Gp32 On Gp2x

[mraellis]

i aint sue so i'm just chcking but the gp32 things dont work on the gp2x yet.
if not are they easy to port. or could they maybe be emulated

 

[Vynx]

i aint sue so i'm just chcking but the gp32 things dont work on the gp2x yet.
if not are they easy to port. or could they maybe be emulated

The GP32 and GP2X are two different platforms - the only way programs from the GP32 are going to work on the GP2X is if they are ported - emulation would be a nightmare considering how powerful the GP32 was, so unless the source code is out there for GP32 apps for people to port, or the original developers decide to bring them onto the GP2X, you're out of luck

 

[trooper]

You could always purchase a GP32 secondhand, From ebay for instance.

Trooper

 

[neomk]

Where does Parasol Stars fit into the equation?

 

[Kyalami]

But, the GP32 wasn't more powerful than the GP2X, right? I know it's quite a machine,, but it wasn't mor e powerful, was it?

 

[Squidge]

But, the GP32 wasn't more powerful than the GP2X, right? I know it's quite a machine,, but it wasn't mor e powerful, was it?

There was the odd GP32 that did over 250Mhz - those can end up being slightly more powerful than a GP2X @ 240Mhz

But overall, the GP2X is much more powerful than the GP32, even if some emulators don't show it by being only slightly quicker (and sometimes slower) on the GP2X. A lot of it is how things are written though.

A GP32 emulator could be written, and even though most 2X can't run at even 2x the twice of the GP32 (ie. 266Mhz), I reckon it would still be pretty damn quick If written in an optimized fashion.

 

[Kyalami]

But, the GP32 wasn't more powerful than the GP2X, right? I know it's quite a machine,, but it wasn't mor e powerful, was it?

There was the odd GP32 that did over 250Mhz - those can end up being slightly more powerful than a GP2X @ 240Mhz

But overall, the GP2X is much more powerful than the GP32, even if some emulators don't show it by being only slightly quicker (and sometimes slower) on the GP2X. A lot of it is how things are written though.

A GP32 emulator could be written, and even though most 2X can't run at even 2x the twice of the GP32 (ie. 266Mhz), I reckon it would still be pretty damn quick If written in an optimized fashion.

I'm not a supporter of thread hijacking, Squidge, but I need to ask you something: I found an offer on eBay for a GP32 for about 40-60 bucks. When I saw it, I was thinking of buying it, since I don't have the 200 bucks for the GP2X. Now, would I get more or less the same quality of the GP2X, that is, as far as movies, music, emulators, interpreters, and games go?

BTW, I like the avatar. I saw that movie so many times! I still love it! Maybe I'll get it from the library!

 

[EvilDragon]

But, the GP32 wasn't more powerful than the GP2X, right? I know it's quite a machine,, but it wasn't mor e powerful, was it?

There was the odd GP32 that did over 250Mhz - those can end up being slightly more powerful than a GP2X @ 240Mhz

But overall, the GP2X is much more powerful than the GP32, even if some emulators don't show it by being only slightly quicker (and sometimes slower) on the GP2X. A lot of it is how things are written though.

A GP32 emulator could be written, and even though most 2X can't run at even 2x the twice of the GP32 (ie. 266Mhz), I reckon it would still be pretty damn quick If written in an optimized fashion.

Hm, do we really need to emulate it?

I mean, the processor is nearly the same, AFAIR the gp2x ARM is compatible with GP32 ARM code.
There's no graphic or sound chip in the GP32, it's all handled by the processor, so basically, you'd only need some kind of graphic and sound wrapper and run the GP32 code natively on one ARM processor.
Or am I forgetting something?

 

[ste_167]

Blue Angelo would be great.

OT: It could easily sell commercially. I know it's not pushing the GP2x limits, but the GP2X screen alone would make it even better than on the GP32. Afterall, they do release GBA games on the DS all the time (simply adding some extra menu on the 2nd screen)..

Can craigX speak French?? ;-)

 

[oneandoneis2]

The GP32 is nowhere *near* as good at movies as the GP2X - it's a total goit to transcode for, and it struggles to cope with playback. It's pretty good for music tho, in a simple way..

It's good for a lot of games, of course

 

[jmetal88]

But, the GP32 wasn't more powerful than the GP2X, right? I know it's quite a machine,, but it wasn't mor e powerful, was it?

There was the odd GP32 that did over 250Mhz - those can end up being slightly more powerful than a GP2X @ 240Mhz

But overall, the GP2X is much more powerful than the GP32, even if some emulators don't show it by being only slightly quicker (and sometimes slower) on the GP2X. A lot of it is how things are written though.

