Got A Gp32 Over A Psp. Was I Right?

[mrdark]

Hey again everybody. As lots of you know, I've been on here a while asking all about the original GP32, which I bought from Ebay a few weeks ago and STILL haven't gotten yet (but should anytime). I've been meaning to use it mainly for emus, since I've been gaming for 20 years and miss those old systems.

But lately I've been hearing a lot of people talk about the Emu potential of the PSP, and some like it better.

Now don't get me wrong- I'm not gonna say I made the wrong choice on a board dedicated to the former. But I'm curious. I mainly want to play Nes, Snes, Genesis, Mame, and Scumm games on my system- that's the main reason I bought this. I paid over $250 for the GP32 with a bunch of free games and discs of goodies thrown in. Seemed like a good price to me.

But speaking of price, the PSP is roughly the same amount, and now I'm hearing about that system being able to do a lot of what I got the GP32 for. Now, I've also heard about the PSP having issues with "dead pixels" and a sticky main button, which turned me off of it for now. But then I also hear about the control stick on the GP32 being funky, with suggestions of soldering and whatnot, which I'm not into doing.

So don't get me wrong, I don't regret my purchase. But looking at things objectively, with what I want out of the system and what each one is capable of and all faults considered, can you guys tell me if I made the right decision or if I should've gotten the PSP?

Remember, I'm not saying one is better- I'm just interested in the opinions of those who had to choose between the two, and what motivated that decision (and if it had to do with the same issues I've brought up). Oh and I'm not regarding the GP2X at all right now- probably a great system but for me a non-issue since I only wanted the best emu system that I could buy right now.

Any insight is appreciated!

 

[Shadow of Chaos]

at the moment i'd probably say most emu's are better on the GP32 than psp, obviously if you want commercial games then you cant go wrong with the psp.

 

[Tobriand]

For Nes, Genesis, and Scumm, the GP32 is stunning. For Mame, I'm less certain, to be honest, but from what I hear other people say, its pretty darn good (depending on the games you're trying to play, of course).

However, for SNES, atm, whilst there is good speed emulation without sound, with sound its still a little slow - whilst supposedly (ask Prophet, the man with a GP32 *and* 2 PSPs) SNES emulation on the PSP is fantastic atm. That said, with Reesy at last having gotten Yoyo's old OS9x code to compile, there's a good chance that SNES will become better than adequate (and it is adequate already - and extremely good for some games; DK springs to mind ) with sound in the not too distant future. I *doubt* the GP32 will ever have access to full transparencies, although a "fake" interlaced mode has been talked about, and could - some way down the line - be on the cards for being implemented. So there's still a good chance for getting SNES at a level you want.

Imo, it'll almost certainly do everything you want it to do (and more - there's more emus for this system than pretty much anything else around saving the desktop PC iirc, let alone movies and some excellent homebrew games), and of course, there's the added bonus of being in one of the most friendly communities around in the handheld scene.

Whether its the better choice, on the other hand, isn't really something I can answer - again, ask Prophet. I must say, were I to choose GP32 original or PSP, I'd be sorely tempted by the PSP. GP2x? That's a different story, but that isn't exactly your situation.

 

[Iorgy77]

You paid too much.

 

[deadlychicken22]

I would say getting a gp32 was the right decision. It has justa about perfect emulators for many of the older systems and even a near perfect genesis emulator (thanks reesy!). It also has a lot of really good homebrew games and it seems that you have come in a very good week (a lot of stuff has been released). NES, MAME, Genesis, and Scumm are really good on the gp32. Snes, however, is very choppy if you have the sound on. But Reesy, the coding god behind DrMD (genesis emulator), has started work on the snes emulator so it will probably be much better shortly. I love my gp32.

 

[watoto]

ok,the dead pixel thing is kind of old now.it was a launch units problem mainly.and no sticky buttons tbh.

plus,when you mention the "emu potential" of the psp,it's not potential,it's reality.
there's tons of emus on it already and it does a lot of things better than gp32 for obvious reasons.

now i love my gp32 but i'd be lying if i said i still use it.

to be honest all i ever wanted was good snes emulation and it's probably the one thing i never got out of the gp32,and now i'm playing zelda and ff and other games fullspeed with sound and virtually no frameskip on psp(thanks to the very dev who abandoned the project on gp32)so that sells it for me.

another thing about the psp is that the scene moves at lightning speed.I mean i can check psp news every two hours and there will always be at least one new software\homebrew\emu either creted or updated.
by contrast most of the gp32 action i get these days is visiting the other consoles forum.now it wasn't always like this but it still wasn't as fast as the psp scene.

plus surely you will have noticed the gp2x is being relesed in a short time.

so,yeah,i'd personally say yours wasn't the best choice.

