I'm missing an X86 Linux (not DOS) emulator so that I can play native X86 Linux games. Neverwinter Nights, the 198 games and counting in the Steam catalog, SupertuxKart, etc...
Well, all OpenSource Linux Games like SuperTuxKart is not something you can miss.
So it's only the Steam games and a few other closed source ones.
How do you define 'modern' PC games? The entire HalfLife series is 10+ years old. So is Neverwinter Nights. These should run fine on the Z3770. Just examples.
With modern, I mean current ones or max 1 - 2 years old
How do you figure they wouldn't be any fun? Whether we go 1920x1080 or1280x720, the screen for a Pandora successor will likely be larger (5"?) and much higher resolution. Yes, text is going to be tiny - but very sharp.
They often are optimized for mouse and keyboard usage, with tiny tiny fonts.
Even FreeCiv is not that much fun on the Pandora because controls have not been optimized and are Standard PC (Mouse / Keyboard).
With x86 closed source games, it CANNOT be optimized, and that's no fun.
Most emulators being more optimized for ARM than on x86 is simply a case of invention following necessity. Would the optimizations even be needed on a Z3770 platform - or would it simply work?
They work, but aren't optimized and therefore use more CPU power (which means higher power usage).
NDS, for example, will not work at all.
*The Pandora successor will have a different SoC than the Pandora - regardless of X86 or ARM. Assuming that everything will be optimized right out of the box is a bit of a stretch isn't it?
A CortexA15 is the same ARM architecture than a CortexA8, including stuff like NEON. So it IS possible to run current Pandora games and emulators without changing anything.
So all these optimizations will work right away.
You could run the very same OS with the very same PNDs on a CortexA15. Something that is not possible with x86.
So yes, we'd have a lot of optimized emulators right away.
*'All Android Games' - Note that this same SoC runs Android too.
Yes, it runs all Java games.
But it doesn't run any games that use compiled code - which is nearly the full game and apps library.
*Doesn't run our optimized stuff. If something is optimized to the hardware layer - would it even run on another newer multi-core ARM SoC?
Yes, maybe with minor changes. It's still the same ARM Core and a compatible NEON extension.
See DraStic as example. Works fine with every Smartphone that has any Cortex SoC with NEON support.
*mostly has emulators with fiddly menus for a small screen
Most of these emulators are open source, right? Not to belittle the process, but how hard is it to change the presentation font for something that the source code is available for?
It's not the font. It's using GTK / QT UI, which a window with menus.
On a console, I'd rather use the DPad and buttons to go through menus.
Yes, of course that can be added to the emulators. It was the same on the Pandora. But it would have to be redone again.
*but doesn't run Android games
Check that again - the whole SoC can run Android native. If that isn't enough, Intel released a native X86 Android emulator:
http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/24/3040706/intel-x86-image-for-android-ice-cream-sandwich-sdk
Yep, and Windows RT runs a full Windows 8 on an ARM tablet - except that it can't run any Windows 8 x86 apps.
It's the same here, just vice versa.
How about some X86 positives?
*4GB dual channel RAM
Which would need A LOT of power and drain the battery life even further.
*Full video decode at hardware level
Even the Pandora can decode Full HD H264 videos at hardware level using the DSP, but no one finished implementing that on the Pandora yet.
Besides, the codecs would need to be licensed, so it would not work at hardware level out of the box on x86 as well.
*64bit quad core X86 Linux handheld computer with gaming controls? Yeah, sign me up.
8 core ARM Linux Handheld computer with gaming controls? I'd love that.
This is no positive aspect, it's just a statement
*With this SoC, the Pandora successor could be a 64bit Ubuntu handheld console/computer.
Well, same with ARM. The only thing missing would be closed source games.
*For the gamers/emulator crowd: It could run pretty close to every game written prior to 2005. With real gamer oriented controls, it would still blow away any other portable gaming alternative. Play. Anything.
You'd gain PC games and you'd lose most Android and NDS games.
Is that a gain?
*For professionals: Your IT guy could install Windows 8 on it, lock it down all corporate, and you'd have the smallest laptop in the room/jet/bar. Cool sales guy factor +6.
Professionals don't use Win8
Jokes aside, Win8 needs a LOT of ressources. It would drain the battery probably within 2 hours, simply doing nothing.
*Portable Steam Box console has to yield some sales credits.
Well, you don't even know yet what the Steam Box Home console will be.
Maybe it will use ARM?
ED, in the end it comes down to what you want to do. If you tell me that the sound of an X86 SoC is simply too distasteful for you to consider, then I'll stop. I'm presenting this for consideration because it looks like Intel may have created something that fits every criteria I've seen presented for a Pandora successor SoC - except that it isn't ARM. My thoughts are that this is cool enough that it deserves looking into with an open mind.
Well, we'd lose too much in my opinion.
Android games, NDS, Optimizations and our full Pandora software library, with all the small optimizations made in the last years to work properly on our little handheld.
And we'd get a system where the software is not much optimized for power usage or similar, since people simply would buy a new PC and don't care about power usage.
There definitely is too much we'd lose and too little we'd gain here.
I rather have a small and good community (as we are now) than thousands of buyers who would be disappointed because Win8 and their latest games would suck the battery dry in a couple of hours.
