Pandora project demoed on video, shows off hardware, Linux, and Quake 2

It looks like the Pandora project is really coming together nicely. EvilDragon has just posted this video on the GP32x boards of a development model up and running. It's pretty exciting stuff if you're a homebrew fan (and we know you are), featuring demos of the device smoothly running emulators like PicoDrive, PSNES, booting up a build of Linux, and even getting its Quake 2 on (at high frame rates and looking crystal clear). It's still going to be awhile before we've actually got our grubby mitts on one of these, but this is certainly doing a good job of whetting our appetites. Watch the video after the break and see for yourself.

[Thanks, Chris]

[ArcticFox @ Aug 20th 2008 4:20AM]

Ive been following pandora for a while now and im really excited about the potential it has. Quake 2 looks smooth as silk.

[iofthestorm @ Aug 20th 2008 5:03AM]

I think specwise, it should be able to run Quake 3 too if it's ported well. This thing has beastly specs, probably twice as fast as a PSP.

[1234321 @ Aug 20th 2008 9:12AM]

the screen is WVGA so quake 2 is probably running at 640x480
compared to like 256 x 192 on each DS screen

the specs are pretty impressive, maybe this is the powerful handheld Carmack was talking about when he said power of PSP and DS combined

[bradpitt @ Aug 21st 2008 5:42PM]

If I remember correctly Carmack was talking about iPhone.

[mike @ Sep 16th 2008 10:19PM]

Three times as fast as the psp.

[Sagaris @ Aug 20th 2008 4:24AM]

but will it run doom?

[thedesolate1 @ Aug 20th 2008 8:38AM]

Yes for the LAST TIME! and NO it wont play Crysis and im positive that it will blend but i assure you it is NOT an iPhone or even iPhone related..... did I miss anything?

[riggs @ Aug 20th 2008 9:42AM]

you couldve said it in lolcat speak for bonus points

[EQB @ Aug 21st 2008 4:47PM]

Your robot overlords are displeased at their omission, thedesolate1. Your termination has been scheduled, you will comply.

[)law( @ Aug 20th 2008 4:30AM]

Quake in your pocket FTW now time to find some bullet proof pants

[Frank Furter @ Aug 20th 2008 11:19AM]

Ahh yes, the same ones I wear when visiting your Mom.

[steven @ Aug 20th 2008 1:36PM]

Nope my wood would go through bulletproof pants.

[MattyG @ Aug 20th 2008 4:32AM]

yeah it's smaller than a cd, if you think in 2 dimensions

[IcuraFu @ Aug 20th 2008 8:36AM]

Ha! More like 1 dimension... As in Width. It is neither shorter or more thin than a CD.

But that's besides the point. You can see the size of the chip against the CD, it's the kind of chip that you will see in the future Smart Phones. The next generation Nokia N-Series will probably have an underclocked version of this in a year or so.

[Information Central @ Aug 20th 2008 4:34AM]

And it's named after a soon-to-be-defunct music site. Good choice.

[ArcticFox @ Aug 20th 2008 5:28AM]

No its named after Pandoras Box, which is more appropriate.

[Brad @ Aug 20th 2008 11:42AM]

And that certainly shows your love and pride for our (my) favorite music station.

[Loneguitarist @ Aug 20th 2008 5:48PM]

Hahaha I love that there are people that think it is named Pandora after Pandora.com rather than the original Pandora. She was the first woman according to Greek mythology, you ass.

Get a clue before posting idiotic comments, douche.

[Hellios @ Aug 20th 2008 4:36AM]

One Pandora is dieing (radio) while the other is just about to be born... erm, released.
I'd also like to congratulate to anyone that can play FPS games on a handheld device. The only game I managed to play was QuakeDS and that was because the stylus was used to aim (which isn't much different than using a graphics tablet).

[SomeRandomPerson @ Aug 30th 2008 1:36PM]

The pandora does have a touch screen.....

