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History of video games/Platforms/Panasonic Jungle

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The latest reviewed version was checked on 5 October 2022. There is 1 pending change awaiting review.
  • A Panasonic Jungle Prototype. The clamshell handheld console could fold up for portable transport.
    A Panasonic Jungle Prototype. The clamshell handheld console could fold up for portable transport.

History

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Panasonic Headquarters in Osaka, Japan. This photo was taken on March 13th, 2011, just about two weeks after the cancellation of the Panasonic Jungle.

Development

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Panasonic had previously attempted to bring a console to market with the M2.

The Panasonic Jungle was developed by the Panasonic Cloud Entertainment division[1] as a handheld game console oriented around playing MMORPGs on the go.

The Panasonic Jungle was shown to the press on October 4th, 2010.[2] The console was met with skepticism on announcement.[3] Unlike many niche consoles, Panasonic took marketing the console very seriously, going as far as to employ the then popular media company Machinima for marketing the console.[1] This resulted in a 7 episode cartoon promoting the console, with a number of stylized mascot characters.[4] The console was also promoted on the MTV show Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory.[5]

Development of the Panasonic Jungle had proceeded relatively well. The Wi-Fi only model would have cost $299.00, with a later pre-launch price reduction to 249.99.[4] The model with a 3G radio cost $349.99.[4] Branded in ear headphones and MicroHDMI cables were listed for sale.[4] However there would be no launch, as the Jungle was officially canceled on Tuesday, March 1st, 2011.[6]

Legacy

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The legacy of the Panasonic Jungle is intrinsically tied to the rapidly changing market conditions of the time. A well executed portable handheld designed around playing popular MMORPGs in the early 2010s would have likely been successful in its niche had it only faced traditional competition. However the threat to the Panasonic Jungle posed by Smartphone gaming was not only very real,[7] it quickly became an issue for larger and companies already established in the handheld gaming market such as Nintendo and Sony.[8] Thus the act of canceling the console and avoiding the risk of a launch was thus widely seen as a safe call,[9] though even with smartphone gaming on the rise, the failure of the Jungle was still not a certainty. One can only speculate how the then high end, though likely quite pricy, experience offered by the Jungle would have fared against early smartphone gaming.

A functional prototype Jungle console surfaced in 2018 by a member posting on the forms for the DragonBox Pyra.[10] In 2020 the system was more throughly documented by gaming historian "Developer Jeff".[11]

Technology

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It is important to note that for some time little was known about the actual specifications of the Panasonic Jungle, and most sources prior to cancellation give specifications that are either educated guesses, or are based on rumors.[2] Even after a prototype surfaced, solid specifications were elusive for some time.

Compute

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A Tegra 2 SOC, similar to that used on the Panasonic Jungle.

The console uses an NVIDIA Tegra 2 SOC containing a 32-bit dual core ARM Cortex A9 processor clocked at 1 gigahertz.[12][13] This SOC included a GPU which was considered a powerful mobile graphics processor for the time.[14]

The console has about 448 megabytes (448,452 Kb) of LPDDR2 single channel RAM clocked at 300 megahertz.[4] This memory has a bandwidth of 2.4 gigabits per second.[4]

The console has about 4 gigabytes (3,927 megabytes) of internal EMMC flash storage, which is expandable by MicroSD card.[4]

There was a rumor that the device ran a version of Linux as its operating system.[2]

Hardware

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The console has a primary IPS LCD display with a resolution of 1280 pixels by 720 pixels, as well as a secondary OLED screen.[12][4]

The console was designed to connect to the internet, and thus included a radio for Wi-Fi, and optionally included a 3G radio.[4]

The handheld includes a small built in keyboard, which has red LEDs below keys for backlighting in the dark.[12] These LEDs appear to be software controllable, and each key is also touch sensitive.[12]

Supported games

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  • Battlestar Galactica Online[15]
  • Runescape[16]
  • Stellar Dawn[4]
  • World of Warcraft[4] (Dubious if this was ever official, or simply media speculation.)

External Resources

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Wikipedia has related information at Jungle (console)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Panasonic

References

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  1. ↑ a b "Welcome to the Panasonic Jungle" (in en-gb). Pocket-lint. 5 October 2010. https://www.pocket-lint.com/games/news/panasonic/106327-welcome-to-the-panasonic-jungle. 
  2. ↑ a b c "Exclusive: First Photo of Jungle, Panasonic's Portable Online Gaming System" (in en-us). Gizmodo. https://gizmodo.com/5655371/exclusive-first-photo-of-jungle-panasonics-portable-online-gaming-system. 
  3. ↑ Morris, Chris. "Opinion: Panasonic Can't See The Jungle For The Trees" (in en). www.gamasutra.com. https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/121572/Opinion_Panasonic_Cant_See_The_Jungle_For_The_Trees.php. 
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k "Other - Panasonic Jungle preservation thread". Obscure Gamers. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  5. ↑ "Panasonic's New "Gaming Console" Mistaken For a Pager On MTV" (in en-us). Kotaku. https://kotaku.com/panasonics-new-gaming-console-mistaken-for-a-pager-on-5655957. 
  6. ↑ "Panasonic says has dropped game development project Reuters". web.archive.org. 4 March 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110304002857/https://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/01/us-panasonic-games-idUSTRE7201MD20110301. 
  7. ↑ "Death By Smartphone: Panasonic’s Jungle Gets the Axe". Technologizer by Harry McCracken. 4 March 2011. https://www.technologizer.com/2011/03/03/smartphones-kill-panasonic-jungle/. 
  8. ↑ Kuchera, Ben (15 August 2011). "Biggest threat to the 3DS and PlayStation Vita? Your smartphone" (in en-us). Ars Technica. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2011/08/biggest-threat-to-the-3ds-and-playstation-vita-your-smartphone/. 
  9. ↑ March 2011, Matt Bradford 02. "Panasonic cancels the Jungle console, there will be no fun and games" (in en). gamesradar. https://www.gamesradar.com/panasonic-cancels-the-jungle-console-there-will-be-no-fun-and-games/. 
  10. ↑ "A certain rarity..." Official Pyra and Pandora Site. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  11. ↑ "Panasonic Jungle". Developer Jeff's Prototype Preservation. 23 August 2020. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  12. ↑ a b c d "The Unreleased Panasonic Jungle". Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  13. ↑ Hanlon, Joseph (January 5, 2011). "What in the world is Nvidia Tegra 2?" (in en). CNET. https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/what-in-the-world-is-nvidia-tegra-2/. 
  14. ↑ Hanlon, Joseph. "What in the world is Nvidia Tegra 2?" (in en). CNET. https://www.cnet.com/news/what-in-the-world-is-nvidia-tegra-2/. 
  15. ↑ "Panasonic to debut mobile game handheld called the Jungle". VentureBeat. 5 October 2010. https://venturebeat.com/2010/10/04/panasonic-to-debut-mobile-game-handheld-called-the-jungle/. 
  16. ↑ Parkin, Simon. "Panasonic Reveals Handheld System: Jungle" (in en). www.gamasutra.com. https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/30785/Panasonic_Reveals_Handheld_System_Jungle.php. 


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