Gamepark Holdings Officially Announces the WIZ Handheld 166
Croakyvoice writes "Gamepark Holdings, the makers of the GP2X
Console, have today announced
the successor, which is called the WIZ. The new GBA Micro-sized console features
a touchscreen, Linux OS, an Arm9 533MHZ 3D processor with 64MB of ram and will
have commercial games on sale at launch in October. Best of all for fans of homebrew
and emulation on the GP2X, all that needs to be done is recompiling of sourcecode."
Obligatory (Score:5, Funny)
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I always beat it to get it out of the way early, but won't you know it, twenty minutes later, there it is again.
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I always beat it to get it out of the way early, but won't you know it, twenty minutes later, there it is again.
You should get out more. You can really wow the ladies with that kind of stamina :)
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Wot's up with naming things after urinating? First the Wii, then the Wiz. Wot's next? The P33?
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Too all those thinking this is a masturbation joke... *whooosh* [wikipedia.org]
Additional Info (Score:5, Interesting)
As for other support, I'm kind of disappointed that they went far enough to support Lyrics (Lyc) files but they only support TXT for their E-Books. I would be nice to see Plucker [gutenberg.org] supported by default so that all the Project Gutenberg books would be readily accessible in something better than just plain text. But, I suppose that's just a matter of recompiling [plkr.org] for the targeted architecture. I wonder if proprietary e-Book formats will ever be supported on devices like this? That's probably just wishful thinking--why would Amazon divert sales of the Kindle to something like this?
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Flash 7 is pretty ancient tech at this point. The vast majority of Flash games are Flash 8 with many of the new ones being made in Flash 9. However, the Nintendo Wii has the same limitation, so you may find Wii gaming sites [wiicade.com] to be useful on the device.
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emulation (Score:5, Funny)
Can someone write an emulator so that we can we WIZ on our Wiis?
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Emulators are inefficient, and the Wii is not the most powerful of the current gen:
WIZ might make Wiis wheeze...
The Pandora (Score:5, Informative)
Although the Wiz is the "official" successor, the successor in spirit (and with a much more open development process, and much more likely to actually get up-to-date source code published - the GP2X firmware versions aren't always open-sourced properly) is the Pandora... www.openpandora.org - which is due out at roughly the same time as the Wiz.
Most of the developers for the GP2X are actually putting their weight behind the Pandora first - I know, I'm a GP2X software porter of things like Simon Tatham's (of PuTTY fame) Portable Puzzle Collection... (Blatant advert: http://www.ledow.org.uk/gp2x/ [ledow.org.uk] for that particular one). This is mainly because GPH are notorious for poor information and stock-status. Most countries had trouble importing the GP2X before it was EOL'd anyway, and you don't get anything useful out of the company at all.
Forget the Wiz, open the box....
Re:The Pandora (Score:5, Informative)
* ARM® Cortex(TM)-A8 600Mhz+ CPU running Linux
* 430-MHz TMS320C64x+(TM) DSP Core
* PowerVR SGX OpenGL 2.0 ES compliant 3D hardware
* 800x480 4.3" 16.7 million colours touchscreen LCD
* Wifi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth & High Speed USB 2.0 Host
* Dual SDHC card slots & SVideo TV output
* Dual Analogue and Digital gaming controls
* 43 button QWERTY and numeric keypad
* Around 10+ Hours battery life
Re:The Pandora (Score:4, Interesting)
Really? Just copy paste? No effort to even say something from your own head? Wow, how informative.
It added more to the discussion than your AC whining did.
Re:The Pandora (Score:4, Interesting)
I would not go so far as stating 100 hours. The rather large (for a handheld, that is...) Li-Ion battery they expect to ship it with will give it roughly 10 or so hours of runtime with the power consumption of the components on the bringup board I got. This is at the clock speed of 600MHz. Underclock it and it'll consume a lot less juice and with the DSP core in there, it should be able to play MP3's, etc. with much less juice. Something like 20+ hours, maybe.
Re:The Pandora (Score:4, Interesting)
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I didn't catch that thread, atomicthumbs... It doesn't surprise me, though. Cut all but the DSP, RAM, and flash off and just GO. It would get upwards of 100 hours with that battery they're going with on it.