[Glen Takahashi @ Sep 7th 2008 12:14PM]

ummm
actually, yes it does
"800x480 4.3" 16.7 million colours touchscreen LCD"
openpandora.org

[swingin' dick hero @ Aug 20th 2008 4:50AM]

Cool. Got my juices flowing.

[MastrCake @ Aug 20th 2008 4:54AM]

erm... Does anybody else think it looks like a leather wrapped widescreen Nintendo DS?

[iofthestorm @ Aug 20th 2008 4:58AM]

I think they pretty much took the DS as their model, but it's like a DS on steroids, crack, and the sweat of Michael Phelps. The hardware specs are amazing, and I really wish this were a commercial product. Otherwise it's not going to get the AAA games and publisher support that the hardware deserves. I'd like to buy one, but just for emulation/homebrew purposes it's not really worth it for me. It does seem like it might be able to double as a capable PDA, but I always have my DS in my pocket so it would be really annoying having both, since they're practically indistinguishable from the outside.

[cb88 @ Aug 24th 2008 12:39PM]

because it is a rapid prototyped case (thus the grainy finish...) ... the final injection molded case should look smooth...

has wifi and bluetooth ... and don't forget the DSP and PowerVR SGX which is actually a later version of the 3D chip in the Dreamcast so yeah it can bring some heat :-)

[Satan_L5 @ Aug 20th 2008 5:10AM]

好像没事.™

[Kelmon @ Aug 20th 2008 5:43AM]

Ah, good ol' Quake 2 - one of the few games that I enjoyed enough to actually finish, including the expansion packs.

[Leeb @ Aug 20th 2008 6:12AM]

I think this is going to be an amazing bit of kit, 2 SD card slots, can use a PSP charger, 10 hours battery life, 600 mhz CPU overclockable to 900 mhz, a 3d graphics chip. If it's a success I could see commercial games on it.

The best thing would be a fast web browser as standard unlike the PSP offering, and Divx support - again something the PSP is sadly missing.

PDA functions and push email would be real nice!

[Finraziel @ Aug 20th 2008 7:17AM]

It wont be on there standard, but it should be able to run firefox 3...
Basically it's a small linux computer, so anything that doesn't require huge amounts of RAM or a super fast CPU should be able to work on it... Don't expect a perfect easy "everything works the first time" experience though, it's targeted at people that like to mess around with their gadgets, not the "it just has to work" crowd.

[TeJay @ Aug 20th 2008 9:13AM]

"it should be able to run firefox 3[...], so anything that doesn't require huge amounts of RAM[...]"

Anyone else see the irony in this statement?

[Benson @ Aug 20th 2008 11:52AM]

Actually, FF3's a lot better than FF2 WRT RAM, and the Nokia N800/N810 are running a FF3-derived browser in 64MB of total system RAM -- while that's just the rendering engine, with a lighter front-end, it shows there's really not much irony there.

[SOOPERGOOMAN @ Aug 20th 2008 7:20AM]

But one question remains, will it blend? Also smaller than a cd, c'mon we saw that last shot and it is in no way smaller than a cd.

[Fahrstuhl @ Aug 20th 2008 7:48AM]

Well, it has a touchscreen and it has a USB-Slot with USB Host functionality, so you could plug in a mouse. Playing FPS' on this thing should work quite well.

[DiGiC @ Aug 20th 2008 8:15AM]

This thing is going to be amazing :)

[meist3r @ Aug 20th 2008 8:54AM]

Wow, that completely flew under my radar. I remember seeing one of the older posts about it thinking "Nah, another N-Gage type vaporware project" but now I see this and I am honestly surprised to see how well that actually performs. It might be a bit soon but this could be one step toward open platforms for gaming. I'm actually looking forward to seeing this on the shelves someday. Hope it's not too expensive.

[Ted Stevens @ Aug 20th 2008 6:36PM]

$330 or 200 euros I think. It's a bit on the expensive side, but if you think of it as a DS and PSP combined, then I guess the price fits.

[Dan Halen @ Aug 20th 2008 10:13AM]

EVILDRAGON.

lol

Wow. What a cool dude.

