Pandora Console Ready For Pre-Orders [Slashdot]

[DP ServBot]

Croakyvoice writes "Finally, months after the official announcement, 3,000 lucky people can now pre-order Pandora, possibly the world's fastest handheld console. It boasts a processor capable of up to 900 MHZ, PowerVR 3D graphics, a large 800x480 LCD touchscreen, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, USB, dual SD card slots, TV out, dual analogue and digital controls, a clamshell DS Lite-style shape, and a 43-button mini keyboard. The console already boasts an amazing amount of ready-for-release software such as Ubuntu and many full-speed emulators for systems such as Snes, Amiga, Megadrive, and many more that are not publicly announced yet. The console is as powerful as the original Xbox and on a par with the Nintendo Wii. Those interested should visit OpenPandora.Org. For the full history of Pandora from inception until the present, check out the Pandora Homebrew Site."
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[Flack]

Pre-ordered mine yesterday.

[monkeychemist]

I really REALLY wish I could order one...it looks so freaking amazing, but it would be hard to justify to my pregnant wife...

[SegaAges]

Wait, so is this a mini linux box, or a video game system?

[Trebuken]

I'll wqait for the second batch or until I more software is ported/developed for it. Looks like the ultimate handheld as long as it sees enough community support...

[rbudrick]

Pregnant wives are over rated.

I kid, I kid.




But seriously folks, they are.

-Rob

[Jorpho]

Wait, so is this a mini linux box, or a video game system?

Whatever it is, I doubt it's a good idea to open the case.

[s1lence]

Looks like a GP32 on roids. Sweet for homebrew gaming.

[otaku]

looks cool. Very powerful and features galore! Expensive? Likely to succeed?

[shivers]

i pre ordered from here
and getting my hands on my friends dev board tomorrow!! woohoo!

[jonjandran]

I'm in on the pre-order.

Hope it actually ships November 30th but I'm not getting my hopes up to high

[Ze_ro]

Wait, so is this a mini linux box, or a video game system?

It's both! Like the GP2X before it, it runs Linux all the time, and there's a whole Linux distribution available for it apparently, so it's entirely usable as a computer. I don't expect any commercial games will be released, but people have already ported several emulators to it (see videos below), and homebrew games will no doubt show up too.

Chances are, if you're looking for a portable computer, you're probably better off looking into an Eee or a full laptop (for a pretty wide variety of reasons). But I'm primarily interested in games. The keyboard should really help with emulating computers like the C64 and Amiga.

I've been looking forward to this machine for a long time... I put my preorder in this morning.

looks cool. Very powerful and features galore! Expensive? Likely to succeed?

Depends on your definition of "succeed". There's no way it's going to outsell the DS or PSP. You'll never see it for sale at Game Stop or Best Buy. EA isn't going to be porting Madden '09 to it. And you'll probably never see someone playing one on the bus. The GP32 sold somewhere around 30-35,000 units, while the GP2X sold somewhere around double that. My guess is that the Pandora will land somewhere in the middle. The creators have said that when the 3001st unit sells (ie, the first unit of the second production run), then the machine will have made profit. According to an email announcement they send out, they sold 2000 units in 6 hours, so I'm guessing it'll end up profiting. My guess is that it'll carve out a small niche for itself, which I think is all they planned for in the first place.

For what it's worth, here's an excerpt from that same email. The YouTube videos are quite impressive, and really show off what can be done with this thing in a short amount of time (pretty much all of these are quick ports done while actually designing the system) :

Latest Pandora news and videos:

We have now sent off the final MK2 PCB for production and we will have some photos
and videos of the first ones around the 12th of October.

As some of you already know we have posted a video with real Pandora sound:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDbLQI91510

And here is a video of Ubuntu running on the Pandora - we plan to continue development
of the Pandora Ubuntu port:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOPNurKei0I

Some classic videos we have posted in the past which you might want to watch:

Arcade Compilation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbPQJ...eature=related

SNES (running too fast!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5XGMrv25G0

Jaguar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pe_R787gREc

Amiga:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwuI6_zCjxY

Quake2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGz52EIVN8s

Pandora prototype next to a DS Lite:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WOMFrOCti4

--Zero

[zemmix]

Wow this is cool beans. Never heard of it before I'm ashamed to say. I love the qwerty!

