Help Me... I'm Torn Between Two Choices.

[Nixot]

Hello people.

It's my birthday soon and this GP2X wotsit seems like an awesome game console. But, I've been reading hundereds of different things regarding all the different consoles and want to ask a few questions:

1. Should I ask for a GP2X F200 or a Wiz?
2. Does the Wiz really have two directional pads? I don't think I could play with two directional pads.
3. What's diagonal screen tearing?
4. What's the difference between the GP2X and the F200 and the Wiz?
5. What Linux distro is it?
6. Regarding weapon switching in PrBoom, will it change the volume when I switch or will it only do that when I pause?
7. Are the buttons regarded as joystick or key presses?
8. Is the touch screen regarded as a mouse?
9. Can I play ZSnes on it?
10. How does storage work?
11. Should I wait until after they revise the Wiz's design and then get one?

Sorry for being so inquisitive but I'm really intrigued and confused so any answers will be great... thanks
From Nixot

P.S. Or should I wait until later when I've saved up enough money and get a second hand F200 off of eBay for cheaper?

 

[sbock]

Hi.

1. I advise to buy the Wiz.
2. No. Only the prototypes have. The retail Wiz has 4 different buttons.
3. It's similar to tearing when you turn off vsync on PC games but it's a diagonal line on the Wiz.
4. There are 3 different handheld units from Gamepark Holdings: The GP2x F-100, the GP2x F-200 and the GP2x Wiz. F-100 and F-200 are discontinued.
5. A custom firmware with Linux kernel 2.6.24.
6. Don't know.
7. Don't know what you mean...
8. Yes. But it don't work in all apps yet...
9. Don't know, but there is a SNES emu out there.
10. The Wiz uses a SD card.
11. It's your decision.

Regards,
Stephan

 

[Exophase]

1. Most people consider the Wiz to be superior in most ways - the only real advantages of an F200 are bigger screen, no diagonal tearing, and more software available. If you want the first two over what a Wiz offers then you might want to hold out for an F300 which will be Wiz hardware in F200 form factor and screen.
7. The joystick is detected as 4 button presses (4 GPIOs). The dpad itself consists of one solid item, not four buttons.
9. No, ZSNES can't be ran on this or any other platform that doesn't have an x86 processor.
10. There's also a pretty decent amount of NAND flash space onboard.
11. They're not going to revise it any time soon, if ever. It took GPH years to get F200 out and that was more desperately needed.

 

[Nixot]

So have they already turned it into a pad-and-buttons controller? I want to make sure that there is no possibility that there will be two pads if you say the controls have already been made.

If they have made it into a pad-and-buttons control setup, can I have a picture please? I can only find Wizzes that have two pads. :\

Additionally for question 7 I meant: When you press a button (like A or B or a shoulder button) does it register as a keyboard press, or a joystick button, for when I configure my games's controls?

And also, is the SNES emulator's button config the same position, or mapped as to letters? I see that the Wiz has its A and B and X and Y in different places than the SNES controllers, but will it still have B as the bottom button and A as the right etc. or will it map the SNES A button to the GP2X A button etc?

 

[sbock]

 

[Exophase]

So have they already turned it into a pad-and-buttons controller? I want to make sure that there is no possibility that there will be two pads if you say the controls have already been made.

If they have made it into a pad-and-buttons control setup, can I have a picture please? I can only find Wizzes that have two pads. :

As you have probably realized now, the right hand "pad" has been split into four buttons but still resembles a d-pad. In my opinion this is less ergonomic/comfortable than four "normal" buttons would have been. A lot of other people disagree, though.

Additionally for question 7 I meant: When you press a button (like A or B or a shoulder button) does it register as a keyboard press, or a joystick button, for when I configure my games's controls?

Register to who? The OS? I think the answer is neither, it comes up under /dev/gpio. Most things out right now are probably hitting the hardware directly for this. Unless you plan on programming for it then this probably shouldn't matter to you. There aren't going to be a lot of apps for Wiz that you can use with a keyboard in the first place.

And also, is the SNES emulator's button config the same position, or mapped as to letters? I see that the Wiz has its A and B and X and Y in different places than the SNES controllers, but will it still have B as the bottom button and A as the right etc. or will it map the SNES A button to the GP2X A button etc?

Most emulators let you change configuration. I doubt the SNES emulator is any different, although I haven't used it myself. Having said that, the button name scheme is the same as the original GP2X's, so even a quick port should have the same default layout. It would have been really daft for the developers of the SNES emulator on GP2X to have assigned the buttons by the names instead of the SNES orientation.

 

[gp2.eXe]

And also, is the SNES emulator's button config the same position, or mapped as to letters? I see that the Wiz has its A and B and X and Y in different places than the SNES controllers, but will it still have B as the bottom button and A as the right etc. or will it map the SNES A button to the GP2X A button etc?

That should be configurable in the emulator's options.

Also about the buttons: In other words, they're four separate buttons that together look like a second d-pad, but it's not a d-pad anymore. Clearly shown in sbock's post.


Edit: And as I expected, beaten by Exophase.

 

[Nixot]

Oooooohhhhhhh! So that's what it looks like forever now?

Oops! Only it looked like a pad far off. :\

OK. Also, last question:

Is it available in the UK?

And where's a website that I can see it to be bought from? I can't find it on amazon!