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Actually, I'm not at all surprised. I wasn't sure that they could turn the CPU/GPU off like that and just have the DSP grinding since I'm just getting fully up to speed with board bring-up and I didn't catch MWeston's remark in the forums.
It's VERY possible if you're doing nothing but DSP with the relatively HUGE (>3000MAh capacity...) battery they've got in the thing.
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Since you know a bit about it, what are the must play games native to the GPX2?
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A qwerty keyboard? Is that some kind of joke?
That thing is suffering HORRIBLY from feature checklist mentality. Just throw more and more features at it in the hope of attracting people who just read the feature list, without any regard for making a system that makes sense as a whole.
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Do you know ANYTHING about the history, community, or purpose behind the GP32, GP2X and Pandora?
The Pandora is not intended to compete with the likes of the PSP or DS.
It is intended as the ultimate homebrew/retro-gaming/emulation device. As such, a keyboard has been a highly requested feature; it will be perfect for emulation of things like the C64, Amiga, DOSBOX, etc. Not to mention making it practical as an ultra-mini notebook.
Believe me, they are not just "throwing features in" to try and attract buyer
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If you think it's not a good thing, perhaps the Pandora isn't a device for you. Again, it's a UMPC with gaming features designed in instead of bolted on. That makes it a bit different than a PSP or DS, obviously. If you're not looking for that, it might not make sense to you- but it doesn't make it poorly designed. It's only that way, in your not so humble opinion, because you're mapping what YOU want in a handheld gaming device on to it.
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If it's "not for me", supposedly because I want a handheld gaming device that makes sense, why do people keep shouting that it's the real successor of the GP2X, a device which is obviously very different?
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I suggest a Wiz, then. You'll have to wait a while, yet, for the other players to catch up to what all the Pandora is fully capable of- which is vastly more than even the Wiz, which is JUST a gaming handheld.
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right, let's just make a device that _you_ and your "committee" want, but that there's no actual demand for. great idea!
i think that business philosophy has already been played to death with the N-Gage, Sega Game Gear, DivX (the video rental system, not the codec), and the Gizmondo.
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Pop quiz: How much "forum input" went into the design of the Nintendo DS? How did you average forum react to it when it was released?
And how many people have bought one to date?
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Little known fact: The Virtual Boy was designed entirely based on input from web forums...
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pop quiz: what's an inverse argument?
just because a successful product can be designed without forum input doesn't mean that a successful product can't be designed _with_ forum input.
use unsound arguments much?
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You're the one who said "i think that business philosophy has already been played to death with the N-Gage, Sega Game Gear, DivX (the video rental system, not the codec), and the Gizmondo."
So what was your argument, and how was it sound?
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It doesn't much matter what it's called if it makes you deliver a mediocre product.
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you keep making unsupported value-judgments as if you're afraid of engaging in a real discussion.
if the only reason you can give for the Pandora being a "mediocre product" or "not making sense" is the fact that it has a 43 button qwerty keyboard, then the problem doesn't lie with Pandora or its designers.
clearly it makes sense to everyone else. so just stop trolling already.
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"Clearly"? "Everyone"? And you're complaining that I'm making unsupported value judgements?
Also, "trolling" doesn't mean "saying things I don't like".
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How would you know what makes sense? If you're going for a UMPC type device with gaming capabilities, that QUERTY keyboard is a nice (and expected) feature. If you're just looking for a handheld, it might be overkill.
The Pandora is a UMPC type device, tuned for gameplay first and foremost.
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just because it has a qwerty keyboard? i think a lot of PSP owners would love to have a qwerty keyboard attachment for the system.
in case you haven't noticed, most portable entertainment systems these days also have features like: web browsing, instant messaging, e-mail, etc. a qwerty keyboard would make those applications much easier to use, not to mention the wide variety of other non-web/internet-related applications that take text input--like, searching through your mp3 collection or an ebook, or text e
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if you're a fan of portable gaming/entertainment devices, then you'd be able to appreciate the robust package Pandora offers--particularly if you're into homebrew development.
Yeah, uh, I am into homebrew developement, you know? And a big bulky device with a keyboard on it is about the last thing I'd be interested in developing for or even buying?
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So what happened to "if you're a fan of portable gaming/entertainment devices, then you'd be able to appreciate the robust package Pandora offers--particularly if you're into homebrew development"?
