Pandora Emulator Features ?


paddy

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Unlike most other emulators on other systems apart from windows and linux there are features
thatdevelopers leave out even tho they would be best suited to the handheld or console
and the biggest feature for any emulator would be Netplay - log into a server or direct connect
and play with anyone anywhere. most

So the features listed here are what i would love to see as a standard for all pandora
emulators ,i hope you all agree and most important is that the devs read,agree and implement
what they also think would be a good idea.

NETPLAY (A MUST FOR US PANDORA USERS,WE CAN ALL SHOW OFF OUR RETRO SKILLS)
this could pull people on to the pandora especialy if there was a dedicated server just for
pandora users to get on and play each other,mabe even leaderboards,but most important
is just being able to play against or coop with others,mariokart,secret of mana and bomberman
come to mind.

LOCAL MULTIPLAYER (MABE USE BLUETOOTH FOR POWER SAVING INSTEAD OF WIRELESS)
this feature is a must once the second batch it out devs would be asked countless times to
add this feature in,so wouldnt it be a good idea,the posability opens further with two tvs
two pandoras and four usb slots.

SINGLE SYSTEM EMULATOR (I PERSONALY PREFER SINGLE SYSTEM EMULATORS)
this would be my prefered way of starting/running emulators,i have a passion for
every game system out there,even the not so good ones and feel its better to make
the most out of that system with a nice gui,icon set and emulator specific options tailored
to that system - im not saying multisystem emulators dont do these things but i dont think
they do them fully,many will disagree with me but its my personal taste.

FILTERS (SCANLNE - SUPER2XSAI -MAKING THE GAME LOOK THE BEST IT CAN BE)
filters are much needed and can make games look extremely good,the two filters that
i care most for are scanline and basicaly any smooth filter and would be even better
enabling both at the same time.

SCREENSHOTS - (MAINLY USED AS A PLACEHOLDER WHEN CHOOSING A GAME)
screenshots are cool for a tag when browsing the games list - defo just a finnishing touch.

RECORD - (ABILITY TO RECORD YOURSELF PLAYING A GAME)
loved the record feature in zsnes it you are really good at some games and you
record yourself playing it gives you a buzz that you try to play the best possible as
you might actuly show someone these vids showing off !!!! yey i know kinda sad but
i love trying to do a complete run on gradius 3 with 1 life or completing smb in under
6 mins with no assists.

FF RW GAMEPLAY - (ABILITY TO REWIND AND FAST FORWARD GAMEPLAY)
the rewind feature isnt important to me,never actuly used it but fastforward is really
good for skipping intros and slow parts of a game,its somthing i use all the time without
actuly thinking about it.

SAVESTATES - (WE ALL LOVE SAVESTATE FEATURES)
needed for sure ,we all will be playing on the go or in short bursts and then theres
games that should have had save support that didnt,games that take too long to complete
in one go and games with ultra large passwords.

SEPARATE CFG AND SINGLE CFG - (SAVE GAME CFG AND DEFAULT CFG)
the ability to save a cfg per game -so you might want one game to have different control
options,sound and display options when you start it up,or you might also want the option
for all games that dont have a specific game.cfg config file to load up a set default set of options.

VIDEO OUT - (EMPLOY PANDORA VIDEO OUT FUNCTION)
a pandora selling point in my book ,this really needs to be the norm and i hope we see support
on emulators for video out,pandora hooked up to the tv with a few wirless controllers is a great
idea.

THEMES - (CHOICE OF THEMES WOULD BE NICE BUT WOULD EXPECT AS A FINNISHING TOUCH)
themes are nice but i think its not really a needed feature - mabe even just the ability to have a
custom background when running the emulator - well anything is better than a dull black screen.

MUTE EMULATOR SOUND - (PLAY OTHER MUSIC/RADIO MEDIA AS BACKGROUND SOUND)
i would prefer if the pandora could handle this without the emulator support ,meaning you could
play music or radio on pandora at anytime as a multi tasking feature then you could just mute
the emulator sounds.

Im not asking or begging the authors of possible emulators on pandora for these functions
but would love to see at least the netplay on all system emulators,as would us all ,so thats all
i can think of that would be nice to have on an emulator,anyone got some more cool ideas ?
 
paddy said:
Unlike most other emulators on other systems apart from windows and linux there are features
thatdevelopers leave out even tho they would be best suited to the handheld or console
and the biggest feature for any emulator would be Netplay - log into a server or direct connect
and play with anyone anywhere. most

So the features listed here are what i would love to see as a standard for all pandora
emulators ,i hope you all agree and most important is that the devs read,agree and implement
what they also think would be a good idea.

