Is this the best portable ever for me? (G2X CAANOO) Or PSP?

[Erik_Twice]

Just to clarify: its not that he's telling the emulator to emulate slower than normal, its that he's set the caanoo's cpu speed at 533 Hz. A lot of handhelds can be overclocked considerably at the expense of battery life.

Derp, for some reason I confused the normal speed of the console. Apparently most people overclock to 700 or so.

You seem to know a lot about this stuff, what do you think of it? Do you think it's what I'm looking for or am I exagerating a bit?

BTW, I'm trying to get into gp32x.com which looks like THE place to ask this stuff but I can't even look at my own profile. Hope the admin answers my email and lets me in.

[DinnerX]

You seem to know a lot about this stuff, what do you think of it?

Well, thanks. I did a lot of reading on various handhelds a year ago when I wanted to get one. Ended up buying some saturn stuff instead.

Do you think it's what I'm looking for or am I exagerating a bit?

It's hard to say. If the caanoo beat the psp at dosbox I'd say the caanoo was the best out there for you short of buying a pandora. But I can't find much info for either handhelds dosbox capabilities. There's also the price difference to consider. Either way you go, you'll be pushing the limits of the system and stuff may not run as smoothly as you'd hope.

[swiftzx]

I had a GP2X Wiz last year and comparing it to my friend's psp, the Wiz is the predeccessor to the Caanoo so it should run faster.

http://gp2xwiz.info/gp2x-wiz-emulators.asp , just a list of the better emulators on the handheld.

[Damm64]

Well so far i couldn't make work the mame emulator on my psp fat (1000) and i tried like 4 different versions. Maybe someone with more expirience in this field could help you better .

[Lokkenjawnz]

Personally, I'd say the PSP is a better choice. Like you said the caanoo isn't even particularly liked by the G2X forum-ites, and there's probably good reason for that. There might be some decent uses of the touchscreen, but I can't imagine it's a huge dealbreaker to be honest. The PSP can be had incredibly cheap (easily $50 or less), and it has a pretty large homebrew community. It has fantastic CPS1, CPS2, and Neo Geo emulation (including multiplayer!) and pretty much every mainstream console up to the PSX is supported (though SNES isn't perfect, but it's plenty playable).

As far as emulating computers, I'm honestly not hugely familiar with it. I've never tried dosbox on the PSP, but if it's on there, I bet it runs fairly well. I did however get an old Mac emulator on there, and was able to run Mac OS 8, and a couple games. It was a bit slow, but playable.

The other option that you might look into, which may be a bit more expensive/complex, is an Android phone, coupled with an iControlPad. That could pretty well cover everything you've mentioned, and I think even dosbox would be doable, though I'm not sure to what extent. It may however be too costly for the level of emulation you need. Something to look into anyways.

[lisalover1]

I have both, and I can honestly say that there's little the Caanoo can do that the PSP can't. I really just recommend getting a PSP, unless for some reason, you really, really want a dedicated homebrew machine. Also, the PSP has N64 emulation, where the Caanoo does not. Don't get me wrong, the Caanoo is a nice little device, but there is very little software that uses its full capabilities.

[Erik_Twice]

I have both, and[...]

If I really, really wuv you, will you test a couple of games for me? I would wuv you forever if you did! All you would need to do is to try out a couple games in DosBox, I will send you the files and everything. Pleaseee, let me wuv you forever

I can honestly say that there's little the Caanoo can do that the PSP can't. I really just recommend getting a PSP, unless for some reason, you really, really want a dedicated homebrew machine. Also, the PSP has N64 emulation, where the Caanoo does not. Don't get me wrong, the Caanoo is a nice little device, but there is very little software that uses its full capabilities.

It truly seems that the Caanoo is kind of underwhelming when it comes to software but at the end of the day, it's all about MAME and Dosbox since I can already play the consoles I want on the DS, the PSP only offers me old school MAME games and perhaps some PSX ports.

Well, thanks. I did a lot of reading on various handhelds a year ago when I wanted to get one. Ended up buying some saturn stuff instead.

You can never go wrong with Sega

If the caanoo beat the psp at dosbox I'd say the caanoo was the best out there for you short of buying a pandora. But I can't find much info for either handhelds dosbox capabilities. There's also the price difference to consider. Either way you go, you'll be pushing the limits of the system and stuff may not run as smoothly as you'd hope.

Yeah, there's not many information around, you would expect compatibility lists or some comments but people don't comment anything. Price isn't a concern, I have some saved money that was going to be spent on an arcade cab and since that didn't work out I can use it somewhere else. Shame the Pandora is so expensive, it looks like it crosses the line I need.

@Lokkenjawnz

Apparently the Spanish community got very mad over the lack of retrocompatibility and some weird decisions of the company.

The problem with Dosbox is not about running it, but about emulating a computer powerful enough to run the games I want. The PSP is too slow to emulate the stuff I want AFAIK.

[lisalover1]

If it's raw power you need, then the Pandora is your best option. It's practically made for Dosbox: It has a touchscreen, physical keyboard, and a full Linux OS like on a normal computer. It's the best thing you can play Dosbox on.

[Erik_Twice]

If it's raw power you need, then the Pandora is your best option. It's practically made for Dosbox: It has a touchscreen, physical keyboard, and a full Linux OS like on a normal computer. It's the best thing you can play Dosbox on.

Better than that, there's another emulator called Qume that runs many games better than Dosbox. So far they have gotten Starcraft and Diablo to playable status which means almost anything 486 will work. CivII already does at least, which is a huge thing.

But there's a problem. I didn't know it was so FUCKING EXPENSIVE. The first batch sold for around 200€ which seems a very good price but preordering one right now would run me for 440€!!

Guess I need to look for a second hand console or something because I can't pay so much money