First Impressions Of The Gp2x

[CaBBagE]

Well, after a couple of hours of fiddling around with it [oOoo Matron! ] I'm really
pleased I dived in early on this one!

Box contents: GP2X, batteries and usb cable (ok so I missed out on a couple of
freebies gah etc.!) Luckily I had read enough posts on here to be ready for the
big thin film peel extravaganza and so after some nailless fumblings got the stuff
off (yeah even that bit over the power leds!)

I was very impressed with the look and feel of it, only initial -wrongness- about it
was probably the joystick head, maybe I'm just too used to the concave one on
the xbox. I'm sure I'll get used to it quickly though, especially after it's bedded
in a bit It felt solid and all the buttons felt in the right places.

Next I slapped it all together and plugged it into the usb port under win2k, it could
see an unrecognised device so that'll do for me for now, if it can see something it
means it'll see what it's supposed to see eventually Slapped my 1GB Kingston
SD card into the card reader and threw a few items on there. Put it back in the
GP2X and nothing happened, taking my pleb hat off for a minute I put it back in
the card reader and reformatted it from FAT to FAT32 Put the various media bits
and bobs on and slapped it back in. Yay! Piccies, movies (ok so a few issues
there which the next firmware upgrades should sort), tunes etc.

I can't wait to get some more stuff running on the thing but I have an appointment
with a large pie and some ale right now...

What are your initial thoughts on your life with your new "best friend"?

 

[Hobo]

i get mine in 24 hours so i'll let you know later :lol:

 

[DijiTao]

Glad to see somebody posting something positive about it - far too much moaning going on as of late. As for your USB problem I'm willing to bet your having the typical Windows USB stupidity which I’ve document how to fix with here:

http://wiki.gp2x.org/wiki/Current_GP2X_Issues#USB_Problems:

 

[hando]

...Put the various media bits
and bobs on and slapped it back in. Yay! Piccies, movies (ok so a few issues
there which the next firmware upgrades should sort), tunes etc....

I can't wait to get some more stuff running on the thing but I have an appointment
with a large pie and some ale right now...

What are your initial thoughts on your life with your new "best friend"?

​

This what I call a good attitude Congratulation of your new "toy"

 

[Alpha eX]

Luckily I had read enough posts on here to be ready for the
big thin film peel extravaganza and so after some nailless fumblings got the stuff
off (yeah even that bit over the power leds!)

​

Are you sure there is one on the power leds bit, i cant find it. EDIT: Found it :lol:

How many are there to take off the screen protector, ive got the first one off, is there one on it when i pell it off the stickey backing?

 

[newmark]

I get my Gp2x today,first i have noticed is the poor cd without any source (where is the
kernel source they HAVE to give us? and the mplayer source?).
I installed everything i found,libSDL (all goes well)Quake hexen etc (i don't find any wad, so i didn't tried)Snes it works, but it's really slow, i can play with dragon quest VI
but PGA tour golf it's reaaaaally slow and more, syndicate and GON
freeze up. No keys conf is possible (not really a problem on snes, you
have 4 button more than original)NeoCD, i have one rom but is an ISO and there is no way to load it
inside but, that's sure my fault.USB, on one XP it's not recognized, on another one is recognized but
no disk was loaded, linux (as usual) all goes ok, only a little trick,
exit from usb connection BEFORE on gp2x, and after umount on the PC,
if i umount first gp2x freeze.SD my 2 1Gb is recognized, also mine 512Mb.
(but i cant' use it with my Toshiba libretto, on linux toshiba does
not release the driver (neither the spec to write a driver) and on win
it's not recognized.Video, play well, i try also an indeo and it does not work, but any
divx works fine without any desync or slow problem.Audio right also this, i tried 128 196 kbps.Text (only txt files)TV out (no cable inside package)batteries, till now my 2200mA works after 2 hour, on the screen they
say to me 50%, really nice.after all, after the first day, i'm really happy of this toy, and i
become more happy when i get my hand on firmware source and kernel
source, because THEY HAVE to give us that

 

[Huxley]

Generally pretty good.

