Over Entusiast


C

Conject Die

Guest
Hello,

I am a huge Linux fan. And I tend to buy Linux devices when the community is just about to die (Caanoo, N900, Gumstix and a Shiva Plug laying about). 

Often I buy these things and think I can do awesome Laptop replacing things with them. I did do some programming on my n900. And I do have my Raspberry PI and FitPC as serious appliances running around. But the Gumstix Catch Dust, the Caanoo sometimes and the N900 I don't even know if the rats took it. 

And, it is a shame really. I love the devices, but the communities seem to die really really quickly. Anyway, I have seen that the Pandora community is quite strong. (correct me if I am wrong) and that it is still renewing.

Now I want one, I want to be able to play some games when the summer starts. My girl wants to sit outside, so I'll have to go alone.

But I want to do some programming, and you can't read the terminal well outside. So I am looking for a replacement thingy. I bought a ASUS Tablet for this. With keyboard, it is amazing. But as expected I can't access the Linux within.. (AARGH).

After looking for a platform for games I noticed this. And I fell in love with it. But this time I want to be sure it meets my expectations. With the caanoo the PSX Support was HORRIBLE even worse than the people online said. The games I wanted didn't work. Same with MAME support and the TV-Out thing. 

Therefore I'd like to ask:

  • Is it true that you can run most Linux applications. It's just an ARM Linux version?
  • Is it true that you can use it a full day without overheating or running out of juice?
  • Is it true that I can use it when there is sunlight about?
  • Is it true that it is awesome?

Also I want to play the following games / platforms:

PSX:

    Thrill Kill

    Dead Ball Zone

    Team Buddies

    Bushido Blade 2

    Tekken 3

    Castlevania Symphony of the Night

    Koudelka

    Battle Arena Toshinden

    Guilty Gear

 

MAME:

    Bloodstorm

    Zerowing

    Metal Slug 3

 

Sega Genesis:

    Splatterhouse 2

 

GBA:

    Advance Wars 2 - Black Hole Rising

    Castlevania - Aria of Sorrow

    Castlevania - Circle of the Moon

    Castlevania - Harmony of Dissonance

    Final Fantasy - Tactics Advanced

    Kirby - Nightmare in Dream Land

    Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo

 

NES:

    Shadowgate

    Gargoyle's Quest II - The Demon Darkness

    Contra

    Megaman 

 

SNES:

    Demon's Crest

    Earthbound

 

DOS:

    Raptor: Call of the Shadows

    Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis 

    Alone in the Dark

    Betryal at Krondor

    Blood

    Carmegeddon

    Death Rally

    Dungeon keeper

    Eye of The Beholder

    Grand Thef Auto

    Little Big Adventure

    Prehistorik 2

    Rescue Rover

    Spear of Destiny

    Windows 3.11 -> Mordor: Depths of Delroj

    Suppaplex

    International Karate

 

ScummVM:

     Simon the Sorcerer

     Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis 

 

Caanoo:

    rhythmos

 

Native:

    Paintown

    Crawl: Stone Soup (SDL-Version)

    Shadow Warrior

    JumpMan

    Chess

How well do these things work? I doubt the Caanoo game runs but still I've put it on there.

Just really want to know as its a 600$ Investment (device + case + SD-cards).

Thanks

 - Conject

ps.

It's either the Pandora or a new Laptop. My old one is overheating with normal use.
 
Guest_Conject Die_* said:
Therefore I'd like to ask: Is it true that you can run most Linux applications. It's just an ARM Linux version? Is it true that you can use it a full day without overheating or running out of juice? Is it true that I can use it when there is sunlight about? Is it true that it is awesome?
Click to expand...
You can run the applications that are compiled for ARM processor with soft float IIRC. Your best bet is to use pandora's repository, softwares are already packaged as PND and ready to run on your pandora.

You can run the pandora for DAYS without overheating, even if you're charging it.

