La boite de Pandore du jeu vidéo 13 avril 2008
La console portable Pandora affiche de sérieuses ambitions en matière de rétro-gaming. Et les caractéristiques de l’engin sont dimensionnées en conséquence: système d’exploitation Linux, un processeur ARM Cortex-A8, une connectivité WiFi, deux slots SDHC, un clavier QWERTY, deux joysticks, un D-pad, une sortie TV, un stockage de données en USB et un écran tactile 16,7 millions de couleurs:
La console semble plutôt grosse, mais elle sera approximativement de la taille d’une Nintendo DS, ce qui en fait une machine richement doté pour un si petit capot.
En matière d’émulation, la console GP2X-esque sera en mesure de supporter la plupart des classiques: NES, SNES, PS, DS et
Sega Saturn ( note : ??? est ce vrai ???), le tout à pleine vitesse.
Ma Nintendo DS Lite commençait à se sentir de trop, mais lorsque je lui ai montré l’étiquette de prix de la Pandora à 330$ (210 €), ma DS a poussé un petit soupir de soulagement.
Les modèles pour développeurs sortiront les prochains mois, et la version grand public sera prête pour une date non révélée de cet été. [Page produit via Retro Thing via Technabob]
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While the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS have cornered the mainstream handheld video game market, there’s still plenty of room for systems for those of us who don’t mind getting our hands a little bit dirty. Fresh on the scene is the Pandora, a portable game console that’s designed from the ground up as an open source system.
Pandora Open Source Linux Handheld
The compact handheld will run a customized Linux distro in firmware, and is targeted to assume the throne from the aging GP2X platform.
Pandora Linux Handheld Video Game Console
The Pandora’s clamshell case will be roughly the size of a Nintendo DS, and will offer a substantial color LCD touchscreen display. To further support its gaming chops, the Pandora will sport dual analog joypads, a digital D-pad, A-B-X-Y buttons and a QWERTY keyboard just for kicks (or if you want to do more than play games).
Pandora Linux Console Closed
The CPU under the hood is said to be powerful enough to emulate everything from the NES to the Super Nintendo to the Sony PlayStation and SEGA Saturn all at full speed. Full specs are listed below:
* ARM® Cortex™-A8 CPU running Linux
* 800×480 4.3″ 16.7 million color touchscreen LCD
* OpenGL 2.0 ES compliant 3D hardware
* Wi-Fi 802.11b/g
* Dual SDHC card slots
* Dual analog and digital gaming controls
* 43 button QWERTY and numeric keypad
* TV output
* High Speed USB Host
The Pandora development team expects to start releasing developer kit in the next couple of months, with a goal of a full-on consumer launch this Summer. Retail pricing is expected to be around £199 (inc VAT) / $330 USD / €212 (Ex.VAT).
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Shanon Shoffstall gave us a shout today about Pandora, an open source gaming platform that promises to be a retrogamer's paradise. It crams a 4.3-inch 800x480 LCD screen, qwerty keyboard, 128MB RAM and Wi-Fi into a clamshell case only slightly larger than a Nintendo DS.
Pandora is Linux based, so it'll support numerous browsers and developers are expecting it to be an extremely capable platform for running emulators (Super NES, Playstation 1, SEGA Genesis and many others) along with homebrew titles. Best of all, they're predicting a price of £199 / $320 / €212 when it's released later this year.
If the dev team manages to pull it off, this might be the machine that puts open source portable gaming on the map. Gamers will no longer be at the whim of Nintendo or Sony, and there's a very real chance that some skilled independent developers will be able to eke out a lucrative market selling affordable original titles for the machine. It includes dual SD card slots and TV a TV output, so it's possible for Pandora to act as a media hub, too.
Even though the product pics are rendered, the system has moved beyond the vaporware stage thanks to the recent release of the Pandora dev board to select GP32/GP2X/Zodiac developers. The site claims a March or April 2008 release, but I suspect we'll have to wait until late summer at the earliest to see the final system.
What do you guys think? Will you buy one? This thing appeals to me far more than the Asus eee PC because I think it has a good chance of sparking a fervent following much like the C-64, Radio Shack CoCo and Sinclair Spectrum did in the early 80s.
