DaveC said:
Ah yes the back, I should have known, typical GPH. At least the idiots didn't put the screen on the back
Speakers on the back ...
I don't think that's too bad, if it was "for a good purpose".
I mean, see, the wiz is a hand-held device, for which the main reason is that you can carry it around.
Only assholes play with speakers instead of headphones in public, and on some train rides I have been in the mood to kill some of those.
And those wannabe speakers of that sort never really sound pleasing, if they are front facing, to the back, or even hidden *inside* the frikkin case, lol, so who gives a damn. But maybe it's just me whose main (for music) head phones have costed considerably more than the Canoo device. (and I'm a poor bastard, so I'm probably finicky about audio quality
)
So, as I see it, speakers on such a device are a mere
fallback for the case that you forgot your head phones some time, so that you can hear stuff at all, but if they had PCB / case design decicions to make where the optimal speaker position didn't come in handy, and had to be sacrificed for higher-priority things, I'm fine with it.
But as often as in these forums, which I am pretty new to, have already seen the words "GPH" and "stupid" closely connected, maybe I'm unwarrantedly optimistic about GPH's choice here perhaps making sense. Who knows
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As for the
analog joystick, I can only say:
FINALLY! It was about time, and I wish my Wiz had one, so that I actually had useful controls for the games I'd like to make for it, or, well, what the thing otherwise would be by the rest of the hardware if it had useful controls ^^
I might try to utilize the touch screen in the way some NDS 3D games do (eg. Metroid Prime Hunter), but I've heard the Wiz' touch thing is not very reliable ? (not really tried it with software where it matters)
You know, it seems kind of silly to me, to still cry about this kind of device, which meanwhile got 3D acceleration somewhere in between voodoo 1 & 2, to not be designed mainly as a device for 16bit era and older consoles emulation. That's what the F100 was for, and if that's what you want, be happy with it or buy the dingoo maybe. Is the 3D hardware there just to look at, or what? Dpad simply sucks for any 3d game, maybe besides some racing games, well it still sucks but is *sort of* playable.
I personally couldn't care less for SNES emulation and the like, it's nice that the thing supports it and it's sort of an extra gimmick to me, and therefore absolutely fine if that device's controls are not the holy grail of 16bit age controls, but it still works well enough for many games even of that era to be played reasonably well.
Which brings me to the next point:
I'm irritated by the common thinking here that GPH somehow has to listen to what the retro community wants - when it's clear that this is not the main target audience they are trying to aim for with their more modern features. (I'm not really sure whether they are aiming for anything outside the Korean market, anyway, or just see this as possible bonus. I'll admit that I am only following the gp2x scene only sporadically, and thus might not know enough to judge here. But at least they don't act like it's their focus, do they? But I couldn't blame them. It's them to choose their target group, which might not always stay identical).
I don't know what their next big thing will sport in hardware terms, but I see it coming that some people are still crying "omg it is not optimized for sega master system gaming", while forgetting that the then probably even bigger 3D part of the device will be a significant contributor to the device's price, and that this possibly says something about what the thing is made for.
(yeah I know, there's still that uber gadget from hell, called Pandora, which does it all - this is not what GPH or anyone else will ever be doing, though)
Perhaps people also having a foot on the pandora soil are too spoiled of kids that they think other handheld hardware companies have to make christmas wishlist sessions that will be responsible for the devices' features, too.
God forbid that some company owners have their own sorts of dreams and visions of where to go with their stuff. In the end, it's just
their frikkin company and life investment, who do
they think they are, these arrogant pricks, not seeing themselves at the whims of some special interest faction of their target group. Heh.
I mean come on.
The touch screen of the F200 which also made it into the Wiz already smelled like them having one eye on the NDS, and they keep adding modern features, and look out to increase their target group's size.
And Now their DSiWare like shop for native Wiz games...
Who in their right mind can still think "this is our retro console!" and have his warm feelings hurt... *scratches head*
It's IMO still a cool device, allowing me open development - of my stuff, which porting nintendo emulators is not a part of - , I like it for what it is, and if further of GPH's devices are teh suck to me, I'll move on and get a device that fits my needs elsewhere, instead of bitching :-D
(well who knows, maybe that's a lie, but it feels like a reasonable thing to say :-D)
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Well, that's just the perspective of somebody who pokes his nose in this community once in a while to take some sniffs.
So don't get mad at me, if possible ^^
