A Series Of Questions Before I Spend All My Money On A Gp2x.

[Nebetsu]

I want to buy a GP2X, but don't know if I should. I'd like to ask the community a series of questions before making any rash spending sprees (Since I would most likely get the 4GB sd card among some other accessories).

First (Most importantly): How's the battery life? The review says 5 hours, but how does it handle battery power under the following conditions:

1. Playing MP3's with the screen off/screensaver (assuming it has a feature for turning off the screen or having a screen saver).
2. Playing old games like NES, GBC, Genesis.
3. Playing some more advanced MAME games.
4. Playing movies.

As well I'm curious at how well the emulators are running at this moment.

How are Marvel VS Capcom and games from that era for MAME?
How is Metal Slug 3 for NeoGeo?
How are various more advanced games for SNES (ex: Star Ocean, Front Mission: Gun Hazard, Star Fox)?
Is the Genesis emulator as perfect as the review says it is?
How is the GBA emulator coming along?
How's DOSBox?
Is Quake 2 running at full speed yet?


I'm sorry for all the questions, but, as I understand it, things are really moving fast and what could be true before might be fixed now. Plus some people have found that certain emulators aren't as perfect as the reviews make you believe. If the GP2X is all that it seems to be, or even half of what it seems to be, I would love to get one. I just want to know what it can do before spending hours frustrating myself trying to get various things to work.

 

[TheFr00n]

Well, to start with, you need to be aware that the GP2x is a homebrew sort of device. It's not a PSP or a Nintendo DS - nothing is guaranteed to work. Updates break things. If you are looking for that seamless everything-is-perfect device, the GP2x is not for you. It is, IMHO, for people who like to tinker.

That said, I love mine so much I bought a second one when the first was nicked - the GP2x is highly geek-cool.

Most of your questions can be answered by searching this forum, or reading some of the pinned threads - I encourage you to do this.

Briefly, you can expect 6 hours from a good set of NiMH 2700 rechargables. Turning off the screen does make it last longer. Reesy's DrMD really is that good - make sure you donate to projects that you use a lot (it's polite). Mame and SNES games do work, but most benefit from overclocking to be truly playable.

 

[yuujin]

metal slug 3 runs fine.
gba emulation seems to have come to a halt.
quake II is not going to run at full speed, ever, but quake I is really playable on the gp2x.

 

[rmatheso]

DosBox = Slow. Plus lots of tinkering to get the controls right. Plan on playing Duke Nukem 1 and older games.

Marvel Vs Capcom = Nope. No CPS2 Emulator Yet.

MAME = O.K. Most advanced games are like Golden Axe, 1944X. Forget DoDonpachi at this stage.

Neo Geo = Absolutley rocks on this device. Plays all newer roms, which the PSP can't due to lack of ram. Plan to re-compiling/searching for some romsets that are finicky to get working. I have all the newer roms and they do work! (This basically sold the GP2X for me)

And Yes, you can turn off the screen while playing MP3's. You can also use the R-Shoulder button to skip/random to the next track.

Again this is a console for people who like fiddling around.

Genesis Emu is also awesome. Only a very few games don't work. Performance is dynamite.

 

[reiboul]

my turn now!
about battery life, it depends on your batteries! I use 2 sets of 1800mah batteries (they came with my charger) and 2 sets of 2700mah, and least that I can say is, I am satisfied with battery life. You can expect some hours of game with a set, and since AA batteries are not that big, it's just good, unless you have no AC adapter, or are a great traveller...
Don't expect a GBA/DS autonomy anyway


As for Neogeo, it is probably the most difficult part to emulate (i didn't try Dosbox) but without many efforts i managed to get Metal Slug 1, 2 & X working, as well as some King of FIghter episodes, and many shmups, using GnGeo and Mame (since Mame emulate NeoGeo arcade systems)

SNES Emu is not perfect, but Squidge is working on a new version. As for now, you have SquidgeSNES, which is pretty fast but without transparencies, ans NK's Snes2X which is slower, but with transparencies.
SquidgeSNES is rather well-playable with sound, and overclocking : FF6 is pretty slow, but Chrono Trigger is playable. I'm playing FF4, and will probably play FF5, as they seem to run nice. I think StarFox didn't launch for me, and you can expect the same for games that use on-cartridge chips
That said, most games runs fine

On the other hand, Genesis emulation is close to perfect! sound, speed, save states, 6 or 3 pads-buttons, built-in overclocking... some games might not work, but they are few! not much to say about DrMD

GBA Emu is not available at the moment, but GP2X has the potential to emulate GBA! But no one can tell how much you'll have to wait

Also forget about Quake 2 : too slow to be playable, and I don't know how the aiming can be handeld without a second stick...



Other games are running perfect, like Doom, Duke3D, Quake (runs fine with some overclocking) ScummVM is also a funny set of games
PSX emulation is not yet playable, but everyone is waiting for the new beta to be released in the next few days, introducing a totally new (for this emulator) way of emulating a playstation (Zodttd if you read this... lol)



As everyone said : if you prefer a 3D device where you buy your games, put the cartridge and plays, buy a PSP or DS or anything you can find by your local videogames shop...
GP2X is mainly emulation (many, many systems up to the PSX ), ports of classics games, and some homebrew games. That means, no decent 3D adventure/RPG/action/whatyouwant games unless PSX emulator becomes playable


I also like watching movies and manga in my bed lol but if you wan't a portable MP3 player errr... note that it is possible, but you might prefer a 'true' MP3 player

 

[___]

As you were asking about more advanced SNES games. They do not work at the moment. The advanced chipsets that star ocean and starfox use are not yet implemented but I am sure that at some point they will.

