Our New Machine, Pandora

[Damume]

A playable DOSBox!

Seconded.

mobile Settlers 2, Warcraft, Warcraft 2 etc etc YAY.

Trooper


Mobile TFX

 

[jimid2]

A playable DOSBox!

Seconded.

mobile Settlers 2, Warcraft, Warcraft 2 etc etc YAY.


Mobile TFX


All the V for Victory games! With a touch screen!! I'd be in Strategic/Operational WWII Heaven!!

 

[realyst]

A playable DOSbox running Space Quest 6.....oh my.....oh my yes....

*faint*

I'm just eager as well to see the original things that'll be possible with this nice chunka hardware.

 

[kfuse]

About the screen - that does look very much like a Samsung part. However the only Samsung part I can find which matches the photos, is a WQVGA+ screen of 480x272 pixels (and I'm guessing Sony is blocking sales of those to "unknown projects" as it matches the PSP resolution).

Without Dreamcast, it would be a bit of a hard sell for me. Though I like the wifi and GPS abilities, and PSX emu would be nice. But I'm not too big an N64 fan and it's handful of classic titles. Time will tell, but with emulation picking up for DC (I.E the NullDC emulator) I would think it should happen. This is coming from someone who isn't exactly techy, but I would pay $300+ for a handheld that could play Dreamcast at a playable speed.

That's just me, my apologies if I've all ready missed the boat for that discussion

I believe it's been established by now, this device will not have GPS abilities (and no Bluetooth). If I'm wrong, feel free to correct.

Even with me not knowing a lot of programming and not knowing the extent of processing power of the Craiginator, I would still say that as emulators go, judging from what's been said in this thread by people in the know, fullspeed PSX is definitely going to happen, N64 might be possible but perhaps not entirely fullspeed (but playable, I'm sure). I'm finding it really hard, though, to believe the Craiginiator will have enough power to run a nullDC port (which is closed source so far, by the way) at even a fraction of fullspeed. Though I'd love to be proven wrong on that.

I'd rather focus on the improvement in other emulators that will be possible on the Craiginator, such as the WVGA resolution and touchscreen which will enable proper mouse-control and high-res games (CoMI, Touché...) in ScummVM, as well as proper Amiga emulation which enables use of Workbench. Emulators that have to use scalers to achieve the correct aspect ratio will not have to suffer from the crappy "nearest neighbor" scaler of the MMSP2, but might use substantially better scalers such as HQ2X or at least some less crappy scaling than "nearest neighbor". This applies to emulators of any platform which used "non-square pixels" stretched or squashed to fill a 4:3 screen, such as SegaCD, PCEngine, NES and SuperNES, CPS2 and more.
Also the power of the CPU/GPU in the Craiginator will substantially help improve emulation of many platforms such as the C64, Amiga, SNES, PSX and GBA, all of which will likely be possible to run fullspeed on the Craiginator, whereas some lack features (think SNES special chips) and/or require severe overclocking to run at a playable speed on the GP2X.

In summary, I think it warrants a pre-order anyway, or if you're hesitant, at least a purchase once the device has been evaluated on the market and we can see what improvements over the GP2X it has brought.




Well As far as the screen on psp...Well most likely that deal is under contract...probably be a few more years before it wears out for samsung to sell a psp types screen to anyone else.

The gp2x was also handled by topsun...most likely the f-200 is done by topsun as well granted its qvga...

I just went with samsung because usually when it comes down to TFT LCD...they usually stand and deliver pretty well with those...

but knowing craig he's probably pulled strings in other areas who knows could have even contacted taiwanese based acer...

 

[icurafu]

I'm fairly sure acer buy their LCDs from Chi Mei.

Sumsung would be great btw. They make the best 1024x600 screens on the market. Low power. You find them on all the highend UMPCs. (Q1U, SH1 for example) Looks extreamly crisp.

But I'll be happy enough with a AUO LCD.

 

[atomicthumbs]

A playable DOSBox!

Seconded.

mobile Settlers 2, Warcraft, Warcraft 2 etc etc YAY.


Mobile TFX


All the V for Victory games! With a touch screen!! I'd be in Strategic/Operational WWII Heaven!!


And then there's Liero/the real Super Star Wars, Oregon Trail, etc....

WHEEEE

 

[TyBO!]

Yeah, DOSBox will be great. Up until age 13, all I owned was a Gameboy and a PC, so half of what I played then were old DOS games. I can't wait to have them playable on a portable machine. :wub:

 

[OMars]

WARNING: RANDOM

It better not have anything shiny on it, except for, of course, the lights. I don't want to scratch the back plate or the trimming on the sides. Plus, it's uglier when it is shiny, in my opinion.

 

[Nova]

WARNING: RANDOM

It better not have anything shiny on it, except for, of course, the lights. I don't want to scratch the back plate or the trimming on the sides. Plus, it's uglier when it is shiny, in my opinion.

Seconded. Matte, please.

