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).
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).
andora2ut4:
