ODroid U2 - My personal quest to build a better emu-console
So as some of you know, I've had two endeavors to create my dream so-called "emu-console" a small device that sits by the TV and plays emulators, thus negating the need to have the real consoles taking up physical space. I've tried before with the Raspberry Pi and the MK803, each with varying levels of success. The RPi was good for emulating a number of systems, but it had reliability problems when it came to booting up (it was hit or miss from day one) and it was underpowered for several systems I was looking to emulate (namely GBA, PS1, and N64). The MK803 was a nice step up, being able to emulate everything up to the PS1 and N64. It wasn't good enough, however, since I was stuck with Android. I couldn't emulate consoles like the Wonderswan, Neo Geo Color or a host of consoles that weren't readily available with Android based emulators.
So I spent a long time thinking about the next step, and I considered both Atom nettops and various ARM SoCs. Ultimately, it came down to choosing one of the most powerful ARM SoCs out there, the ODroid-U2. It's a slimmed down version of the ODroid-X2, just with fewer ports. It's still a beast: 1.7GHz Quad-Core Cortex A9 CPU and 2GB or RAM. It eats up any of the other ARM SoCs out there. I finally took the plunge, and I've had it in my possession for about a day now. So far, I'm super optimistic that this is just the thing I'm looking for.
Day One
I got Ubuntu 12.11 running just fine, more or less. My TV isn't 1280x720 (it's 1366x768) so the edges are cut off a bit. I have no intention of using the desktop when I'm finished though. It'll boot into a custom app that can run my games. Mostly tried to install software. Mednafen is running just fine. I've gotten to test NES, SMS, Genesis, GB, GBC, and GBA games, and they're all running pretty good. It's late, but tomorrow I'm testing out Snes9x (SDL version). This thing is fast compared to both the RPi and the MK803. Just to see how much I could push it, I tried playing a few games fullscreen with HQ4x filtering. The little guy didn't even blink! I've yet to try PS1 emulation through Mednafen, but I'm pretty sure it'll have enough power.
I've not tried to seriously build Mupen64Plus, since it has an ARM recompiler and an OpenGL ES compatible video plugin. Ubuntu, unlike my beloved Slackware, doesn't install a lot of libraries needed for development or compilation, and I don't have a Wi-Fi dongle to hook it up to Ubuntu's repos. Mupen64Plus is going to take some time, but whatever.
No pics of the thing running at this time. It's way too late and I need some sleep![Tongue]( "Tongue")
So as some of you know, I've had two endeavors to create my dream so-called "emu-console" a small device that sits by the TV and plays emulators, thus negating the need to have the real consoles taking up physical space. I've tried before with the Raspberry Pi and the MK803, each with varying levels of success. The RPi was good for emulating a number of systems, but it had reliability problems when it came to booting up (it was hit or miss from day one) and it was underpowered for several systems I was looking to emulate (namely GBA, PS1, and N64). The MK803 was a nice step up, being able to emulate everything up to the PS1 and N64. It wasn't good enough, however, since I was stuck with Android. I couldn't emulate consoles like the Wonderswan, Neo Geo Color or a host of consoles that weren't readily available with Android based emulators.
So I spent a long time thinking about the next step, and I considered both Atom nettops and various ARM SoCs. Ultimately, it came down to choosing one of the most powerful ARM SoCs out there, the ODroid-U2. It's a slimmed down version of the ODroid-X2, just with fewer ports. It's still a beast: 1.7GHz Quad-Core Cortex A9 CPU and 2GB or RAM. It eats up any of the other ARM SoCs out there. I finally took the plunge, and I've had it in my possession for about a day now. So far, I'm super optimistic that this is just the thing I'm looking for.
Day One
I got Ubuntu 12.11 running just fine, more or less. My TV isn't 1280x720 (it's 1366x768) so the edges are cut off a bit. I have no intention of using the desktop when I'm finished though. It'll boot into a custom app that can run my games. Mostly tried to install software. Mednafen is running just fine. I've gotten to test NES, SMS, Genesis, GB, GBC, and GBA games, and they're all running pretty good. It's late, but tomorrow I'm testing out Snes9x (SDL version). This thing is fast compared to both the RPi and the MK803. Just to see how much I could push it, I tried playing a few games fullscreen with HQ4x filtering. The little guy didn't even blink! I've yet to try PS1 emulation through Mednafen, but I'm pretty sure it'll have enough power.
I've not tried to seriously build Mupen64Plus, since it has an ARM recompiler and an OpenGL ES compatible video plugin. Ubuntu, unlike my beloved Slackware, doesn't install a lot of libraries needed for development or compilation, and I don't have a Wi-Fi dongle to hook it up to Ubuntu's repos. Mupen64Plus is going to take some time, but whatever.
No pics of the thing running at this time. It's way too late and I need some sleep
