Prototype Impressions + Mupen64Plus With Loz: Ocarina Of Time

[Adventus]

Well i gots me a prototype Pandora, I don't have much to add beyond what the others have said (and i've already mentioned most of these in another thread).... but here's my impressions:

• Everything feels really sturdy. There is little to no flex.
• It weighs a bit more than your average handheld, i like this.
• The battery cover design is nifty.
• The controls are really nice. Especially the nubs and dpad.
• The prototype can only overclock stable to ~800Mhz, maybe we shouldn't expect the 850 - 900 I got with the devboard.
• My one has a floppy hinge, i assume its one of the ones that's been stress tested. The hinge will stay in position as long as its >45 degrees from horizontal and you don't shake it too much.
• The footprint of this device is very small, makes the screen seem huge. Its quite thick though, but this makes it more ergonomic to hold.
• I'm not a huge fan of the glossy keyboard, it kind of sticks out from the matte everything else.
• I'm not much of a thumb typist, I've never owned a device this small with QWERTY, but i find the keyboard pretty good. Some key placings / key sizes will take awhile to get used to.
• The battery is very large. takes up about 1/3 of the space.
• The touchscreen is accurate using the stylus. I can easily manipulate the various OS screens without having to double press anything etc.
• Compared to say Sony or Nintendo it's not the prettiest device. It firmly puts function over form.

Anyway here's what you've all been badgering me for, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (and Sin and Punishment):


Here's the caption:

This video shows a Pandora prototype running Zelda: Ocarina of Time/Sin and Punishment on Mupen64plus with
Ari64's Dynarec and my gles2n64 graphics plugin. The Prototype is at 800mhz. Its being rendered at 640x480 with No frameskip or sound.
I would say Zelda is fairly playable, the dungeons are ~75-100% but some cutscenes/towns are slower ~65-80%.
Sin and Punishment is OK but not fullspeed, ~50-80% depending on how many enemies are onscreen. Gorgeous game though,
looks like it could be on DC. This emulator is still in development, there's still a few bugs and rendering problems.

Sorry about the Video Quality, I do not own a video camera. Thanks goes out to CraigIX / the OpenPandora crew for sending a prototype my way.

The controls map really well to the N64, i don't think any other handheld would really cut it for this purpose. At the moment its mapped:

Pandora = N64
Dpad = Dpad
Left Analog = Analog
Right Analog = C Buttons
Right button = A
Bottom Button = B
L = Z
R = R
Start = Start

This way all the buttons are accessible from the same hand as the N64 (except L when you use the dpad).The Analogs are a bit too sensitive, but thats understandable, the N64 had what >10mm of travel? this can be helped by using a nonlinear mapping between the analogs.

 

[danielliu88888]

you are awesome.

 

[kingoddball]

WOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!!

 

[megabyte]

Thats the kind of posts that life the spirits!

It looks very promising.

I hope we all can run it without voiding our warranty for overclo.... oh noooo they got my order number!

 

[soliddew]

wow, that looks awesome! the best part is definitely the controls... the n64 controller is extremely difficult to replicate, and make playing certain games on the keyboard nearly impossible.

I know this is a little unrelated, but i see that you did work on the Zdoom engine for the GP2X, and on the wiki it says its a WIP on the Pandora. i'm curious to know how the development is on that, as playing a good modern port of doom on a portable is one of my greatest dreams, and the pandora can definitely fulfill that.

 

[fraseyboy]

Hot.

 

[r00tw00t]

No sound, but is it still emulated?

 

[mali]

Impressive

 

[borgqueenx]

thanks aventus good video and experience

 

[s33k3rgr]

thank u for the impressions. Sounds promising....

 

[Alpha2]

My old 1.5ghz XP PC couldn't emulate Sin and Punishment with that kinda clarity. I mean it did it full speed with sound but always screwed up the textures.

Here's hoping we can at least get halfspeed (w/frameskip atleast) with sound without jacking it up to 800mhz eventually.

 

[Prometheus]

As Chef Excellence would say: An Excellent Video.

Thanks very much.

 

[gruso]

Awesome stuff Adventus.

Thats the kind of posts that life the spirits!

It looks very promising.

I hope we all can run it without voiding our warranty for overclo.... oh noooo they got my order number!

Hey megabyte, why are you scaremongering with this stuff in the Youtube comments? Why are you posting screenshots of a locked thread with an incorrect title? For the controversy?

Here's the thread you should be referring to: http://www.gp32x.de...ng-an-arm-chip/

From that thread: "Let's start here before deciding the overclocking policy."

So, please stop with the tabloid crap until we know the truth.

Sorry to put this crap in your thread Adventus.

 

[megabyte]

Hey Gruso you had to follow me all over youtube to post your rant?

I just made my point over there.

You said at youtube:

@mbytesecurity: No such statement has been made. Let OP Ltd announce the facts first.

So because it is a closed thread it means that everything there is not valid?

 

[Bosbeetle]

Hey Gruso you had to follow me all over youtube to post your rant?

I just made my point over there.

You said at youtube:

@mbytesecurity: No such statement has been made. Let OP Ltd announce the facts first.

So because it is a closed thread it means that everything there is not valid?

No because it implies craig wrote the "A" part which is not true he did not give an anwser yet

 

[atomicthumbs]

 HEY 

LISTEN

 

[Bosbeetle]

Bleh this should be a positive thread. Its freaking OoT people! You know the game you've all been whining about!

 

[Wolfsclaw]

No sound, but is it still emulated?

Curious about this one as well.

 

[danielliu88888]

Hey Gruso you had to follow me all over youtube to post your rant?

I just made my point over there.

You said at youtube:

@mbytesecurity: No such statement has been made. Let OP Ltd announce the facts first.

So because it is a closed thread it means that everything there is not valid?

you know, you could actually like



read threads

even if you only need to read the last post in that one

or at least notice the frying an arm chip thread

 

[mali]

@megabyte
Please take the time to read the threads thoroughly first, not just the headlines. Even easier, click on the "Latest Info" link in my sig.