lost_soul on 23/5/2010 at 18:32
(
http://pandorapress.net/2010/05/22/a-thing-of-beauty-first-mp-pandora-in-the-wild/)
I was beginning to think these were the "Duke Nukem Forever" of handhelds. Now I can finally buy a portable gaming device that has some horsepower, will run software of my choice and doesn't have a back door so corporate suits can remotely delete content or remove functionality post-sale.
I do have a netbook, but these are still quite large and not suitable for handheld gaming.
van HellSing on 23/5/2010 at 18:51
403 Forbidden. Access denied. This is a problem. BRB.
From: (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=132157)
You: 77.114.204.109, Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; pl; rv:1.9.1.9) Gecko/20100315 Firefox/3.5.9
What: /2010/05/22/a-thing-of-beauty-first-mp-pandora-in-the-wild/, 403
Where: pandorapress.net
dj_ivocha on 23/5/2010 at 19:01
It's the third news down on Slashdot, what do you expect. :p
Also let me write down that IP of yours, just in case. ;)
van HellSing on 23/5/2010 at 19:07
It's dynamic anyway.
lost_soul on 23/5/2010 at 19:21
"Windows NT 5.1"? Isn't that Windows 2000? That was a great OS.
catbarf on 23/5/2010 at 19:26
Considering that the Pandora has been vaporware for a long time, I imagine it's behind the times in terms of hardware and software.
But the NT 5.1 kernel is Windows XP, so it's not that old.
David on 23/5/2010 at 20:24
Bleh, would have been mildly impressive a could of years ago, but due to the delays the specs are not even as good as high end smartphones, and they fit in your pocket.
lost_soul on 23/5/2010 at 23:25
Yep, I agree they could boost the specs some more... especially the RAM! It would be cool to see Thief 1/2 ported to one of these. :) I know, never gonna happen.
Shadowcat on 24/5/2010 at 00:04
Previous thread for more info:
(
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=126984)
Are there any smart phones available with
better specs? I know there are some which match it in raw processing power, but I haven't seen anything that comes remotely close to providing the nice gaming controls and keyboard that the Pandora has, and the other features (completely-open software, very long battery life, great screen, wifi, bluetooth, dual SD RAM slots, etc) are at least a match for anything else I've seen.
And in all seriousness, the specs are still awesome. My understanding is that they couldn't have released anything with very much more powerful hardware at this point in time, even if they had designed for it from the outset. AFAIK, what they have is pretty close to the best that's currently available in mass-production, and I suspect the cost of the device would have become pretty outrageous otherwise.
The only thing I'd really wish for is better (much, much better) DOSBox performance, but that's just not going to happen without an x86-based CPU.
Yeah, it's a shame that OP's predicted schedule was so far from reality (some of that was their fault, some of it wasn't), but I'm glad that they waited to produce the device they had planned, rather than rushing something out the door that wasn't up to scratch.
I'm still going to wait for some reviews before sending money, but I've gained a lot of faith in their dedication to quality, so I think the chances of my being disappointed are low.
lost_soul on 24/5/2010 at 01:58
This device will be great for running old PC games whose sources have been made available. I plan to use it to play Doom 1/2, Quake 1/2/3, Duke3d, Shadow Warrior, Wolf3d, and others.
There have been attempts to bring FPS games to a pocket sized device before, but they've been less than stellar. See also, Doom/Wolf3d on the GBA. Doom 2 was good though.
It will also make a good music/video player with a couple of 16 gig or 32 gig SD cards.