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um, it still stands? when will you realize that you are not representative of the entire portable entertainment market?
most portable entertainment/homebrew enthusiasts are interested in more than just a portable gaming system, hence hardware makers include additional features such as wi-fi access, web browsing, RSS subscriptions, GPS add-ons, and _keyboard attachments_. just do a simple google search for the phrase "PSP keyboard" and you can immediately see how much interest there is in this capability.
peop
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If it was satire, it would be hilarious.
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I just can't see many people expecting to get their 300+ dollars worth with a homebrew-only playing device such as Pandora. PSP, DS, Wii, Gamecube, etc, homebrew is either crap, emus (the use of which almost exclusively involves piracy), ports of Quake and Doom, or crap. Homebrew doesn't have a big enough audience to draw in good developers and/or keep good developers interested in it. A $300 Pandora, while not requiring hacking, still isn't going to make the market any bigger because of its price tag. In f
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that's because Pandora is a niche product. it's not competing with the PSP/DS. it's for people who want an open portable gaming platform to develop on. most of its users are going to be geeks & programmers.
as shocking as it may sound, not _everyone_ is singly focused on making tons of money. some people do things because they are passionate about it, and because it interests them. just because Pandora won't appeal to mainstream consumers doesn't mean that it's not a good product. in fact, it's a great p
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Actually, aside from ebay as you noted, where the old games and consoles are readily available, Nintendo and others are selling old games via, for example, the VC. Before that many were available on compilations/still are. If you want to play old games then buy them - they are available. If you aren't willing to buy them, then don't play them. If you do download and play roms of games you don't own, then at least acknowledge what it is - stealing - and stop making up bullshit excuses.
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VC = Virtual Console on the Wii. Games for past consoles are available there. It is far from comprehensive, but they keep adding more. The point is only that these games are being sold in, in effect, rom form there.
If you are buying games from ebay, that is good. I'm talking about downloading roms of games you don't own. Like you say, ebay is a great source for old system carts and discs. There are very, very few games that are never sold on ebay or elsewhere. As for Duke Nukem Forever, Quake XV and Doom XX
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The Pandora, on the other hand, was developed in response to what the GP2X community was interested in, with lots of feedback and every step. As a result we have two fairly different devices on the way: a GP2X "micro" with improvements all around (but an unfortunately lack of regular buttons on the right hand side) and
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I suspect they'll keep to it. Beagleboards are pricing in at $160 right at the moment. That's the desktop/console cousin to the Pandora- they're using the same SOC, etc. and the Pandora adds a touch-screen, LCD, etc. to the mix. $350's not hard to keep within in light of what's involved here.
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About 95% of those games were controlled with a single-button joystick without using the keyboard. So yes, I'm going to have fun.
Cheezy Anime (Score:2, Insightful)
A hand held disappointment? (Score:5, Funny)
Must... resist.. penis joke... Damn it! too late.
Re:Cheezy Anime (Score:4, Insightful)
All of the games look like cheezy anime. I am not impressed or amused. This just looks like another hand held disappointment.
If it's meant to be like the GP2X and GP32 (of which some misguided person made the same criticism), then you're missing the point. Those were primarily meant for those seeking a more open, hackable handheld that can run emulators and all sorts of other things. They're not really competing with the DS or PSP, which would be better choices if you just want to play games- or at least the kind of mainstream games that Nintendo and/or Sony want you to play.
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so make your own.
Re:Cheezy Anime (Score:4, Insightful)
I hate that fallacy.
Just becasue someone can't do something doesn't mean that can't identify something that is crap.
I can't build a jumbo jet, but if someone made one with square wheels, I would point out the flaw.
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But you're complaining about something designed for people who want to customize it, and saying that the stuff for it sucks.
It's like saying that "this lego kit sucks because you can only build this spaceship with it."
I can't afford one (Score:5, Insightful)
I went to the site, and there was no listed price. "Son, if you have to ask what it costs, you can't afford one". Too bad, It looks like something I would really like.
Maybe the lack of a price on the "buy it now" button was an oversight; if so, they need to get their heads out of their asses. Very few of us are Bill gates or Larry Ellison; we can't buy things we don't know the price of.
