Am I The Only Person Who Thinks The Gp2x

[Squidge]

It's not exactly difficult to use both processors, but the Linux used on the gp2x at the moment dedicates the second processor to mpeg4 decoding duties, and doesn't allow user code on it. So therefore we need to "hack" it to get it to run our code instead of mpeg4 code.

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So at the moment it is just a 200 MHz GP32 with hardware video decoding. So great for movies useless for emus

Do you think it will be possible to do this at all or might it not be doable?

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It's definitely doable, and will be done, so don't worry about it There's a big difference between what the OS provides, and what we can do with it

 

[DaveC]

It's not exactly difficult to use both processors, but the Linux used on the gp2x at the moment dedicates the second processor to mpeg4 decoding duties, and doesn't allow user code on it. So therefore we need to "hack" it to get it to run our code instead of mpeg4 code.

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So at the moment it is just a 200 MHz GP32 with hardware video decoding. So great for movies useless for emus

Do you think it will be possible to do this at all or might it not be doable?

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It's definitely doable, and will be done, so don't worry about it There's a big difference between what the OS provides, and what we can do with it

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Go Go Go you l337 H4xx0r you

Well I hope you are right. We will find out soon I guess.

 

[silentalarm]

I want a GP2X PS1 emulator just so I can play Gradius Gaiden and Bishi-Bashi special. That is all.

 

[abigsmurf]

I'm looking forward to a full speed snes emulator so I play games that were impossible to play because of them being in Japanese but have been translated.

Tales of phantasia (only snes game that I know of with a full vocal track)
Clocktower
loads of anime based games
not to mention hundreds of games I never got round to owning.

I would love for PS1 emulation to be acheived but the specs will be cutting it extremely fine although I'd be suprised if the GPX2 doesn't have the horsepower to equal most 400mhz pocket pcs (which have to deal with horribly slow memory and large overhead)

 

[triton]

well if your REALLY desperate for on the go SNES perfection you could do what i did, BUILD a friggin snes portable, mine needs a bit of work still but NOONE can dispute the fact it will play 100% of SNES games perfectly (or nearly so lol)

 

[DaveC]

It's definitely doable, and will be done, so don't worry about it There's a big difference between what the OS provides, and what we can do with it

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But what about the bus contention problem and the lack of a MMU and the small cache in the second CPU? Will that be a problem or can it be worked around?
Will both be able to talk fast enough to be practical in an emu?

 

[bast525]

Er at Bast is a married man...

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So he has a rich wife to buy all of those things.

I wish they'd given GP2X a girls name...

Kinda like Amiga...

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You own 2 psp's but think that £124.99 is expensive?

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Totally agree with you there ! I cant see how he can moan, looks like his rich parents buy him whatever he wants !!

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Screw you guys, I work 45 mother f**king hours a week and buy MYSELF what I want, thanks. Don't make comments like that when you don't KNOW, m'kay? And yes my wife works too and that's why I have TWO PSP's, one of them is for her.

Anyways, it's all relative. I think the PSP is a good deal at $250 for everything it can do. Commercial games, homebrew, emu's, movies from mem stick or UMD, mp3's, photos, e-books, internet... the list goes on and on. I know a lot of people 'moaned' about the value pack being $250, though I dont' understand THAT, considering it came with a case, headphones, memory stick... I think it's a good deal.

Now as far as the 'value' of the GP2X, yeah it will probably do most of these things as well, for slightly less cost (and of course, coming with less stuff). The price and package of the GP2X is actually very comparable to the Japan-only PSP 'standard pack', and yet the GP2X actually costs slightly more than that. What I'm arguing, more with myself than actually arguing here, is if I already have a PSP that can do all this, and and GP32 which also does most of what the GP2X will do (up to nearly perfect Genesis, at least), what is the 'value' of getting a GP2X then? Other than yeah, I'm a collector and want it just for the sake of having it. Well and that it looks pretty damn cool

Damn... I can't believe how this thread has exploded in one day

 

[DaveC]

. What I'm arguing, more with myself than actually arguing here, is if I already have a PSP that can do all this, and and GP32 which also does most of what the GP2X will do (up to nearly perfect Genesis, at least), what is the 'value' of getting a GP2X then? Other than yeah, I'm a collector and want it just for the sake of having it. Well and that it looks pretty damn cool

Damn... I can't believe how this thread has exploded in one day

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There probably isn't a reason for you to get it, YET. I would wait to see what it can do first. It will probably take some time for emus to get to the level of what they are now on the GP32 and some may never be as good as they are on the PSP like NeoGeo and SNES.