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Specifications
Official Site: openpandora.org
WarmFluffyUK's unnofficial render with size comparison.
Enlarge
WarmFluffyUK's unnofficial render with size comparison.
Pandora's LCD as compared to a PSP.
Enlarge
Pandora's LCD as compared to a PSP.
These are constantly changing. Hopefully, this page will be updated with them. When adding information please remember to correctly reference the new information to a reliable source.
* General
o The name: Pandora [1]
o Dimensions: 140 x 83 x 27 mm (slightly larger than a DS Lite: vs 133 mm × 73.9 mm × 21.5 mm)
o Price: 199 GBP(incl. VAT) (approx. $320 (excl. VAT), 212 € (excl. VAT)
o Release date: March/April 2008 (can and will be changed if needed)
o Case will be a bit smaller the GP2X, and will be a mix of metal and plastic. [2]
* Core Hardware:
o Texas Instrument's OMAP3430 System-on-chip. [3] [4] Specifications can be found at this link: [5]
+ The system may be about as powerful (in the CPU category) as a GameCube when pushed to the limits. [6]
o PowerVR SGX GPU (OpenGL ES 2.0, several million polygons per second). OpenGL ES demonstrated: [7]
o 128MB of DDR SDRAM.
o Real Time Clock (RTC) built in, to keep track of time. [8]
o 256MB of internal flash memory.
o Will probably be unbrickable.
* Display: 800x480 widescreen (5:3), 4.3 inches, touchscreen LCD.[9]
o Brightness:300 cd/m2, Contrast ratio:450:1, Response time:tr+tf=30ms[10]
o Dimensions: 93.6 x 56.2 mm (4.3 inches, 5:3 aspect ratio).
o TV-out included in hardware, A/V-OUT Port outputs S-Video and Composite and inputs 3,5mm Headphone/Microphone cables..
+ Separate TV-out signals, picture-in-picture capabilities. [11]
o Powerful 2D and 3D hardware acceleration, see above. [12]
* Input:
o Buttons, keyboard, microphone, and touchscreen. [13]
o Directional pad will be a D-pad - not a pseudo-analog GP2X-style device. [14]
o Two real analog nubs, will have click function. Will have a rubber grip. A video of the analog nub to be used in Pandora's construction.
o QWERTY keyboard. [15]
o Built-In Microphone [16]
o Potentiometer based wheel or slider for volume control. [17]
* Connectivity:
o 802.11g (Wi-fi) included. USB host included. USB-on-the-go (one-port host and client) maybe. [18]
o The USB will be fully powered (500 milliamps). You'll be able to use anything that has drivers. [19]
o RS-232 will be included, but a level converter will be needed for the UART. [20]
o Twin SDHC slots.
* Software:
o Open2X-type Linux firmware. [21]
o One-click install system - Debian ARM packages probably accepted. [22]
o Potential Emulation: (can anyone who knows add more to this partial list?)
+ Full-speed PlayStation 1 emulation will be a given.
+ Might even have N64 emulation with some hard work.
o Possible Software:
+ Will be capable of running X11 with a window manager and desktop environment, and probably will by default.
+ There should be the ability to run normal programs you can run on Modern Linux builds as well, provided it does not exceed 128MB of RAM (excluding any virtual memory for performance reasons) and is ported. This includes a full build of Firefox! Firefox 3.0 uses much less memory and resources, and should run fine on the Pandora.
+ Macromedia Flash is possible on the Pandora with web browsers with some work. Maybe not full Flash support though, but
http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/ can be ported to the Pandora and run up to FlashV7 guaranteed, play Youtube videos (mplayer and VLC can play FLV files just fine, play other movie files from Firefox, and VLC can stream FLV easily) and can work with Firefox or as a standalone program.
+ Advanced multimedia support, including streaming: mplayer, VLC, xine and any other program that is open source is possible. For a general idea of file support for VLC see
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.html, and for xine see
http://xinehq.de/index.php/features.
* Power:
o Lithium-ion battery. Standard for easy replacement. [23]
o Can charge through AC adapter or USB. [24]
o Advanced power management capabilities: only need to set a max clockspeed, when the CPU is not doing anything it automatically HALTs and does nothing to save a lot of power.[25]
Sources for some of the specifications are not mentioned. Help in this area is appreciated!
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