 

[Nixot]

Actually, no. It's already been ordered for 134 pounds.

Thanks for all your help for making me come to this decision...

 

[aavina2]

Actually, no. It's already been ordered for 134 pounds.

Thanks for all your help for making me come to this decision...

I've actually just received mine and I'm very satisfied. The screen tearing may be more noticeable in faster games, like F-Zero, but it doesn't bother me at all in the games I play, which are mostly RPGs and side-scrollers. Enjoy it when it comes in!

 

[Spykez]

the only problem with the controls I have is the diagonals are too sensative. Try playing mario 3 and doing the much needed run & duck. I've yet to be able to do it successful.

 

[christo930]

1. Most people consider the Wiz to be superior in most ways - the only real advantages of an F200 are bigger screen, no diagonal tearing, and more software available. If you want the first two over what a Wiz offers then you might want to hold out for an F300 which will be Wiz hardware in F200 form factor and screen.
7. The joystick is detected as 4 button presses (4 GPIOs). The dpad itself consists of one solid item, not four buttons.
9. No, ZSNES can't be ran on this or any other platform that doesn't have an x86 processor.
10. There's also a pretty decent amount of NAND flash space onboard.
11. They're not going to revise it any time soon, if ever. It took GPH years to get F200 out and that was more desperately needed.

F-300? Are you just being sarcastic? I don't see why anyone would want to put out yet another machine, there are already too many.

 

[Exophase]

F-300? Are you just being sarcastic? I don't see why anyone would want to put out yet another machine, there are already too many.

I'm not being sarcastic.. you haven't heard of the F300? It really is going to be released. GPH designed their latest Vocamasters this way, and are converting some of them to F300s for sale outside South Korea by popular fan demand (I guess). The makers of the Dingoo, I mean the makers of the Gemei A320, the original hardware model the Dingoo was, must put out dozens of slight variations of this sort of PMP. I don't really see GPH being at much fault for going with two. Besides, the F300 is going to be a limited run.

 

[Marioland]

Hi there! Um... Thank god this topic is opened right into my face. The confusion with all the Open Source handheld gaming devices led me to join here ^_^. I was going to ask the same with Nixot, but I still have some additional questions.

1. Where do I find Software for WIZ
2. Does the device has USB support itself or it needs an additional cradle like the old GP2X f-100?

um. that's all for now. I look forward to interact some more with you as a GP2X-whatever user

 

[Terraforme]

Hi there! Um... Thank god this topic is opened right into my face. The confusion with all the Open Source handheld gaming devices led me to join here ^_^ . I was going to ask the same with Nixot, but I still have some additional questions.

1. Where do I find Software for WIZ
2. Does the device has USB support itself or it needs an additional cradle like the old GP2X f-100?

um. that's all for now. I look forward to interact some more with you as a GP2X-whatever user

1 : http://dl.openhandhelds.org/cgi-bin/wiz.cgi

 

[christo930]

F-300? Are you just being sarcastic? I don't see why anyone would want to put out yet another machine, there are already too many.

I'm not being sarcastic.. you haven't heard of the F300? It really is going to be released. GPH designed their latest Vocamasters this way, and are converting some of them to F300s for sale outside South Korea by popular fan demand (I guess). The makers of the Dingoo, I mean the makers of the Gemei A320, the original hardware model the Dingoo was, must put out dozens of slight variations of this sort of PMP. I don't really see GPH being at much fault for going with two. Besides, the F300 is going to be a limited run.

I know many people don't like the AA batteries, but for me, it's a huge plus. I have plenty of high capacity AA batteries and a 15 minute charger and I can be confident that I will NEVER have trouble procuring AA batteries. I also like the form factor with the bigger screen and I have NEVER carried a game machine in my pocket so that isn't really an issue. I have never used the f200 controller before, but it doesn't look especially good but most people seem to be ok with it. If I were going to get a wiz, this is the model I would get. My big problem with the Wiz is that the developers are saying it really isn't much more powerful than a gp2x. I would rather pay 50-75 for an excellent condition gp2x than 200 for a wiz that has the same controller, screen and only slightly more power. Hopefully the developers will figure out what is holding the wiz back and fix it via software so that it's performance is much better.

 

[Exophase]

Heh, if you're waiting for some software "fix" to make the Wiz faster then you're kidding yourself. Sorry.

 

[sam fisher]

Heh, if you're waiting for some software "fix" to make the Wiz faster then you're kidding yourself. Sorry.

Funny you say that but I just noticed that the GO_FASTER_THAN_GP2X flag was set to false!

 

[christo930]

Heh, if you're waiting for some software "fix" to make the Wiz faster then you're kidding yourself. Sorry.

I hope 2 months old isn't too old, if so... Sorry.

Didn't that happen with the gp2x and the mmuhack or something? I thought it was possible that there was some sort of firmware problem or something.

 

[DurTahar]

Is the F200 even a real option at this point? I tried buying one late last year and there just...weren't any. Or rather, there was ONE on ebay and it was like $400. Tried ordering one from the only shop listing it as in stock (listing 90 as being in stock in fact) but I got an email a good two weeks later telling me they didn't really have any and that my money was refunded. Granted, this was ramping up towards Christmas, so that might have affected things, but I've seen more than a few people asking which one they should get and I'm curious if it's even a reasonable question now.