Not to be confused with the Pandora music station, this Pandora is something completely different. I love old gaming systems and I still have a bunch hidden away in boxes but the thing is it’s a headache to take them out and get them working. This is why I ended up getting the Pandora. It’s basically a super tiny laptop with game pad controls built in. It runs the Linux operating system and it allows you to install whatever emulator you want onto it. Pandora was actually created by four guys who wanted something better than what was available in the market. With the help of a gaming community they went ahead and created Pandora with the primary function being to run video game emulators. It costs them $400 to build each Pandora and they sell it for $500. It’s kinda like selling cupcakes from your home except they’re selling this incredible portable gaming system.
Pandora can run a ton of emulators including N64, Neo Geo, SNES, Sega CD, MAME, Sakhr, PlayStation, Dreamcast, Dos games and even Quake 3. I’ve been playing a ton of old school games on it since I got the Pandora with my favorites currently being the Dos version of DopeWars, the best racing game ever which is Neo DriftOut and The Castle, an old Sakhr game that is still crazy hard over 20 years later. If you want more information on the Pandora click [Here]
39 replies on “Hello Pandora”
the first picture of the pandora has artifacts.
artifacts?
the picture is weird on opera for me. turned out proper when i restarted it.
nevermind my comment. :p
IDK $500 is kind of steep for something like this. Why not just get a 10′ netbook for $300 that can play all the same emulators, and buy a logitech precision gamepad for $7 to control it all. That way you could also hook it up to the HDTV and play on the TV, and you could get a second controller to play with friends, and for the arcade games you would be able to plug in arcade sticks for that.
Well does the 10″ netbook fit into your front or back pocket? Does the netbook’s battery last for over 10 hours? Does the netbook have a touch screen and gamepad controllers built in?
The pandora is similar in size to the Nintendo DS just slightly thicker which makes it very practical to take around.
But yes, $500 is steep but that’s because this isn’t a mass produced product.
Yeah definitely you got a point. It all depends on your needs. 🙂
Just to add, a better alternative to the netbook would be the Dingoo A320 which is what I had before the Pandora.
or you can play it on iPad ..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tT4tg2_1Wk
😉
Other than the fact I refuse to jailbreak my ipad and iphone, there are a few problems with this direction:
– iPad is too big and extremely uncomfortable to play games on
– iPhone screen is too small to fit controllers and the game at the same time
– both don’t last over 10 hours when playing games
– physical buttons are a lot better than screen buttons
– it’s a lot more simpler to copy games onto SD cards then to copy onto iphone/ipad
– Pandora is expandable, it has 2 SD card slots which means you could carry an infinite amount of GB’s with you
Yousef’s recommendation is closer to what the Pandora is. But his recommendation suffers due to size, battery life and the fact you need to carry a separate controller. The Pandora has eliminated those 3.
Actually iphone 4 has a good screen size compared to pandora .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAkTu7XGlN8
as for the sd card you can simply use dropbox to solve your problems ..
sctully most emulators now are in app store so no jailbreak needed ..
as for the physical buttons i have seen a gadget on thinkgeek where you can stick real buttons on the screen .. it went well actually .
in conclusion .. you still will need ps3 to play call of duty .
🙂
I don’t think so dude since the buttons take half the screen which is why the iphone screen comes out a lot smaller than pandora. Plus you won’t find nearly all the emulators i mentioned in the app store. Sure you can get the atari and sinclair emulator (with the limited games supplied for them) but i’m sure you know that’s not enough.
PS3 for Call of Duty, Pandora for Full Throttle
trust me i considered everything before dropping $500 on this but honestly there isn’t anything that can compare in the market.
hmmm .. in this case I think android would be the best solution ..
https://market.android.com/search?q=emulators&c=apps&sort=0&so=1
the price is really too much that you can buy a tab with that price .
they think 500 is a lot? there are people who pay 6000 for a laptop xbox. mark after this you can only go for a ben heck. (benheck.com) he only chargers 125 per hour for his custom work.
Mark i also just spent 500 bucks on a ridiculous toy. i got this.
https://www.hammacher.com/Product/78819
they have an amazing sale 50% off(probably stock clearance) everywhere else its over a $1000. its a miniature engine and its really cool.
here is a video of it but with a sightly different engine.
https://youtu.be/DGgqFPCwfr0
wow that’s pretty cool. Does it come in pieces and you put it together?
both, i think that hammacher sells them build but i’m not 100% certain. will find out when it arrives. you can also power dozens of other items with the same engine. its got around 2000 rpm.
check out this site, the steam engine is called a Bohm Stirling.
https://www.ministeam.com/acatalog/shop.html
A steam powered robot!
https://www.ministeam.com/acatalog/Strenco.html
If it comes in pieces I am so going to get it
i was going to get the below train but then i thought that i could use the engine to run other things once i get bored of the ferris wheel.
https://youtu.be/pshXdiWG97I
https://youtu.be/2e6MO9W5duk
hammacher are selling the train for $400; these things are crazy.
Awesome just awesome mark open pandora is an awesome device good job on supporting the developers and grats on owning an awesome and rare device
How about buying a PSP and installing a custom firmware to play old games?
I did that at one stage, PSP can barely emulate snes games yet alone the other systems
Very nice machine but the price is absolutely retarded for basic nostalgia and nothing new to offer.
This would only be fun for messing around 10 minutes at a time while on travel or something lol don’t have enough time to play new games, let alone spend hours on ancient ones I played before.
It’s not for everyone that’s for sure. If you’re looking to play for just 10 minutes you can get a Dingoo, costs like $120 without tax or shipping and can emulate a ton of things as well
https://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/retro-gaming/bd6f/
Personally I stopped enjoying games on the DS and PSP ever since they turned Metroid into 3D.
You could have just gotten a frickin’ PSP for like 60 KD. It runs PS1 games, and on it I have most of the old school systesm (Sega Genesis, NES, SNES, Gameboy, Game Gear, etc). Even some old school PC games.
I imagine the new PSP (PSVITA) will do that and more, also running PS2 games and perfect N64 emulation. You’ll need to hack it of course.
I just sold my PSP, could barely emulate anything at a decent speed. The dingoo a320 was wayyy better than the PSP.
Not sure what that is. But what exactly did you try to emulate?
A simple example would be SNES games.
Just think about it this way, if the PSP which costs nothing used was a great emulator, why would people go ahead and invent the Pandora? or why would people pay $500 for the Pandora or be on the waiting list for one for 2 years? Why would someone like me sell their PSP to get a Pandora?
I’m sure once the PSVITA comes out maybe it will be able to emulate better but right now the best emulator I’ve been able to use has been the Pandora followed by the Dingoo.
Ahhh, that has a simple answer actually. Because modding the PSP is illegal. Outside the dedicated modding communities the general public isn’t very aware of that stuff. I’ve emulated a ton of SNES games on my PSP without any problems. Although some of the early emulator builds had problems with a few games they’ve been pretty much smoothed out.
Can’t remember the last time an SNES game wouldn’t work for me on the PSP. Then again I also have the newer model PSP and it has more RAM. So not sure, experience could differ based on the PSP model, and definitely based on the emulator used.
As for the PSVITA I agree, it’s definitely capable and the only question is how long it will take the modding community to do that stuff.
Dude of course I had my PSP modded to play emulations. The SNES emulator didn’t have a problem emulating games it had a problem with the speed. There just isn’t have cpu power to run the games smoothly.
I didn’t say you didn’t?
It’s not really about CPU power but how the emulator was coded. Which was my point. Those emulators keep getting newer versions every few months.
Either way, enjoy your new toy!
Mark have you tried this ? https://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/retro-gaming/e5ef/
Its new in thinkgeek and it looks good to me . I am thinking to buy it but waiting for ur thoughts on it .
gp2x has been out for a few years, it’s direct competitor is the Dingoo and not Open Pandora. But, it’s more popular than the Dingoo and has a much more active community.
I know but this is a second generation as you can see with a big screen .. I just found a review in YouTube I would like to share it with you .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lxXpayJme0
yeah I know its the newer version
I guess this is it then in term of price .. I like the design as well it plays movies and everything but all I want to use it for is the old school games .. Thanks for ur thoughts !
yeah its a good price and plays practically everything. check on ebay its usually cheaper there.
The price is fair to me .. never trust ebay 🙂
ebay is safe if you buy from top rated sellers. A top rated seller right now is selling the Cannoo for $115.