Project Ninja

[Blah]

for the 3d acceleration we can use a s3 virge. it´s an intermediate solution.

Here is the page that sells it, you can found it with "search this page" of IE or mozilla:

http://www.nowcomponents.com/item1/page.cfm/2958

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I have one of those (I don't use it anymore). WORST GRAPHICS CARD EVER. People call it "The 3D De-cellerator". I wouldn't want to have one of those in my handheld. It'd be much to big, also.

 

[x68000]

the gizmondo would be hard to ignore if these claims are true as it seems to be very powerful with great connection capabilities.

the gizmondo forum site mentioned on the last page takes you back to the stone age though and the poor people on there seem perplexed by the words 'hacked' and 'emulation!' When asked what they should do with the giz since it has been hacked one user's best idea was to make a calculator program for it!! Maybe they should come on over here and see what really is possible with a handheld system!!

 

[pea]

I agree with the statments on the s3 virge. What a piece of crap. Most useless piece of hardware I ever owned.

The gizmondo definately looks promising. I was thinking of purchasing one a few weeks back, but a quick tour of the gizmondo forums convinced me they hadn't ironed all the bugs out yet (especially in terms of connecting to local telco's, and problems with SIM cards) and it was also a bit expensive and hard to get at the moment. I like the history of the company that makes the Gizmondo - they aren't just some startup that doesn't know anything about what they are doing.

 

[LHC]

I also had an S3 Virge. I honestly, until this very day, thought it was just a 2D accelerator.

 

[DaveC]

It won't use AAs or rather, chances are minimal, AAs don't have enough power to power the thing, so some li-ion battery will be used or similar.

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There are no standard Li-ion batteries. This means it would need to be custom, then you would have to rely on the company to keep making the batteries or you are stuck with a paperweight. They must be standard to be able to get batteries anywhere anytime. Maybe though you could use 3 or 4 AAa instead of two.

 

[DaveC]

If this takes off, to the projected numbers, what are the chances of some commercial game houses releasing stuff for it?  :huh:

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what are the projected numbers?

edit:
also, they're shooting for a sort of backwards compatibility with gp32 apps?

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1. There are no projected numbers.

2. No.

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No backwards compatibility is a big mistake. If it was backwards compatible w GP32 then all of the emus would work and you wouldn't lose everything.

If not compatible you are starting from square one all over again. Who will port stuff? one or two coders? It will take YEARS for things to materialize just like the GP32. The community will be small like now as you aren't going to sell that many compared to PSP or DS etc. It is not like the ninja will be sold world wide and in shops etc. like the PSP is, It will be an underground thing with little distribution only available from a couple of guys throwing them together in their basement. Yes if it sold like a PSP it makes sense but not otherwise. Besides the GP32 is not that complex anyway. There are no fancy gfx chips, to have to worry about etc. How much would it take to make the GP32 at least a subset of ninja? Can't see much of a problem.

 

[LHC]

No backwards compatibility is a big mistake.  If it was backwards compatible w GP32 then all of the emus would work and you wouldn't lose everything.

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I'm no expert but I imagine it would require specific hardware to allow true backwards compatability, and I really don't see this happening.

However as I understand it, the similarity between the current and proposed CPUs makes superficial backwards compatilibilty pretty much bog standard if the coder wants it that way, as there is little coding required.

 

[trooper]

From what i`ve heard/read here, All that maybe needed is the existing programs recompiled for the new processor to make them compatible. Though i could be completely wrong, As i don`t know my arse from my elbow when it come to coding. I do know a bit of basic though.

10 PRINT "Trooper is not a coder";
20 GOTO 10



Trooper

 

[Blah]

Just like any other port, the graphics (blitting), sound (mixing), and input (buttons) routines would need to be rewritten.

 

[TandeM]

It won't use AAs or rather, chances are minimal, AAs don't have enough power to power the thing, so some li-ion battery will be used or similar.

