Many Of My Games Aren't Working

[Lyle]

Hi, all,
I bought the GP2X for my 11 year old son as an alternative to the PSP. I'm trying to load it up with gobs of games so he's got something to do when he gets it for Christmas. I'm downloading games form this site and so far the only game that works is Moon Lander. The other games (tetris, pacman, doom, duke3D, etc.) just give me a black screen for a few seconds then I get sent back to the main screen. I received the unit with firmware 2.1.0 and I'm using a SanDisk 512 SD card. I'm placing the unzipped files (using WinZip and keeping directory structures) to the Games folder in newly created folders for each game. For instance Doom goes into Games\Doom, Tetris in in Games\Tetris, etc. Are others having similar problems or am I doing something wrong? On another note, my computer does not recognize or even acknowledge the GP2X through the USB connection. I've tried different cables... no go. I want my son to be able to download and install games, but if half of them don't work, I may just put this thing up for sale and go with the PSP.
Lyle.

 

[Goemon4]

for things like Doom and Duke you need the original game files in order for them to work, and which tetris are you using? if its pyTetris then you need the python libraries. try mostly games from the freeware section, those should work fine. Try these games and see if they work

http://www.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,0,0,0,25,1816
http://www.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,0,0,0,25,947
http://www.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,0,0,0,30,1780
http://www.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,0,0,0,37,1445

they all should work. Also keep in mind some of the older, less updated games may not work on the current firmware (tho most do), also read the readme files, they could provide clues on why a game is or isnt working...

 

[Fishbong]

You should get your son a DS.

 

[bomb_dog]

You should get your son a DS.

Hey, 11 is not too young to learn how to start messing about with files!
I had a C64 when I was 8 and became a bit of sucker for moving files around and getting stuff working.

Putting a few games on it and then encouraging him to learn about file systems and how things work in order to get others to work may mean additional rewards, not just in gaming!

 

[Racemaniac]

You should get your son a DS.

Hey, 11 is not too young to learn how to start messing about with files!
I had a C64 when I was 8 and became a bit of sucker for moving files around and getting stuff working.

Putting a few games on it and then encouraging him to learn about file systems and how things work in order to get others to work may mean additional rewards, not just in gaming!

i can't but completely second this i also had a c64 at about that age . ofcourse, i don't know if i would've been playing a lot with it if more convenient things were available.

 

[D.C.]

You should get your son a DS.

Hey, 11 is not too young to learn how to start messing about with files!
I had a C64 when I was 8 and became a bit of sucker for moving files around and getting stuff working.

Putting a few games on it and then encouraging him to learn about file systems and how things work in order to get others to work may mean additional rewards, not just in gaming!

i can't but completely second this i also had a c64 at about that age . ofcourse, i don't know if i would've been playing a lot with it if more convenient things were available.

Don't try to make the kid a geek
Just kidding.....only if the kid is interested in that sort of thing, otherwise he just might get frustrated.

 

[Goemon4]

tbh i dont find the 2x to be hard to use at all, just D&D this and that and im set, getting some things working is a pain (gngeo) but other than that.... its a breeze

 

[krosfyah]

If your son is a computer geek then he won't have any trouble getting everything working. If he isn't then you probably bought him the wrong handheld.

 

[fluffyhamster]

If your son is a computer geek then he won't have any trouble getting everything working. If he isn't then you probably bought him the wrong handheld.

The GP2X made a computer geek out of me. . . .



I've been happy since!

EDIT: Pacman and other mame games need to be in the .34 or so romset. http://wiki.gp2x.org/wiki/MAME_GP2X Look at converting roms.

 

[krosfyah]

If your son is a computer geek then he won't have any trouble getting everything working. If he isn't then you probably bought him the wrong handheld.

The GP2X made a computer geek out of me. . . .

I've been happy since!

Yep, it can work that way too.. but I find that's more likely to happen when there is some nostalgia factor involved which of course children wouldn't have. There are some kids that can get into the retro scene but it's somewhat rare in my experience.

 

[Fishbong]

No offense intended, but what if your son asks you how to do something? Would you tell him to visit the 32x boards?

 

[iignotus]

P.S. Adblocked your whole sig fluffyhamster. Nasty stuff.

 

[k3nn]

That must have been a really long time ago, seeing as you can´t even get some Homebrew games to work anymore. No offense intended, but what if your son asks you how to do something? Would you tell him to visit the 32x boards?

You do know bomb_dog wasn't the original poster, right? :blink:

To Lyle: Yeah, get a PSP/DS, your son'll likely enjoy it more and won't be made fun of in the playground so much.

 

[Fishbong]

Oops, my bad. I edited it.

@Lyle: Giving your kid a GP2X seems like a really bad idea. You can´t operate it properly yourself, how is your son supposed to do it?

And he won´t be able to trade games with other kids of his age, or play multiplayer games via Wifi which can be a social factor nowadays. Plus the GP2X isn´t as sturdy as a DS. Plus the GP2X needs rechargeable batteries.

 

[Lyle]

Oops, my bad. I edited it.

@Lyle: Giving your kid a GP2X seems like a really bad idea. You can´t operate it properly yourself, how is your son supposed to do it?

And he won´t be able to trade games with other kids of his age, or play multiplayer games via Wifi which can be a social factor nowadays. Plus the GP2X isn´t as sturdy as a DS. Plus the GP2X needs rechargeable batteries.

I did have a talk with him asking what he would rather have, and he wanted the GP2X. He's pretty techno savy (getting photos off the camera, editing them and making power point presentations) so this could be a good step for him, I think. It will be a learning process for him too, to go to the message boards and find out what to do / search for answers, etc. If it doesn't work out, then I may get him a PSP and keep the GP2X for myself, especially if someone creates some PDA type software for it. Anyway, back to the original question of why my games won't work.... I realize now that I must download some fundamental libraries for some of the games. I'll give that a whirl at lunch. Thanks for all the replies and comments. The advice is well taken.
Lyle.

 

[Fishbong]

No, you don´t need any libraries. Just read the readmes and they will tell you what additional files you may need.

For instance for Doom you need the .wad files from the original Doom or Doom 2. You can get them from the doom CD or if you just want a few levels, you could take the .wad file from the Doom Demo ( ftp://ftp.idsoftware.com/idstuff/doom/doom19s.zip Just install it using the excutable)

 

[Orkie]

especially if someone creates some PDA type software for it.

Have a look for GPE and Qtopia if you'd like something useful like that. I'm also working on an automated installer which may help with installations in the future when it is more complete (and I've released more packages).

The Freedoom IWAD works fine with the GP2X interpreter if you can't get hold of the original: http://freedoom.sourceforge.net/