If You Were Going To Design A Super-gp2x


sparr

Member
Joined
Jun 3, 2006
Messages
292
I used to have a PDA as my portable media/gaming machine. I ditched it in favor of the GP2X. The improvements were great, but I miss some things I left behind. If I could design a "perfect" handheld gaming machine, it would be based on the GP2X, but I would add in just a few of the things that I lost.

Touch Screen. I don't know what it would cost to use a touchscreen lcd instead of what we have now, but it can't be too much considering there are <$150 PDAs with touch screens. If it cost less than $40 to add then I would be willing to pay for it, it opens up SO many opportunities. Playing RTS games with a joypad cursor is a pain, ditto for navigating almost any sort of unorganized gui (read: web sites).

CF Slot. Would cost under $10 to add. Controller chip is dirt cheap, additional hardware fabrication isnt expensive. It could fit above the battery bay, making the bulge on the back of the unit cover the full height, but not increasing the total dimensions of the unit at all. CF storage is cheaper than SD, and you can get a wide range of non-storage devices in a CF card form factor (wifi, gps, camera, etc).

USB Host without the BoB. Cost is negligible since we know we already have USB Host via EXT. With just one host port we could hook up a keyboard+mouse, or a gamepad for some 2-player action.

Bluetooth. Chipset costs under $10. Would allow us to use mice and keyboards without a BoB. Could also allow sync and transfer with phones and such.

IR. $10 for the chipset and hardware. An IRDA port would allow the system to be controlled by remote when it is being used as a TV-out media player, and would allow the unit itself to be used as a universal remote.

Total increase in cost, assuming $40 for the LCD change, is going to be around $65. Would you pay $245 instead of $180 to get a "GP3X" with those features?

I am hoping to spur some serious debate here. Some of these ideas can be implemented by the really good hardware modders. But what would be nice is to provide GPH (or maybe even GP) with ideas for their next console. Who knows, we might see it in a year or two.
 
It all sounds pretty good, but you gotta keep in mind that it's not just about the extra hardware. Including all these extra stuff and making it work together would require a major upgrade to the operating system. Not to mention the increase in battery consumption it would cause. I'm not saying it's impossible, it's just not that easy.
 
The GP2X has an advantage of being inexpensive. You could go nuts with all kinds of bells and whistles and end up with a price of $250-$300. In that case I don't think it would be too popular. At higher prices the ones "on the fence" will just stick to their DS or PSP etc. Now it is almost at the "ahh what the fuck" price point. IE "Hmm those look kind of interesting, ahh what the fuck, I will buy one they aren't that expensive"

All I would do is make a revision to the current model with only a few changes.

Ditch that bloody stick and add d-pad.
Give the second CPU core it's own work RAM (about 8 MB) to make it more useful.
Make it so every unit can clock to 300 MHZ min.
 
Sparr posted on Jul 9 2006 at 07:07 PM said:
Touch Screen. I don't know what it would cost to use a touchscreen lcd instead of what we have now, but it can't be too much considering there are <$150 PDAs with touch screens. If it cost less than $40 to add then I would be willing to pay for it, it opens up SO many opportunities. Playing RTS games with a joypad cursor is a pain, ditto for navigating almost any sort of unorganized gui (read: web sites).

Well, if you've got an MK1, just rip out the screen and replace it with a TopSun TS35ND5B01 LCD.
Fully compatible, but with built-in touchscreen.
The wires are technically connected to the MMSP2, so all you need is a driver.
 
Last edited:
EvilDragon posted on Jul 9 2006 at 10:43 AM said:
Sparr posted on Jul 9 2006 at 07:07 PM said:
Touch Screen. I don't know what it would cost to use a touchscreen lcd instead of what we have now, but it can't be too much considering there are <$150 PDAs with touch screens. If it cost less than $40 to add then I would be willing to pay for it, it opens up SO many opportunities. Playing RTS games with a joypad cursor is a pain, ditto for navigating almost any sort of unorganized gui (read: web sites).

Well, if you've got an MK1, just rip out the screen and replace it with a TopSun TS35ND5B01 LCD.
Fully compatible, but with built-in touchscreen.
The wires are technically connected to the MMSP2, so all you need is a driver.

How come you can only do this with a MKI?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
DaveC posted on Jul 9 2006 at 06:31 PM said:
The GP2X has an advantage of being inexpensive. You could go nuts with all kinds of bells and whistles and end up with a price of $250-$300. In that case I don't think it would be too popular.

All I would do is make a revision to the current model with only a few changes.

Ditch the stick and add d-pad.
Give the second CPU core it's own work RAM (about 8 MB) to make it more useful.
Make it so every unit can clock to 300 MHZ min.

I agree, those'd be my changes too. Unless it was easier to just dump the second CPU and make the main CPU 200Mhz more powerful.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Leaving aside the speed increase, something as simple as overall better build quality would be a more important matter :), I haven't had any problems myself, but many people seem to have had a wide range of bad experiences... So, build quality first, upgrades later.