EDIT: Damn, Reiboul beat me to it.

 

[Lint]

I think that you're expecting too much from gp2x and most likely are going to have a big deception


1. Playing mp3s on gp2x is possible but it's no way made for such job, perhaps someone will develop an mp3 player in near future which outperform standard mp3/ogg player (have some better interface)

The positive side is that you can play mp3 on gp2x's loudspeakers, which is good when you want to show a bunch of pleople the last song you've downloaded or something like that
I also have a portable pendrive/mp3 player that a single AAA sized battery last almost the same time as 2 AA batteries on gp2x playing on loudpeakers, anyway, you can play mp3 for at least 6 hours with a couple of NiMH cells
And you can shut the screen off when in music player

2. Playing oldschool games works like a charm, batteries will last hours and fun will be as much as you can get (even more when playing on TV), if you try to play doom on gp2x you can kiss your charger goodbye

I've never played GBC or NES games in my gp2x, but master system works flawless, mega drive too, DrMD is that great, period.

3. Complex games calls for overclocking as most complex emulators are far from being finished, GP2X has potential to run snes fullspeed, but it'll take time to unleash all that potential. More complex games = less battery life, so don't complain if you get just 3 hours of gaming

4. Playing movies: I found it quite disappointing, it can play XVID and DIVX movies, but I had a lot of movies that required reencoding of either audio or video (perhaps even both?) streams

If most of your movies are divx/xvid with mp3 soundstream then you're free to go!

About the emulators, pleople already answered you about that, NeoGeo is great, Genesis is also the big thing, CPS2 probably will not ever be emulated and you're likely to get flamed by posting any question like that
DOSBox is way if you keep in mind that you have a 25mhz 386 system
Mame is not capable even of playing 'final fight' fullspeed (it's playable, not fullspeed)

 

[krosfyah]

I just want to know what it can do before spending hours frustrating myself trying to get various things to work.

This is exactly the reason I got a GP2x, and I'm willing to bet most people here that own one are the kind that love to tinker with things to get them to work.

 

[Loon]

I just want to know what it can do before spending hours frustrating myself trying to get various things to work.

This is exactly the reason I got a GP2x, and I'm willing to bet most people here that own one are the kind that love to tinker with things to get them to work.

Oh my god the geeks have been rumbled

There are a few GP2X torrents that provide an easy way to set up a system.

Simply unzip the downloaded file and copy to an SD card, you've got instantly configured emulators complete with roms & pre installed apps. Very nice.

Would include a link to the torrent site but I'm not sure that would be polite.

 

[craigix]

CPS2 probably will not ever be emulated and you're likely to get flamed by posting any question like that

Oh really? What makes you think that?

 

[Shikaku]

CPS2 probably will not ever be emulated and you're likely to get flamed by posting any question like that

Oh really? What makes you think that?

It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of WHO WANTS TO CODE ALL THE ASSEMBLY

 

[telegramguy]

I want to buy a GP2X, but don't know if I should. I'd like to ask the community a series of questions before
...
As well I'm curious at how well the emulators are running at this moment.

Here is a crap full of videos of emulators running on the GP2X. Judge for yourself how well they run. ...and yes, the NeoGeo emulator runs fast and the Genesis / Megadrive emulator is as awesome as everyone writes.

http://youtube.com/group/gp2x

 

[Nebetsu]

The PSX and CPS2 emulators aren't THAT important to me, even though I think it would be cool to play Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night. Metal Slug 3 makes me interested. I like tinkering. I was just wanting to know what works and what doesn't, so I don't spend a lot of energy trying to get things that "just don't work" working. Probably by the time I get enough money to buy one of these + a 4GB sd card + a power adapter, the SNES emulation will be better. Then the whole thing will be worth it.

 

[krosfyah]

The Snes emulation is very good already.. I've been playing F-Zero and Mario Kart quite a bit and both run great.

 

[Nebetsu]

Here's another one: How about Bubble Bobble 2 and Bubble Bobble 3 for MAME?

 

[reiboul]

if you are talking about the game where you launch bubble and make grapes of same colors, i play it on mame (maybe the firt BubbleBobble) and it runs very smooth, as most of MAME Games (excluding Neogeo and bigger games)

 

[Nebetsu]

if you are talking about the game where you launch bubble and make grapes of same colors, i play it on mame (maybe the firt BubbleBobble) and it runs very smooth, as most of MAME Games (excluding Neogeo and bigger games)

The one I'm talking about has alright graphics.

 

[krosfyah]

Download the latest mamegp2x and have a look at the gamelist file. Chances are if it's not in that list then it's not gonna work. You could also check the wiki but that isn't particularly up to date.

 

[Nebetsu]

Download the latest mamegp2x and have a look at the gamelist file. Chances are if it's not in that list then it's not gonna work. You could also check the wiki but that isn't particularly up to date.

Thanks. That's a lot better than me asking random games that come to mind. ^^