GP32 How high can it go


Don Nagel

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Feb 22, 2003
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How powerful is the gamepark?

Could it emulate an atari jagur, playstation, N64, or sega saturn? i am very interested in making a real next-gen emulator for the gamepark! what is the last system (released) the GP32 could emulate? I just dont wanna start like most evryone else thinking the project will be great, then die off slowly after i realize what ive gotten into!
 
unless you make some kind of cd adapter the gp32 will only be able to emulate systems with games that do not exceed 128MB ram (actually less when you consider the emulator has to be in there too.

The playstation will not happen and the N64 is also not a possibility (I think I read this earlier), but systems like genesis, snes, commodore 64, PC engine and such are a defenite possibilitie and in most cases already a reality.

I'd suggest asking in a different post what emulator the people want next - I myself would love a genesis emulator, but that is being worked on already as far as I've read here. I'd really love to see an atari 2600 emulator since it was my first console (besides the Commodore 64 which is really a computer not a console).

Good Luck on whatever emulator you make!
 
hmmm.. it would be great to see more mame gamss emulated.
and as far as how HIGH can it go, howabout the other side of that (how LOW?) It would be great to see intellivision, colecovision, etc. etc.
 
I agree - it would be nice to see atari 2600/BBC micro/Atari 800 that would be mine preference??

Atari 800 and Atari St are most wanted emulators!(and of course genesis)
 
i would like to seee a BBC emu with the option to code in BASIC, take me back to my primary school years:)
 
JAS posted on Mar 10 2003 said:
I'd suggest asking in a different post what emulator the people want next -
AMIGA! AMIGA! AMIGA! :p

i know it has many custom chips etc, but surely a port of something like the "Fellow" emulator from the PC to the GP32 is possible?

even if it just runs the most basic of A500 games?


"dreams of being able to play classic amiga games on a handheld machine" :)
 
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I still have my Amiga 500 and thought there was no way the GP32 could emulate it. Then I went back and looked at the specs.

I think Amiga emulation is doable. It may run slow, but it should run.
 
An Atari ST emulator would be good - and its easier to port than amiga - it has most of the same games but it hasn't got sensible world of soccer!boo hoo! --the amount of custom chips in an amiga could be more difficult to emulate.
 
Cpt_Kirks posted on Mar 10 2003 said:
I still have my Amiga 500 and thought there was no way the GP32 could emulate it. Then I went back and looked at the specs.

I think Amiga emulation is doable. It may run slow, but it should run.
hehe - i just thought "surely if it can run a SNES with all those mode 7 custom chips etc, then a 68000 7mhz + sound chip etc etc A500 emulator should be possible too"


but i'm more of a wishful thinker than a programmer!


maybe one day....
 
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timthepig posted on Mar 10 2003 said:
An Atari ST emulator would be good - and its easier to port than amiga - it has most of the same games but it hasn't got sensible world of soccer!boo hoo! --the amount of custom chips in an amiga could be more difficult to emulate.
ah, good point there - i've basically grown up on C64, then A500 then A1200 and never really paid much attention to ST (everyone i knew had Amigas too y'see)

as you say it has most of the same games (which from my memory, it did) and that an ST emulator is more feasible, i rather would play a decent speed ST emulator running a decent ST version of my fav Amiga games, than a real slow Amiga emulator!

the main Amiga games i'd wanna play on it really would be

Turrican 2 (mainly for the Chris Huelsbeck music!)
Stunt Car Racer
Super Cars 2
Robocod
IK+
Giana Sisters
Apidya
Zool
Speedball 2
Buggyboy
Chaos Engine
Soccer Kid

...well they're the only games that spring to mind right now (and most of the others are actually available in better versions on the PC Engine as i found out yesterday!)

did the Atari ST have any/all of those games too? on par/better/worse ports?

sorry to be a nuisance! :D
 
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Don Nagel posted on Mar 10 2003 said:
How powerful is the gamepark?

Could it emulate an atari jagur, playstation, N64, or sega saturn? i am very interested in making a real next-gen emulator for the gamepark! what is the last system (released) the GP32 could emulate? I just dont wanna start like most evryone else thinking the project will be great, then die off slowly after i realize what ive gotten into!
well considering the PC can barely emulate a Saturn, there's no way a GP32 could :p

anyway as far as i can tell, it would be pointless making the GP32 emulate anything above 16bit machines as it would prove way too slow to have any point to it (and really, how would you fit a Playstation games onto smart media cards anyway? :lol: )

if you really wanna make an emulator, trying expanding on the MAME concept...or converting a CPS-1 emulator (Capcom 16 bit arcade hardware for SF2 etc) like Callus to the GP32?

or Neo Geo?? (although the sheer size of these roms would fill a SMC pretty quickly!)

however, with both of their additional custom chips i doubt either will be able to emulated by the GP32 to a playable form...(however i'd LOVE someone to prove me wrong and make it work! :D )
 
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Alright, I got evn more interested in planning a emulator... even though i wont even start until summer, i'll hopefully finish it rather quickly. I have a few questions for everyone...

1) I plan on making an emulator that most likely wont be developed unless I do it! im not saying i wont make one if someone else starts after me... that would be fun to have a race!

2) These systems I plan to emulate (ill prbly only do 1, maybe not even) include: Game.com, Atari 2600, Atari Lynx, Sega 32X, Nokia N-guage, Sega Dreamcast's own VMU or the Gamepark itself (so people can play actual games made for the system that are "backed up" :p

3) About how long does an emulator take to make? Is it hard to make one? Why is everybody who begins emulators soon quit?

4) Which system would be the easiest to emulate, I thought it would be the atari 2600, but i heard it would be rather difficult...

