A Few Initial Findings About The Gp2x F-200

[kingbuzzo]

ya, this dpad seems horrible for anything beyond menu browsing. Unless there's a really good (and simple) mod for this, I don't think I'm going to bother picking one of these up.

 

[Alex.]

There were lots of people in the other thread (the 7 page one) that said they could pull off some pretty expert moves thanks to the dpad. I suppose everything works and feels different for everybody, but slagging something off without any first-hand experience isn't very fair.

 

[kingbuzzo]

There were lots of people in the other thread (the 7 page one) that said they could pull off some pretty expert moves thanks to the dpad. I suppose everything works and feels different for everybody, but slagging something off without any first-hand experience isn't very fair.

ya I read that someone was able to pull off a couple QCF and DP moves. If that's what you mean, it doesn't really convince me otherwise. I'm sure I could pull off those moves, but the question is how fluid the motion is, and if it can be done on the first try without having to grind over the case between the buttons over and over. That's a one way ticket to blisterville.

I've used many dpads and variants over the years. The Wonderswan uses the exact same mechanism to replicate a dpad, and is very poor. I don't see how this is any different. Without a once piece pad on top of a centre pivot, it's just a far cry from anything half decent. Obviously not everyone is as picky as i might be and will not find much to complain about... until they spend a few days playing metal slug with a saturn pad

from the looks of it, this thing would need a mod similar to the ngage one since there's no pivot to glue anything on top of like on the psp.

 

[quietbloke]

Mine just arrived today and here's my thoughts so far

1. When I got the machine I inserted my SD card from my MK1 GP2X and when I tried to playback some of the podcasts I listen to they play back at what seems to be half speed !?... they play fine on the old machine. My music files play fine as well.. pity most of the time I use it for listening to podcasts.

2, I like the new pad.. better than the old joystick where I just got fed up with some games because I would couldnt get diagonals easily or I would get a diagonal when I dont want it !

3. its loud.. VERY loud !... I played a couple of games which start off at full volume and it kept scaring the cat sitting next to me.. Also I cant remember what games I was playing but it seemed dropping volume it was still load even at the lowest setting... it basically went from silent to loud up through to very loud.

4. The pen is useless.. its a nice enough pen I guess but you dont have anywhere to put it.. it comes with a string so you can loop it onto the bottom left of the console.. but then you have a pen hanging there swinging around and its annoying.. you have to unscrew the pen if you want to use it so its not like you can just whip it out to use it... I think the pen is going back into the box never to see the light of day again.

5. I seem to have a dead pixel.. just the one blue dot near the top of the screen... and its annoying me already !... my PSP has one too.. at around the same screen position.. same colour... what are the chances of that !?.. I should play the lottery !

6. The rubber cover at the bottom of the machine is a bit of a bad fit and doesnt go in all the way so when you brush past it with your hand it comes off. also annoying.

Overall.. I think it will be better than my Mk1 but not unless/until the music playback is fixed.. and of course all the emulators can be made to work on it. Still... SquideSnes works fine and Super Smash tv is finally playable

Oh yeah.. On another note.. I bought a cradle while I was at it... what is the technique to put the machine in the cradle ?.. I had a quick go at putting it in and I spent ages in a battle of wits with the rubber cover pushing it aside at all sort of angles but it kept springing back over the connector as I slid the machine into the cradle.. Im thinking of just cutting the cover off !

 

[kfuse]

Hmm I agree with both of you but fluid motion doesn't happen with this d-pad...yea you should be able to pull off specials and simplistic combos ones that are about 1-5 hits you know your standing jump in a,a,qcf+a things like that...but in some cases certain things can't be done 1st time go on this d-pad. whew man my fingers are blistered up using terry and andy in kof...guess my timing was bad on that d-pad. granted dp motion and qcf are easy said and done.

actually I need to get these youtubed...hopefully I get my camera back next week.

 

[seubz]

It's my first GP2X and I'm happy with the system, but I agree that the DPAD is not very easy to use. It hurts, and while I found easy to do special moves on Street Fighter games, I find it REALLY hard to do it on this DPAD. Also, I find it difficult to hold the console properly, but it might be because of my big hands

 

[procyon]

I am steadily getting better at performing dragon punch moves (again, only really on SquidgeSNES and Super Street Fighter II). I find that I have to try to keep my thumb closer to the middle, delay the button press by a fraction of a second (which is hard to do when you have think about it), and really sort of exaggerate the move. I think most people use two parts of their thumb, the softer tip at the end, and close to the bottom of the first thumb knuckle. When I try to execute F -> D -> DF, I'm finding that the soft tip of my thumb isn't really leaving F when I use the lower part of my thumb to press D, so it's registering as F -> DF -> DF. So to exaggerate, I have to lift my thumb off of F as I'm beginning to press D so that it registers the D by itself before pressing F again. I think it's just going to take some practice. Bottom line: I really wanna use the GP2X for RPGs anyway, so it does't bother me too much. I just hope Reesy updates DrMD for us so I can continue my progress in Phantasy Star II ^_^

 

[narmak]

I've been playing non-stop on this d-pad and i like it more than most d-pads I encounter on hand held devices, and for this reason: the buttons are big, and close together. I can feel perfectly when I'm hitting one of the other four directions, because I can easily smash my finger over both. I don't see it as a down side. Maybe you guys are just too used to your native pads, whatever they may be, but I really have no problem with this pad. Cheers.

 

[Nova]

Oh yeah.. On another note.. I bought a cradle while I was at it... what is the technique to put the machine in the cradle ?.. I had a quick go at putting it in and I spent ages in a battle of wits with the rubber cover pushing it aside at all sort of angles but it kept springing back over the connector as I slid the machine into the cradle.. Im thinking of just cutting the cover off !

