A Few Questions From Perspective Buyer

[tuxedup]

Hello everyone,

I am interested in buying a Gp2x, but I have a few questions.

I see on the gp2x.co.uk website that the units now ship with firmware 3.0 installed. I also read that upgrading firmware can be problematic and that people have killed there gp2x in doing so. In the future when a new version is released, if I upgraded the firmware to that version and followed the instructions completely what is the chance if killing the device?

Also, I have read a few threads and guides on the issue of a dead gp2x. These guides mention a bob and JTag, what are these? I understand what the cradle is, but these I do not know.

Is any recovery/restore software supplied with the gp2x to restore the deivce to factory shipped status, as if it was the first time it had ever been turned on? What types of problems would this solve?

I have seen uboot mentioned and somepeople have damaged there uboot bootloader. How likely is this to happen in day to day usage (assuming I never flash the device)?

How does the device fare as a portable media player? I wont be using the device for anything special, just playing the occasional video, listening to music on the bus and mainly playing games throgh the emulators and other ported games.

Thanks in advance

Michael

 

[DaveC]

Bad flashes while doing FW updates are very rare. They usually happen when someone tries to do it with weak batteries, corrupt archives, or dodgy SD cards. You should have no problem if you avoid those things.

 

[Cervante]

Hello Mike:

As far as I am concerned nothing is wrong with firmware 3.0 in respect to the machines performance. Some people here decided to downgrade since the skinmaker dosen't work very well in 3.0, the boot time is faster in 2.1.1 than 3.0 and finally in 3.0 you dont have access to the NAND area (The GP2X internal storage) from the gp2x menu. Everything else such as applications and games work the same.

If you get a dead GP2X send it back.

If you somehow kill your GP2X you can fix it by re-flashing the firmware using just your SD card with a new firmware in it. If you really messed up the GP2X to the point of bricked (Trust me rarerly happens) its either you were messing with the u-boot files (which normal users dont know how to get to ) .

The Bob is the developers version of the cradle

Before the Cradle or Bob people would make or Buy J-Tag cables, not needed if you buy a cradle.

To reset the GP2X to factory settings just reflash with firmware 2.0 , then to 2.1.0, then 2.1.1, then 3.0 ..Sounds alot but only takes 10min. This will resolve I guess fixing whatever that was not working to begin with.

Dont mess with the U-boot if you dont know what your doing, if you wanna develop ask in the developers section.

Media wise?:

Portable music player: Too big, clunky, whipping it out every 5 minutes to change track or do something else. Not good as portable music IMO. Cause of this the GP2X has fallen out my pocket several times taking in damage, my loss was a battery pin & a few scratches.

Portable Video Player: Good, ability to play Xvid is a plus. Change gamma & brightness on the fly a plus. If your battery goes dead, pop in a new ones & you continue video from where you left off. You can also change CPU performance on the fly to conserve battery while watching a movie.

Portable Emulation: The Best part of the gadget. No messing with firmware hacks, just use common sense in reading the read me file supplied with the emulator.

....................................
Important know how's from my 2X experience.

Get a strap, its very useful dosent have to be GP2X but get a good one.

The official GP2X case sucks balls, anything you stick in can cause the screen to get fucked.

NiHM 2500mAH Rechargeables , the higher the mAH the better. Avoid those quick 15minute chargers they suck balls, the longer the charger takes to charge the batterys the better.

TV Out Cable very handy.

The AC adapter is a must get, safest way to flash a new firmware without power going dead on you due to non charged battery.

Get a new USB data transfer cable, 80% of the ones shipped with the GP2X suck balls.

Get a SD card reader if your PC dosent have one, using the GP2X as a card reader also sucks balls.

Start with a 1GB or 2GB SD card that is not SDHC. Then buy the 4 or 8GB(soon to be supported by open 2X) keep a non SDHC one handy incase of firmware flashing.

 

[virusx]

Hello Mike:
The Bob is the developers version of the cradle

Come on, don't make fun of him!
Bob is the guy that comes with every known handled to carry it for the users:
Here is Bob in action:

And Bob has a mini girlfriend named bobette:



Joke appart I think Cervante answered all your questions, right?

 

[Orkie]

Some people here decided to downgrade since the skinmaker dosen't work very well in 3.0, the boot time is faster in 2.1.1 than 3.0 and finally in 3.0 you dont have access to the NAND area (The GP2X internal storage) from the gp2x menu.

And those people didn't understand how much damage a 3.0 downgrade can do even if you do the entire thing correctly.

 

[moxie]

Media wise?:

Portable music player: Too big, clunky, whipping it out every 5 minutes to change track or do something else. Not good as portable music IMO. Cause of this the GP2X has fallen out my pocket several times taking in damage, my loss was a battery pin & a few scratches.

Portable Video Player: Good, ability to play Xvid is a plus. Change gamma & brightness on the fly a plus. If your battery goes dead, pop in a new ones & you continue video from where you left off. You can also change CPU performance on the fly to conserve battery while watching a movie.

I found it to be quite good as a music player (I use GMU), as long as I spend a minute to arrange the playlist into something I like, then I just lock the buttons and let it play But no, it is a bit bigger than the tiny USB-stick-players.

You can change gamma/brightness on the fly in the video player?!? I must have missed this - That would have been very useful a week ago

Apart from that, I agree with all you said.

 

[coldfish]

Prospective, not perspective.
Sorry for being pedantic.

GP2X = if you like emulation and homebrew, get one, if you want a media player there are better products out there.

