Gp2x Dead?

[Crazy Goat]

It is only his opinion that the GP2X is horrid - and his opinion is worthless, so no harm done.

The GP2X is a slow developing community - there is plenty out there right now to keep me occupied, and I am also learning programming, so this will come in handy down the road. This console was designed for a niche market - you knew that when you bought it... so don't bitch to us about it. I make more than enough in a day to pay for a GP2X, and I feel that it was well worth the cost over another console. The DS lite is a nice looking, compact, bright device, but the hardware is quite limited in homebrew development, the resolution of each screen is horrid - and the games aren't really poised towards an adult audience.

I love my GP2X - no device is perfect, and I didn't expect this one to be either... they did a great job creating a console that balanced power and price - and I feel that it was a good investment. The only thing I can possibly gripe about is the "inactivity" I see on GPH's part, and... well... who ever took over Firmware development these days... their site is fairly slow updating - and I haven't seen too many new things (excuding that awesome competition they announced...) about the 2X...

But as I said before, I love it!

 

[JaqMs]

The GP2X is a slow developing community

Yup. It was pretty fast in the beginning, but no has come to a standstill. Each new day brings a 1-2 FPS increase or a nicer menu in some emulator (HOOORAAAYYYYY).

there is plenty out there right now to keep me occupied

Yup. Many, many, many exciting, original, and modern Odyssey II games to play for 10 seconds each!

they did a great job creating a console that balanced power and price

You mean $200 is worth 50% of the described power of the GP2X, with 25% used up due to the Linux overhead and 25% that is included but never used because it's too hard to implement? Seriously craigix, tell GPH to remove the second processor. If they can't make their video player run well enough without it, then they just have to program it better.

 

[shinneri]

Do you guys know how long it took the GP32 to develop into the console that it is? YEARS. The GP2X is not a console for those without any patience. This isn't a DS or PSP; Devs don't have tens of thousands of dollars or teams of two dozen working on a project everyday. It takes time, but things will develop.

And anyway, the GP2X is miles and miles ahead of where the GP32 was at this point in it's lifespan.

 

[Faugh2]

Piece out and enjoy your 2x ( LMAO)

I believe it was Plato, or possibly Descarte, who said "Don't let the door hit you on the way out".

Good advice, that.

 

[Hanz™]

The GP2X is a slow developing community

Yup. It was pretty fast in the beginning, but no has come to a standstill. Each new day brings a 1-2 FPS increase or a nicer menu in some emulator (HOOORAAAYYYYY).

20fps increase in pepones emulator yesterday?

there is plenty out there right now to keep me occupied

Yup. Many, many, many exciting, original, and modern Odyssey II games to play for 10 seconds each!

You only play games for 10 seconds?! Hahaha.

 

[gaterooze]

There are 160 homebrew games in the archive at the moment.

Why on earth did you buy a GP2X if you don't like retro gaming? :lol:

 

[JaqMs]

Do you guys know how long it took the GP32 to develop into the console that it is? YEARS. The GP2X is not a console for those without any patience. This isn't a DS or PSP; Devs don't have tens of thousands of dollars or teams of two dozen working on a project everyday. It takes time, but things will develop.

And anyway, the GP2X is miles and miles ahead of where the GP32 was at this point in it's lifespan.

But the GP2X is better suited for development to begin with. It shouldn't be developing slow. The reason it's so slow is because everyone is busy playing with their emulators.

There are 160 homebrew games in the archive at the moment.

Why on earth did you buy a GP2X if you don't like retro gaming? laugh.gif

I never got a GP2X because I have a GP32. Why would I shell out $200 (which is not worth the hardware) just to play Atari 2600 and Odyssey II games? There's something called the GP32 that can do those already. And don't start about NeoGeo and crap, because I really don't care at all. Look at the Homebrew-Emulator ratio for the Gp32. Then look at the ratio for GP2X. Notice something?

 

[Vynx]

The GP2X is a slow developing community

Yup. It was pretty fast in the beginning, but no has come to a standstill. Each new day brings a 1-2 FPS increase or a nicer menu in some emulator (HOOORAAAYYYYY).

there is plenty out there right now to keep me occupied

Yup. Many, many, many exciting, original, and modern Odyssey II games to play for 10 seconds each!

they did a great job creating a console that balanced power and price

You mean $200 is worth 50% of the described power of the GP2X, with 25% used up due to the Linux overhead and 25% that is included but never used because it's too hard to implement? Seriously craigix, tell GPH to remove the second processor. If they can't make their video player run well enough without it, then they just have to program it better.

It doesn't have a second processor, it's a dualcore single CPU. Come back and insult the GP2X when you actually know what you're talking about. Something tells me it's your attention span that is the problem, not the GP2X. You sound like a spoiled brat to me, someone who doesn't appreciate the hard work and effort put into the GP2X, and expects everything now even when practically everything for the GP2X is free anyway, meaning that everyone who designs on the system is giving up their free time to do so.

