point is that to a degree you have to take more responsibility if you're going to use these sorts of programs. Once you understand how/why certain things work or not, and do the basic research on where and how to obtain things... it all becomes very easy.

 

[Exophase]

You seem to misunderstand, and I don't care for the sarcastic reply. I mean, I can take a good rom file (one that say, works perfectly with MAME or whatever else) and place that file in whatever emulator with the proper bios. Without anything else, such as hacking the file, splitting it up, etc. And it shall work.

And I don't really care for you saying I'm being sarcastic when I'm not. What you're describing is a software issue (if it can even be called that) and not something that will be fixed just by having faster or better hardware. Furthermore, you can't automatically expect an emulator to support the same ROM formats as another one every time. These games were not written as ROM files, these are artificial formats and sometimes there will be multiple ones (and sometimes it's not trivial to support all of them).

It seems as if people really take playing ROMs for granted these days. It's one thing to automatically think you're entitled to them, but it's another thing to demand that you never have to do any work to get them working.

 

[gaterooze]

I remember the earliest days of rom files (Super Wild Card FTW) when you had to hex edit headers to make them work on certain devices...

 

[Vince2501]

Ignoring the spilt milk:

Would it be possible to attach a camera onto the device through the USB port and take pictures and also use as a webcam?

 

[Cheezer]

It seems as if people really take playing ROMs for granted these days. It's one thing to automatically think you're entitled to them, but it's another thing to demand that you never have to do any work to get them working.

I, for one, don't take it for granted. I think the work you do on emulators is pure magic and I am amazed whenever I load up a ROM in an emulator and can play a game on hardware which the ROM itself was never designed for. I still cannot believe how well the GBA emu runs things on my GP2X!!!

 

[icurafu]

Sure, why not.

 

[Chip]

Would it be possible to attach a camera onto the device through the USB port and take pictures and also use as a webcam?

It will be possible to connect a camera over USB and use it for pictures and as a webcam. As for attaching it, that may require zip ties and/or duct tape. Something a bit more practical might be a SDIO camera - assuming there are linux-compatible drivers for it. We will compile a compatibility list for USB and SDIO accessories once Pandoras are shipping to end users and we can test them.

 

[dsleaf67]

Or maybe it would be possible to use a laptop camera? You know the kind that attach to the lid. Maybe.

 

[Vince2501]

Here's a dumb question:

Would there be any way, to hook up the pandora to my car (like say, through the cigarette lighter) and play MP3's on the Pandora through my car's speaker system?

Everything is looking good for me picking it up. Now 8 Gig SD cards are going for $35-40. I'm just trying to justify the purchase as much as humanly possible. The GPS feature alone may make it possible for me to declare it as a tax write off for my new job.

 

[javaJake]

IIRC, iPods connect to your car using a standard line-in jack. If your car is similarly equipped, you just get a $7 headphone-to-headphone cord and plug 'r in.

As for the cigarette lighter idea, that particular "port" only gives you power. There's no way you're playing music through that.

 

[Vince2501]

See, I have no experience with that. Hence, I prefaced my question with the word 'dumb. . Just curious, would it work with a cassette adapter?

I hope touch screen support is implemented for Area 51 and Time Crisis on PSX.