50,000 Sales Mark For 06, What About 07?

[Yono]

Actually, GPH would probably have to start planning an MMSP2+ update now to even have a chance of having it out by Q2 08.

*d-pad
*same screen
*fully backwards compatible

 

[DaveC]

And the PSP and DS don't even do it right, PSP is widescreen, DS has too little resolution and memory for anything useful, plus neither is homebrew/retrogaming as you buy them.

I know 3D itches your whiskers, but 3D is a fact of life, I mean 3D games have been around since the original Atari, Descent 1 and 2 are open source now, I would love to see D2X on a handheld.

Plus the acceleration will help everything, all the stuff it does 10x faster than the CPU frees the CPU for better things. 2D and 3D aren't seperate, they are both just trying to get more pixels and textures onto the screen.

3D is fine but after awhile when EVERYTHING else does it is kind of not a big deal to have. It seems there is still alot of whining for it for some reason though even there are so many other choices. When is enough enough? PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, DS,PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, PS1, PSP, N64, PC, all 3D. If I am going to play 3D I would play a console and a big screen. The idea of 3D is immersiveness and it is hard to get "immersed" with a 3.5"-4" screen. Some 3D GPUs make crappy 2D emu systems, Giz comes to mind. To have 3D would mean a different CPU type which will mean throw every emulator you have now away and start over, wait a year for stuff to show up again ugh. The source is not available for everything either. It would be nice to have something drag and drop backward compatible for once.

I don't know why all these threads seem to end up wishing for new hardware all of the time

I can see it now. The GP3X comes out, the next day we get a thread "what do you want in the GP4X?" :rolleyes:

It seems we have the attention span of a gnat around here. Hmmm nice, NEXT!

 

[Blah]

Not that I care but there's a few things wrong with what you said...

3D doesn't necessarily mean a different cpu architecture, pretty much all that's out there is ARM (the only thing besides ARM I've seen used in handhelds in a long time is the chip in the PSP).

If the architecture is the same (which it would be) and they continue to use linux (GPH enjoy a free lunch as much as anyone), the binaries will be compatible.

And even if a different architecture is used, we have the sourcecode for almost everything so it would be a matter of recompilation and perhaps reoptimization.

 

[DemonStar55]

we need to reach as much of the potential possible for the GP2x before the GP3x, and I really don't feel like paying for a new one so soon, we need our moneys worth (not like it wasn't worth it, just prefer the most bang for the buck kind of thing)

 

[Mudi]

the binaries will be compatible

Except for all the statically linked binaries that use hardware-SDL, or the blitter, or other hardware registers that probably have moved around a bit... which narrows you down to pretty much nothing.

 

[Blah]

Eh...forgot about that. In the future though I think we'll see less static linking.

It would still be okay, PocketSNES, MAME, and PicoDrive are open source.

 

[telegramguy]

The idea of 3D is immersiveness and it is hard to get "immersed" with a 3.5"-4" screen.

I'm glad someone finally said it!

 

[DaveC]

Eh...forgot about that. In the future though I think we'll see less static linking.

It would still be okay, PocketSNES, MAME, and PicoDrive are open source.

Many aren't open though. How about Lynx, Atari 800, etc. While not as popular we would lose those and more. I know some wouldn't care but many would. It would be nice if everything was as good as it could be before moving on again. In order for that to happen we need the GP2X to take us a couple of years yet before it is dropped for some other shiny piece of plastic.

 

[DynaMight]

Problem I see is that there isnt emulators for any consoles newer than the N64 and if for some reason a PS2/Xbox does get emulated, it's not gonna run on any handhelds for meny years to come!, so a new GP2X will only realistically allow a few more consoles be emulated, anything 2D is (or atleast probably will be) more or less 100% ish full speed. Although ironing out the little niggles that everyone mentions sounds good but that doesnt really require a whole new handheld, just a revision which hopefully remains compatible with all software.

Problem is if they release a revision with different hardware specs e.g. more ram, faster cpu it means that newer emulators maybe programmed to run 100% on the faster model, which leaves the older users with slower emulators.

Smart money would be on a revision that fixes the niggles but main hardware remains the same aswell as remains 100% (ish) compatible with current software. This revision would sell new consoles aswell as sell ones to existing owners.

 

[Blah]

Don't worry, we may not be ready but GPH certainly aren't ready (the current firmware for example has code thats 4+ years outdated.)

