First Pandora Console Reaches Customer 271
neogramps writes "It's been a long time coming, but the first Pandora consoles are finally rolling off of the production line. (Well, this one actually walked out the door to a customer who lived near the 'factory.') Initial estimates had put production and development at taking two months, but Murphy had other ideas. Banking issues, design problems, problems communicating with the Chinese moulding company, escalating assembly costs, and even a volcano all managed to get in the way, but the small and dedicated team soldiered on, and just over a year and a half later, the wait is coming to an end for the 4,000 pre-orderers."
Re:Already seems obsolete.... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Seems underwhelming. (Score:4, Interesting)
"fitting in a pocket comfortably. Just add a game controller..."
I don't mean to sound too sarcastic, but if you have a link for a game controller that fits comfortably in a pocket, I'd like to see it.
Re:Already seems obsolete.... (Score:3, Interesting)
2 years ago these specs would have been exciting
Yeah it's time to live in the now and solder together your own Fusebox [ladyada.net].
Re:Riiiiight...... (Score:3, Interesting)
I mean if you want a portable game unit, well then DS has this beat hands down. Not only does it have far, far, FAR more games and most of those are of professional quality...
There isn't a single part of that statement that is true. The appeal of the Pandora is emulation. It can run MAME, SNES, DOS, Genesis, NES, Amiga, and a whole gaggle of stuff I think other people here have mentioned before. More importantly, it has a set of controls that really make that setup ideal to an enthusiast to somebody like me. It could probably even do N64, which would be totally tits.
I have a GP2X Wiz right now. It can run most of the stuff the Pandora can. Although I am a Nintendo fanboy and I love the DS, the Wiz is already far more likely to get put in my pocket for a long trip than the DS is. The Pandora is like the Wiz only with a broader emulation capability and much better controls.
The Pandora has a very strong and fairly unique appeal.
How open is the software/hardware? (Score:3, Interesting)
I've been looking at their site and wikipedia and I haven't dug much up. There are a number of commercial chips in there, so the hardware is largely closed.
They're using a "PowerVR SGX530" in there, and IIRC the PowerVR chips don't usually have FOSS drivers, so you might be SOL on that software front.
Anyone have links or notes for the rest of the drivers?
The Pandora... (Score:2, Interesting)
It's not for everybody, but it's one of the first open consoles to have accelerated 3D which makes it exciting for a bunch of us home brew guys. It also has wifi and bluetooth. The wifi is a nice touch as I anticipate decent network play on some of the games.
It'll never rival the PSP or DS for sales, which eliminates the larger software houses as developers, but there are independent developers who've expressed interest in it.
What'll be interesting to see is how much interest it has two months(tm) after the first batchers have their Pandoras in their hands and some of the projects targeted for it get released. Even if round 2 doesn't have many orders, I believe the current batch of developers will give the hand-held their enthusiastic support. If it DOES have decent sales, the potential to interest at least a few published independent game developers increases dramatically.
Re:Already seems obsolete.... (Score:3, Interesting)
People often make the mistake of assuming that OpenPandora Ltd. wants to be the next Nintendo. In fact, they merely aspire to be the next GamePark.