5) I most likely wont do a system that requires the save function... i dont want to mess around w/ that.

Thanx for helping!
 
well, judging by your tone, it doesn't sound like you've got the intention of doing more than the preliminary work (and aren't already familiar with coding such a thing as an emulator) -- but hey, I don't know who the heck you are, maybe you can whip things like that out without batting an eyelash! At any rate, as a general response..

I think the most popular/respected/well received emulator programs out there are those that provide nostalgic value, in that people can enjoy the same games that they did generations ago (before all the 3D hooyah kicked in.. in some cases, before actual discernable GRAPHICS kicked in!) With that in mind, I'm all for emulation of an older, classic system like (as you listed) the 2600. Sure it's dated as hell, but when we were kids we all would have LOVED such a thing as a portabe device to play all those games with. Likewise with, say, a colecovision, etc. And a little later, something like the atari Lynx - while okay, it is sorta redundant to emulate such a device on another portable system, I agree. he original can be had for a low price, likewise with the games, right now. But I have one and though it is still enjoyable, it's pretty bulky and cumbersome to whip that thing out and struggle to get it to work still (huge power consumption as well..) Yeah, it would be nifty to have a lynx emu, I admit (though surely more limited then the other systems mentioned)

I am kind of against the idea of emulating systems that are available NOW, or in the near future (the nokia n-gage thing). Okay, it is pretty cool that someone can do that, it is a novelty. When N64 emulation (on the PC) hit the scene it was a shock, and it was just ridiculous that someone had a working GBA emulator (again, on the PC) before you could even BUY the system. Yes it's a novelty, but on some level it hurts those systems and does a little damage to the scene. I agree that it is still technically impressive (and won't be a hypocrite, I have taken advantage of the same technology!) - but given the chance, I'd say it is more moral/interesting to emulate a system that's just.. no longer available! "Use your powers of programming for good, not evil!!"

Anyway, the bottom line is that even if you don't plan to get very far with your work - WHATEVER system you decide to concentrate on - just about any work you do could only be beneficial to the scene, and inspire others to a little healthy competition. (go on, there doesn't have to be just ONE SNES emulator or megadrive/genesis emulator, just like in the PC scene - there's a reason why people work on them from different angles!)

Good luck, aspiring emu authors..
 
Why don't you do a vote? Perhaps you'll hear some interesting suggestions...

My personal holy grail would be a x86 PC emu with DOS; aka., portable Star Control 2, Jazz Jackrabbit, Bio Menace, etc. :rolleyes:
(I never got into the whole console thing until lately; those were the games I grew up with)

I would happily do it myself if it was summer and I had more time... as of now I've got a ton of projects to finish every week and no time to learn how to program something like that (which would take quite a while...).
Some good existing x86 emulators are DOSBox (though that needs 400Mhz to run in its Win32 state...) and Pocket DOS... though that's for the Pocket PC...

It doesn't look like anybody else is interested in this, though, so I guess it'll be up to me... ;)
Ah, well... time to invest in a "C++ for dummies" book.

Anyway, my 2nd choice would be an Atari Lynx; just so I can say that after you buy a GP32 you'll never need to buy another handheld again. :p
That doesn't really need a save function, on the plus side, and there's a good emulator existing for it.
 
By the way, for evryone that doesnt think i can code that well, your partially right... Ive made a few games for PC, my latest being a small game based on the movie WILLARD (you are a rat that has to outrun a cat, every 8sec. you survive another rat enters the box until you have 12 rats, then you win and attack the cat) which i will prbly port to gamepark before anything. Ive never tried to code for gamepark! The reason i will not start until summer is, im trying to write a book!
Is it any harder to write games for the GP32 than PC?
 
Why does it matter if the Amiga has custom chips or not? All a console does is take in a rom, and the user input then show stuff on the screen and makes sound. I don't think it matters if it is a huge room filled with vacume tubes, or the latest processor and 1000s of custom chips, the console always does the same thing. (I am not saying that the GP32 can emulate something with the latest processor, I am just saying that all the consoles do the same thing)
 
Well - its okay saying you can emulate a system regardless of the amount of hardware....

But to actually program and simulate those hardware\s will take more care and time - effort .....and will be ultimately more difficult to program. Not only that - it will infact impact performance because of the emulation of such chips - so thats why the Atari ST was pointed out as this will carry less of these hardware difficulties yet has most of the same games. And some of its own fine games --

and to answer the other persons post

Stunt Car Racer - Yep
Super Cars 2 - Yep
Robocod - Yep
IK+ - Yep
Giana Sisters - I think so
Apidya - Haven't heard of it but probably
Zool - Yep
Speedball 2 - Yep
Buggyboy - Yep
Chaos Engine - Yep
Soccer Kid - Yep

And they are all pretty much identical except sound on a few of them were not quite as good(programmers tended not to bother with producing quality sound for some reason as it was very capable of producing great sounds).

The only games which were dire compared to the amiga versions were(as I remember) and I've played loads and loads!

Dragon Ninja, Final Fight, Shadow of the beast, Street Fighter 2, Striker etc - generally the fighting games\most conversions -

but games like Popolous, Powermonger, Midwinter, Dragons flame, sensible soccer, dungeon master were excellent -

But some st only games which were good:-

Cartoon Capers, Flood, grandad and the holy vest etc

But I actually prefered the St cause it was easier to use and it had better apps than the amiga - and of course the Midi support? but I'm just an atari fan ----
 
Someone said about a cd ad on for gp23?

Couldn't you somehow use the usb to link the gp32 to your pc and use the cd rom on that. I know it's not that portable unless laptop but it's a start and am just curious!

Cheers guys
 
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