What Is Likely To Be Ready When The Pandora Is Released?

[SyruM]

Hello folks

As I said I did have a search of the forums and wiki links and think it may have been bought up before, so sorry if that is the case... But with the release getting very close now, what can we expect will be ready for us to play in terms of ports and emulators when the Pandora arrives?

I know some emulators and ports are coming along very nicely but since a lot of projects dont keep constant update pages, but drop posts every now and again in the forums its very hard to know exactly what stages they are in, can anyone fill me in on some info?


Also none of that is meant to criticize the dev's, I fully respect that they are putting timeand effort into making something for a commuity, and I would rather they spent their time on the project then on pages for us/me

 

[skeezix]

Quite a lot of 'general ports' are available, and a bunch of stuff specificalyl for Pandora, but not a lot of high-pollish yet imho.

I can't speak for anyone else, but the core folks I've been working with are all hell bent on getting the firmware ready, so we don't have a lot of time for other stuff right now I'm afraid. That said, once we nail down the firmware, I'm sure we'll convert to spitting out iniital versions of stuff.

ex: djwillis is the main firmware fellow, and hes of course or local ScummVM wizard (among other things), so you can probably expect ScummVM but perhaps not as polished as you may expect, but day-0 so you knew that right? Likewise I've got my usual stuff like OutcaST, Hatari and BattleJewels running, but they're not prettied up for the big dance, if you follow. We're working day and night (Really) on the OS, so spending time on other things isn't in anyones best interest

Other folks are working on things, like you've seen in the videos .. N64 and various emus, and we have almighty pickle hammering out ports .. so check all of craig and EDs videos Theres lots of good things form the Quakes and Heretics to emus. Some if it you may have to launch from the terminal, but ED is working hard on packaging thigns up into squashed PND files (compressed) to make it easy.

The firmware itself is _quite_ comprehensive .. includes browsers, pic and video players, a pile of the usual linux goofy games, and whatever djwillis can cram into the size we're aiming for

So you do have a good assortment of stuff already, but its not all fancied up; but rest assurred that still will pop out quick.

Oh, and there _is_ the Angstrom repository to pull from, which has a very high compatibility rate.

jeff

Dont' mind my ramble, I don't get to sleep much

 

[edgex004]

Dont' mind my ramble, I don't get to sleep much

And here I thought it was all the candy Craig & Co. got you running on.

Another great place to see how projects are coming along is the video vault.

Not only does it show off the emulators already working, but it also includes really great videos of some of the current homebrew projects in development like ZEQ2lite and Pandora Panic.

 

[SyruM]

Sweet! ofc the OS comes above everything else lol, it is looking great

Dont worry I was under no illusions about the project and the fact that a lot of stuff is WIP its more a case of me looking through the projects under development on the wiki and thinking "great! cant wait! I wonder how far along they are" and you cant really find that out anywhere most the time and I dont want to go hassleing people when they are doing it off their own backs.


And thanks for the link edgex004

 

[Jumpman]

Hang in there Jeff, your doing a good thing! Thank You!


Jumpman

 

[dflemstr]

Hang in there Jeff, your doing a good thing! Thank You!

+1, I've been a steady complainer from day 0 but I've always supported what you're doing, honest!

And I know how tedious it can be to go through the same image building sequence a 1000 times to perfect an OS image like this, so respect for having put up with it so far.

 

[skyeyemachine]

Hang in there Jeff, your doing a good thing! Thank You!

+1, I've been a steady complainer from day 0 but I've always supported what you're doing, honest!

And I know how tedious it can be to go through the same image building sequence a 1000 times to perfect an OS image like this, so respect for having put up with it so far.

+1; not much else to say beyond what's already been said, but thank you for all your efforts!

 

[Paradox]

this is why i'm kinda glad i'm far back in the 4,000 queue, by the time mine gets produced any kinks found in production during the 4,000 run should prolly be fixed by the time mine gets done, and lots of software will have been released / tested etc by then

 

[borgqueenx]

release date is 09/01/2010 13:44 and 33 seconds.

 

[wermy]

this is why i'm kinda glad i'm far back in the 4,000 queue, by the time mine gets produced any kinks found in production during the 4,000 run should prolly be fixed by the time mine gets done, and lots of software will have been released / tested etc by then

That's what I keep telling myself too... But it'd sure be fun to be one of the first ones to get it, and help find/squash bugs. Even if there wasn't a single emulator/game available at launch, I'd still LOVE to have it if only for the internet and media capabilities. Oh well, we're getting to the end now.

 

[Tokiopop]

this is why i'm kinda glad i'm far back in the 4,000 queue

You don't deserve it.

 

[skeezix]

Hang in there Jeff, your doing a good thing! Thank You!

+1, I've been a steady complainer from day 0 but I've always supported what you're doing, honest!

