Nintendo sixty…

Posted by: gruso

We knew it could happen. We hoped it was happening. Today, we know it is. A new face appeared on the GP32X boards over the weekend; a coder going by the name of Ari64. If GP32X had an award for “best first post ever”, this would be leading the field.

I have rewritten the dynamic recompiler for Mupen64plus to generate ARM code. This will run on OpenPandora, TouchBook, and BeagleBoard.

That’s right folks. Nintendo 64 emulation, for real reals. Ari64 says he’s been working on this for “around 4-5 months,” wisely keeping a lid on the project to avoid an onslaught of premature hype. There is still work to be done of course:

Unfortunately OpenGL acceleration does not work. It is possible to use software rendering, but it is very slow and some of the textures display incorrectly. Since several people are working on OpenGL ES libraries, I am posting this as-is for testing purposes.

As you’d expect, some of the scene’s best known coders are now hovering around this like kids at a candy store. The next few weeks should be interesting, but before you get caught on the hype train, take a moment to tip your hat to the scene’s newest household name: Ari64.

Source

TI loosens the leash a little

Posted by: gruso

We’re used to speed bumps on this road; we’re not so used to spec bumps. Code guru Exophase has discovered some interesting revisions to the OMAP3530 data sheet, which seems to be giving us a little more head room in terms of clock speed than we had before. The Cortex-A8, known to us as a “600Mhz+” processor, is now being listed as “Up to 720MHz”. Also getting an on-paper boost is the DSP core, which has jumped from 430Mhz to 520Mhz. MWeston speculates:

Trawled, asked, answered.

Posted by: gruso

You might have noticed the lack of updates this week. Well, good news! There aren’t any now either. The case moulds are reportedly going smoothly, and all we can really do is wait for them to finish. But a quiet blog is a cold, dark hell, so a little forum trawling was in order. Below are some questions, answers and pieces of banter from the last week on GP32X. Consume slowly. You need to conserve your strength.

The Pandora GUI: What it was, is, and will be.

Posted by: gruso

“Menus. Launchers. Desktop environments. Window managers. Pmenu! Pangea! Matchbox! E17! What’s going on?!”

Last week we heard that Matchbox may be superseded by E17, as Pandora’s default window manager. Today, we’ve seen new footage of Pmenu. So what does it all mean? What’s going to greet us on that screen when we first flip the lid? If you’re feeling a little in the dark, this article aims to bring the light. We’ll start with a brief description of Pandora’s operating system, then we’ll get into the GUIs. If you’re a seasoned Linux user, and you’re easily offended by gross simplifications (which all Linux users are), feel free to skip the first bit.

Video: Pmenu gets some PND action

Posted by: gruso

Cpasjuste has shared a new video of Pmenu, the graphical launcher that will ship with Pandora. Unfortunately it’s a little blurry, but you don’t have to tell Cpasjuste this. He’s already called it crappy himself. Noteworthy in this installment is the implementation of Pandora’s PND packaging system. In a nutshell, a .PND file is the container that Pandora applications live in. Download this one file (eg. Quake2.pnd), drop it onto your SD card, and watch as your new Quake2 shortcut appears in the menu automatically. Magic!

Official Blog: Did somebody say “Let it begin?”

Posted by: gruso

A new (well, day old) post on the official blog from EvilDragon. If all the desktop environment talk (Matchbox vs E17) leaves you feeling a little lost, never fear. We’ll pull together some information and give you a roundup soon.

Did somebody say “Let it begin?”

Yes, we did.

You’ve seen some requested videos during the last days, now it’s time for some more facts and information, eh?

Well, the review of the complete case and the keymat is finished. There were a few small issues that we already corrected and on Monday the company did tell us “Everything is ready, we can start when you are ready”.
And guess what – we were ready! Finally all issues of the case and keymat have been resolved and they are now working on the mould.

DJWillis has also made some progress with WiFi. Basically, he can communicate with the Module, only calibration doesn’t work yet. As soon as he gets this to work, WiFi will work completely – including WPA, etc.

Regarding software, we were discussing about using cpasjuste’s GUI as minimal launcher, since it is so much nicer than matchbox and it’s just a program you run, not a complete WindowManager.
So we’re currently thinking about using E17 as fully fledged desktop and cpasjuste’s GUI as minimal mode for the gamers who don’t want to use a complete desktop.
That way we don’t need two window manager and starting the minimal GUI is easy – just use it as autostart program.

I know there are still plenty of things to do – and the worst thing is that there won’t be many pictures while waiting for all companies to finish… but we’re still getting there, step by step.

More droplets of Lerp

Posted by: gruso

If Benjymous thought he was going to sneak some new Lerp footage past us, he thought wrong. Despite being quite short, each video introduces us to new elements of the game, and accordingly, gives us new reasons to want it. Like, now.

DOSBox, DOSBox, DOSBox

Posted by: gruso

That’s right, to the power of three. Three new videos, multiple games within each. Press the Back button and return to normal life, or hit the read link and see how deep the Pickle jar goes.

Video: Cpasjuste adds nub support to Quake 3

Posted by: gruso

In the words of one forum user, “smoother than a smooth thing covered in baby oil.” What the video lacks in resolution, it makes up for in fragtabulousness. Oh, and if you were wondering, the force feedback lid closing feature will not make it into the final product.

Source

A host of posts on case news and emus

Posted by: gruso

It was all devs on deck today, with a little video-fuelled excitement on the boards and a bevy of questions answered. First up, a word from the Dragon.

Well, some quick news (I didn’t have time to do a blog post, as I was in Leipzig at the GCO and needed to catch up on everything).

The 105 boards are finished, though I have no idea whether the MP company did take some pictures or if we have to wait until they arrive at Michaels place.
The review of the case is complete, mould creation started.
The TV Out Cables are being built, as soon as Michael gets the first final one, there will be pictures for sure
WiFi is getting better, everything works except reading the calibration data, the rest is fine. DJWillis is still at it.
And Michael is currently putting the new firmware on all of the nubs… joy

Source

On reading that, the observant Pandorian might be asking why the case mould is starting now, when we previously reported that it started two weeks ago? Just for you, it’s been asked and answered already.