GP32 - after a couple months, what do you think?

[ralp99]

ok so I have had this thing for a good 3 months or so, now. The novelty has worn off and it's not all fancy and new anymore, so it seems like a good time to start a little discussion about it "what do you think of it after it's been sitting around for awhile?"
I was aware of it for awhile before I caved in ordered one, GPengine was the deciding factor to buy one and I got in on the first batch of FLU units. With all that in mind. I was prepared for it to be a true pain in the ass to set up, got it running emulators in about an hour out of the box. Since then I have had little to no problem getting it to run anything as expected (PC-Link software, etc). Haven't tried putting MP3s on it, nor Divx movies, not even commercial games yet.

Emulators - well like I said GPengine was the main reason for me to buy this, it's moslty satisfying - I hardly touch it these days though, waiting for a new version to fix the problems with my favorite games (since I got sick of galaga 88 and Rtype)

I still dig it for the SMS emulator but I haven't played it hardcore with more than a couple games (choplifter, gunstar, maybea couple others)

Haven't tried it with any NES emulators (though I was VERY impressed with the fNes32 beta) but I am still mainly sticking to PocketNES on GBA for it's completeness and save state support at this point.

Surprised by fMSX32 and Atari ST, systems I never previously played, these are nice diversions oin the meantime while I wait for my hopeful-to-be-emulated systems (though I haven't delved too terribly far into them)

Still waiting for better SNES emulation, a couple games run satisfactorily for me currently but the rest is just a tease.

Still anticipating for Mame and Genesis emulation.

And that's about it.. I have been super busy with work so not too much time to devote to fooling around with this thing. It's impressive and I am happy I bought it, but I am kind of delegating it to the shelf for the time being while I wait for more/beter emulators to rear their heads, I find myself playing with the GBA lately instead (which had been pretty much ignored while the GP32 was a novelty)

I'd still recommend the GP32 to emulation gearheads like myself, but not so heartily as "go get one NOW," more like "watch the scene for the next 6 months and see what happens, otherwise you might want to save your money.. unless what there already is available for it will suit you just perfectly"

I know a bunch of the rest of you have got your systems around the same time that I did.. what do the rest of you have to say? Are you completely satisfied in hindsight, frustrated with the bursts of screenshots and then slow development, completely dissatisfied with your purchase, or happy with the current diversions but patiently waiting for more busts of "new toys" for the GP32? Let's get some discussion going, the @ 3-month and 6-month owners especially...

 

[wilek]

I got my GP a few weeks rather than months ago, but I've done a lot with it. I had been considering a GBA flash cart and an MP3 player, so I got to thinking, why not get something that does everything both do and more, but costs less?

It hasn't disappointed so far. I got it mostly for NES and SNES emulation, and while that's not completely here yet (but the NES is so close I can taste it ), I've enjoyed what I have so far. GPSCUMM has proven rather nice--hope that cutscene bug gets cleared up soon so I can play Sam & Max whilst hitting the road.

I use Moviepark rather a lot more than I anticipated; it works great for cartoons and such. YaY, portable Zim. ^_^ (It goes out of sync quite a bit in fullscreen, but turning FS mode off and back on fixes it.)

I am quite pleasantly surprised by the homebrew scene. Normally I'm not much for homebrew, but the GP's HB scene has prompted me to take a second look. Must...play...more...Slyro...

And MP3 playback! They didn't have to put it in, but they did, because they're just that cool. My CD burner has been ailing, so this was a nice little surprise. I wish it'd play more than one bitrate at the right speed, but ehh. (I'm thinking of getting a second SMC just for movies and MP3s.)