​

There are no standard Li-ion batteries. This means it would need to be custom, then you would have to rely on the company to keep making the batteries or you are stuck with a paperweight. They must be standard to be able to get batteries anywhere anytime. Maybe though you could use 3 or 4 AAa instead of two.

​

A rechargable CRV3 unit (normal 3v digital camera battery, available in 1700mAh and above) fits in the same space as two AA cells, and the format isn't going to die anytime soon so long as Kodak/Nikon/Olympus/Fuji are still in business. If the Ninja can accomodate one format, it can accomodate the other (although whether it will double as a docking/recharge bay is another thing; I believe most CRV3 rechargers require 12v).

Pic:

 

[EvilDragon]

Just like any other port, the graphics (blitting), sound (mixing), and input (buttons) routines would need to be rewritten.

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Nope, not at all, since graphics, sound and input is done by the processor in this case and compatible to the old one.
Only thing not working is the SD / SMC card thing
So recompiling with MINOR changes should work.

I can also imagine some kind of wrapper for SD / SMC.

 

[Squidge]

Any apps than use the gpSDK or MirkoSDK should only need a recompile. Those that hit the hardware directly may need small changes, but they certainly won't need porting.

 

[synkro]

Maybe the Giz is more for me than the Ninja, as it's less well documented (! )

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then stop reading here and just buy a ninja w/o any manual, should be the same then

 

[DaveC]

It won't use AAs or rather, chances are minimal, AAs don't have enough power to power the thing, so some li-ion battery will be used or similar.

​

There are no standard Li-ion batteries. This means it would need to be custom, then you would have to rely on the company to keep making the batteries or you are stuck with a paperweight. They must be standard to be able to get batteries anywhere anytime. Maybe though you could use 3 or 4 AAa instead of two.

​

A rechargable CRV3 unit (normal 3v digital camera battery, available in 1700mAh and above) fits in the same space as two AA cells, and the format isn't going to die anytime soon so long as Kodak/Nikon/Olympus/Fuji are still in business. If the Ninja can accomodate one format, it can accomodate the other (although whether it will double as a docking/recharge bay is another thing; I believe most CRV3 rechargers require 12v).

Pic:

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The battery bay could be designed to accomodate that and AAs too. The thing is though there are NiMH AA batteries that are higher amp hour like 2300 etc.

 

[DaveC]

No backwards compatibility is a big mistake.  If it was backwards compatible w GP32 then all of the emus would work and you wouldn't lose everything.

​

I'm no expert but I imagine it would require specific hardware to allow true backwards compatability, and I really don't see this happening.

However as I understand it, the similarity between the current and proposed CPUs makes superficial backwards compatilibilty pretty much bog standard if the coder wants it that way, as there is little coding required.

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I don't know isn't the GP32 basically just an arm CPU and memory and some other simple gfx hardware like hardware scrolling? If so it could easily be a subset of ninja. When a gp32 app was run on the ninja it would basically be like it was running on a GP32 overclocked to 400Mhz as far as the app was concerned. You could even have the FW stored on the SD/CF card to run them. It could basically be like the Mac "emulator" that used to run on the Amiga. All that did was load the Mac BIOS and system ROMs and remap some things.

 

[Squidge]

It's certainly possible that we could use MMU to remap some things to get a "Gp32 on steroids", but until we have working hardware, nothing is certain. I'm constantly reading new datasheets are a part of my job, and there's a lot of errors in them, and I'm not talking about typo's, just things are plain wrong! Some even state register values incorrectly!

Now, on a different topic, how about this for the Ninja storage:

That's 2GB in the size of a Quarter

 

[Vimacs]

wow, how much do that cost, have to be expensive as hell.

 

[DemonStar55]

I got more than 2gbs of nes snes and genesis tho

 

[Jarska333]

Get two, then.

 

[boubou]

search "goforce" too in nowcomponents.com you will receive a surprise.