Gamepark, Gp32 2 (project Name) Coming Soon!

[Deep Thought]

And gamepark needs to work better with commercial developers. I've heard from a lot of them that it's sometimes very difficult to get important information from Gamepark when you're developing a game.

 

[kotd]

I only care about emulation with the new gamepark, not the commercial games.

 

[Enslaved]

Maybe Gamepark will recruit some of the GP32 homebrew devs to make some commercial titles.

 

[jmetal88]

With that bleem 1.5b or whatever.... does it run every game?

Not every game, but it seems to run more of them than any other emulators I've tried. Quite a few, in fact, I'd probably say that close to or over 100 are completely compatable and a lot of the rest are partially compatable in some way or form (some much more than others). In fact, the Bleem! box says "Run hundreds of Playstaion game on you PC!" The PC version of Bleem! requires the Bleem! CD to be inserted to unlock sound and saving features while launching the program, after which it is removed and replaced with the desired Playstation game. Unless, of course, you download a "crack" from one of those warez-y type sites. And apparently this one website has an update to Bleem! 1.6B that you can download off of their website to upgrade your existing version.

 

[Julius]

Maybe Gamepark will recruit some of the GP32 homebrew devs to make some commercial titles.

Actaully if Gamepark really makes profit with the Hardware, they should hire some homebrew devs to make free games, or at least make some cool competitions with bigger prizes.

There is no better advertisement for buying the Hardware, then getting really good games for free.
On the other hand those commercial games would probably sell not very good anyways (like all commercial games for the GP32), so this is a all win situation for Gamepark, I think.

 

[damaki]

Bleem is quite old, ePSXe is really better.
I think I've got about the same wishlist as every one:
-bigger memory cards (512+ Mo)
-more ram (32+ Mo)
-faster CPU
-higher resolution
-hardware accelerated graphics with hardware accelerated resizing, it would be really nice with emulators
-hardware accelerated sound
-more buttons
The problem with such a wishlist it's that it should be quite pricey. Don't forget that gamepark hasn't got a good reputation with game publishers, and money usually comes from software. We should pay the full price, so it will be more expensive than DS or PSP

 

[jmetal88]

Bleem is quite old, ePSXe is really better.

...but you don't need the BIOS file to run Bleem!. It was reverse engineered.

 

[Yuglooc]

well then get the bios file? what's the big deal?

 

[WinnME]

I have another Idear

Use PCSX, it can work with HLE Bios (you don't need a bios file)!!!!!!!
It is not as good as epsxe but waaaaaay better than bleem!

And if ya don't need higher resulotions, you could stick with Connectix VGS!
It doesn't need as bios file, and works almost perfect with almost every game!
(with the help of patches, even under Win 2000/XP and Backups)

Hey wait a sec, ........ use PCSX2 ...... if ya have a Monster PC (>6Ghz), then ya can play even some PS2 games h34r: h34r: h34r:

 

[Shane]

Maybe they're taking a page out of John Deloreans' book and selling cocaine to keep them afloat.

who...who told you that?? I mean it was pure cut yeah but it was only 100 kilos.

To the person that said 640x480 for psx and N64, I think the psx only got 320x240 and maybe the n64 altho I think I am wrong. its hard to notice on TV cause its 640x480.

the specs for the Gp32 next should be

zodiac resolution but more precise (clear, defined)
either SD or CF storage
ability to connect to external HDDs
an optional OS made by apple (that turns off when you open an app)
either a joystick or d-pad, the gp32 thingy didn't work for me (wore out and didn't get 8-way, more like 5-way)
same speakers and set volume (gp32 was nice and loud)
input for zalman 5.1 headphones
WiFi

dreams:
1 pound of crack
a ticket for a boat
it automatically has the best porn sites
when near a competitive handheld it lashes out and makes fun out it
it can walk and strut

 

[Rico]

well then get the bios file? what's the big deal?

As long as there's a method to extract it, you're legally covered. Just release the emu without the BIOS but require it. And then you would be correct, it's no big deal.

But I have no idea how one would go about getting the BIOS from the PlayStation console. *Cough*

 

[WinnME]

Getting the bios out of the psx is easy
Just hook up an Action Replay, connect it to your PC and make a memory dump.
delete the nonbios crap from the dump, and you're done
(many tuts on the net for this)

My specs for GP32 II:

- CPU: Intel Xscale pxa270 with 624MHz (cuz it's backward compatible, requires less power, has an automatic SpeedStep technology)
- RAM: 64MB DDR (SD-RAM really gets old)
- LCD: 640x480 (yes the psx and n64 can use this resolution ; the screen doesn't needs to be bigger, just try a VGA Pocket PC and you'll see)
- SD Card (and MMC, of course) for storage
- at least as much buttons as the PSX gamepad (well without the analouge sticks)
- no crappy speakers built-in (just leave them out)
- an extension port with built-in USB-Host
- an integrated LI-ION battery (but exchangeable would be nice)
- no touchscreen (hell, this is no PDA)
- maybe hardware accelerated graphics (it is not really important with such a CPU)

this would be my perfect Gaming device
(And I could sell my Dell Axim X30 and play PSX Games on GP32 II, with a real gamepad)

 

[Julius]

- no crappy speakers built-in (just leave them out)

- an integrated LI-ION battery (but exchangeable would be nice)

Noooo, I need speakers
But to be honest, mono would be fine with me...

And concerning that battery, well that is one of the biggest problems with the N-Gage, that it doesn't use standart batterys... if you are out of "juice" on a trip you can't just quickly buy new ones, and regular exchange rechargebles (even with 2100mAh per AA) are also much cheaper than some kind of custom battery.

 

[DaveC]

- no crappy speakers built-in (just leave them out)

- an integrated LI-ION battery (but exchangeable would be nice)

Noooo, I need speakers
But to be honest, mono would be fine with me...

