New Age Old School Emulators That Can Be Ported To Pandora

[AdonusX]

I am curious about the emulators i am about to list, if anyone could please explain why or why not they are capable of being ported to Pandora, i would appreciate it.

zsnes
vba
pSX
XMAME
gcube

take into account that I understand some of the alternatives that ARE being ported to Pandora (most from GP2X) are because they were originally built for the smaller architechture and, are essetially, more optimized for a handheld to begin with. But has anyone looked into these options... oh, almost forgot one I am dying to see on Pandora...

MUGEN!



NOTE: if source links are needed. please ask and I will include... wasn't requesting any of these so much as looking to discuss the pros and cons of them...

 

[juanvvc]

are because they were originally built for the smaller architechture and, are essetially, more optimized for a handheld to begin with.

So, there you have your reason

- zsnes, psx: they are only for the Intel32 architecture (afaik, not even Intel64). Pandora uses ARM, so they cannot be used.
- vba: Exophase optimized a lot gpSP for the ARM architecture, so we'll likely use gpsp
- XMAME. It is ported with a different name, Mame4all. In fact, Mame4all is an older version of Mame: it has less details in games and less games, but it runs significantly faster.
- gcube: does it work at all?

In general, you do not only need the source code of an emulator. In an application as complex as an emulator you'll need a source code that is portable to other operating systems and architectures. That usually means no fancy libraries such as DirectX and no Intel assembler code, that is extensively used to gain speed in faster, and then more popular, emulators. Some of the emulators that were used on the Gp2x (gpSP and Mame4all, for example) do have ARM assembler code, and then they can be quickly ported to the Pandora for fast emulation.

 

[neko]

zsnes

X86 assembly code won't run on ARM.

QUOTE
vba

Will almost certainly run on the Pandora, but there are better GBA emulators out there. VBA is really slow.

QUOTE
pSX

Any psx emulator in particular? Zodttd is working on one...

QUOTE
XMAME

Yes

QUOTE
gcube

What is this, a gamecube emulator? Emulating gamecube requires more than a 600Mhz CPU.

QUOTE
MUGEN!

Ports require source code. Read the FAQ.

 

[Mutilator]

I guess gcube could be ported as its open source, but last time i checked game cube emulation on pc needed a beast of a machine to run. Even if it was really optimised i would imagine it would be too slow on the pandora.

 

[Exophase]

pSX is closed source too, and probably doesn't have an ARM recompiler like psx4all does.

 

[Yod4z]

We don't have MEGEN but we can have Shugendo who is a same thing

 

[AdonusX]

Shugendo makes sense...

forgot that pSX was closed, unfortunately, it is the most complete emulator out there (as I haven't found a game it won't play yet, and I am really searching...) even with it being closed source, it is still freely distributable (as far as I know) so that one would be more of a request to the creator to make an ARM version of it vs Pandora enthusiasts programming a port of it. In either respect, may be a far-fetched thing to look into, no matter how complete it is.

To Neko: I understand the rules as far as requesting a port, and I noted in my original post that I wasn't requesting, I was opening a discussion of the feasibility of the emulators I have grown accustom to on my linux PC. admittedly, I haven't gotten to try gcube yet, so I am not completely aware of it's functionality. But I am sure I have seen video of someone running (though very slow) a gamecube emulated version of Prince of Persia on the Pandora. I understand that not all consoles can be ported to the Pandora in it's current state and may have to wait for a version with a more powerful processor or more ram or whatever... My general question is open-ended and inquisitive. Not looking to have these projects start porting. But thanks for reminding me about the rules!

And a general thank you goes out to everyone so far who has given me viable info on why this emulator and that is not feasible to be ported to Pandora. Most of my curiosity has been quelled. If no one has suggested a Shugendo port, i plan to do so sometime soon... but for now, I am going to check for other posts that need responding and then head to bed (almost 4am here)