Itunes Like Program For The Gp2x A Good Idea?

[Sofox]

Hey guy, sorry if this idea has come up before, but I was wondering if it would be a good idea to make an iTunes like program for the GP2x.
I think it would be cool if there was a program that would let you browse an online catalogue of games, emulators and apps for the GP2x along with descriptions and comments. If you wanted one you'd press a button and it would automatically download it and transfer it onto what it has detected as your GP2x or its SD card.
It would make it more convenient to quickly put stuff on your GP2x, and make it a lot easier for novices who arn't sure about the process (I know its a simple process for most of us, but most other handheld consoles have swapping cartriges as its most technical aspect).
It could even just act as a simple frontend for archive.gp2x.de so would be pretty easy to program.
So what do you think?

 

[xinfernoofdantex]

then what are you waiting for, go program it

 

[Shikaku]

then what are you waiting for, go program it

Ass.

 

[Epicenter]

I guess it could be a nice feature for newbies or those less technically inclined, even though the installation processes for most apps is terribly simple if you just read directions. If I were to design this, though, it'd be a program you ran ON the GP2X connected to an internet-connected PC via USB to copy over the games, decompress them and install them to an appropriate location.

 

[jmetal88]

Hmm... This sounds like a project I might actually be able to handle. Perhaps I'll make it a project in my Computer Science class during this school year.

EDIT: Actually, Epicenter's idea sounds better than what I was thinking of, and being a beginning programmer, I'm not sure developing a GP2X internet application is the best place to start for me.

 

[Quiest]

Sounds like a good idea, I like it.

 

[nubie]

Hey guy, sorry if this idea has come up before, but I was wondering if it would be a good idea to make an iTunes like program for the GP2x.

If you mean crashes all the time and uploads rootkits and won't uninstall, then no.

I think it would be cool if there was a program that would let you browse an online catalogue of games, emulators and apps for the GP2x along with descriptions and comments. If you wanted one you'd press a button and it would automatically download it and transfer it onto what it has detected as your GP2x or its SD card.

As Epicenter says, run it on the GP2X.

It would make it more convenient to quickly put stuff on your GP2x, and make it a lot easier for novices who aren't sure about the process (I know its a simple process for most of us, but most other handheld consoles have swapping cartriges as its most technical aspect).

Hmm, not. Running a Genesis emu on the PS2 took days of warez forum hunting and purchasing an Action Replay and a Network adaptor, just to find the crap emulator doesn't load off of anything but the Memory Card. (I had a USB stick, a USB HDD, the internal HDD, and the emu is crap.)

I think that for the result the GP2X is 10x easier to use: navigate, run program. That is all you need to do for 98% of the content on here anyway.

It could even just act as a simple frontend for archive.gp2x.de so would be pretty easy to program.
So what do you think?

Interesting, but we don't really have the content ready for this to be of use. The homebrew games are fine, but they are usually drag and drop onto the SD in the folder of your choice.

The Emulators would benefit the most from this, but then again we really can't make those point and click because of the legality issues.

The Commercial games could use this, but there is only one so far. Hard to streamline one game install.

 

[EvilDragon]

Well, whoever wants to take on this project:

Contact me if you want to use the gp2x File Archive as source for that
As it would be useful then to host that system on my server as it can readout the MySQL database

 

[JaqMs]

Sounds like something this community and the GP2X needs. Though I think there would be problems in directly transferring programs to the GP2X unless the files in every zip archive have the same format/order. Also, pay-per-program

 

[mahavailo7]

let me start by saying that this is a unique and creative idea, but let me be the devils advocate and say a couple of things.

It is a good idea and definately worth it for newbies, but think for a second. I can't imagine that there are any newbies among us that had bought a gp2x expecting that all they would have to do is plug the thing into the computer and magically have a perfect snes emulation and two seasons of beavis and butthead in the convenient locale that is their pocket. They go into it expecting to have to spend several sleepless night up reading forum posts and sifting through archive files, and for this reason, devloping a program like you suggested would seem like a waste of man-power for the amount of good it would do.

Don't take what I have said the wrong way. By coming up with this idea you have done a good thing; by showing that the gp2x community is as sharp as a knife.

keep those gears turning,

~artemis

 

[Dimacus]

I think this is a great idea and im thinking i might try to create something like this.

[rant]
(i have just read the commercial thread and then the "Gp2x, Really?")

I think one problem with gaining a larger usersbase for the gp2x is the general opinion that the gp2x isn't for "noobs" or simply arn't noobs, and that those who are noobs should get a psp or ds instead (now i do understand that the question "can i play teh xboxx warz emulatorz i d0wnl0ad on gp32x?????????" do kill the readers brain and makes you want to womit).

However I firmly belive that if we want more users to buy and use the gp2x we need to make it more user friendly then it earlready is.
For example:
User buys a new game.
User put the dvd in the dvd player, install automagicly runs.
User fill in the requierd fields
User plays the game

For a hand held unit it's even simpler:
User buys new game
User put's game in console
Console runs game (more or less).

