My First 24 Hours With My Gp32...


mustardseed

Still Fresh
Joined
Feb 4, 2004
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Ahh, the gp32. I've been wanting one of these things for quite some time. My favorite games are for the NES, SNES, TG16, and gameboy, and the thought of being able to carry all these with me in one system was quite an exciting thought. not to mention i would get to watch movies on it. but for a long time i didnt have the money, so i ended up getting a really cheap gba flash card to hold me over.

i absolutely loved pocketnes, and it was near flawless (except for mario 3). then before i sold it the gba tg16 emu got pretty good, and made some of the games i had playable with sound. but i really started to want to be able to watch movies on the go (mainly mst3k episodes). i looked into getting the adaptor movie adaptor for gba but i decided after buying the compact flash card, the card reader, and the adaptor that i would have been pretty much buying a gp32.

So I traded an old gba and some games and my beloved flash card to finally get a gp32. It's a non-flu and came with a 128mb card. I was so excited to finally have one in my hands that i looked past the purple haze that was on the screen (i knew that can be fixed easily). i turned it on hoping there were some roms on it that i could test out. only dr mario, and tetris were on it, but i liked dr mario so i fired it up. first thing i noticed was that it was the sound was running slow but i figured it just needed to be overclocked (found out later it couldnt be though) and i turned it off and went to my friend's house to load it up...

I spent a few hours trying out roms and emus and other stuff and the following is my list of complaints and things i liked. i didnt get to try out any divx because it turns out the copy gpcinema was bootleg copy, and i try to stay legal.

Things I didn't like:
- LittleJohn: after pocketnes on the gba, i expected nothing less than perfection from this much more powerful machine, but perfection was not what i got. it was not running full speed with sound and no frameskip. this made me sad, as i am a big nes buff and i hate not having things perfect. even mario 1 was slow. i'm going to try version 3 of this emu as i've heard its better.

- OpenSNES9xGP: i knew this one was not going to be perfect. i tried to keep my hopes and expectations low. i tried mario world, DKC2, megaman x, and darius twin with no sound and a frameskip 2 at 160mhz. they played alright for the most part and i could kinda enjoy it. it was frustrating to have to keep changing the transparency thing for different levels in dkc2 though. mario was little too choppy though, as was darius twin. megaman ran pretty good though. i know fullspeed, frameskip 0, with sound, snes emulation is possible, unfortunately its not here yet. sidenote: pocketsnes runs mario world alot better than opensnes9xgp.

- both genesis emus: i only tried sonic 1 and 2, but thet were too choppy to be enjoyable. even at 166mhz.

- the joystick: this thing is way too sensitive for navigating the menus of the emus. it's also hard to play some games that don't register down and right at the same time for going right (like mario 1). it's just not as good as the nintendo d-pad. period. and the clicking sound is annoying

- the A&B buttons: the buttons are too close together and you have to push them too far down to get them to register. i was just straight sucking at mario because i couldn't hold down B to run and press A to jump at the same time with any kind of consistency. i couldn't just tap the button to make it just slightly jump as easily on most other controllers.

Things I liked:
- MP3 Player: Man this sucker sounds good. this really impressed me and it performed better than i thought, but alas i already have an ipod so no need for this function unfortunately. :(

- GPDoom: this was pretty darn cool. i loaded up the goldeneye total conversion and its been fun and it runs quite smooth. A+

- GPEngine: now THIS is an emulator. after littlejohn and the others, i was expecting the same with this, but playing bloody wolf full speed with sound really blew me away. really good emu. just really really needs save states :(

- L&R buttons: much better placement than either gba or gbasp. much easier to press.


i guess thats pretty much all i have for now. my conclusion is i really want a portable modded xbox (emus movies etc) but unfortunately it has its flaws :(

im going to try out the atari2600 emus now...
 
LittleJohn always seemed fine to me. And you get used to the A/B buttons, I remember when I sold my GBA for a GP32 I had trouble getting mario to run and jump but I got over it :ph34r:
 
my a and b buttons are fine. the joystick takes some getting used to and when you perfect it....its amazin. the genesis emu is nowehere near complete and i hope another version comes out soon(ish). the transparency is annoying in os9x and the speed still needs worked on but that should be coming in later versions (we're only on 0.2 just now). i dont use littlejohn because the nes sucks but when i did the games ran perfect....wait around a few months. you will be impressed (i think)

edit-----fucking typos
 
I know how you feel, I was in the same place as you a year ago today ;)
But buy GpCinima (best £4 you'll ever spend :)) and load up some AVIs. That will blow you away.
 
PocketSnes has no sound, right? Have you tried running SMW without sound? It's runs perfectly without sound. Perhaps you should also try OCing?
 
Mario World without sound returns 45-50fps on my 166mhz GP32 at frame skip 0, so i can't see how it could be choppy at FS 2? Did you try dropping it down to FS1?

Also try playing with the hack settings like fast sprites and such, all those can give you good speed boosts.

-Craig

www.gbax.com
 
I think he might be playing with sound.

OT: Hey craig, what's with the pricing on your site? For your FLU, it says ($199) but when I converted the price in pounds to american dollars using yahoo finance it turned out to be $232.73!
 
Azure posted on Feb 21 2004 at 10:42 PM said:
Perhaps you should also try OCing?
Read his post, he has :) :p

P.S My sig's longer and more pointless than yours :D

EDIT: Craig's explained that once. The price is re-calculated when you goto pay.
 
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Littlejohn is perfect! Set Frameskip to auto, sound quality to medium and turn on show fps- it runs at around 60 fps, 98% speed on practically every single game (well, for me anyway). OpenSnes9xGP plays almost every game I've tried at 100% speed at 160Mhz, no sound, frameskip 2 (although, admittedly, there is quite some slowdown on parts with lots of sprites (eg. parts of Aladdin)). As everyone says, you'll get used to the joystick and learn to love it :D . And buy GPCinema.
 
im just glad i didn't spend money on this. i still have an SP, but i miss my flash card. but i can order another one for $30 so thats nto a big deal.
 
mustardseed posted on Feb 21 2004 at 09:58 PM said:
im just glad i didn't spend money on this. i still have an SP, but i miss my flash card. but i can order another one for $30 so thats nto a big deal.
What, you nicked it?
 
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At 133 mhz, Mario runs at full speed (without sound) at frameskip 2.
At 166 mhz, Mario should run at full speed (without sound) at frameskip 0, and WITH sound at frameskip 2.
Littlejohn runs all my ROMs at full speed at frameskip 0; chances are, you DID get an old version.

In summary, check again; make SURE you use opensnes9x 0.2, and littlejohn 0.4; they're both exceedingly good pieces of programming. Hearing someone unhappy with their GP32 is a sad thing; please write back if you have any more problems, or if you managed to get it to work. Good luck.
 
I don't know what's up with his GP32. Mario runs so frickin' smooth at 160 mhz without sound that it's ridiculous!
 
Azure, its the exchange rate as worldpay gives it on the day, the dollar is seriously weak at the moment to the pound/euro, i'll update the site.

-Craig

www.gbax.com
 
no, i traded my old gba for it.

i have the newest versions of the emus (littlejohn .4 and osnes9x .23)

i just tried mario again, and it's not as choppy as i remember from last night although its not perfectly smooth (i guess different opinions of the definition of smooth). but it still feels like a chore to play it thanks to the buttons and joystick :(
 
There's no version 0.23, it's 0.2. You'll get used to the joystick and hopefully you'll find that it's a lot better than a d-pad, like I do. As for the button problem, I have a similar issue with my A button, but it's not a real problem for me as I don't tap my buttons lightly.
 
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