Gph: The Wiz - Official Announcement

[EvilDragon]

Since I'll be with GPH at the IFA in two days, I can post daily pictures about the device
I'm gonna test it - and you can ask questions.

 

[Orkie]

- Good: double CPU speed, maybe 3D, internal clock.
- Bad: no network, no USB host, battery (they say a lifetime of 5 hours... the same that their claims for the Gp2x!)
- No opinion: double pad.
- It needs: minilib!

The battery life is a reasonable estimate, I have tested it and got something like 4.8 hours, though I've no idea if it was fully charged at the time. I don't know about USB host - there is a USB socket on the BoB, but I've not actually tried using it for anything.

 

[jbrodack]

There's a lot of things I like about this though some a few I don't. Among what I like is that GP2x and GPH are definitely not dead. The sudden announcement of stopping gp2x production sucked and was out of nowhere so I'm happy to see there will be a new GPH system here soon. From the logo and box they definitely seem to be using "Wiz" as short for wizard so not so bad a name and I'm really happy to see that gp2x is actually part of the name too. Though random letters to some its become somewhat of a brand and has is recognizable over the net so its very clear that its THE gp2x successor.

Nice to see increased commercial game support too. Gp2x didn't have enough commercial games especially not coming officially form GPH. I hope with this we'll see more games released in English and not just released in Korea like previously. I'm not sure if the fighting game is a sequel to blood cross or just a rename. Are all the "official" games commercial pay game? I see "battle jewel" listed is that the same as the gp2x battlejewels game? Lady Killer is also listed as well. Kaiten Paisserie is listed too which was previously released freely. The most exciting bit for me is seeing Space Varments 2 listed as an official game. Been looking forward to that.

The built in game list is quite nice and seems they got both permission and seemingly participation this time. I see some gp2x games got makeovers like Myriad and Minigame project though the latter is probably just to keep copyrighted characters out of it. Woohoo Blingo 2008 is listed as a built in game. Boomshine looks to have new shapes. sqdef seems to be the old 1.3 version though. I tested 1.4, its great.

Built in batter with 5 hours of play is nice. I liked being able to easily have spare AAs around but hopefully 5hrs will be accurate and having a built in battery should make a lot of people more happy.

Flash support is great. Something that really didn't go anywhere on the gp2x and something I really wanted on the gp2x.

From looking at processor seems like devs should be able to port gp2x stuff pretty easily.

320x240 display is a good thing to keep for emulators though the screen is unfortunately smaller.

Controls? 2 dpads?! Upon close look I'm not sure they're suitable for use as either a dpad or buttons. This is really the biggest problem I have with it. I was unsure about the pandora being comfortable to play games with but this doesn't offer a keyboard and looks horrible layed out. Plus home and select on different sides? We needed those as buttons for games. Volume on the bottom yet still no dial? Looks like we'll still be able to use for rotated games like emulated shmups but really lose them as extra buttons for other games.

Also the all important price point. Should be relatively cheap but would have helped to announce a suggested price with it.

Everything looks good about it except the controls. Maybe wait for a revision to get this as I'm still happy with my f200. Pandora is nice but too expensive and kind of trying to be too much. Trying to avoid comparisons with EEE notebooks yet supposedly going for full OS style menus...

 

[wraggster]

The speed of it is jaw dropping 533MHZ with 64mb of ram, shame about that design, reminds me of the wank xgp designs.

with a better designed shell and buttons instead of 1 of the pads, this could be kickass.

reminds me i still havent brought a f200 console

 

[Don Miguel]

god bless america!

i love you, Wiz!

8)
going to buy it... the 2nd batch, i think//.

my gp2x work isn't done yet!

 

[NightShadow]

While I'll be selling this and all I cannot believe they are going with 2 Dpads and no buttons, so any game which requires 2 or 3 buttons pressed at once can't be played unless you weirdly map them to the shoulder buttons? Whhyyyy?

I think that just games with 3 simultaneous button presses will be affected, as you can still press 2 buttons at the same time (like a diagonal).

That does not mean it is not a flawed design.

But we all have to consider that the Wiz has double the speed of the GP2x, and will be extremely compatible with the available software (just need to recompile).

All the emulators that are struggling on the GP2x will work like a breeze on the Wiz.

I'll stay tuned to see where this ends

 

[pepone]

- Good: double CPU speed, maybe 3D, internal clock.
- Bad: no network, no USB host, battery (they say a lifetime of 5 hours... the same that their claims for the Gp2x!)
- No opinion: double pad.
- It needs: minilib!

The battery life is a reasonable estimate, I have tested it and got something like 4.8 hours, though I've no idea if it was fully charged at the time. I don't know about USB host - there is a USB socket on the BoB, but I've not actually tried using it for anything.

good to see that the battery life is acceptable. Even with good rechargeable, my gp2x never go beyond 2 hours...
too bad they put a second pad instead of traditional button

 

[skeezix]

November Battle Jewels release?

