Will pc ports come to pandora

[sukhi-2006]

I want some of these ported to pandora Devil may cry 3,4,lost planet,resident evil 4,warriors orochi,virtua tennis 3,sega rally revo,sonic heroes, is this possible if this happens it will be amazing.

 

[raj_takhar]

Doubt it

These games need to be Open Source first before anyone can attempt to re-compile for the Pandora h34r:

I doubt very much that someone will port to Pandora unless original is open-source

At least you should be able to play some of them on some form of emulator
Playstation Emulator - We know this one will be out shortly after release - so you should be able to either play playstation versions of similar titles
N64 Emulator - Likely within I'd guess 12 months of pandora release
Dreamcast Emulator - not likely can but hope that someone decides to create a ported version - if it was made - then you would be able to the dreamcast versions :wink:

 

[sukhi-2006]

Well everyone know that dreamcast emulator is coming to pandora if it going to any good only time will tell, it might not be compatible with all dc games.

Your right about the pc ports they have to be open source, i wish they are, the only one which is coming at the moment is Quake III arena.

 

[atomicthumbs]

Stop asking people to port DC games. It didn't work on GP32X and it won't work here.

 

[fischju]

How complete was that Half-Life 2 source code leak?

 

[bakawhite]

If I remember from the reports I read, not "complete" but enough to see where it all was going and for some
1337|-|4><><0r5 to finish it. I don't know where it is now.

 

[palmertech]

lol... This reminds me of the good 'ole days at gp32x.

"Hai guyz instead of emlating Saturn gamz, we can PORT THEM! OMG I is teh Genius you have stupid opinion shud up!!11"

Sound familiar? :lol:

On topic, one thing I would hope for (As long as we are looking at long shots) is a port of Half-Life 1. AFAIK, the source code for the never released dreamcast port got leaked.

 

[sukhi-2006]

I didn't ask for dc ports, these games are on pc not dc.

 

[Flack]

This response isn't specifically directed to this particular thread, although it applies here (as well as to many other threads).

I wonder why some of the people posting here even bought a Pandora, or what their interest in the console is.

I mean, look at some of the consoles and computers the Pandora will emulate. Take, for example, the Amiga. According to a Google search I just did there were "at least 5,000 commercially released Amiga games." Five-thousand games. You could play one new Amiga game every day for over thirteen and a half years -- and that's just Amiga games! Gamebase64 lists over 20,000 unique C64 games! Play one of those a day and it'll take you almost 55 years to get through the collection! Those are just two of the systems that the Pandora will emulate. Throw in systems like the NES, the SNES, the Genesis, Playstation ... man, the list just keeps growing. Throw in a working port of DosBox and there are more games than you could ever play, much less beat, in your lifetime.

Seeing post after post of requests for things like "Resident Evil 4" or games like that ... it just makes me wonder what people were thinking when they pre-purchased their Pandoras. I guess it would be like hanging out with people who all bought Corvettes and hearing people repeatedly ask questions like, "When will it fly? Will it ever be able to transform into a giant robot? Who's going to convert it from a Chevy to a Ford?"

Just considering the emulation and excluding all the other neat things it will be able to do, I think the Pandora is one of the most amazing handheld devices ever made. I guess that's what amazes me about people asking, "Will it ever be able to do {X}."

Sorry, I rambled.

 

[bakawhite]

That was the best post I have ever read. *sniff*

 

[sukhi-2006]

Well i didn't order pandora for pc ports, i just asked if they will come if they don't that's no problem.

I want pandora emulate psx,n64,jaguar,saturn and dreamcast, the rest of the systems before the psx the pandora will emulate them with no problem.

 

[Amitk]

Just to let you know if miraculously a port for Resident Evil 4 and/or Devil May Cry 3/4 were released, they wouldn't be playable on a pandora. The requirements for these games are just to high.

 

[eksasol]

I think some of the request are ridiculous because people don't have a good idea of the performance are required to run some of those massive 3d games. The pandora is going to be the most powerful consumer handheld at it's size, yet there are limitation. Once again I'm not trying to sound like an ass, but it's graphic compartment isn't a $500 geforce video card.

 

[mkinzler]

And with a that kind of gforce/radeon the batteries would last for a second or so.

 

[CCmachined]

This response isn't specifically directed to this particular thread, although it applies here (as well as to many other threads).

I wonder why some of the people posting here even bought a Pandora, or what their interest in the console is.

I mean, look at some of the consoles and computers the Pandora will emulate. Take, for example, the Amiga. According to a Google search I just did there were "at least 5,000 commercially released Amiga games." Five-thousand games. You could play one new Amiga game every day for over thirteen and a half years -- and that's just Amiga games! Gamebase64 lists over 20,000 unique C64 games! Play one of those a day and it'll take you almost 55 years to get through the collection! Those are just two of the systems that the Pandora will emulate. Throw in systems like the NES, the SNES, the Genesis, Playstation ... man, the list just keeps growing. Throw in a working port of DosBox and there are more games than you could ever play, much less beat, in your lifetime.

