A few days ago Craigx posted a bit of information pertaining to the pricing on the next batch of Pandora consoles.
"Hello everyone, Right we were going to mention this somewhere so it may as well go here.
The price of batch two will be $339. That will be converted in to pounds/euros when we are ready to take orders for the second batch.
So there you go, price fixed, in dollars, to $339 (ex taxes) which includes the upgraded RAM and NAND.
This is real bleeding edge tech for a very low price when compared to similar machines, we have done everything we can to get the price as low as we can - but one thing we won't drop is quality - we won't use chinese factories, cheap parts etc. almost everything (inc the pcb) is made in north America.
What does that mean for you? It means if anything goes wrong it's all guaranteed and it meets safety standards. It also means high quality not Chinese PMP style quality.
We have learnt that the reason Chinese stuff is cheap is because it IS cheap and nasty - So we could all save $80 but get a device which is made to the lowest standards or pay a little more and get something high quality.
6 months from now you will be happy we did that I hope and the extra cost will have been worth it.
I just don't want to deal with a GP2X First edition fiasco again. So we won't be running to the cheapest factory any time soon."
Craigx has announced that the Pandora portable video gaming console will now come with 256MB of RAM and 512MB of NAND flash space.
"Just to confirm every Pandora will have the 256MB.
Any delays are still down to the LCDs, we have 640 and the rest are coming when ready.
The two main reasons for the upgrade were 1) being to give some compensation for any fuss we cause with asking some people to reorder and 2) being that we can see where this project (and ARM chipsets in general) might be going and the advantages the extra RAM will give us in this area.
We never really imagined running things like Ubuntu so 128MB seemed fine as 256MB was not available and when it was it was initially so expensive as to be impossible.
But then after the Ubuntu 'buzz' and many long late night chats about it we decided it was worth it, the price came down just enough (after some long negotiations) for us to do it in time.
As you all know we are now making no money on the first batch and it has become more of a love of what we are doing and getting the Pandora out there.
ZodTTD has released a new video showcasing his latest build of PSX4pandora a Sony Playstation 1 emulator for the upcoming portable video gaming console. The video shows off three games with amazing speed and accuracy.
"The three games showcased are (in order) Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy 7, and Wipeout XL.
This video is accurate and shows these games running on a devkit running at STOCK speed. This is truly an amazing handheld!"
The Open Pandora Project Team are now taking pre-orders through third party distributors for their soon to be released Pandora portable video gaming console. The console is built around Linux, is open source and is as powerful as the Nintendo Wii, but is only slightly larger then a Nintendo DS. There has already been a lot of quality homebrew ported to the console including various popular emulators.
Quote:
Right, no messing around for those of you waiting to preorder, you can place your order from here:
Craig one of the main men behind the Pandora console has posted a new blog post on the Pandora Blog has posted a video that Notaz has created. The video shows Ubuntu Linux booting at an incredibly fast speed. If this isn't a reason to pre-order a console I dont know what else is.
Click on the discussion thread link for the video.
EvilDragonposted a description of Pandoras PXML Fileformat, a standard that has to be included with every app to ensure it's working properly with every GUI. It contains various informations about a game or application, for example title, description, screenshot, icon, category, file associations, etc.
News via pdroms.de
EvilDragon has posted a video of the Pandora console running a Sega Genesis emulator with sound and he's controlling it using a Sony Playstation 2 gamepad. The timing seems to be fixed in this video and the emulator runs smooth and the sound is crisp and clear. I'm really looking forward to getting one of these.
Click on the discussion thread link (below) to see the video.
Imagine having a portable Linux based video gaming console that you can fit in your pocket that is capable of running all of your old DOS based games and applications. Well, it's coming close to reality as Pickle has almost finished porting DOSBOX a DOS emulator to the Pandora console.
Quote:
I wanted to wait to do this but im running out of time before the 30th. I was hoping some videos could be made before the preorder, but im not sure if it can happen by then.
