Is It Worth It?

[EvilDragon]

Even the the Caanoo has much more action at this time.

Yes, though you have to admit that even on the Caanoo there are a lot of quickports only yet.
And why did you expect the same GUIs / Rompicker on the Pandora?
Never happened on the GP32, nor the GP2X, the WIZ, the Dingoo or the Caanoo.

Developers will most probably always use their own stuff.

For me, SNES, MAME4ALL, PicoDrive, PSX, etc. run better on the Pandora with their quick ports than they run on the WIZ or Caanoo.
SNES fully works, only has some weird sound effects with some games (old 1.39er audio core), but it fully works with almost all games (except stuff like StarFox) fullspeed.

I don't think there has been a significant release or update for months. As more Pandoras ship the hope is that things will pick up. If you ordered one now by the time you got it maybe many of these problems will be addressed. It has allot of potential.

It depends on what you call significant

There's now a fully working SNES9x with a nice ROM picker.
There's normal GB(C) emulation with a nice ROM picker.

There are the three homebrew Zelda games fully working.
A new GemRB version.
A new ScummVM which fixes the touchscreen bug so you can now fully play Hires games on-the-go without any issues.

Yes, development surely would be faster if there would be more units out there.
And that's something we are really working on at the moment.
We really had a lot of bad luck with some companies... and are struggling to make them produce.

 

[Blue Protoman]

So, if I were to order a Pandora right now, you're sure that most of its emulator's issues would be solved before I got it?

 

[sebt3]

it should but no waranties

 

[Jumpman]

So, if I were to order a Pandora right now, you're sure that most of its emulator's issues would be solved before I got it?

Honestly, that question really can't be answered. Improvements are always added to emualtors, and can be done years after they have reached "perfection" to many of the end users(PC included). PS1 hasn't had any updates for months, and it may be months before it see's another, or we might all see an update next week.

With a device like this, nothing is ever set in stone, and everyone who is involved(including the team) all have day jobs, families, girlfriends, ect. Most of the emu programmers work in there spare time, which can be daily, weekly, or monthly. No one is punching a time clock, and there is never any release dates given.

You have a lot of "specific" questions, which isn't a bad thing, but this community is just not "specific" in any way, and never will be. If your looking for, and need specific answers, I really don't think this device will be for you over the long haul. Nintendo, Sony, MS all have release dates, and you always know what to expect, and when to expect it. I like the suprise factor from week to week, not knowing what to expect, or what's coming around the next bend, that's what makes this community exciting. Sadly, some need the future to be laid out, and that is fine, but let's be real, no one can say for sure when unit 4000 will leave out the door, so there is no way to say when fullspeed N64/PS1 may or may not happen.

It's all just the way things work around here, and they will never change(well hopefully production will at some point)

Chris

 

[Blue Protoman]

Well, in that case, how are the emulators now? This includes GP2X and/or Wiz emulators running in Ginge. In particular, do the PC emulators support the built-in keyboard?

 

[DaveC]

Well, in that case, how are the emulators now? This includes GP2X and/or Wiz emulators running in Ginge. In particular, do the PC emulators support the built-in keyboard?

I tried some emus through Ginge. Some don't work like FBA, the ones that do work seem to have jerky inconsistant scrolling. Not like it is skipping frames but like the timing is off somehow. It isn't terrible and certainly is playable but is noticeable compared to native Pandora stuff.

Most native Pandora emus that needed a keyboard (computer emus) do support the keyboard already.

 

[EvilDragon]

Well, in that case, how are the emulators now? This includes GP2X and/or Wiz emulators running in Ginge. In particular, do the PC emulators support the built-in keyboard?

I tried some emus through Ginge. Some don't work like FBA, the ones that do work seem to have jerky inconsistant scrolling. Not like it is skipping frames but like the timing is off somehow. It isn't terrible and certainly is playable but is noticeable compared to native Pandora stuff.