[ipubs bastard child @ Aug 20th 2008 10:26AM]

HI I've never heard of this. can somebody direct me to the developer site?

[Canguy @ Aug 20th 2008 12:23PM]

Openpandora.org

[greg @ Aug 20th 2008 2:25PM]

the only thing I wish this thing had was a slide down keyboard vs. a clamshell. If only... Not a deal breaker but would have been nice. Tho I think I read somewhere that they would have to pay some sort of licensing fee to do that design. Oh well...

[tangerine dreamer @ Aug 24th 2008 12:30PM]

I have a PSP and the screen gets scratched up regardless of the fact i own a protective sleeve . clamshells have a much greater chance of keeping the insides all clean and looked after . imagine the price increase and greater chances of breaking if it had a pulldown keys. im guessing the pandora is verry much a budget to rather than over quality piece of hardware. the gp2x had so many flaws and failed (im my opinion) because of them aswell as the fact it was inferior to both the psp and DS, now wouldnt you say this machine is going to learn from all the mistakes of past handhelds and pick from the best features and add more from its predecessors? it has in the specs department by a loooong shot.. the idea is to just buy one cause it will be better than anything for the size/price . there will be the odd faulty one no doubt unless theyve been all properly checked but you can get them replaced. ive always liked the open source handhelds but you could only get true portable satisfaction from a ds or psp (or having both obviously haha) now the pandora is taking it to a new level.. a new generation. give it another year and there probably will be a microsoft portable announced .. but i doubt itll be open source

[Tangerine dreamer @ Aug 25th 2008 11:47AM]

WOW aside from being able to plug a mouse into this baby and play FPS on a tv it has by far more the most intence specs ever!!! just imagine emulators 2 player using WIFI or even Quake 3 arena online hosted DM!! My main need is to run programs such as Linux Multimedia Studio http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06q-fcdXfOk&feature=related (basically a linux based fruity loops) and make melodies / beats and channel the Midi hopfully with a Usb 2 Midi lead to create a live sequencer like the DS has been trying but far more advanced. and also chop up sounds to go straight into the MPC1000 and vice-versa. all this would mean NO MORE using a damned computer until mixing and mastering and a few other needs, that is if the latency and other sound quality issues that can occur are running smooth

[Steve @ Aug 27th 2008 1:20AM]

Ok it's smaller but surely a asus EEE or similar would be a better buy!

[merethan @ Aug 28th 2008 9:25AM]

Eee PC won't fit in your pocket.

[Guilty @ Sep 9th 2008 12:42PM]

It's also faster, has better battery life, and costs less than an EEE.
It may not have as much RAM - not that it needs 16TB - but just the thought of having something that fits in my pocket, can run THOUSANDS of games (most emulated - Star fox 64, anyone?), and I can pretty much use as a laptop (with two 32GB SD cards), etc, etc, makes me feel like I'm going to explode if I can't order one in time...

I don't think they're going to make more than a couple thousand Pandoras in the first run, but they might end up being forced to make millions of them if they are popular (which, believe be, they WILL be)... wait - I mean, I *hope* they end up making that many...

[HanDuo @ Aug 29th 2008 7:10PM]

I don't understand why people want this thing to become a commercial thing and AAA games to be developed for it? I mean have you ever seen a good flight sim like X-Wing or Falcon 3.0 on a PS? Ever seen some really nice strategy or adventure games on a X-Box?
On the Pandora you will be able to run dosbox, PSone, N64 and whatever emulators. Furthermore Linux and homebrew. Do you really think you need commercial games that will cost you 30€ or more?

I mean stay with your DS if you like, but I guess 1.5 years after the pandoras release you will realize that all the stuff you can play on that one you will find on the pandora as well. +1000 games more...

[Carson @ Oct 9th 2008 9:36PM]

Are they going to make games for the Pandora like they would for the PSP or DS?

Are the games,you can play on it are they going to be good games?

[Nate @ Nov 11th 2008 1:40PM]

Is it just me or does quake2 look like it's software rendering, not OpenGL ...