And concerning that battery, well that is one of the biggest problems with the N-Gage, that it doesn't use standart batterys... if you are out of "juice" on a trip you can't just quickly buy new ones, and regular exchange rechargebles (even with 2100mAh per AA) are also much cheaper than some kind of custom battery.

Mono? BAH! stereo is what makes the sound cool. Just play Sonic 1 on the new Fgen, you can hear the rings etc in stereo and it is awesome.

Also the new system will most likely have a Li-ion custom battery. That is a detriment in my opinion. As you say if you run out of juice you are screwed if not near power. Plus if Gamepark went out of business where would you get the custom battery from? All rechargeables have a limited lifespan. Just like the Zodiac, the battery is hardwired in and when it dies you will have to send it back to have it replaced. If the new GP would have that (most likely will) it would suck.

I wish that Gamepark would just concentrate on the current model for now. The current one is capable of some great things if it was used to it's potential, and with the BLU the screen is actually nice to look at in non-lit areas. That money would be better spent getting better commercial stuff, and converting some existing games to Engrish. Then they would sell more games, more systems and make more money. Then after the PSP/DS hype dies down a bit, then think about new hardware, and by then they would have more money from games etc to put into it.

 

[WinnME]

Even if the next GP32 has a custom Li-Ion Battery and Gamepark dies, do you really think that only Gamepark would produce compatible batteries (thinking of handys, PDAs, GBA SP, etc)

And I would rather save some money, and buy a unit without built in speakers.
They sound like crap, and when I play a game I only use headphones, because I don't want to bother other people with these cranky sounds!

 

[mattmagoo]

dreams:
a ticket for a boat

or a mystery box!!!

I mean, a boats a boat, but a mystery box could be anything ....

... EVEN A BOAT


(I never get tired of that)

 

[jmetal88]

I have another Idear

Use PCSX, it can work with HLE Bios (you don't need a bios file)!!!!!!!
It is not as good as epsxe but waaaaaay better than bleem!

And if ya don't need higher resulotions, you could stick with Connectix VGS!
It doesn't need as bios file, and works almost perfect with almost every game!
(with the help of patches, even under Win 2000/XP and Backups)

Hey wait a sec, ........ use PCSX2 ...... if ya have a Monster PC (>6Ghz), then ya can play even some PS2 games h34r: h34r: h34r:

Ok, for another thing, I only have 24 mb of ram on my desktop (doesn't sound like much, but I did build it just from the cheapest parts I could find on ebay). Epsxe requires 64 mb of ram to run and Bleem! only uses 16 mb. And also, I checked it out and it's more like around 300 games that are fully compatable with Bleem!. Sorry for the misinformation. Oh, yeah, and my desktop is a 266mhz AMD K-6 with a hi-res graphics card by Cirrus Logic.

 

[de_dust]

I see a lot of well meaning but unrealistically high hopes for the next system's specs on here!

Key things are that it needs to be cheap and have low power consumption. It not really possible to guess what the GP32 2 will be like unless you know which market they are targetting. I think they would be wise to go for a combined handheld media market of movies, music, games on an open source platform that also supports strong DRM technology.

I (personally) think it would be unwsie to go too heavily into the PDA market, and a lot of how the specs turn out will be dependant on how heavily Gamepark want to push the system into the world of 3D.

If they want to go in heavily for 3D, probably the best option would be to go for a PoverVR MBX and ARM CPU multi-core on same chip solution. For added grunt they could also stick in the T&L unit that PowerVR have designed to go along with MBX.

This would give Dreamcast or higher level output (depending on clockspeed and inclusion of T&L unit). Resolution of the screen would be dependant upon size of the unit and price, but 640 x 480 could easily be supported.

But I doubt it will be specced that high.

I'd bear in mind the following points:
- You don't need 640 x 480 if you're not a PDA or ultra high end device
- You really don't need more than 32 megs of ram in a handheld
- It must be cheap
- You want several hours of play out of it
- Touch screen is an unproven luxury in a hand held entertainment device that Nintendo can afford to experiment with

If I were designing the GP32 (which I'm obviosly not) I'd target something like the following specs:

- ARM series processor clocked at around 240mhz (lower speeds software selectable)
- PowerVR MBX clocked at around 120 mhz max (slower speeds software selectable)(wouldn't need any dedicated video RAM as it's a tile based renderer)
- 16 or 32 MBytes of 32 bit DDR SDRAM clocked at CPU speed
- No dedicated T&L unit
- Screen res of 360 x 240 ("widescreen" version of current 320 x 240 screen, ideal for movies)
- No touch screen
- Built in wireless connection, preperably WiFi
- Strong DRM
- SNES stye controller config: 4 face mounted main buttons, 2 triggers, 2 auxiliary face buttons
- internal recharable batteries
- Optional Linux based OS
- Open source, Open GL support
- SD or CF (preferably) as the storage medium
- A good old USB port on there

Any money you'd spend on a fancy sound chip would probably be better spent on giving it a stronger general purpose CPU, IMO.

Anyway, I've waffled on for far too long (and yes, I'm a lurker!). Nice website, long live the GP32, and may the GP32 2 be great too.

 

[El_Diablo]

woah...that was a pretty well reasoned and logical breakdown of possible gp32 specs...thanks for that, it made for a good read!

 

[Shane]

dreams:
a ticket for a boat

or a mystery box!!!

I mean, a boats a boat, but a mystery box could be anything ....

... EVEN A BOAT


(I never get tired of that)

Yeah I set that up, straight from the show. Jesus is really... the hulk! dun duun dun.

if the image doesn't work here is jesushulk
http://www.fgmma.com/i/avatar/jesushulk.gif