 

[mrdark]

Ah, I see. Thanks for all the detailed comparisons, this really does shed some light.

For starters, I heard NOTHING about PSP emu capability when it was first coming out. To suddenly learn that it plays lots of them, and well, is startling. I had wanted to buy the system originally but those pixels and button problems stopped me from being an early adopter. Knowing that those problems are fixed too also make me a bit disappointed that I at least didn't do more research. Until now I actually had no idea that the PSP was emulating ANYTHING yet, let alone the Snes, one of the things I wanted most.

But thanks for letting me know that the GP32 is still good enough to hold its own compared to these issues. I'm relly excited to know that a potentially better SNes emulator is being worked on. This will sound obtuse, but who IS Reesey anyway? I hear the name a lot and it sounds like this is a pretty cool guy. I'd love to beg him to continue this Snes work, though I'm sure he gets enough of that anyway!

Oh, and I should point out that while I did pay a hefty chunk for my used GP32, this was literally TWO DAYS before they were everywhere on ebay last week. When I first heard of the system at around september 10th, I couldn't find one- Lik Sang was out, and Gbbax.com wouldn't let me put one in their cart (it just disappeared). Similar problems popped up on every other of the maybe 5 sites I ever found that sold the damn thing. So I bought the ebay one, getting my bid jacked up by forty bucks in the last minute, and was satisfied. Only to find out that two days later gbax was liquidating their stock. Dammit.

Well, that's why I was concerned. I guess it would've been a fairly comparable choice between the GP32 and PSP (and others will argue convincingly that I should've just waited for the GP2x), so I'm a little sad that I didn't wait and learn more. But to know that so many of you are convinced that the GP32 is just as good, then I don't feel so bad! Thanks for all the advice.

 

[triksR4rabits]

Reesy is a prolific coder who created the infamous dr.md emulator, a fantastic genesis/megadrive emu for the gp32. He is rather active on these baords and is a credit to the communty.
He is indeed working on yoyofr's osnes, but I wouldn't hold my breath for serious advancements. This has nothing to do with reesy's coding skill; he is quite gifted. It's just that the gp has its limits and, and so does Reesy.

As far as your decision goes, I will say this- for starters, you paid too much. Now that thats out of the way, there is no doubt in my mind that you will very much enjoy the gp. It is a fantastic, versatile handheld with a strong community and great homebrew.

As far as the psp goes, it's a very nice piece of kit, but you will not regret your decision to get a gp.

 

[Alpha2]

It's tough for another person to tell YOU how much something bought should be worth to you. It's pointless to ask now that you paid for it and that you paid more than you could ever possibly get for it used. That said there's more than just Emulators to be enjoyed on GP32. But if you don't take that into account you start to feel like maybe the PSP would be a better value.

The problem with the PSP is people will keep telling you how great it is for commercial games and with sony's war against homebrew, while there are a lot of decent emulators it becomes questionable how long you'll be able to enjoy them before a game coems out for the PSP that you might want to play. You might say "Well what if I just want to play emulators on it?" Then I'd say you're wasting your money for a PSP in that case because Like I said the GP32 has a bit more robust homebrew game scene. More game creation engines, SDKs, etc. and as far as I know Fenix hasnt been ported to PSP.

 

[mrdark]

Thanks guys, but everyone PLEASE remember that I paid such a high price because it wasn't available anywhere else when I bought it, period. Any sites that sold it were dead, flawed, untrustworthy, or out of stock (especially the latter). And I reiterate, I didn't want to wait for the GP2x- I wanted a system that could emu right away. Not many people have their hands on the 2x yet, and choosing between the two I chose the one that already had so much support and a bigger installed base.

