Holy, Blu > Flu!


skeezix

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/me is now the proud owner of a BLU, courtesy DaveC selling one of his spares (the fool!)

Ignore this email, but /me is just all excited :)

I originally got a non-lit years ago when they came out; loved it, but got sick of the display really fast. Fot a FLU as soon as they arrived and sold the non-lit later... loved the FLU, but always lamented it being washed out, but it never bothered me much.. so never felt the itch too too much to get a BLU. But always wondered...

So now I have a BLU. First thing I noticed is the pixels are more apparent (like a Palm IIIc if anyone is counting), but that almost gives it a crisper and more retro feel.....

The firmware I noticed second; a little flashy and time wasting (I was running Pacrom before :), but what the heck, built in free launch is good.

Fired up CaSTaway (duh ;) and damn, it does look fine; the save-state keyboard looks pretty darned sleek on the display and playing Xenon.. it does give it a more retro feel much like na old ST monitor...

*sigh*

Dr.MD next. Tried clocking up.. I can get 172MHz for 30s and it hangs; durn, turned back to 168 and seamed stable. So a good ol' 166/168 BLU sounds typical.

But damn.. anyone with a unlit, get a FLU or BLU; but if you've got a FLU I'd say a BLU is far worth it. I think its brought back a little more GP32 lovin' in my soul :)

Man. BLU is what it should've been day one, but even late to get one.. sexy. Sexxxxxy.

Thanks DaveC :)

jeff
 
Hehe I've only ever had a blu so I wouldn't know how much better it is than the flu/un-lit although I could compare it with my gba and that was amazing...

just out of curiosity did you find an older Blu or one of the "Blu+"'s?
 
BLU original, not BLU+ :) BLU+ is okay nowadays more or less, but I wouldn't touch them as I've got 5 or 6 commercial games which'll never be patched.

jeff
 
I've wanted a blu for ages and you've just made me desire far worse! Don't want to buy one of the Blu pluses because I use so much of the older games/emus... bah :(
 
I need to fix CaSTaway got BLU+ but need some time; however people say its barely an issue since its just wrap-around-line .. so I imagine a few older emus are similar, but you'd have to ask for each. (ie: GPengine?)

jeff
 
skeezix posted on Mar 31 2005 at 02:22 AM said:
/me is now the proud owner of a BLU, courtesy DaveC selling one of his spares (the fool!)

Ignore this email, but /me is just all excited :)

I originally got a non-lit years ago when they came out; loved it, but got sick of the display really fast. Fot a FLU as soon as they arrived and sold the non-lit later... loved the FLU, but always lamented it being washed out, but it never bothered me much.. so never felt the itch too too much to get a BLU. But always wondered...

So now I have a BLU. First thing I noticed is the pixels are more apparent (like a Palm IIIc if anyone is counting), but that almost gives it a crisper and more retro feel.....

The firmware I noticed second; a little flashy and time wasting (I was running Pacrom before :), but what the heck, built in free launch is good.

Fired up CaSTaway (duh ;) and damn, it does look fine; the save-state keyboard looks pretty darned sleek on the display and playing Xenon.. it does give it a more retro feel much like na old ST monitor...

*sigh*

Dr.MD next. Tried clocking up.. I can get 172MHz for 30s and it hangs; durn, turned back to 168 and seamed stable. So a good ol' 166/168 BLU sounds typical.

But damn.. anyone with a unlit, get a FLU or BLU; but if you've got a FLU I'd say a BLU is far worth it. I think its brought back a little more GP32 lovin' in my soul :)

Man. BLU is what it should've been day one, but even late to get one.. sexy. Sexxxxxy.

Thanks DaveC :)

jeff


Yeah the BLU is way better than the FLU. I know that many GP32 users getting bored with their NLU/FLU would probably get more interested if they had a BLU. YoYo also said that he has lost interest in the GP32 because he only has a NLU (hence his love affair with *backlit* Palm devices :( ). He even said he preferes the *GBA -SP* screen to his NLU :eek: I have a feeling if he got a BLU we would have seen an update on OSNES by now. Anyway the GP32 scene would be a better place if we all had BLUs :p

168 Mhz huh? weird, I always thought of it as a 166 Mhz only unit, give me $10.00 more :p

The pixels being more apparent is because the display contrast is much nicer. The res is the same with all of these as you know. The other models don't have the contrast to show the detail as sharp as the BLU. The Atari ST always had that sharp high contrast monitor (better than the Amiga monitor even I admit). The BLU kind of looks like that while running CaSTaway, real deep colors.

You might want to get some Rayovac IC3 15 minute rechargeables, they last longer than alkalines and charge fast.

Anyway, Jeff how do you like the glass mod? you should notice that the frame still fits real well with it :)
 
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I had a nlu a few years back and had it stolen. I loved it and really missed it but was able to get ahold of a new flu(one of the last of lik-sangs stock) and have been loving it. The diffrence between a gp32 with a light and with out is HUGE. I am still blown away by the light and still finding new stuff to play with. Alot of stuff has come out in the last year and a half since I lost my nlu so with the light and new stuff it's like a totally diffrent system. Some day I might get a blu when people move to the psp, ds or whatever else and get bored and I can find one for cheap. At that point it's one more step up in gp32 that I can look forward to but for now the flu is working out just fine for me.
 
Congrats on your blu Jeff. I've never used a flu or nlu and have a blu+, and love the thing. Though I'm sure I'd have been happy with a flu.
The white bar issue with blu+ is fixed in every format I've tried (18 so far), and the scanline issue was way overplayed. I probably notice a moved scanline once in every 10 sessions, and only then because I'm looking.
Seriously I don't know why people keep on about the blu+. I guess they've never tried one. The more people that want a blu+ the better (and I think we can thank Craig's excellent ads in Retro Gamer Magazine for a lot of the interest shown). More people means more enthusiasm and a healthier community.
 
I have a Flu version of the gp32 and very happy with it, but i must admit I am thinking of getting a Blu or Blu + and I am want to find one on ebay.co.uk but I am also thinking of getting from gbax.com but 150 inc vat is puting me off ant the moment can anyone tell me if that`s a good price?. Also do the blu or blu+ work with all emulators,apps e.t.c. and how much is my flu worth boxed as new with manual and cable and manual and 128 card and cd I intrested to know so i can get a new blu from gbax or ebay
Ian
 
I think BLU+'s have been given a hard time. I remember just before purchasing mine (really exited) I read "all" the acticles about the scanline issue and white bar which nearly put me off from purchasing. Also at the time, I didn't really understand the difference between a BLU and BLU+ and as I was going to purchase from GBAX I thought they were all BLU's (the old screens). Anyway, I'm totally happy with mine and like alyinsanfran said, most of the problems with the white bar are now fixed. I've tried quite a few emulator's now and I've only noticed a problem with OpenSnes9xGP 0.2. The scanline issue really isn't a problem but I guess it's not a problem untill you can actually see it (on the GP32).

:)
 
I did the same as you but I kept my FLU as it gets to 254mhz / 256mhz :D

Yup the BLU is Amazing :)
 
The blu+ screen is even better than the normal blu one too, its much more accurate brightness wise.

-Craig

www.gbax.com
 
Indeed; so maybe BLU+ is actually better than BLU, aside form the update necessities.

With fresh bateries into this BLU I got up to 172MHz in DrMD for a good 60s, then changed to 176MHz and it reset after about 10s; so looks like 172 is my max. Not bad at all :)

jeff
 
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