OpenPandora and UAE4ALL

[gbraad]

OpenPandora just released a new newsletter with a link to a YouTube clip of the device running UAE4ALL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwuI6_zCjxY

[tonyyeb]

Already posted:

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=38091

[amyren]

I already have the Gp2x, and UAE4All running there, even if its a bit slow it still almost matches a A500. On the Pandora it should be more than fast enaugh.
This is truly a cool piece of hardware, the Pandora seem to have almost everything I missed on the Gp2x, wlan, better resolution, faster cpu, keyboard, usb storage support, and it can run ubuntu. Its like a small laptop.
Btw they are closing the preorder for the first production batch this sunday.

[ddniUK]

Pandora fails to display PAL resolution output.

The project x demo is cut off at the bottom. The weapons menu is missing. See here http://hol.abime.net/pic_full/screenshot/1101-1200/1164_screen10.png

At about 0:40 seconds you can see where The Spaceship disappears into the area of the PAL playfield that Pandora cannot display.

[alexh]

If they have real prototypes, why are all the photo's on their website still CGI?

[amyren]

The PAL failure is probably just a bug in the current UAE4All version, or they have configured the emulator settings to NTSC and running a PAL game on it.
I can not see the picture you're linking to (firewall at work), but I'm pretty sure that this is a software problem and not related to the Pandora hardware.

[ddniUK]

The Pandora screen is 800x480
480 pixels is not enough to display the 512 lines needed to display FULLSCREEN PAL resolutions. Therefore, you are will always get cut off screens for games which use more than the 480.
A possible fix is not to upscale Low Res 320x256 games. This however would mean that you would get a tiny display in the  middle of a big screen.

[alexh]

512 lines are the interlaced resolution which almost no games used but I bet the emulator doesn't care.

Edit: D'oh! Someone got in there before me!

[Lozrus]

If they have real prototypes, why are all the photo's on their website still CGI?

They don't seem to have finished plastics yet, although the prototypes seem to be complete in every other respect.

Pre-orders began this week and I have mine ordered :-)

With regards to scaling 256 lines up to fit the Pandora screen, various filtering methods do a pretty good job of scaling by non-linear amounts (e.g 256 to 480 should look ok). It's not perfect, but is very good in many situations and the 3D hardware should be able to do it almost for free. NTSC sized games (200 lines) can just be pixel doubled. As long as this is left up to the user (like WinUAE does) then you can find the best settings for each scenario.

[coldfish]

Pandora is a great device but a bit out of my price range for a hobby/handheld gadget.

I'm in the Wiz camp for now. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GP2X_Wiz

As I see it, Pandora is for those who want an all-in-one tiny computer.  Wiz is for those who liked the GP2X and want more of the same but faster/better/smaller.  

[gazgod]

Got an email last night from gp2x.co.uk that says Pandora is now available for pre order, unfortunately I cant afford one at the moment

http://openpandora.org/worldmap.html

If any one is interested.

Gaz