If You Were Going To Design A Super-gp2x

[Epicenter]

I have only had mine a week so I am not really bothered about a new one just yet. The only thing I ask for is consistency in button use. Like sometimes A is fire, sometimes B is fire.

I got it as it plays 'old school' games. You cant really improve that. This is what I believe it is being marketed on.

Alright If you really wanted an answer:
10mp built in camera.
1Ghz processor.
Super dooper 3d graphics chip
Built in 40G hardrive
built in modern webbrowser
Really thin fold out keyboard
oh and maybe holographic projected screen
And it has to make me a nice cup of tea.

A CPU and GPU at such high clockrates would require loads of power and emit a lot of heat. Not feasible. A 10MP digital camera costs hundreds if not thousands of dollars. A hard drive would also use lots of power and be quite expensive in that form factor. And button consistency is a burden on the shoulders of developers, not GPH. They don't write the apps for it.

 

[sparr]

OK, this thread has gotten way off my intended track, and a lot of out-there suggestions have been made...

When I said "What would you add" what I meant was:

What would you add and still be willing to buy the console at the new inflated price with the new reduced battery life?

Don't waste forum space asking for 500MHz CPUs or a VGA LCD.

 

[Epicenter]

I really would love to see GPH or GamePark's next machine generation contain an ARM11 series processor at ~400 MHz or higher. Perfectly feasible, extremely low power consumption, plus there'd be hardware support for floating point operations. Could also be coupled with a 2D and 3D accelerator via MagicEyes' custom ASIC service. That, incremental RAM and NAND size upgrades and an alteration in control scheme and you'd have a real monster on your hands.

 

[Radek]

I really would love to see GPH or GamePark's next machine generation contain an ARM11 series processor at ~400 MHz or higher. Perfectly feasible, extremely low power consumption, plus there'd be hardware support for floating point operations. Could also be coupled with a 2D and 3D accelerator via MagicEyes' custom ASIC service. That, incremental RAM and NAND size upgrades and an alteration in control scheme and you'd have a real monster on your hands.

The ARM11 would be preferabe and not only because of a FPU. It has vector like processing unit too what would be very nice. With Arm9 few cycles have to be sacrificed to force a normal 32bits ALU to a vector like operations. And clock of +400MHz for Arm would make such handheld a supreme machine...

 

[Epicenter]

The emulation possibilities (and Quake performance, heh) of such a unit aside, the very prospect of the kind of 2D games I could write for such a processor/2D accelerator combo makes me drool. I've proposed the concept for a new machine similar to the '2x and XGP to GPH/GP respectively, maybe a couple years down the line, they take my advice!

 

[DaveC]

The emulation possibilities (and Quake performance, heh) of such a unit aside, the very prospect of the kind of 2D games I could write for such a processor/2D accelerator combo makes me drool. I've proposed the concept for a new machine similar to the '2x and XGP to GPH/GP respectively, maybe a couple years down the line, they take my advice!

As long as it would have a control scheme (rotatable for vertical games such as MAME too), screen resolution, and easily obtainable power source that is emulation friendly that would be fine.

No analog sticks, 16:9 weird res screens, and proprietary batteries.

Whether some of us like it or not emulation is a HUGE selling point of these things. It should not compromise emulation capabilities. Users that want new style games will be looking at Sony and Nintendo's offerings.

That isn't to say that homebrew would not be possible. Any machine good at emulation will run HB well too.

 

[Paradox]

my super gp2x should contain the following:

warp drive (up to warp 5)
ability to connect to any interface socket ever created and communicate with it
lifeform and carbon dating scanner
antiviral injections for every virus known to man, and some super antivirus which should cover any new ones (never know when that zombie apocalypse will spring up)
should have a grip that pulls down from the bottom, allowing it to function as a small sub machine gun, which fires antimatter plasma projectiles which the gp2x can create on-the-fly using its inbuilt thermonuclear reactor.
the screen should project a small 4x4 shield capable of stopping small arms fire
hamster treat dispenser

 

[Epicenter]

There isn't that much needed to make a portable good for emulation-- and I agree it is a major selling point if not the primary one for a device like this, the one that creates the audience needed for homebrew projects to take off. The only real requirements would be a display that is 320x240 or 640x480 or very close; the same aspect ratio, and a d-pad or click-stick-- though the most IDEAL option would be a socket multiple control modules could be plugged into, a stick, a d-pad, etc.-- though this would probably not be something GPH or GP would go with due to both companies avoiding engineering in favor of building SoC systems. Though I think either one of them would make people happy compared to the existing stick.

