christo930
Well-Known Member
This is a review of the GP2X from the perspective of a GP32 owner
I was very disappointed when the GP2X came out and practically overnight all GP32
development ceased. The GP32 was and is a great platform and I really wish development
had continued. Since the GP2X is largely responsible for the stopping of GP32
development, I though it was worth mentioning though it is certainly not the fault of
the GP2X.
I was happy with my GP32 but I envied that screen, nevertheless I held out for a while
but then I eventually gave in a saved up and bought a GP2X. I bought it at play Asia
and it was just over $200 (204.70) including shipping. Shipping was pretty fast
considering it came from Aisa. I ordered it Thursday, which was Friday after closing
in Aisa and it shipped Monday(Asian Sunday) and I got it Wednesday. The buying experience was pretty good, but it would have been nice to purchase it locally, but it is an Asian product not for American consumers. I am just happy I was able to get it.
The package
I ordered the new value pack with firmware 3, which in my opinion is nicer looking
than the older firmware. It came with a nice carrying pouch, 4 rechargeable
batteries, ear buds and some built in games on the nand, including the acclaimed GTA
clone payback (demo). Also included is vectar (demo), supertux (a Mario clone)
noiz2sa and flopPuyo. Overall the built in game software is a nice package to get you
started. The ebook reader is very basic and can only handle text files and usually
screws up the formating. White text on black background doesn't make much sense and
is hard on the eyes for anything but short readme files. The mp3 player sounds good
but managing a large collection of mp3's with this built in player is tedious at best.
The photo viewer is good and scales the photos and displays them well. It also
allows you to zoom and pan which is a nice feature. The movie player plays divx and
xvid files and does so very well with no stuttering or drooped frames or anything, but
I wish it was louder. I used multiple movies to make sure it wasn't poor sound
encoding for the movie I watched. There is also a mini-app to show the battery
although it only shows 3 positions full, medium, and low. Another feature is that you
can use it as a sd reader/writer (usb 2) which came in handy until I got my
reader/writer.
Hardware
The build quality seems to be fairly good and the screen is awesome and I'm really
glad it is, because it is one of the reasons I bought it. As mentioned earlier, sound
is a little low even with the limiter shut off. I have not used the included ear buds
but my regular headphones sound fine. All of the ports on the unit come with little
rubber caps to protect them when not in use, they are also connected to the machine so
they don't get lost, a nice touch. There are now 4 buttons, select, start, 2 shoulder
buttons, a joystick button and volume buttons. There will be no shortage of buttons
on this baby. But the joystick leaves something to be desired. I have gotten used to
it and it is much better than it was, but falls short of the GP32's joystick. When I
first got it, I was actually considering returning it because of the joystick, but I
got used to it and it seems to work OK for most games, but I do miss the GP32's stick.
Why they didn't stick with it is beyond me. The screen is almost perfect. The
picture is beuatifull. The only drawback is that it doesn't work in the bright
sunlight. The GP2X is known for it's over-clocking ability, but my unit does not want
to over-clock much, in most applications I can't get past 240 in a few I can get 245.
That is very dissapointing since my GP32 over-clocked to 166 no problem. But most
units can't get past 275 and that's only 15% faster so it's not the end of the day.
The chip is rated at 240 so mine doesn't over-clock at all in most cases. The decision
to use SD cards was a great one. I bought my first card for $14.99, a 1 gig card!!!
Coming from the GP32 and it's 128mb max smc cards which are out of production and a
fortune when you can find nos, it's a joy to use the SD cards. I am next going to buy
a 66x card and see if it loads faster. At minimum it should be faster in my PC when
loading up the games. The design of the unit is very nice. It's fits well into my
hands, is nice looking, lots of buttons, sleek black design. Overall a nice machine
and much nicer looking than the GP32.
Software is a mixed bag. There are a lot of emulators that have very low
compatability while there existence is touted as a reason to get the machine. Take
DOS box for an example. Even games that require a 286 running at 6mhz (no turbo
button to 12mhz needed) like keen don't work even near fast enough to work. It's
little more than a proof of concept. The amiga emulator has very low compatability.
There is a Mac emulator but it's usefulness is questionable. The psx emulator, while
a novel idea is a waste of talent and I wish the author would put his talent to fixing
up some of the other incomplete or slow emulators that have the potential to be 100%.
