Internal Ram On The Gp32

[kaboekieman]

Hi all, I have a couple of questions. I can get my hands on an 'old' GP32 FLO. But before I commit in buying it, I have a couple of questions. Let me first introduce myself:

I'm 34 years old and life in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
I play a lot of old school games, Mr. Do!, Speedball, Super Cars 2, Marble Madness, Pinball Illusions/Fantasies, Super Mario World, but expecially the old classic adventures from LUCASFILM GAMES, like Maniac Mansion (I even have the orginal shrinkwrapped C-64 version at home), DOTT, Monkey Islands 1 & 2, Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis, and a few other great titles.

Currently I'm playing the FM-Towns version of 'Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders' on my HTC Touch mobile phone (it has a 2.8' 320x240 screen). I'm using ScummVM as the interprerter for it. My HTC Touch has a touchscreen, which is nice, but I think not all that WOW in the long run. This is because (which I remember from my C-64 days) when I search for a real tiny thing (which would be essential to complete the adventure) you need to look at every bit on your screen. The 2.8' screen is just a little bit to tiny to see the 'whole picture' also you can't use the option 'What is' and go over your whole screen with your pen to look for hidden spots or tiny objects in the screen... The touch screen needs to be pressed to see a hidden/tiny object which is annoying if you have to do it on every spot on the screen (a normal mouse or joystick/d-pad can be used to go over the screen (with the option 'What is') and as soon as it's over a hot spot (without clicking) it will tell you. Also the controles on the HTC Touch is not all that if your playing for a long session... So I looked futher and came across an option in buying the 'old' GP32 to play my old school games with a normal joystick control, which I really prefer (beter then touch screen). And a larger screen (3,5' 320x240) and better handling for all the buttons on the right place. Sound perfect for my needs.

I have 3 questions (sorry for the long introduction ) these are:

1.)
I want to play more classic games, for example 'DOTT' (Day of the Tentacle) with full speech, 'Full Throttle' (full speech) and also 'Beneath a Steel Sky' on the GP32. But can the GP32 handle files that are larger then the 8MB internal RAM?... For example the sound files of DOTT are pretty large, also the data file (sky.dsk) in the game 'Beneath a Steel Sky' is 69 MB. My first question is: Can I play DOTT, Full Throttle or Beneath a steel sky on the GP32 with the full use of sounds/talkie version?

2.)
My second queston is: Can someone who is already experienced with the installation of ScummVM for GP32 (v0.5.1 ALPHA) advice me on the playback(speed). I currently am playing the FM-Towns version of 'Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders'. This game also uses .OGG files (for ambiant music). Is this version of ScummVM compatible (full speed) with these files or do I have to convert them to another sound format, and is this new format then also compatible with the version of ScummVM 0.5.1 ALPHA? Perhaps somone could advice me if there is even a newer version of ScummVM for the GP32. But If the 0.5.1 ALPHA version can get the job done, no problem at all.

3.)
My last question is: What is the max. capacity of the MMC that can be used in the GP32?


I hope someone can help me out. I also know the GP2X-F100 is an option, but to save on money (I can get a really good deal on the GP32) I would prefer to buy the GP32 instead of the GP2X-F100.

Thanks in advance,
Jeroen from Amsterdam, The Netherlands

 

[Hooka]

It's been awhile, but I do remember playing DOTT on it, although the full talkie version was a little slow if I remember correctly (unless you can overclock really high). It's been too long since I tried SCUMMVM on GP32, so I'm gonna avoid answering too many questions on it atm. As for what size of SMC, the max size is 128MB and they are getting damn near impossible to find nowadays :S But, after saying this I'd recommend that you pickup the FLU if you can get it for really cheap as you may come to find some GP32 original games out there that are well worth having this little gem of a system around for. I personally still use my GP32 quite frequently, although I use it differently nowadays... I have a GP2X and a Tapwave Zodiac, so I primarily use those for stuff like emu's and ScummVM, etc. while I use my GP32 for it's amazing homebrew and other little things that aren't readily available for these other systems.

 

[WhiteFalcon]

Ji Joena, according to what you expect from it, I would not advise you to buy the GP32. Most of the games you mentioned just will not run on it, at least not at a reasonable speed. It is a nice little device, especially for 8bit systems emulation and also for Sega Genesis, but forget about Full Throttle and all amiga games. It has been a long time, but I doubt the GP32 would manage to play OGGs along with a game.

Tha card used there is not MMC, but SMC (SmartMedia Card) and as Hooka said, it is quite hard to obtain these days and also rather expensive for its size.

All in all, you should really either buy a GP2X or save some money and buy a Pandora later this year. If you relly can get the GP32 that cheap then go for it, but I would bet my left leg it will not stand up to your expectations.

