Photo-Centric Handheld Can Be A Doom Console

An anonymous reader writes "Jobo AG originally fielded its $550 Giga Vu Pro as a tool for digital photography buffs, but this small embedded computer, running a Linux 2.4 kernel, has much broader potential, according to an article at LinuxDevices.com. A free software development kit for the device is now available at sourceforge.net, along with instructions for loading software into flash memory, a tutorial on turning the device into a Doom game console, and a contributions page for those willing to share their new apps."

Comments

Doom 1

[Anonymous Coward]

or Doom 3?

Why just doom?

[kebes]

It seems like the perfect platform for running some emulator software and storing hundreds of ROMs of classic games.

Re:Why just doom?

[PoopJuggler]

Kids today think gaming began with Doom. The old world is dead.

Re:Why just doom?

[Wraithlyn]

Pfft. I already have the perfect platform for that, and it's cheaper. (And yes it runs Doom II at 60fps)

GamePark32: http://www.gbax.com/gp32review.html

Specs:

Great 3.5" 320 x 240 screen. 64K colours.
Variable speed ARM CPU, up to 166MHz (or OC'd higher)
8MB ram, runs off of 128MB smartmedia and 2xAA (10+ hours battery life)
Can emulate just about everything up to an SNES.
Can play MP3/Ogg/DivX/XviD (you'll have to encode video yourself of course), although the 128MB smartmedia limit doesn't make it a very good media jukebox.

This puppy is a retro emulator's dream.

Cheaper

[generic-man]

I can build a Doom console using off-the-shelf parts.

You will need:
(1) Game Boy Advance ($70 for the regular kind, $80 for the SP)
(1) Copy of Doom ($30)

And once you're done, you still have some $400 that you can spend on a photo-centric handheld!

Re:Cheaper

[Tackhead]

> You will need:
> (1) Game Boy Advance ($70 for the regular kind, $80 for the SP)
> (1) Copy of Doom ($30)

Yeah, but will your GBA be able to run Linu-never mind, of course it will.

New Standards

[Shadow Wrought]

So instead of the standard "Does it run Linux?" question, we should really be asking, "Will it play Doom?"

Re:New Standards

[Lisandro]

Doom lately has been running on just about anything with a microprocessor - i can't find a link, but some guy posted how to flash his digital camera so it ran Doom. Beyond cool!

Re:New Standards

[Bri3D]

Here are the emulators+doom for digicam(Kodak/Minolta/HP): http://digita.mame.net/

GP32

[EdZ]

Or just get a GP32. Pleanty of devkits for it (the community games and software for it FAR outnumber the commercial ones), and you can play extra WADs. And play movies of course.

Grunt!

[ackthpt]

Weight 14.82 oz.

Oof. Better wear cargo pants with reinforced pockets.

Nice specs

[marcello_dl]

From one page buried in the jobo website...

- 40 or 60 GB hard disk
- Card slot for CF I/II and Microdrive (all other flash memory cards via JOBO Adapter SECF61)
- internal Li-Ion-Battery
- 3,8" Color TFT, QVGA, adjustable brightness
- Touch Screen
- WiFi compatible (optional CF-Wi-Fi card required)
- USB 2.0 connection to PC/Mac (high-speed and full-speed)
- TV-Out (incl. video cable) for PAL/NTSC

Photo-Features
- Verify-Function
- RAW-Format of Canon, Nikon and Kodak PRO (decoding and displaying)
- Decodes 6 Megapix.JPG 1 Sec.
- Download of 5-8 GB with one battery charge
- Thumbnail-Mode with 12 thumbs per page
- Power Zoom-Function: pixel per pixel presentable
- Channel view RGB or B&W
- Histogram
- Dust-Detector
- PictBridge direct connection to printer via USB
- Editing mode for exif data (Keywords)

Extras
- Download of 5-8 GB using one charge of battery
- Saves all usual files (RAW, JPG, MP3, doc, xls, ppt, etc.)
- Down and Upload
- File management (Touch Screen)
- Firmware Upgrade via Internet
- Displays hard disk status (free/occupied memory)
- Displays battery status
- External hard disk to PC/Mac
- Owner information and copyright notice

Multimedia
- MP3-Player, incl. loudspeaker and earphones
- Video Play: MPEG 1, 2, 4 & DivX 3, 4 , 5
- Video playing time: 120 min.