I am not trying to dis the author of that emulator, it's just that I don't think psx
emulation with high compatability is realistic. The tg16 emulators need work (way too
slow, most games run better on a GP32 although bonk doesn't work on GP32). OTOH,
there are lots of great emu's for this system. Picodrive is awesome. Full speed on
every game I've tried and lots of games can run < 200mhz. I never thought I could
play dragon's lair in my hand! I have played a few gba games and the ones I played
worked, though I think it has low compatability rates. Mame is great! 1000+ games on
1 card in your pocket is just amazing. Many games can run at much lower clock rates
to save battery life, so makes sure to play around with the clock settings. The snes
emu seems to work very well. Stella is great and runs every game I've tried so far,
but I haven't tried supercharger games yet, I hope they work. SC frogger is great.
I've yet to try pitfall 2 as well (which has a sound chip on it). The neogeo emulator
(after fighting for an hour to get it to work) is great. I haven't tried atari 8 bit,
coleco, msx, atari st, vectrex, sms, gg, nes any many others yet as I've been playing
sonic and dragon's lair and mame too much to get to them yet. But I hear that most of
them besides the Vectrex are full speed, but that remains to be seen. One thing I
would really like to see is more multi threaded apps like pico drive which uses the
2nd CPU for sound. You can really see the performance difference and picodrive proves
the 2nd CPU can be utilized in emulation. There are some nice homebrews and some real
duds. I suggest doom, quake, electronia, methane bros and lady killer to get you
started. There is an offline web browser which I haven't got to work yet, but I'm
looking forward to it as I have a number of e-books which are in html.
If you own a GP32 flu, blu or blu+ depending on how long ago you got it, you have a
tough decision to make. In my opinion the GP2X is not a great leap above a GP32 and
when you already have the lit screen and you haven't had it all that long maybe it's
good enough for now. If you have the extra money I say go for it, if money is tight
you can probably hob along on your GP32 blu or flu until the next gen unless some
emulator or game comes along that you have to have. If you need smc cards, then drop
the GP32 and get the GP2X. It's not worth paying for the smc cards. 384 meg of smc
cards will end up costing more than a GP2X. If you don't have a GP32 grab the GP2X.
If you have a GP32 (non lit) I would recommend it because the screen alone is worth
the upgrade and I certainly wouldn't recommend buying a GP32 at this point unless it
would do everything you could ever possibly want, then if you are a broke student or
the like a used blu might make sense. Here's what the upgrade will get you (really
only a partial list)
Back light screen
MUCH cheaper media
More storage in a smaller size
full length movies at 30fps
much better snes and genesis emulation more mame games neo-geo- basically newer system
emulation than possible on GP32
video out (optional)
Much better atari 2600 emulation
A faster CPU (depends on how much your GP32 can over clock and how much the GP2X can)
In my case I had the high side on GP32 (166) and the low side on GP2X 240) an increase
of 74mhz + a second CPU, but only 1 or 2 emulators use it. Officially it's only 66
MHz faster as gamepark rates it a 200mhz system and the GP32 is rated at 133
MUCH MUCH less battery life. This is made even worse by many of the emulators of
newer system needing to be run at 240-275mhz. over clocking (above 200) really has a
big effect on battery life. The inclusion of 2500nimh rechargeable batteries helps a
lot. If you plan on using this while traveling long distance in a car I recommend a
car adapter or a car battery charger unless you own 10 sets of rechargeable batteries.
Overall the GP2X is great machine, loaded with features (though some need some work, thought most of the ones that need work are software and can be fixed. I am speaking of the built in software), buttons, standard batteries (no proprietary rechargeables which could disappear if Game Park were to disappear). I believe the potential of this machine is not even near tapped. Unfortunately it's best feature is it's biggest problem. It's based on linux which means that software can be ported over with relative ease, but it becomes an Achilles heel because most linux emulators are not designed with multiple processors in mind, so half the machine's horsepower gets lost. Linux also has a lot of overhead, so it would be nice to see a development kit which lets you get to the metal of the machine. I rate the machine 8 out 10 stars and software updates to the built in software would raise it to 9. The low volume would keep it from achieving a 10.