 

[kaboekieman]

Hi White Falcon and Hooka, thanks for your answers.... Yes, the main reason to buy the GP32 is to play the old scool amiga games and the full talkie lucasfilm games (with scummvm). Hooka/Falcon, what is your experience in playing amiga games (like the games mentioned by me earlier) and for example DOTT or Full Throtle???

I heard negative feedback about the joystick on the gp2x-f100...? The stick has to be pussed all the way to get a response, do you share this opinion? or can I tweak it a little (I have a experise in electronic parts). In the Netherlands the GP2X-F100 is out of date and not so easy to come by... it's been replaces by the GP2X-F200... but I'm not shure about the d-pad though.

Hope you have experience in this. And Falcon, yep I know about the Pandora... I'll keep this in mind also... But if i'm gonna pay more then 3 times as much for a gp2x-f100/f200 it sure has to be top notch (as expensive as an arcade xbox in the Netherlands )

byebye for now, and thanks for your advice,
Jeroen

p.s. Hooka what is you experience with your Tapwave Zodiac and/or can you advise me perhaps on a good handheld to play my amiga / lucasfilm games (as mentioned eearlier)? (screen minimal: 3,5' 320x240) It will be more expensive, but I can calculate this with my savings and perhaps buy it later

 

[WhiteFalcon]

As far as I remember, there is no Amiga emulator for the GP32 and never will be, so this is a closed doors. I always loved old adventure games, but GP32 did not prove to be the answer to this. Full Throttle is a no, Day of the Tentacle, not sure, probably yes, somehow.

When I bought the GP2X (F100), I almost got crazy about the stupid joystick. The GP32 was (and in my opinion still is) so much better in that aspect. But one can get used to almost anything and new replacement caps for the joystick made it better. Yet for adventure games mouse is the input device of choice and as I suppose you want to use it on the move.. well they can be played with the joystick, although clumsily and slowly. I have almost no experience with touchscreens (queer, eh? ), but I suppose they are much better than the stick. For arcade gaming the joystick is fine, the dpad on the new revision (F200) most probably better.

As the Pandora is not out yet, I cannot promise you it is THE device you need, but I too am on a low budget and still ordered it. I simply believe it will manage all I need and what I expect from it is almost the same as you said. If you really want to keep the price low, buy a GP2X F200 (beware of the problems with the latest firmwares) or even the GP32 (only for Atari ST games including adventures and Genesis - assuming from what you want from it).

 

[Exophase]

Another option is to wait a couple months for the Wiz, which should eventually run almost everything the GP2X can but with a bit better performance. Controls are not bad (dpad is fine, although everything is really small), has a touchscreen, uses Li-Ion batteries (no need to charge up AAs), uses SD/SDHC cards which are super cheap and easy to come by. ScummVM hasn't been ported yet but DJWillis has one, so it's only a matter of time. It's pretty likely that it'll be available by the time the Wiz is out.

My guess is that the GP32 is still more of an ergonomically friendly system but I've never held one so I can't comment. All I know is that visually it looks more comfortable.

 

[Hooka]

Yeah, if you want actual amiga games too the GP32 won't help you there. If I'm remembering correctly the Zodiac was a decent choice for ScummVM (and boasts a 4" screen), but it's been awhile so I can't say for sure... The major problem with Zodiacs is that quite a few of the first runs had an iffy analogue joystick, I managed to fluke out and get a good one, but even so after a year or two of solid use the lithium batteries tend to die off. There are places to buy new batteries still, but you'd have to most likely find a second hand or pay alot for a new one off ebay nowadays... The Wiz'd wind up being the same resolution and screen size as your HTC, but would offer a dpad, and at a fairly reasonable price. It will most likely have both a good ScummVM port AND a good Amiga emu, as both will probably be ported over from GP2X either by release or shortly there after

 

[kaboekieman]

Wow thanks for all the help and answers... Yes the WIZ sounds like the handheld console that would do the job. It has only 1 'negative' point and that's the smaller screen (2.8' instead of 3.5'), but all things considered.. the rest is top-notch. Thanks Hooka and the rest for your help and all the answers...

I did a little searching again for Amiga emulators and handheld devices and came to yet another handheld device that was also ok... Perhaps people are interested in it, so I will mention it here. It looked a lot like a WIZ clone... The device is called: Dingo-A320.

http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.20217

Not shure about emulating Scumm (talkie) and Amiga games, but it looked nice If someone has this device and has info about emulating the games as mentioned by me earlier, I would by gratefull if you could mention it on this forum.

Byebye and have a nice weekend all,
Jeroen, from Amsterdam (The Netherlands)

 

[Exophase]

I couldn't find any specs on this device. If it doesn't come with support for the platforms you want out of the box then it could take an indefinite amount of time before they appear, even if it's at all easy to put new stuff on it. I wouldn't depend on it too much.

It has to be pretty powerful to run GBA emulation decently though. As always I wonder where they get their emulator ;P