Accessories:
- menu in D, GB, F, I, NL, SW
- GIGA Vu PRO (Dimesions 145 x 107 x 38 m, 420 g)
- protective cover
- A/C adapter
- USB cable
- maual
- video cable
- earphones
- Optional: battery-pack and car-adapter

If wireless, video-out, etc... work under linux I can well stop drooling after iPods. (Of course I think Apple is planning similar stuff for next generation gadgets.)

The Pricing, the Development Environment

[osewa77]

is the most important problem. This restricts applications of this device to custom software development (e.g. a gadget portable that gets some work done that's specific to a company). A platform for deployment of custom mobile apps requiring large hard disk space and image manipulation capabilities. In line with this, their SDK should permit and encourage development with dynamic languages and repid prototyping and development tools like Python/PyGTK. In addition, they should have an desktop emulator.

NOTICE: This is NOT I repeat NOT an Apple product!

[Anonymous Coward]

As this product is not made by Apple and does not have a little "i" in front of its name, I am simply not interested.

Re:vs GBA Doom

[lowrydr310]

try a Pocket PC. (That link is way out of date; I think there are newer versions for newer devices.)

Is that link work-safe? Last time I opened a link ending in .cx I almost got fired.

Not so international....

[RichardX]

The title page for Jobo AG's international site is pretty funny. At least it is to me, as a Brit.

The V symbol the woman is making there, with her fingers outwards (i.e. fingernails towards the viewer) is a symbol used by Brits which is generally considered only marginally less offensive than the more widely recognised one finger symbol.

I doubt anyone's dumb enough to actually be offended by this, but it's not the world's greatest P.R. either.

Re:Not so international....

[rudi_v]

Hmmm, so that's why the "two more beers please" sometimes just doesn't work.

Re:Not so international....

[Quaryon]

This gesture is actually anti-French if you go back far enough. The story goes something like this: at the Battle of Agincourt, the English were beating the French due to their superior longbow technology. The two fingers in question are essential for using a bow, so the French used to cut those fingers off any Englishman they captured. In return, uncaptured Englishmen would show the fingers to the French as a threatening gesture and to show that they still had them..

Q.

1, 2, 3 = no profit??

[iamhassi]

Phase 1. Make 400mhz handheld with 40 or 60 GB hd, 3.8-inch touch-screen LCD, CF slot, USB port, speaker, audio/video outputs, joystick and various buttons
Phase 2. Market it to a very small percentage of the population for a cheap price
Phase 3. = No profit!

Ok is it just me or does their marketing department suck? They created the perfect PocketPC killer and forgot to tell anyone and decided to use it to ONLY show photos and videos? Um, HELLO??

Re:Now if they just added a phone...

[waynelorentz]

Why not put in a decent cell phone set up into a decent camera. There's enough processing power and battery life ,etc.

Mod yourself -1 Clueless.
You really have no idea that this device's purpose is, do you? It's temporary storage for people with high-end digital cameras who don't want to/can't drag around a laptop. After I've taken a picture with my 11 megapixel camera, why do I need a crappy .8 megapixel camera in my photo tank?

Re:Still waiting...

[B3ryllium]

Imagine a Beowulf cluster of those.

Like, seriously - a herd of hurds. I'm so funny.

handwriting recognition

[frankmu]

are there any decent handwriting recognition software for linux yet?

The Doom Console

[EnglishTim]

I think some people here are getting a bit confused by the wording of the submission.

When the original poster referred to the 'Doom Console', he meant the handheld computer your character carries around in DOOM 3, not a console that you can play DOOM on.