 

[sam fisher]

WARNING: RANDOM

It better not have anything shiny on it, except for, of course, the lights. I don't want to scratch the back plate or the trimming on the sides. Plus, it's uglier when it is shiny, in my opinion.

Seconded. Matte, please.

I'll jump on the anti-shiny bandwagon, I dont' want all the grease and dirt on it that visible.

 

[PoisonedV]

WARNING: RANDOM

It better not have anything shiny on it, except for, of course, the lights. I don't want to scratch the back plate or the trimming on the sides. Plus, it's uglier when it is shiny, in my opinion.

Seconded. Matte, please.

I'll jump on the anti-shiny bandwagon, I dont' want all the grease and dirt on it that visible.

Yeah, make it black, like my illegitimate father.

 

[javaJake]

Been discussed, craig said that he knows about our concerns, and assures everything'll be fine.

 

[kfuse]

Well the look shouldn't be plain and dull...it should have that slight appeal factor. not smooth to the touch like a brand new cell phone but sleek and tastefull.

Which I'm pretty sure this thing should turn out okay...

Still I hope it comes out in an array of colors, dunno why I even thought about that right now lol!!

 

[Vorporeal]

OMG!

What if we could get starcraft running on there? That would be INCREDIBLE.

 

[kfuse]

You know I been thinking about that for a long time now....man if we ever got starcraft going on that bloody f-200...

I think the community would gain a huge, huge boost...

or for that matter if any RTS's got shoved on this thing.

Still depending on the weight do you think you could hold it for a while using the stylus?

 

[icurafu]

This is better said in the request topic (and has already been requested before with good reasons as to why it wont work)

I think Warcraft2 would be the best bet. It's open source and currently runs on QVGA PocketPCs already.

But all these would be perfect for this project as well.

EDIT: Blizzard has never released source code for any of their games. Interrupters have been developed to read blizzard resource files, but it's not the real game. Warcraft2 is quite fun, but starcraft is really lacking.

 

[kfuse]

Ah yea your right I forgot...damn SC is still closed source aint it?

 

[sold]

If N64 emulation becomes a reality on this device Starcraft 64 was tits. Definitely a better option than an interpreter and the control scheme is perfect for a handheld.

EDIT: I forgot to ask will there be some sort of slick lookin' docking station for this device with tv-out and maybe even video/ audio in as well for recording stuff? Something that will act like a usb hub and hopefully have room for a HDD in it (to be supplied by the customer)?
Maybe even a built in IR sensor for a remote control so when docked this thing can act like a media center at home and charge the unit and integrate nicely with everyones living room gadgets?

EDIT 2: Will there be any sort of midi or audio jack on the unit itself? Particularly some sort of line in? If not, what would the chances be that we could use external sound cards or connect audio devices through usb or something?

 

[cappuchok]

It better not have anything shiny on it, except for, of course, the lights. I don't want to scratch the back plate or the trimming on the sides. Plus, it's uglier when it is shiny, in my opinion.

Well, we know some areas will be shiny, but for now I'm hoping this will be limited to the metal plates around the analog controls as seen on the posted vids - the metal plates are reportedly going to be visible. Better yet would be to have even the metal in a sleek satin finish, but I guess I'm dreaming...

One area of glossiness that I find to be of some concern is the screen, though. How does it perform in natural light? I find the GP2X screen to be nearly unusable outside, whether it's sunny or overcast. Natural light of any kind just seems to wash out the contrast on the screen no end, while it's perfectly usable in indoor conditions (barring annoying reflections in some situations). It'd be nice to know how the screen of the new device performs in comparison.

EDIT: I forgot to ask will there be some sort of slick lookin' docking station for this device with tv-out and maybe even video/ audio in as well for recording stuff? Something that will act like a usb hub and hopefully have room for a HDD in it (to be supplied by the customer)?
Maybe even a built in IR sensor for a remote control so when docked this thing can act like a media center at home and charge the unit and integrate nicely with everyones living room gadgets?

If well thought out and well built, I see no harm in a cradle accessory. But if this isn't designed "into" the whole concept from the get-go, that is right now while designing the device itself, we could end up getting a badly designed and shoddily built mess like the current GP2X cradle. I for one don't want that.

Anyway, from previous posts by Craigix and the team (go read up on it), it seems all required accessories for TV-out and USB hosting will be provided with the device in the form of adapter cables. So all you'd really need is a regular powered USB hub and suitable drivers to add whatever USB hardware you like (including IR recievers, USB HDD enclosures, gamepads and whatever). This of course leaves the device without a slick docking station which would look neater as it would help organise the cables and let the device LCD be used as a secondary display (much like the VFD's of HTPCs), but as it won't be required, I guess it'll leave the cradle stand construction as an exercise for the creative user.

Me, I'm thinking of using this, while charging it at home, as a wireless Shoutcast/Icecast radio with remote control via the network. Having a proper cradle for it to be upright, so as to use the display properly for track info, visualizers and stuff, would be neat.

 

[sam fisher]

Could DOSBox be used to run C&C1? I know nothing of Dosbox or what it emulates other than DOS