Linux handheld games console

[Apachai]

I stumbled on this earlier today, its called "pandora". It is a handheld games console, but it runs with an open source Linux OS, and promises to be the most powerful handheld ever made.

Despite the power, due to the fact it is open source it should be rather cheap when compared to the PSP and the DS, all it needs now is some support for homebrew games.

The design is rather nice too, well the concept is.... they may change the look slightly come release:




I have also heard it can emulate a PS1, and basically anything before it.

I have even heard somewhere it can run MAME (an arcade emulatore)

It all looks very promising, only downside i can see right now is that it looks a little chunky, but thats not to bad.

[ICO]

wow, looks sweet
finally dual analog
here is some specs i found
* ARM® Cortex™-A8 CPU running Linux
* 800×480 4.3″ 16.7 million color touchscreen LCD
* OpenGL 2.0 ES compliant 3D hardware
* Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
* Dual SDHC card slots
* Dual analog and digital gaming controls
* 43 button QWERTY and numeric keypad
* TV output
* High Speed USB Host

[blacknumbers]

Wow, I actually want this, but I got other things on my mind right now. If I don't have anything else on my mind to buy, I will get money to buy this.

[Apachai]

Now for a bit of a breakdown.

The screen resolution for a psp is 480 × 272, while the resolution of the Pandora is 800x480, thats almost DOUBLE what the psp has, suck it that resolution is higher than what our TV's were before high def came about.


the PSP has 32 MB EDRAM, 64 MB for PSP Slim (8 MB reserved for kernel), While the Pandora has 128mb SDRAM, ASWELL as 256mb FLASH memory.

Pandora has bluetooth and Wifi support, i know the PSP has wifi but i dont think it has bluetooth aswell (correct me if i am wrong..... jorgi)

the maximum clock speed of the PSP's CPU is 333mhz, while pandora has a 600mhz CPU clock speed, that can be overclocked to 900 mhz. Thats DAMN fast for a handheld.

dual SD card slots (maximum storage of 64GB, i think thats higher than the psp's maximum but i cant be sure)

I wont compare the specs of this and the DS, since the psp has higher specs than the DS. The DS just wins on games.

I also discovered that it was possible to run stuff such as last.fm on the pandora, including scrobbling.

It truely is a Open source PSP, with more support for people who want to do whatever they want with it.

EDIT: i have also discovered that its possible to get Frets on fire running on it, but now thats just at its limit..... but still, a portable guitar hero that doesnt suck! (and you can put your own music on it)

[blacknumbers]

Thats pretty sweet. Definitely something to think about, but I really got a DS, so this is something I won't think about again in a while.

[Bullfrog Boxer]

wow this looks great you could possibly be able to get online with it and hack it and emulator it up!!!! anyone know the price yet?

[blacknumbers]

If it has Linux, I bet it has an internet browser, and since Linux is open source, there really isn't "hacking" because its open source. Plus, Grif has already said you could put emulators on it.

[Apachai]

Originally Posted by Bullfrog Boxer

wow this looks great you could possibly be able to get online with it and hack it and emulator it up!!!! anyone know the price yet?

lol they have already developed emulators for it, running old games is one of its main purposes.

and i don't know exactly but about $300, not bad for something that is basically a mini gaming laptop.

Also here is a list of all the consoles that can be emulated, and in green are all the ones that already have 100% working emulators ready for its release, in orange are all the ones that are currently in development, the ones not changed are the ones that could be done:

8bit consoles, computers and other platforms including (but not limited to):

Adventure Vision
Atari 2600/7800 [zx-81] [Tinnus->Little John]
Colecovision [zx-81]
Fairchild Channel F
Gameboy & Gameboy Color
Intellivision [zx-81]
Microvision
NES/Famicom/FDS [Tinnus->Little John]
Odyssey/2
Sega Master System & Game Gear [Tinnus->Little John]
Sega SG-1000 (pre-SMS console in Japan)
Vectrex [SDW->Vecx]

Amstrad [zx-81]
Apple II
Apple IIGS
Atari 800/XL/XE/5200 [zx-81]
BBC Micro (possible zx-81 port, not confirmed)
Commodore 64
Commodore PET
Commodore Plus/4 [zx-81]
Commodore VIC-20
Dragon 32/64
MSX [zx-81]
Oric 1
Sam Coupé [zx-81]
Sinclair QL
Sinclair Spectrum
Sinclair ZX-80/81 [zx-81]
Tandy Color Computer (CoCo) [zx-81]
Tandy TRS-80
Thompson TO7-70 [zx-81]

Arcade games from the 70's and 80's [MAME]
+ various other systems from that era

16bit consoles, computers and other platforms including (but not limited to):

Atari Lynx
Genesis/Megadrive/SegaCD [Tinnus->Little John] [Notaz->Picodrive]
NeoGeo AES/MVS [Squidge->Finalburn Alpha] [Pepone->GnGeo]
NeoGeo CD
NeoGeo Pocket/Color [Tinnus->Little John]
Philips CDI
SNES [Squidge ->PandaSNES, see here] [Tinnus->Little John]
Turbografx-16/PC-Engine/CD-ROM (technically an 8bit system but eh...) [Exophase->Temper port]
Wonderswan/Color [Tinnus->Little John]

286 DOS PC (& 386) [DJWillis->SCUMMVM] [Zodttd->DOSbox]
Amiga [Gnostic]
Atari ST [Skeezix]
MacIntosh (early models i.e. 68000 based)
TI 99/4A [zx-81]
X68000 (Japanese computer with arcade quality graphics)

Arcade games from late 80's - 90's (i.e. M68000 based hardware etc.) [Squidge->Finalburn Alpha port] [MAME]
TI-92 Calculator [zx-81]

32bit consoles, computers and other platforms including (but not limited to):

Atari Jaguar [Firefox - see here]
Gameboy Advance [Exophase]
Playstation [ZodTTD & Tinnus *LINK*]
Virtual Boy

386 DOS PC (& 286) [DJWillis->SCUMMVM] [Zodttd->DOSbox]

Arcade games (i.e. PSX based hardware) [MAME - not sure these would run at good speeds on Pandora though)]

There is others, such as the N64, that can be emulated, but its not known at this point if it will be 100% smooth or not.

[blacknumbers]

Now I REALLY want this.

Hey, can it run emulators that you could play on a NORMAL linux computer? If so, then that means that you can play a PS2 emulator, PCSX2.

[Apachai]

Originally Posted by blacknumbers

Now I REALLY want this.

Hey, can it run emulators that you could play on a NORMAL linux computer? If so, then that means that you can play a PS2 emulator, PCSX2.

even on a PC PCSX2 has serious lag problems, Most people can only get 5 fps on it on a proper gaming PC, so i doubt people will be taking it over to pandora.

[blacknumbers]

Well, its only because they are still coding it.

But they have released 0.9.5, and that BARELY has lag problems. Hope they do.