Game Park 32 Blu - Anticipation


Valeos

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Good Day Everyone,

After much consideration, I have decided to pre-order a GP 32 BLU despite the expensive cost to send to the US. I have always been a fan of open source and have been using Linux since 1993 in one form or another. I also love gaming, and have been the proud owner of a Genesis Nomad since its initial introduction to the market. To me, it is still one of the best handheld systems on the market, though SEGA simply did not market it properly. The so-called "underdog" has always been something of appeal to me.

It all started when my wife and I opted to sell all of our storage and items on eBay. Based on our profits (and the loss of some of our more "precious items") I came to the conclusion that each of us should purchase something we really wanted. After careful consideration, it came to my attention that the most precious item I was selling was my Nomad.

Given that I have made reasonable profits despite a tight budget, I kept thinking about the sale of my Nomad and how I did not want to lose it, as it had great meaning to me (I am sure some of you understand this). The thought came to mind that what I wanted was something to replace it...and after a long seach the GP32 became my idol.

Herein was a device that could provide me a unique gaming experience with the games and emulation, as well as a plethora of other capabilities! The more I researched, the more I was interested. The only other object of my consideration was the Zodiac, and to be honest, it seemed more "eyewash" that an item of interest as I have always favored open source.

With that in mind, I pre-ordered the GP32 BLU, and look forward to the arrival of the system. From what I have heard here, there is much to look forward to. I only hope that I can get a good price for my Nomad to cover some of the expense. In addition, I hope that most of my favorite Genesis games can be emulated properly. Unfortunately, research dictates that Shadowrun does not emulate properly....perhaps someone has had some luck with this? Shadowrun is the bulwark of all my Genesis games, and its proper emulation would be a boon!

Best regards,
Valeos
 
welcome to the community :lol: its a great one. awesome helpful people. unfortunatly i never really got into genesis so ive never even heard of the game, or tried the genesis emulation on my gamepark. one of these days... one of these days.. :unsure:
 
Welcome aboard man, I too hope that you'll soon have a replacement for your departing Nomad, while genesis emmulation isnt perfect, it is apparently being worked on. Patience will see you through, that and the bunch of other cool things you can run on a GP32 as well!
 
Welcome :)

This is indeed the best time to get a gp32_console , what with 2 Genesis emus being worked on; fGen and GigaDrive. GigaDrive has the better compatability ATM, but fGen has some sound implimentation.
 
Welcom aboard :) I hope you will enjoy your GP32 as much as we do ;)
And now back to business. Even if by some miracle ;) Shadowrun won't be supported in fGen an Gigas Drive (two Genesis emulators in work) the game works great on Snes emu. But well, there is no need to play it on Snes emu as the latest beta of fGen suports this game. It is not playable yet as i couldn pass title screen (probably there is a need of little tweak. I couldn't go any further after i choose new game).
Here is crappy photo of title screen.

P5230007.jpg


(btw. my GP32 looks like disaster after those years ;) so don't worry it is will be emulated for sure.
 
Welcome to the community. I'm sure you'll be here for a long time to come.

PS I hope you have some spare time because the GP32 tends to swallow it up like a demented vacuum cleaner. :)
 
Thank you for the warm welcome, this certainly seems like a great and helpful community! I appreciate the information on emulation, I'll keep my eyes on fGen and sign up for the beta as soon as I get my BLU. Indeed, it was the emulation capabilities that really won me over to the GP32.

I found out about the system purely by accident when I was on Zophar's emulation site and saw "GP32" listed in the console area and saw a slew of emulators listed for it. I Googled GP32 and behold, I found all kinds of information, eventually leading me to this site as well.

I am really looking foward to the release of the BLU, though it looks like it will be early June before that happens. Until then, I will just have to twiddle my thumbs and fawn over obtaining my new toy. Of course, I'm spending a great deal of time finding more about its capabilities. At the moment I am debating what I am going to flash the firmware with. I've read about WinUps, so that might be interesting. Almost seems like the GP32 could be outfitted to be a decent PDA with a chatboard, though I have not seen enough evidence regarding that.

