History of video games/Platforms/DragonBox Pyra

• 
  A render of the Pyra.

History

Development

Ingolstadt, Germany - The location where OpenPandora GmbH is based.

Following the release of the OpenPandora console, a member of the Pandora development team began developing a spiritual successor console in 2014. During development, several processors were considered, including those from Qualcomm and Intel.

Preorders for the Pyra began in 2016. Pre-orders cost 500 euros or US$580. At least 700 preorders were placed by May 3, 2016, allowing production to be funded.

Pre-Production prototypes were shipped in late 2019. By 2020 hardware development was finalized, and development efforts began to focus on finalizing software.

An art book containing 48 pages and chronicling the development of the console was made to be included with shipped units.

On December 24, 2020 photos of subassemblies were shared.

Technology

A prototype Pyra unit in 2016.

Technology choices are typically driven by performance, cost, or portability in most handheld consoles. The Pyra bucks that trend, making choices that emphasize upgradability, maintainability, and compatibility with an open source ecosystem. Thus while the Pyra had underwhelming performance for the time it was announced, it had other qualities not found in competing handhelds which were desirable to the niche audience it was marketed to.

Compute

The Pyra is powered by a Texas Instruments OMAP 5 SoC containing two ARM Cortex A-15 cores clocked at 1.5 gigahertz, two ARM Cortex M4 cores, a PowerVR SGX544-MP2 3D GPU, and a Vivante GC320 2D graphics accelerator.

Depending on the unit, a Pyra either has two gigabytes of RAM or four gigabytes of RAM. All Pyras have 32 gigabytes of eMMC, an internal microSD card slot, and two external SD card slots.

Hardware

The mainboard, CPU board, and display board are all fitted in modules for easy replacement or upgrades. This makes the Pyra relatively unique among consoles, as few home consoles offer such modularity, and among handheld game consoles this is nearly unheard of.

The Pyra uses a 5" LCD touchscreen with a resolution of 1280 pixels by 720 pixels. The touchscreen is resistive, allowing for use through gloves and other non conductive surfaces, though lacking the finger oriented optimizations of capacitive touchscreens.

The system contains a vibration motor, gyroscope and an accelerometer.

The Pyra uses a 6000 mAh battery.

Radios include 2.6 gigahertz and 5 gigahertz WiFi a/b/g/n, and Bluetooth 4.1. An optional 3G/4G/UMTS + GPS module is included on some units, allowing for the system to make use of mobile data and make use of the global positioning system for location information.

Notable games

As of 2020 the Game category of the DBP (DragonBox Pyra) repository had 19 entries.

Gallery

• 
  Exploded render of Pyra components.
• 
  Unpopulated prototype mainboard.
• 
  Populated prototype mainboard.
• 
  Populated prototype mainboard.
• 
  Prototype mainboard top.
• 
  Nubs on prototype Mainboard.
• 
  Ports on prototype Mainboard.
• 
  Prototype Mainboard side view.
• 
  Prototype CPU board
• 
  Pyra prototype, showing backlit keyboard.
• 
  Pyra prototype, showing backlit keyboard.
• 
  Pyra prototype, showing backlit keyboard.
• 
  Pyra prototype, showing battery.
• 
  Pyra prototype, showing keyboard with MicroSD card for comparison.
• 
  Pyra prototype, showing direction pad and circle pad.
• 
  Pyra prototype in operation.
• 
  Pyra prototype, browsing the web.
• 
  Pyra prototype, showing keyboard without backlighting on.
• 
  Pyra prototype, showing keyboard with backlighting on.
• 
  Pyra prototype, showing circle pads.
• 
  Pyra prototype, showing rear IO.
• 
  Pyra prototype, showing SIM and MicroSD combo slot.
• 
  Pandora handheld next to a Pyra prototype.
• 
  Pyra logotype.

External Resources

• Pyra website