Seeing post after post of requests for things like "Resident Evil 4" or games like that ... it just makes me wonder what people were thinking when they pre-purchased their Pandoras. I guess it would be like hanging out with people who all bought Corvettes and hearing people repeatedly ask questions like, "When will it fly? Will it ever be able to transform into a giant robot? Who's going to convert it from a Chevy to a Ford?"

Just considering the emulation and excluding all the other neat things it will be able to do, I think the Pandora is one of the most amazing handheld devices ever made. I guess that's what amazes me about people asking, "Will it ever be able to do {X}."

Sorry, I rambled.

agreed, definitely one of the best posts here on this board.
throw in PS1 and most likely N64 soon and thats a truly massive list.

Amiga
C64, Spectrum & other classic computers
NES
Master System
SNES
Megadrive / Genesis
PS1
Gameboy, GBC, GBA, DS(most likely)
(i'm sure there are others but they are the well-known ones)


how many games is that? in the millions?
...

 

[sukhi-2006]

All the systems you mentioned were emulated on gp2x without any problem except psx which was bit slow but still some games like dino crisis 2 were really good, i expect better emulators on pandora, we need emulation after psx not before.

if it only goes upto psx emulation then there is no point buying a pandora, the gp2x wiz can do all these and is £70.00 cheaper.

 

[Chaosstorm]

@sukhiextreme it looks like you dont really understand that emulating things takes alot cpu power..
and asking if lost planet will get ported well... its just not possible maybe the pandora 3 will be able to do that ^_^
Pandora aint a 3.6 ghz quad core powerd pc with an geforce GTX 280.
Having great psx emulation and in the future n64 and maybe a decent dream cast emulator is already pretty impressive for a device of this size. Later on next year getting ubuntu on it will make it a neat little computer.
Time will tell what will come and what not, just be patient

 

[sukhi-2006]

Well i know it doesn't have quadcore extreme cpu, but still some pc ports will appear on pandora at the moment Quake 3 will be coming soon,which is great.

If we will get emulators like saturn,n64,dreamcast we won't be needing any commercial games or pc ports because these are 3 systems which have incredible games on them and there's many quality gaming gems on them.

 

[yugge]

Ok, I want to try to teach you about what problems we face when porting a commercial pc game to the pandora, I try to be clear and I hope you don't find this post offensive in any way because that was not intended.

1. Source Code

The first problem we will encounter is needing the source code. Since all programming languages today is "translated into computer language" before it can be run on the computer, companies tend to use that to their advantage and just release the program code (binary) and not the human readable version of the program (the source code). But why do we need the source code to port the game? Well there is a couple of reasons:

--1a. Wrong platform

We need to "retranslate" the source code to a language that pandora understands. Because PC's and pandoras do not speak the same language. You surely has come across this problem before when trying to play PC games on MAC's.

--1b. DLLs

Another problem with newer PC games are that they tend to use DirectX. DirectX is developed by Microsoft and well, you could call it a recipe book of things to do with graphics. Since Microsoft seems to have no intent of releasing DirectX for pandora, we would have to get a source code of that and port it as well.

2. Licensing

The second big issue is that it is illegal to adjust someones source code without permission, especially if it bound to a license. All commercial games that does not explictly state that it has a free source code (those generally being called "open source") are basically a no go.

3. Power

Now you might look at the spec and say something like "you don't get it, this thing is good, it got a clockrate of nearly 1ghz!!". Well something you should know is that you can not compare clock rates of the CPU with computers, or consoles. It just doesn't work that way.

This metafor will explain it: Two bicyclists are discussing their bikes. The first bicyclist have a rather low gear when riding, while the other have a rather high gear. Both cyclists achive the same amount of speed at the same time. But the first bikes pedal rotate faster. Therefore you can't compare what bike is best by which pedal that rotate faster.

Diffrent Processors are good at diffrent things and they work in diffrent ways.

Then there is graphics. If a game's graphic module is supported by pandora, then great, pandora supports a light version of OpenGL 2(i think?). So OpenGL games are possible.

4. Effort vs. Reward

If you are going to port a PC game, you will have to rewrite the code, recompile ("translate") it, make sure that the libraries are there, reprogram some of the code for optimization. Maybe even breaking the law. Is it really worth it to have a game that you could play much better on a stationary PC? For many programmers that question gets a no. You needs a lot of dedication to preform a port. Programmers in game studios usually get pay, and that is motivating enough. But homebrew programmers need something to motivate them to spend their free time on it. That's why there are so many emulators and not so many games that are ported, because if you port an emulator, you indirectly port a lot of games at once.


So, if we put your games thru the list and add quake 3 just to show my point.

