Pandora: a powerhouse handheld designed for homebrew and emulation
- April 14th, 2008
- 5 Comments
Wouldn’t it be nice to have all your emulators and homebrew indie games in one place? And how about on a beautiful piece of hardware designed just for that purpose? The idea is similar to the GP2X, but the feature set is a bit more next-generation: 800×480 touchscreen, dual analog sticks and an SNES-style D-pad and buttons, plus a QWERTY keyboard. It’s got nice guts, too: its processor is about Gamecube speed, and it has a separate GPU as well as Wi-Fi and SD slots for expandability. It’s supposed to be about as big as a DS.
As with the GP2X, the problem is that the software is not as easy as pie to install (I had trouble with mine) and early adopters will also find themselves out in the cold. If nobody buys, no one will develop. But if no one develops, no one will buy. It’s an ugly cycle usually broken by brand name, but in this case I think the gadget itself is cool enough to warrant a purchase. At ~$330 it’s a bit expensive, but since it basically works as a UMPC too, that’s not bad. Looks like an excellent venue for playing a little Super Metroid (or Final Fantasy 8 - yeah, you heard me). More info here.
Nate (Who am I?)
4 months ago
SNES is a nice trick, but this thing is supposed to do PSone without breaking a sweat.
If it pans out, it’s a steal at 320. I got rid of my GP2X in anticipation of this release.
Devin Coldewey (Who am I?)
4 months ago
I totally hear you, dude. I’m a late adopter though, so I think I’ll hang on a bit. Good that there are guys like you ready to lay it down for something cool like the Pandora.
and yeah, you’re probably right - PS1 games should be a breeze (i’m adding that in)… once they get the code straightened out. It’s got the chops, but optimization is a pain, you know? I mean, they’re still perfecting SNES emulation on the PC!
atomicthumbs (Who am I?)
4 months ago
Except:
1. There will be an easy-peasy package manager.
2. The best-known devs in the GP2X community (and maybe some others) are getting Pandora dev boards for free.
kneehighspy
3 months ago
i’ll be there with preorder in hand as soon as preorders open. it’ll go along nicely with my gp2x f200.
i’m sure there are tons more waiting to open pandoras box too.
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ghost_machine (Who am I?)
4 weeks ago
Heck yes! I have been following this since April and I for one can’t wait to get one. Anybody who has ever tried to do the homebrew thing on PSP knows that the mainstream consoles aren’t for advanced users! I wonder how long it will take me having one of these before some n00b asks me if “I can do that to his DS too!”