Is pyra good choice for classic computer gaming ?

[vampire8bit]

I want to go through the entire history of gaming on as many 8-bit to 16-bit computers on a powerful portable computer handheld using emulation and the pyra looks like just what the doctor ordered. I never had a pandora so am very excited by this device. I want to see how games played, compared and improved in terms of graphics, sound, gameplay, etc on various retro computer systems. These are some of the systems I want to study:

spectrum, dragon, bbc, amstrad, c64,c16, vic20, atari, apple 1 and 2, msx, pc88, pc98, dos, atariST, amiga 500/1200, sharpX68000, appleIIGS, apple mac, and others

I am not interested in emulation of console or arcade systems as there are plenty of chinese devices for those, however I may use pyra for those as well but for now it is retro computer gaming that I want the pyra for

Is the pyra worth it for this?

 

[TrashyMG]

It really should be a killer platform for classic computer emulation, I know for sure as the Pandora was really good at it as well, Amiga and DOS games were particularly my favorite thing to play on it. I think the keyboard is what sets it apart from emulation on smartphones or other "retro" targeted consoles that lack a physical keyboard.

 

[vampire8bit]

Thanks for the reply. Yes thats it, the keyboard makes it a full mini computer and with built-in proper gaming controls, emulation of a variety of platformers and shoot-em-ups for different computers without needing a separate controller. My only concern is that will whether there be good emulation support for computers on the pyra.

 

[Eight Bit]

All the usual suspects will be there ofcourse...

Nintendo gameboy, gb color, advance, nes, snes, n64, DS, psx, psp, sega megadrive, gamegear, dreamcast, mame, commodore 16 up to amiga, speccy, what else is there?

More games available than I can ever play... On the Pandora even...
I just want the Pyra because it's a better Pandora

 

[λ the β-Redex Reducer]

I suspect that the Pyra will also be able to play Rogue at full speed. Though that remains yet to be tested. Rogue is a really important part of gaming history and you need a keyboard to play it properly.

 

[daveshah]

The formely-MESS part of MAME will be a great selection of old obscure stuff on the Pyra. Although it does need quite a bit of power, I have run "enhanced-NES-clone" stuff with MAME fine on an Android device with a roughly Pyra level SoC, so 8 and some 16 bit stuff should be fine.

 

[vampire8bit]

All the usual suspects will be there ofcourse...

Nintendo gameboy, gb color, advance, nes, snes, n64, DS, psx, psp, sega megadrive, gamegear, dreamcast, mame, commodore 16 up to amiga, speccy, what else is there?

More games available than I can ever play... On the Pandora even...
I just want the Pyra because it's a better Pandora

The systems you mentioned will be supported but most are not computers except commodore 16, amiga and spectrum.

I need a high quality retro computer portable device to emulate computer systems, not consoles, arcades or handhelds. If I wanted to emulate megadrive I could just buy a cheap and cheerful device from aliexpress like an rg350

I want a powerful reliable handheld computer device that will last for ages to emulate old 8 and 16bit computers and that keyboard is an important part. The pyra looks like the ideal device built by a great retro gaming community with a lot of care, attention to detail and hard work

 

[daveshah]

As far as old computer emus go, virtually anything that runs on Linux with source code available, should run fine on the Pyra although it will need to be rebuilt unless it is in the Debian armhf repos.

From a reliability point of view, the physical build quality of the Pyra will hopefully be very good.

 

[levi]

Yes, the Pandora had some very good Speccy emus, Commodore 8-bit emulators and ST emus, and perfectly serviceable emulators for Amstrad and Amiga and BBC micro. The only thing I missed was GX4000 support in the Amstrad emulator personally.

I'd expect all of those to come from publically accessible source, so they should run on the Pyra even better if that were possible.

 

[ible]

re: OP

 

[Legodude522]

Pyra would be the perfect device for retro computing. So many I/O options!

 

[levi]

The only advantage the Pyra's i/o ports gives you is being able to connect an approximation of the device in question's joystick, providing there's a modern USB replica available. And that only really works where the joystick was the game player's choice. On the BBC micro I had for example, we used joysticks for flight sims and elite, but for all platformers and almost everything else we used keyboard keys.

Edit: Missed a possessive apostrophe, I think.

 

[Legodude522]

The only advantage the Pyra's i/o ports gives you is being able to connect an approximation of the device in question's joystick, providing there's a modern USB replica available. And that only really works where the joystick was the game player's choice. On the BBC micro I had for example, we used joysticks for flight sims and elite, but for all platformers and almost everything else we used keyboard keys.

Edit: Missed a possessive apostrophe, I think.

Joystick? WHAT ABOUT USB FLOPPY DRIVES?

 

[TrashyMG]

Joystick? WHAT ABOUT USB FLOPPY DRIVES?

Can confirm that is working at least on the OMAP5 devboard at least with a prior build of PyraOS.

 

[levi]

I must say though, I've never tried reading non-DOS discs in my own USB floppy. I guess that'd mean it's be okay at reading ST discs, but I reckon Amiga and Archimedes discs are less likely to work, and all bets are off for BBC Master Compact discs.

 

[Eight Bit]

I can't write ST discs with my USB Discdrive... The software required needs direct access to the firmware or something. USB in between is a no go, or so it seems.. But if you know alternatives @levi pls let me know?

 

[Letalis Sonus]

But if you know alternatives @levi pls let me know?

There are some rumors about an USB-based next-gen Catweasel, but currently it's still PCI only.

 

[levi]

I can't write ST discs with my USB Discdrive... The software required needs direct access to the firmware or something. USB in between is a no go, or so it seems.. But if you know alternatives @levi pls let me know?

Apparently it depends very much what TOS you're running. If you're running 1.4 you should be able to read a standard DOS format disc on your ST for example.

 

[netcat]

omg seems there is a chance that i could run cubase 1.0 on the pyra via tos
of course usb-midi adapter would have to be recognised - how likely is this?
excitement++

 

[levi]

I must admit, I never tested out the USB support. Hatari, ported by Magic Sam was the emulator I used to run ST software. I neither have any MIDI hardware with USB support to try this out with.