Now if you want to run homebrewd games, That requers alot more from the user's side.
The same thing apply to the gp2x, except it's probably (i haven't installed/played any homebrew on any other handheld except palm V )
a bit easyer to run homebrew on the gp2x, but it's still alot harder than to play games on, the DS for example.

So if we want mainstream folks to use the gp2x, we need to adopt a little more mainstreamlyness to the most simple tasks, like installing games.


[/rant]

A program like this would be of great service to those that are unsure of how to install the games/programs on the gp2x, and it could be of great help when installing games/programs that acually require additional configuration.

Also if it would be able to take some sort of link files, you could post a link file(that the program opens and get the link information from it) instead a link to the file arcive.

 

[Epicenter]

If you ask me, a lot of the 'getting started' confusion should be answered by tutorial videos included on the NAND Memory of the GP2X units that will ship in the future with larger NAND capacities. The manual could state to go to Video and play the files to see how to do more advanced things, in addition to pointing them to online resources.

But, this could be a good supplement to that, if a good universal method for developers to publish their works in sort of a repository like Debian's APT-GET system..

 

[mahavailo7]

why does the gp2x community want to attract a broader audience? I just don't understand. You have to WANT to emulate to WANT to buy a gp2x. Trying to attract people who would otherwise be DS or PSP users is just uncomprehendable. There is nothing we can REALLY do that will have a huge affect on whether these people become aware of and buy a gp2x. I was a PSP owner myself and was content enough with the commercial games, but I wanted to know how to get movies on the sucker (I was a handheld noob at the time) so I went to a forum. While on the forum I started reading about what the deal with all these fancy words like "homebrew" and "emulator" meant. Soon I downgraded my firmware and explored with the homebrew apps for psp. From there, A guy on the forum was talking about the gp2x, and it sounded attractive to me, as I loved emulation and wanted to play the commercial games I had invested money in.

this is what I mean. I would not be here if I didn't really WANT to have to do the work, and thus not have WANTed to buy a gp2x.

We my friends are the elite; we look past the "insert cartridge" and see ".gpe" files. This is not to say we should turn into self centered fucks, I'm just saying that we need to welcome and help those that happen to stumble upon the gp2x, but we should not go out of our way to discredit our "eliteness"

it is a nice and kind idea at heart, but trying to make the gp2x user friendly takes away from what (and WHO) it was intended for. Hate to be a dick, but this is my two cents. Develope the thing if you must.

 

[Magnulus]

but we should not go out of our way to discredit our "eliteness".

I think we should.
I don't think we should try to make the DS and PSP users switch, I simply think that there are a lot more people than you think who would gladly learn about .gpes and whatnot if only it meant great, free games.

 

[Phil]

I think this would be a great idea to make it more user friendly and therefore make the gp2x more commercially appealing.

If the program caught steam it could very well be sponsered by GPH, and the maker might be able to get some money for him/herself.

Anything that makes the GP2x more consumer friendly is a good thing, when you think "linux" you don't really think "easy"

 

[Parkydr]

Running the program from the GP2X would not be noob friendly because of the problem of setting up internet access. It isn't just a case of plug and play.

Probably the easiest way is for the program to run on a pc and write the files to the sd card. The problem with this is that you may need a Windows and Linux version (although all us Linux users probably wouldn't need this as we're all 1337 )

Edit: and Mac version etc

 

[jmetal88]

What we need is an GP2X 'Installation Wizard' type program for PC, that someone could make packages for involving the more popular/useful/fun GP2X programs, that would install programs to the proper directory of the SD card and set up the configuration, as well as install a script to a categorized directory in the root that would make it easy to find. There could also be a program you could run that takes all the ROM images you have and automatically installs them to the correct directories for the emulators you have installed.

EDIT: Now this would be something fun for me to attempt. I actually had fun organizing my SD card, I bet I'd have even more fun figuring out how to design a program that would organize it for me.

 

[Dzz]

What we need is an GP2X 'Installation Wizard' type program for PC, that someone could make packages for involving the more popular/useful/fun GP2X programs, that would install programs to the proper directory of the SD card and set up the configuration, as well as install a script to a categorized directory in the root that would make it easy to find. There could also be a program you could run that takes all the ROM images you have and automatically installs them to the correct directories for the emulators you have installed.

EDIT: Now this would be something fun for me to attempt. I actually had fun organizing my SD card, I bet I'd have even more fun figuring out how to design a program that would organize it for me.

This would be nice. Be prepared to be flamed to death by linux and mac users.

 

[xinfernoofdantex]

Why linux users? Linux is still a PC

 

[Shikaku]

Why linux users? Linux is still a PC

Be prepared to be flamed to death by linux and mac users.

Your idiocy is showing =)

It's an OS thing: Installation Wizard is a Windows term. Linux users just extract or compile the program they download usually.