We love to see Doom ported to new hardware because it usually means that someone has found a way around the manufacturer’s security measures. But the most exciting thing for us to see this time is that Doom II is played on an epaper display. These are notorious for slow refresh rates, but as you can see in the video after the break, this one achieves an admirably fast page redraw.
According to a translation of the original forum post, the PocketBook 360° Plus boasts a 5″ E Ink Pearl screen, 533 MHz Freescale i.MX35 ARM11 processor, 128 Mb of RAM, 2 gigs of storage, and WiFi. No word on price for one of these babies as it seems they’ve not yet been release. Remind anyone of the green monochrome goodness from the original Game Boy?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOPZrVsCEHg&w=470]
[Thanks Michail via SlashGear]
Pretty impressive.
Wow! Way faster than I expected. The eink displays are getting better.
they cost $129. they’ve been available for about 6 months or so…
http://shop.pocketbookreader.com/PocketBook-360-PB360.htm
I think it needs the new ‘plus’ version and that link is to the standard 360. Even the CPU is different.
Pretty cool. I wouldn’t really enjoy playing at that speed but it shows that the screens are advancing and that they can be used for things other than reading ebooks.
Is there a lifespan on these screens? Like X updates or something?
BTW anyone know if HaD will be using Ajax for the comment section so we can comment without having the page disrupted (ie when watching videos).
Background music to the video was super annoying.
luckily sound can be turned off :-)
Reminds me of the first time i tried a laptop, back when they were black and white. The original Prince of Persia looked very funny with the refresh rate of that screen, making the characters drag a shadow along. At times this seems to do the same.
Ha, that’s hilarious! Nice work.
Quality techno freshness in every bite.
Very impressive.
I can’t help but wonder what happens to the battery life though; there’s a big gap between turning a page every few seconds and updating a frame a dozen times a second.
Any word on Epaper displays for DIY purposes?
@ZeUs Sadly none yet. There are some developer kits available but they cost several grand for the kit and one display. The closest thing available is the Kent Display from Sparkfun.
This actually happen at March of 2010, not a news
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsXfcb9Mpzc
Heres some similar displays that aren’t ridiculously priced. Not the exact same tech but it might be useful to serve a similar purpose.
Forgot the link.
http://www.mouser.com/sharpmemorylcd/?cm_mmc=Mar11Email-_-eNews-_-22Newsletter-_-SharpImg
Doom music in any form other than the original MIDIs played with an OPL3 sound card is awful. Amazing with OPL3 though. :D
There seems to be some slight ghosting between frames… I guess they managed the high update speed by not blanking the display in-between frames like a lot of e-readers do.
So who’ll be first to port ScummVM to this? :D A mostly static game like Myst would be perfect for this display.
Can you turn the damn music off!? Doesn’t seem to be coming from the videos. Very amusing and everything but screws up the audio from the vids, and is WAY TOO LOUD!