Best Handheld For Emulation

[sinkyboy2000]

OK, I know there are a million "should I buy a GP2X?" and "GP2X vs PSP" threads on here, so I apologise in advance for what follows.

As I've said in a previous thread, I was thinking about buying a GP32, and just when I was ready to do so - they went and announced the GP2X. So I waited. I didn't pre-order because I wanted to make sure it lived up to my expectations.

From what I had read of GP32 emulation Atari and Megadrive (genesis) seemed near perfect and some inroads had been made to GBA. GBA seemed to be held back by the limitations of the hardware (which I suppose applied to most other platforms as well).

With an increased spec, I thought perfect SNES and GBA is just round the corner (I'm not very technically minded, so please excuse my ignorance).

Well, a couple of months on from release and Squidgesnes seems (from the thread) to be getting better and better. Just about time for me to buy I was thinking.

Then I read a few posts on here about the PSP emulation scene. Also did a search and discovered that this seems to be booming! Pretty much perfect SNES and advances are being made in to GBA.

I had previously thought it was a no-brainer; "the PSP is for the Commercial market and the GP2X for homebrew and emulation. Sure, there'll be some emulators for the PSP, but the GP2X will be the puppy to have for that sort of thing."

I'm not so sure that's right now. I know you'll all say it's early days for the GP2X and that were getting closer to perfect SNES all the time. But more than a few seem to have expressed the view that it's by no means certain that we'll get there.

So, I'm now thinking about either 1) getting a PSP, or 2) wait a few months and see how things develop for the GP2X.

As you'll probably have gathered, my main reason for getting either would be emulation. Although perfect SNES is what I crave the most, I'm also interested in:-
NES
Master System
Megadrive
Atari
GBA (I know, I know)
Amiga (how good would that be - I know it's unlikely)
Spectrum
C64
PC Engine

So, from a purely emulation perspective (ie without consideration of battery life, build quality, commercial games, cost of mem stick) which machine is best now? And if the answer to that question is the PSP, how likely is it that the GP2X will overtake it after the Devs have had time to do their funky stuff?

As an aside, my other reason for buying would be as a movie player. Re-encoding movies doesn't really bother me (as long as I don't have to many sync problems) so I take it there's not much between them there.

EDIT: SORRY - HAVE JUST NOTICED THE THREAD ON EXACTLY THE SAME THING! OOPS!

 

[Jackie B]

My 2 cents:

Don't know about the PSP emulation scene, but the GPX2 has only been around for 3 months and we already have 60% of your requirements operating nicely, plus another 10% in some form of progress or another.

And if you're not fussed about re-encoding then why buy a PSP? You have to buy a Sony Memory card that way (unless you mess about with the guts of it as I understand it...) and they ain't exactly cheap. At least with an SD card you have something you can find at wildly differing prices.

Another couple of plus points?

The GPX2 is unusual. Other geeks will think you are the uber geek. (I don't know any other geeks, so to the people I know, I'm just the fuckwit with the Korean gameboy... )

It takes AA batteries, which seems to be a point of derision for some people, but personally, I love them - should I run out, I can buy AA's anywhere. I'm not going to be in some motorway service area and unable to find a power supply for my favourite toy.

Finally, Sony is the Don Corleone of the MultiMediaMafia and if you give them your cash, it will only lead to the blood of the innocent being spilled upon your hands. Or something as equally dramatic. (Although maybe less red.)

 

[cbox]

They make memory stick to SD/MMC/every other kind of flash card adapters now for the PSP, as well as PSP hard drives.

 

[ingrin]

Finally, Sony is the Don Corleone of the MultiMediaMafia and if you give them your cash, it will only lead to the blood of the innocent being spilled upon your hands. Or something as equally dramatic. (Although maybe less red.)

​

Well technically, if you purchase a PSP and are successful in getting it hacked, then you are only hurting Sony, since its sold at a loss.

But... thats a big if. Depending on how you try to get it ready for Homebrew, you could brick your unit and be out the $250 since Sony isn't going to give you a replacement.

Anyway, I made the decision in favor of the GP2X and have not been disappointed, but I can't really speak for the PSP scene.

 

[mots]

I would suggest you to buy a GP2X. Sure, the PSP scene is quite good, but the handheld is out much longer. And the GP2X development is much faster, too. It's only out for three months (first months only for preorderers) and there are very much good Emus. Anothe rpoint against the PSP is how SONY tries to stop Homebrew, while GPH encourages GP2X coders.

