Opened My Christmas Present Early...

[markusdragon]

Dr. Strangepark, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the GP32.

Today I was a man on a mission. Having handed in my History coursework to my somewhat suprised teachers (I'm not normally so punctual), and got home, It was finally time to do what I'd been planning for a week; finding out whether my GP32 was faulty. I grabbed the box from where my parents had 'hidden' it (you can't hide things from a 6ft 3 guy by putting them on high shelves), and opened it it. My plan was to turn it on, install the software, load Frodo onto the SMC, find out it didn't work, and email Lik-sang before 6:00.

What I hadn't accounted for in this plan was how incredibly attatched I would become to my GP32.

Upon opening the postage packaging, i was mesmeried by everything I had, from the Dungeon and Guarder SMC to the sheer beauty of the GP32 itself. It's clean whiteness reminded me of the Dreamcast I no longer have in my possession, and the size was perfect, masterful. How could something so beautiful be faulty?
Feeling guilty I installed the software to my PC. Perfect install first time, something that literally NEVER happened to me before on my current laptop, which denies I own a digital camera, and claims that my PCMCIA SMC reader drivers that came with windows XP are not windows XP compatible. Then I saw the screen.

The screen itself is possibly the most beautiful thing i've ever seen on a piece of technology. It's bright, legible, and for the size, the resolution seems a marvel. The moment i saw it in action, I fell in love with it. Quickly, seeking advice I came here looking for an excuse to keep it regasrdless of what problems the technology had. Thankfully, i found it in the fact that it's an incompatablilty in the updated bios with some of the programming of the old versions. With this confirmation I quickly packaged my machine back up for christmas, skipping actually testing the unit, either for CPU speed or for the new taiwanese screen and the white bar. I'll get it on christmas day, and I'll be happy.

Theres no way I could send it back, it'd be... well...

Okay. I'm in love with a console >_<

 

[Yuglooc]

I think you would have noticed if the console was faulty while playing around with it, so rest assure! ;D

 

[DaveC]

It depends on what he tried. I suppose if you never plan on using the SNES emulator or Frodo, CaSTaway or what else is all screwed up then it is OK.

 

[skeezix]

Whats the symptom? At higher clockrates the screen goes funky? If its not clock related, you'd think you'd notice right away..

jeff

 

[markusdragon]

I'm assuming that it's got the same problem as most of the new BLUs, where certain programs simply don't work on the new bios/screen.

Which doesn't matter, because I can probably find a way round this. Besides, My major concern is playing MP3s/videos.

 

[jcbnetwork]

Great writing your story was quite engaging.

I myself am waiting for christmas to receive a BLU from my girlfriend. I have never used Frodo nor am I interested in it, I also do not plan to flash my firmware as I like the original one.

What other emulators have problems with the bars?

 

[generalnmx]

It's a tiny bar. You can ignore it, don't worry. I really don't know what the fuss is about, I can easily ignore the bar created in all GP32s when overclocking.

 

[TelcoLou]

It's a tiny bar. You can ignore it, don't worry.

​

Now way man .. it's a defect. Would you tolerate a discolored bar on your GBA? How about a new cell phone display? how about a white bar stabbing its way thru your new laptop?

You can't be serious .... unless you are .... in which case: :blink:

 

[generalnmx]

It's a tiny bar. You can ignore it, don't worry.

​

Now way man .. it's a defect. Would you tolerate a discolored bar on your GBA? How about a new cell phone display? how about a white bar stabbing its way thru your new laptop?

You can't be serious .... unless you are .... in which case: :blink:

​

Like I said in my edit, I can easily ignore the bar created when overclocking at either 33MHz or higher then 166MHz in many apps...you're just all purists here and make it sound like a huge deal, making people needlessly worry. If the bar was in the middle of the screen, then it might be a big issue to me.

So, the point is - if you're the type of person that would fixate on the bar, then yes, it IS a problem. I would suggest therapy, but I guess you do have a right to get a more well-oiled unit

 

[pea]

general - are you talking about the red bar at the bottom of the screen (or even the 240th line 'wrapped' from the top)?

Or are you talking about the corrupt screen (a.ka. newer GP32 new LCD problem) that takes up the top 1/4 or so of the screen?

I think you and TelcoLou may be thinking about different problems?

 

[Jarska333]

AFAIK, the lcd problem has nothing to do with Mhz.

 

[markusdragon]

I figure that either the programmers will get fed up and 'fix' their programs for the new BIOS and screen, or someone will find a way round it

Or alternatively, i just use my laptop to play the emulators My GP32 can't. No skin off my back, i just want to watch movies on a tiny screen, play MP3s and mess around with GIGAS...

has anyone tested GIGAS? :unsure:

 

[bast525]

When I was a kid, I was given a used game gear system. The system was defective, with about 1/5 top of the screen was just completely dead.

Well I had no money to do anything about it. But, I kept it, and saved, and bought Sonic 2 for it, and played the crap outta that game. Yeah it sucked having the black bar on top, but it was playable, and fun.


Anyways... dumb question here but I have not come across an answer in my week here... what is the actual purpose of changing the firmware? Let me be certain I'm even talking about the right thing. When you start up the system, and the selection menu comes up, that is what you change when you change the firmware, right? Do you need to do this to play emus and homebrews or what? Why do so many do it?

 

[Radio]

Anyways... dumb question here but I have not come across an answer in my week here... what is the actual purpose of changing the firmware? Let me be certain I'm even talking about the right thing. When you start up the system, and the selection menu comes up, that is what you change when you change the firmware, right? Do you need to do this to play emus and homebrews or what? Why do so many do it?

​

You don't need to do it but some of the alternative firmwares out there are nicer to look at. Wind-ups for example you can customise the program icons and the background so it looks a bit like your Windows desktop. Yafl is another favourite because you can change the backgrounds like you can with Wind-Ups and you can also organise your programs so you have one menu for emulators and another for homebrew etc... makes it all a bit easier to organise.