 

[MWeston]

No analog sticks, 16:9 weird res screens, and proprietary batteries.

How come no analog stick? Wouldn't one (or even two) be ideal for PSX emulation? It's just my opinion but I would like to see at least one (as well as D-pad of course)

 

[DaveC]

There isn't that much needed to make a portable good for emulation-- and I agree it is a major selling point if not the primary one for a device like this, the one that creates the audience needed for homebrew projects to take off. The only real requirements would be a display that is 320x240 or 640x480 or very close;

You should have stopped before the "very close". It really should be 320 x 240 or 640 x 480. If it is 640 x 480 you can do straight pixel doubling to get a 320 x 240 ish image with a border for one of the modes eliminating fractional scaling artifacts. Then of course you have all of your full screen stretch modes for those that are bothered by a tiny border.

Any of those other close resolutions like 480 x 240, 480 x 272, 320 x 320 etc will FORCE fractional scaling or a very small 1:1 image for emus.

So yes 320 x 240 or 640 x 480.

No analog sticks, 16:9 weird res screens, and proprietary batteries.

How come no analog stick? Wouldn't one (or even two) be ideal for PSX emulation? It's just my opinion but I would like to see at least one (as well as D-pad of course)

Well you need room for a d-pad that isn't placed awkwardly. PSX isn't the only thing to be emulated, that is only one out of many systems. Most systems that will be emulated are best with d-pads.

 

[semyaza]

I have only had mine a week so I am not really bothered about a new one just yet. The only thing I ask for is consistency in button use. Like sometimes A is fire, sometimes B is fire.

I got it as it plays 'old school' games. You cant really improve that. This is what I believe it is being marketed on.

Alright If you really wanted an answer:
10mp built in camera.
1Ghz processor.
Super dooper 3d graphics chip
Built in 40G hardrive
built in modern webbrowser
Really thin fold out keyboard
oh and maybe holographic projected screen
And it has to make me a nice cup of tea.

A CPU and GPU at such high clockrates would require loads of power and emit a lot of heat. Not feasible. A 10MP digital camera costs hundreds if not thousands of dollars. A hard drive would also use lots of power and be quite expensive in that form factor. And button consistency is a burden on the shoulders of developers, not GPH. They don't write the apps for it.

Errr....I was actually taking the piss.

 

[Khatoblepas]

The GP2x is nearly very good as it is, but there might be a few things you could add (not saying that ALL of them are necessary, just that they might be good ideas, and some economical)...

- A DPad
Obvious, right?
- Touchscreen
Would make it so awesome, what with mouse driven games becoming real fun on it. And also, PIXEL ART PROGRAMS =o You know it makes sense. Also, with a touchscreen, you could even make the GP2x into a mouse for your computer, or even a rudimentary graphics tablet!
- Hardware MP3/OGG decoding.
You know those $10 mp3 players? Those just prove that this kinda technology is two a penny. It would allow us to underclock the CPU far more and get more battery life while listening to music, and give games a possible needed boost in speed when it comes to time-critical processing without the music skipping. Oh, and I suppose you could play music in the background of emulators without such a performance hit, I guess.
- CF Slot.
It's cheap, and open! Shame about the power usage, though.
- Obligatory Wild Request: Better Ergonomics
In all honesty, once GPH make a little money, they should be able to afford to make it a little more comfortable to hold than a small brick and not have the wires trailing out the sides.

So there you have it. I've tried to keep it as cheap and as low power consuming as possible. But alas, I can not take into account costs for developing and prototyping such technology.

But hang on. May I ask why people want stuff that'd drain the GP2x's battery like it was water? I mean, you have applicances WITH the added extras, but the battery life on those things are appauling. Even with Li-Ion batteries. Two hours, I've come across quite regularly. But, one has to wonder, why build in any of those expensive and battery consuming things, when you could just have USB stuff, or even an expansion port directly to the Bus? I'm thinking a mini-PCI or something. It would be cool.

 

[shrubberyrobbery]

A CPU and GPU at such high clockrates would require loads of power and emit a lot of heat. Not feasible. A 10MP digital camera costs hundreds if not thousands of dollars. A hard drive would also use lots of power and be quite expensive in that form factor. And button consistency is a burden on the shoulders of developers, not GPH. They don't write the apps for it.

Errr....I was actually taking the piss.

a tractor-beam?

*runs away*