So overall, the GP32 is awesomely excellent. B)

(I use too many smilies. :blink: )

 

[unlucky]

I've had my gp32 for a while now and at the moment i seem to use it as an mp3 player and to play the many many homebrew games as they are really of a high quality. I use the video playback often enough i only recently started using the mp3 player with the new beta that came with pc manager software. Finally all bitrates can play. I really like the emulators but i'm really waiting for a full speed nes emulator. I also would be hopeful for a mame emulator but cant say i expect it. I seem to have a thing for nice clean sound in a game or i just dont liike playing it which is probably why i dont like playing snes games to much about from super r type which is playable even with sound on and maybe a bit of lemmings too. But i was always a sega mega drive user so thats when i'll really use my gp32 all the time. I think what i really like about it is the community and how atleast once a week something really nice is released its great really. Its the constant messing and things breaking that i like the most

 

[jot2b]

I am very happy with my GP32 purchase. Most of my time is devoted to the NES emulator, LJGP32, and Day of the Tentacle on SCUMMGP (ack, I'm stuck, but I'm too stubborn to read a walkthrough!).

My only disappointment is the control stick, though I realize a lot of people enjoy it. It looks and feels better than a GBA control pad, but is too sensitive for games like Tetris and even Mario. It's wonderful for those LucasArts point-and-click adventures, but I'd gladly pay money for a good control mod.

Besides that, I love it! I'm taking my time with it too, next week will be Atari, then after that perhaps a couple movie clips and more homebrew games, we'll see!

 

[moora101]

i've had mine for about a couple months now and I have to say that overall I'm pretty happy with it. I play it a lot more than my gba, so that's a good sign...

The only negative side I see towards the gp32 is the unreached potential of the gp32... although we have fantastic pc engine, atari st, atari 800, spectrum and c64 emulators, there are some that if they just had a bit of extra work done on them they would be up to the same excellent quality.

Now, if they were WIP then I would be really happy knowing that they were in the process of being improved. Unfortunately after having the gp32 for a couple months it seems that they aren't.

The emulators in question- master system, gameboy color, wonderswan, are all for systems that can be emulated quite easily (well it seems that way, but I'm not a coder ;-) ). But they just seemed to have been left at 75-90% complete when it would only take a little extra work to make them fantastic...

That's the only disappointing side, hopefully coders are working on the above emu's in the background, which brings me to another point!

I wish coders would release some work in progress reports on their emu's! I'm already really looking forward to LittleJohn, NeoGeo Pocket and SNES due to the author's keeping the community updated with wip reports. If the same was for the other emu's (genesis, mame) then I would actually believe that they are being worked on!! ;-)

But on the positive side, the emu's and homebrew games being worked on show a lot of potential and make me happier that I bought the gp32.

I'm in the same position when recommending the gp32 to my friends (and I have a few that are really interesting in it).. I say to them "wait for a couple months and see what else is out.....maybe mame!!"

 

[Rico]

I don't use it as much as I should, emulator-wise. At the moment it's mostly been for the 15-day entries, fNes and loads of mp3s.

Moviepark disappointed me, not the program itself, but the slow USB transfer and the large files meant that out of either a 20-min movie or 200 nes games, the nes games won

However I've been devving a lot for it, and that perhaps makes it more interesting and useful to me than some of those who have got bored of it.

- Rico

 

[NightStar]

I don't really use it as much as I used to... (Saying that, the same could be said about my GBA!)...

Mainly it's used for MP3's when on journeys as a passenger, or watcing films - Moviepark is a god-send as far as that is concerned...

I mainly got it for the Scumm engine (Waiting for a fix to play Sam n Max now) and the SNES and Genesis emulators... As both emus really are not THAT playable, I'm hanging on now.

I'm not getting rid of it, that's for sure - Just putting it to one side! (PC games taking too much of my time now.)

It's a good little system, and has a lot of potential... Let's see what happens!

All in all - I think it was worth it.

 

[mccyril]

Ive had my GP32 for quite a while, Im very very happy with it.
Ive had no real problems apart from the occasional stupid driver problem. I watch movies on it, listen to mp3's, play emulators, bought most of the games from JoyGP. I got my 128meg SMC's from ebuyer.co.uk for about £18 each, damn good value considering Dixons charge £50 for the same thing

On 1 SMC i have AtariST, Nes, Master system, PC Engine and a load of mp3's. I use Mr. Spivs multi frimware along with wind-ups. Its cool as F***. Tun it on and in a couple of seconds it boots up into a customizable windows style interface.
I would like to see wind-ups updated with a few more features (eg. someway to run commercial games
All i really want now is a fully working Megadirve Snes & Amstrad CPC emu
While im on the subject, Why do coders keep writng emus that have already been emulated, like Nes and Spectrum. I dont want to upset anyone. Its just i cant see the point in 3 Nes emus. Is there something wrong with the Amstrad CPC or do GP coders just not like them. Anyway enough moaning
Is there ever going to be a GP64

