Gamepark handhelds (the GP32 being the first, and apparently there is a new model called GP2K) are essentially open-source machines to run emulators or homebrews. I think they originate from Korea.
Does anyone have one? What are your thoughts on them?
Ivo.
EDIT: Gamepark made the GP32; another company, Gamepark Holdings, that splintered off the original one made the GP2X. Apparently Gamepark (the original company) is planning to release the XGP which is similarly open architectured but with some 3D capabilities akin to the PSP...
Gamepark?
I've been tempted to get one.
The DS is the only portable that tempts me more.
The emulation capabilities are the biggest seller for me.
But again, I'd rather buy some retro-ish titles that utilize the DS
The DS is the only portable that tempts me more.
The emulation capabilities are the biggest seller for me.
But again, I'd rather buy some retro-ish titles that utilize the DS
Support Racketboy on Patreon
Follow Racketboy on Social: Instagram / Twitter / Facebook
Subscribe to Email Newsletter (Blog / Guide Updates Every Week or Two)
Follow Racketboy on Social: Instagram / Twitter / Facebook
Subscribe to Email Newsletter (Blog / Guide Updates Every Week or Two)
-
lordofduct
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 2907
- Joined: Sat Apr 01, 2006 12:57 pm
- Location: West Palm Beach
-
Ramatut4001
- 128-bit
- Posts: 694
- Joined: Thu Jul 13, 2006 4:43 pm
- Location: Halethorpe, Maryland, USA
-
lordofduct
- Next-Gen
- Posts: 2907
- Joined: Sat Apr 01, 2006 12:57 pm
- Location: West Palm Beach
Well I've been looking at the GP32 for some time. I really wanted one but never really had the expendable cash to take the dive into it. Then I saw the plans for the GP2X about 6 months before it was released and decided a big NO on the GP32 and decided to wait and see where this unit went. When it was released I then began reading reviews and set up planning on buying. I read everything I could get my hands on, the downs, the ups, the everything.... you can find these reviews everywhere on the web by typing "GP2X review" into google. Anyways, about 2 months ago I pulled out the cash and bought one making sure I meet the requirements. I got the MK2 version so that I could support large SD cards with out firmware updates. I got a case and a 2GB SD Card.
The other reason I got the MK2 version was because the Dpad joystick was redesigned to have more grip to your thumb. See the original version had a slippery convex shape to it that your thumb slipped off of constantly. This time around they went with a concave and a lil' rough plastic design to feel nicer. Not to say the Dpad is perfect though... I'll get to that later.
Power:
This little bad boy COOKS. I've thrown emulators at it from all angles and at the stock 200mhz I can play full speed, full sound with Genny, SMS, Gamegear, NES, Neogeo (large rom support... which can cause minor slow down at times... but really good over all. Small games under 50 MBs play tight and smooth... almost arcade perfect), TurboGraphx (PCengine), older MAME (1.?? you know... older 6800 games and the sort), and the SNES. There are tons other emulators that I haven't used, but of what I've used this thing rarely falters. Movie playback is also superb; I've thrown Divx and xvid at it and they play amazing. xvids sound goes off sync occasionally if you fastforward, but they are working on a bug fix for that right now. Oh and the processor can be overclocked via software... depends on the unit you get but people have gotten as high as 300+ mhz, of course battery usage is upped.
SNES:
This guy gets it's own section. Let me just say right now... it is unbearable in my book! This guy Squidge (who does some great code) has been working on it for sometime. But for whatever reason I don't understand (I never made an emulator) it isn't at full speed yet. I know the GP2X has the power so we mainly just have to wait for the code to catch up. It's GUI is pretty as all hell (and probably plays into why it's slow a little), and they pack a lot of features into it including save states, support of almost every add on chip you can think of, it is very nice. But you get 15 frames per second max on the default processor speed. I haven't OC'd yet to see what I'd get out of it then. But as of right now you have to put it up to 3 or 4 frame skips to get a playable game out of DK Country or Mario World, RPGs are some what sluggish (especially if using Mode 7). Give the guy time though, these are guys like you and I who are doing this in there free time. Hopefully soon it will be full speed.
LCD:
The first version had jaggies. Everyone will tell you that. I never saw the first version though so I really can't judge that. The MK2 (second version) doesn't. The screen is gorgeous. Perfect heigh to width (resolution) for old school games. Perfect brightness and over all I have no freaking complaints. It kicks the PSPs screen all over the place. No blurring, no wide screen (which is a good thing when your emulating classic consoles), no slow down or haziness.
