Add another platform, Pandora, to the growing list of open source portable gaming platforms. Personally, as part of my handheld arsenal, I'm an owner of a GP2X F-200 and have mixed feelings about what is presently the most popular open source multimedia handheld (along with its sibling, the F-100). On the one hand it's very versatile and does well with a wide variety of emulators, while on the other hand it's a battery hog and the end user is left to his own devices to pretty much do anything (like install programs). "Pandora", while presently tracking to be double the price (around $320 US versus the F-200's $170), looks to have a tremendous all-in-one design with helpful features like an onboard keyboard and multiple controls, superficially making it seem like a superior option for running emulators overall. Still, it all comes down to developer support, which the GP2X handhelds have in spades. If Pandora works as advertised, no doubt support will ramp up quickly and we may very well have a new "alternative handheld" leader. I know I'd eventually be onboard if it was a little easier on the end user side to install and run software, not to mention if it featured intelligent battery life management. We'll be keeping an eye on this one...

Kristof's first complete Vectrex game is now available for purchase. Vectrexians is a clone of the arcade classic, Galaxian, and appears to be a superb port and another fine addition to the Vectrex library. Full details with screen and package shots here, including how to order your copy, which is complete with cartridge, box, overlay and manual, all in professionally printed full color. Though the price is a bit high due to the weak dollar if you're not on the Euro, it appears to be a great value for this popular classic platform.

Beeslife is making available the new Moon Patrol take-off, Space Patrol, for the Mattel Intellivision, along with an updated version of the Tetris take-off, 4-Tris. I've been anticipating the release of Space Patrol for some time, so this is welcome news.

A copy and paste from the release:

System: NEC Turbo Duo (Super CD)

Release Date: 2006

Developer: MindRec

Rating: Good

Meteor Blaster DX Signature Edition is the latest and most elaborate version of the long-running series of homebrew games in NEC's Super CD format from author Bt Garner and his company, MindRec.  Signature Edition is essentially the same Asteroids-inspired product as the other DX games, save for some slight graphical tweaks, a hidden extra ship, a hidden extra demo, an upgrade to the Loop bonus game, and personalization options.

Every now and then something useful comes along in a MySpace bulletin, and no, it has nothing to do with a Macy's gift certificate or a free iPhone. If only MySpace itself was more user-friendly, seriously, how about the ability to forward bulletins, sometimes I think the whole thing is held together by Scotch tape, and powered by roomful of daisy chained solar powered calculators.

I haven't posted or read much here in awhile, but I think I've got something of interest to the main demographic of AA, and a quick search didn't come up with anything on it. Which would make this the post equivalent of the folks that have to be the first commenter somewhere and add nothing to the conversation but, "Frist!" (And that would be the correct spelling over at Crooks & Liars.)

For those interested in the obscure, but very intriguing Sinclair QL from the mid-80's, you can now get a type of turn-key QL environment for use with a modern Windows PC that can be transferred to a USB memory stick (minimum 128MB). This is a great idea and I'd like to see implementations of this for other systems. I personally own a very robust real Sinclair QL setup, but I think this would also make a fine companion for that, particularly in regards to data exchange. More information here.

CC3 Package MenuAs many of you know, Chad Schell's Cuttle Cart 3 for the Intellivision was recently released and was a boon to enthusiasts who wanted a ROM flash cart/development environment for Mattel's system. The one "downside" to the Cuttle Cart 3 was that you needed to set up your own menus, manuals and ROMs for use with the miniSD card. Obviously, one solution is to get the official ROM releases from Intellivision Productions, but it still requires a lot of setup work and is not all-inclusive (support them and their products anyway!). An even better solution - an addition to everything else you might want to do with the Cuttle Cart 3 or Intellivision emulation in general if you will - is get David Harley's new release, which includes ROMs that have never been seen before and a variety of patched software (for instance, the amazing Ehanced Computer System (ECS)-based World Series Major League Baseball is fully functional now!).

From David's e-mail: