BeagleBone GamingCape Transforms your BeagleBone Black into an Hand-held Gaming Console

The BeagleBone GamingCape is an open source project featuring the BeagleBone Black together with extra hardware such as a Cape, LCD display, and enclosure that turns your Beablebone board into a battery powered hand-held gaming console. The gaming console, which has been designed within 6 weeks by Max Thrun, has the following key hardware features: 320×240 16Bit Color TFT LCD Analog joystick + 2 Thumb Buttons 3D Gyro, 3D Accelerometer, 3D Magnetometer Headphone Out + Mic In and it can emulate NES, GameBoy, GameBoy Color, GameBoy Advance, Sega Master System, Sega Game Gear, and also run Doom. It will not be mass produced, but the whole design is open source, and the necessary files  are available for: The Cape: Schematics, layout, and CadSoft EAGLE file can be found Bill of Materials The Case composed of 11 laser cut pieces of Delrin – 3D files Emulators: Osmose – Sega Master System / […]

Media Magic i5 is a 5″ Android Game Console Powered by Mediatek MT6589

Mediakek MT6589 processors are omni-present in the latest Chinese smartphones, and we can see new models based on the platform pop-up every week. But Mediatek SoC are almost exclusively used in smartphones and tablets, so MUCH Media Magic i5 Android Game Console proves it can also be used in other applications too, although one might argue a portable game console is just a tablet, or in this case a phablet, with some extra buttons… Magic Media i5 Specifications: SoC – Mediatek MT6589 quad core Cortex A7 @ 1.2GHz + PowerVR SGX544MP  GPU System Memory – 1GB LPDDR2 RAM Storage – 4GB of storage memory Display – 5 “IPS display with 1280×720 resolution Battery – 3550 mAh Network – 3G-WCDMA module with dual sim Camera – Rear and front cameras USB – 2x microUSB ports Controls- Physical keys with shortcuts … The device runs Android 4.2 and is said to come […]

Bluestacks GamePop Mini is a Free Android Game Console (with Subscription)

The price of Android media devices keep getting lower months after months, and one company, BlueStacks, has gone a step further and decided to provide their GamePop Mini Android game console for free (excluding shipping), as long as you take a $6.99 monthly game subscription for a least a year. This is where I usually list the specifications, but today I’m just unable to do so, as there aren’t any. We just know the GamePop mini is less powerful than the company’s $129 GamePop, but it “will be able to handle all of your favorite apps and games plenty well, and there may also be more peripherals available for the GamePop.” GamePop specifications aren’t available either, but I guess the GamePop Mini might come with a dual core processor, and the GamePop will a quad core processor. The monthly subscription will allow you to download games without extra cost from […]

Lollybot is a $10 Robot Made with a USB Gamepad and Chupa Chups

I attended Barcamp Chiang Mai 6 yesterday, and sessions dealt with a wide range of subjects ranging from SEO and web development to things like nuclear energy, VMAT2 God gene, or Edward Snowden. There were just four talks somewhat related to the subjects I usually write about in this blog: Project Manhattan – An interactive TV infrastructure project for TV operators based on open source libraries (but not open source itself). They provide both back-end software and a mobile app (Android or iOS) for smartphones and set-top boxes. They had an Android set-top box, but unfortunately there was no time for demo. There’s no project website, but the solution is said to be used by horizon-tv.tv (in Russian). A Raspberry Pi session which I could not attend Firefox OS – Keng is the owner of a mobile and web development company called opendream, but he’s also one of the 4 […]

Unu is an Android Tablet, a Gaming Console and a Smart TV

In the last year or so, we’ve started using Android set-top boxes or mini-PCs to make our TV smart and play games, and some products such as Ouya and Gamestick, using similar hardware, have been specifically designed for game play. But Unu Tablet, which can be used as a tablet (really), can also transform your TV into a gaming platform, and a smart connected TV, thanks to a docking station, and a game controller. Here are the known specifications for Unu tablet: SoC – 1.6 GHz quad-core chip (I’m guessing Rockchip RK3188). System Memory – Unknown Storage – 8GB NAND Flash + microSD card slot Display – 7″ IPS display, 1280×800 resolution. Connectivity – WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 2 microUSB ports Video Output – mini HDMI jack Camera – 5MP rear camera, 2MP front camera This Android 4.2.2 tablet comes with a docking station that handles charging and […]

Quick 3D Game Performance Comparison – Rockchip RK3188 vs AllWinner A31 HDMI TV Sticks

When comparing SoCs, most like to look at the overall score, and as I mentioned this morning, Tronsmart T428 (based on RK3188) easily beats Kimdecent CS868 (Based on A31) in Antutu benchmark, the former scoring 15207 points against 10559 points for the latter, both using stock firmware, and similar resolution (1280×720 vs 1280×672). The difference in resolution is because the status bar was hidden in T428. If we look at GPU performance, both the 3D scores in Antutu are about the same for both devices: T428 CS868 2D Graphics 1549 998 3D Graphics 2696 2866 But according to an earlier GPU comparison post, PowerVR SGX544 MP2 should be much faster than Mali-400 MP4. So I’ve decided to perform two quick tests: Epic Citadel benchmark and Real Racing 3 game. T428 could render Epic Citadel 1.07 at 41.3 fps in high quality, but I failed to install Epic Citadel, either via […]

Pandora TV Box is an All-in-One Android Media Player, Game Console, DVB Receiver, Video Chat System, etc…

This morning I received an email from DealExtreme with a link to a teaser video about an upcoming Android device to be available on June 10, that comes with a game controller (PS3 type) to play games. After some research, I finally found this “Android-on-TV” device which is based on Rockchip RK3066 with 1GB RAM, 8GB Flash, lots of ports (USB, HDMI, Ethernet), a webcam, and more. Beside the game controller, it also comes with a remote control, so the device can be used for a whole lot of applications including gaming, video chat, media player, web browsing, and more. It’s something you can already do with existing devices, but it may require some efforts, and this one seems to come all included. Here are the specs of the “beast”: SoC – Rockchip RK3066 dual-core processor @ 1.6GHz +  MALI 400 MP4 GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – […]

How to Play Games in Android mini PCs / STBs With a PS3 Bluetooth Controller

Android mini PCs ( HDMI TV dongles) are great to make your TV smart, and you may expect to be able to play Android games on your TV easily. The reality is that the keyboard and mouse, or remote controls used with those devices, are not suitable for games, and most games do not play at all. Of course, OUYA and GameStick projects will take care of this, as well as the recently available Project SHIELD ($349) , but if you already have one of those mini PCs, you may not want to spend the money for another device. Luckily there’s a solution, and with some efforts, you can play many games, but not all, with a PS3 Bluetooth controller connected to your Android mini PC or Set-Top Box. I decided to give it a try by buying “GOIGAME Rechargeable Bluetooth Wireless DoubleShock III Controller for PS3” for $16.60, which […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC