My Experience With The Caanoo


Fluiquid

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I ordered the Caanoo a while ago, I got it for about 9 days now.
I ordered at http://www.gp2x.de/shop/index.php
The delivery was very fast (to The Netherlands).

This is my first Open Handheld.
I like the design, it takes some time getting used to holding the device (1 or 2 days depending on how much you play).
I haven't been playing many games, I like to test everything that seems interesting to me.
I have tested a lot of apps, and I will start with the apps that weren't great.

ScummVM: Couldn't get this to run at all. (EDIT: got it to run by editing the gpe, I have no idea why it wouldn't run with the original).
DrPocketSnes 6.5.0: Tested 1 game, it was awful. (EDIT: didn't test this enough to know how it runs with other roms, could've also been the rom)
OhBoy: Tried 1 game, emulation seemed good but controls are hardcoded.

Now for the best apps:

Emulators:
MAME4ALL: Runs a lot of games, not all games run in full speed (run NeoGeo games with GnGeo).
GnGeo 0.7: Handles the NeoGeo games better than MAME, couldn't get everything to run in full speed.
gpsp: GBA Emulator, tried with a few games, emulation seems great.
gpfce: Great Nes Emulator, tested about 8 games.
PicoDrive: The best emulator for Caanoo, runs many Sega games.
HUGO: PcEngine emulator, I never played PcEngine games, but I downloaded it for bomberman games (and maybe other).

(NOTE: I only tested these emulators with a handful of roms and some different settings)

Games:
Sqrxz 1/2: Great Jump'N'Run game, awesome music, controls are different in both games which is the only downside.
Giana's Return: From the same team as Sqrxz, I only tested it briefly, runs smooth, also weird controls.
Quake 1: (upgraded engine): Looks really nice, not so great framerate.
Powder 114: I hope I can one day bring up the patience to play a roguelike, Tried this game, learned the basics, died twice.
PrBoom: Runs very smoothly, I suggest to map strafe left/right to the L/R buttons, shoot with X, open doors with A, Switch weapon with B and toggle run with II (or Y).
Snake on Dope: Runs great, its snake... on dope.

Apps:
Ginge: this is one of the best apps for the Caanoo, it adds compatibilty for GP2X and Wiz. At first the games I tried to run didn't work, but the games I tried to run today worked perfectly (all for gp2x), D1X Rebirth, Drill2x Xtreme and Ruck-Man (Ruck-Man for wiz didn't work).
Termlua2x: Terminal for Caanoo, works great, needs touch screen support badly.
MPlayer: Forget the original Caanoo movie player, use this one instead.

Other:
Gmenu2x: A menu replacement for Caanoo, you can boot the Caanoo with this menu, but apps will exit into the original menu, you can edit some of the .gpe or .gpu files for some apps to make the boot into Gmenu2x on exit, but on some apps this is hardcoded (MAME4ALL, HUGO, MPlayer).

Something about the Caanoo itself (starting with negative):
It lacks buttons, it would be great if it had an extra D-Pad, or right analog stick, but for some games there is a way to work around it by button combinations.
Some apps fall of screen, I can't use the scrollbars or press any buttons on top of the screen with some apps, its too high for the touch screen to detect.
Write speed is slow, and for some reason my card reader can't read my SD cards after they've been in the Caanoo, so I have to write data with the Caanoo itself, which is like 600KB/s max.

Positive:
Buttons and analog feel great once you get used to it.
No need to jailbreak anything, everything is legal.
It's fast, when I load an emulator, it takes 1 second to load, and about 2 seconds to load a rom.
It's not that expensive, if you have the money and you're not sure if you want to buy it, you really should if you like NES/GBA/Sega or old school FPS games like Doom/Hexen/Descent/Duke3d (there aren't all Caanoo ports for those games yet, but many run on Ginge, Haven't tested Hexen or Duke Nukem though).
If you don't like any of those type of games, I suggest you stay away from this console.

What I would like to see:

Rocks'N 'Diamonds: http://www.artsoft.org/rocksndiamonds/
I've seen a few boulder dash clones for GPH devices, but this is by far the best.
Python/Pysol: http://www.pysol.org/
Python for the Caanoo to run apps like PySol (and other python based games).

That's about it, I hope this enough information to convince people into buying or not buying the Caanoo.
Me, I'm very happy with my Caanoo, I'm currently busy with Sqrxz, Sonic Spinball and Ecco the Dolphin (CD).

(EDIT: Changed some misleading parts).
 
You are missing out on some emulators. Pocksnes runs great and the newer version is even better. Scummvm runs perfect(what error message did you get) and ohboy has been patched to accomodate the correct keys. you might want to try gpfce it is perfect. for turbografx use temper via ginge it is perfect
 
qbertaddict said:
You are missing out on some emulators. Pocksnes runs great and the newer version is even better. Scummvm runs perfect(what error message did you get) and ohboy has been patched to accomodate the correct keys. you might want to try gpfce it is perfect. for turbografx use temper via ginge it is perfect

I got all these emulators from OpenHandhelds.org, if there are newer version elsewhere I'd like to know.
Or do you mean run the GP2X/Wiz versions with Ginge?
I tried gpfce, forgot to mention it for some reason, it is great, it was actually the first emulator I tested.