Battery life:
GET RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES. this thing eats alkalines for breakfast. Oh my dear God I popped alkalines in and got maybe 40 to 60 minutes of gameplay out of it. 30 minutes on movies. It was horrible. I went out and got me some Duracel 1.3v 2650Mha batteries and a couple 2400mha (the 2400s came with the 15 minute charger). I can't tell the difference between the two. I do know I get hours of gameplay... never timed it, but I've played through tons of Shining Force then hopped over too Sonic and then to my famicom and play Tetris or Mario for long sittings. I carry this thing to work with 6 batteries and they last me all week (I don't play nonstop at work, but all week is good for 6 batteries). Plus side is they are rechargeable in 15 minutes on the Duracel quick charger. You really want to put your batteries to test put it on Squidges SNES emulator... they'll be swallowed hole the fastest and you still get tons of life out of them. More then the PSP. You get less then GBA SP though (never played the DS for long sittings... can't judge). But hey, this is 2 AA rechargeables compared to Lithium cells! You can always just swap rechargeables where as on the SP or PSP you have to plug the lil' fucker in.
SD Card support:
If you have an SD card over 64 megs get yourself a SD card reader. Seriosily the USB tether cable blows on this thing. Slow, unstable, it just really sucks. If your transferring to NAND for upgrades it's ok enough, but beyond that it is worthless. One of the major downsides... had to go out and buy a SD card reader (I couldn't even get my PC to recognize the SD card in my GP2X). I hear there are models of SD cards that don't really work welll. I learned this AFTER I bought my cheap SD card from Newegg, but it still was recognized by my GP2X, it just had to be formatted to FAT32 first. I'm using the A-DATA Turbo SD 150X with 2GBs of storage space.
Speakers:
Quiet... that is all I can say. Really quiet. That and the placement has them sitting right under your hand when you playing blocking most of the sound. Get headphones!
Homebrew and platform specific stuff:
Software galore. Tons of really interesting and at times pretty high quality homebrew games. As for software there is to much to go into, check out www.gp32x.com for everything you can dream of.
Stuff I haven't used:
For 10 bucks you can get a video out cable that places it on your TV via S-video cable. for another 15 you can bet a USB controller. These plug into the EXT port on the bottom of the console (and can only be used on at a time... though some models of the USB controller have a EXT expander to give you one more EXT port). The USB controller sounds very interesting because it makes the GP2X a host as opposed to a client. See the USB port on it only allows you to tether to a host like your PC or a host hub and can't really use any peripheralls. But the USB controller turns it into a host and you can now put a USB splitter onto it and now you can hook externall HDDs, mouse, keyboard, you name it to it. Of course things like cameras and shit need drivers and some type of software to support it. But the keyboard and external HDD are supported on the GP2X out of box in all software.
Overall:
If you aren't interested in new games or PSP games and want to play your classic games on the go... this is where it is at. The emulation support on this thing whoops both PSP and DS's ass. DS isn't strong enough, PSP has a crap screen, and the best part is it's cheaper and open source. no PSP GTA hacks or overpriced cards to buy for the DS... 250 bucks gets you a GP2X, a case and a huge SD card, shipped... your ready to go. Buy your SD card online from Newegg or ZipZoomFly though as BestBuy, WalMart, or other local stores rip you off by over twice the value! My SD costs 100 bucks at BestBuy... on Newegg it costs 32 plus shipping.
Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820211314
Bestbuy: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... 4698297631
The other reason I got the MK2 version was because the Dpad joystick was redesigned to have more grip to your thumb. See the original version had a slippery convex shape to it that your thumb slipped off of constantly. This time around they went with a concave and a lil' rough plastic design to feel nicer. Not to say the Dpad is perfect though... I'll get to that later.
Power:
This little bad boy COOKS. I've thrown emulators at it from all angles and at the stock 200mhz I can play full speed, full sound with Genny, SMS, Gamegear, NES, Neogeo (large rom support... which can cause minor slow down at times... but really good over all. Small games under 50 MBs play tight and smooth... almost arcade perfect), TurboGraphx (PCengine), older MAME (1.?? you know... older 6800 games and the sort), and the SNES. There are tons other emulators that I haven't used, but of what I've used this thing rarely falters. Movie playback is also superb; I've thrown Divx and xvid at it and they play amazing. xvids sound goes off sync occasionally if you fastforward, but they are working on a bug fix for that right now. Oh and the processor can be overclocked via software... depends on the unit you get but people have gotten as high as 300+ mhz, of course battery usage is upped.
