So, I was watching Attack of the Show last week (I know, not great, but it's a nice diversion from time to time) and I saw the feature on the GP2X Wiz. Looked like something I could really get some nice use from, especially since my PSP was just collecting dust lately. The idea of playing a number of different emulators on the go was very appealing.
Looked into it, and the Caanoo also caught my eye. Debated both, and was initially going to go with the Caanoo, but ultimately decided on the Wiz, mostly due to the fact that the Wiz just seemed to be better supported, and with more choices for emulators. Also, the problem with the Caanoo's screen cutting off a few rows of pixels at the top was a bit of a turn off. So a Wiz it was.
Ordered mine from ThinkGeek, got it pretty quick. Been testing it out and playing around with it for the past few days... wanted to get a little familiar with it before I posted my thoughts.
Picked up an 8 gig SD card for it and installed some emulators and roms, including MAME, Sega Genesis/CD, SNES, Neo Geo, Amiga, and Intellivision so far. No problems with any - including the SNES emu (thank god). All of the emus have their little nuances, as have been detailed well in this thread and others, so I won't really get into that as it's pretty well documented. Noticed the diagonal line/tearing problem, but seems pretty minor, and doesn't really bother me. Been fighting with Neo Geo and a bunch of non-working roms, but that's par for the course, I guess, and a minor issue so far. Loving Mame4all and PicoDrive the most so far (huge arcade and Genesis junkie).
Really surprised with how small the unit is. Initially, I thought this was just going to end up being too small for my liking. But I've gotten used to the size, and I've actually grown to like it's compactness. Definitely liking the controls. Just seems perfectly suited to all the emulation goodness, especially the 8 and 16 bit titles. The screen is bright and vivid, and the colors seem very good. Picture looks very nice.
Mostly picked it up for the emulators, so haven't really dabbled too terribly much into it's other features. But tested out the music player, and the sound seems pretty good. Didn't really get it to use as an MP3 player, but it will definitely suffice. Haven't really checked out the video player. But then again, I didn't really get a Wiz to watch videos on... especially in light of its small screen. Much better devices for that, anyway. And the other stuff seems like small potatoes, at least to me. Basically, this is a portable game emulator for me, and so far it has been pulling that off magnificently.
No real complaints... at least so far (knock on wood). I'll probably try out a couple more emulators, although most of the other emulators available for the system aren't ones I'm really a big fan of or into too much, anyway. Great first impression, and I'm going to really try to take care of the unit so that it becomes a lasting good impression. Really love what I have seen, and in fact I'm kicking myself for not getting this thing sooner!
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