What does pandora have the ability to run?

[Demi]

Im new to this, but I came across this when I was looking for a gaming UMPC. I was wondering if this has the ability to run on windows and does it have enough power to run a game similar to minecraft?

 

[TrashyMG]

Windows isn't a possibility, It's an ARM based processor, so you can't just run x86 Windows applications without emulation. we have Qemu, which can emulate Windows 3.1/95/98 era games on a high 486/ early Pentium level.. Wine doesn't work because it requires an x86 based processor.


Hardware wise, it can handle a bit graphic wise, we have native ARM Linux ported games like Quake 3, Homeworld and even a minecraft clone called minetest.. With the Android "PND" the 1Ghz unit it can play the Android version of Max Payne and GTA III without issues, takes a bit of overclocking with the regular rebirth units though..


It's not everyone's cup of tea, requires a bit of patients and learning new things as this runs linux and not only that on a different processor platform then a regular PC.. However it does have a windows like interface or you can use a simplified console style menu system called mini-menu.. And of course you can run Android on it.. but what's the fun in that.

 

[diligentcircle]

I think I saw someone claiming that Minecraft works now with Oracle's Java runtime (which was released for ARM GNU/Linux relatively recently), but I'm not sure (I don't play Minecraft and I also don't use Oracle's Java because it's nonfree).


Talking about power, the Pandora is definitely able to pull some serious weight. The biggest issue is OpenGL programs have to be modified to use OpenGL ES, so you need someone knowledgeable in OpenGL to do that (whereas games in e.g. SDL can just be recompiled). One of the users actually wrote a very basic techdemo of something with an engine kind of similar to Minecraft's (it's called Beta Block Quest), though it's hard to say how well it would run in its completed form. Warzone 2100, a 3D RTS, is only a little sluggish on the 600MHz pandoras, and I imagine it would be a little better on the 1GHz units. I think it's been said before that SuperTuxKart would probably be too sluggish on the Pandora.


It's really hard to point to actual 3D games, though, because mostly (I suspect) due to the OpenGL to OpenGL ES conversion necessity, there aren't that many ports of 3D games from the PC. Most of the 3D games are either Playstation or Nintendo 64 emulation. Playstation works just about perfectly, as you may or may not have heard, and N64 emulation is also pretty good, with some games (e.g. Super Mario 64, Super Smash Bros) running full speed and many others (e.g. F-Zero X, Mario Kart 64) running very well. But it's emulation, so it doesn't necessarily fully represent what the Pandora is capable of.

 

[Nikkis-]

You could of course play Minecraft Pocket Edition on Android, which works really nicely on Pandora.

 

[_wb_]

The above is all true; one minor correction: "games in e.g. SDL can just be recompiled" -> that is only true if they only use the 2D part of SDL; SDL also supports OpenGL so of course if a game uses SDL for that, you still need to do the GL to GL|ES convertion.

 

[diligentcircle]

The above is all true; one minor correction: "games in e.g. SDL can just be recompiled" -> that is only true if they only use the 2D part of SDL; SDL also supports OpenGL so of course if a game uses SDL for that, you still need to do the GL to GL|ES convertion.

Is that actually integrated directly into SDL? I've never used OpenGL, but I always assumed it just allows you to easily use SDL alongside OpenGL, but that you still needed to explicitly include/import/whatever OpenGL and use OpenGL functions as well.

 

[WizardStan]

Minecraft "works" as long as all the OpenGL calls are removed. It's really boring looking at a black window though. The server runs pretty well now, at least. OpenGLES calls have been "intended" for over a year now, but unless I missed something it still hasn't actually happened.

 

[_wb_]

The above is all true; one minor correction: "games in e.g. SDL can just be recompiled" -> that is only true if they only use the 2D part of SDL; SDL also supports OpenGL so of course if a game uses SDL for that, you still need to do the GL to GL|ES convertion.

Is that actually integrated directly into SDL? I've never used OpenGL, but I always assumed it just allows you to easily use SDL alongside OpenGL, but that you still needed to explicitly include/import/whatever OpenGL and use OpenGL functions as well.

Never used it myself either, but SDL_opengl.h is a big file so I suspect it is a platform-independent wrapper for OpenGL.

