Is Anyone Else Here Interested In Windows Gaming?

[mdefender]

Let's not discuss other benefits or drawbacks of the x86 platform here. Please direct all such comments to this thread: http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showtopic=46751 (UBB linking broken at present.)

Quick explanation of how this works: QEMU is an emulator. It might be able to run Windows games on an ARM processor using a full XP install, but it is tremendously slow, cumbersome, and inefficient. It *might* be viable for turn-based, 2d gaming.

Wine is a compatibility layer for Windows programs. It runs only on x86 processors, and it runs programs almost as fast as they do natively. The limitations are dictated by your video card, and whether or not the game is working yet under wine. Some games are better supported than others, but as a rule popular games that have been around for a while are well supported.

If anyone knows of any other way to play Windows games on a non-Windows system (other than a developer port), I would be very interested.

Quick list of older PC games I would love to be able to have available in my pocket:

Sim series, especially Sim City 2000 and Sim Tower
Diablo 2
Warcraft (battle.net edition, which is Windows only)
Starcraft
Thief: The Dark Project
Planescape: Torment
Neverwinter Nights
Baldur's gate / Icewind Dale series
Fallout 1 and 2
Civilization 2
Civilization 3
Battlefield 1942
Half Life
System Shock 2
Alien vs. Predator 2
Morrowind
Lode Runner Returns / Lode Runner Online (MUCH better than the console versions I've played)
The Curse of / Escape from Monkey Island
Grim Fandango

Most of these run quite well in Wine. Are there any other great classics I'm neglecting here? NES / SNES / Genesis are great and all, but surely I can't be the only fan of retro PC gaming.

 

[Devin.tesla]

Material Defender

give it up

the last thread was a fire ball
X86 is not what I'm looking for and I'm not the only one.

my 2 cents

 

[Kekerot]

You can play all those games on an Aigo or Gigabyte MID (about the same size as pandora but no gaming controls) right now. Thing is it costs $500-600 and the battery life is only 2-3 hours.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8YNkZ4pfYA <-- thats as good as it gets for handheld x86


I would love to play those games but you sacrifice too much battery life compared to the pandora. Wait until the next generation of intel atom and buy yourself a MID with some decent battery life.

 

[lulzfish]

No. If I can get the same performance for better battery life, and if Linux supports it, I would rather use ARM.

 

[mdefender]

Please stay on topic. This discussion is about Windows gaming on gaming-centric pocket devices, specifically Pandora. Please do not discuss x86 as a general platform, or try to bring up irrelevant alternatives. The devices Kekerot mentions do not have d-pads or analog nubs. I cannot fathom trying to play an FPS with a touchscreen.

Feel free to flame away on the other thread, and I'll happy come back again and again so that you may ignore my posts and call me a whore.

 

[lulzfish]

Well, I don't really care about gaming on the Pandora more than like Tetris and Solitaire.
But I voted anyway just to keep it honest.

 

[thantik]

Someone please get this troll off the forums. <_<

 

[Kekerot]

Please stay on topic. This discussion is about Windows gaming on gaming-centric pocket devices, specifically Pandora. The devices Kekerot mentions do not have d-pads or analog nubs. I cannot fathom trying to play an FPS with a touchscreen.

Feel free to flame away on the other thread, and I'll happy come back again and again so that you may ignore my posts and call me a whore.

Well you could try to launch your own x86 handheld project using the same intel poulsbo chipset in the aigo. You would need like a 7000-8000mah battery to match up to a pandora though and then all the accompanying gaming controls. In fact I bet it could be done if enough people wanted it but it would probably be pretty expensive at least compared to the pandora.

 

[Phawx]

I voted YES/YES

Intel is coming out with a new chip that will slaughter AMD's fusion in low power. The chip has a C2D, Memory Controller and GPU built on the same package.

And it may only take 10 watts to power this chip. Which is only 5 times more battery sucking than a Cortex A8. Of course when this chip comes out the A-9 will be out and...

Why'd I vote YES/YES?

 

[Tom`]

Please stay on topic. This discussion is about Windows gaming on gaming-centric pocket devices, specifically Pandora. Please do not discuss x86 as a general platform, or try to bring up irrelevant alternatives. The devices Kekerot mentions do not have d-pads or analog nubs. I cannot fathom trying to play an FPS with a touchscreen.

Feel free to flame away on the other thread, and I'll happy come back again and again so that you may ignore my posts and call me a whore.

Please stay on topic. This is the Pandora section. This should probably go in "Other consoles," or maybe "Off-topic discussion."

 

[Svartalf]

Please stay on topic. This is the Pandora section. This should probably go in "Other consoles," or maybe "Off-topic discussion."

Should be in "Off-topic" as this discussion had already been hashed out with the thread starter in an earlier thread that got moved elsewhere.

 

[mdefender]

Please stay on topic. This discussion is about Windows gaming on gaming-centric pocket devices, specifically Pandora. Please do not discuss x86 as a general platform, or try to bring up irrelevant alternatives. The devices Kekerot mentions do not have d-pads or analog nubs. I cannot fathom trying to play an FPS with a touchscreen.

Feel free to flame away on the other thread, and I'll happy come back again and again so that you may ignore my posts and call me a whore.