Devil may cry 3
1. Is sourcecode avalible? No
1a. Does the game support the Platform or does the game need to be recompiled? No, Recompile needed.
1b. Does the Pandora support all major game libraries? No, uses DirectX
2. Is the game Open Source or does the license let you edit the code in any way? No, licensed by Capcom
3. Is Pandora powerful enough to handle the game? Maybe, but I really doubt it.
4. Is the demand big enough to warrant a port? Maybe (the game would be able to sell consoles)
4a. Would we be able to play and enjoy this game with the controlls given? Yes

Devil may cry 4
1. Is sourcecode avalible? No
1a. Does the game support the Platform or does the game need to be recompiled? No, Recompile needed.
1b. Does the Pandora support all major game libraries? No, uses DirectX
2. Is the game Open Source or does the license let you edit the code in any way? No, licensed by Capcom
3. Is Pandora powerful enough to handle the game? No
4. Is the demand big enough to warrant a port? Maybe (the game would be able to sell consoles)
4a. Would we be able to play and enjoy this game with the controlls given? Yes

Lost Planet
1. Is sourcecode avalible? No
1a. Does the game support the Platform or does the game need to be recompiled? No, Recompile needed.
1b. Does the Pandora support all major game libraries? No, uses DirectX
2. Is the game Open Source or does the license let you edit the code in any way? No, licensed by Capcom
3. Is Pandora powerful enough to handle the game? No
4. Is the demand big enough to warrant a port? No
4a. Would we be able to play and enjoy this game with the controlls given? Maybe

Resident Evil 4
1. Is sourcecode avalible? No
1a. Does the game support the Platform or does the game need to be recompiled? No, Recompile needed.
1b. Does the Pandora support all major game libraries? No, uses DirectX
2. Is the game Open Source or does the license let you edit the code in any way? No, licensed by Capcom
3. Is Pandora powerful enough to handle the game? No
4. Is the demand big enough to warrant a port? Maybe (the game would be able to sell consoles)
4a. Would we be able to play and enjoy this game with the controlls given? Yes

Warrior Orochi
1. Is sourcecode avalible? No
1a. Does the game support the Platform or does the game need to be recompiled? No, Recompile needed.
1b. Does the Pandora support all major game libraries?No
2. Is the game Open Source or does the license let you edit the code in any way? No
3. Is Pandora powerful enough to handle the game? Maybe
4. Is the demand big enough to warrant a port? No
4a. Would we be able to play and enjoy this game with the controlls given? Yes

Virtual Tennis 3
1. Is sourcecode avalible? No
1a. Does the game support the Platform or does the game need to be recompiled? No, Recompile needed.
1b. Does the Pandora support all major game libraries? No, uses DirectX
2. Is the game Open Source or does the license let you edit the code in any way? No, licensed by Sega
3. Is Pandora powerful enough to handle the game? Maybe
4. Is the demand big enough to warrant a port? No
4a. Would we be able to play and enjoy this game with the controlls given? Yes

Sega Rally Revolution
1. Is sourcecode avalible? No
1a. Does the game support the Platform or does the game need to be recompiled? No, Recompile needed.
1b. Does the Pandora support all major game libraries? No
2. Is the game Open Source or does the license let you edit the code in any way? No, licensed by Sega
3. Is Pandora powerful enough to handle the game? No
4. Is the demand big enough to warrant a port? Maybe (the game would be able to sell consoles)
4a. Would we be able to play and enjoy this game with the controlls given? Maybe

Sonic Heroes
1. Is sourcecode avalible? No
1a. Does the game support the Platform or does the game need to be recompiled? No, Recompile needed.
1b. Does the Pandora support all major game libraries? No, uses DirectX
2. Is the game Open Source or does the license let you edit the code in any way? No, licensed by Sega
3. Is Pandora powerful enough to handle the game? No
4. Is the demand big enough to warrant a port? No
4a. Would we be able to play and enjoy this game with the controlls given? Yes

Quake 3
1. Is sourcecode avalible? Yes
1a. Does the game support the Platform or does the game need to be recompiled? No, Recompile needed.
1b. Does the Pandora support all major game libraries? Yes, uses OpenGL
2. Is the game Open Source or does the license let you edit the code in any way? Yes, License allow us to do things.
3. Is Pandora powerful enough to handle the game? Yes
4. Is the demand big enough to warrant a port? Yes
4a. Would we be able to play and enjoy this game with the controlls given? Yes

Summary:
Of the games you listed, these are those who likely will get a port
Devil may cry 3: NO
Devil may cry 4: NO
Lost planet: NO
Resident evil 4: NO
Warriors orochi: NO
Virtua Tennis 3: NO
Sega rally revo: NO
Sonic heroes: NO
Quake 3: YES

And remember, what I went into was just some of the basic problematics.

I understand your consern with wanting to encurage more new attractive games to the pandora, I'm just stating some reasons why we aren't able to get that without help from the companies that made the game originally.

 

[Kyosys]

saturn emulation won't be happening.