Raspberry Pi a new retro-gaming behemoth?

[GarryG]

Has anyone else been following the progress of the Raspberry Pi project?
It’s primarile aimed at the one-computer-per-child project for schools, but a little digging had led me to believe that this could be a bit of a god-send to the retro-gamin emulation market.

For those who don’t know, it’s basically an open USB-Pen-Drive sized ARM computer on a single board.

SPEC-
• 700MHz ARM11
• 128MB or 256MB of SDRAM
• OpenGL ES 2.0
• 1080p30 H.264 high-profile decode
• Composite and HDMI video output
• USB 2.0
• SD/MMC/SDIO memory card slot
• General-purpose I/O
• Optional integrated 2-port USB hub and 10/100 Ethernet controller
• Open software (Ubuntu, Iceweasel, KOffice, Python)

Oh, and it will be around £15 to £25

[psj3809]

Think these sound great, sure there'll be more similar things in the future. Imagine the MAME mini-cab you can make ! So much smaller, lighter, it'll be brilliant !

[StickHead]

The exceptionally low pricing of these will probably mean they'll pop up in all sorts of the unlikeliest places.

I fancy building a machine around one of these dedicated to running Aranym, therefore having a super fast TOS compatible machine.

[DPrinny]

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=30356

[psj3809]

Oops apologies i totally missed your thread (ahem)

[GarryG]

Hmm, a bit more negative comments on that there other thread than I would have thought.
I think it's defenetly worth looking at for £15!

[DPrinny]

Its ok a lot of my threads seem to get bypassed.
Ill probably buy one anyway as I have a few 8 bit computer shells that this could go in.
ZX spectrum case with a PC inside playing speccy emu

[stvd]

Do you think it'll be £15?
The site says $25 but a lot of the time, that means it'll be £25.

Actually, it seems a UK venture, what's with the price being in dollars?!?!?

Either way I think I'll still get one. I think I'll build a housing from Lego.

[GarryG]

They have mentioned £15 (not $) for the basic version on the site.
They are releasing two versions, the standard model and one with an extra USB and RJ-45 network port built in. Although the final builds may still be subject to change.

[rebelstar]

Fun fact: the main guy on this project is David Braben. Yes, the David Braben ;)

All the best, although such thing was attempted few years ago with One Laptop Per Child project and after great headlines it sort of hit the reality check. Costs spiraled and then there was also talk of big boys (Asus/Intel etc) hating it and making censored moves.

Also, this puts any Elite sequels back into dreamland territory ;)

[DPrinny]

He did start these to help kids learn how to code as these days they dont have BBCs

[rebelstar]

Hell, these days it`d probably be a FOXmicro :/

[GarryG]

All the best, although such thing was attempted few years ago with One Laptop Per Child project and after great headlines it sort of hit the reality check.

Well apparently these really are all set to launch at the end of the year.
I'm going to get a couple, just in case they do dissapear againe.

I wonder if there will be a port of Elite

[DPrinny]

>Laptops for schools
>The only kids with out them are chavy/poor ones

I can see it all going wrong

[GarryG]

I'm not sure about the aim ether. But I can see this type of dirt-cheep computer technology taking off!
I think the next nerest boards like this are well over a hunderd pounds. If they release a basic board for £15 that's a big thing, and like they said in some film or another "If you build it they will come"