NETPLAY (A MUST FOR US PANDORA USERS,WE CAN ALL SHOW OFF OUR RETRO SKILLS)
LOCAL MULTIPLAYER (MABE USE BLUETOOTH FOR POWER SAVING INSTEAD OF WIRELESS)
SINGLE SYSTEM EMULATOR (I PERSONALY PREFER SINGLE SYSTEM EMULATORS)
FILTERS (SCANLNE - SUPER2XSAI -MAKING THE GAME LOOK THE BEST IT CAN BE)
SCREENSHOTS - (MAINLY USED AS A PLACEHOLDER WHEN CHOOSING A GAME)
RECORD - (ABILITY TO RECORD YOURSELF PLAYING A GAME)
FF RW GAMEPLAY - (ABILITY TO REWIND AND FAST FORWARD GAMEPLAY)
SAVESTATES - (WE ALL LOVE SAVESTATE FEATURES)
SEPARATE CFG AND SINGLE CFG - (SAVE GAME CFG AND DEFAULT CFG)
VIDEO OUT - (EMPLOY PANDORA VIDEO OUT FUNCTION)
THEMES - (CHOICE OF THEMES WOULD BE NICE BUT WOULD EXPECT AS A FINNISHING TOUCH)
MUTE EMULATOR SOUND - (PLAY OTHER MUSIC/RADIO MEDIA AS BACKGROUND SOUND)

Im not asking or begging the authors of possible emulators on pandora for these functions
but would love to see at least the netplay on all system emulators,as would us all ,so thats all
i can think of that would be nice to have on an emulator,anyone got some more cool ideas ?
definately agree with fast forward / rewind, especially on the NES emulator, was so good to finally be able to beat some games by taking 'advantage' lol

gosh i'm excited....*fap fap fap
 
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That's not a list of must have features, thats a list of... I don't even know what. half of those aren't even 'features', have are required for emulators and half arent must have at all
 
What we need is a full blown Snes9x (or ZSNES, though unlikely) port. This would have save states, netplay, video recording, fast forward, etc. The current Gp2x emulator doesn't have half of these, although it is a weaker system.
 
Aside from accurate-as-possible emulation (which, if a dev decides that's all they want to focus on, is quite enough) my only wants are save states and control configuration.

Not that I'd ever object to extras.

[edit] Although TINXL compatibility, if there is such a thing, should be a goal for all emulators.
 
multiplayer is the big thing for me, local or net.
I'd love to go head to head with someone in mortal kombat or (FSM willing) Smash.
 
I'm not so excited about netplay for the snes-emulator - all i need is the ability to plug in two usb gamepads.
 
Mithrildor said:
QUOTE
LOCAL MULTIPLAYER
There is 0.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% chance that you'll find someone else in your life with a pandora.


unless his friend buys one.....
 
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yep ,once i get my pandora and its as good as i think it will be ,i have 2 brothers that will be buying 1,and i have 3 friends that are very keen on seeing my pandora in action then i am sure they will buy from the second batch - i think some of us preorder'ers will show the way to others that are interested but willing to wait.
 
I think you have been a little bit too optomistic with that list of features; do you realise how difficult it would be to implement all of that into an emulator? Most of the emulators you use on PC have been in production for around a decade, with a large base of programmers working on them. When they were first released, they were even more basic than the current GP2X set. Over the years new features have been added as new versions were released, but it has still taken many years to reach this advanced state.

I think the devs will focus on performance and compatibility, which are by far the most important factors. Who wants net play when the game runs slowly, buggy, or not at all. Plus, net play is a very, very complex thing to implement i believe.

Features such as save states are an awesome bonus, but remember you could never do that on the original system, so as far as an emulator's main goal is, save states are simply a bonus.
 
Harddisk support for the Atari and Amiga Emus would be the most important to me, and some way to emulate/translate their interfaces (like serial, parallel, midi) to make outputting to them usable.
I want to use them like actual computer systems and not only for gaming.
 
Every original xbox emulator released was released with advanced filters as well as
xbox specific software filters,same goes for the psp with its system smooth pixel filter.

With emulators being so advanced these days and all the ideas already
out there,i really dont think it would be a dificult thing to add some features as
more updates are released for said emulator,especialy seeing as most of these emulators will be ports.

When emulating a system,the author would no dout be running through
keyframes and looking at display ratios as a standard thing,well just
about everything you could think of will be accessed by the author/dev so to add
something in thats already there would not be a difficult thing.

Remember most of what you get on pandora and all other consoles,handhelds are ports of
already writen code,just ported to run/display on whatever system its being ported to ,please dont think
im making this out an easy task - its very far from easy but finnishing
touches are features.
 
Good save state support as it's a hand held and will only be used for short bursts at a time (most probably), except when at home or at a friends house.

Better quality TV-out than the original systems - Scan lines, better video modes, hi-res textures etc. (Snes looks pretty nasty on the new hi-res TV's IMO).

Customisable control schemes per emulator.

Zip or 7zip support to keep file sizes down.

Pandora's 3D hardware used when needed/possible.

100% video and sound emulation and game compatibility ;)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't need to be handled by the emulators them selves:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Multi-player over internet, LAN or local cable. (Best to let the all emulators tap into the same system).

Better TV-out than the original consoles with the ability to centre the screen etc. (TV-out itself will be handled by the Pandora's kernel and hardware anyway).

Multiple USB controller support, including things like light guns and dance mats for when playing on TV's. (Best to let the all emulators tap into the same system again).

Screen shot support (Best to use one program for all emulators and have it running in the back ground when needed).


I'd be pretty damn happy if all the emulators could achieve these features :)

I'd like to see the Amiga/C64/Atari emulators become more like the real hardware(as Babrios just said). I wouldn't use those features my self, but I'd love to see them complete and as close to the originals as possible.

EDIT: For spelling etc.
 
Mithrildor said:
QUOTE
LOCAL MULTIPLAYER
There is 0.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001% chance that you'll find someone else in your life with a pandora.

I've got 2 other guys in my apartment that also preordered one :p
 
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