It's hard to run out of power, most of the time I get a solid  8 to 9 hours of actual use (with wifi active) and it can be charged via USB.

Sunlight is a problem,  it's better to use the pandora in a shaded place. Even with maxed up backlight and the special color profile, it can be tricky to read the screen under direct sunlight (like most LCD devices).

Yes, it's awesome!

From the games you're talking about I've played without any problems:


PSX :

  Koudelka

  Castlevania SotN

MAME :

  Metal Slug 3

GBA :

  Castlevania : AoS

  FF tactics advance

SCUMM VM:

  Indiana Jones : Fate of Atlantis

  Simon the Sorcerer

Native :

  Jumpman

Let's be short : almost any "mainstream" console preceding PS1 (ps1 included), are emulated without major problems (like always with emulators, some games are tricky). Saturn and N64 aren't that well emulated since they have awful hardware architectures. Aaaand, no, no Deamcast :p
 
Last edited by a moderator:
# Is it true that you can run most Linux applications. It's just an ARM Linux version?

# Is it true that you can use it a full day without overheating or running out of juice?

# Is it true that I can use it when there is sunlight about?

# Is it true that it is awesome?

  • Everything has to be compiled for ARM, look at repo.openpandora.org to get an idea of the software we have available - the pnd system is wonderful
  • Overheating is a complete non-problem. You can run for a day of continuous use (light gaming p'raps), two or three days of audio playback, weeks of doing nothing at all.
  • Max brightness and optimised gamma will make it just about readable in the shade on a hot summer's day
  • Yes. A pandora can beat the £$^$%&£ out of a smartphone for anything except telephony, and this community will teach you more about computing than any other device's.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Welcome to our Community:

Here the Games for Dos you listed

 

DOS:

    Raptor: Call of the Shadows (i tested it with Qemu)

    Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis (work with ScummVM,Qemu,Dowbox)

    Alone in the Dark(not with Qemu,Testing Results are veryyy slow)

    Betryal at Krondor(not tested this)

    Blood(not in Qemu but in Youtube you find a Video running well in Dosbox)

    Carmegeddon(in the moment not,there is a Android Version that unfortunaly dont work,but PSX Version fine)

    Death Rally(Tested in Qemu with 600MHZ Device,was to slow,but maybe with 1GHZ Pandora)

    Dungeon keeper(work fine,see in my Youtube Account)

    Eye of The Beholder(not tested this)

    Grand Thef Auto(Work fine and there is a Freeware Qemu Image made by me for all on the Pandora)

    Little Big Adventure(not tested this)

    Prehistorik 2(not tested this)

    Rescue Rover(dont know this)

    Spear of Destiny(not tested)

    Windows 3.11 -> Mordor: Depths of Delroj (In Qemu work win3.11 very fast,but without Touchscreen)

    Suppaplex(not tested)

    International Karate(not Tested)

 

See in my Signature,there are lot of Games/Videos wits DOS and Win95 on the Pandora :)

In the Moment work i to get X86 Linux Binaries Run with X86 Wine or Qemu on the Pandora ^_^
 
Conject Die said:
  • Is it true that you can use it a full day without overheating or running out of juice?
Click to expand...
if you don't put it into direct sunlight "yes" - One can't overheat the Pandora, things get too unstable and will crash her if you overclock too much.
Conject Die said:
  • Is it true that I can use it when there is sunlight about?
Click to expand...
Only if you play games that don't have dark areas - Freespace is only playable if I'm sitting in a shaded place
Conject Die said:
NES:

    Shadowgate

    Gargoyle's Quest II - The Demon Darkness

    Contra

    Megaman
Click to expand...
I completed all on the Pandora, except Shadowgate

Conject Die said:
SNES:

    Demon's Crest
Click to expand...
Completed on the Pandora
Conject Die said:
DOS:

