Should I get one

[christo930]

I have a gp32 and a gp2x and I saw the dingoo and it looks pretty cool, but would this be a step down from these other machines? Is the snes emulator better than the gp2x's? What about GBA? Does anyone know if other games and emulators are in development and near release? Mame? PC ENGINE emulator (I can't live without parasol stars).

Screen. is it suitable for reading long text files (ebooks)? I absolutely cannot read on the gp2x, it gives me a headache. Reading on the gp32 is fine except only in good light.

at 8x dollars shipped, it sounds like a good deal. I definitely can't afford a Wiz or Pandora right now, but this one is doable with my budget.

 

[rx_shorty]

From what I have read it is still in heavy development.
SNES is good at the reviews.

But Mame etc I don't know if there are any, they are busy getting linux on this nice machine

 

[dgame]

Right now this system is in its infancy. The hardware seems pretty solid but the software could be better.

Zod has one to do the MAME port.

As-is it is a capable machine that I find more convenient to carry around than my GP2X.

The controls are also better than the GP2X [F100&F200].

Booboo [gp2xspain] is making progress on getting Linux on it

If we get Linux then we can get things like the Gmenu launcher and the better emulators.

However, this is all speculation. Things could go the way of the JXD 301 and the manufacturer could cease production. The JXD, however, is still a good media player.

The Wiz and Pandora are also on the horizon and no one knows if the focus will shift to one dominant platform or if the attention will be spread amongst all the consoles.

The price point and form factor of the A320 makes it a good buy for me. As-is it is a good media player and basic emulator system.

 

[Exophase]

There's no PC-Engine emulator. I wouldn't be enthusiastic about porting Temper since it's a MIPS architecture and Temper's C code variants aren't as competitive as I hoped they'd be. I think they tear through icache too hard. Writing MIPS interpreter cores is pretty grating, it can't do a lot of things that ARM ones can.

GBA emulation sounds like it's better than it is on GP2X.

 

[craigix]

I've spoken to dingoo several times about the life span of the console.

Currently they are selling around 10,000 units a week in China/Korea/Japan(that's why it's so cheap, they make so many) and they have no plans for stopping production any time soon, they said their plans for the current model go to 2010 so there is lots more to come.

 

[quadomatic]

craigix: good to know that

Still wondering whether I should try and get a PSP and do homebrew on that, or if I should get a dingoo...price for me is about the same so I'm not sure

 

[fanoush]

they have no plans for stopping production any time soon, they said their plans for the current model go to 2010 so there is lots more to come.

Can you believe them? So far it looks like we will be lucky if any new firmware (fixing at least Y/B button issue) materializes at all. See e.g. http://a320.freeforums.org/what-filmwar ... html#p2397

So far I found following bugs/features with my black dingoo, 1.03 FW (is there a bug list thread anywhere?)

- tvout 16:9 does nothing (still 4:3)
- when starting native game, sound is always set to maximum, one has to toggle TV-out (start+left) to make it quieter
- when tv-out is used i'm missing few lines both on top and bottom on my LCD panel (may be bug of my panel composite input but I haven't noticed it before with anything else), this can be seen in the Ultimate Drift racing game
- when charger is attached while playing game (happend to me with 7 Days) it goes back to launcher and you lose the state (btw pretty scary game, I played it yesterday at night and when finally going to sleep I was afraid to go to bathroom
- FM tuner recording is awful (quiet and low bitrate)
- FM radio cannot be switched off when in system menu (like it is done with music playback - right shoulder button)
- FM radio switches off when you attach charger

 

[WhiteFalcon]

christo930: I too have had the GP32 and GP2X for years, but I bought the Dingoo for my girlfriend so I often update it with new games and also toy with it now and then (what and excuse!) :wink:

Anyway, compared to the GP2X, the screen is much better and GBA emulation is near perfect. Even though it is stretched (which can be turned off), it looks nice and, thank to the screen, bright and clear. SNES is still nice, especially with frameskip 1 or 2 it is quite usable. Donkey Kong Country runs surprisingly nicely for example. Only recently did I try CPS1 which also seemed to be pretty fine. All with sound on.
The price really makes a great device of it in the first place, despite some clumsy aspects and (so far) prevailing problems like clumsy controls, tearing in the Megadrive emulator (have not tried it myself) etc.

Go get it, you will not regret

 

[gibberish]

i wouldnt believe a word that comes out of dingoo's mouth to be honest. one of their reps told me the y/b fix was already done and would be in the next (current) firmware... that never happened. one of their reps told me that they would be releasing the source for the emulators which has also never happened. 10,000 a week seems rather an optimistic figure too, considering there are many other not-quite-as-good-but-basically-the-same devices (like the gemei 760+) that dont sell anywhere near as many as that.
with the gemei a380 on the horizon sometime this year, it is unlikely that dingoo will continue to be able to sell the a320 when the price points are so close, and considering dingoo had next to nothing to do with the manufacture of the a320 id say its quite likely that the company will fade back into obscurity.
sorry to be negative about it, but it has to be said that so far dingoo have exhibited little to no concern for ensuring a good future for their handheld.

if this device succeeds and dingoo are able to continue production into the back end of this year, it'll be because of booboo.


edit: id just like to add that despite my negative outlook on the company as a whole, i do own a dingoo (2 actually, 1 white 1 black). i like the thing a lot, and i'm glad i bought it. it has many flaws, badly ported emulators, firmware with an unfinished feel to it etc but it does what it says on the box and it does it pretty well for the most part. the day i replace the stock firmware with linux and gmenu2x will be a happy one