Hi guys, first off just wanna say I'm extremely excited for this project's completion and it looks like everything is going well with the funds reached 1600%+ of the original goal.
So I just saw this subforum and wanted to ask if any plans were in the works of building/coding a dedicated emulation software for the Pine A64+. I noticed there are no stretch goals for this KS campaign but I think that would be a pretty sweet one if it's not already been planned. My knowledge regards to coding is basically non-existent so even if there were tutorials on how to get started in this regard that would be great.
Also would something like this be possible to do on the preinstalled Android OS or would I have to use Linux?
Thank you for your time!
Hey JessicaAlba,
I would like to start off by saying, NICE NAME! But to address your question, even though I'm not super well versed in the art that is coding these types of thing, that, from what I've read, the Android OS isn't really all that great when it comes to Emulation Station. I read that Linux is much better for it. Why? I have no idea. If there was an announcement, maybe, to the almost 13,000 backers, we could get even more information or even an alpha or beta of the possible program! I would volunteer if I wasn't still in school and had much more time to dedicate to this, but alas I have 1 1/2 more years before that will come true. Here's to hoping for that! As for now I say sit tight and hopefully we'll hear something soon!
Regargs,
rogersba
Haha thanks Roger! and thanks for the reply. I also assumed as much as Linux would probably be more open and accessible to creating programs for, in addition to the fact that it has been around for longer and is favoured by coders. I do certainly hope some more information is provided on how to help beginners start their adventures with this great hardware, especially due to the fact that they have so far exceeded their goals! Fingers crossed!
I'm hoping to get Emulation Station running on top of Ubuntu when I get my board. I'll provide an image once I get everything working correctly.
Linux gaming is very appealing especially with x64, 4 cores, and 2GB of RAM. Unfortunately, the SOC maker, Allwinner, hasn't released any information to the open source community for accelerated graphics. This means while it will boot and have a desktop, 3D graphics and video acceleration needed for video playback aren't going to be available. The Linux-Suni folks are hard at work trying to make an open source solution but Allwinner isn't helping. I hope this kickstarter, and perhaps some bad press on Allwinner, will make them reconsider their position. Until Allwinner changes their mind, this board will be most useable to end-users in Android and not linux.