Considering what we pay to please these games, I think we're incredibly lucky to have gotten what he have so far.

 

[Alex.]

The sad part is that once the GP2X went semi-mainstream (appeared in some magazines and TV shows), lots of idiots and impatient plug-and-play 8 year olds joined up. They got excited for all the wrong reasons, then started bitching because they can't read readme's, then spread negative rumours about the device and the community whererever and whenever they saw fit.

Ive had my 2x for a while now and apart from the megadrive emualtor ( which gets boring after 20 mins of playing games for about 10 secs each ) theres nothing it does that is any good.

That's because you don't have any attention span, or because you never played a non-polygonal game in your life. There are tens of gems for the Megadrive alone, not to mention other great emulators, interpreters, and original homebrew. Did you try Tilematch, Vektar, or Spout?

The buihttp://www.gp32x.de/board/style_images/1/folder_rte_images/bold.gif
Boldld quaility is a joke, the joystick, well what can i say, ive never seen such a crappy joystick in 20 years of gaming.

Granted, the build is not the best, but it hold up quite well. remember, you only paid for the console, the content is free.

I just got a DS Lite and the build quality is excellent, the games are amazing, the screens are bright AND MOST OF ALL it has a fucking joypad that i can actually play games with and not get frustrated.

The DS is a commercial-oriented platform, and thus they have to make it appealing to the masses. The GP2X is homebrew oriented.

Anyways im outa here people ive had enough of this plastic crap that you lot love, the graphics are shite and generally its just a piece of crap IMO.

Way to piss on our hobby.

Piece out and enjoy your 2x ( LMAO)

Let's take the sentence "You are a piece of shit.". Got it how I used the word piece instead of peace? Learn something

- Alex

 

[Miner49er]

This topic, for some wierd reason, makes me more determined to get a GP2X I have a GP32 already and was a bit pissed off with the build quality, maybe i'm a sucker for punishment but I just like retro-gaming.

Sod off if you don't like it. Do you want to sell it?

 

[NonsensicalSoccer]

I agree with the post in some aspects. I bought the GP2X on the back of having a GP32, which as first generation of open source handhelds was revolutionary. Unfortunatly there doesnt seem a quantum leap in performance with the GP2X. After spending the best part of £200 (GP2X, high end rechargable batteries and 2GB SD) i actually found myself casting it aside to play my GP32 instead as i was so fed up with waiting ages for it to boot (or having to turn it on and off because it hangs while booting every so often). Yeah they have sorted out the firmware and the SD is an obvious improvement over the GP32 but right now for me it is just that, a glorified GP32.

So i think mine is going to stay in the cupboard for a bit longer, hopefully if all goes well with the PSX Emulator then we can all be confident that there will be some pretty cool homebrew with more highend graphics, we just have to give it time to evolve.

 

[soup_nazi]

I never got a GP2X because I have a GP32. Why would I shell out $200 (which is not worth the hardware) just to play Atari 2600 and Odyssey II games? There's something called the GP32 that can do those already. And don't start about NeoGeo and crap, because I really don't care at all. Look at the Homebrew-Emulator ratio for the Gp32. Then look at the ratio for GP2X. Notice something?

You do know that it takes a lot less time to port an emulator than to write a brand spanking new piece of homebrew, right? If you had some patience you could check back in a year or two, but something tells me your attention span won't make the distance...

 

[Steve-O]

And anyway, the GP2X is miles and miles ahead of where the GP32 was at this point in it's lifespan.

I think thats mainly because most of the coders are from the GP32 Scene and can port their great GP32 emus over to the GP2x then optimize them etc... If the GP32 never existed and the GP2X was released, it would most probably have taken the same amount of time as it took for the GP32 to get where it is today.

 

[Epicenter]

You mean $200 is worth 50% of the described power of the GP2X, with 25% used up due to the Linux overhead and 25% that is included but never used because it's too hard to implement? Seriously craigix, tell GPH to remove the second processor. If they can't make their video player run well enough without it, then they just have to program it better.

You really don't know what you're talking about; at all. First of all, adding a 2nd processor like the ARM940T to the equation in no way forms '50%' of the machine's 'power'. It was known from close to day one that the secondary processor had no MMU and less cache and might be a hassle to use. Even if it weren't, SMP setups with 2 processors, their own MMUs and equal specifications are already extremely difficult to program for, and to parallelize code effectively for (especially emulators.) No one realistic or with experience in programming expected the 940T processor to double raw computing capabilities. No one with experience in game development expects a 2nd processor to do as much good as a dedicated 2D blitter-- which the GP2X has.

The use of the Linux operating system does not add a '25% performance overhead', don't pull statistics out of your ass. With some programs, yes, there's been about a 10-15% change observable, e.g. some emulators' performance; but nothing as dramatic as 25%. You also must take into account that the use of Linux and the abiliity to utilize the common and very powerful SDL library (which operates on many more platforms than the GP2X mind you) is solely responsible for the majority of the software that exists for the GP2X. Were it another proprietary closed OS like the GP32 utilized, the development of the 2x's community would've been as slow as the GP32's, if not dramatically slower.

