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Retrode

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The Retrode is a USB adapter for legacy video games that enabled the use of game cartridges and controllers with emulators . Technically, the Retrode could be considered a ROM dumper in that it could create a copy of the cartridge content. Unlike most such devices, the Retrode could be operated without drivers or special software under the most popular operating systems. It further allowed the emulator to directly access the game data through the file system , eliminating the need to create a ROM image as a separate step. By default, the Retrode was equipped with cartridge slots and controller ports for the SNES and Sega Genesis (also known as Mega Drive outside North America) game consoles; support for cartridges and controllers for other systems could be added via so-called plug-in adapters that users can buy online or make themselves.

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33-481: The device was originally conceived by Matthias Hullin in 2009 during a discussion on USB accessories in a user forum for the Pandora handheld gaming console. Hullin prototyped the envisioned operation principle by wiring an edge connector to an AT90USBKey evaluation board running a custom firmware, and prepared a demonstration video. After receiving significant coverage through various press outlets, Hullin developed

66-596: A 2004 industry study by the Standish Group found an average cost overrun of 43 percent; 71 percent of projects came in over budget, exceeded time estimates, and had estimated too narrow a scope ; and total waste was estimated at $ 55 billion per year in the US alone. Many major construction projects have incurred cost overruns; cost estimates used to decide whether important transportation infrastructure should be built can mislead grossly and systematically. Cost overrun

99-408: A bridge with a construction budget of $ 100 million where the actual cost was $ 150 million. This scenario could be truthfully represented by the following statement The final example is the most commonly used as it specifically describes the cost overruns exclusively whereas the other two describe the overrun as an aspect of the total expense. In any case care should be taken to accurately describe what

132-525: A configuration file. The first commercial version of the Retrode featured an aluminum profile enclosure with two slots to accommodate SNES and Sega Genesis game cartridges. Internal soldering pins allowed users to retrofit up to four ports for SNES controllers. The successor model, the Retrode 2, used a plastic enclosure with a dust cover, and had four controller ports built in—two for each system, SNES and Sega Genesis. Pandora (console) The Pandora

165-500: A console, as these pre-orders are only fulfilled when sales to new customers are made. Since June 2012, a new 1 GHz model has been made available in limited amounts during the summer 2012. Due to the shortage of previous 600 MHz chips, this new model has become the de facto standard in 2013. In March 2013, the pre-order queue of the German OpenPandora GmbH company (owned by Michael Mrozek aka EvilDragon)

198-567: A silver bullet in finding solutions to the recurring problem of cost overruns in megaprojects. A newly discovered possible cause of cost overruns is value engineering , and an approach to correct value engineering cost overruns known as value-driven-design. In response to problem of cost overruns on major projects, the UK Government set up a Major Projects Authority to provide project assurance to HM Treasury and other Government departments undertaking major projects. Independent review of

231-528: A successor to the Pandora has started on the OpenPandora boards . Features and a demo prototype were announced at FOSDEM 2014; the project is called DragonBox Pyra . The Pandora is designed to be a handheld game console with high-end PDA capabilities, but may also be run as a low-power full-featured Linux desktop. The system by default comes with a Linux -based OS based on Ångström . The interface

264-518: Is a handheld gaming computer developed and produced by OpenPandora, which is made up of former distributors and community members of the GP32 and GP2X handhelds. Originally released in 2010, it was designed to take advantage of existing free and open-source software and to be a target for homebrew development . The Pandora runs Linux and is on an ARM processor. Until 2013, multiple batches of slightly updated Pandora variants were produced. In 2014

297-493: Is also intended for use as a portable media playback device with a storage capacity of up to 128 GB of data (64 GB SDXC cards) across two SD memory card slots. The Pandora uses standard libraries such as OpenGL ES and SDL which are freely available, allowing anyone who wishes the ability to develop for the system. Many developers from the GP2x community have publicly stated that they will be developing applications for

330-483: Is custom themed to fit the small form factor and touchscreen, analogue joystick, and keyboard-based inputs available. Users can install and run their own desktop environment if they choose. Users may even install other Linux distributions like Ubuntu or Gentoo themselves. It is possible as well to run Android (gingerbread) through a PND package on top of the Ångström distribution, while it requires overclocking to perform flawlessly. One of Pandora's major intended uses