And even so, I love this little beast, a little more CPU power would be nice, that and some form of cache, and there is not much else needed. B)
 
g4m3r posted on Jul 9 2006 at 05:50 PM said:
EvilDragon posted on Jul 9 2006 at 10:43 AM said:
Sparr posted on Jul 9 2006 at 07:07 PM said:
Touch Screen. I don't know what it would cost to use a touchscreen lcd instead of what we have now, but it can't be too much considering there are <$150 PDAs with touch screens. If it cost less than $40 to add then I would be willing to pay for it, it opens up SO many opportunities. Playing RTS games with a joypad cursor is a pain, ditto for navigating almost any sort of unorganized gui (read: web sites).

Well, if you've got an MK1, just rip out the screen and replace it with a TopSun TS35ND5B01 LCD.
Fully compatible, but with built-in touchscreen.
The wires are technically connected to the MMSP2, so all you need is a driver.

How come you can only do this with a MKI?

They use a different screen in the MKII and the connections should be different.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
öh... sounds awesome, how expensive are those screens?
i would do this to my gp2x, but we need a magiceyes driver for this right?


what i would add:
touchscreen (may become possible ;) )
faster CPU (300mhz or more)
wifi
 
My ideal gp2x would have:

1.Powered USB host ports
2.Built in mini-keyboard
3.Speaker Upgrade
4.Built in WiFi

Im currently working on one using a DS shell

I just hope it works out my gp2x all naked like is scary :(
 
OmarNawaz posted on Jul 9 2006 at 02:51 PM said:
My ideal gp2x would have:

1.Powered USB host ports
2.Built in mini-keyboard
3.Speaker Upgrade
4.Built in WiFi

Im currently working on one using a DS shell

I just hope it works out my gp2x all naked like is scary :(
Ouch, that seems like it will drain your batteries even worse than now. How do you plan to power it all?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
What I would like to change in GP2x?

Well... I'd like to have 4 microswiches based stick/dpad instead of current one.
All buttons could be also microswitch based but it's only my personal preference. (sidebuttons are using microswitches in GP2x already)

I'd likie to have MKI screen but without any interlacing/scanlines.

The EXT port should be at GP2x's back and SD socket could be at front.
I could use second SD socket too.

Volume control should be implemented using a dial and variable resistors. It'd be nice to have such dial for backlight brightness as well.

128MB of memory, VGA output, audio input are next things on my list. Built in ethernet controller... and peripheral wise it'd be all. I will no go into processing power because there is never enought of it. ;)
 
Radek posted on Jul 9 2006 at 08:59 PM said:
What I would like to change in GP2x?

Well... I'd like to have 4 microswiches based stick/dpad instead of current one.
All buttons could be also microswitch based but it's only my personal preference. (sidebuttons are using microswitches in GP2x already)

I'd likie to have MKI screen but without any interlacing/scanlines.

The EXT port should be at GP2x's back and SD socket could be at front.
I could use second SD socket too.

Volume control should be implemented using a dial and variable resistors. It'd be nice to have such dial for backlight brightness as well.

128MB of memory, VGA output, audio input are next things on my list. Built in ethernet controller... and peripheral wise it'd be all. I will no go into processing power because there is never enought of it. ;)


I agree with that except microswitches. I really dislike those because of the wide contact band caused by the spring, plus the clicking drives me mad. You can not get a decent sweet spot for rapid firing in shooters with those.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
DaveC posted on Jul 9 2006 at 04:01 PM said:
Radek posted on Jul 9 2006 at 08:59 PM said:
What I would like to change in GP2x?

Well... I'd like to have 4 microswiches based stick/dpad instead of current one.
All buttons could be also microswitch based but it's only my personal preference. (sidebuttons are using microswitches in GP2x already)

I'd likie to have MKI screen but without any interlacing/scanlines.

The EXT port should be at GP2x's back and SD socket could be at front.
I could use second SD socket too.

Volume control should be implemented using a dial and variable resistors. It'd be nice to have such dial for backlight brightness as well.

128MB of memory, VGA output, audio input are next things on my list. Built in ethernet controller... and peripheral wise it'd be all. I will no go into processing power because there is never enought of it. ;)


I agree with that except microswitches. I really dislike those because of the wide contact band caused by the spring, plus the clicking drives me mad. You can not get a decent sweet spot for rapid firing in shooters with those.


I love the clicking.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I like all these suggestions, but if I had to pick my fav it would be wifi. The machine is brilliant, but I have no motivation to convince my friends to buy one cause it wouldn't help me at all. All these emu's and homebrew games are great... but they'd be even better if they were multiplayer.
 
I'm not sure what kind of discount GPH is getting by using lower speed binned chips, but if they bought pieces that test out at the official 266 MHz, that might lead to better overclocking results, or less crashing at similar speeds as before.
 
Back
Top