 

[tuxedup]

Well thanks for answering the questions, these cleared up things for me

I think I will buy one. I am interested in the emulation tools and also to play scummvm on the move, cant beat a bit of Flight Of The Amzon Queen

In terms of screwing things up, I doubt I will be doing any close to risky. Just general usage, so I am unlikely to cuase any damage. I will probobly nver even upgrade the firmware, I certaintly wont be downgrading given some of the problems people have encountered.

On the subject of emulation. I see rom the file archives for the gp2x that a number of emulators exist for the snes and megadrive etc. I wont ask about obtaining roms as I already know some places and such questions are more than likely against the forum rules.

However, which of the emaultors have you found to work 'out of the box' without the need to obtain firmware to make them work. I have had problems my self with some emulators on my Linux machine e.g. neogeo pocket emulators wanting firmware etc.

What problems have people ran into with the emaulators for the gp2x? Is firmware needed for most of the emulators? The only one I know that definitly needs firmware is the playstaion emultor.

Thanks again for the help provided, its appreciated

Michael

 

[techFreak]

And those people didn't understand how much damage a 3.0 downgrade can do even if you do the entire thing correctly.

What's the problem about it? :blink:

 

[Null]

What problems have people ran into with the emaulators for the gp2x? Is firmware needed for most of the emulators? The only one I know that definitly needs firmware is the playstaion emultor.

Thanks again for the help provided, its appreciated

Michael

The GBA, Neo Geo, MAME (only for certain games) and Amiga emulators also need bios roms to work, i'm not sure whether the CPS2 emulator does though.

Also the SNES emulators don't run games that use the SA-1 chip or S-DD1 chip.

EDIT: or the Cx4 chip seeing as Megaman X2 and X3 don't run.

 

[Orkie]

What's the problem about it? :blink:

I've explained the reasons many times in other threads, but in the end you end up with a bricked GP2X that you can't flash even with JTAG (well, not strictly true, but close enough) - and this isn't an uncommon occurrence.

 

[Cervante]

In the event of your GP2X going to the shits, you can always talk to either craig or evildragon. Craig is the distributor for UK and EvilDragon for Germany . For a fee they can get the little unit up and running again , plus their active members here. So its not like your talking to customer support, get a referance number, lose the number, call again, talking to someone else.

 

[tuxedup]

I also forgot to ask, is payback any good? I watched the video and its looks rather good. Strikes me as the classic gta, but 3d. Is it worth buying? What about that fancy asteroids game? Are there any other commercial games worth buying? I know its a home brew device, but I saw in the files section that there are a few commercial game demos available.

Thanks again for the replies, I will almost certaintly be buying one

Michael

 

[Cervante]

Vektar:

Im not a fan of asteroids but the crazy bizzare colors are crazy looking good, the sound track on this game is catchy

Payback:

A++++++ game, all in game text has voice dialougue, you can even listen to your own mp3 songs stored in NAND while playing the game.


Coming soon wind & water:

Addictive puzzle game, for a limited time only if you pre-order the game the developer will accept a photo of you to be made as a playable character. The distributed amongs the commercial games. Good way to introduce yourself to 2X owners aroudn the world
-----------------------------------------------
Games that are unlikely to make out of korea

Odonata, Elsewhere & Replay 4.

----------------------------------------------
Commercial games I dunno what they are :/

Retrovirus and erthday.

 

[argor]

-----------------------------------------------
Games that are unlikely to make out of korea

Elsewhere

you need to learn some Korean h34r: at gp2x.co.kr stands Supporting language for Elsewhere: The Korean language and English

 

[DanSolo]

NiHM 2500mAH Rechargeables , the higher the mAH the better. Avoid those quick 15minute chargers they suck balls, the longer the charger takes to charge the batterys the better.

I never noticed any difference when I got a new charger myself. I'm sure there's some electronic engineer can explain why it makes no difference how long it takes to charge.

TV Out Cable very handy.

I got one. Pile of shite. Buy loads more cables to get it to actually connect, then the picture is rubbish anyway.

 

[tuxedup]

Well based on the comments I have gone ahead and bought a gp2x.

Just one last question, where can I buy a mains adapter so I can run the gp2x via the power socket rather than batteries? I can only find US stores selling the adapters.

Can I use just a normal ac adapter, assuming it is the correct voltage? Can I go into maplin or somewhere and buy one and use that safely with the gp2x?

Thanks

Michael.

 

[Ripster]

Well based on the comments I have gone ahead and bought a gp2x.

Just one last question, where can I buy a mains adapter so I can run the gp2x via the power socket rather than batteries? I can only find US stores selling the adapters.

Can I use just a normal ac adapter, assuming it is the correct voltage? Can I go into maplin or somewhere and buy one and use that safely with the gp2x?

Thanks

Michael.

I am not sure what you mean... I bought mine in Canada and it came with a converter to to change it from a European standard to North American outlet type.

 

[tuxedup]

I mean where can I buy a UK adapter for the device?

Because the content listings I have found only list the gp2x comes with batteries, no ac adapter and you are supposed to use an ac adapter to reduce the risk of problems when updating the firmware incase of the batteries cutting out.

I was just wondering where I cna buy one. The amaerican gp2x stockists have the gp2x ac adapters, but they come with US plugs. So can I go to any normal electirical store and buy an ac adapter to use?

 

[Zeladin]

Argos sells Adapters suitable for the Gp2x;

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/9829701.htm

or

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/9828915.htm

Hope you get on well with this little device..

Edit; for more info on the psu, like polarisation, very important - center negative...
http://wiki.gp2x.org/wiki/External_power_supply