 

[nickspoon]

I am very sure that the GP2X will at some point surpass the PSP in terms of emulation and homebrew, and there's just that small matter with the PSP of Sony sticking patches here and there to stop unsigned code running. You never know, they may come up with some bright idea which kills PSP homebrew altogether. At least you know GPH won't do that to you.

 

[carlgeorge]

Can you be more specific about Atari in your list. All the others names mentioned are consoles/computers, atari is the manufacturer. Do you know what you are really asking for?

BTW get a PSP, sounds like you really want one in the wording of your post and you are trying to talk yourself into a GP2X.

 

[Hanz™]

Can you be more specific about Atari in your list. All the others names mentioned are consoles/computers, atari is the manufacturer. Do you know what you are really asking for?

BTW get a PSP, sounds like you really want one in the wording of your post and you are trying to talk yourself into a GP2X.

​

 

[Josquius]

With the PSP the concern to me is that when you want to play a real new game it will probally install some software that fucks up all your homebrew stuff (different firmware versions and all that the psp has...)
Which in turn even if countermeasures are hurridly brought out for every latest version would require you to flash it a lot and...all that isn't good.


What about the DS in all this?
Does that not have a decent emulation scene?

 

[gaterooze]

Most of your wants either are or will soon be better on GP2X than PSP.

 

[sinkyboy2000]

Can you be more specific about Atari in your list. All the others names mentioned are consoles/computers, atari is the manufacturer. Do you know what you are really asking for?

BTW get a PSP, sounds like you really want one in the wording of your post and you are trying to talk yourself into a GP2X.

​

Sorry about that. I meant Atari ST. I suspect this may be better on the 2X but not sure.

And actually, as a concept the GP2X appeals much more. I was gutted to find out emulation was more advanced on the PSP. Was hoping to swan around with this consol that no one had heard of playing old snes and ST games as PSP owners looked on in awe.

I'm very unlikely to buy any games for a PSP, so I sort of resent buying one when there's an open source console on the market which, in theory, suits my needs. Still more likely to plump for a 2X, but think I'll be waiting a bit longer.

 

[deadlychicken22]

If you want one right now, go for the psp, but if you can hang in there for awhile I would recommend getting the gp2x. Also, I think that it is much more likely for the gp2x to get a good gameboy advance emulator than the psp because both the gba and gp2x use ARM processors so that part wouldn't have to be emulated ("The trick is getting it to run slow enough" - some coder on the boards, can't remember who).

 

[Anhaedra]

Why is Amiga unlikely? It's just a 8mhz 68000 with like 1MB of RAM...

 

[nickspoon]

And you had to gravedig to ask that... why?

 

[0-bake]

I am very sure that the GP2X will at some point surpass the PSP in terms of emulation and homebrew, and there's just that small matter with the PSP of Sony sticking patches here and there to stop unsigned code running. You never know, they may come up with some bright idea which kills PSP homebrew altogether. At least you know GPH won't do that to you.

i never understood the contra with the firmware upgrades/patches.
if you want to use your PSP for homebrew/emulation then don't upgrade your firmware!

with the GP2X you can't play GTA as well.....

 

[yaustar]

Why is Amiga unlikely? It's just a 8mhz 68000 with like 1MB of RAM...

​

Lots of custom hardware.

 

[DaveC]

Yep, just like SNES. SNES only ran at 4 MHz and that is looking quite difficult to emulate on the GP2X too with all of the effects. Amiga is the same situation.

 

[Jarska333]

I am very sure that the GP2X will at some point surpass the PSP in terms of emulation and homebrew, and there's just that small matter with the PSP of Sony sticking patches here and there to stop unsigned code running. You never know, they may come up with some bright idea which kills PSP homebrew altogether. At least you know GPH won't do that to you.

i never understood the contra with the firmware upgrades/patches.
if you want to use your PSP for homebrew/emulation then don't upgrade your firmware!

with the GP2X you can't play GTA as well.....

​

Eh, it's quite likely, that even if one is a friend of emulation, one would still want to play the actuall PSP games as well. And no, solution is not "get two PSP's!"

 

[subin]

by the way, PSP emulators with the latest firmware (what you get with buying it now) are pretty bad. if you can get them to boot, then it's great, but having to load GTA, then using the hack, then waiting for the emulator to boot, well, it's much longer than the 20 - 30 seconds boot time we all complain about.

 

[Trashman]

Gp2x and PSP
Flatcap and baseball cap
tweed shorts and surfer shorts
good and bad
I love my gp2x coz nobody at work knows a thing about it.