Hm, that's weird. Ginge supports VSync (if the original game supports it), so except for WIZ games with tearing fix, it has a constant smooth framerate for all games / emulators I use it for.
No timing issues, no tearing, nothing. Might be the emulators you tried.
Of course, if the emulator itself doesn't have VSync included, it won't work here as well.

As Ginge is no emulator but a wrapper, it runs the stuff natively on the hardware - so it runs the same as on the original hardware.
It simulates a few functions, yes, but not anything that should cause timing issues in video.

And yeah, I work in professional video business for over 10 years now, while video editing I recognize a single frame off the rest, so I should see some problems here.
What emulators have you been trying and have problems with?

 

[Blue Protoman]

Hm... Which ones don't? And how good is MAME? I understand you have to get both versions for the best experience. What are they like, how fast do games run, etc. Also, what's the news on screen scaling or rotation for it? That's the one reason I don't use MAME on my Wiz; I don't like holding it sideways.

 

[Prometheus]

^ Both MAME4All and MAME 0.106 have scaling and rotation available. These work better in MAME4All in my opinion because some vertical games (for example, Mappy, or Ms. Pac-Man) look better when scaled-to-fit with a filter added, and MAME4All offers this in an easy-to-use fashion.

For anything MAME4All supports, overclocking doesn't seem to be required (I can only comment on games I actually own, though). Many things in MAME 0.106 don't require overclocking either, but CPS2 stuff certainly does (and of course, overclocking is never guaranteed - it's only a bonus).

It's worth noting that MAME4All has some sound issues with some games. However, as far as stuff I own goes I haven't observed this, so I can't comment on it further.

 

[Blue Protoman]

OK, so MAME is good. Can the Wiz emulate anything currently that the Pandora can't? I don't mean in terms of power, I mean in terms of what works on the Wiz or the Pandora. Ginge is included.

 

[forces]

Well, GINGE on pandora can "emulate" Wiz, so most of the emus for wiz work with pandora(for example, PSCX4ALL)

 

[Blue Protoman]

Hm. How well does Ginge work? Any problems, etc. I heard it's great, but not perfect, and Wiz support is preliminary.

 

[Blue Protoman]

Hello?

 

[Prometheus]

Well, I can't speak for anyone else, but I've had no problems with GINGE myself with the stuff I've been using.

 

[Blue Protoman]

Does that include GP2X AND Wiz? I know I seem like I'm being a pain in the ass, but I wanna know as much about the Pandora as possible. You guys at OpenPandora want another customer, right?

 

[Prometheus]

Well, I'm not from the team, but I would imagine that they do. :lol: Anyway, you're in no way being a pain - I for one have great respect for folks who are willing to do their research.

Anyhow, my experience with GINGE only covers a couple of GP2X applications so far. I haven't tried it with any Wiz stuff, although I *think* (though I'm not 100% sure, I admit) that the PND of Gpsp that's floating around is a package containing GINGE plus the Wiz version of Gpsp.

 

[Blue Protoman]

Heard good things of that. Does it run better than the Wiz version? Some games I wanna play don't run too well on the Wiz. I am fully aware of the fact that its ROMs must be zipped.

Oh, and is there an IRC channel somewhere I can get live info at? This is kind of dragging on.

 

[Prometheus]

I don't do IRC, so I'm afraid I don't know the answer to that one. Sorry.

As for Gpsp, I had troubles getting it up and running at all, but it seems that sebt3 has figured out the solution to that. The bottom line, though, is that I don't know how it runs, and can't compare it to the Wiz version because I don't have one. Sorry again.

 

[Blue Protoman]

Hm. How well do the all the computer emulators work? And is it possible for me to play Stunts (AKA 4D Sports Driving) on the Pandora at all, through DOSBox or UAE4ALL? Because that would just be spectacular.

 

[Qwertyuiop]

Oh, and is there an IRC channel somewhere I can get live info at? This is kind of dragging on.

There's #openpandora on freenode.