A lame website makes me think they must have a lame product as well. Be careful with your sites, folks! A good site will sell a bad product, but you can't even sell a good product on a bad site.
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Wow, now I REALLY want one.
OpenPandora (Score:2)
I can only hope that it is cheaper than the OpenPandora. It's smaller at least.
At least we'll all be able to port our GP2X games to it. Although running them without recompilation would have been better.
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How could it not be cheaper than the Pandora? The Wiz has a much less powerful SoC, the Pandora has the most powerful SoC out there (TI OMAP 3530), with WiFi, Bluetooth, a keyboard, analog dual nubs on top of the D-pad and the *proper* other buttons (a double D-pad?? What the hell are these guys smoking?). Also a 800x480 screen vs 320x240. Oh and I'm not even talking about the vast battery life in the Pandora. That's the sort of thing that make the difference between just another PMP/console and a cutting e
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"comparing the two is like comparing an Audi TT with your mom's Volkswagen"
I'd much rather drive a swank Jetta than a TT. Just saying.
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So yeah, comparing the two is like comparing an Audi TT with your mom's Volkswagen
I'd rather have a Ford Focus. It's cheaper than either.
ps - I'm a professional Linux/ARM developer. I'm aware of the differences between the chips, but I actually don't care as long as I can download games and play them (and maybe port some of my own to it)
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Also, this thing's game controls consist of 2 d-pads, the last time I looked.
How else will you play SmashTV [wikipedia.org] and Total Carnage [wikipedia.org]?
The control seem good for games where you don't have to push more than one button at a time. But I have never been a fan of deviating from standard NES/SNES/SEGA/PSX/etc controls. I know I hated the little thumb stick on the one model of GP2X.
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How else will you play SmashTV [wikipedia.org] and Total Carnage [wikipedia.org]?
With the Pandora's two analog sticks? ;-)
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You could buy two Wiz's for the price of a Pandora though. Then you'd have four D-pads and two displays.
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You could buy two Wiz's for the price of a Pandora though. Then you'd have four D-pads and two displays.
But still 2.5 times less pixels ;-). And you could argue that the Pandora has four 4-directions controls, by its D-pad, two analog nubs and the four buttons. And the combined battery life would be roughly equal (the Wiz claims 5 hours, the Pandora 10 hours).
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Looks neat (Score:2)
Might be a bit too little, too late though, with the Pandora coming out within a few months. Maybe this will work as a small, cheaper alternative in the open handheld market.
Specs? (Score:1)
What 3d chipset?
Screen resolution?
Power consumption?
dimensions?
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I've transcribed the first section of the specs from the brochure:
Product Name: GP2X Wiz
CPU ARM9 533MHz, 3D Accelerator
RAM: 64MB
NAND Flash Memory: 1GB
Size: 121(w) * 61(h) * 18(d)mm
Wwight Approx. 93g (Without battery) / Approx. 136g (Including battery)
External Storage: SD Card
USB Function: 2.0 High Speed
O/S: Linux
Battery: 2000mAh Lithium Polymer
Buttons: Up / Down / Left / Right, A/B/X/Y, HOME/SELECT, Volume Up/Down, Power On/Off/Hold
Display: 71.12mm(2.8inch) OLED Touch Screen Panel
Resolution: 320x240 (QVGA)
E
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although I can't think how a rich gaming experience can be created in under 600x400 resolution.
Yeah, nobody ever enjoyed a game before PCs with VGA hardware!
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Yes, the kind that people have been playing on ASCII terminals for decades?
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(you *did* read my post, right?).
The one that said "I'm thinking of creating simplistic diablo type games"? Yes.
If you honestly think that resolution is that big a barrier to "game experience", you don't really know much about game design.
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I honestly am curious - what type of gamer prefers blocky graphics to reasonable graphics?
How about anybody who bought a DS? That'd be 600,000 people in the US last month. You think the DS doesn't have "slow-moving" games where you have to stare at a character for long times?
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It's not really my kind of genre so I wouldn't know. The most RPG-y game I've played was Zelda, which did fine with 3D graphics, although if you wanted smaller sprites you'd probably be better off with hand-drawn 2D graphics.
Also, you might want to consider getting a DS and a flash cart if you want to make homebrew software for handhelds. I don't have any actual figures, but it seems to me the market of people with a DS and flashcart would be bigger than the market of people with a GP2X or any successor.
