EvilDragon gets busy on the INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY.
Archive for the ‘Software’ Category
Video: Internets
March 3, 2010Video: EvilDragon triple feature
March 3, 2010
Posted by: gruso
A triple treat on Youtube today for those who ticked the UMPC box on their Pandoria visa application. First up is a solid ten minutes of OS bits and bobs, delving into office apps, audio & battery settings, and multitasking. Tacked on to that is a further two minutes devoted to themes and colour schemes. No matter what operating system you’re coming from, there’ll be something in here to make you feel at home. To cap it all off, ED toys around with some Pygame source code and launches it from the terminal – all on the Pandora. Hey, stop giggling up back. Barbie Seahorse Adventures is awesome.
Video: Kronos, BattleJewels, Mplayer, more
February 26, 2010
Posted by: gruso
There’s something for (nearly) everyone in this video, as Skeezix shows off his own apps Kronos and BattleJewels, launches a video in Mplayer (don’t worry, there is a GUI for that, he’s just not using it), and throws in a bit of file browsing and PND recognition for good measure. He also gives us his take on the current state of software, in the brief text below.
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.
Official blog: What’s to expect
February 24, 2010
Posted by: BackAssward
We all want news, and many of us are waiting with baited breath. So, when we have a bunch of news at once, we can wonder. Is this really good news, or are we just hoping? Well, we have some news from the Official blog. I hope everyone is as excited as I am.
EvilDragon
Chinese New Year holidays are over – work has begun at the factory!
Twitter: Pandora app tracker, more OS updates
February 24, 2010
Posted by: gruso
We still haven’t been let in the front door of the app store (name pending), but as of today we can follow progress from a slightly different angle. Craig was wedged a Twitter API into his store code, giving followers a live feed of new additions to the catalogue. You can follow the dedicated Twitter account, or if you think Twitter is dumb, just grab the RSS feed.
EvilDragon has also been turning over the tweets, with a string of OS updates over the past week:
Text adventures. Better than books.™
February 22, 2010
Posted by: grue…so
“You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.” If these legendary words mean nothing to you, you’ve been deprived of one of the great lost arts of gaming: the text adventure. But fear not, weary traveller. It’s never too late to be eaten by a grue, especially when Skeezix is bringing his interactive fiction interpreter Kronos to the world’s textiest known handheld.
PandoraPanic release trailer
February 16, 2010
Posted by: gruso
Ah, PandoraPanic, you’ve come so far. Since 2008 we’ve watched you grow, and it’s almost time to set you free. It’s a little bit sad, isn’t it? Hell no. It’s brilliant. Thanks to the tireless efforts of PokeParadox, MarkoeZ and a solid crew of contributors, PandoraPanic is ready for release. To mark the occasion, Foxblock has cut together a very tidy release trailer (and yeah, he knows about the typo). If you can’t wait to play PandoraPanic on the hardware you’re waiting for, play it on some you already have.
EvilVideos
February 15, 2010
Posted by: Butterman
EvilDragon has been hard at work making those videos that we all love. First off, he shows us how easy it is to switch between GUIs as well as some Atari ST emulation. Then, after the jump he shows us some Amiga emulation using UAE (which runs flawlessly).
OS Status
February 14, 2010
Posted by: Butterman
The operating system hasn’t been given much attention of late. But the software developers have been working away to get you a stable operating system at launch. The official status page has been updated to include a table of OS features to expect at launch. Most of these will be working correctly by the time the Pandora reaches our grubby hands.
Keep in mind that this is the CURRENT state. A lot of things will be fixed until you receive your Pandora.
Atari ST: full keyboard, full audio, full speed.
February 14, 2010
Posted by: gruso
Amiga vs Atari soldiers, lay down your swords. The day has been won, on the forums at least. Wasting no time following the arrival of his new (rev3) Pandora, Skeezix has cast away all other priorities to port Atari ST emulator Hatari. The result was so pleasing, so made-for-Pandora, that Craig even used an emoticon. All the best quotes from Skeezix:
Hatari is set to no frameskip, fullscreen, pixel doubling to fill the screen (overscan borders removed), audio on.
This is a fast port with no pandora optimization; not compiled with optimizations (which would speed it up 20%); running regular clock on Pandora (We could overclock another 30%). Using SDL (not as fast as going raw.) On top of X11 full desktop (we could run without X11 for more speed.)
So as you can see, full speed, no frameskip, and not even optimized.
Right away the SDL lib maps the Atari ST keyboard to the Pandora keyboard, and the joystick to the Pandora d-pad and buttons.
Appstore screenshotted
February 11, 2010
Posted by: gruso
And Craig twote:
Started to populate the Pandora appstore. Probably not the final name…
Edit: Refer to our earlier post for a general summary of how the appstore/box/repo/thing will operate. Remember, call it what you want, just don’t call it a pappstore.
The next steps
February 9, 2010
Posted by: gruso
The green light shone. The roar went up. The blog went down. And here we sit, pensive in the afterglow. So what happens next? Let’s take a look at what the coming weeks have in store.
We are pushing them to ship us 500 on friday. [...] The factory have already been instructed to get on with it, we should hear something today. We don’t know if they will manage it, but we hope they will. They have told us pretty much every customer makes this week hell for them.
(craigix)
ED tweets: Sample cases shipped
February 3, 2010
Posted by: gruso
A micro update from EvilDragon’s Twitter account.
We got a tracking number! It’s not yet in the UPS system (always takes some time, even longer in China). Good news, I’ll keep you updated!
End micro update.
First big batch of boards on the assembly line
February 2, 2010
Posted by: gruso
If you needed a reminder that China isn’t the only player in this saga, this is a nice way to get one. MWeston has informed us that 1,000 boards are being populated with components this week in Texas. Also interesting is the impact certain software developers are having on the hardware production process. What, you thought they just sat around porting Quake? (No offence to those who sat around porting Quake. You’re all doing a bang up job.)
It’s worth saying again that Notaz’s work on the kernel is clearly the reason the device is as advanced as it is today. Sure the hardware may have come along fine with minimal testing as the assembler learned how to solder the boards better but Notaz has helped me develop a comprehensive suite of test software that has helped the assembler perfect their process. So good in fact that they have started building a batch of 1000 this week after tweaking their pilot runs.
(MWeston)
A trio of titles, directed by Pickle
February 2, 2010
Posted by: gruso
Our favourite preserved vegetable has resurfaced, bringing with him nine minutes and fifty one seconds of glorious handheld gameplay. The titles in order of appearance are Ur-Quan Masters (aka Star Control II), Hammer of Thyrion (aka Hexen II), and Pandora Panic (aka Pandora Panic).
atomicthumbs
BackAssward
Butterman
gruso
tom
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