The one thing I would love to see for the GP32 would be an easy way to hook it to a television. One of the things I loved about my Nomad, was that I could just plug it right into the TV with an A/V cable I had. Of course, this might not ever occur, and if it did, there would be the issue of NTSC and PAL compatibility. I'm sure going to miss that system, but it is time to get something better! Now if I can just get a good sum of money for it, which shouldn't be a problem considering the amount of stuff that comes along with it.

Now to dart back to eBay to watch my auctions... :unsure:
 
I recomend Mr. Spiv's Multi Firmware 2. I comes with an fxe that does everything, and you can chose to auto boot to Windups, the original firmware, or Pacrom. B)
 
If you post your gaming auctions in this thread then you might get a few regulars from here bidding. I know I'd be interested in a Nomad :rolleyes:.
 
Based on Dozer's response, I am going to post my eBay auction link for the Nomad I am selling:

SEGA Genesis Nomad +16 Games and Lots of Accessories!

The system is in awesome shape, and comes with just about everything you could ever want from an accessory standpoint. It has only been used a few times as it ended up spending most of its time in storage where it was lost. I only recently located it when I opted to start selling on eBay.

It comes with over 16 games, and most of them are in very good shape as well. I am sure whoever purchases this set will be quite pleased with it. Mind you, it will not come cheap, but considering all the comes with it, the purchase should be worth it. :D
 
GPJosh,

Multifirmware 2 does seem like my best bet. However, I do have a question regarding this. From what I can gather, on booting the original firmware has three options, play game, play movie, or play MP3. As Multifirmware 2.0 has the original firmware as boot option, I am assuming the MP3 player is still available?

I appologize if this seems like an ill-phrased or dumb question, but I really have not found an extensive amount of information regarding firmware available for the GP32, what it offers and the like. Another query is: How difficult is it to flash the firmware, and how dangerous is it? I am rather tech saavy, but would not want it to be one of those type of situations where it is easy to screw your system up. I have read a little on this, but I am curious if it is really so cut and dried (so to speak). So far, this site has been a wealth of information to me, and everyone has been very helpful. I am proud to be a new member of this group.

I was reading the article regarding Linux for the GP32. Now THAT sounds really interesting since I am a bit of a Linux junkie myself. Perhaps the GP32 will actually be useable as a Linux PDA one day. I just love open source communities!

I just hope that the gp32_console BLU actually launches in June. I am normally not one to preorder anything, but the free SMC reader at GBAx sounded good to me. Too bad it doesn't come with at least one SMC, but I should be able to snag one cheap on eBay.

Valeos

-- Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker --
Nietzsche
 
I am not sure if it is Multifirmware 2, but the mutifirmware with the original firmware does have the MP3 player. In my opinion that MP3 player is not very good and certainly not the deciding factor in the firmware choice. FYI GPMadMP3 seems to be my personal favourite MP3 player at the moment.

All firmwares that I have tried have been easy to flash, just follow the instructions (i.e. put the couple of files in the right place) -- a program actually does the flashing for you, just make sure you have some fresh batteries when you run it and everything should be Okay.

If a flash goes wrong you need to find someone (or make your own) JTAG (?) cable that can sort a bad flash. But yes it is that cut and dried, if the flash goes wrong (i.e. lose power during the flash) the machine will be dead unless you can get access to above mentioned cable.

Correct me if I am wrong but I doubt linux on gp32_console the will ever get a windowing system, so if the programs run from shell then I am sure you'll be happy.

-- Was mich nicht umbringt, macht mich stärker --
???

ausgenommen, wenn Sie Ihre Arme verlieren
 
welcome aboard :D

too bad your ebay auction sword of darkness does not come with the warrior kitty :(. But I can understand one does not ship such a fiend so easily :p
 
Q-Wi-Q,

Indeed I wouldn't trade Frost "The Warrior Kitty" for the world! Entertainingly enough, I have already received several emails asking if I would be willing to sell him. My reply is that they should head to their local shelter and adopt a cat needing a home, as I did with Frost.

carlgeorge - Thank you for the information on firmware, I've already taken a look at GPMadMP3, and it looks like an interesting MP3 player. I'm sure I'll be going on a download spree as soon as I get my BLU. Firmware, emulators, MP3 players, movie players, quite a list! :blink:
 
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