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New handheld console, designed by users
Zarigis
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'm not trying to tell people to buy this thing, I realize it's a bit hefty for a handheld console :P I just think it's kind of cool that a bunch of users got together and designed a product, then actually went out and started making it. It's a pretty powerful machine, and as a linux junkie and computing science student I'll probably pick one up just to poke at it.
Unfortunately it's really lacking a 'killer app' at this point. I think it'd be cool to try and generate interest in it and get some big companies to port some stuff to it. It's approaching PC capabilities and I think that it'd be pretty lucrative for companies to re-use old games by porting them to this thing. Handheld Diablo II anyone?
http://www.openpandora.org/
Unfortunately it's really lacking a 'killer app' at this point. I think it'd be cool to try and generate interest in it and get some big companies to port some stuff to it. It's approaching PC capabilities and I think that it'd be pretty lucrative for companies to re-use old games by porting them to this thing. Handheld Diablo II anyone?
http://www.openpandora.org/
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I'd go for that.
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
EDIT: Oh, it's smaller than I thought. Still, very neat little machine.
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
@Willeth: Yeah, it's the size of a DS lite. I don't think it's supposed to be a laptop replacement, more of a gaming PDA type thing.
I'm trying to figure out what games this might actually be useful for in its current state.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
I never asked for this!
Sort of. They weren't really conceived in the same way though.
The first three that come to mind are the GamePark handhelds, and then also the Gizmondo or whatever it was called.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
That depends on what you mean by fail.
Commercially, yeah, they never took on the DS or the PSP.
On the other hand, that wasn't really the POINT. Both the GP32 and its successor the GP2X saw vibrant homebrew communities that produced a crapload of ports, things we cannot speak of, and new material.
This is just a community-built successor to the GP2X. It's awesome, and I've been following it for a while, but it is not a commercial product. You're not going to be buying a mario equivalent for this thing. You probably won't buy ANYTHING for this thing, since I can only think of one or two games actually SOLD for the GP2X.
EDIT:
One of the big problems of porting old PC games or using the things we cannot talk about is that a handheld has around 6-8 buttons. A keyboard...Not so much.
Plus, it's supposed to also be a bit of a UMPC. It's basically a palm pilot, a PSP minus the UMD drive, and an Eee minus the Windows XP support smashed together into one glorious, mutant device.
Well I'm guessing that it's so you can run Linux-based games that support OpenGL, but I can't figure out if that's actually possible.
Take Quake 3. Linux version, supports OpenGL. It's for full fledged computers with keyboards and mice.
Would it be possible to run such a game from that device? I have no idea. Maybe. But since it's a PC game it, at least initially, you're gonna need a keyboard until you can map the other controls to such a game.
But I have no idea what this device is capable of anyway. It's interesting and will probably have the same typical apps that the GamePark devices had, plus newer multimedia additions that the GPs weren't powerful enough for.
Basically nothing I would ever really be interested in for this amount of money.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
Quake 3 is definitely possible, I think the developers are already working on it. I'm pretty sure there's a video on the forums over there.
The point of the dual SD card slots is probably simply to maximize the storage capability of the device. It's supposed to having a working version of VLC as well as AV out, so you could store tons of media on it and use it as a media hub.
Steam ID: slashx000______Twitter: @bill_at_zeboyd______ Facebook: Zeboyd Games
You pretty much have the same problem with any handheld device. The specific advantage here is that it's running a more common OS, so porting can take advantage of running on top of an OS, rather than directly on the hardware.
Otherwise, I'm all for the little guy. Looks pretty awesome.
I don't think it's exactly gorgeous, but I don't mind the look.
It looks neat in a Sci-Fi channel original prop kind of way. Steam punk minus the steam.
Portable
Dwarf
Fortress.
And that does look hideous. I mean I can appreciate that it has other things going for it..... technical software-y type things that I know shit about but really? Atleast they nailed the size which is pretty incredible considering it has a wizard inside of it.
And then you can walk around pretending to be hacking the matrix.
I think it really depends how well it does. They're planning on making 3000 for the initial run, they're taking preorders in September and shipping in November. Making another batch depends on sales.
That's not really feasable, given that PC horsepower will -always- vastly trump mobile processing power. Mobile gaming will always be playing the games of last generation. Maybe someone could come out with a revolutionary system that could play PC games natively on mobile hardware, but that would require a release of a mobile processor and GPU that has the same architecture as what's in PCs.
I see it's built with more of a function over form attitude, which is fine by me. Actually I wouldn't mind having a nice little UMPC like this just for dickin on the internets and stuff.
Perhaps I should set up a fund.
No, it'll just be sold online(to my knowledge). You get games by downloading them direct from the developer, or through gp32x.
a) Give out free dev kits to a limited number of proven developers who already have decent Linux games out, in exchange for ports
OR
b) Eat costs by marketing it as a really cheap subnotebook at first to get people developing for it. At this price people would only buy it as a gaming machine, and who buys a gaming machine without games?
They did the first, essentially. Dudes in the GP2X homebrew community who made the software we all loved the most got pre-release boards to develop for.
Really that design just screams ameturism. Sure it works, but.
I'm guessing the keyboard will be more like the one that MS and Sony sell to clip between the handles of their respective joypads
Neither of which have been universally praised.
I think a keyboard needs to at least be the size of the Eee 900 series keyboard to really work in an effective manner.
I mean, small adaptations of keyboards have always been cramped, and I think the idea of putting a full keyboard and a gamepad and the inner workings of a computer in a tiny, tiny package is going to fail unless they either redesign it to be somehow awesome or make it a little bigger, with the knowledge that it's still at least low-cost and exceptionally light.
That has to be one of the best ideas I've ever heard of. Does anyone know if it works well or not?
Eh I'd rather they work on making it visible to normal humans first.
That is an incredible idea.