The overall build quality has disappointed some, but personally speaking I don't know what they're moaning about. Everything feels solid enough, with only the rubbery socket covers a real cause for concern in the long run (but they're not even needed anyway). I mean, it wouldn't survive a few trips to the pavement but neither would a PSP or GP32. In fact, I reckon it's at least of a comparable build quality to the GP32.

Plus it looks a hell of a lot nicer. It may not have the 'wow' factor of the PSP, but its sutble design won't go out of fashion in a day. It feels quite nice to hold; maybe not quite as comfy as the GP32 without those 'tits', but a lot less sprain inducing than it looks in those early publicity photos. And while button placement might cause some controversy for the obese or cack-handed, it's pretty much spot-on. Those four buttons will come in handy for SNES emulation no doubt.

My favourite bit about the design - the SD card 'click'. Mmm, nice action.

Only when you boot the system up do things start to go downhill. I won't go in to the list of problems here as they're already widely reported (and widely exaggerated), but suffice to say this isn't a console for the weak spirited.

But it's early days yet. Judging by the quality and volume of software already available, this thing is going to be more than a worthy successor to the GP32. Quake is already running better than it did on my 156 GP32, C64 emulation is full speed and Pota's putting out some pretty nice Linux ports. As more devs get to grips with the system it can only build momentum.

Personally I'm enjoying the ride.

 

[Nuron_V]

I got mine while i was at work today and this is my thinking so far

The unit itself looks great and i too was ready for the protector pealing and joystick turning fun. The feeling of the buttons is fine, i did have a few issues getting the stick to detect down if i rolled it into the down position rather than going from the center, all this needed was a quick twist to free it up a bit and now it seems to work fine. I wasn't sure at first about the convex stick but now that i have started getting used to it all is well.

The batteries i have been using are Uniross 2500, which I seem to get about 3-4 hours general use out of which is i bit better than i thought i would get.

The Media player does exactly what I'd expect it to do although the only things I have played on it are MP3s and Divx film (which were in sync and had no crashes etc).

I've installed NKs SNES/NES emu and given that a good run for its money, most of the NES roms I've tried ran around 20fps and the SNES ones ran between about 5 and 25 (flashback running the best running aroudn 25 in game and dropping to about 15 with a few other characters on screen)

The 1gb SD card from GBAX that came with the unit i can't format correct for the life of me, I've done it on XP, 2K and Fedora. I did however have a 512 kingston SD card to had which i had previously formatted on an HP camera...it works perfectly so the 1gb card will be meeting the camera tomorrow morning.

Ok problems, I've quite chuffed with the unit on the whole however i do have one problem, the USB port is completely and utterly dead. I have spotted a few post about others with this problem and i can confirm its not just user error, its fooked. There is no reaction what so ever when it is attached to a PC, again I've tried it on XPP, XPH, 2k, 98se and Fedora. I have of course tried USBmon which just proves there is no comunication, its like attaching a cable with nothing at the end of it. However I'm not really bothered! I always intended to use a card reader so its not a problem. I haven't taken the unit to bits to see if it looks like a drunk blind six year old child has vomited blobs of solder onto the USB joints like some of the pictures i have seen. I wouldn't want to send it back to GBAX at the moment even if it was an issue as the way things are at the moment i might not see one back until all of the units have shipped (no slur on GBAX I just suspect the new one would be dispatched as if i have ordered it today).

OVERALL: ONE HAPPY CHAPPY!

 

[craigix]

I think that by christmas we will have the little issues ironed out and have some really amazing ports and emulators running.

Supply will be easy by then too, and things like battery issues should be solved by patches and raw hardware access to cpu speeds.

Plus we will have TV out now that is something to seriously look forward to in my opinion.

-Craig

 

[Ninjia^]

Forgot to post this when i got mine :

 

[Natrius]

Wow!
That pic makes me hungry as if the stuff on the picture were a buffet of food...