363-430: Is distinguished from cost escalation , which is an anticipated growth in a budgeted cost due to factors such as inflation. Recent works by Ahiaga-Dagbui and Smith suggests an alternative to what is traditionally seen as an overrun in the construction field. They attempt to make a distinction between the often conflated causes of construction cost underestimation and eventual cost overruns . Critical to their argument

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396-506: Is for homebrew gaming and for the emulation of older computer systems and video game consoles, which is possible through efficient use of the resources made available by the Texas Instruments OMAP 3530 SoC . The Pandora developers have already shown working emulators for Dreamcast (Dreamcast emulator was never released), PlayStation , Nintendo 64 , Amiga , SNES , Atari Jaguar and Sega Mega Drive software, and

429-589: Is no legal connection between the two companies, the German OpenPandora GmbH company is trying to help those UK customers by offering them significant discounts (if they decide to buy a unit from the German company instead of waiting for the UK company) and by organizing community donations to get them peer-funded units. As of December 2, 2013, about 6000 units have been shipped. On November 19, 2013, it

462-458: Is run by Michael Mrozek. Pandora Apps was launched by Craig Rothwell in May 2010, and is designed for viewing on the Pandora's smaller screen resolution. The Pandora Repo (yet unnamed) was developed by a member of the community with help from the community. Its use has been adopted quickly as it tends to have the latest software releases first, as it doesn't require developers to enter any details about

495-496: Is that the early supporters received devices as later sales recouped the initial investment costs). OpenPandora began taking payments on September 30, 2008 and began shipping to customers on May 21, 2010. In late 2011, after production problems, OpenPandora shifted its production from Texas to Germany, delaying production, and the device was upgraded from 256 MB to 512 MB RAM. As of September 3, 2012, 4600 units had been shipped and 400 early supporters were still waiting to receive

528-748: Is the point of reference for measuring cost overruns. Whereas some measure the size of cost overruns as the difference between cost at the time of decision to build and final completion costs, others measure the size of overruns as the difference between cost at contract award and final completion cost. This leads to a wide range in the size of overruns reported in different studies. Four types of explanation for cost overrun exist: technical , psychological , political - economic , value engineering . Technical explanations account for cost overrun in terms of imperfect forecasting techniques, inadequate data, etc. Psychological explanations account for overrun in terms of optimism bias with forecasters. Scope creep , where

561-458: The Pandora is thought by its developers to have the potential to emulate most if not all machines older than the Dreamcast. For software and video games where source code is available (see List of commercial video games with available source code ), instead of emulation, source ports were created for the Pandora; notable examples are Jagged Alliance 2 and Homeworld . The device

594-657: The Pandora platform. For instance, in 2014 an ARM architecture version of the 1998 video game StarCraft was generated by static recompilation from the original x86 version. In 2015, a similar port of Diablo II followed. There are several Pandora variants. Specifications: Based on Pandora Classic with following changes: Based on Pandora Classic/Rebirth with following changes: Other single-board computers using OMAP3500 series processors include OSWALD developed by Oregon State University students for computer science education, Beagle Board , IGEPv2 , Touch Book , and Gumstix Overo series. The Gizmondo 2

627-533: The Pandora wiki had already been created; as of 2014, it contains a thousand pages and is translated with the MediaWiki Translate extension . The initial development and setup costs were funded through a crowdfunding approach where early supporters provided enough money to support a production run, and when the console made it into production, each supporter would receive the device they paid for (what actually ended up happening due to cost overruns

660-506: The application being uploaded—instead, these are automatically acquired from the application itself. The Pandora Repo is also the first that uses the community created REPO specifications which allows native clients to get applications from the pandora repo without actually visiting the website (much akin to Synaptic package manager) . The Pandora community is also notable for the development of tools required to achieve several successful static recompilations of complex binary software to

693-404: The cost inflation of custom homes. A less explored possible cause of cost overruns on construction project is the escalation of commitment to a course of action. This theory, grounded in social psychology and organisation behaviour, suggests the tendency of people and organisations to become locked-in and entrapped in a particular course of action and thereby 'throw good money after bad' to make