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Nethack's gameplay is far superior to what Diablo offers, because Diablo is static. Woohoo, the maps regenerate. It's still the same game every time--and can't even begin to touch the complexity and entertainment value of Nethack. Of course, the main bitch about Nethack (aside from "too hard," which is hilarious) is that it doesn't have graphics, so they've lost half the droolers out there (and a good thing, too--maybe they can lose the other half?).
I wouldn't want to compare with Starcraft, because Starcr
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Diablo is static. Woohoo, the maps regenerate. It's still the same game every time
How is this different from Nethack? Does nethack give you different quests to do every time you play it? From what I remember (not played it for some years) it was always 'enter dungeon, go as deep as you can, and kill as many things as you can before you die.' The levels were different (but that, apparently, doesn't make the gameplay non-static), but the rough distribution of monsters was always the same (as with Diablo).
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If you seriously think nethack is a static game, then I suggest you play some more, you don't really understand the depth of it until you've played it for quite some time. (and new people tend to die a lot, so it takes a while to get anywhere)
having never ascended myself, furthest I've gotten was the elemental planes with the amulet, which even though I died I'm still rather proud of
you've finished diablo right? try the same with nethack, while you probably won't, if you get far enough you'll see what is m
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at some point between level 10 and 15 dungeon level wise you get a quest specific to your class, before then you may/may not get the chance to visit vlad the impalers tower and slay him, then there are the things like the castle, trying to figure out how to get in is indeed a puzzle (and intended that way) aswell as many other things.
as for motivation, aside from side things to achieve it, your main sole motivation is to get the amulet of yendor, and give it to your god. A task difficult enough to be a good
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Well, at least you're honest about being artistically bankrupt.
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Since the announcement was just made, the info in the forums is still kind of fresh regarding the Wiz and I haven't seen anyone say specifically which distros
Don't know about anybody else... (Score:2, Funny)
This [youtube.com] is the only Whiz I'll use!
Ehh... I'll wait. (Score:2)
I was an early adopter for the GP2X. It was disappointing. The community was great. The device itself was lackluster. Bad screens, worse joysticks, power issues, bricking risks... the best part was the emulators, and those are on the PSP now with Dark Alex's stuff.
And the fact that it cost as much as 2 GBA SPs... I'm sure these new ones are even more.
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I was an early adopter for the GP2X. It was disappointing. The community was great. The device itself was lackluster. Bad screens, worse joysticks, power issues, bricking risks... the best part was the emulators, and those are on the PSP now with Dark Alex's stuff.
And the fact that it cost as much as 2 GBA SPs... I'm sure these new ones are even more.
Same here. I was seriously disappointed with what I got for the GP2X cost. The newest hardware revision seems to be much more robust, but man, what a waste of money. The joystick issues with early versions made it almost unusable for gameplay.
And now we have a split in the open source micros community between the Wiz and the OpenPandora. The OpenPandora seems to be a greatly superior machine, but at a rather high cost for essentially a portable game machine.
I would probably rather get a cheap EEE PC o
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The OpenPandora seems to be a greatly superior machine, but at a rather high cost for essentially a portable game machine.
I think this is a real mistake for the OpenPandora community. If they'd put another 128MB of RAM in there (would need a board redesign, since it would need to be separate) then it would make an absolutely wonderful portable computer. With 128MB, things are just a little bit tight when running modern software (especially since they don't want to enable swap). It's more than enough for running a single app, but I want to be able to multitask. With 256MB of RAM and DVI out (which you get from the BeagleBoar
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Not GBA micro sized (Score:2)
Has a 2.8" VGA screen, 8 buttons (including volume and menu ones). It looks pretty nice but it's lacking buttons for emulation
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File this under "the rectification of names"... (Score:2)
I noticed that this article, a previous article it refers to, as well as the DCEMU all refer to this hand-held system as a "console." To me, the word "console" implies something that hooks up to a TV or monitor -- something immobile and even relatively large -- not a hand-held system. Is that true for anyone else?
Nintendo should buy the rights to this thing. (Score:2)
Just think: if Nintendo replaced the DS with this, you could choose to play with your Wii or your Wiz.
Won't replace my N800 (Score:2)
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- rokdcasbah
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