Opening Pandora's Box - a review - part I (HD)

Part I of a multiple part series of videos in which I take a look at the open source Pandora handheld that has been in the making for quite some time. Please be sure to watch the HD version of this video! Watching it low-res/SD will take away much of the shine this system has.

Running on Linux sporting a specialized 3D GPU and a powerful ARM CPU this is the ultimate handheld gaming device in my opinion especially if you like retrogaming or open source handheld gaming without the need to hack/patch or crack into a commercially available system voiding support and warranty.

This system is very capable of emulation and emulating 32 and 64 bit consoles is possible and playable on this system.

I ordered mine over two years ago.
It cost me originally GBP 248,97 / EUR 297,09 but the price is much higher now.

- ARM® Cortex™-A8 600Mhz+ CPU running Linux
- 430-MHz TMS320C64x+™ 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

http://www.openpandora.org/
http://www.armchairarcade.com/
http://www.markvergeer.nl/

Category:

Gaming

Tags:

• open source
• handheld
• linux
• Angstrom
• ARM
• cortex
• TMS320C64x
• DSP
• PowerVR
• SGL
• OpenGL
• 3D
• bluetooth
• wifi
• usb
• sdhc
• svideo
• analog
• thumbpad
• keyboard
• qwerty
• battery
• 10+
• markvergeer
• review
• armchair arcade
• armchairarcade

[jboypacman]

What a amazing little device Mark.

[markvergeer]

@jboypacman It is friggin' sweet!

[RetroGamerVX]

Aha, the vid is finally arriving :o) I thought this was ugly when I first saw it to be honest, it's growing on me now :o)

[markvergeer]

@RetroGamerVX LOL, well the device has been growing on me as well. Took me over two years!

[Lorfarius]

Good review, heard some good things about it but actually good to hear some proper viewpoints on it!

[markvergeer]

@Lorfarius Glad you liked it!

[4lifebloods]

Lol I thought this was the Vin DiCarlo's Pandora Box review.Oops ... Wrong video lmao!

[slimerslimerslimer]

@killyrm34300 yes, it can play some n64 games.

[killyrm34300]

can it play n64

[VannyARTS]

What's better.. open pandora or caanoo ?

[smorehouse4]

@RetroGamerVX lol

[bsg7]

Excellent little overview man, it's good to see what was starting to seem like vaporware, finally in somebodies hands and running :)

The A8 emulator would be my fave - was my first ever 'puter (and still have it sat behind me with a twin for spares :D )

[retrocomputerkidkris]

aaaah cool m8 it even has an amstrad emulator quality m8y :-)

[HalfBlindGamer]

@markvergeer Well, a TV out feature usually helps a lot, and this one does have that at least :) Also, most devices can be made accessible for the vision impaired pretty well. Not that I really need it, holding things close to my face usually works well enough, but I can imagine this device being able to run voice feedback or a zoom program. Even phones can do that ;)