And I know how tedious it can be to go through the same image building sequence a 1000 times to perfect an OS image like this, so respect for having put up with it so far.

haha, you know it

Actual shipping devices won't have this problem, but during raw dev we do .. ie: "first boot"; djw is really a clever fellow, so during first boot a lot of things are set up, the way they should be. I'd have just cheaped it myself So sshd keys are generated and all that unique-to-each-device stuff which takes a lot of time. After 'first boot', there is the first-login wizard to crate your account/pass/options, and thats really very quick and you're in. But 'first boot' takes like 10 minutes, only once, and you're done.

We'll do a lot of that before shipping the device, so even first boot shoudl be pretty fast for people receiving their toys. But as we're going through building stuff, especially on older and lesser versions of the device like I have, you're mucking with things and corrupting SDs left right and center as you screw with drivers etc; image frakking how many times a day I go through the damnned first-boot or kernel panic. I swear I'm going to shoot msyelf some nights

And then think about people doing kernel like djw and notaz, who've got it much harder than I; I posted up front that if they had a bright young me a couple years ago, I'd have been in there, but instead they picked me up just aftger I'd had a kid and thus am a sleepless old wreck, so I'm sticking to things I can manage in this state .. *Wise me* So poor notaz and djw are alone in the kernel, the poor lads.

Anyway, don't thank me, thank everyone; theres a half dozen or so of us doing a lot of cool stuff. We suffer for our art

It'll be worth it when you unpack your gadget though, you trust me

jeff

 

[edgex004]

I know I'm thankful to all you devs for the work you put into getting the Pandora up and running.

Gotta say, though, It's really nice having you on the scene, Jeff. My first real gadget was a Zodiac, and I have fond memories of the work you put out for that wonderful little machine. I still miss mine, actually, and the Pandora has almost seemed like successor of sorts for it (only in my mind, though).

 

[skeezix]

Zodiac was almost awesome, but not quite It needed a bit of mweston I think .. so many of them (mine included) had the problem where you'd flex the case ever so slightly, and it'd short out a contact and instant-drain your whole battery. I couldn't carry my zodiac with me anywhere. one bump, and dead. Coudlnt' be bothered to open it up and melt down the contact, or line the case with paper or wehatever I sort of miss that racing game it came with. The folks there were cool, I even had one of them do a presentation for me to NAmco (who was down the road from them), on behalf of XCade. Too cool.

For me, its the duality of keyboard + gaming controls; UMPCs are great, even tiny ones (so few as they are).. but they can never do it all. Pandora just might be the first that can

jeff

 

[Sphinxter]

Gotta say, 'me'.

 

[PokeParadox]

PandoraPanic! Should be ready. It's running nicely adding the last-minute bonus feature - achievements. Just need to get the all-clear from someone with hardware(who are all very busy) that it works on the latest Pandora firmware.

 

[WizardStan]

PandoraPanic! Should be ready. It's running nicely adding the last-minute bonus feature - achievements. Just need to get the all-clear from someone with hardware(who are all very busy) that it works on the latest Pandora firmware.

It had better. I've selfishly avoided beta testing so I can have a virgin experience playing it the way it was meant to be played: on a Pandora

 

[kingoddball]

Quite a lot of 'general ports' are available, and a bunch of stuff specificalyl for Pandora, but not a lot of high-pollish yet imho.

I can't speak for anyone else, but the core folks I've been working with are all hell bent on getting the firmware ready, so we don't have a lot of time for other stuff right now I'm afraid. That said, once we nail down the firmware, I'm sure we'll convert to spitting out iniital versions of stuff.

ex: djwillis is the main firmware fellow, and hes of course or local ScummVM wizard (among other things), so you can probably expect ScummVM but perhaps not as polished as you may expect, but day-0 so you knew that right? Likewise I've got my usual stuff like OutcaST, Hatari and BattleJewels running, but they're not prettied up for the big dance, if you follow. We're working day and night (Really) on the OS, so spending time on other things isn't in anyones best interest

Other folks are working on things, like you've seen in the videos .. N64 and various emus, and we have almighty pickle hammering out ports .. so check all of craig and EDs videos Theres lots of good things form the Quakes and Heretics to emus. Some if it you may have to launch from the terminal, but ED is working hard on packaging thigns up into squashed PND files (compressed) to make it easy.

The firmware itself is _quite_ comprehensive .. includes browsers, pic and video players, a pile of the usual linux goofy games, and whatever djwillis can cram into the size we're aiming for

So you do have a good assortment of stuff already, but its not all fancied up; but rest assurred that still will pop out quick.

Oh, and there _is_ the Angstrom repository to pull from, which has a very high compatibility rate.

jeff

Dont' mind my ramble, I don't get to sleep much

Will SuperTux be included as one of the goofy linux games included in the OS?
If not, could it be?
I've never played it before, but ED's little video looks great. Looks like a fun little game.

 

[renegadechic]

you know, i a part of me is glad that so so sooo many beyond in depth questions have been asked about the pandora that come release we will probably be able to link to a thread to answer everything!

of all the things available, that will probably be the most useful, if occasionally frustrating resource

 

[jonlad1]

A big thanks to you Jeff (Skeezix).

I know everyone truly appreciates everything you are doing

I hope you are gonna get nicely rewarded from Craig!