Thanx to all the people who help to make my GP experience a wicked one
BTW. any Potheads on here

mccyril

 

[Betty 2001]

I haven't regretted buying my GP32, but I must admit I don't use it much at the moment ( I've actually gone back to my Gameboy at the moment, Advance Wars 2 and Wario Ware).

I visit these boards almost everyday in the hope of something exciting to appear but it doesn't.


Where is the full speed Genesis emulater, the Snes emulater, the GPengine with save support, Frodo with save support, a complete Spectrum emulater, a complete Atari 2600 emulater, a complete Gameboy emulater ?

And now we hear of a Metal Slug conversion and Capcom emulater Will we ever see them ? I think not.

Actually save support seems the most important thing to me these days (I must be getting old) and is the main reason I DON'T stick with my GP32. I can't be bothered to play an old classic anymore and spend time on it only to lose my position when I switch it off.

Please, please don't get me wrong about the current emulaters out at the moment and me sounding very ungrateful (I am untalented and have contributed sod all to the GP32 scene) if it wasn't for the time and skill of the current programmers we would have nothing. But it seems the emulaters never get finished and just dangle a carrot in front of you at the possibility of what could happen. It's also no good saying just be patient people will get round to it it NEVER happens.

The most exciting time for me with my GP32 was when Castaway was being developed. A new release was made almost everyday (sometimes every hour !). The developer stuck with the project through to it's conclusion and involved everyone. Just look at the responses he got. This board has never seen anything like it.

 

[r0lf]

I think it's been a couple months since I got me GP.

Basically I was shopping for a new mp3 player and somehow found a write up on it, and thought an Mp3 player with Frodo on it would make it worth the $. I'm not a handheld gamer at all, never really have been, and thought all along it would end up just an mp3 player.

For a while, the only time i had played an mp3 on it was to try out the player, I just went on a 'must try everything out once' spree. Just as I was getting over that phase, Castaway got playable and it all started over again

At the moment, I'm still using the GP as much as I was initially. A bit more for playing mp3s, but still mostly for gamage. I've finally settled down a bit, and mostly play a selection of the games for Frodo / Castaway / GPEngine. I'm actually quite suprised that how well it's working out for a handheld game!

I don't think it's going to become 'just an mp3 player' very soon.

 

[Cyclops]

I think the last post says it all, I used to a normal person with reasonable expectations, the GP32 is a joy and i've still got loads of things to do, I use it while I travel to work so I use it at least 2 hours a day(not on weekends though), My thoughts of getting a PDA,GBA(with a 256meg card) washed away. The only problen is it has made me greedy. I want "inset emulator here", or why hasn't "insert game here" been ported. In essence the GP32 has left me spoilt rotten, I WANT MORE and NOW even though I have 600+ atari st games to go through and etc etc you get the picture. So what impresses me the most, the flawless emulation/up and coming emulators or the ports of a small selection of lets face it *cream*, the homebrew stuff where some of the efforts are starting to look a little frightenly good. The joy or writing my own little game on the GP32(and showing it to any person who cares to look). NO its the daily updates on this and other news groups, that support and show the dynamic development of the greatest unsung handheld, and a company that is showing continual support (a new firmware). To sum up forgive me and others for there greed, whinging, moaning because lets face it we just been given too much toy to play with.

