The world of open source handhelds is a strange but exciting place, dominated not by overbearing and cash-hungry manufacturers and publishers, but by the same breed of indie coders who are slowly but surely infiltrating the likes of XBLA, iOS, Android and Steam. Since the first truly 'open' consoles started to appear in the Far East at the dawn of the millennium, we've seen a long line of systems created with the ideals of freedom and experimentation very much at their core. These are platforms on which rules are made to be broken, and the only limitation is how far savvy and resourceful developers can push the host hardware.

One of the most notable examples is the Pandora, a joint venture between an international cadre of open source enthusiasts which was ultimately born out of frustration with the existing crop of portable options.

"I'd been sketching ideas like the Pandora for years," recalls Craig Rothwell, founder member of the Pandora team and one of the driving forces behind the open source gaming hardware scene here in the UK.

"When I was younger I tried to hack the Amstrad e-m@iler, as I wanted a truly portable computer."

Rothwell's interest in modding and hacking would result in him becoming actively involved with both the UK distribution of the GamePark GP32, regarded by many as the grandfather of the current open source gaming scene.

The GP32 was followed by the equally famous GP2X, which offered more power and functionality. The modest success of these products convinced Rothwell - who would later be joined by German tech enthusiast Michael Mrozek - that there was enough consumer interest to justify a totally new product.

"We've always been fans of 'open' devices - especially as more and more systems are becoming locked down," explains Mrozek.

"We wanted a gaming device where the user can install anything they want without the need for any hacking or jailbreaking."

However, Rothwell had no desire to imitate existing hardware.

"We knew it had to be slightly different from anything else on the market," he says.

Pandora 1GHz Edition Specifications The original 600MHz Pandora has been around for a couple of years now, but the developers have just released a new 1GHz version with twice the amount of RAM. Not surprisingly, performance gets a massive boost but the unit retains its signature 10-hour battery life. Dimensions: 140 x 83.4 x 27.5mm

140 x 83.4 x 27.5mm Weight: 335g

335g Chipset: ARM Cortex A8 superscalar microprocessor core

ARM Cortex A8 superscalar microprocessor core Processor: Texas Instruments DM3730 processor running at 1000MHz

Texas Instruments DM3730 processor running at 1000MHz Graphics Core: PowerVR SGX530 200MHz OpenGL ES 2.0 compliant 3D hardware

PowerVR SGX530 200MHz OpenGL ES 2.0 compliant 3D hardware RAM: 512MB DDR-333 SDRAM

512MB DDR-333 SDRAM Storage: 512MB NAND FLASH memory, dual SD card slots

512MB NAND FLASH memory, dual SD card slots Display: 800x480 resolution LTPS LCD with resistive touch screen, 4.3" widescreen, 16.7 million colors (300 cd/m2 brightness, 450:1 contrast ratio)

800x480 resolution LTPS LCD with resistive touch screen, 4.3" widescreen, 16.7 million colors (300 cd/m2 brightness, 450:1 contrast ratio) Connectivity: WiFi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.0

WiFi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.0 Other Features: TV out, 43 button QWERTY and numeric keypad, Full gamepad controls, dual analogue sliders, USB 2.0 OTG port, USB 2.0 HOST port, 4000mAh battery

"We could also see things like the PSP taking away share from the GP32 and GP2X, so we knew whatever we made had to be very different, yet offer similar expanded functionality. Making the Pandora a 'micro laptop' with gaming controls seemed to be a good move."

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At first, Rothwell and his team decided to pitch their vision to GamePark Holdings, the now-defunct Korean firm responsible for the aforementioned GP2X.

"We actually went over there to try to convince them that they should join us in the venture, but they weren't interested," he explains, and the fateful decision was therefore made to go it alone, a choice which - initially at least - seemed to be a blessed one.

Rothwell and Mrozek went public with the concept, quickly garnering support from members of the burgeoning open source community, with many individuals stepping up to assume key positions within the team.

"We needed designers for the Printed Circuit Board (PCB) and the case," explains Mrozek.

