Question For The Experts

[Jellyman_4eva]

Hi all,

I have seen all the talk about the new piece of hardware that everyone is mentioning, but its my birthday at the end of the month and saw the review in the UK Linux Format magazine and it reminded me about this console which I saw when it first came out..

Anyways I have asked for one of these for my birthday and was just wondering what state the emulation was like on it, particuarly for SNES and Amiga consoles...

Can anyone shed any light?

 

[Pickle]

Hi all,

I have seen all the talk about the new piece of hardware that everyone is mentioning, but its my birthday at the end of the month and saw the review in the UK Linux Format magazine and it reminded me about this console which I saw when it first came out..

Anyways I have asked for one of these for my birthday and was just wondering what state the emulation was like on it, particuarly for SNES and Amiga consoles...

Can anyone shed any light?

SNES isnt bad, but it isnt perfect. DrPocketSNES does pretty well even with transparencies enabled, but it really depends what your going to try to run on it. It helps if you can overclock your GP2X though.

 

[zacaj]

DrPocketSNES seems to run at fullspeed with transparencies at 230MHz

 

[Pickle]

DrPocketSNES seems to run at fullspeed with transparencies at 230MHz

I run mine at 250, with special ram settings

 

[Jellyman_4eva]

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies so quickly..

I will be purchasing a new GP2X so I assume its not going to overclock very well. I have read many a message on many a forum about people being concerned that the GP2X is going to dropped in terms of software support and I sincerely hope that is not the case, but what I want to know really I guess, is the machine in its current state a viable emulation system.

I use all the emulators on a PC currently and from what I have read about this device it really seems to be awesome, there are a few negative reviews but there are many more positive ones!

Does anyone have an opinion about the memory cards? I have some Amazon vouchers so shall be purchasing from there (UK). I have read the GP2X can be funny with 4GB cards?

Thank you all for your help.

 

[Pickle]

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies so quickly..

I will be purchasing a new GP2X so I assume its not going to overclock very well. I have read many a message on many a forum about people being concerned that the GP2X is going to dropped in terms of software support and I sincerely hope that is not the case, but what I want to know really I guess, is the machine in its current state a viable emulation system.

I use all the emulators on a PC currently and from what I have read about this device it really seems to be awesome, there are a few negative reviews but there are many more positive ones!

Does anyone have an opinion about the memory cards? I have some Amazon vouchers so shall be purchasing from there (UK). I have read the GP2X can be funny with 4GB cards?

Thank you all for your help.

Yes, right now emulation is very good.
For memory cards the best source I think is the WIKI, i use 4gb card and have never had a problem (its an Adata) Also with the upcoming open2x it will support SDHC cards, which mean 8 gb goodness.

Perasonally I think the GP2X will devolped for quite a bit longer. The rumors are because of a new handheld that may be in the works. As long as theres compability bewtween the GP2X and the new device (if it comes out) I think both will be supported. I think the GP32 died out because nothing could be backported very easily.

 

[DaveC]

Right now SNES is decent but Amiga is not very smooth unless you can overclock super high. The compatibility of Amiga is also not perfect either. It may improve but I wouldn't make a decision based on that as it might not happen. Other emus such as Megadrive, NES, etc are very good though.

As far as the "new system" it is still some ways off. Last I heard the CPU may still change so that doesn't sound to me that it is very close to release.

 

[sam fisher]

Right now SNES is decent but Amiga is not very smooth unless you can overclock super high. The compatibility of Amiga is also not perfect either. It may improve but I wouldn't make a decision based on that as it might not happen. Other emus such as Megadrive, NES, etc are very good though.

As far as the "new system" it is still some ways off. Last I heard the CPU may still change so that doesn't sound to me that it is very close to release.

Its not the CPU, its the SoC that will contain the CPU

 

[norm]

I have read the GP2X can be funny with 4GB cards?

it should be fine with 4gb sd cards but it doesn't support sdhc without installing additional software, this would also involve downgrading the firmware to 2.1.1


here's some more info on the SDHC firmware patch
http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showt...&st=0"

 

[gaterooze]

Amiga is not very smooth unless you can overclock super high.

Have you tried Notaz's new version? Seems fullspeed on many games at 250mhz.

 

[MajorShake]

DrPocketSNES seems to run at fullspeed with transparencies at 230MHz

I run mine at 250, with special ram settings


i run mine at 250 with the ram timing set (but i set the OC speed in the pocketsnes menu, and i set the ram timing in the gmenu2x edit link) and also, this is a very funny thing, in ff3 last night i was playin with the settings, and when i turned frameskip to 0, i got like +10 or +15 more fps, but the music started running slow and terrible

 

[clone]

Regarding SD cards, the 4GB ones can be an issue because currently 4GB is the middle-ground. Some 4GB cards are regular SD cards, some others are SDHC cards. Regular 4GB SD cards should work just fine, however the SDHC ones will require some manual patching in order to get things working, probably not something you'll want to be playing with soon as you get your 2x! As for emulation, most emulators are pretty mature now and perform pretty well. There are also emulators for a vast range of systems, be sure to take a look into the file archive on this very site sometime. And be sure to checkout some of the homebrew games for the 2x after you've got your favourite systems emulated, there are quite a lot of decent homebrew titles out now and they tend not to take up much space either.

Amazon.co.uk is a good place to get SD cards, however I find that sometimes www.ebuyer.com can have some better deals on. And be sure to take the speed of the card in to account... If you intend on using the 2X for media playback or emulating any system that has relatively large roms (psx/sega cd/neo geo, etc) then using a slow card will have a noticable impact on loading times.

 

[Jellyman_4eva]

Hi,

Thanks a lot everyone for the replies, I am glad I shall be joining a great responsive community.

Regarding the SD card, I believe I shall purchase a 2GB Transcend 150X SD card to begin with, and if I need more probably just buy a few more of the same...

Unless anyone has a better recommendation?

(Looking forward to this now!)