Questions, I have lot's of questions

[radionerd]

Hey everybody. I'm new here and I'm digging the positive vibe amongst members. Ok, I have a lot of questions, most of which could probably be answered by reading a million page FAQ, but I haven't bought a GP32 yet and I don't know half of what they are talking about. Was that a run on sentence? anyways, here goes:

1. First a question about the finances, Is there an import fee in the united states that I will owe the UPS man when he delivers my GP? If so, what is it? I'm gonna buy from lik-sang, they seem pretty reputable. Also is UPS the way to go, or could I use one of the cheaper methods and still be safe? And what if the package gets lost? Whats customer support there like? Are there people who speak English working there? I've done customer service before and LOTS of stuff gets lost.

2. Should I go with the front lit or the regular screen? Is the regular screen comparable to a GBA? Whats the battery consumption like on the front lit?

3. I've been doing lot's of reading here regarding SNES emulation, a lot of people recommend overclocking. How is that done? Do I have to be a computer whiz to make this happen? I'm asking because I'm obviously not a computer whiz.

4. how many snes nes or genesis roms can be fit on a 128mb card??

5. how many mp3's? whats the bitrate?

6. anybody buy their smc's from a local distributor? is it cheaper?

7. Back to SNES emulation, on my pc the emulator supports save states, so for example i can save whilst playing zelda or FFIII, does GP32 support this??? That's key. Do the SNES final fantasies work on the emulators? Zelda???

8. I'm basically looking at buying this for the emulation for nes genesis and snes. maybe some GBA down the line. But I'm also interested in learning new stuff down the line, is the GP32 right for me? Like most of you, i've got lots of ROMs and want to be able to take them with me.

9. alright, last question for now, ever visit classicgaming.com (i think thats the site)? they offer mame downloads (amongst others) and charge for them. is that legal? Do they work on gp32 if its legal? Because I'd never want to do anything illegal. never.

 

[trooper]

million page FAQ. <_<

Trooper

 

[NssOne]

1. You can avoid import taxes from lik-sang.com if you make note of them to put 'GIFT' on the package.

2. Get the FLU. Many users will attest that it is worth the extra money, including me. But the battery consumption with the FLU is like about 1/3 less than battery life than non-FLU (iirc)

3. I'm not exactly an expert in this, I'll leave it to others.

4. Shrug... a lot?

5. As many as can fit, considering mp3s come in all different sizes.

6. I can't find decent prices on SMCs anymore. The internet has some slightly lower prices on the internet, but that;s still like $35-40.

7. Don't play, don't play SNES

8. Well, as I always say, the GP32 has more to offer than just emulation. But since you're insistent on buying one for emulation, I'll let you know that NES emulation is like 99.9% perfect. Genesis is apparently good but needs some work. GBA is not currently emulated on the GP32 for commercial roms, only works for homebrew pdroms. The GP32 in it's commericial standard manufactured form is not possible.

9. Sorry, but you'd have to search someone else for those answers.

Answered your questions the best I can, hope it helps you out somewhat.

 

[radionerd]

Well that's a start. I really appreciate the reply. Thats a major bummer about the FF and Zelda tho. I'm not only interested in the emulation, thats just what I know the most about right now. I dont have an mp3 player so this would help with that too. Plus the movie playback sounds interesting too. The cost is kinda steep for me though, so i want to be informed.

 

[Shane]

you should really read teh FAQ. There should be a thing where you must read the FAQ b4 posting because its like asking people how a computer works and how to get started.

 

[generalnmx]

I think that NssOne means is that don't expect much from the SNES emulators, and don't buy the GP32 for its SNES emulation, because you'll probably be disappointed.

RPGs actually run decently on the SNES emulators because they have such a low frame rate. I've been able to run Final Fantasy 6 on SNES9xGP (frameskip 6 or 7) without too much trouble. Final Fantasy 4 and 5 will run better then 6, and 6 will run better then Chrono Trigger (which is a tiny bit slow).

If you haven't already seen this FAQ, take a look: http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showtopic=1694

[EDIT]
radionerd, please use the Edit button when you want to add additional information (IE, don't double-post).

I just ran FF6 (FF3 US) right now on a 150MHz overclocked SNES9xGP and it is indeed a little slow...maybe 95% speed on frameskip 7 or 8, but it is playable if you don't mind the music sounding like it is caught in a slow time warp. Without sound it works even better. I almost positive FF5 and FF4 should work even better then FF6, so keep that in mind. And the 166MHz version should work on maybe frameskip 5 or so, if you have enough spare batteries.

SNES9xGP does have saves, while SNESemu (its faster-but-no-sound alternative) does not.

Also note that the intro to FF6 runs pretty slow, but it also did on the original (the slowdown from SNES9xGP is very apparent though).
[/EDIT]

 

[radionerd]

I guess me saying that i didnt read a FAQ is not true. I read some of one, but I find some individual opinions more valuable than a FAQ.

 

[radionerd]

Hey General, when you had FF running does it run with sound and saves? did you play it for awhile or just play to see if it works? was the performance comparable to playing it on a SNES? sorry for all the questions, im stuck at work and really interested in this system.

 

[NssOne]

7. Don't play, don't play SNES

HAHAHA :lol: :lol: :lol: Just re-read my post. I didn't mean to type it like that. I was a little brain dead while typing that as I was in one of my college classes. I mean to write it as:

7. Don't know, I don't play SNES.

I didn't mean to say it as don't play the SNES emulator at all. I was just saying that I'm not the one to ask at all when it comes to the SNES emulator. Oh well, I need to go wipe the tears of laughter from eyes now...