"Luckily, Michael Weston in the US showed us some of the handhelds he had personally created, and he became the designer of the Pandora. The case designer also came from the community; he created some mods for the GP2X which drastically improved the system's gaming controls. After that, both the PCB and case were designed with features based on input from the community. This was a delicate process; the case had to be small and ergonomic to use, but the PCB also had to fit in properly."

It's the kind of operation that a large company like Sony or Nintendo would literally pour millions of dollars of research and development into, yet the Pandora team did it on a shoestring using the expertise of people who were, at best, amateur enthusiasts.

Best Laid Plans With a core team established and the design in place, the next step was to acquire funding to actually manufacture the Pandora. This is where the story begins to take on a somewhat chaotic tone. "We essentially did Kickstarter before Kickstarter even existed... we opened preorders and raised about $1 million in 24 hours, which predictably caused the bank to panic." "We essentially did Kickstarter before Kickstarter even existed," Rothwell says. "The plan was to take pre-orders and use the money to fund production. In the UK we had our bank on board and told them the plan, and they seemed to like the idea. However, looking back I really don't think they expected us to succeed. We opened preorders and raised about $1 million in 24 hours, which predictably caused the bank to panic. At first they moved $100,000 in to a 'reserve account' and then a week later totally dropped us, believing it was some kind of fraudulent operation. "They refunded all customer orders and told us to clear off - we never got a proper explanation about why they did this. So we then had the nightmare task of trying to calm down customers who wondered what the hell was going on, and then to try to convince them to reorder via a bank transfer, as the bank had cancelled our merchant numbers meaning we couldn't accept credit cards for months. Slowly they did come back to us, but it was a lengthy and horrible period. Of course, these days sites like Kickstarter solve this; it's a great resource which I wish had existed back then." Regaining the battered trust of your consumer base is one challenge, but when you're building unproven hardware from scratch without the assistance of an R&D budget numbering in the millions, the path to market is seldom a smooth one. "Everything that could go wrong did go wrong," laments Rothwell. "When you're making a device which is unique and has never been attempted before, you have to think on your feet and be ready for huge disasters. When we started only a handful of companies in the world could handle Package on Package (PoP) work - an essential part of the design and one of the key reasons why we could make the Pandora so small - and only one company was willing to consider our project. Unfortunately, they seemed to under-quote us and experienced difficulty meeting our order." Despite these setbacks, production lumbered on. "Everything was ready at the end of 2010," says Mrozek. "So in February 2011, every Pandora should have been delivered and we should have had them in stock from then on. The company we were using to make the PCBs told us they needed eight months to produce 3000 boards - they'd previously promised us 1000 boards per week. When they arrived, 1000 didn't even work, which was equal to a cash loss of over 300,000 Euros. Considering the resultant sales we lost, the actual damage probably went into the millions." "When you're making a device which is unique and has never been attempted before, you have to think on your feet and be ready for huge disasters... only one company was willing to consider our project." Gallery: The Pandora faces off against some of the systems it is competes against to a certain degree, and some of the older classics which it is perfectly comfortable emulating. This content is hosted on an external platform, which will only display it if you accept targeting cookies. Please enable cookies to view. Manage cookie settings Another problem involved the console's analogue slider 'nubs'. "The first company who designed the nubs went bust just after receiving our payment of about 30,000 Euros." adds Mrozek, the end result being more delays, and having been told several times that the console would be ready soon, customers predictably began to get restless. "This was where Michael really came into his own," admits Rothwell. "He is an expert in writing long, calming posts when I'm tearing my hair out at the catastrophe that has befallen us. Generally, if people want a refund, we quickly let them have one. Fortunately, most people realised what a stressful and difficult job we had taken on - and that we were committed to the end - so they stayed on board." Keen to see the Pandora dream through to completion, the vast majority of customers continued to support the venture. "Luckily, only a few actually turned hostile," admits Mzorek. "It's the unique design of the Pandora which makes it sell. The keyboard, the gaming controls and the vital fact that it's open source...we won't cripple your machine just because you torrented a film or played on an emulator." "It was totally understandable, but still sad to see, as we did our best to provide the units but simply ran into issues. We always were open and honest to the community, so on the whole they understood and supported us. It's really the best community we could have wished for."

