Very nice!
Think that's going to make a nice xmas prezzy! Will be interesting to see the pricing if/when it'll appear over here (well other than through the usual Chinese import site known as Ebay).
The market is awash with knockoff consoles shipped from China, but some certainly look more appealing than others. Check out this Droid X360, a PlayStation Vita lookalike that runs Android 4.0. The Droid X360 from Shenzhen Xunlong packs a 1.5GHz processor, 512MB of Ram and a 5in display at 800 x 480 pixels. There's also a 2Mp …
From what I remember about PS2 emulation* multiple cores should in theory be faster but in practice single core processors are better. The PS2 used many different chips running at different speeds. Emulating them all on one core was slow but creating a multi-threaded emulator was beyond the scope of the small teams developing the software because it was difficult to keep the emulated chips in sync across multiple cores.
*I have no idea how much this stuff applies to emulators of other architectures.
There was a point in the article which is a counterpoint to the piracy aspect of your comment.
Whilst the emulators may come packed with pirated games (seems a little odd that they would be built-in, I suspect you are referring to some 'sources' of emulators coming bundled with them though), the emulators allow you the chance to play games you already own from legacy platforms.
I appreciate this is could be deemed to be hair-splitting but is that any worse than generalising?
That's actually a good point.
Are you listening Apple? THAT is a design rip off. They have gone to great lengths to make it look exactly like something Sony makes, a complicated shape with lots of buttons all over.
Someone making a black rectangle with a screen and holes for power / headphones which are in different places does not count!
The design is ripped off but you comment on this as it is a new phenomenon - it is something that has been rife throughout the history of gaming and, while I agree it's not right, I don't think it is the reason gaming is fucked up. (DRM, yearly releases, games componies treating their customers with contempt, parts of games that should have been included getting sold as DLC - I have no problem with DLC if done right - are the reasons gaming is fucked up).
Other than that, this might be (if it is decent) a decent games console that does not lock you into an ecosystem controlled by one company. As much as I understand Sony, Nintendo et al need some lock in to make money, this might be what me and others have been waiting for, and is innovation, albeit innovation in an unimaginative design.
Incidentally, I thought it was going to play XBox games based on the name.
Well the one I got came with a note containing a URL to download a pack of 99 pirated games. I'd imagine other sellers are doing similar things.
I'm not against emulators, but let's be honest 90% of people buying this rip-off won't be paying a penny for the games. The manufacturer couldn't be more brazen, rip-off the PSP design and name it X360.
I would expect seeing this advertised in Hong Kong's infamous Golden Shopping Arcade 20 years ago, not in 2012's The Register. It seems we've not only imported our gadgets, but also the every man for himself, dog-eat-dog, culture.
"Well the one I got came with a note containing a URL to download a pack of 99 pirated games. I'd imagine other sellers are doing similar things."
That is not El Reg condoning piracy, that is the seller you bought from condoning and encouraging piracy. Shame on you for buying from someone so dodgy!
Droid - when I saw that I thought Motorola, but then recalled that they had to go through some hoops with Lucas to use that word.
X360 - All that's missing is the word "box" and MS will come a running - but it's a games console thingy, so I'm guessing that MS will still come running.
I always thought it was weird that more phones didn't have control pads. I mean, how much more useful does it make things?
BUT...
Is there a standard API in Android for these things? If one device's controllers aren't compatible with another's, it's hardly going to encourage development of decent control-pad games for Android, so what would be the point...?
I think there is.
I recall looking out for android compatible joypads for my tablet as I was sick of using the on screen implementation.
I seem to recall that ICS has support for joypads included. I think it was intended to stop people from rooting their device to use a PS3 controller.
The one thing that always strikes me about the games console manufacturers reaction to emulators is... why not do one themselves? SNES, GameBoy, Spectrum, etc... none of these are still made, no official games are made for them, the manufacturers are making no money from them, so, why not just make emulators, put them on Google Play (I think they're banned on iTunes?) and charge a 50p per game. There are plenty of people who would happily spend a few pence reliving childhood days. Selling NES games won't affect sales of Wii games.
So, stop stamping on people who want to play games they own and paid good money for, and allow those back catalogues to be enjoyed by a whole new generation. Who knows, the first one to do this may actually get their names in the press for a good reason for a change.
They don't make emulators for things like Android phones, iPhones etc... because they wouldn't make enough money from doing so.
They can't get away with the half-working, hobbyist things you can get on there now. If someone like Nintendo wanted to release an N64 emulator then it'd have to work and they have to support it. The cost of doing that will outweigh any profit from selling emulators and games.
I'm fairly certain these companies will have already done the sums on this. Also need to consider that it's not suddenly going to make the piracy market disappear, how many of those people could be converted into paying customers?