 

[reeced]

Well I've had my GP (FLU - essential for nightime reading) for over a month, and believe it or not I didn't buy it as a games machine. I was getting tired of reading ebooks/web pages on my Palm Vx (which cost £300 and is only monochrome with a 2.5" screen), and was looking for a new reading device. Only by accident did I come across the GP and an excellent UK supplier(GBAX).
So what have I got :-
1. An excellent ebook reader (I use UPTextviewer - unlimited text/background colours, BMP backdrops like Wind-Ups, unlimited fonts - make your own, 3 line text preview, and 6 bookmarks, also with preview)
Yes I know you can't do HTML yet - but I'm not waiting. Use Opera for web pages - it has a great text rendering mode.
2. An excellent video player - pop videos, dvd rips, tv programs (recorded via VirtualVCR - about 50-60Mb/hour)
3. An excellent MP3 player - tracks, cd rips, and good quality radio recording via TotalRecorder plus DietMP3 -about 25 -30MB/hour.
4. Oh, and it plays games as well - just about any type of game you could ever wish to play, and with an active community bent on pushing this little marvel to the limit and beyond.

And all this for the price of a cheap PDA - We are spoilt !

 

[Twimfy]

I've had my GP32 for just over a month now and I still love it as much as I did on day one. It's got such a wealth of software that I'm now having to create themed weeks. Only having one 128mb smc I find myself forced to make 2 days game days and then the next 2 days movie days and so on and so forth.

I'm beginning to use it more now as my favourite emulators have now been clarified amidst the extensive diversity that exists and I now just keep a set range of games instead of switching between them all of time, and now that I have discovered Final match tennis the PCengine emulator will never disappear.

I don't even mind waiting for a new emulator, port or app to appear on the news pages it seems to add a bit of excitement to the scene as if we were given everything on a plate I would imagine the console could go stale very quickly.

 

[Axeman]

The immediate novelty of any new toy fades a little after a while, but if it's got the software to support it, there's no reason why anyone should get bored...

I certainly haven't! Though my use has proabbly faded a little since my life went haywire with buying a house....

 

[abbibi]

hmmm... you know, these would be GREAT articles for the 2 magazines coming out...

 

[Flack]

I've had my GP32 for three months now. In that amount of time, I would say I've gradually been losing interest in it a little bit each day.

The testing and playing of games has kind of lost its fun for me. Basically on my GP32 I keep a beta of fNES32, Castaway, and Frodo. I played a lot more Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo back in the day than anything else, so those are what I'd like to see in the future. I really enjoyed the Atari 2600 emulators that came out but some of my favorite games wouldn't work.

My biggest disappointments have been:

#1: the privacy of WIP betas. Rlyeh sent me a beta of his NES emulator a month or so ago (to make a video of), and I can honestly say it's probably one of the best emulators I've seen for the GP32. While it is his emulator and I/we have to respect his decision, I know that 99% of GP32 owners would be happy with the beta I have. My fear is that there are betas out there that the authors aren't proud or happy with enough to release, but that the general public would love!

#2: the lack of commercial software for the GP32. Pinball Dreams showed us how beautiful an Amiga to GP32 port could look -- so where are they? When I program (for the PC, NOT the GP32 -- I wish I could!) it seems like the majority of my time goes into design, the GUI, and the features, not the coding. Where are the other two Pinball games? Where are the thousands of awesome Amiga games that could be ported?

#3: the general attitude and actions of "new" GP32 owners. Right after getting mine I found myself answering questions for people who had had their GP32 longer than I had. Despite the hours of work people have put into FAQs, Noob Guides, and everything else, the general attitude has been, "I can't X to work, FIX IT NOW!" This probably has less to do with the GP32 and more to do with the new generation of kids in general; I'm sure message boards regardless of operating system and platform have the same problem.

I hope this doesn't make me sound too negative or cranky, just honest. And for the record, there have been some things I've really enjoyed about the GP32. For one, I've thoroughly enjoyed Frodo, fNES32, and Frodo. Number two, I've enjoyed meeting a lot of the people in the GP32 scene, guys like Rico and Axeman and the others who hang around here and talk and act like adults. Guys like Jeff and Mike and all the people who code and make the GP worth owning for the rest of us.

I've noticed myself using my GP32 less and less lately. I expected to use it on trips for listening to mp3s and watching movies, but I've ended up using my laptop in those situations. I did use it recently when my wife was in the hospital for a day, but other than that, my laptop seems to emulate the old systems better than my GP32 does.

 

[Spooke]

I have had mine for a couple of months now and it is pretty much everything I wanted and more.

I originally bought it for the 8bit emu's such as the Spectrum and C64 but I am playing GP Engine and NES emu's the most.

