SD Cards as OpenPandora "cartridges"


E

Elle

Guest
Hi! Pardon me if this is a dumb question, but I'm working on a Linux-based game project that I'd eventually like to make an OpenPandora version of. I haven't actually acquired the unit yet, so I was curious--is it possible to load a game on an SD card in such a way that, if plugged into the Pandora, can 'just work' or be easily launched without needing to be installed to internal flash (though it'd likely offer that as an option as well)?

Basically, I'd like to be able to distribute an SD card, at least in limited quantities, like a old style game cartridge. :)
 
The OS is the only thing that resides on the internal flash memory.. It's only 512MBs and is limited on space.. SD cards are used for applications and games.  All software is bundled in something called a PND file.. basically it's an ISO or squashfs image file with some XML wizardry so that when placed in the appropriate directory on the SD card it will automatically show up on the desktop and menu. You can also distribute via our official repository, there are options for commercial apps that would allow people to purchase them from this repository.

You could just compile your software for the Pandora and bundle it on and SD card without packaging it into a PND, but after you are used to the PND system people tend to like the convenience of it. Our development section of this forum is a great place to ask questions if you like to know more. 
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Note that is however possible to bypass completely the OS and boot from the SD Card directly. So you could run a game this way, but you'd need to have a kind of OS on the SD card as well to make your game load and run. So, it's possible.
 
Just an SD card with 1 PND on it would work. It would be quite user-friendly and practical: once the "novelty" value of the "cartridge" wears off, you can just copy the PND to your normal (big) SD card.
 
I must say I really like the concept.

The only way I can see it working as a practical distribution model though is if you are planning use the same SD card  to provide several versions of the game in one media.   (i.e. a single card which provides versions of the game for multiple platforms, so that customers who order it can use the same card to play it on any of the supported platforms)

- Neelix
 
So would this sd card have a label on it with the icon or picture of the game? Similar to what devices like Tapwave, N-Gage and Gizmondo did with their cards?

Would it come boxed?
 
Last edited:
How much to tiny SD cards cost now?

It could be neat for codeblocks or wesnoth etc

I've moved the question about Australian charger compatibility to 'sales support'
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The only reason I can think of to do this is if it were a game for purchase and the author is concerned about copy protection and wanted to use the S in SD.  Otherwise, all that packaging is kind of a waste - not to mention loosing a slot on the device to a single application.

There are other ways to get piracy protection without resorting to physical packaging - especially in a web connectable device.
 
The Idea is cool,but think ever on a Backup Partition when a Error or Mistake destroy or damage

the Original Data ^_^

I want to buy a

SD Card with Android,

SD Card with Codeblocks,

SD Card packaged with many Games/Emulators/Roms  (naturaly free Roms for testing from PDROMS.de),

A Complete Pandora OS Dev System,

A Multimedia Card for using XBMC on TV with the Pandora :D

Game Cards like Cartridges are a good Idea,

but we have a Sell function on Repo_Openpandora.org...dont foget that too ;)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
There are other ways to get piracy protection without resorting to physical packaging - especially in a web connectable device.
How, exactly, would you add "piracy protection" to a PND?
The pnd would not have to implement it but the SD-Card itself could implement some form of DRM (at least it is in the specs). But I don't have a clue on how this could be implemented, neither if it was ever implemented at all.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I don't think the intention here is to have DRM. It's more about having a physical object corresponding to the game, a card with a nice label on it that you can package in a nice little physical box. This is possible and would be quite cheap, since you probably only need an SD card with a small capacity (2 or 4 GB would be more than enough). The user can copy the PND to his own big SD card for convenience, but it's still nice to have the little physical object as a kind of "collector's item". Given the amount of retro nostalgia in this community, I can imagine that there would be quite a few people interested in that sort of thing.

If on the other hand the goal is to have strong DRM, then I don't think your game will be very successful - this community is all about openness and having the ability to do what you want with your device. It's a small niche community anyway, and if you restrict yourself to the subset of the community that would pay for games with DRM for their Pandora, you may very well find out that this subset is empty or almost empty.
 
I think the original version of Payback for GP2X used SD copy protection. (And for this reason you need the downloadable version to work with GINGE)

EDIT: To add to what _wb_ said, on a personal level, I try to support commercial Pandora releases, but I only bought Pollo Pollo when the author took the commendable step of removing the DRM.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I don't think the intention here is to have DRM. It's more about having a physical object corresponding to the game, a card with a nice label on it that you can package in a nice little physical box. This is possible and would be quite cheap, since you probably only need an SD card with a small capacity (2 or 4 GB would be more than enough). The user can copy the PND to his own big SD card for convenience, but it's still nice to have the little physical object as a kind of "collector's item". Given the amount of retro nostalgia in this community, I can imagine that there would be quite a few people interested in that sort of thing.

If on the other hand the goal is to have strong DRM, then I don't think your game will be very successful - this community is all about openness and having the ability to do what you want with your device. It's a small niche community anyway, and if you restrict yourself to the subset of the community that would pay for games with DRM for their Pandora, you may very well find out that this subset is empty or almost empty.
Subset of a subset actually.

Pandora Population

     Willing to  pay for the game in question

           Willing to pay for the game in question with DRM

I think that the willing to pay for a high quality game group exists - they're playing on a $500 +/- device after all.  But given the high quality of the free/cheap/recycled content that they have access to, it would need to be one heck of a game to be a 'hit' and cost $$.
 
I would be more interested in a game distributed on an SD card if that kind of real estate were used to house a bigger, more legit game. Like a 4-8Gb sized game. Even a 1Gb made-for-pandora game would be interesting. The simple solution for loading it would be to create a launcher pnd that is free to download and to sell the SD cards preloaded with the game. You could also sell the games online for download but because of the size of the games there would be a demand for the convenience of the preloaded SD cards.


What do you guys think of this?


EDIT: I'm speaking as a gamer who bought the pandora as a consumer. I would be willing to pay for a game that's beefier than the other more casual sometimes arcade games that have been developed for the pandora (games like super geometry dust or pandora panic). I think such a game would need a kick starter kind of budget but who am I to say.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The main thing that makes games big (in terms of disk space) is artwork: music, graphics, movies. Especially if you use no or poor compression.

It's easy to make a game look bigger by replacing story stuff that could be rendered in realtime with bulky pre-rendered cutscenes. Or by storing all game data uncompressed.
 
Back
Top