I Want To Buy A Gp2x, Just A Couple Questions

[Hamburglar]

I just sold my PSP which I bought because I heard SNES emulation on it was great. I personally think it wasn't. I exchanged 3 PSP's and all of them had an unacceptable amount of dead pixels (the system is over a year old now, I thought they would have fixed that by now) but I could have lived with that I guess. I had a 1.5 PSP, which SNES is supposed to be fastest on, and even basic games like Super Mario World ran at only like 25 FPS for me. Not to mention the square button on all 3 seemed to be defective. I'd hold it down while running in a game that used it, and every couple of seconds it would just act like I wasn't pressing it. Finally, the PSP's screen seemed to have very poor blur factor which was noticable in side scrolling games. Wasn't noticable in nice 3-d PSP games or RPG's, but sidescrolling games were pretty gross looking. You'd see the red coming off a turtle shell a quarter of an inch away from where the turtle shell was if you were running.

So I returned it and read up on the GP2x. I was very interested in the original GP32 until I heard SNES would never be possible on it at an acceptable framerate. Now there's a new version called the GP2x, and I am interested in it again.

Before I go through with the purchase, I have a few questions I hope aren't dumb:

1) How is SNES emulation on it going to be? I am very excited GP2x is a 320x240 screen and not some gimmicky widescreen (who needs widescreen for a handheld?). This is mostly because emulated stuff will look way more natural and easier to do I assume. Though the SNES wasn't 320x240, TV's are that resolution so I would assume SNES would look fantastic on this thing. On PSP it looked blah. Too small for the PSP's screen, too blurry when stretched. For the DS, SNES looked great, but some picture was missing on the top and bottom.

I was also wondering if the GP2x is powerful enough to ever run SNES in full speed? I am talking sound on, VSYNC (if that's even necessary on a GP2x), and transaparency on, would I ever be able to play Mario RPG at 60fps? I know the GP2x is new, but I mean, in due time would that be possible? Do you guys feel the programmers of these emulators will dedicate a lot of time to the updates?

2) How is the screen on this? Any motion blur? Dead pixel problems?

3) Finally, I knew there were a couple versions of GP32, do I have to worry about buying this and 6 months from now there's some newer version or a deluxe version or something?

4) I heard there is a mod for the system to get a regular D pad on it. Is this an easy mod? Do I buy the parts from some mod guy?

5) Can I basically throw any video file format on this and it will play it? MPEG1, MPEG2, divx, xvid, mp4?

That's basically all I am concerned about. I hope I am not asking anything ridiculous. Thanks guys.

 

[Tinnus]

1) Mario RPG with sound and frameskip at 60FPS? Hahaha

Mario RPG uses extra chips, so that will never be fullspeed in the Gp32, PSP, Gp2X or anything you can get your hands on. Let alone with sound.

3) Nope, there's only 1 version of the hardware, although there are constant software updates being released.

5) Not really. I'm not really sure about each of these, but it won't play ALL of them. Especially mp4 (ie: .h264 or whatever the codec is called). EVEN if it was supported (which I think it's not), it would be very slow probably because the h.264 codec is too much complex.

 

[Hamburglar]

1) Mario RPG with sound and frameskip at 60FPS? Hahaha

Well, is there a reason for this? The PSP ran it okay I guess, but PSP isn't meant for emulation. GP2x *is*. A pentium 3 with 500mhz I used to have ran Mario RPG at 60fps, and that's while running Windows XP in the background. I didn't think it was that ridiculous but I guess I was wrong.

No offense but since you were only able to answer half my questions I am taking your opinions with a grain of salt and am awaiting other people's responses to help me with my potential purchasing decision.

3) Nope, there's only 1 version of the hardware, although there are constant software updates being released.

Yeah I know that right now there is only 1 version of the hardware. I meant do I have to worry about another version coming out in the future.

