Pandora Questions

[ilovevideogames408]

I've been told of the Pandora and I'd be interested in getting one. AFAIK, it's an portable netbook running on linux and has specs awesome enough to emulate the PSX full speed correct?

1) What are the chances of the emulation of DreamCast, PSP, DS, PS2, GameCube and XBox?

2) I see that the Pandora has gaming buttons. It has ABXY, D-Pad, Two Analogs... But does it have Shoulder Buttons (like the L1, L2, R1, R2 buttons for PSX). If not, what might be the closest setup to that.

3) I hear that the Pandora is only USB 2.0. Is that true? A Hub should work, correct? Most Plug and Play devices should work right?

4) Can I get the Pandora to run on my iPhone's 3G network or my computer's ethernet? Can I access my SD Cards on my computer using my Pandora?

5) How dangerous is restoring, if the need is ever felt to. Is it unbrickable. Can the NAND be screwed up?

6) What other hardware is their available for the Pandora?

Related to Pandora indirectly:

1) Would a PS2 Controller attached to an Extension Cord attached to a PS2 to USB Adapter work?
2) How many more buttons does the 360 controller have more than the PS2

 

[Kramy]

0) Not exactly a netbook. It's more like a PDA/PMP/PSP/Tablet hybrid.

1) Dreamcast -> Slowly, PSP -> No, DS -> Only one screen, PS2 -> Too fast, Gamecube -> Too fast, XBox -> Too fast

The Pandora CPU should be roughly on par to a Gamecube or Wii CPU. Therefore, it's too slow to emulate any of the consoles of that generation. PS1, n64, GBA, SNES, Sega, etc. should be fine.

2) It has them.

3) "is only USB2.0"? Yes, it has a single USB 2.0 port, and any device with linux drivers available should be plug and play.

4) Linux has many network drivers available, including USB ones that allow connecting it to a host PC. But why don't you just use WiFi? No clue if 3G tethering works, but apparently Huawei e220 USB modems will.

No idea what happens if you plug your Pandora in. Does it show up as a USB mass storage device? What if you have two cards plugged in? What if you're using the USB for ethernet? In short, no clue.

5) Restoring? NAND can die, but you can't brick a Pandora.

6) I don't know?

1b) No clue.
2b) No clue.

 

[javaJake]

1) What are the chances of the emulation of DreamCast, PSP, DS, PS2, GameCube and XBox?

Nearly impossible, particularly the last three.

2) I see that the Pandora has gaming buttons. It has ABXY, D-Pad, Two Analogs... But does it have Shoulder Buttons (like the L1, L2, R1, R2 buttons for PSX). If not, what might be the closest setup to that.

It has L1 and R1, but no L2 and R2. However there are plenty of other buttons that these can be remapped to.

3) I hear that the Pandora is only USB 2.0. Is that true? A Hub should work, correct? Most Plug and Play devices should work right?

The mini-sized USB is 1.1, and the "normal"-sized USB is 2.0. If you want to use the 1.1 USB port with full-sized USB devices, you can simply add a little, cheap adapter onto the end of your USB device's plug.

4) Can I get the Pandora to run on my iPhone's 3G network or my computer's ethernet? Can I access my SD Cards on my computer using my Pandora?

Likely, definitely, and definitely. Accessing your Pandora's SD cards and using your computer's ethernet connection over USB cannot happen simulaneously, however. (That's easily remedied, though, if you just use network sharing.)

5) How dangerous is restoring, if the need is ever felt to. Is it unbrickable. Can the NAND be screwed up?

NAND can be screwed up, but that doesn't mean it's brickable. There is simple software burned into a special memory in the Pandora that is booted first when the Pandora is turned on. This software can be told to boot from an SD card rather than NAND through a keyboard combination, allowing you to recover whatever you messed up.

6) What other hardware is their available for the Pandora?

Anything that works on your Linux desktop.

1) Would a PS2 Controller attached to an Extension Cord attached to a PS2 to USB Adapter work?

If it works in Linux in general, yes. (I can't say for sure, since that depends on the specific adapter you get, I think.)

2) How many more buttons does the 360 controller have more than the PS2

Heheh, you're on a roll, eh? This should be easy enough to Google. Compare two pictures: (XBox) (PS2/PS3)

 

[fischju]

Topics for the DC and PSP emulators being developed are here: http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?sh ... 47270&st=0
and here: http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?sh ... 47027&st=0

DC seems to be the most likely right now, as it's made the most progress and is running slowly on a beagleboard. DS may be possible, but nobody has announced work on one.

 

[ilovevideogames408]

2) How many more buttons does the 360 controller have more than the PS2

Heheh, you're on a roll, eh? This should be easy enough to Google. Compare two pictures: (XBox) (PS2/PS3)

It seems they have the same amount.. But looks can be deceiving :wink:

thnx for all your answers... I now have a basic understanding of the Pandora.... My friend had bought two of them, but realized he didn't want another one anymore, so he's considering selling it to me.. Might as well take it, he's giving it to me for 375 or something

btw, here's the adapter I'm getting for my PC: https://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.11707

Got an extension cord and a PS2 controller for $12, so its a pretty sweet deal compared to the PS3 Controller or the third-party companies.

Read the reviews and awesome.. It's even 2.0... Now to see if it works in Win7 x86, Vista x64 and Ubuntu (If it works with x86 Ubuntu, it should work with the ARM Angstrom right? Linux, after all, is just linux using the old trusty linux kernel)

As for the emulators, I really didn't expect much more than the PSX and N64 full speed. Although PSP would be awesomz as well as DreamCast..

 

[kollau]

Your friend is owning a Pandora? Interesting. I bet there are a lot of people who'd pay quite some money for it.

 

[ilovevideogames408]

He doesn't own one, he ordered two of them, both with a case and a tvout.. He was talking about it one day and I said I'd like to have something like that. So, he would give it to me.. Saves us both the hassle

Anyways, I'll keep up with what's going on... Seems like there has been a lot of delays for the Pandora...

 

[fischju]

As for the emulators, I really didn't expect much more than the PSX and N64 full speed. Although PSP would be awesomz as well as DreamCast..

Playable N64 is probably possible, but nobody seems to be working on an emulator. It would certainly not be an easy task.

 

[ilovevideogames408]

Pity... What might be a good programming language to start on if one wished to code for the Pandora?

0) Not exactly a netbook. It's more like a PDA/PMP/PSP/Tablet hybrid.

What about UMPC? Ahh well, no sense starting this, there was a whole thread on it over at gp32x.

 

[danielpwnsricky]

Pity... What might be a good programming language to start on if one wished to code for the Pandora?

you might want to start a new topic.