pandora handheld

[shivers]

missed my chance getting a MK0 board but news that the beagle board is basicly got alot of similar chipsets on there. woohoo.
also there is a lot of good videos of some great software posted up now.
check it out here

[rbudrick]

Is this supposed to be like an Indy portable or something? Sounds kinda GP32X-ish. Looks pretty interesting though, for sure. I certainly don't want to read that whole blog for the scoop, though.

Mo info, please?

-Rob

[CosmicMonkey]

The system is a collaboration from members of the gp32x forum. It's like the spiritual successor to the GP line: a Linux powered ROM box with proper controls and a built in keyboard for, um, stuff. It also has a touchscreen and Bluetooth/WiFi.

I'm certainly very interested in it, as it seems like quite a capable unit.

[Nature Boy]

Bumping an (almost) 5 year old thread because (a) I just bought one and (b) when I went to look to see what conversations have happened about it, if any, this was about it.

I've been debating bout getting one for a *long* time, but the idea of playing Kennedy Approach on a handheld just wouldn't go away, so as I said I made the plunge. It helps that they dropped the price of the 1GHz version by $100 since I first looked at it.

Anyway, I've not even had it a full day yet, but I'm impressed with the emulation so far. PaRappa felt a bit off, but looked and sounded *really* good, and that's without me toying with any settings at all.

And Kennedy Approach played exactly as I hoped it would - exactly as it does on my 130 XE. Next for me is DOSBOX and the original Civilization.

Has anybody else purchased one and have any stories to tell? Hopefully not the pre-order kind though - sounds like lots of people signed up for the kickstarter and a unit at below retail, but had to wait until people like me bought units at full retail price before they would ship you a unit. Something about covering the difference in costs.

[Clownzilla]

Are they building these things any more?

[Nature Boy]

Whether they're still making them or using already made stock I don't know. I do know that after ordering it I got it within the week.

And I have had a chance to fire up Civilization using DosBox, and Crash Bandicoot Warped. Both run really well - I'm pretty excited about this being my dedicated handheld emulator.

(For the record, yes I have a hacked PSP and Vita that I can run emulators on, but I like having something *built* for emulation so much more, especially since it has a keyboard that will allow me to play 8bit Atari and DOS stuff.)

[Daltone]

I was sort of interested in one of these. The UK seller listed on the website is in Germany. Well, ok... then it turns out that they cost £465 (about $703). Surely there is no way that it can be that good?

[Nature Boy]

I was sort of interested in one of these. The UK seller listed on the website is in Germany. Well, ok... then it turns out that they cost £465 (about $703). Surely there is no way that it can be that good?

I'm not going to lie and rave about it saying it's worth $700 (I paid $600 for mine). This is one of those devices where I am comfortable with what it cost personally, but I wouldn't recommend it to someone if the price bothers them. If you're like me, all you really play are the games you already own, it's just cool to have them all on one device that you can take with you.

The emulators I've played have all worked well except the PSP one (which is acknowledged as a WIP). I'll be getting rid of that one as I have no patience for WIP emulators. I haven't tried the N64 one yet partly because it's probably WIP, but mostly because there really isn't any N64 game I would want to play anyway. I also haven't tried any of the homebrew games yet. Want to get the emulators settled first.

I like that most console emulators use pretty much the same controls consistently: '1' is State Save, '2' is State Load, 'space' opens menu. (the exception being the DOS/8BIT atari emulator, for obvious reasons ).

And as I mentioned above, I *love* being able to play Final Fantasy IX, Picross, and Kennedy Approach all on one device that I can carry in my pocket.

(For the record, I could do all of that on my PSP, but you don't get save states with the PlayStation emulator there, and games like Kennedy Approach, although they run fine, play terribly because you can't access the keyboard fast enough).

[Daltone]

I like the look of it, the reviews I can find seem good. It all looks great apart from that price! I don't think I'd ever pay £465 for a handheld, no matter how cool it was. If it was about £200 I'd think it was high but I may be tempted, about £150 and I'd buy it immediately. It's a shame it's not a bit cheaper. C'est la vie!

[Nature Boy]

I like the look of it, the reviews I can find seem good. It all looks great apart from that price! I don't think I'd ever pay £465 for a handheld, no matter how cool it was. If it was about £200 I'd think it was high but I may be tempted, about £150 and I'd buy it immediately. It's a shame it's not a bit cheaper. C'est la vie!

Yup, this is one of those items that I would have bought immediately if the price was lower, but had to bring myself around to after more than a year to actually buy.

I think I spent $200 on a "Cuttle Cart 2" when they were released, and felt similarly that I was spending more than I should. In time, however, I've come to appreciate how much I've enjoyed the hardware and that I simply can't buy anything like that at low prices since they're not mass produced (and if/when they show up on the used market, they're pretty much priced as new anyway). I figure as long as I'm not buying items like that constantly I'll be fine financially.