I just got surprised over how small the unit is.. It's almost as small as a CD! (Hadn't realized this earlier..)

 

[Nuron_V]

Just realised i had no CD, I've downloaded all the available stuff now anyway!

No lolly either....I'm on a diet anyway, how did they know

 

[perlgeek]

Got mine this morning - nice looking unit. Mine came with a bit of plastic stuck to the 'real' screen (i.e. the one recessed into the face of the unit), and a separate, hard plastic screen protector that has sticky edges which mates with the edge of the recessed screen area, making the front of the unit completely flat.

The hard plastic thing looked as if it had arrived pre-scratched, but there was yet another protective film, very well camouflaged on that, so now it all looks pristine (apart from the large speck of dust that I managed to 'protect', so that it's now immovably stuck to the screen - oh well).

I'm hoping I can get some help with a couple of questions.

1) Although the media player works perfectly, and plays DivX files and MP3s off my SD card, none of the games or utils I installed off the CD work at all - the unit either hangs when I try to execute the *.gpe file, or goes straight back to the main screen. Has anyone else seen this behaviour, or knows what I'm doing wrong?

2) Is there any documentation (in English) on the pre-loaded software anywhere? The video and audio players are easy enough to figure out (although it would be nice to know if there is any way of creating/managing playlists on the device), but the 'Explorer' app. only seems to offer the option of deleting individual files. I couldn't figure out how to manage directories, or copy files with it.

3) Connecting the GP2X to my Mac with a USB cable doesn't mount the device as a drive, although I know the cable works fine, and other USB devices auto-mount immediately. Has anyone managed to mount the device as a USB drive on OSX?

Thanks in advance for any help.

David

 

[TelcoLou]

1) Although the media player works perfectly, and plays DivX files and MP3s off my SD card, none of the games or utils I installed off the CD work at all - the unit either hangs when I try to execute the *.gpe file, or goes straight back to the main screen. Has anyone else seen this behaviour, or knows what I'm doing wrong?

Have you installed the SDL libraries?

 

[zebedee]

i've said it once and am say it again ... wheres my lolly!!!!

my first impressions - its not a handheld for the panicy but we have come so far in mere days with the software , im now happily filling a 1gb card with c64 games till more cool stuff comes out ... battery life is something i can live with till the next firmware updates (getting 3 hours or so on uniross 2500's but ive got loads so i just carry a bunch with me lol)

all in all im happy i sense soon my poor gp32 wont get a look in lol

 

[Blah]

That picture makes it look so shiny and cool it makes me want to buy one now! But I am still officially waiting for more software and for Gamepark to switch from enslaved factory monkeys to real people.

 

[perlgeek]

Have you installed the SDL libraries?

​

Thanks for the tip. I have now

I downloaded and followed the instructions here; http://archive.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,0,0,0,31,869

...but it doesn't seem to have made any difference.

Is there some game equivalent of "Hello, World" that I can use as a simple test to make sure I've got the thing set up properly?

 

[nickspoon]

You could try the 'hello pixel' that there was somewhere, possibly on the wiki.

 

[perlgeek]

Thanks for the tip. I have now

I downloaded and followed the instructions here; http://archive.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,0,0,0,31,869

...but it doesn't seem to have made any difference.

Is there some game equivalent of "Hello, World" that I can use as a simple test to make sure I've got the thing set up properly?

​

Actually, there's a mistake with those instructions. The install_libs.gpu file references an install_libs.tar.gz file which it tries to extract to / to install the libraries. But, the zip file doesn't contain that gz file, it just has the uncompressed libraries in the same directory tree as they should be copied into.

After fixing this and installing the libraries, I can now run the games from this page; http://archive.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,0,0,0,25

Still can't run Quake, but at least I know I can run programs off the SD card in principle.

 

[Mark1970]

Just realised i had no CD, I've downloaded all the available stuff now anyway!

No lolly either....I'm on a diet anyway, how did they know

​

Same here