Pandora (Open Hardware) now available to pre-order

[tonyyeb]

No doubt it is popular:

We sold 2000 Pandoras in 6 hours even with the server totally besieged. Truly astonishing. Thank you all for supporting this project, all the emails, all the comments all, all the phone calls, all the news posts, everything.

Today we moved to a somewhat faster server which is why things were off line during this afternoon.

We are quickly looking in to if it is possible to increase our planned first batch to 4000 units.

We will update on this issue in around 48 hours.

[killergorilla]

Amiga emulation isn't going to be ideal on it is it?

The screen resolution is 800x480 which is gonna be a bit of a crap for miggy emulation.

I might pick one of these up in a year or two when they are a bit cheaper and I can see how well the scene has picked up. Be good to play some MD/SNES on the move, and the Amiga games which have the big black border at the bottom!

[tonyyeb]

Originally Posted by killergorilla

Amiga emulation isn't going to be ideal on it is it?

The screen resolution is 800x480 which is gonna be a bit of a crap for miggy emulation.

Not ideal but looks good to me!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?eurl=&v=KwuI6_zCjxY

[john4p]

Originally Posted by killergorilla

The screen resolution is 800x480 which is gonna be a bit of a crap for miggy emulation.

There majority of Amiga 500-games have a 16:10-widescreen resolution of 320x200 pixels. They are almost ideal for the Pandora's 5:3- (or 15:9-)format and will look marvellous in fullscreen-mode (upscaling using bilinear filter looks great already on PSPUAE even though the emu is slow).

And having borders on the sides for 320x256-pixel games (Alien Breed, Battle Squadron PAL, Pinball Dreams, etc.) and SuperNES-games is not a problem for me (it's no different on my notebook). The screen's height is still quite huge for a handheld.
Of course 480 pixels height isn't perfect for upscaling 256 pixels but since the pixels are so small it shouldn't be noticable.

[killergorilla]

As I suspected

All the games on the video are the Amiga games with black borders (NTSC res), with the exception of Project-X and Pac-Mania, and you can clearly see that the bottom parts of both games have the screen cut off

Such a shame.

[tonyyeb]

Originally Posted by killergorilla

As I suspected

All the games on the video are the Amiga games with black borders (NTSC res), with the exception of Project-X and Pac-Mania, and you can clearly see that the bottom parts of both games have the screen cut off

Such a shame.

But if they changed it to match PAL Amiga games would it not screw things up for other formats (SNES, MD, NES etc...) ? You can't have your cake and eat for all formats it would seem.

[Dunny]

Originally Posted by killergorilla

As I suspected

All the games on the video are the Amiga games with black borders (NTSC res), with the exception of Project-X and Pac-Mania, and you can clearly see that the bottom parts of both games have the screen cut off

Such a shame.

I don't see that as a problem - you'll have the same issues when you run an amiga emulator on any widescreen PC. You'll either have to have black bars to the left/right, or lose the bottom/top of the screen. Or stretch to fit.

It's not like you won't have the ability to choose which works for you, is it?

Personally looking forward to this like nothing before (except maybe my first A1000). And as miggy emulation is just the icing on the cake, I anticipate many, many hours of fun with this little fella. The specs will ensure it has a nice long life, too - the GP2x has survived with much lesser hardware for a long time with a massive and very active scene of developers.

D.

[killergorilla]

Originally Posted by tonyyeb

But if they changed it to match PAL Amiga games would it not screw things up for other formats (SNES, MD, NES etc...) ? You can't have your cake and eat for all formats it would seem.

What?!?!

Having it as 512 pixels high doesn't mess with SNES/MD/NES etc. as they all have less than 512 pixels in height. What are you talking about?

Originally Posted by Dunny

I don't see that as a problem - you'll have the same issues when you run an amiga emulator on any widescreen PC. You'll either have to have black bars to the left/right, or lose the bottom/top of the screen. Or stretch to fit.

It's not like you won't have the ability to choose which works for you, is it?

What are you talking about? My point is that 480 pixels is not large enough to display the 512 lines needed to display full PAL resolutions. So you are always going to get cut off screens for games which use more than the 480. Having black bars on the side has nothing to do with that.

Unless of course you want it in lowres 320x256 which would appear absolutely tiny in the middle of a big black box

[tonyyeb]

Originally Posted by killergorilla

Having it as 512 pixels high doesn't mess with SNES/MD/NES etc. as they all have less than 512 pixels in height. What are you talking about?

I meant when running double height etc... The point is, the screen will not suit EVERY emulator / Application. It is obviously a trade off. There will have to be a comprimise otherwise you might as well be carrying round a 22" HDTV Widescreen with your DS sized handheld console

[killergorilla]

I was just pointing out that it is no way ideal for Amiga emulation because of that limitation.

You suggested that having it with a height of 512 other forms of emulation would be messed up, which is not the case. No old school emulators require anything near HD so your point about he HDTV is a little silly. Suggesting 512px in height however, is not.

[john4p]

Originally Posted by killergorilla

Unless of course you want it in lowres 320x256 which would appear absolutely tiny in the middle of a big black box

You know - PS1 games have a resolution of 320x240 pixels. Using "normal" mode in the PSP's (perfect) Playstation-emulator this 240 lines height get scaled up to the PSP's 272 pixels height (while keeping the 4:3 aspect ratio). It looks great - it doesn't look as if some lines were doubled and some not - that's because of interpolation.
It's a bit blurry - but that's not a problem for me.

So you can also scale 256 lines up to 480 by interpolation without doubling them.

[CHook/OTT]

I want one of these but will be waiting for the 2nd batch to see if there is any early issue's with them. My early mk1 GP2X has had problems running using batteries for ages and has been sat here collecting dust for a long time and the PSP i bought to replace it is a bit poor in comparison when it comes down to the emulator side of things.

I did almost pre-order it when i got the e-mail but someone i work with beat me to it so i'll have a play with that first when his arrives

The talk of full speed N64 and "possibly" Dreamcast makes the Pandora a no brainer for retro gamers.

[tonyyeb]

Originally Posted by killergorilla

No old school emulators require anything near HD so your point about he HDTV is a little silly. Suggesting 512px in height however, is not.

I was exaggerating of course

[killergorilla]

Originally Posted by john4p

You know - PS1 games have a resolution of 320x240 pixels. Using "normal" mode in the PSP's (perfect) Playstation-emulator this 240 lines height get scaled up to the PSP's 272 pixels height (while keeping the 4:3 aspect ratio). It looks great - it doesn't look as if some lines were doubled and some not - that's because of interpolation.
It's a bit blurry - but that's not a problem for me.

So you can also scale 256 lines up to 480 by interpolation without doubling them.

I'd personally rather have it at it's normal res, I've always hated filters. They don't look too bad on 3D stuff but not bitmap graphics, they look mushy and EVIL.

But anyway, I was just making a point. It's not the IDEAL solution for Amiga emulation that's all. Still, it's a good looking product.

[Dunny]

Originally Posted by killergorilla

It's not the IDEAL solution for Amiga emulation that's all. Still, it's a good looking product.

Nope, but it's the best we've got ;-)

Really looking forward to it!

D.

[Antiriad]

Originally Posted by killergorilla

I might pick one of these up in a year or two when they are a bit cheaper and I can see how well the scene has picked up. Be good to play some MD/SNES on the move, and the Amiga games which have the big black border at the bottom!

I'm with Killa . I'm wary of the price, the potential poor build quality and a slow scene to start off with. Gamepark's GP32/GP2X were shoddy at first, but these guys could be worse.

It is a good concept though, but I await the result of reality as I have been burnt before (Tapwave Zodiac anyone?). There is also the issue of how Gamepark's Wiz will compare. So a case of wait and see for me also.

[Anemos]

@john4p for we know.. you are on Pandora devs team or something?
(i think i know you from some other place..)

[chiark]

agreed, the ideal resolution would be 768x576 (or whatever PAL full overscan is), however you try finding a suitable LCD screen with those specs...

This is the best (imho) compromise that could be found. 800x600 would perhaps have been better but again availability of components is a major factor and I'd hazard a guess that the LCD is already the most expensive single component...

Mine's ordered and I'm looking forward to it - I am hoping that there might be a big push to get a better UAE on there

[stainy]

Apparently it`s the same LCD touch thats in the Archos 605 wifi

[john4p]

Originally Posted by Anemos

@john4p for we know.. you are on Pandora devs team or something?
(i think i know you from some other place..)

No, not yet. Only if neither notaz nor Gnostic nor anyone else implements control configurations and screen positioning to UAE4All I might do some modifications to it (as with the PSP version).

And...hi!