Should I Buy Gp2x F-200?


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I have a F-100 model(mk1 and the joy stick is slightly messed up). and Ive been wanting the F-200 because of the d-pad and the touchscreen. I love touchscreen homebrew, so I am very interested in buying one. Ive heard of a bunch of people complaining of the problems the F-200 has. So my question is should I buy it now or should I wait until the problems are fixed?
 
yoyoyoyoyoyoyo said:
I have a F-100 model(mk1 and the joy stick is slightly messed up). and Ive been wanting the F-200 because of the d-pad and the touchscreen. I love touchscreen homebrew, so I am very interested in buying one. Ive heard of a bunch of people complaining of the problems the F-200 has. So my question is should I buy it now or should I wait until the problems are fixed?
Thank goodness I got here before all the vultures did! I'd say go for it - buy an F-200. I have one and I love it. There are no real "problems" with the F-200. When it first came out a handful of emulators did not work correctly on the F-200, but the major ones (MAME and PocketSNES for example) have been updated since then and now work perfectly. You have to realize that many of the complaints on these boards are from people who like to get caught up in negative hype. There's not a whole hell of a lot of people on here who even own the F-200 at this point, so take any negative comments about the system that you read on here with a grain of salt. Yes, the devs on here have a few issues with the F-200 because it's a little harder to program for because of changes in the USB, but if you're mainly getting the F-200 to play games, etc. instead of using it to program, then that won't effect you anyway. I can understand why a person with a perfectly working F-100 wouldn't want to shell out the money for an F-200 because the improvements aren't that dramatic, but you sound like you've had your eye on one anyway, and you are having joystick issues on your MK1, so it sounds like it's time for an upgrade! :D Already ScummVM has received touch screen support (so you can now use touch screen on all those great LucasArts "point and click" adventure games from the early 90's such as Loom and the Monkey Island games), and others are working on other touch screen projects as we speak. The screen on the F-200 is slightly better, the sound is much better (in clarity and volume... in fact you'll probably have to turn the sound down alot, haha), and most F-200 owners can overclock up to 280, so that's pretty good.
 
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Thanks for the fast rely, you were really helpful. Do you know of any sites that sell in the US? My problem with the MK1 stick is that it some times turns and it renders it unless you turn it back into its original spot. I just got back into playing my F-100 after a few months, and the stick is the only thing that makes me not want to play it. btw what are some of the hot new homebrew games out?
 
Well I have had 2 already, both completely faulty. Waiting for my third try !

The D-Pad is awful. Why they couldnt do a standard pad like the Snes, Xbox or Playstation i'll never know.
 
Frankly, its never good to just jump on the first release of any system. I wait at least six months before buying. That way all the problems are kinked out at the production line. I would wait until the f200 mk2. Better screen, touchscreen, dpad problems fixed, sd slot loosened. Also, the best feature gph could have included would be better battery life. Everything else is just minor in comparison. :angry:

Its too bad GPH didnt just invest in the gp3x. I'd like to see a gp3x which can emulate everything up to the 64. I t would be funny if you could emulate the DS on a touchscreen gp3x :lol:
 
yoyoyoyoyoyoyo said:
Im going to have to save up for one so it may take awhile.
You can purchase the F-200 online from Play-Asia. They ship to the US. I bought mine from them for $169.99 plus $25.80 shipping (UPS) and it arrived a day and a half after I ordered it! And it's not fair to make a definitive statement like "the D-Pad is awful". That makes it sound like it's faulty in some way. I suppose it's a matter of personal taste, but it's very responsive and works like it should. I actually liked the MK2's joystick, but I like the new D-Pad just as much, but in a slightly different way. It's much easier (to me at least) to perform fighting game special moves with the new D-Pad than the old joystick. And as to the comment that you shouldn't buy a unit when it first comes out, well, with a company like Gamepark Holdings, I seriously doubt that they are going to tweak their units as time goes on, unless it's a whole new update (like how they had the MK1 and then MK2 for the F-100). And besides, there's no guarantee of an F-200 MK2, considering there's been word of GPH working on the F-800 (I wouldn't let THAT influence your decision making though... who knows when - or if! - that unit will be released).
 
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yoyoyoyoyoyoyo said:
If I order from Play-Asia and I get a faulty unit can I send it back and get if fixed/a new one?
Yes. I've never had to return anything to them, but on their site it says you can exchange faulty merchandise six months after the purchase date.
 
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If you program software yourself, I would wait a bit - see if gph replaces the netchip for debugging. Being that the chances of that happening are very slim, I would evaluate what you want to do with the thing. If you just want to play games, get one, cause the d-pad is huge improvement over the joystick. The touchscreen is pretty cool, I can see some cool homebrew coming up as a result, but coming slowly because of the decrease in usability for coders specifically. This is my first gp2x (had a gp32), so I am probably in a different stage of my gp2x excitement cycle. While I am finding it exciting to dig through all the software released up till this point, chances are, you've already played all of it. So if you're expecting a whole truckload of new stuff, there isn't. If I were you though, I would get the f200 for playing games, and use the mk1 for development and debugging (if you're into that) cause it still has the netchip. Otherwise, don't be fooled into thinking the decision is so polarized - The f-200 has a lot of flaws, but it also has a lot of cool new gimmicks that are trying to prove themselves right now. It's one step back, one step forward, and one step to the side in terms of progress with this thing. It really comes down to how much the joystick from the mk1 is hampering your ability to play your games well (that was the main reason I could never get into playing emulators on the gp32), cause the new pad works well for me, haven't had any problems playing any games. Quite a few people dislike the pad, but I think it's just as good as any other pad, and takes the same amount of "getting used to" as others. If you're really picky about your d-pads, read some posts about it, they're all about debating that very issue - I tend to avoid all the articles that I think will make me less happy with what I got :)
 
Great thread, helped me.
I haven't played my GP2x F100 for a few months because of the joystick - all of the plastic cover things for it broke, including the replacements.

The joystick has always been a big problem for me, and the idea of a d-pad sounds great. Whether I'm willing to shell out the money for something I already have, albeit a little different, is another matter.

After all, I'm thinking of buying myself a Katana for Christmas. Maybe a Paul Chen one, and I decided I'd only buy one big item for myself for Christmas. So... Which one? : )

-Arch
 
Dark.Warlock said:
Great thread, helped me.
I haven't played my GP2x F100 for a few months because of the joystick - all of the plastic cover things for it broke, including the replacements.

The joystick has always been a big problem for me, and the idea of a d-pad sounds great. Whether I'm willing to shell out the money for something I already have, albeit a little different, is another matter.

After all, I'm thinking of buying myself a Katana for Christmas. Maybe a Paul Chen one, and I decided I'd only buy one big item for myself for Christmas. So... Which one? : )

-Arch
I have a katana and I have used it a lot, but after awhile you just dont feel like using it. Like I would cut things in half, now I only use about once or twice a month. I lost my jostick cap so what I did was take apart a Ps1 controller and took the jostick and took off the rubber. I then drilled a small whole in it and just stuck it on my joystick. It work much better than the one it came with and it cost me nothing. If I were you I would go with the GP2X F-200, because you can use it a lot more.
 
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