 

[Demi]

Windows isn't a possibility, It's an ARM based processor, so you can't just run x86 Windows applications without emulation. we have Qemu, which can emulate Windows 3.1/95/98 era games on a high 486/ early Pentium level.. Wine doesn't work because it requires an x86 based processor.


Hardware wise, it can handle a bit graphic wise, we have native ARM Linux ported games like Quake 3, Homeworld and even a minecraft clone called minetest.. With the Android "PND" the 1Ghz unit it can play the Android version of Max Payne and GTA III without issues, takes a bit of overclocking with the regular rebirth units though..


It's not everyone's cup of tea, requires a bit of patients and learning new things as this runs linux and not only that on a different processor platform then a regular PC.. However it does have a windows like interface or you can use a simplified console style menu system called mini-menu.. And of course you can run Android on it.. but what's the fun in that.

So from my understanding you could play The android version of GTA III and I guess you could say anything lower than that?


And is there any other handheld gaming device that is more powerful than this?

 

[diligentcircle]

And is there any other handheld gaming device that is more powerful than this?

I'm pretty sure most high-end smartphones have more raw power, but since they have heavy OSes (iOS or Android), and also because more specific optimizations can be (and are) made for the Pandora, the Pandora can make more use of its power than your average smartphone. (so, except for Android, it's going to be similar performance in practice, but Android just performs like an average smartphone, AFAIK.) Take my words with a grain of salt, though, because I don't know or care much about smartphones.

 

[TrashyMG]

So from my understanding you could play The android version of GTA III and I guess you could say anything lower than that?
And is there any other handheld gaming device that is more powerful than this?

No, just was giving some examples.. I'm sure the hardware itself if it wasn't encumbered by a heavy OS like Android could do better than GTA III..


also agree with what Onpon wrote above..


Well the Vita most likely has more raw horsepower.. but it isn't an UMPC with a full keyboard and most other devices that are a small clam shell computer don't have game controls..


It's all comes down with what you want to do with it..

 

[Demi]

Does this have the ability to play daggerfall, arena, or morrowind or any old mortal kombat games?

 

[NLS]

I've been looking at getting OpenMW to compile, but I still don't have a device in my hands, so I'm stuck

 

[diligentcircle]

There's MAME and I assume (but don't know, maybe someone else does) that Mortal Kombat would run just fine on it. There's also of course the SNES and Genesis ports (and maybe some other console ports I'm not aware of), though the SNES port is less than ideal since the SNES emulator doesn't support multiplayer (the Genesis emulator does, however).


OpenArena might be possible (hard to say), but nobody has ported it as of today (as far as I'm aware).

 

[Tensuke]

You may be able to squeeze somewhat sort of decent performance out of an overclocked 1GHz Pandora for Daggerfall or Arena in DOSbox, I'm not sure. On a 1GHZ clocked 600MHz Pandora though I've heard the performance is less than stellar. Morrowind, I don't think we'll see unless OpenMW gets mature enough and ported to Pandora, but I'm not sure of it's latest status.


Onpon, I believe Arena meant TES:Arena. OpenArena should be just fine since it works well on the N900, but apparently there's not a port of it yet? Huh.


The OpenPandora is certainly still one of the most powerful handhelds though, and unique in its form factor and dual computer/gaming console role. The Vita is quite a bit more powerful but mostly only for gaming, and it's locked down. Phones these days are more powerful but lack decent controls (the XPERIA Play gets it mostly right, but isn't too much better than a 1GHz Pandora). And now that Android's on the Pandora that kind of bridges that gap pretty well, it should be able to play most games since they're usually not too demanding.

 

[diligentcircle]

Onpon, I believe Arena meant TES:Arena.

Oh, I was thinking Quake III Arena when I read "Arena".

 

[asimov-solensan]

Just tested mortal kombat on panmame. Not near playable at 800mhz, didn't bothered with MK2.

 

[mcobit]

Just tested mortal kombat on panmame. Not near playable at 800mhz, didn't bothered with MK2.

Try on MAME4ALL.


MK1 should work nicely.


Edit: Also all console ports up to snes should work very good.

 

[Askarus]

Just tested mortal kombat on panmame. Not near playable at 800mhz, didn't bothered with MK2.

Try on MAME4ALL.


MK1 should work nicely.


Edit: Also all console ports up to snes should work very good.

We should try on an overclocked Giga Pandora.


This really improves things.