Considering buying a GP

[Mighty_Max]

Just a few questions, please don't bite my head off.

1. How big is the gp32 community in reality? I've searched the net and found 2 good sites, gp32x.de and Gp32emu.com, but the community seems pretty small. It seems like GP32 information is very hard to come by. Where are some more good sites? If I were to buy a GP now, what are the chances of the community dropping dead shortly afterwards?

2. I have a very basic understanding of programming. I understand variables and arrays and most of the basics, but little more (at least as far as C/C++ goes). Do I stand any chance of being able to learn how to develop for the GP or does it require a lot of experience? Are there any good resources for devolopers, tutorials and so forth? Is there an SDK? Am I speaking utter rubbish? :unsure:

3. Is there any way, when I'm buying a GP, to guarantee that I'll get one that will OC comfortably to 166Mhz? Are there certain models that OC better than others, or is it totally luck of the draw?

 

[Icefox231]

1. Dying, most people ordered a Zodiac (www.zodiacgamer.com) and I am too. I want want too get rid of my GP32, i'll sell you mine. contactme.

2. Your screwed without lots of knowledge

3. No guarentee, but you really don't need too go that high.

 

[Hanuka]

Icefox is our personal zodiac clown, dont take him too serious.

1. The community is small, but not dying at all. The gp is more known than ever before and there are a lot of nice sites around. i dont think the communities dying but growing. the biggest steps forward are just being made, take the new yeti3D engine for example or GPDoom which becomes really important again because of all the Doom-WADs and TCs. Besides you should have in mind nevertheless, that the community is basically formed by videogame freaks and you wont find many people in real life wanting to talk with you about the gp, i guess :lol:

 

[TandeM]

1. Right now, these boards have over 1600 members, which is double (triple?) what it was 6 months ago. GP32x and GP32emu are the 2 primary English-speaking GP32 sites, after that there's:

crazeeplaya's GP32 World
(www.gp32world.co.uk),

GP32News
(www.gp32news.com),

and occasionally Insert Credit
(www.insertcredit.com),

plus Don Miguel's support forum
(pub179.ezboard.com/bgp32).

In German there's also
www.gp32gaming.de,

in Spanish,
www.gp32spain.com,

in Korean,
www.gpzigi.com

__________

(Mostly) Korean dev sites:

Team K2yaa (contracted by Gamepark for new firmware and MP3 player): www.k2yaa.net

Team ICON (Fire&Fire and a secret project - unveiling on 11/11!):
www.icon.vv.st

Team ETERNITY (Goddess Saga, upcoming commercial SRPG): http://eter.studioner.com/gs/gs.html

Byulbram (Her Knights, Blood Cross): http://www.byulbram.com/

Sonnori (Astonishia Story R): http://www.sonnori.co.kr/

___________

Anyway, back to the question you were asking in the first place...the GP32 currently fills a niche that isn't being shared with any other handhelds right now...it's not in direct competition with the GBA, Zodiac, or N-Gage. So, the chances of something causing the majority of the community to jump the ship is quite unlikely, unless the Zodiac were to drop drastically in price, which won't happen anytime soon.

What might be a bigger threat is that the GP32 is beginning to run out of things to emulate, because if the remaining 68k and Z80 systems are emulated (well, the ones worth emulating at least), all that'll be keeping the GP32 alive are commercial games and the non-emulatory homebrew scene, neither of which have been exceptionally active. However, we've had some awesome ports like Doom and Rise of the Triad, and lots of demos to try.


2, Well, you probably know more about coding than me, so I can't help. There's an SDL port available, and some tutorial resources in the dev section of the forums.

3. It comes down to luck with overclocking. The median limit is roughly 160 MHz, almost everyone can reach 150 or 156. Mine is stable at 175 MHz, which is at the extreme end of the spectrum; don't count on being that lucky. 166 MHz works for around 40% of people, I'd say. (<- rough estimate)

 

[whodahell600]

1) the gp32 scene is NOT dying. very few are leaving the gp32 scene.mostly because the only other thing like the gp32 is the zodiac which costs way more and recently emus are getting more and more like playing the real system.

2)dont really know but there are tutorials about coding etc.

3)i here that FLUs tend to OC higher but my gp32 is at least a year old and it OCs to 156mhz.

hope this helps.

 

[thebluenewt]

1. Dying, most people ordered a Zodiac (www.zodiacgamer.com) and I am too. I want want too get rid of my GP32, i'll sell you mine. contactme.

I dunno where you get this from. Most people have siad that it's too expensive, besides there isn't a single emulator at the moment and I certainly wouldn't buy one for Tony bloody Hawk...

 

[Rico]

Dying, most people ordered a Zodiac (www.zodiacgamer.com) and I am too. I want want too get rid of my GP32, i'll sell you mine. contactme.

Should have gotten a Zodiac IMO. The Gp32 community is really loosing its coders too the Zodiac and the news now is usually dumb stuff. Competitions provide terrible outcomes (pdroms) the spain comp that ended a few weeks ago never released, no english stuff, nothing left too do. I'm selling mine and getting a Zodiac

look for a Gp32 nonflue with a 128mb SMC and GPCinema on here or ebay if intrested PM me

I suggest you start a topic advertising your ebay auction instead of sneaking it into your recent posts all the time.

 

[Dolfhin]

1. The're plenty of (english) support site's and some local support site's (like Gp32french.com, Gp32spain.com and my personal favorite : M-Gaming.nl (i'm editor of the GP32 news @ M-gaming.nl ).

2. You don't need much experience and you can always learn programming.

3. No the're isn't unless you buy it used.

 

[|cJ|]

i just got my gp32 two days ago and am amazed at how good this little thing i dont see how this community could get smaller the gp32 is just to good to forget about

 

[NssOne]

GP32US

You ddin't mention my site. :angry:

Shrug, yeah, haven't had much time to update it yet. Sorry, peeps.

EDIT: Woops, forgot my site isn't in my Sig anymore.

 

[Memnoch]

I agree the GP32 is the most fun you can have with your pants on! Psycho Fox is a game that all should try. Buy the Damn console and enjoy it in all it's glory! Originally I thought GPengine couldn't be beat but having played frodo (C64 emulation) and CaSTaway/GP (Atari ST emulation) I was also amazed. The GP32 is the mutts nutts. All rejoice!!!

Happy GP32 Owner Memnoch

 

[ralp99]

don't give up on little ol' GP32 yet. I am hoping for another surprise to drop before the year ends! (who knows!)