What confirms you have no grasp at all of what you are talking about is your suggestion to remove the ARM940T. It's part of an integrated System on a Chip; the MMSP2. That is the core of the GP2X-- GPH didn't engineer it, MagicEyes did. The GP2X as a system is an MMSP2 on a board, in a case, with GPH's selection of RAM chips, NAND chip, controls, casing and screen (also a few extra ICs like a USB client chip.) It's not POSSIBLE to remove the 2nd core-- most SoC's don't even HAVE one. It was an added bonus as far as the MMSP2 went. As for running XViD and DivX and other MPEG4 video (with audio decompression) on 1 200 MHz ARM920T, that's a hell of a workload and some things are just plain not achievable no matter how good a programmer you are.

About this business of no one playing the GP2X for any real period of time and just using it as a novelty .. I know when I open up GNGeo2x and play a bit of Metal Slug (or X .. or 2, or 3 ..) I end up playing all the way to the end. I don't have trouble playing it for extended periods and I'm not sure why people do. I also play Super Mario World for over an hour most of time I pick it up. I'd play Ecco 2 for ages on DrMDx except for a sound bug that irritates me; which is fixable (I'm about to PM Reesy about it, actually.) Gunstar Heroes and Sonic I'll play for quite some time, too. Also Vectorman! NES games can keep me occupied on there for ages. Same for long games like Tails' Adventure for Game Gear (alexkidd2x I'm looking at you naturally). Mario Land 2 on GB or Tetris or Quarth also occupy me for a good long time. Vobbo is working on a modern MAME port (That I intend to pay him to develop even) which, if it pans out as it seems to be doing, will keep me glued to my GP2X playing all my favorite Cave/Psikyo/Capcom top-scrolling arcade shooters.

Did I just rattle off a list of emulators? I did. But guess what I spend more time doing than anything else on my GP2X-- developing for it. There are some great homebrew endeavors and I really look forward to what's coming soon ( and hope people are looking forward to what's coming from me and the rest of the team!), and I really think that statements so early on, when the machine is in its infancy, that the machine is DEAD or that the fact that most of the software for it right now that is popular is for emulation is both a premature and inappropriate gesture that flat-out insults those working hard to develop software asking nothing in return but for you to give their creations a shot.

 

[nickspoon]

Hang on, JaqMs. You don't actually own a GP2X? What right do you have, then, to complain about it and its scene?

 

[Ravnos]

I never got a GP2X

So basically you're an idiot who doesn't know what he's talking about but just wanted to stir up shit. Thanks for coming out champ.

 

[rmatheso]

This guy is just a TROLL! I doubt he even owns one.

 

[Draco]

This topic, for some wierd reason, makes me more determined to get a GP2X I have a GP32 already and was a bit pissed off with the build quality, maybe i'm a sucker for punishment but I just like retro-gaming.

Sod off if you don't like it. Do you want to sell it?

I'd rather get a MK2 if I was you, but that's me.

On topic: At first I also was a little disappointed and was mainly playing genesis games only.
But I got into it more and discovered quite a few gems out there.

 

[Trashman]

Bloody hell!
Thats what I get for not logging in for a while. Yeah, I dont check the archive's for new software as much as I used too, and I have less to spout off about on here as I did. But thats down to a topic I raised a few months back. Im comfortable with my 2x now.
Everything I enjoy works at pretty good speeds. Cheers Reesy!
There's less to complain about the firmware, no really. Iv'e had one for a while.
Things are rosey in the garden.
Im hapy so bollox if you arn't.
And Im a bit pissed. B)

 

[JaqMs]

Nickspoon and Ravnos, notice that I have a GP32, joined the forum earlier than both of you, AND am still posting in the forum. What, do I really need to have a GP2X to follow the scene? Not having it just saves me the trouble of becoming disappointed from buying it for the many problems.

Original homebrew games require not only good coding skills, but also imagination. Creativeness is what makes a homebrew game the most appealing. With emulators, you can only go as far as perfectly emulating the games. But with homebrew, say there is a very fun game: people can make requests to the author to add features and such. The only requests people can make relating to emulators is "MMEMEEME WANTS GGBBAAA!!!!11"

Homebrew games also give inspiration. Games like Epicenter's Stargazer and Dzz's upcoming games will hopefully give inspiration for others to create homebrew games. Right now, there's NOTHING. No one knows the full potential of the scene yet because of the lack of homebrew. Wow, they can see emulators running on the GP2X, but what difference does it make if they can see the emulators running on many other systems?

To all those that play emulators only (most people here), remember that you are not playing the games that someone would buy the GP2X for. No one ever says "Man there's this cool game called "Super Mario World" for the GP2X. You gotta try it out."