Newbies Guide To Why You Need A Pandora!

[jaycee900]

Hi, I'm very Interested in buying a Pandora when the 3000 run gets up and running and have been following its progress for the last few months.

I just wanted to get a newbies kind of F.A.Q for the Pandora VS GP2X.

Basically split into 4 sections;
I think most of us know what the GP2X can do, but for people looking at both and wondering what else and why the Pandora will be worth an extra £80-90 of your hard earned dosh!

Emulation
Obviously everything the GP2X has done and better, faster framerates less frame skipping. but also;
Higher resolution for emulators
Sound? - Has the Pandora better equipped audio or was the GP2X more than good enough?
New Emulators - Possible biggies N64/Saturn, much better PSX emulation

Homebrew Games
Again best of GP32/2X will be ported to Pandora.
3D accelerator will provide massive difference in homebrew games

Ported Games
Quake 1 was possible on GP2X, now Quake 3 will be Pandoras big 'demo' to show off its power.
Other possible PC ports to mention?

Everything Else
Wifi - stream Internet radio stations, Web browsing
Music applications? again has Pandora more advanced audio chip? than GP2X for audio programs/more track layering etc

Hardware wise main advantages over GP2X
Faster Processor
3D Processor
Wifi
Higher Resolution Screen
Built In Keyboard
Longer Battery Life

Of course you guys can feel free to add or spot a mistake! But its just to help people who maybe hear about this new machine and people mention all these emulators, games etc and they look at the GP2X and think oh but this can do all that too!

Oh i forget to add do the GP2X full SD card games work i.e Payback and Vector?? on the Pandora?

 

[Goity]

Saturn is unlikely: It's not a well understood platform (iirc), and even on PC you need a lot of power to run it. This means a completely from scratch emulator would be needed, and even then it's hard to say if it would work at all, or if anyone is up to/wants to do it.

The speakers in the gp2x were a little bit tinny, so this is a small help, and we have manual control over volume, meaning it'll never be inappropraitely loud with inability to change it.

Also, better filters for emulators.

GP2x SD commercial games won't work on the Pandora, but there's a possibility for ports of them.

The rechargeable battery is a major point - better battery life, no external charger, no batteries needed, no bump!

 

[jaycee900]

Saturn is unlikely: It's not a well understood platform (iirc), and even on PC you need a lot of power to run it. This means a completely from scratch emulator would be needed, and even then it's hard to say if it would work at all, or if anyone is up to/wants to do it.

The speakers in the gp2x were a little bit tinny, so this is a small help, and we have manual control over volume, meaning it'll never be inappropraitely loud with inability to change it.

Also, better filters for emulators.

GP2x SD commercial games won't work on the Pandora, but there's a possibility for ports of them.

The rechargeable battery is a major point - better battery life, no external charger, no batteries needed, no bump!

Yeah sure, I remember when the Saturn came out the programmers were having nightmares because of the design, originally the Saturn was only like twice the power of the 32X, but of course Sony showed the Playstation and last minute Sega literally lobbed another processor or two to play catch up and payed the price with developers and lack of more 3rd party and exclusive games.

Speaking about the 32X though, any chance of that being emulated? Maybe an extension to Picodrive? I've heard Picodrive has now emulated Virtua Racing, but the 32X version was much better of course, and I highly doubt a Model 1 emulator would be possible (crosses fingers!) so thats my best hope of Virtua Racing on the Pandora.

Edit: I've just checked and it seems Virtua Racing is now emulated in MAME32, someone said his latop with centrino 1.2 ran it full speed, I know comparing CPU speed is horse for courses against mobile CPU's but maybe someone will have a better idea than me if its possible for the Pandora? Well i downloaded them both (Mame and VR) and it said my device wasn't good enough for Direct 3D rendering! I'm on a cheap laptop thats about 5 years old 1.8 but literally no decent 3D card so thats to be expected then! Need to try it on my home PC!

 

[craigix]

I hope we will be able to add EASE OF USE soon too

 

[Chip]

I added a condensed version of the comparison to the FAQ.

 

[Classic Team]

Saturn is A no - go.

I can barly get it running half - speed on this computer...right after I boot the computer up. I can only get it to run Sonic 3D Blast too; so I don't think its gonna happen...

(But it would be really cool though... )

At first your comparision was a little hard to follow...But I think I understand it now.

BTW It would be sweet to have A 32X Emulator for the Pandora though...

 

[gloom]

You might want to add:

• two sdhc slots
• built-in full-powered USB-Host
• Hardware volume wheel ;-)
• better controls than gp2x

edit:

TV-Out without additional hardware (gp2x cradle) and the mic port could also very nice

 

[whiskthecat]

You guys are forgetting the touch screen.

 

[TheLonelyGod]

Dumb question, but today i discovered the wonders of the MKV file format (I downloaded vlc player)

so what file suport is planed out of the box? What will we have to wait for?

I.E. PDF,TXT,AVI,WMV,MOV,MP3, and my new fav MKV

 

[jaycee900]

Also what chances for Jaguar and 3D0 emulation? I think I saw the PSP has a Jag one though i cant remember whats speeds they are getting out of it and the 3D0 is less powerful than the PS1 though of course doesn't mean its any easier to emulate!
Edit: found a link for 1 3D0 emulator for PocketPC though its still in dev since last year, maybe someone can get the source code?
http://www.freedo.org/
Also the Jag emulator on the PSP is pretty slow 2-4 fps, so we can at least double that for the Pandora without optimising!

