Beginner's Advice

[pablo0151]

Hi everyone

I've just picked up a GP2X (F100) second hand, unfortunately it came with a lack of instructions and not a lot else.

It's currently running firmware version 2.o and a GMenu2X front end. There are some games and a couple of emulators already on there also.

I was wondering if anyone could tell me what the latest or best firmware is, where I should look to get it from and how complex the install is?

I'm going to use it mainly for videos and games, so with that in mind, what's the maximum size SD card the system can take?

Apologies if these questions have been asked before.

Many thanks

Paul

 

[darionapole]

there isn't "lastest" firmware. but the last firmware that GPH developed is 4.1.1
and as a branch for the "best" and newest there is Open2X DR7, a firmware for both F100 and F200, which is the best as os today. but it's in development (very slow) and u lose the usb conector on the side, so u'll need a card reader. on the oother hand u gain SDHC support in the F100s (64GB max), lot of options and tweaks, and cool stuff (read the realease description)
to install it's very easy, just follow the instructions, and if posible use an empty sd card, sd (not sdhc) recomended (i did with an 8gb sdhc but mine's is a F200)

as for the compatibility it's very high, at most minor grafical glitchs in some program (like in cps2emu, having a problem with the screen offset (+10 pixels Y) but this is the only one affected AFAIK), and some games work faster because of the hw accelerated sdl and the overclocking option in the menu.

Open2X DR7 for F100
http://dl.openhandhelds.org/cgi-bin/gp2x.cgi?0,0,0,0,42,2751

 

[pablo0151]

Thanks for your helpful advice, much appreciated. This is a great little machine, I'm a bit gutted it's taken me so long to pick one up.

Cheers

Paul

 

[bunny]

laharl has given a better answer than I could about firmware (I'm still quite new to the console too) but I've never really been bothered by the SD-only restriction on (standard) F100s. I bought the Value Pack model, which has fw 3.0.0, and since I find the 20-ish second boot time acceptable I don't really see the need to upgrade. I stick with standard SD cards as I prefer having several 1GB cards (eg one for MAME, one for computer emulators, one for games, etc) than shoving everything on a huge SDHC card. Plus, if one gets corrupted, you don't lose everything else that way.