 

[Mr_Munk]

Basicaly the GP2X is a great handheld if you are interested in open-source and homebrew, it is going to dissapoint you if you don't like getting your hands dirty. You will probably need to mess around encoding video to get it just right and the snes emulator will probably never reach 60FPS with vsync and certaintly not with some of those crazy chipsets from the more advanced titles, like starwing and yoshi's island.

Most people in this forum (including me) will big-up the gp2x untill the end, but basicaly it is more of a toy for fanboys than an off-the-shelf snes in a handheld.

The screen is great, neo-geo runs fullspeed with sound with a bit of overclocking c64 is great, noiz2sa is great, gameboy is great, megadrive is 100% and their's a bunch of other stuff too, those are just the emu's / games I use ATM.

If you check out the other threads under general, you should find some news about the xgp which is coming out sometime this year, it is made by a different company than the gp2x, I don't know if it's open source yet, otherwise no news of forthcoming delux models has hit the boards yet...

Hope this helps MR_Munk

BTW: GP2X is 200MHZ with graphics hardware for video scaling etc, so it hasn't got the same horsepower as a 500MHZ PC with graphics card...

 

[taras]

yep just to be clear the 2x 200 MHz chips, only one is used at the moment by software (emulators etc); the other is a separate chip for fast video decoding.

 

[yaustar]

0) Did you 'overclock' your PSP for SNES emulation. I find it strange that I could get at least 40 FPS on SMW a year ago on SNES emulation. Did you try different emulators?

1) No clue, Squidge's one looks promising but I don't think any other devs have public announced that they are working on one. With luck YoyoFr might give it a shot.

2) No motion blur, just scanlines and flickering that can be reduced with a software tool easily.

3) There is only one version of the GP2X, there will be some hardware changes later this year because they cant source the LCDs or NAND memory that they are currently using.

4) You can get a DaveC's joystick cap which makes a lot better, someone is literally replacing the the entire componment. DaveC mod is easy, the latter will at least require some soldering skills.

5) It will only support the AVI container format. Everything that I have thrown at it in AVI format works so far. (DivX/Xvid).

If you are looking for decent Snes emulation now, go back to the PSP. It runs at 30-60fps on most games at present.

 

[D.C.]

You said they can't source the LCD....so they're going to replace it? Do you now when exactly?

 

[Hamburglar]

0) Did you 'overclock' your PSP for SNES emulation. I find it strange that I could get at least 40 FPS on SMW a year ago on SNES emulation. Did you try different emulators?

Yes I did. I had a 1.5 PSP, I used the fastest ME edition of SNES for that version, and Mario World ran at like 30 FPS or so at 333mhz. Pretty lousy. Ignoring that, the terrible square button, dead pixels, and blurry screen made it a $250 waste for me.

Someone here said Genesis (Mega Drive) runs 100% so early into the GP2x's life. I can't imagine SNES can be that far off? I know it was a more powerful system but THAT much? I mean, I could live without Mario RPG running 60fps, but if games like Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, FF6, Mario All Stars, etc could do it at 60fps, it would be worth it. (Obviously with sound and such)

 

[Shikaku]

0) Did you 'overclock' your PSP for SNES emulation. I find it strange that I could get at least 40 FPS on SMW a year ago on SNES emulation. Did you try different emulators?

Yes I did. I had a 1.5 PSP, I used the fastest ME edition of SNES for that version, and Mario World ran at like 30 FPS or so at 333mhz. Pretty lousy. Ignoring that, the terrible square button, dead pixels, and blurry screen made it a $250 waste for me.

Someone here said Genesis (Mega Drive) runs 100% so early into the GP2x's life. I can't imagine SNES can be that far off? I know it was a more powerful system but THAT much? I mean, I could live without Mario RPG running 60fps, but if games like Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, FF6, Mario All Stars, etc could do it at 60fps, it would be worth it. (Obviously with sound and such)

​

For now... 60 FPS SNES is a pipe dream.

