My Gp2x Review


TheGrandPubaa

Member
Joined
Sep 3, 2006
Messages
131
Age
38
Location
Arkansas
Website
www.vgtheory.com
"As it stands, the GP2x is a great piece of hardware, a unit that I feel is fully worth the $200 dollars if only for all of the cool functionality it provides. It is hindered by an atrocious joystick, but one that CAN be adjusted to with time and replacement joystick caps. With a standard D-Pad, I could fully recommend the GP2x to just about anybody, but as is, I recommend some caution and some research."

This is my third product review, but my longest by far. Please, let me know if I was wrong or overly harsh on any parts of it. :)

http://vgtheory.com/podcast/podcast-info/t...es/gp2x-review/
 
I haven't bought a 2X yet, so I'm not entirely the best person to judge a review on it. I'm sure that somebody more well versed in the device will come by later and point out anything that you happen to have overlooked. ^_~ I will say that, going on what I've read about the two joystick revisions, and comparing it to your complaints about the joystick, it sounds like your unit is a Mark 1 rather than a Mark 2. The general consensus seems to be that the Mark 2's joystick is a good deal better than the Mark 1's, so that might explain why you found yours to be such a nightmare. I could be wrong, though, as it's just a guess. ^_^

Anyway, irrespective of my inexperience with the handheld, I wanted to say that I enjoyed your review. It was nicely written, informative, very even handed, and it did a good job of ridding me of the terrible taste that the horribly biased 1emulation review of the device left in my mouth.

Thanks for giving me something fun to read with my morning coffee.
 
About .ogm: rumor has it these will play if you rename the file to .avi (probably depends if a supported video codec was used).
 
Quite fair I think - liked the comment on Neogeo Pocket - exactly what happened to me - thought I was the only one! Guess there's a way to select roms, but I couldn't figure it out..
Admittedly this was tried in the first day or so of having a GP2X, so maybe it's a new user problem ;)
But sometimes these things can just be too complicated :D

As for the joystick - I have no problems with it at all!

Kev
 
I think it's quite possible you had a MkI with updated firmware. Personally, I like the joystick a lot (MkII) and have never had any problems pulling off fireballs and whatnot in fighting games. It's not perfect of course, but it's not as bad as dpad fanboys make it seem. OK, so I'm biased because I hate dpads..

I liked the rest of the review though. Very nicely done.
 
Eeek, dark text on dark background = no go for my eyes.

- Alex
 
Alex. posted on Sep 3 2006 at 03:51 PM said:
Eeek, dark text on dark background = no go for my eyes.

- Alex
I had the same problem so I had to highlight everything before reading.
 
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subcon959 posted on Sep 3 2006 at 12:58 PM said:
Alex. posted on Sep 3 2006 at 03:51 PM said:
Eeek at dark text on dark background = no go for my eyes.

- Alex
I had the same problem so I had to highlight everything before reading.
Seriously? I've never had a problem reading the text before. Maybe it's rendering differently on your computers than on my iBook. Could you take a screen grab so I can do a comparison?

subcon959 posted on Sep 3 2006 at 08:43 AM said:
I think it's quite possible you had a MkI with updated firmware. Personally, I like the joystick a lot (MkII) and have never had any problems pulling off fireballs and whatnot in fighting games. It's not perfect of course, but it's not as bad as dpad fanboys make it seem. OK, so I'm biased because I hate dpads..

I liked the rest of the review though. Very nicely done.
Once I took off the joystick cap and kludged a third party Xbox analog joystick in it's place, games were much more responsive, but accuracy didn't seem to improve greatly. It's just too easy to hit accidental diagonals while trying to do an(hope this is the right term) ordinal direction. Burgertime is bad enough on a D-Pad, but it's practically impossible with the current stick.

Whether or not my unit is MkI or MkII is beyond my knowledge. The joystick cap seemed to be the same as the on in pictures i've seen of the newest units, with a bowl-type of shape and a little bit in the center pushing up(difficult to describe).

Glad you liked the review. :)

jmetal88 posted on Sep 3 2006 at 07:33 AM said:
Hey GP, nice to see you over here from the Jaguar forums. :)
Yeah, this is one of the biggest 2x forums, so I had to come. :)

kevcal posted on Sep 3 2006 at 05:30 AM said:
Quite fair I think - liked the comment on Neogeo Pocket - exactly what happened to me - thought I was the only one! Guess there's a way to select roms, but I couldn't figure it out..
Admittedly this was tried in the first day or so of having a GP2X, so maybe it's a new user problem ;)
But sometimes these things can just be too complicated :D

As for the joystick - I have no problems with it at all!

Kev
Once I figure out how to get it running with different roms, then i'll be happy to revise my comments on it, but I tried using the selector version bundled with it, and it just boots me back to the main menu. I agree that there can be some confusion for new users. It could be alleviated if every application used the same buttons for exiting the application and whatnot.

Maybe i'm alone on the joystick issue. Maybe i'm jaded from using D-Pads in fighting games for years. ;)

icurafu posted on Sep 3 2006 at 02:52 AM said:
Review looks good.

I think I heard somewhere that you can format SD or nand from the GUI in firmware 2.1.0. could a beta tester confirm that?
That would be very cool.

Alys posted on Sep 3 2006 at 02:40 AM said:
I haven't bought a 2X yet, so I'm not entirely the best person to judge a review on it. I'm sure that somebody more well versed in the device will come by later and point out anything that you happen to have overlooked. ^_~ I will say that, going on what I've read about the two joystick revisions, and comparing it to your complaints about the joystick, it sounds like your unit is a Mark 1 rather than a Mark 2. The general consensus seems to be that the Mark 2's joystick is a good deal better than the Mark 1's, so that might explain why you found yours to be such a nightmare. I could be wrong, though, as it's just a guess. ^_^

Anyway, irrespective of my inexperience with the handheld, I wanted to say that I enjoyed your review. It was nicely written, informative, very even handed, and it did a good job of ridding me of the terrible taste that the horribly biased 1emulation review of the device left in my mouth.

Thanks for giving me something fun to read with my morning coffee.
Thanks for your kind words. As I said, I can't confirm if I have a MkI or MkII. I guess it doesn't matter too much, in the end. I'm not aware of the review that you're referring to, so I can't comment on that.
 
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TheGrandPubaa posted on Sep 3 2006 at 01:33 PM said:
As I said, I can't confirm if I have a MkI or MkII. I guess it doesn't matter too much, in the end.

Look at the label on the back. If it's in Korean, it's a Mk. II. If it's all in English, it's a Mk. I.
 
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TheGrandPubaa posted on Sep 3 2006 at 06:33 PM said:
Once I took off the joystick cap and kludged a third party Xbox analog joystick in it's place, games were much more responsive, but accuracy didn't seem to improve greatly. It's just too easy to hit accidental diagonals while trying to do an(hope this is the right term) ordinal direction. Burgertime is bad enough on a D-Pad, but it's practically impossible with the current stick.

Hm, that does sound more like the MkI's issue. The MkII has rotated the stick so the diagonal bias is no longer present, meaning accidental diagonals are a thing of the past (at least in my experience).
 
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