Chris
I was very disappointed when the GP2X came out and practically overnight all GP32
development ceased. The GP32 was and is a great platform and I really wish development
had continued. Since the GP2X is largely responsible for the stopping of GP32
development, I though it was worth mentioning though it is certainly not the fault of
the GP2X.
I was happy with my GP32 but I envied that screen, nevertheless I held out for a while
but then I eventually gave in a saved up and bought a GP2X. I bought it at play Asia
and it was just over $200 (204.70) including shipping. Shipping was pretty fast
considering it came from Aisa. I ordered it Thursday, which was Friday after closing
in Aisa and it shipped Monday(Asian Sunday) and I got it Wednesday. The buying experience was pretty good, but it would have been nice to purchase it locally, but it is an Asian product not for American consumers. I am just happy I was able to get it.
The package
I ordered the new value pack with firmware 3, which in my opinion is nicer looking
than the older firmware. It came with a nice carrying pouch, 4 rechargeable
batteries, ear buds and some built in games on the nand, including the acclaimed GTA
clone payback (demo). Also included is vectar (demo), supertux (a Mario clone)
noiz2sa and flopPuyo. Overall the built in game software is a nice package to get you
started. The ebook reader is very basic and can only handle text files and usually
screws up the formating. White text on black background doesn't make much sense and
is hard on the eyes for anything but short readme files. The mp3 player sounds good
but managing a large collection of mp3's with this built in player is tedious at best.
The photo viewer is good and scales the photos and displays them well. It also
allows you to zoom and pan which is a nice feature. The movie player plays divx and
xvid files and does so very well with no stuttering or drooped frames or anything, but
I wish it was louder. I used multiple movies to make sure it wasn't poor sound
encoding for the movie I watched. There is also a mini-app to show the battery
although it only shows 3 positions full, medium, and low. Another feature is that you
can use it as a sd reader/writer (usb 2) which came in handy until I got my
reader/writer.
Hardware
The build quality seems to be fairly good and the screen is awesome and I'm really
glad it is, because it is one of the reasons I bought it. As mentioned earlier, sound
is a little low even with the limiter shut off. I have not used the included ear buds
but my regular headphones sound fine. All of the ports on the unit come with little
rubber caps to protect them when not in use, they are also connected to the machine so
they don't get lost, a nice touch. There are now 4 buttons, select, start, 2 shoulder
buttons, a joystick button and volume buttons. There will be no shortage of buttons
on this baby. But the joystick leaves something to be desired. I have gotten used to
it and it is much better than it was, but falls short of the GP32's joystick. When I
first got it, I was actually considering returning it because of the joystick, but I
got used to it and it seems to work OK for most games, but I do miss the GP32's stick.
Why they didn't stick with it is beyond me. The screen is almost perfect. The
picture is beuatifull. The only drawback is that it doesn't work in the bright
sunlight. The GP2X is known for it's over-clocking ability, but my unit does not want
to over-clock much, in most applications I can't get past 240 in a few I can get 245.
That is very dissapointing since my GP32 over-clocked to 166 no problem. But most
units can't get past 275 and that's only 15% faster so it's not the end of the day.
The chip is rated at 240 so mine doesn't over-clock at all in most cases. The decision
to use SD cards was a great one. I bought my first card for $14.99, a 1 gig card!!!
Coming from the GP32 and it's 128mb max smc cards which are out of production and a
fortune when you can find nos, it's a joy to use the SD cards. I am next going to buy
a 66x card and see if it loads faster. At minimum it should be faster in my PC when
loading up the games. The design of the unit is very nice. It's fits well into my
hands, is nice looking, lots of buttons, sleek black design. Overall a nice machine
and much nicer looking than the GP32.
Software is a mixed bag. There are a lot of emulators that have very low
compatability while there existence is touted as a reason to get the machine. Take
DOS box for an example. Even games that require a 286 running at 6mhz (no turbo
button to 12mhz needed) like keen don't work even near fast enough to work. It's
little more than a proof of concept. The amiga emulator has very low compatability.
There is a Mac emulator but it's usefulness is questionable. The psx emulator, while
a novel idea is a waste of talent and I wish the author would put his talent to fixing
up some of the other incomplete or slow emulators that have the potential to be 100%.