As for the PSP comparison, I know I can't go back on the GP32, nor would I want to. I can save up a paycheck and pick up the PSP in the future if I need to. That's the only reason I was asking this topic- to basically ask if there was any reason to want for the PSP at all now that I got the GP32. You know, asking whether I made the right decision in the situation I was in.

I don't care much for the PSP's commercial games so far. That having been said, I don't know very much about the homebrews yet either, such as whether they're even long or very in-depth (and they could very well be, so don't be insulted, I just speak from inexperience with them).

I guess when it all comes down to it, I didn't even know that the PSP emulated anything yet, and features such as those extra face buttons and such could definitely have a swaying effect. I just wanted to know if I'd made the wrong choice going with GP32, all features of the PSP considered. So again, thanks for helping me out with the opinions. I don't think I went wrong with the GP32, but the price and apparent similar (if not same) functions of the PSP do bum me out a bit.

 

[diablo2]

snes tyl is uber
go for psp

 

[mrdark]

Oh yeah, this Reesy sounds like a great guy, too. I saw the new file he offered just today on the homepage for the Snes emu. I'm not sure if the text meant that it doesn't work with Blu+ at all yet or what, but seems positive regardless.

 

[Alpha2]

Well look at this way: you wanted it seriously, you're not interested in PSP comercial games, the Memsticks are digustingly expensive compared the SMCs so honestly assuming you get the GP32 in the mail sometime soon you made a fair choice and leave it at that.

I feel the only reason any Devs went over to the PSP is the raw horse power they think it has, regardless of the issues involved for the end user.

 

[deadlychicken22]

If you like genesis you will LOVE DrMD which is the genesis emulator that reesy made for the gp32. I always used to be a snes fan and didn't really play much genesis but now i play genesis a lot more on my gp32 because after playing sonic fullspeed with sound, its painful to go back to choppy snes games, even if I like the actual games better.

BTW, ppl, he's already heard that he paid too much for the gp32, now give him a break. If hes willing to pay that much, who's to say its not worth that much? I'm sure he will find it was worth every cent.

 

[mrdark]

Yeah Alpha, that's some of the stuff I mean. I only discovered this system three weeks ago. Stumbling on its review on Lik-Sang, it sounded like a dream come true to a retro guy like me, so it seemed like all I wanted. I really looked hard to find the GP32 but couldn't except for the expensive ebay deal. Since then, I found this site and have been trying to learn all I could. Little by little I've found out more reassuring and important information, but only just today I found out how good the PSP can run emus, so it was definitely worrisome. I didn't rethink my purchase until now.

So, thanks for the input. I know there's nothing I can do and I didn't want people to tell me that the system is what I want or other opinion-based stuff like that. Just in the longrun whether choosing a GP32 over a PSP for my emulation needs was a wise decision. I didn't know about comparative performance, and didn't even learn til an hour ago that the dead pixel issue was apparently fixed, since stuff like that made me sort of stay away from the PSP in the first place.

I'm glad that it seems like it was at least a pretty comparable set of options, from the sound of things. And sorry if I've eubbed anyone the wrong way with this PSP comparison- that wasn't my intent.


And thanks for backing me up Deadly Chicken. I went from the GP32 being out of stock, rare and wonderful, to finding it and buying it for a price that seemed high but not outrageous (such as double retail price or something). Now it's on ebay every day, cheaper even, and that really sucks. I couldn't have predicted that, because I really did try hard to find it somewhere other than the ebay deal I committed to. Besides, like I said, someone bid-sniped me up 40 bucks at the last minute. Bastards.

I'm glad the Genesis plays fine on this system, but I guess I can't care too much because I have two Nomads sitting in my dresser as we speak. I can't knock it if the GP32 runs it smooth, that's fantastic no matter what. It's just not an emu that really applies to me.

I guess the only thing that really makes me sad after all this is the Snes emulation scene. That was probably my biggest interest in the GP32, and had I found this site first before purchasing, I could've been a little more prepared. I'm sure I'll be able to play my games, it's just saddening to know that another system, one I shunned, plays them even better. One of those situations where you shrug and delve into the other good attributes of your system, I suppose.

 

[Alpha2]

I dunno if the Dead Pixel issue is so much fixed as it is just over blown. There are probably still people getting DPed units but they probably dosent see the problem as being bad enough to need it replaced.