Especially with the games that have chipsets in them. The SNES is much more complex than the Genesis (even though it had a slower clock speed (BUT CLOCKSPEED MEANS SHIT IN CONSOLES/HANDHELDS)). It had multiple processors, including one in the catridge itself sometimes. If you want fullspeed portable SNES emulation.. buy a laptop.

 

[Mr_Munk]

It isn't raw power ie processor that's the problem emulating snes, it's the custom chips that support the cpu that are the bitch, eg. processing transparency would probably kill the gp2x processor h34r:

damn, beat me to it dude.

 

[Hamburglar]

Thanks for the replies guys. I guess I'll never really play SNES on the run, not for the next 5 years at least. I appreciate no one trying to pull the wool over my eyes in hopes of a fellow sale or something. Thanks again.

 

[yaustar]

You said they can't source the LCD....so they're going to replace it? Do you now when exactly?

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Craigix said they probably use the Blu+ ones I think.. its in a thread somewhere. Check all of Craigix's old posts through the profile.

 

[D.C.]

Thanks, just read about it in the new topic by Denus:Gp2x New Revision: Will It Come Soon?

 

[deadlychicken22]

Someone here said Genesis (Mega Drive) runs 100% so early into the GP2x's life. I can't imagine SNES can be that far off? I know it was a more powerful system but THAT much? I mean, I could live without Mario RPG running 60fps, but if games like Earthbound, Chrono Trigger, FF6, Mario All Stars, etc could do it at 60fps, it would be worth it. (Obviously with sound and such)

​

That genesis/megadrive emulator was originally on the gp32, and was worked on for the gp32 for quite awhile before coming to the gp2x. It is in that good of a state so early because it wasn't just started when the gp2x came out and it has a devoted coder (reesy) behind it. I'm sure that snes is possible with the gp2x hardware, but it still has to be made by a devoted coder (and it would probably have to be a very good coder at that).

 

[Knoxximus]

Go Squidge!

 

[Captainbubby]

I wouldn't lose all hope hamburglar. The Gp32 Snes Emu, although it was never finished, was a pretty good emulator. Donkey Kong Country ran pretty much flawlessly on it, other games ran playable, but not fullspeed. I certainly think the SNES emulator will good enough to warrant you buying a Gp2x in the future, that's provided that it keeps getting worked on, it was such a shame that it was never worked on more on the Gp32.

 

[Shikaku]

.35 of Squidge's SNES emulator is in the beta testing forums... if anyone cares. Squidge is still working on it.

 

[Hamburglar]

I wouldn't lose all hope hamburglar. The Gp32 Snes Emu, although it was never finished, was a pretty good emulator. Donkey Kong Country ran pretty much flawlessly on it, other games ran playable, but not fullspeed. I certainly think the SNES emulator will good enough to warrant you buying a Gp2x in the future, that's provided that it keeps getting worked on, it was such a shame that it was never worked on more on the Gp32.

​

Thanks. I guess I'll just wait to see if the GP2x is ever capable of SNES, and if it is, I'll get one in the future.

 

[cbox]

I played a bunch of games last night using Squidge's emulator version .35 and damn he really improved the playability. Was playing Legend of Zelda pretty much full speed, sound was a little wonky but otherwise quite playable, and with save states! Other games I tried ran pretty good, some ran a little slow but in general quite playable right now. I also tried DKC1 (ran fine), a couple arcade collection roms (ran fine), Civilization (ran fine), Sim City 2000 (froze up), Super Mario World (ran fine).

 

[Hamburglar]

I played a bunch of games last night using Squidge's emulator version .35 and damn he really improved the playability. Was playing Legend of Zelda pretty much full speed, sound was a little wonky but otherwise quite playable, and with save states! Other games I tried ran pretty good, some ran a little slow but in general quite playable right now. I also tried DKC1 (ran fine), a couple arcade collection roms (ran fine), Civilization (ran fine), Sim City 2000 (froze up), Super Mario World (ran fine).

​

Thanks man. I'll defiinitely buy one if all the non chip games run full speed some day. *Especially* Final Fantasy 6 and Chrono Trigger.