I would say wait it out. You can always jump on one if things get good, they may even be cheaper then too.

 

[bast525]

Agreed. This is a bad time for me, in the respect of being a gamer and a collector... it kind of makes me sad.

It used to be, that I would buy almost every system, as soon as they were released. Often I wouldn't even wait for the american release, but rather would import the japanese version as soon as they came out. It's been this way for me with almost every system there has been since the NES.

But lately I find myself wanting to just wait. I'm passing on the 360 launch. Will probably hold off on the Revolution at first as well. I'm pretty sure I'll pick up a PS3 at launch but then again, depending on what/how many titles their are at launch. Now I'm gonna sit out the GP2X as well. All because each of these systems seems to have almost as much potential for (sorry guys I have to say it) sucking as they do for kicking ass. I bought the DS and PSP at launch and ended up sorta regretting it on both of them although the PSP has been redeemed with the great Neo Geo and SNES emu, and the DS is actually, slowly, getting a steady supply of good games.

It sucks even more when you import something early because you always pay a price premium... this was a real killer when I bought the PSP which I payed a small fortune for only to have it sit and gather dust for months.

Well this post served it's purpose well... I've learned a lot more about the GP2X than I learned from reading the faq's, and you guys helped me figure out that it's really just best to wait and see with this thing.

 

[Squidge]

It's definitely doable, and will be done, so don't worry about it There's a big difference between what the OS provides, and what we can do with it

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But what about the bus contention problem and the lack of a MMU and the small cache in the second CPU? Will that be a problem or can it be worked around?
Will both be able to talk fast enough to be practical in an emu?

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Yes, both will talk fast enough to be practical in an emu. How much faster using them both compared to just one, no one knows yet, so just sit back, relax, and let us play with it and find out

 

[Yuglooc]

So every Emulator, that is not running full speed on an gp32, needs tweaking on the gp2x, to use the second core. Remember, gp2x is default not that big faster.

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I'm totally with you on this, but thinking on the levels the devs of GP32 is. I really have faith that they will find use of the second processor, especially if ED's right in it being able to program to in the SDK.

 

[EvilDragon]

Well, it may not be available from the start, but it will happen, I'm sure about this.

 

[Alpha2]

Bast, if you're saticefied with PSP homebrew and dont intend to ever buy another PSP game which would muck your 1.5, just stick it out with that and dont be so concerned with the 2X. If you're conflicted this much about jumping on one now it's only going to frustrate you while you want for things to get up to speed.

Sit back, relax and watch for the sidelines for a while, it's not mandatory that everyone be and early adopter.

 

[bast525]

Bast, if you're saticefied with PSP homebrew and dont intend to ever buy another PSP game which would muck your 1.5, just stick it out with that and dont be so concerned with the 2X. If you're conflicted this much about jumping on one now it's only going to frustrate you while you want for things to get up to speed.

Sit back, relax and watch for the sidelines for a while, it's not mandatory that everyone be and early adopter.

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Eh, but therein lies another big issue... the fact that yeah, someday I'm sure there WILL be a PSP commercial game... scratch that, gameS, that I'm going to want to play, and actually to buy and own. And that is really part of the basis for this post as well, because I do have to consider that there is the possibility that the PSP might not always be feasible for playing emulators on. It's been sorta 'good' luck that for now, nothing really good has come out, and even if something did come right now, there are ways around updating.

But when the time comes that Sony 'wins' over the hackers, and I have to decide, whether to buy some game I really want for the PSP, or stick with my emu's, well then I'm probably going to buy the game and say to hell with the emu's... as someone else said on here, I do love old games, but I want to play new stuff too.