Basically i have 0.72 release source code + M-HT dynamic core compiled. The only stage my build fails at is the linking of SDL (I complied using the GP2X headers, but of course it doesnt like the binary lib). So im confident it would link provided I have the matching binary lib.
My plan was to get the binary to someone with some sort of pandora hw, which I found ED was willing to do the tests. All I needed was the SDL lib, which DJwillis has built but has but has not had the time to email it to me.
So, bascally once the SDL lib becomes available dosbox should be ready to run on pandora. Maybe if I get the lib soon there might be time to preview dosbox before the preorder, otherwise it should be available by the time the hw comes out.
EvilDragon has posted about his feet of getting an Amiga emulator for the upcoming Pandora video gaming console running at full speed. He's uploaded a video which can be downloaded below.
Charbox has scored an interview with EvilDragon one of the developers of the upcoming Pandora portable video gaming console. It's a video interview so check out the link to watch it (in HD).
"Pandora is an open source Pocket Linux laptop project using the new Texas Instruments ARMv7 Cortex processor as well as the Texas Instruments NEON 3D acceleration and Texas Instruments DaVinci DSP multimedia accelerator. EvilDragon is one of the main people working on this international Linux hacker project. Read more about the Open Pandora project at openpandora.org."
Damien McFerran from Pocket Gamer caught up with Craig Rothwel one of the main heads behind the Pandora for an exclusive interview. The interview briefly covers the history of the Pandora and what we all should to come expect from it.
"'Pure' gamers may question the inclusion of a keyboard on a handheld. What brought on this decision?
This was decided from the beginning as the software on handheld devices was getting so advanced it would be foolish not to include a keyboard. We are Amiga fans and understand that emulation of classic computer systems would be incomplete without it – not to mention surfing the web is so much nicer with real keys. You won't have to use any messy onscreen keyboards with the Pandora, you will be able to run things like Open Office, Firefox and PC emulators with ease, or even run a complete programming environment. "
Pandora Makes Impressions at the GC - Nabs Official Developer
posted by brakken 08-24-2008
It seems the Pandora was a big hit at the Games Convention in Leipzig - the biggest European Games exhibition. It scored an interview to be featured in a magazine and also scored a developer who is going to publish retail games for the upcoming hand held video gaming console.
"While public press is good, here is something that might be of higher interest for some of you:
RedSpotGames, publisher for Last Hope and Wind & Water Puzzle Battles for the Dreamcast announced that they will produce and publish commercial games for the Pandora. They already have some licenses for ports (I can't tell the titles here), this als means there will be most probably an enhanced version of Wind & Water Puzzle Battles, one of the greatest puzzle games I know!"
EvilDragon, one of the people to actually own a Pandora development board has posted some rather good quality high resolution videos of the Pandora in action.
* Yup, I know Dinosaurs & Cadillacs as well as Picodrive is a bit blurred. I realized that while editing but didn't have the time to reshoot it.
* I know the graphic overlays I did look a bit cheap... as I'm going to the GC tomorrow and had some other work to do today, I didn't have time to make much of a real design here. I thought you wanted to see something quick instead of waiting a few days just for nicer overlays smile.gif After all... this is no commercial... it's some nice video for you guys here on the boards
* The LCD looks a bit like it smears with the 720p and 640x360 videos. That's because of the downconversion from i to p. It's smooth in real life
MWestonhas posted an article on the official Pandora forums relating to the pre-order and release date for the upcoming Linux based open source video gaming console. He's stated that they will be taking pre-orders on September 30th, 2008 and the units will ship Pandora will begin shipping Nov. 13th, 2008.
There's no word if you can put down a down payment on the console or have to pay for it in full to get a pre-order in. There's more information about this news article located in MWeston's post.
Craig from the official Pandora site has posted a lengthy article which contains links to some videos of the Pandora running various emulators such as the Atari Jaguar, Super NES and Sega Genesis. There is also a video of the Pandora running Quake II. Additionally, Craig links to a post that Chip made with a lot of detailed information about the Pandora.
Click on the Discussion Link below for the videos.