Unscrew the back of the gp2x and take the back plate off. Then you may remove the cover without having to cut it off, and screw the backplate back on again. Replace when neccesary.

Also, the blue pixel is just a stuck one, like a dead pixel, but less drastic, because it's just stuck on one colour. It is possible to unstick it, by finding a video on the internet which is basically every colour flashing really fast, which you will need to leave on overnight or so.

Google for PSP Stuck Pixel Video. There should be something for that. Good luck.

 

[imhotep]

Is it true that the button presses are noisy? Noisy enough to wake up the wife at night?

One thing I like about the F100 is that the stick and buttons are so quiet to use.

 

[EvilDragon]

Is it true that the button presses are noisy? Noisy enough to wake up the wife at night?

One thing I like about the F100 is that the stick and buttons are so quiet to use.

Only is breathing also wakes up your wife...
They're exactly the same as for the F100... sooo...

 

[Magic Sam]

Hi,

Updated impressions about the d-pad :

Some games seem to take advantage of the d-pad, while some others don't...On the one hand I think that Mario Kart for example is better with the d-pad than it was with the joystick, on the other hand Flashback was better with the joystick, as it is very hard to hit diagonals now when you have to perform a jump...

I also slightly changed my mind about fighting games : it's hard to play them, but not impossible. I think It's all about timing and practice...

Bye !

Magic Sam

 

[Orkie]

I spotted that the net2272 chip (responsible for USB client in the GP2X) is missing in the F200 and in its place a GL827 chip has appeared. ParkyDR has managed to track this down and it's not good news if we're right. It seems to be a chip designed for use in a USB card reader, so has no USB client capabilities beyond that. On the plus side, the GP2X USB SD reading should be pretty damn good now, but USB networking (or any other gadget drivers) is probably impossible.

http://www.genesyslogic.com/_en/product_01_1.php?id=26

 

[DJWillis]

I spotted that the net2272 chip (responsible for USB client in the GP2X) is missing in the F200 and in its place a GL827 chip has appeared. ParkyDR has managed to track this down and it's not good news if we're right. It seems to be a chip designed for use in a USB card reader, so has no USB client capabilities beyond that. On the plus side, the GP2X USB SD reading should be pretty damn good now, but USB networking (or any other gadget drivers) is probably impossible.

http://www.genesyslogic.com/_en/product_01_1.php?id=26



Stunning, there we go, so now the GP2X terminal is reduced to the realm of STERM and people with serial leads only, nice one GPH.

I guess it just would not be one of there products if there was not at least one major WTF! feature . I was going to pick up an F200 for sorting out SVM touchscreen but frankly I don’t think I can be arsed to spend the money if I can’t just drop it into all my existing dev setup (telnet, FTP, SMB etc.) let alone use all the NetChip tools I have built up over the years.

This is also going to give us some fun with Open2x should we choose to try and support the F200 (dual coding of menus, hiding features if an F200 is found etc ). We could really have done without that.

Oh well, just need to wait for that JXD301 to show up so I can get familiar with the BlackFin CPU prior to getting more stuck into up and coming things.

 

[imhotep]

On the one hand I think that Mario Kart for example is better with the d-pad than it was with the joystick, on the other hand Flashback was better with the joystick, as it is very hard to hit diagonals now when you have to perform a jump...

I also slightly changed my mind about fighting games : it's hard to play them, but not impossible. I think It's all about timing and practice...

It seems the jury is still out as to whether the new controller is actually better for most games. I guess it would definitely be better if you are not using diagonals at all.

I spotted that the net2272 chip (responsible for USB client in the GP2X) is missing in the F200 and in its place a GL827 chip has appeared.

This will make a lot of devs blood run cold... a sad day if the ramifications are as serious as it appears.

 

[kfuse]

I don't believe it...so now this thing is a joke for any attempt at USB networking...man this is so backwards...give us card reading abilities but no USB networking...

final verdict thumbs down

d-pad great.
8gig sdhc from kingston yea it works...

so open2x isn't going to go any further is it?

 

[Exophase]

I spotted that the net2272 chip (responsible for USB client in the GP2X) is missing in the F200 and in its place a GL827 chip has appeared. ParkyDR has managed to track this down and it's not good news if we're right. It seems to be a chip designed for use in a USB card reader, so has no USB client capabilities beyond that. On the plus side, the GP2X USB SD reading should be pretty damn good now, but USB networking (or any other gadget drivers) is probably impossible.

http://www.genesyslogic.com/_en/product_01_1.php?id=26



If this doesn't prove that GPH doesn't have any idea how people are using the platform then I don't know what does. There's no way I'd dev on a GP2X without USB telnet vs. one that has it. The less people that dev for it for reasons such as this, the less apps that'll actually support touchscreen. Although I'm sure that for the majority of people who are just interested in playing existing software with the new d-pad so maybe that's not a problem.

 

[imhotep]

8gig sdhc from kingston yea it works...

At least this is good news.

 

[rokdcasbah]

that's pretty terrible news. at least there's plenty of mk1s and 2s in the wild. maybe there should be a sticky in the dev corner, that f100 is better dev platform. but that also means the f200 is far less valuable in that respect.

you know, i wish i had waited a few more days to order. i'll get plenty of enjoyment out of my f200, that's not the issue. the issue is that none of us should be rewarding stupidity by throwing money at it.

unless firmware 4.0 has sdio support...somehow i doubt that though.

 

[housemonkey]

Has everyone who has responded on the D-pad actually played with the system? Because a couple of the post read like impression that were less than hands on.