Pandora (Open Hardware) now available to pre-order

[chiark]

Cheers for the explanation John4p - I assumed that when using a normal 4:3 display the screen was stretched to fill the whole lot vertically.

PAL screens are 320x256, which adds another dimension onto things

[T_hairy_bootson]

Originally Posted by john4p

I'm with you that speed is most important. But considering the Pandora's power I think it would be possible to get a port of "PSPUAE" running fullspeed on it which would then be better than UAE4All because of its features...

sorry 'bout doublepost

No argument there, PSPUAE is a better emulator there is no doubt. UAE4ALL on the gp2x just performs better atm. Once FOL cracks out this ASM 68k core I'm sure PSPUAE will blow UAE4ALL (gp2x) out of the water.

[Dunny]

Originally Posted by chiark

Cheers for the explanation John4p - I assumed that when using a normal 4:3 display the screen was stretched to fill the whole lot vertically.

PAL screens are 320x256, which adds another dimension onto things

And yet all the recent Sinclair Spectrum emulators use a 352x296 screen...

D.

[FOL]

Originally Posted by T_hairy_bootson

No argument there, PSPUAE is a better emulator there is no doubt. UAE4ALL on the gp2x just performs better atm. Once FOL cracks out this ASM 68k core I'm sure PSPUAE will blow UAE4ALL (gp2x) out of the water.

Shhhhhhhh!!!!

Not sure if the core we are looking at will work or is possable yet, .

[MazinKaesar]

I think Pandora is also a bit uncomfortable. Even PSP is, but you can buy a cheap "grip" as I did...

[Photon]

Originally Posted by john4p

This applies for example to SuperNES-games which have a resolution of 256x224 and get stretched to 4:3.


It's not the case for Amiga 320x200-games: that's why they have black bars on 4:3 or 5:4-screens like here:




On a 16:10-screen this fits perfectly without any bars:




If you'd stretch this to have fullscreen on a 4:3-display it'd look like this:




Or even worse stretched on a 5:4-screen:




That's not how the games are supposed to look. Because of that we have black bars on standard displays for these games. But they are perfectly suited for widescreens.

And that's why these 320x200-games are almost fullscreen (zoomed) on the PSP's ~16:9-screen and the Pandora's 15:9-screen (5:3).


P.S. 320x256 is exactly 5:4 - so for these games a 1280x1024-screen is perfect while for 320x200-games a 16:10-widescreen is best (1280x800, 1440x900, etc.).

It's not about pixels. It's about what screens Amiga games were made for. Try Zany Golf on a 16:10 fullscreen and get back to me. Or try any 320x256 PAL game on it. The 256/512 scanlines will be squashed to fit vertically in 480 vertical lines, and the 320/640 pixels will be stretched to fit in 800.

Unless you're claiming that fat black bars on the sides of the vertically shrunken PAL graphics is the 'ideal screen format' for said gfx.

16:9, 16:10 and other abbreviations refer to the ratio of screen width and height, not the number of pixels.

[john4p]

Originally Posted by Photon

It's not about pixels. It's about what screens Amiga games were made for. Try Zany Golf on a 16:10 fullscreen and get back to me. Or try any 320x256 PAL game on it. The 256/512 scanlines will be squashed to fit vertically in 480 vertical lines, and the 320/640 pixels will be stretched to fit in 800.

Unless you're claiming that fat black bars on the sides of the vertically shrunken PAL graphics is the 'ideal screen format' for said gfx.

16:9, 16:10 and other abbreviations refer to the ratio of screen width and height, not the number of pixels.

Did you even read what I wrote? Where did I suggest 320x256 was suited for 16:10? I clearly stated those games are suited for standard screens (4:3 or - even better - 5:4).

I was talking about 320x200-games. They all have black bars at top and bottom in 5:4-and 4:3-screens.
But on a 16:10-screen these games fit perfectly without any black bars!

Of course 320x256-games have black bars on the left and right on 16:10-screens. But that wasn't the matter.