    Raptor: Call of the Shadows

    Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis 

    Alone in the Dark

    Betryal at Krondor

    Blood

    Carmegeddon

    Death Rally

    Dungeon keeper

    Eye of The Beholder

    Grand Thef Auto

    Little Big Adventure

    Prehistorik 2

    Rescue Rover

    Spear of Destiny

    Windows 3.11 -> Mordor: Depths of Delroj

    Suppaplex

    International Karate
Click to expand...
Some of the games will be problematik - I doubt that raptor will run fluidly (but we have Tyrian native, not quite as good, but ok), Dungeon Keeper is playable with a 1GHz Edition (
https://www.youtube.com/embed/f88qejctOEM?feature=oembedMaybe a new Laptop is the better solution. The Pandora is a great device, there is nothing out there that is even slighty comparable, but it is no Laptop replacement.
 
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Thanks, getting closer and closer to buying one. Also, I only use my laptop for coding. But you can connect a Keyboard and screen to the Pandora as said in the wiki. I'll trust this is not the best way, but it will suffice for me :)
 
and here Diablo2,recorded today ;)

(the GHZ Edition is used and overclocked for this)

https://www.youtube.com/embed/7qkaOMtyVVo?feature=oembed


sorry for doubleposting that Video,thought it fits perfectly here in too :D

I had Keyboards and mouses on the Pandora,work with a Hub Fine.

Soon come the Official TV-Out Cables,then can you need it on TV via Svideo(SVHS) or Composite.
 
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Congratulations! You won't regret it!

Conject Die said:
Therefore I'd like to ask:

  • Is it true that you can run most Linux applications. It's just an ARM Linux version?
Click to expand...
 
Yes.  You can run all Linux applications as long as you have the sources and the application does not crucially rely on x86 assembly code or require a high resolution screen or something like that. Of course it has to be open source: you can do nothing with closed-source x86 binaries. Big "real" applications like LibreOffice, The Gimp, Firefox, etc. work perfectly on the Pandora.

Conject Die said:
  • Is it true that you can use it a full day without overheating or running out of juice?
Click to expand...
Yes. Overheating is no problem at all. Running out of juice: depends mostly on cpu, wifi, and display backlight usage. With the backlight at max brightness, downloading some stuff in the background, and the cpu mostly active (e.g. emulating PS1), you won't get a full day out of it, it'll be more like 5 or 6 hours. In more normal cpu-intensive use (e.g. emulating PS1, wifi disabled, backlight not at max) you'll get 10 to 12 hours. Is that a full day? Under low cpu loads (e.g. while coding - mostly just text editing with occasional compiles and tests in between), you'll get 20-25 hours. So it's certainly possible to use it a full day (as in 24 hours) without running out of juice.

Conject Die said:
  • Is it true that I can use it when there is sunlight about?
Click to expand...
Yes. However, like any LCD screen, the contrast goes down dramatically in direct sunlight. I've used my Pandora to check email and do some IRC chatting, outside, in direct sunlight, in Egypt, in summer. It was possible (with backlight at max and a very exaggerated gamma profile), but it's not a use case I'd recommend. If sunlight visibility is important, you need something like e-ink (a Kindle or something) or something with a PixelQi screen.

Conject Die said:
  • Is it true that it is awesome?
Click to expand...
Yes. Very.
 
ingoreis said:
you can do nothing with closed-source x86 binaries
Click to expand...
That what i am work on with experimenting on Qemu Usermode Emulation ;)

But its early testing ^_^
Click to expand...
Oops, yeah, "nothing" is of course not really true, you can of course emulate. I just meant that you shouldn't expect e.g. Linux Steam games to work on Pandora since (afaik) they only distribute x86 binaries, and for recent games the overhead of emulation is almost certainly too much.
 
I'm surprised that the forum grammites, haven't spotted that enthusiast is mispelt!

Tut, tut this won't do at all... :p
 
Incorrect spelling and grammar does not warrant the invocation of modly powers.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

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