Have they shown Dosbox running on it at all? I'd love to play portable master of orion as well as other dos classics. I got Dosbox running on my Sprint Mogul (HTC PPC-6800) but it was just way too choppy to play.

[norkusa]

Emulation-wise, what can this do that the PSP can't? I see the Jaguar emulator and I assume the Amiga one runs much faster, but is there anything else?

[rbudrick]

I love how they clamshelled it to make room for the keyboard. 2 analog sticks AND a huge screen?

Man, stupid me, I just bought a house. Goddamn it. I want one of these!

-Rob

PS, yeah, I know, houses are over rated too.

[gepeto]

Are all the open gl games from the late 90's going to be playable on this?

[Ze_ro]

Have they shown Dosbox running on it at all?

I don't think so, though I'm pretty sure I heard someone was working on it. DOSbox is already available for the GP2X, so I think it's a safe bet it'll show up eventually.

Emulation-wise, what can this do that the PSP can't? I see the Jaguar emulator and I assume the Amiga one runs much faster, but is there anything else?

Well, I'm personally hoping that we'll see playable N64 emulation. The developers have shied away from saying it'll happen, but the system is powerful enough that I think it could be done. I'd also like to see 3DO. Should be possible if Jaguar emulation is as good as the videos make it look.

Aside from that, the system runs at about twice the speed of the PSP, so existing systems should be faster... and the keyboard opens up a lot of computer emulation possibilities that would be much more difficult on other handhelds. The two analog sticks should also work better for PlayStation emulators.

Are all the open gl games from the late 90's going to be playable on this?

Keep in mind that this system runs on an ARM processor, while normal laptops (like the Eee) use x86 processors. This means that software has to be compiled specifically for the ARM processor before it can run on the Pandora. Games like Quake have had their source code released, so those can be ported relatively easily... but commercial games with no source code released will have to rely on things like DOSbox or Wine.

--Zero

[OldSchoolGamer]

You know I love tech in general and happy to see products like this but just like an iphone or Itouch or other multi use devices the problem I see with these items is they don't do one particular thing really well, at least not as well as a dedicated device and the other thing is price, I mean there comes a point where these things start approaching or equalling a mini or low end notebook in which case I will just choose the notebook.........

[zektor]

Emulation-wise, what can this do that the PSP can't? I see the Jaguar emulator and I assume the Amiga one runs much faster, but is there anything else?

Well, there will be more that this will be able to emulate down the road. I can see PS1 (even tho PSP can do this with Sony's emulator) and maybe Saturn emulation. The system has quite a bit more power than the PSP, so things should run smooth as butter I would assume. The keyboard is a plus for other things as well. The system should really explode when it comes to the homebrew scene...especially considering it was designed by people who were in the GP2X scene (and wanted to make it better) and it is a true open source console that doesn't need modification. Ohh...and N64 emulation should be possible as well (and a sight better than the current PSP emulator).

[norkusa]

Well, there will be more that this will be able to emulate down the road. I can see PS1 (even tho PSP can do this with Sony's emulator) and maybe Saturn emulation. The system has quite a bit more power than the PSP, so things should run smooth as butter I would assume. The keyboard is a plus for other things as well. The system should really explode when it comes to the homebrew scene...especially considering it was designed by people who were in the GP2X scene (and wanted to make it better) and it is a true open source console that doesn't need modification. Ohh...and N64 emulation should be possible as well (and a sight better than the current PSP emulator).

Is the Pandora community capable of making a full speed PS1 emulator though? I remember before the Sony released the PS1 emulator in the 3.0 firmware, the homebrew people were trying for almost 2 years to make a playable PS1 emulator. Best they could do was make one that ran at 5-10 fps.

This Pandora sound like a great system though. Looking forward to what homebrew apps are going to be released for it since homebrew development for the PSP looks like it hit a brick wall.