I was sceptical about MoviePark and held off getting it for a while but now I have got it I am impressed and will be looking into the encoding of my favourite movies.

The GP32 games are impressive to the point of proving the power of the machine but I fear that there will never be anything released that actually makes the machine stand out... a Killa App as they say.... thats is what Game Park need...

The MP3 element is not good enough... the player needs more controls and I have had problems running some MP3's... it needs an equaliser...

Overall I am very happy with my machine, I am a geek so I love the fact that is it relatively unknown and is a curiosity when I play it in public...

I would love to see it prosper but in many respects it doesn't matter now the community is large enough to keep things moving on the emu front...

It's great that the memory cards are so cheap and easy... this makes it really affordable once you have the machine... whilst the build quality is low it is good enough and

I recommend it to everyone who has a basic understanding of computers and can grasp the more technical aspects (which are not that technical but as opposed to slotting a catridge in a hole and switching on, it is....)

I really hope things go well for Game Park... they have some stiff competition in the current market leaders nevermind the newcomers like Nokia and Sony...

Good luck to em and I think the community to rally around them to do whatever they need us to do to help them succeed...

It would be really cool for someone from Gamepark to actually talk to us... has anyone asked a representative to do a webchat or answer some questions.... we could all input questions and see what they say....

 

[RobertG]

I'm very happy with the software, even the commercial games are good in my opinion (although I would like to see a more complete selection on JoyGP, and where's english ASR?). If you give the commercial games a chance they're actually pretty good!

The emulators and homebrew games are great, I just wish people would make more frequent releases. It seems like fnes will never come out

Development is great!! People are always putting the SDK down, but I think it's alright.. It's really easy to get things up and running. It's a bit buggy but in some ways that's a good thing as it encourages you to do things for yourself rather than relying on the SDK. Other than the clicky sound there's no real problems with GP32 dev (I think!).

I'm a bit disappointed with the GP32 itself though. The FLU is a bit dodgy.. It's a bit shoddy. The plastic feels a bit cheap, and it always feels like I'm going to snap the catch on the battery cover when I take it off. The thing just feels a bit cheap and nasty compared to a GBA/SP, Swancrystal or NGPC however the controls are still good

 

[pubjoe]

I've had mine about a year now and the best thing then and still now is how friendly and supportive the scene is. I had problems setting up in the first place and everyone was all too happy to help.

I also damaged my screen (well the missus did shortly after I downloaded moviepark *ahem*) and Darkfaders kindness still leaves me feeling guilty. -If you read this, I'm back in work and I will send the money very soon. I promise.

I still love SMS32, GPEngine and GPScumm, but I wasn't xpecting some of the most recent release.

I probably use it now more than ever in 12 months and flashing the bios with Windups/Multifirmware has given it a whole new lease of life (Wind ups should be the official firmware if you ask me, it turns the GP into so much more.)

As for Gamepark: I just hope there in profit - in the early days they annoyed a few deveopers by there unresponsiveness (apparently, Street Fighter Alpha 3 was almost released!). ...But as a small company with only a few units sold I don't think they expect to be the next big thing, I just hope they make a bit of cash and don't regret it.

but again, the best thing about it without a doubt is the SCENE that comes with it. I know I don't post a lot but you guys on the forums really make it what it is.

 

[moora101]

#1: the privacy of WIP betas.

I totally agree with this point, I don't know why some emu's are kept in private for so long (and I always fear that hdd crashes will lose them before they're released). A good example is VBGP- I've been using .11 until yesterday and thought it was OK but showed so much potential. Then it turns out that the author did release an update (but for some reason no site carried it) and it's absolutely brilliant!! Sure, some games still don't work, or work 100% but it is a massive improvement and it really made my day today...

If the other WIP emu's were released then there would be a similar situation. I know (and expect) initial releases to have bugs, but I'm quite happy if it's still being worked on (or the source is released for others to carry on)...

It sounds like a moan, and it is up to the devver's to release the emu's when they see fit, but I think it would do a lot more good than harm to the scene and the emulator if they were released a bit earlier and a bit more regularly...