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726-408: The development of a redesigned and upgraded successor, called DragonBox Pyra , was started. Development of the Pandora began when Craig Rothwell, Fatih Kilic, Michael Mrozek and (later) Michael Weston teamed up and planned a portable system that would excel in the areas where they thought the GP32 and GP2X systems (from Game Park and GamePark Holdings respectively) were flawed. The Pandora

759-480: The financial effectiveness of project assurance in reducing cost overruns found the project assurance process to be effective in reducing cost overruns and recommended an expansion of the process to cover most of the Government's project portfolio. Project assurance is now also being used by private sector companies undertaking major projects. Cost overrun can be described in multiple ways. For example, consider

792-609: The new system. The Pandora is compatible with Debian packages built for the ARM architecture using APT . A Git repository offers the latest kernel source. Lists on the community-maintained Pandora Wiki keep track of new software releases. Most, but not all, Pandora software is uploaded to either the Pandora Apps , the Pandora File Archive or Pandora Repo websites. The Pandora File Archive existed first and

825-538: The proof-of-concept (working title "snega2usb") into a product that was later manufactured by Retrode UG in Germany . Retrode UG ceased manufacturing the Retrode in the summer of 2013. The Retrode got licensed to OpenPandora GmbH in Germany and is available again since March 2015. The Retrode from 2015 is the second hardware revision. For each of the two hardware revisions, the transition from prototype to mass production

858-479: The requirements or targets rises during the project, is common. Finally, political-economic explanations see overrun as the result of strategic misrepresentation of scope or budgets. Historically, political explanations for cost overrun have been seen to be the most dominant. In the USA, the architectural firm Home Architects has attributed this to a human trait they call "Psychology of Construction Cost Denial", regarding

891-717: The venture succeed. This defies conventional rationality behind subjective expected utility theory. Ahiaga-Dagbui and Smith explore the effects of escalation of commitment on project delivery in construction using the case of the Scottish Parliament project. Also, a recent study has suggested that principles of chaos theory can be employed to understand how cost overruns emerge in megaprojects . This paper seeks to reclassify megaprojects as chaotic systems that are nonlinear and therefore difficult to predict. Using cases of cost overruns in oil and gas megaprojects, this study makes strong argument that chaos theory can indeed be

924-468: Was announced that the production of the final Pandora batch has been started. About 7500 Pandoras have been made and sold altogether between 2010 and 2014, with further production made impossible due to shortage of WiFi chips. In 2014 the OpenPandora project opened the hardware design files to the community, making the OpenPandora a kind of open source hardware . Speculation and discussion about

957-456: Was designed based on ideas and suggestions contributed by GP32X forum members, with the goal of creating the ultimate open source handheld device. When announcing the system, the designers of Pandora stated that it would be more powerful than any handheld video game console that had yet existed. The final case and keymat design was made by Dave Cancilier (DaveC), who was known on the forums for custom hardware modifications. In February 2008

990-492: Was developed mainly by Hullin with the help of a few users. The device enumerated as a composite USB device consisting of a USB mass storage endpoint and one or several USB game controllers . Access to the cartridge contents (typically a ROM chip with the game itself and optionally also a battery-backed SRAM to store game progress) was provided through files on the USB medium. A number of device parameters could be edited through

1023-461: Was enabled through crowdfunding (pre-ordering). A comprehensive write-up by a Retrode user documents the history of the project. The Retrode was based on an Atmel AVR microcontroller (AT90USB646) with an integrated USB interface, connecting to cartridge slots and game controller ports via the microcontroller's GPIO pins. Its updateable firmware was based on the LUFA library by Dean Camera, and

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1056-481: Was finally cleared. The remaining pre-order queue of the UK OpenPandora Ltd. company (owned by Craig Rothwell) turned out to be significantly larger than originally reported, and the UK company has requested to be struck off. This means that the original pre-orderers at the UK company are unlikely to ever get their unit from the UK company. Also because of this, buyers have lost their money. Although there

1089-584: Was to be a potential commercial competitor of the Pandora, but the Gizmondo 2 was cancelled. GPD Win can also run Linux. Cost overrun A cost overrun , also known as a cost increase or budget overrun , involves unexpected incurred costs . When these costs are in excess of budgeted amounts due to a value engineering underestimation of the actual cost during budgeting, they are known by these terms. Cost overruns are common in infrastructure , building , and technology projects. For IT projects ,

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