This is Superfrog, a game with a resolution of 320x256 pixels:



This is in 5:4-format and would be fullscreen on a 5:4-screen.

Hence this game has black bars on the left and right on 16:10-screens:



I never claimed anything different.



This is Wings, a game with a resolution of 320x200 pixels:



It has black bars on a standard screen.

On a 16:10-screen this 320x200-game would be fullscreen without any bars:





Computer screens have square pixels. Because of that the ratio of vertical pixels to horizontal pixels matches exactly the ratio of screen height to screen width.

[FOL]

Just so you know, GnosTiC has posted over at pspuae.com, stating he is getting a pandora and will be porting UAE2x to it.

[Antiriad]

Hey Thierry speaking as another owner of both the GP2X and PSP, I can't recall UAE4ALL on the 2X being that good - am I missing something here?

[Hungry Horace]

Originally Posted by Antiriad

Hey Thierry speaking as another owner of both the GP2X and PSP, I can't recall UAE4ALL on the 2X being that good - am I missing something here?

you are probably not- THB will (i hope) be the first to admit he doesnt give PSPUAE enough attention cos of the "crappy" screen, and has no doubt missed a lot of the more recent updates.

[T_hairy_bootson]

So was the most recent FameC core PSPUAE slower than previous releases? And the sound doesnt crackle and pop like that on the normal PSPUAE? Which version should I get?

[FOL]

Originally Posted by T_hairy_bootson

So was the most recent FameC core PSPUAE slower than previous releases? And the sound doesnt crackle and pop like that on the normal PSPUAE? Which version should I get?

PSPUAE FAME/C is still a BETA, havent released yet. Im still playing with it.

@Antiriad, UAE4ALL ASM Core (for GP2X), is the fastest Amiga emu on a portable device yet. Agreed it isnt that good as its missing the features of PSPUAE, but the speed is very fast. Also thanks for improving my boot and menu pics, .

There is an ASM core for PSP (as I mentioned in an earlier post), which is currently being looked at for use with PSPUAE.

[Antiriad]

Glad you like the artwork. I do love the loader video, background and the cool tune you picked. Btw if you want a beta tester 4 PSPUAE, just let me know!

Guess I ought to investigate UAE4ALL ASM core for myself then... which one is it on http://archive.gp2x.de ?

[T_hairy_bootson]

The last version I know of is from Gn0stic back in August, it has Notaz' cyclone core, Noldor's tweaks and Gn0stic added EHB support:

http://gnostic.lryiu.com/gp2x/uae4all_081208.rar

[stainy]

here's also The Wiz, which has 3D acc and much faster ARM cpu

Not sure thats correct, Wiz has 533mhz against the Pandora`s stock 600mhz

[john4p]

@stainy: I guess he meant the Wiz's CPU is much faster than that of his GP2X (overclocked GP2X: ~240Mhz).

[stainy]

I see

[Samurai_Crow]

Originally Posted by stainy

Not sure thats correct, Wiz has 533mhz against the Pandora`s stock 600mhz

IIRC, the 600 MHz figure isn't set in stone either. I think the Pandora has dynamic clocking that allows it to clock itself in software as high as 900 MHz for short periods of time.

[CHook/OTT]

Originally Posted by Antiriad

Hey Thierry speaking as another owner of both the GP2X and PSP, I can't recall UAE4ALL on the 2X being that good - am I missing something here?

UAE4ALL was very playable providing you had a GP2X that didn't crash when you overclocked it to 275mhz

[Dunny]

Originally Posted by Samurai_Crow

IIRC, the 600 MHz figure isn't set in stone either. I think the Pandora has dynamic clocking that allows it to clock itself in software as high as 900 MHz for short periods of time.

The only drawback to overclocking the cortex a8 in the omap3 is battery life. It doesn't produce any significant amount of heat compared to running at 600mhz, nor does it shorten the life of the chip. It will drain your batteries, however. The chip will down-clock to about 150mhz, which, it is claimed by the OpenPandora crew, will allow about 100-200 hours of mp3 playback.

We shall see

D.