I am not trying to dis the author of that emulator, it's just that I don't think psx
emulation with high compatability is realistic. The tg16 emulators need work (way too
slow, most games run better on a GP32 although bonk doesn't work on GP32). OTOH,
there are lots of great emu's for this system. Picodrive is awesome. Full speed on
every game I've tried and lots of games can run < 200mhz. I never thought I could
play dragon's lair in my hand! I have played a few gba games and the ones I played
worked, though I think it has low compatability rates. Mame is great! 1000+ games on
1 card in your pocket is just amazing. Many games can run at much lower clock rates
to save battery life, so makes sure to play around with the clock settings. The snes
emu seems to work very well. Stella is great and runs every game I've tried so far,
but I haven't tried supercharger games yet, I hope they work. SC frogger is great.
I've yet to try pitfall 2 as well (which has a sound chip on it). The neogeo emulator
(after fighting for an hour to get it to work) is great. I haven't tried atari 8 bit,
coleco, msx, atari st, vectrex, sms, gg, nes any many others yet as I've been playing
sonic and dragon's lair and mame too much to get to them yet. But I hear that most of
them besides the Vectrex are full speed, but that remains to be seen. One thing I
would really like to see is more multi threaded apps like pico drive which uses the
2nd CPU for sound. You can really see the performance difference and picodrive proves
the 2nd CPU can be utilized in emulation. There are some nice homebrews and some real
duds. I suggest doom, quake, electronia, methane bros and lady killer to get you
started. There is an offline web browser which I haven't got to work yet, but I'm
looking forward to it as I have a number of e-books which are in html.
If you own a GP32 flu, blu or blu+ depending on how long ago you got it, you have a
tough decision to make. In my opinion the GP2X is not a great leap above a GP32 and
when you already have the lit screen and you haven't had it all that long maybe it's
good enough for now. If you have the extra money I say go for it, if money is tight
you can probably hob along on your GP32 blu or flu until the next gen unless some
emulator or game comes along that you have to have. If you need smc cards, then drop
the GP32 and get the GP2X. It's not worth paying for the smc cards. 384 meg of smc
cards will end up costing more than a GP2X. If you don't have a GP32 grab the GP2X.
If you have a GP32 (non lit) I would recommend it because the screen alone is worth
the upgrade and I certainly wouldn't recommend buying a GP32 at this point unless it
would do everything you could ever possibly want, then if you are a broke student or
the like a used blu might make sense. Here's what the upgrade will get you (really
only a partial list)
Back light screen
MUCH cheaper media
More storage in a smaller size
full length movies at 30fps
much better snes and genesis emulation more mame games neo-geo- basically newer system
emulation than possible on GP32
video out (optional)
Much better atari 2600 emulation
A faster CPU (depends on how much your GP32 can over clock and how much the GP2X can)
In my case I had the high side on GP32 (166) and the low side on GP2X 240) an increase
of 74mhz + a second CPU, but only 1 or 2 emulators use it. Officially it's only 66
MHz faster as gamepark rates it a 200mhz system and the GP32 is rated at 133
MUCH MUCH less battery life. This is made even worse by many of the emulators of
newer system needing to be run at 240-275mhz. over clocking (above 200) really has a
big effect on battery life. The inclusion of 2500nimh rechargeable batteries helps a
lot. If you plan on using this while traveling long distance in a car I recommend a
car adapter or a car battery charger unless you own 10 sets of rechargeable batteries.
Overall the GP2X is great machine, loaded with features (though some need some work, thought most of the ones that need work are software and can be fixed. I am speaking of the built in software), buttons, standard batteries (no proprietary rechargeables which could disappear if Game Park were to disappear). I believe the potential of this machine is not even near tapped. Unfortunately it's best feature is it's biggest problem. It's based on linux which means that software can be ported over with relative ease, but it becomes an Achilles heel because most linux emulators are not designed with multiple processors in mind, so half the machine's horsepower gets lost. Linux also has a lot of overhead, so it would be nice to see a development kit which lets you get to the metal of the machine. I rate the machine 8 out 10 stars and software updates to the built in software would raise it to 9. The low volume would keep it from achieving a 10.
Chris
