Dreamcast-Talk.com

It looks like the Dragonbox Pyra pre-orders will start on Sunday 1st May at the shop.

https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/pages/pyra/

https://www.dragonbox.de/en/

The full cost of a Pyra is estimated to be around €500 (~$565 or £388) for a normal model and €600 (~$678 or £465) for the 4G model. The pre-order cost is €290 (~$328 or £225) with the rest paid before the Pyra ships (date not finalised). So, yes, it's expensive!

The Pyra is the successor to the Pandora which was notorious for the lengthy, mishandled development and release period. However, the Pyra is being managed by the competent EvilDragon and developement has thus far been very smooth.

Hardware-wise, if the Pyra is anything like the Pandora then it will be an amazing and more powerful device. As with the Pandora you will be able to run emulators for Amiga, Atari ST, Spectrum, C64, PC DOS, Arcade, Neo Geo, Gameboy, Megadrive/Genesis, SNES, N64 and PlayStation and of course the Sega Dreamcast (amongst others and probably more modern machines) plus interpreted and open source games. There is also a full desktop Linux environment.

The specifications are:
Texas Instruments OMAP 5 SoC
2x ARM Cortex-A15 @ 1.5Ghz with NEON SIMD
2x ARM Cortex-M4
PowerVR™ SGX544-MP2
Vivante GC320 2D Accelerator
2GB RAM, 32GB internal eMMC
720p 5" LCD with resistive touchscreen
High-Quality speakers, analog volume wheel
Headset-Port, Built-in-Mic, HDMI Video Out
Various sensors (accelerometer, gyro-sensor, etc.)
Vibration motor
Ultra-portable: approx. 140 x 84 x 29 mm*
Huge battery for a long battery life (6000mAh)
Gaming controls (DPad, 4 shoulder buttons, 6 face buttons)
Two accurate analog controls with push-button
QWERTY keyboard with backlight
Integrated Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n (2,4 and 5GHz) and Bluetooth 4.1
Dual SDXC card slots, one internal MicroSDXC card slot (can be used for the OS instead of the eMMC)
2x Full-size USB 2.0 Host (one can be used as eSATA-with a small adaptor), 1x Micro USB 3.0, 1x Micro USB (Debug and Charging)
Fully configurable RGB-LEDs for notifications
Optional 3G/4G/UMTS and GPS module

Also there's a port of reicast already running on devboards so Dreamcast emulation is assured and running at fullspeed.

So it's a Pandora Box. I wanted to get that like 2 years ago only to find out that is was completely discontinued. My perception of handheld has changed since then and would rather buy a new smartphone to replace my current one rather than getting one of those.

scaryred24 wrote:So it's a Pandora Box. I wanted to get that like 2 years ago only to find out that is was completely discontinued. My perception of handheld has changed since then and would rather buy a new smartphone to replace my current one rather than getting one of those.

Fair enough. Yes it's a spiritual successor to the pandora but with more features and more power under the hood.

I believe the pandora has been discontinued but a small amount of stock may remain.
I guess the physical controls are for me preferable over a touch screen mobile device.

At least it will be fully portable, a docking station may be released at a later date too.

Pre-orders are now open https://www.dragonbox.de/de/45-pyra

Iv'e got mine secured.

The Pyra pre-orders have passed the minimum of 500 and the next target is 750, followed by 1,000.
https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/thr...t-level.77376/

These devices are excellent for travelling, having a long battery life and being easy to operate in cramped conditions (e.g. planes).

Also, check out the recent Open Source conversion of Serious Sam 1 to the Pandora.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75FYb60L7zw

This is the Pyra prototype:

An overview of the Dragonbox Pyra.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZDfTVX8Nb8

The pyra now has 750 pre-orders, so a firm release date has not been given however an estimate given was September at the earliest.

https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/thread ... st-1381730

Phew... four years later and the Pyra's are finally trickling out. Mayhaps I will receive mine in February or so. Released at last!