Please stay on topic. This is the Pandora section. This should probably go in "Other consoles," or maybe "Off-topic discussion."

Pandora's main site says they want us to mention feature suggestions here. Also, I mention QEMU (which does run on Pandora, and could probably handle 2 or 3 of the games I mention) and I have asked about the possibility of other Windows-compatibility projects that I am unaware of.

On another note entirely: do you guys really go ~10 hours of solid usage without access to a wall outlet or car cigarette lighter?

 

[lulzfish]

This isn't really a feature as much as a complete divergence from the Pandora's design principles.

As for the 10 hour battery life, I couldn't quite understand what you meant.
I'm guessing you were saying: "The battery life for the Pandora is overkill"

Perhaps, but batteries always run out of capacity after a couple of years. Which means the Pandora will have a much longer effective lifespan.

And, you never really know how long you'll be without power. If the Pandora can pack in 8 hours of battery without messing up weight and volume, I'll take it.

 

[greendots]

x86 is not a feature, it would be a restart-from-scratch endeavor.

There is currently no way to play most of the games you listed until an atom soc is release with the nvidia gpu. You will have to wait at least a year to have what you'd like and I doubt any major company would put gaming controls on their $600 mid.

 

[Tom`]

Pandora's main site says they want us to mention feature suggestions here.

In what way is "Windows gaming" a feature suggestion?

Also, I mention QEMU (which does run on Pandora, and could probably handle 2 or 3 of the games I mention) and I have asked about the possibility of other Windows-compatibility projects that I am unaware of.

We already have lots of "what games would you like to play?" threads.

On another note entirely: do you guys really go ~10 hours of solid usage without access to a wall outlet or car cigarette lighter?

Not often, but neither do I want to carry around a charger or be trailing a cord wherever I go.

 

[mdefender]

A central goal of Pandora is gaming. The controls make this evident. Regardless of feasibility at this point in time, I think it's good for the devs to know how many fans of retro PC gaming we have around here.

Done for the week, have at it. Try not to trash the thread for no reason; I think the poll (self-selected though it is) will be worthwhile.

 

[Svartalf]

Pandora's main site says they want us to mention feature suggestions here.

I do believe we explained the reality to you of this in that other thread. X86, even with Atom, won't bring you enough muscle unless you also field something at least like the tuned drivers with our SGX and an SGX (something you WON'T find in the x86 world...). Without it, you're not getting anywhere. Moreover, you're going to have to field twice as much battery to get half the lifespan. Seriously.

X86 is nice. But if you look at the consoles...what do they use? (Here's a hint: It's NOT X86 save with the XBox- and Microsoft didn't carry that forward, now did they?). The only selling point is being able to run Windows titles. Not all of them will work nicely in the handheld space- in fact most of them need re-work to work well there. Quake3:Arena's going to need a bit of help here. If that does, what do you think most of the others are going to need?

QUOTE

Also, I mention QEMU (which does run on Pandora, and could probably handle 2 or 3 of the games I mention) and I have asked about the possibility of other Windows-compatibility projects that I am unaware of.



QEMU won't get you past the 486 era, if that much, right at the moment.

QUOTE

On another note entirely: do you guys really go ~10 hours of solid usage without access to a wall outlet or car cigarette lighter?


Yes. It does 10-ish on the previous 13.5 WH battery that was used with the MK0 boards. It'll do about 9-10 with the production battery. It's that low a power consumption. There's a reason we keep telling you what we keep saying.

Now, if you want to make something happen in the Windows Gaming space, you migh try to see if you can get the older titles going in something akin to Darwine (which would use QEMU in a useful way instead of emulating a whole machine...), you might have my and others' attention. If it's workable with those, your next choice would be the OMAP4 which brings even more muscle with a negligible increase in power consumption and the prospects of a dual-core machine with only a slightly larger increase in consumption.

 

[Kekerot]

A central goal of Pandora is gaming. The controls make this evident. Regardless of feasibility at this point in time, I think it's good for the devs to know how many fans of retro PC gaming we have around here.

Done for the week, have at it. Try not to trash the thread for no reason; I think the poll (self-selected though it is) will be worthwhile.

Most of the games you want to play are meant to be played with a mouse so the touchscreen + stylus would be fine for them. The other few who need a gamepad like Half-Life, you could just buy a USB gamepad or mouse. Seriously just get yourself a MID + USB gamepad and be done with it.

I do believe we explained the reality to you of this in that other thread. X86, even with Atom, won't bring you enough muscle unless you also field something at least like the tuned drivers with our SGX and an SGX (something you WON'T find in the x86 world...)

Actually the poulsbo chipset comes with the GMA500 which is an SGX535 and runs games decently.

Check out this video of GMA500 running Quake 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKxlPfUij9s

Also running PSX emulator
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJgTBCbSR8U

Atom DOES have the power to run stuff even 1080p but it still isn't as efficient as ARM

 

[Kramy]

Most of those games play best with a mouse, so no, I wouldn't buy an x86 handheld just to play them.

I'm totally into windows gaming. I play Left4Dead almost every night!

 

[es87]

you would be extremely lucky if battery life was only cut in half with the same processing power