Better Late Than Never: The Pandora Today It's fair to say that the Pandora project has been through an awful lot of ups and downs since it was unveiled back in 2008. To date, around 6000 have been sold - an insignificant amount by Nintendo and Sony's standards, but a considerable achievement for a team which at one point was working around the clock to assemble units by hand in a village hall in the North East of England. Given the hardships the team has had to endure, it's simply too tempting to ask what they would have done differently with the benefit of hindsight. "It's hard to know where to start," Rothwell replies with an exasperated smile. "If we had known how hard it would be to raise funds I think we would have set that up differently - maybe spreading the load over several banks, each taking a small amount to keep them from panicking. It would also have been good to have a legal team to oversee contracts and chase manufacturers, but such protection requires huge amounts of money, and we just didn't have that." The Pandora team are now busy working on other projects, one of which is an updated Pandora console with a Texas Instruments DM3730 1GHz CPU - a step up from the 600MHz version seen in the original model. "It can be twice as fast in some situations, especially with 3D games," explains Rothwell. "Emulation flies like never before - it's easily the best handheld system in the world for emulation now, from Amiga to PSX, MAME to Pentium-level PC games. It even runs Android." However, even with more powerful internal architecture, the Pandora is effectively a design that is almost half a decade old now. Can it possibly hope to remain relevant in a market which boasts such powerful portables as the PS Vita when the 1GHz model retails for more than twice the price? And what about the increasingly versatile selection of Android-powered devices, which will shortly include the Archos Game Pad? "It's the unique design of the Pandora which makes it sell," counters Rothwell. "The keyboard, the gaming controls and the vital fact that it's open source...we won't do a firmware update and cripple your machine just because you torrented a film or played on an emulator." "The Pandora is a unique mixture of a lot of products, so instead of having multiple devices in your pocket, you can have just one. No smartphone or major gaming device will ever offer that much flexibility." Gallery: The Pandora is based on a version of Linux and is capable of running a full desktop environment. The more basic MiniMenu is a better choice for day-to-day use, as it allows quick access to your applications and games. Original software includes the likes of Frogatto and The Great Giana Sisters sequel Giana's Return. This content is hosted on an external platform, which will only display it if you accept targeting cookies. Please enable cookies to view. Manage cookie settings Mrozek is equally forthright in his praise for the machine. "The passage of time makes selling the system harder, but the Pandora is still pretty innovative," he asserts. "The PS Vita is a gaming device. Even if it is hacked, it would still be missing a keyboard and a full Linux OS - and the next firmware update would close it down again, so you'd have the constant fight between Sony and the hackers. As for smartphones, they lack the combination of gaming controls and a physical keyboard. True, there's the Xperia Play and other smartphones with a keyboard, but there's nothing on the market that combines both. Battery life is also often not as good on smartphones - you can play or work over 10 hours with a Pandora, or listen to music for about 60 hours. With our system, you've got access to a wide range of emulators, all with proper controls and keyboard support. "Beyond gaming, you can edit documents with LibreOffice, do server administration with SSH, code and compile directly on the system, run homebrew applications, browse the web, watch videos and listen to MP3s. If you like, you can run Android and use compatible apps and games on that as well. The Pandora is a unique mixture of a lot of products, so instead of having multiple devices in your pocket, you can have just one. No smartphone or major gaming device will ever offer that much flexibility." Having said that, the Pandora team is acutely aware that all the uniqueness in the world can't stop the irresistible advancement of technology, and that means the Pandora will need to be replaced by something more potent eventually. That's why Rothwell and Mrozek are already thinking about the next iteration of their hardware, but this time around, actually getting the thing funded should prove to be less akin to pulling teeth. "The Pandora 2, if it happens, will be funded through Kickstarter," confirms Rothwell. "We're already using the service for one of our other projects, the iControlpad2. If that turns out to be a success then we will use those very same controls on the Pandora 2. We plan to cut absolutely no corners - the next Pandora will be the most powerful handheld ever created - and it will still have that real world 10 hour battery life."