MPlayer (video), Kronos (text adventure), BattleJewels (RPG action puzzler), and pnd-file goofyness

Some real-world stuff here :) When EvilDragon posted some status updates, some folks loved it, some did not -- its a new device, a niche target, for hackers and joe public alike. Some features are rough around the edges, but most of the device works great. Still, thought I'd show a few real world scenarios - run a couple games and apps.

Things are starting to pad out a little, even though general devs don't have devices yet; we've got Picodrive for Genesis emulation, Hatari for Atari ST, UAE for Amiga, MAME, Vice for Commodore 64, and a really groovy port of DosBox with full touchscreen mouse emulation, for instance. We've got Abiword built in, along with some little utils -- djwillis crammed quite a bit into that firmware space! Some ports are coming along .. Quake 1, 2, 3 -- with Quake 3 running at like 20-30fps so far! GemRB, Descent..

Anyway, here's just a few things I thought I'd show off -- video, my new Kronos interp, and BattleJewels. If you want to see Quake 3 or something, let me know..

Video playing is one of those things we all just want, day-zero; we don't have hardware supported decode yet, so are relying on pure software decoding. This can be troublesome for some video playing software, but others handle things much better. It will struggle _right now_ with software decoded full high def .... but watch the video, and you'll see full speed no framedrop playing of a standard def ripped right from my DVDs. So its not all bleak like some people think -- I can watch my med-quality DVD rips of Firefly no problem! Want to watch animated stuff.. no problem! ITs hyour high def rips that are a problem right now, and we'll get hardware decode sorted out eventually.

I then pop into my new Kronos application, which is a player for interactive fiction games (Magnetic Scrolls, ZMachine/Infocom style, Scott Adams, and possible others.) We'll also port over TADS and others standalone I'm sure. But for now, let me just fire up a couple moments of The Guild of Thieves, a classy game I've been meaning to work on for oh, 15 years or so :)

Further, I run the pnd-file version of my BattleJewels game.. a rather cross between head to head action RPG and puzzle games -- cast spells, chop down your opponent, buy some gear and level up! pnd-files are working great .. just double-click to run, pick them from the menu, or run them from your own organized directories using the file browser.

Lastly I show the pnd-file auto-discovery as the SD is ejected/inserted -- no work installation of the games.

Bear in mind - no overclock here, this is 500mhz default!
Also bear in mind it is hard to tap on a screen or fiddle with buttons, while your other hand is holding a tiny camera :)

Enjoy!

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• pandora
• retro
• IF
• text adventures
• mplayer
• pnd

[eyesofnova]

what show is that playing on mplayer?

[skeezixcodejedi]

I'll have to check again, but last I checked we default to 500 (for battery savings, and really, its a sensible 'middle ground' for unknown use case for average joe.) People can up or downclock at will (with warnings as appropriate), so not a big deal. ie: The chip is rated at 600, but we deault to 500; you can go to 600 no problem, and go higher with a warning that you could explode :)

jeff

[Dragoony12345]

Hey Skeezix, thank you for this Video!

Your game "Battle Jewels" looks very interesting!! Will it be available to buy in the Pandora AppStore someday?

[skeezixcodejedi]

I'll probably make most of it freeware, and maybe (not for sure) make multiplayer have a one time $5 fee or somethign to help with hosting, lobby, etc. Or maybe all free, we'll see.

(Kronos is gpl freeware)

[me1ne]

Wow this video totally slipped my radar, would you mind adding "openpandora" to the tags? Searching for Pandora is a major PITA due to the Avatar movie ;)

[AdonusX]

@tokiopopski:

just how sure are you that this device is defaulted at 500MHz even though they say 600MHz? The device hasn't finished being mass produced for the first run, so you don't have an actual model in your hands to suggest such with proof behind your statement. Correct me if I am wrong, as I don't mind being corrected on such a topic, being a customer of this product myself.

[NoKtPapilio]

@eyesofnova big bang theory

[Tokiopopski]

@jcholewa No, 500MHz is 'default' even though the Pandora is advertised as "600+MHz"

[jcholewa]

re: "no overclock here, this is 500mhz default!"

The default is 600MHz, not 500MHz. We should assume this is a typo, yes, and not that this dev unit was underclocked?

(btw, thanks ... want)

[MeltingIce8917]

@abffy1 There is actually a normal mplayer GUI, he just launches it from the command line in the video for some reason.