With ScummVM, I don't get an error at all, it just hangs in the loading screen.
 
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DrPocketSnes 6.5.0: Tested 1 game, it was awful.

You wrote in your thread title, this should be for people interested in buying a Caanoo, testing 1 games (of thousands of SNES games), not telling which one and not writing, why you found it awful and what settings you used, what clockspeed you used and if you actually tried to get the game running at all, isn't helpful, but misleading.
The same goes for your SCUMMVM comment.
 
CKeichel said:
DrPocketSnes 6.5.0: Tested 1 game, it was awful.

You wrote in your thread title, this should be for people interested in buying a Caanoo, testing 1 games (of thousands of SNES games), not telling which one and not writing, why you found it awful and what settings you used, what clockspeed you used and if you actually tried to get the game running at all, isn't helpful, but misleading.
The same goes for your SCUMMVM comment.

I figured out what was wrong with ScummVM, for some reason my Caanoo had problems with the gpe.
How is posting that something doesn't work for me misleading? this thread is named my experience with the Caanoo.
I also mentioned I've had the Caanoo for 9 days, so not enough time to test everything, it is more of a first impression of the emulators.

You are right though I shouldn't have said it was afwul, I haven't tested it enough to make a statement like that.

About ScummVM, I read others having the same problem on the site (stuck in loading screen).
I just created a new .gpe with the same command lines, Caanoo seems to be very picky about what script to run and what not.
(I'm running firmware 1.6.0).

Don't get me wrong, this thread was about how I felt about the Caanoo and what I found Positive or Negative.
This may or may not help people in deciding whether to buy a Caanoo, it may be misleading, but I think your and other peoples comments will clear up some confusion.
 
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If that Snes game you tested was either a Mode 7 or Super FX game, then I'm not suprised that it wouldn't run well. (Since many handhelds and consoles struggle with these games).

The Caanoo is my first homebrew console as well, (though I have used the DS, the PSP and the Wii for homebrew before), and despite the number of homebrew applications being fairly limited, AND the number of applications utilising the consoles' unique features being even moreso limited, what it does do, it does very well.
 
About your slow wright speeds... It's probably because you have a slow card. I'd recommend a Class 6 or higher card... a Class 4 card at the very least. I use a Class 6 card and the wright speeds reach past 10MB/s, IIRC. Either that, or your USB port on your computer isn't USB 2.0 compatible. Also, your card may not work in your card reader because it is a High Capacity card (any SD card over 2GB). Older card readers don't support SDHC.

I've never had any speed problems with my Lexar 8GB Class 6 SD Card, which cost $22.39 CAD.
 
Com64, the problem isn't the SD card. It is the Caanoo. You don't get those speeds when transferring over USB cable directly to the Caanoo, do you? I'm getting the same speeds as fluiquid (or even less) with my class 10 SD card.

/Uni
 
I don't know what kind of SD card I have.
I use the SD card that came with the Caanoo.

If I could i would use my SD card reader to write large files.
But for some reason my card reader can't read cards that have been in my Caanoo.

Edit: I tested the snes emulator with donkey kong country now, emulation seemed perfect with that rom. (only played the first level though).
first game I've tried was mario all-stars, which had distorted colors.
 
I have a Pandora, a Caanoo and had a Wiz (sold it last year)...and I must say that Pandora makes Wiz and Caanoo totally not worth the time and money (for whatever reason you want to have one)...imho. :pandora2ut4:
 
I am in the same boat, SONY .. I have GP2X, Wiz, Caanoo, Pandora .. and well .. just don't really use anything but the Pandora. The point is its so easy to get stuff installed on the Pandora, but I have to faff around with the others, dig on the filesystem, blah blah. The Pandora is a hell of a lot easier to just get started and play things ..
 
SONY said:
I have a Pandora, a Caanoo and had a Wiz (sold it last year)...and I must say that Pandora makes Wiz and Caanoo totally not worth the time and money (for whatever reason you want to have one)...imho. :pandora2ut4:

Dude quit comparing the Caanoo to a Pandora.
I can buy 3 Caanoos for the same price.
 
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Fluiquid said:
SONY said:
I have a Pandora, a Caanoo and had a Wiz (sold it last year)...and I must say that Pandora makes Wiz and Caanoo totally not worth the time and money (for whatever reason you want to have one)...imho. :pandora2ut4:

Dude quit comparing the Caanoo to a Pandora.
I can buy 3 Caanoos for the same price.
and if you order 300 you will see the last one earlier, than your first pandora
 
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