 

[Chip]

MKV playback: Yes. MPlayer supports just about all open codecs and containers, including MKV and OGM.

3DO emulation: That's a definite maybe. The project doesn't look very active and the source isn't available (at least it isn't posted on the website) for any of the versions. The system wasn't technically very demanding, but just because it's possible doesn't mean you should expect it any time soon.

Jaguar emulation: Probably never. Not at playable speeds anyway. The Jag was an absurdly complex machine. It had something like a half dozen processors doing different things, and even the official software developers had trouble getting everything running smoothly. Because of it's complexity, Jaguar emulation has never been very good, even on desktop PCs. The best emulators are both open source, but they have pretty steep hardware requirements. They only have about 75% compatibility at best, and many of the "working" games still have graphical bugs and other issues.

 

[argor]

Also what chances for Jaguar and 3D0 emulation? I think I saw the PSP has a Jag one though i cant remember whats speeds they are getting out of it and the 3D0 is less powerful than the PS1 though of course doesn't mean its any easier to emulate!
Edit: found a link for 1 3D0 emulator for PocketPC though its still in dev since last year, maybe someone can get the source code?
http://www.freedo.org/
Also the Jag emulator on the PSP is pretty slow 2-4 fps, so we can at least double that for the Pandora without optimising!


Firefox says that T2K Jaguar Emulator should run full speed on Pandora with no effort whatsoever
here is a video of it running on a gp2x
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YYnPTlHRNE

 

[A_SN]

Dumb question, but today i discovered the wonders of the MKV file format (I downloaded vlc player)

so what file suport is planed out of the box? What will we have to wait for?

I.E. PDF,TXT,AVI,WMV,MOV,MP3, and my new fav MKV

There will be VLC, so yeah. Although VLC won't be the best choice for your battery life.

 

[javaJake]

There will be VLC, so yeah. Although VLC won't be the best choice for your battery life.

Give me mplayer or give me death.

 

[sindbad]

Give me mplayer or give me death.

Echo.

 

[Ravnos]

Also what chances for Jaguar and 3D0 emulation? I think I saw the PSP has a Jag one though i cant remember whats speeds they are getting out of it and the 3D0 is less powerful than the PS1 though of course doesn't mean its any easier to emulate!
Edit: found a link for 1 3D0 emulator for PocketPC though its still in dev since last year, maybe someone can get the source code?
http://www.freedo.org/
Also the Jag emulator on the PSP is pretty slow 2-4 fps, so we can at least double that for the Pandora without optimising!


Firefox says that T2K Jaguar Emulator should run full speed on Pandora with no effort whatsoever
here is a video of it running on a gp2x
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YYnPTlHRNE

I don't care about T2K, but I would like to see the Jaguar Alien vs. Predator running on Pandora. And maybe Iron Soldier (I think that was its title). There were a lot of shit titles for the Jag but there were some gems in the bunch.

 

[coldfish]

Is Pandora a highend hand held gaming rig, or a homebrew box?

The system specs alone suggest some pretty high end (PSP level+) gaming to be had on Pandora, but as a homebrew-centric device, will the full capabilities of the machine ever be realized beyond some nice tech' demos and reheated ports & emulators?

For my money I'd want more than emulation, lazy ports of old PC games and homebrew mini-games. I'd want at least a handful of solid original titles showing the full graphical & gameplay potential of the machine, otherwise it's not much of a step up from my GP2X.

 

[chad78]

Is Pandora a highend hand held gaming rig, or a homebrew box?

It is a highend homebrew gaming rig, and more.

QUOTE
The system specs alone suggest some pretty high end (PSP level+) gaming to be had on Pandora, but as a homebrew-centric device, will the full capabilities of the machine ever be realized beyond some nice tech' demos and reheated ports & emulators?


That's kind of up to the community that builds around it. Since the project is growing out of the GP32/ GP2X community, there's already a good number of potential developers for it. And the designers of the device are some of those developers. So there will be development done on it.

QUOTE

For my money I'd want more than emulation, lazy ports of old PC games and homebrew mini-games. I'd want at least a handful of solid original titles showing the full graphical & gameplay potential of the machine, otherwise it's not much of a step up from my GP2X.



You want more, ok....

It has a WiFi, video out, and USB in. You can, in theory, plug an external hard drive, a full sized keyboard and mouse, and a monitor and use the Pandora as your main computer.

It has a QWERTY keyboard, a high-res screen (same resolution as the Eee PC and Nokia N810), and USB out. You could also use it as a UMPC, it's like a tiny laptop that can fit in your pocket. It has more power than an N810, and could possibly run the same operating system as that device.

The thing is, the device will be powerful enough to run a full desktop version of Linux. So, in theory, your software choices are not limited to what is written specifically for the hardware. They put Ubuntu on the Nokia N810 - and the Pandora is more powerful than that device, so you could do the same for the Pandora.

Check out http://maemo.org/ - this operating system is open source and runs on the Nokia NSeries of Internet tablets. And, like I keep saying, the Pandora is more powerful - has the same resolution of touch screen, and could easily run this OS. All the software on the Maemo website is potential software for the Pandora.

You want more than a rehashed emulator rig - how about a PMP? (the Pandora runs Mplayer and has a high res screen) How about a UMPC? How about a dockable green computer? How about a WiFi VoIP phone? (It has WiFi, speakers, head phone jack, and a built-in mic - plus USB in.)

And, just in case you'd be interested - it can play games, too.