Guess I better get started on that...!!

jeff

edit: Looks like a pretty good device actually; the only big hurts I see is the lack of 802.11 (serioiusly, in this year..) and the really strange d-pad for the right hand side. Now, most apps use only 1 button at a time for firing, so fine .. but the trick there is how does it feal? accidental presses? Still, if the screen is good, it ought to look sharp at that size! The big win there would be pocket MAME, in that form factor. Different market thatn Pandora for a lot of people, and for its target audience .. could be really nice. Woudl be nice if they could keep the price down more, but thats a hard one.

 

[atiflz]

For now, I'm going for Pandora as this nice little thing has neither communication, nor keyboard. A badass CPU and 3D accel are great but I am already satisfied by my good old f100. The sexiest part is the OLED screen, IMHO.

 

[anexanhume]

OLED screen and only 180 bucks? That is win! Second D pad for face buttons: that is not so win. The promo pics and box art are top notch, but that second d pad really sucks (especially if they got the d-pad right this time).

After looking at the pics, it looks like the dpads might be segmented by the internal "V" structure going on so that button presses can be exclusive. In that case, it would just be an awkward design, but nothing more than something to get used to.

 

[Firefox]

I'm pretty chuffed with this. It's virtually a Gameboy Micro, but with a lot more oomph!

OLED touchscreen? That's a pleasant surprise! Can't wait to see that with my own eyes.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the dpads are clusters of buttons with some flexible plastic or rubber material strung between them... Have to wait for the reviews, though.

 

[jakshep2]

I think there is going to be a competition between this and the pandora. if it had another memory card slot, two extra shoulder buttons, and an extra analog stick, then MAYBE I'd buy it. but I'm stuck with the pando, now.

and someone needs to update wikipedia, I've added a sentence about it, or so.

 

[ant512]

While I'll be selling this and all I cannot believe they are going with 2 Dpads and no buttons, so any game which requires 2 or 3 buttons pressed at once can't be played unless you weirdly map them to the shoulder buttons? Whhyyyy?

Because it's traditional for GPH to make a complete shambles of every single input method they try their hand at? Examples include the diabolical original GP32 joyless-stick, the not-much-improved stick on the the FLU and BLU, the horrendous joyless-stick on the GP2x First Edition, the not-much-improved stick on the second edition, and the death-dealing combo blow of the clunky buttons and totally inaccurate touchscreen on the GP2x F200.

 

[sam fisher]

Because it's traditional for GPH to make a complete shambles of every single input method they try their hand at? Examples include the diabolical original GP32 joyless-stick, the not-much-improved stick on the the FLU and BLU, the horrendous joyless-stick on the GP2x First Edition, the not-much-improved stick on the second edition, and the death-dealing combo blow of the clunky buttons and totally inaccurate touchscreen on the GP2x F200.

The stick on the NLU, FLU and BLU are all exactly identical.

 

[alyinsanfran]

Examples include the diabolical original GP32 joyless-stick, the not-much-improved stick on the the FLU and BLU, the horrendous joyless-stick on the GP2x First Edition, the not-much-improved stick on the second edition, and the death-dealing combo blow of the clunky buttons and totally inaccurate touchscreen on the GP2x F200.

Speaking for myself, I really miss my old GP32's stick. Loved the positivity of it.

This thing looks interesting.

 

[slashank]

I think this complements the Pandora rather than compete with it.
Pandora was always going to be a 'high-end' system and rather expensive.
This, assuming that the cost will be at par with what the gp2x opened at (around USD150-USD170 or so), would a good deal.
No more juggling around with AAs, that's a relief.

The 4 buttons organized as a dpad might look odd, but the buttons themselves appear to be at the same position as the gp2x ABXY. In fact, it might be easier to hit multiple buttons with this organization.

Another thing I noticed, it can also recharge through the USB port.

Can someone enlighten me about the 3D capabilities of this machine? All it says is ARM9 with 3D accelerator.

 

[geise69]

For me it's nice to see GPH doing a new handheld. There's so much I love about the GP2X. However there's quite a few issues I have with the GP2X as well. The thing is, is that the Wiz will probably not address the problems that I had with the GP2X. The best thing to do is just wait for the reviews. I would rather get a Pandora, but the price is a bit out of my reach for now, and the Wiz has a confirmed date. Still I'm going to wait for reviews. I'm also wondering how much of the GP2X homebrew stuff is going to be recompiled for this?

 

[sam fisher]

I'm also wondering how much of the GP2X homebrew stuff is going to be recompiled for this?

It's fair to say that GPH have gone out of their way to get a sizable chunk of the communities favourite GP2x games not only ready for the Wiz release but actually included by default on the Wiz.

 

[ant512]

The stick on the NLU, FLU and BLU are all exactly identical.

I had to do the wedge-of-paper trick on my original GP32 to make the diagonals work at all. My BLU was much better - no problems getting the diagonals - but it was still a desperately bad joystick.

Despite having worked my way through every GPH handheld except the GP32 FLU, I'm going to give the Wiz a miss and get the Pandora instead.

 

[sam fisher]

The stick on the NLU, FLU and BLU are all exactly identical.

I had to do the wedge-of-paper trick on my original GP32 to make the diagonals work at all. My BLU was much better - no problems getting the diagonals - but it was still a desperately bad joystick.

Despite having worked my way through every GPH handheld except the GP32 FLU, I'm going to give the Wiz a miss and get the Pandora instead.

The FLU was just a modded NLU.