 

[Sadistictoaster]

There's not much left for a GP3X to emulate , is there?

After N64 / PS1 / Saturn , games start getting very big. One of the - many - joys of the GPX2 is that you don;t have to mess about carrying loads of games with you : it all fits onto a single SD card. Plus while downloading Megadrive roms might be considered a bit of a grey area : PS2 games, even a year from now , can be nothing less then outright piracy.

What would be good would be a GPX2 mark 3 , which runs off four batteries , and can be clocked to excitingly high levels. Built-in Wi-fi , with the ablity to easily get it working with emulators would also be stunningly cool : but I realise I'm now in some sort of dreamland , and so will leave it there.

Just wondering : any one know - approximately - how many GPX2's have been sold? Are GPH likely to make enought out of this for a new version?

 

[mdinire]

hopefully by the time there is a "GP3X" there will also be 32gb SDHC cards

 

[mth411]

Why does everyone say we have no 3D support?

We do have gpu940, and for being such alpha code it works awesome, just using the second core.

Why don't people port a couple of games to it, or work on improving it, then we would have better 3d support, and it would be openGL.

I would love to see GPH or Craig toss a couple of $$$ at the developer, so we could see more 3D.

 

[Vimacs]

maybe its cause most people dont care about 3d at all?

 

[Blah]

Hows money gonna help, unless its enough to retire from?

 

[goob]

Why don't people port a couple of games to it, or work on improving it, then we would have better 3d support, and it would be openGL.

Maybe because it's a lot of work to port them, and there is not a huge number of developers out there porting for the gp2x?

 

[DaveC]

maybe its cause most people dont care about 3d at all?

Actually I care about 3D, and am not really against it. I like some 3D games, just not on a small handheld screen.

It is kind of hard to get into a FPS, 3D RPG etc when it is running on a 3.5" or 4.3" screen. You would be shooting at things the size of a grain of rice. If I want the immersive experience that 3D brings I will just play the 360 or PS3 on a big screen with good loud sound.

2D games on the other hand such as SNES, NeoGeo etc tend to look like crap on the big screen due to the lower resolutions. That is why I don't bother with emus on the PC. On the smaller sharp handheld screen they actually look very good.

I think it is just that some things just work better on certain formats. 2D retro tends to look better on handhelds, 3D looks better on consoles/PCs.

That is why I am not like "OMG I can't wait for the next handheld system and I want it to do 1 bazillion polygons per second with the latest greatest l337 openGL polygon effects ev4r"

Oh and those wishing for Saturn, Dreamcast, PS2, emulation on the next handheld, dream on, those don't run that good on a high spec PC even

I would love to see GPH or Craig toss a couple of $$$ at the developer, so we could see more 3D.

Really if you want 3D so bad on a handheld just toss a couple of $$$ at the PSP or DS. Those are cracked wide open for homebrew. But where is all of the 3D homebrew that is supposed to pop up on a 3D system? Where are all of those 3D homebrew games for the PSP? Why is it that all that comes out for those homebrew wise are emus? Probably means 3D HB is not that easy or popular to do. So this 3D GP3X that everyone is pining for would likely end up the same.

 

[kevcal]

Exactly- I think homebrew 3d is difficult for people to get into; knocking out 2d homebrew games is (imho) a much easier experience.
I guess there are very few (any?) decent 3d homebrew games for the PSP - of course I'm sure someone will come up with a list
The only 3d emulator I would like/expect to see (for the gp2x) would be the PS1 (but then let's not get into that old discussion).

The gpu940 opengl implementation would surely appear the best current option for simple 3d gp2x games.

 

[PokeParadox]

When you deal with 3D you have to deal with matrices, and the 3rd dimension adds the challenges with respect to getting nice fast collision algorithms and to keep things moving swiftly (especially on a limited (in comparison to a pc) handheld console) you need to make sure to cull as much as possible. There is a lot to think about.

 

[craigix]

It's pretty hard to tell what the sales will be like this year, I do know that if the Value Pack with 3.0 had been the original GP2X package it would have sold a lot more by now.

But anyway, I think it sold around 4xk in 2006 (according to gph), I guess another 40k - 50k is possible this year, the sales are not slowing down which is a good sign.

Infact everytime something cool is released the sales go up, we are also hoping to get the downloads system up and running this month so there is plenty more to come (i have some rather tasty emu betas which you will love very soon).