SNES:
This guy gets it's own section. Let me just say right now... it is unbearable in my book! This guy Squidge (who does some great code) has been working on it for sometime. But for whatever reason I don't understand (I never made an emulator) it isn't at full speed yet. I know the GP2X has the power so we mainly just have to wait for the code to catch up. It's GUI is pretty as all hell (and probably plays into why it's slow a little), and they pack a lot of features into it including save states, support of almost every add on chip you can think of, it is very nice. But you get 15 frames per second max on the default processor speed. I haven't OC'd yet to see what I'd get out of it then. But as of right now you have to put it up to 3 or 4 frame skips to get a playable game out of DK Country or Mario World, RPGs are some what sluggish (especially if using Mode 7). Give the guy time though, these are guys like you and I who are doing this in there free time. Hopefully soon it will be full speed.
LCD:
The first version had jaggies. Everyone will tell you that. I never saw the first version though so I really can't judge that. The MK2 (second version) doesn't. The screen is gorgeous. Perfect heigh to width (resolution) for old school games. Perfect brightness and over all I have no freaking complaints. It kicks the PSPs screen all over the place. No blurring, no wide screen (which is a good thing when your emulating classic consoles), no slow down or haziness.
Battery life:
GET RECHARGEABLE BATTERIES. this thing eats alkalines for breakfast. Oh my dear God I popped alkalines in and got maybe 40 to 60 minutes of gameplay out of it. 30 minutes on movies. It was horrible. I went out and got me some Duracel 1.3v 2650Mha batteries and a couple 2400mha (the 2400s came with the 15 minute charger). I can't tell the difference between the two. I do know I get hours of gameplay... never timed it, but I've played through tons of Shining Force then hopped over too Sonic and then to my famicom and play Tetris or Mario for long sittings. I carry this thing to work with 6 batteries and they last me all week (I don't play nonstop at work, but all week is good for 6 batteries). Plus side is they are rechargeable in 15 minutes on the Duracel quick charger. You really want to put your batteries to test put it on Squidges SNES emulator... they'll be swallowed hole the fastest and you still get tons of life out of them. More then the PSP. You get less then GBA SP though (never played the DS for long sittings... can't judge). But hey, this is 2 AA rechargeables compared to Lithium cells! You can always just swap rechargeables where as on the SP or PSP you have to plug the lil' fucker in.
SD Card support:
If you have an SD card over 64 megs get yourself a SD card reader. Seriosily the USB tether cable blows on this thing. Slow, unstable, it just really sucks. If your transferring to NAND for upgrades it's ok enough, but beyond that it is worthless. One of the major downsides... had to go out and buy a SD card reader (I couldn't even get my PC to recognize the SD card in my GP2X). I hear there are models of SD cards that don't really work welll. I learned this AFTER I bought my cheap SD card from Newegg, but it still was recognized by my GP2X, it just had to be formatted to FAT32 first. I'm using the A-DATA Turbo SD 150X with 2GBs of storage space.
Speakers:
Quiet... that is all I can say. Really quiet. That and the placement has them sitting right under your hand when you playing blocking most of the sound. Get headphones!
Homebrew and platform specific stuff:
Software galore. Tons of really interesting and at times pretty high quality homebrew games. As for software there is to much to go into, check out www.gp32x.com for everything you can dream of.
Stuff I haven't used:
For 10 bucks you can get a video out cable that places it on your TV via S-video cable. for another 15 you can bet a USB controller. These plug into the EXT port on the bottom of the console (and can only be used on at a time... though some models of the USB controller have a EXT expander to give you one more EXT port). The USB controller sounds very interesting because it makes the GP2X a host as opposed to a client. See the USB port on it only allows you to tether to a host like your PC or a host hub and can't really use any peripheralls. But the USB controller turns it into a host and you can now put a USB splitter onto it and now you can hook externall HDDs, mouse, keyboard, you name it to it. Of course things like cameras and shit need drivers and some type of software to support it. But the keyboard and external HDD are supported on the GP2X out of box in all software.
Overall:
If you aren't interested in new games or PSP games and want to play your classic games on the go... this is where it is at. The emulation support on this thing whoops both PSP and DS's ass. DS isn't strong enough, PSP has a crap screen, and the best part is it's cheaper and open source. no PSP GTA hacks or overpriced cards to buy for the DS... 250 bucks gets you a GP2X, a case and a huge SD card, shipped... your ready to go. Buy your SD card online from Newegg or ZipZoomFly though as BestBuy, WalMart, or other local stores rip you off by over twice the value! My SD costs 100 bucks at BestBuy... on Newegg it costs 32 plus shipping.
Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820211314
Bestbuy: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... 4698297631