A GP32 emulator could be written, and even though most 2X can't run at even 2x the twice of the GP32 (ie. 266Mhz), I reckon it would still be pretty damn quick If written in an optimized fashion.

Hm, do we really need to emulate it?

I mean, the processor is nearly the same, AFAIR the gp2x ARM is compatible with GP32 ARM code.
There's no graphic or sound chip in the GP32, it's all handled by the processor, so basically, you'd only need some kind of graphic and sound wrapper and run the GP32 code natively on one ARM processor.
Or am I forgetting something?

That's what I was thinking. Well, I'm pretty sure you'd need a control wrapper as well, since the 2X joystick has more directions, and there are two extra buttons.

 

[Blah]

Yeah, but its easier said than done.

Also memory has to be re-mapped, video/sound/controls are directly accessed on GP32 but not on GP2X as Linux and SDL have to keep control of them. SMC interface would also have to be emulated, and timing would have to be right.

 

[jmetal88]

Yeah, but its easier said than done.

Also memory has to be re-mapped, video/sound/controls are directly accessed on GP32 but not on GP2X as Linux and SDL have to keep control of them. SMC interface would also have to be emulated, and timing would have to be right.

Well then, you obviously know more about it than I do.

 

[Winterkid]

Also when I ran most of the stuff on the GP32, I didn't need any more than 166MHz, even to run the graphics intensive stuff. Even the MP3 player only ran at like 133 or 100, and that's without an MP3 decoding processor.

So, overclockable GP32's might be a bit overkill. Perhaps just emulating 180MHz tops would be less system intensive?

Things we have going for us
- Nearly perfect ARM CPU compatibility
- SMC files would fit easily onto SD cards (Are SD cards faster at reads/writes than SMC?)
- 133/166/180MHz SHOULD be much easier to achieve than 250/266MHz speeds
- Same LCD screen resolution

Possibilities to help
- 2nd CPU?
- Squidge's MMU hack for emulator overhead memory?
- Memory on the GP2X faster than the memory in the GP32?
- GeePee32 as a starting point for video/audio routines? (Did GeePee32 have Audio?)

Things against us
- Linux still running in background
- Joystick patch routines? 16 to 8 directional controls cause any problems?
- How to select GP32 firmware to use
- How to disable GP32 mode and return to GP2X menu

 

[EvilDragon]

- How to select GP32 firmware to use

You don't need a firmware.
When a game is run, the firmware is mostly gone (there is no multitasking on GP32), so it would be enough to start the actual fxe.

 

[Winterkid]

That eliminates 1 problem.

Who wrote the GeePee emulator again?
Do you think there's any coder they can trust to use the useful parts of the code for a wrapper/translator and not leak it to the public or does the coder himself have a GP2X to test on?

 

[greenmikey]

GeePee was a weird little program..firefly made it. He hasn't been around in a long while..he got involved in the gizmondo hacking for a while..he tried some crazy organization of homebrew where he had to authorize EVERY release if people wanted to run it on their own giz. The word on the street is he got really mad at some people and left the scene and someone else just released a totally opened up homebrew launcher. I bet you can still get in contact with him but I dont know if he would be interested. It's worth a shot but something tells me he does not have a gp2x.

not related the gp32 emulator on windows for playing demos. was released by gamepark.

 

[Winterkid]

Hmm.. so far, it's 50/50 on whether he'll release the source code, if even a part of it to anyone. He sounds like he pretty much safeguards all his work and is very particular about who uses it, in general.

However if he HAS given up on the GP32 altogether, he may not care about letting the source or the vital parts of it to someone he trusts/knows, or even just kinda likes. *scratches head*

Anyone here have his email address and know him really well?

 

[yaustar]

You might want to try asking Squidge although I am not sure what the history (if any) is between those two.

 

[BradN]

I think emulating the GP32 could be done performance wise, but there's some nasty programming issues.

- Need to use the MMU to remap memory as appropriate
- Need to emulate sound, SMC, controls (controls would be easy, the others might be easy/difficult depending how familiar someone is with them)
- Need to emulate video, which I believe uses a different memory arrangement, so a simple MMU setting wouldn't be enough - if emulating individual writes is too ineffecient (which it will be), it may be worth it to have the game update a GP32 style buffer, which the 940 translates to a GP2X buffer each frame.
- Need to emulate some dinky little peripherals - timers, maybe DMA, serial, USB (some may not be important enough to worry about) etc.

Loading a firmware to virtual memory would be easy with the MMU, so if some games need it for compatability, it wouldn't be an issue, but there could be copyright problems (unless gamepark holdings owns the code).

The biggest task would be bridging the sound from one to the other, and if the emulator is running without linux, it needs an SD and filesystem driver as well. If it can be done within linux, this would simplify things a bit, provided the memory remapping is still possible.