As for your Nomads, think of it this way, once you get a source of roms you can bring dozens of Genesi games with you without needing to bring carts.

With time maybe the SNES emulator will improve soon now that it's being working on again.

 

[mrdark]

I dunno if the Dead Pixel issue is so much fixed as it is just over blown. There are probably still people getting DPed units but they probably dosent see the problem as being bad enough to need it replaced.

As for your Nomads, think of it this way, once you get a source of roms you can bring dozens of Genesi games with you without needing to bring carts.

With time maybe the SNES emulator will improve soon now that it's being working on again.

That's a very good point, I won't need cartridges anymore. I guess in general I've been playing Genesis on the road for a decade now thanks to the Nomad, but either way it's awesome to have it on the Gp32 and without cartridges, like you said. Credit still goes to the developers, that's for sure.

It's hard to know where to stand on the dead pixels. At first I was excited about the PSP, until I learned (obviously quite long ago) that it wasn't back-compat. Then I learned it was a new media format, then I heard of the dead pixels and sticky X button. When I heard that Sony's response to this was basically "oh well", I wrote off the PSP until I heard otherwise. I guess that'd be today. I didn't know how bad the problem was (or wasn't, apparently), but because of Sony's response I'd just assumed the problem was here to stay. That's why I've been so concerned over my GP32 decision lately.

Definitely hoping for good SNes emulation though. I'm not gonna bitch if it's just at "acceptable" right now, since that's still cool. But I admit I'm really hoping that it improves to closer to fullspeed. Hell, I don't even care so much- I'd play it and be happy at 75% speed if I could do it with sound. But again, the fact that I can do it at all is cool. Just hope it gets even better!

BTW Alpha, I asked but you may've not caught it before- have you seen the Golgo 13 animes? Probably, but if you haven't- good stuff.

 

[ralp99]

ah man.. don't sweat it. if you truly are a retroguy, as you've said, then the GP32 is definitely gonna be your friend. don't worry about that.

as for PSP, well, personally i don't like the system, but i won't discount the fact that it's obviously very impressive and the scene it's got surrounding it is powerful. it's brand new, still, and the emu scene for it will likely get pretty damn spiffy... but you know what? i have more than justified my GP32 purchase and not too interested in trading up at this point. new and wondeful apps/upgrades keep churning out and it keeps the system alive and relevant for me. it handles all the emu's really well and hey - when i got the thing, hearing about the snes emu limitations kind of gave me low expectations and i was very impressed by what i did see, after all.

i think you will dig this system, give it a chance. our scene is small, and of course limited, but it feels pretty special and different than any of the others i have seen.. also you don't get many lamers in here, most are people who are actually way into the old-school games and homebrew. what you lack in the raw power/namebrand of the PSP, you make up for with character and personality of a scene like this. in that vein, welcome aboard!!

besides, if some time passes and it's not doing it for ya, then sell the damn thing, heh heh.. chaulk it up as a lesson learned, and get one of the other devices instead. no big deal, right?

 

[K0K0NUT_h3lmut]

I think the GP32 was a good purchase on your part, just go browsing through the GP32x File Archive and you'll know what I mean. However, I think the only poor decision on your part was NOT RELATED to getting a PSP, but RATHER to not getting a GP2X. There are already working emulators that are being worked on for it, and I think in the future it will be all you'll ever need for emulation besides PSX and N64. It has SOO MUCH potential.

 

[mrdark]

Thanks you two, I appreciate the enthusiastic support.

I do think I'm gonna dig the Gp32. I guess I can just say that it was a series of slightly unfortunate occurences that led me to buy the system with a couple small but important issues about comparative performance and price. It still looks good fur sure though, that I don't doubt. When I was ten I remember playing Castlevania 2 and wishing it would just come to the Gameboy, and now I'll have it WAY better. That's pretty cool. Old-school all the way.

I appreciate the support and opinions, I suppose I've just learned a few things that i didn't know over the last couple days and it's made me concerned, that's all. Glad to hear so many people still love their system after all this. Oh and remember, I'm sure the 2x will kick ass. But the GP32 alone was a brand new system to me, so while wisdom may suggest to just buy the new version since I'm walking in right at the best time to do so, I just wanted to get the system that I was already SURE to do all the cool things I'd read about, right now.