But actually it becomes more of a dilemma. Since I have a 1.0 and 1.5 PSP, and I know that good stuff will come that will force me to update, the choice becomes more complex. Because now I have to consider, maybe I should buy yet another PSP, keep the 1.0 for emus and homebrew, give the 1.5 to my wife and let her update it, and then buy another 2.0 or whatever for playing games. I would hope by this time, the 'standard pack' would be available in the USA (I have heard we will get this pack sooner or later) and I would be able to get it for $200 or less.

OR by that time maybe the GP2X would be more viable.

At that point, the prices are very close to each other, and the capabilities would seem very close in respects to homebrew and emu's, so it would really become a hard choice to make. Another PSP and keep one for emu's only, or a GP2X? All the more reason to post my original post, to try to learn more about the GP2X, and get an idea of how this thing might stack up against the PSP, because I may have to actually choose between them in that sense, even though I already own a PSP... would it be worth buying another one just for emu's? But it seems rediculous... so I would hope the GP2X's emu's would be of the same quality and then I could have a good reason to get one afterall.

 

[Eolair]

Stupid question maybe...but does anyone know when the preselected Devs will get hold of real units/SDK to start to tinkering with? Will they get them very soon or will they have to wait for the first batch at the end of october/early november? Isn't all this speculation pretty pointless until someone actually has a real unit and can start exploring the possibilites?

 

[ratx]

Some people eg Ryleh and Squidge ( according to posts on these boards ) have test units but I guess they're probally not allowed to say much anyway due to NDA.

 

[Cyclops]

At that point, the prices are very close to each other

You mention value in your other post, and this in this one, there quite large posts. But to keep on topic I've just listed this. the GP2X is 1/3 cheaper than the PSP in the UK, and the storage media is 1/2 the price on the GP2X than the PSP and larger and compatible. That not a little close to each other. That does not mean the the PSP is not good value, or the actual functionality offered by the PSP does not make it worthwhile(commercial gamining, Widescreen etc). For me the storage media for me more than the cost of the device make a huge difference. If I had a sony digital camera etc. I might feel differently, but again I wouldn't buy one of those for the same reason.

In reality. I would gladly pay more for a more functional GP2X because I know its cost, comes from its storage not the product itself.

 

[weresheep]

Hi all,

First post here (never owned a GP32 but I've preorderd a GP2X).

As the GP2X is running Linux wont the two cores show up as two CPUs in the Kernel just like any other SMP (Symmetric multiprocessing) system? And if so wont you be able to make use of them both via threading?

I realise people may not know yet or may not be able to answer due to an NDA but I thought I'd ask anyway.

Sorry for the n00b like question. I will be dissapointing if the second core can't be used but I will still enjoy developing on it.


-weresheep

 

[Mirrorhead]

I will for sure get a GP2X at some point as it seems to be a phantastic device and absolutely worth the money. But as I have just bought my first GP32 2 months ago I`m still busy with all it has to offer and will wait and see how the new machine takes off.

Due to all the limitiations and restrictions PSP is no alternative for me.

 

[Ringo]

I was wondering why people actually were begging for more RAM than 32 Mb.

What are you actually going to do with all that memory? The GP32 seemed to get alot out of it's 8 Mb.
The only apparent issue seemed to be few larger roms for snes and GBA - and I would figure that 32mb pretty much covers that.

I figure ( I actually have NO idea if this is how it works) that if programmes for GP2X are programmed to take advantage of this extra RAM - the homebrew programs themselves are going to get alot bigger (64mb+ or something)...
unless it ofcource is an emulator using the additional ram for rom-storage.

I know the thoughts are that since it's Linux-based (or is that Unix-based), the system will eat a lot of ram on that account. But if it's anything like the GP32's launchers, then the launcher (or firmware) will eat nothing when the program is up and running... simply because it's just that... a launcher.

I figure it does make sence if there actually would come any commercial games for it.

Just my thoughts - I don't really know if this is how it works... feel free to correct me. I'm just thinking out loud...