Should We Get Mad At Gamepark?

[Blah]

Yeah this sucks. How the hell are stores, websites etc going to explain to their customers that it is "normal" that half of the programs that they run will have the screen all corrupted? No one will buy the GP32 anymore and the ones that do will end up returning them so much that most places will stop selling them as it is not worth the hassle. It is only then when everyone drops them that Gamepark will say "oops, I guess changing suppliers to save 98 cents per screen wasn't such a good idea" but by then it will already be too late.

And all of the knuckleheads that suggest changing the code to work on the new units are forgetting one minor problem with that. Many of these programs and emus have been abandoned long ago. There is no source to be found and no way to change the stuff, so it is forever fucked on new units. Also if it means that you have to use the official SDK and not the ones that bang the metal what will that mean? The reason they bang the metal is to get speed out of the stuff. So will all emus that are developed with the new units and official SDK run dog slow now? What a mess.

It is quite ironic. The GP32 survived the launch of the Zodiac, braved the DS storm, but in the end it will die because its own company Gamepark had to shoot itself in the foot and self destruct by fucking around with something that they shouldn't have.

My hope is that the backlash is so severe for this that GP will have no choice but to go back to the working version soon. There may be a period of a month or so where they try to peddle these dodgy units, and when that don't work they will go back.

Agreed.

EDITED DUE TO POST BUMP

 

[DaveC]

I'm still rocking the non-lit unit. Hahaha, booyah.

​

Oh yeah, well you'll be shit outta luck if the sun blows up. Didn't think of that now did you??

​

and if the sun blows up we all die , infact we die before thesun blows up , so while the sun is getting bigger , we get a nice amount of warmth and light for our non lit units XD

​

Yeah but when the sun is getting bigger it is also getting red which means the colors will be all messed up on your non-lit unit. I know, someone will suggest changing the existing code by removing red from the color palette to balance it out I will say what about stuff that is not updated anymore and has no source.

 

[Blah]

We do have one thing going for us though. Both Craig and Lik-Sang don't
like it... What kind of drugs are Gamepark on...

 

[PiNa1971]

The sticky said that it was because the largest manufacturer of LCD screen glass folded and Samsung is trying to find glass.  :blink: Why would the largest LCD screen glass manufacturer fold?

​

they didnt fold, then just moved to other technology and stopped producing STN LCD Glass.

read more about it here.

 

[DaveC]

The sticky said that it was because the largest manufacturer of LCD screen glass folded and Samsung is trying to find glass.  :blink: Why would the largest LCD screen glass manufacturer fold?

​

they didnt fold, then just moved to other technology and stopped producing STN LCD Glass.

read more about it here.

​

That doesn't really look like it applies here. And they don't say anything about Samsung, or where they get their glass from.

I think Gamepark is just trying to save a buck. But in the end it will cost them alot.

I see this at my company all of the time. We switch motors, bearings, etc because a different supplier comes in and gives us their product for a few bucks less than the competition. Sometimes it is ok, other times the stuff fails, Customers bitch, and we switch back.

 

[wolly wotsit]

I'm still rocking the non-lit unit. Hahaha, booyah.

​

yeah whats wrong with the good old basics, ive had my unlit gp32_console for 8 months and im still happy.

have the FLU's got this taiwanese lcd thingie. or just the BLU's?

 

[pAiN]

lol, i was thinking about getting a blu, but now my unlit GP32 is not looking so bad, i think i will just spend $6 and mod a GBA worm light.

 

[IntenseWage]

As far as I know, the sun won't be blowing up anytime soon while I still care about videogames.

 

[RomHacker316]

I doubt Gampeark would change the supplier just to save a little money for a very good reason. For the first time in its lifespan the Gamepark32 is seeing a fairly large amount of money being brought in AND this money is being made during a time far after its initial release when newer handhelds are coming out. That should be a red flag for Gamepark "hey we can finally make a good deal of money." They wouldnt forsake the homebrew community because there are only a small number of commercial games and the console has been out for what 3 years? Any company no matter how stupid understands that if the product goes faulty that it wont sell and every business knows what "profit" is.

 

[Blah]

If this continues, Gamepark will begin to go broke. They will be firing people,
and they don't have that many to begin with. Then they will fold and all the
people at Gamepark won't be able to afford their apartments and will be
hungry bums in the street.

They don't wan't that to happen, do they?

 

[HandHeldGosu]

I'm still rocking the non-lit unit. Hahaha, booyah.

​

Oh yeah, well you'll be shit outta luck if the sun blows up. Didn't think of that now did you??

​

No we'll still have unnatural lite aka LightBulbs. BoooYaaaaa

Jk

EDIT: Im geting a flu in about 3 weeks. Is this gonna affect them to ?

 

[DaveC]

I'm still rocking the non-lit unit. Hahaha, booyah.

​

yeah whats wrong with the good old basics, ive had my unlit gp32_console for 8 months and im still happy.

have the FLU's got this taiwanese lcd thingie. or just the BLU's?

​

It is just that the screen on the BLU looks so damn nice compared to the other versions.

No the FLUs don't have the problem as they are all old. They stopped making FLUs months ago.

 

[DaveC]

If this continues, Gamepark will begin to go broke. They will be firing people,
and they don't have that many to begin with. Then they will fold and all the
people at Gamepark won't be able to afford their apartments and will be
hungry bums in the street.

They don't wan't that to happen, do they?

​

I really can't picture Gamepark as this huge corporation with teams of engineers or anything like that. To me I think that Gamepark is run out of some Korean guy's basement between the kimchi pots and the furnace. At least it seems that way.

 

[Blah]

To me it doesn't seem that they're that big either.
Slightly bigger than 1 man in his basement, but not as
big as your local crap-mart-megaplex.

 

[catmince]

I see them as a Korean SNK for some reason :/

 

[bast525]

what?? how does gamepark compare with snk?

Sorta similiar I guess but at one time, at least, SNK were pretty big. At least they sold their hardware officially in the US

 

[craigix]

It seems the programs with problems are ones which didn't use gameparks SDK, so GP really are not to blame. They will have kept to their own rules for how the system should work.

It really should not be too difficult to recompile the programs with problems, luckly I think almost all are still in active development.

Just think of it like the old Amiga500 and Amiga500+ issue.

-Craig

www.gbax.com

 

[craigix]

This is from Gamepark:

--------------------------------------------------------

Hi Craig,

We changed LCD from Samsung to Taiwanese brand very recently, which means that some skilled
amateur developers (some users of the GP32 BLU) need to get revised setting value of the firmware
to comply with the LCD of Taiwanese brand.

(In other words, Game Park orginal software and games have nothing to do with this issue as you
may understand)

Therefore, we are pleased to make LCD setting value open to users and developers who happen to
own GP32 BLU with Taiwanese LCD built-in, as follows :

Vertical back porch :0x08
Vertical front Porch :0x02
Vertical sync pulse width :0x5
Horizontal back porch :0x32
Horizontal front porch :0x2
Horizontal sync pulse width :0x1e

Users can identify GP32 BLU between Samsung LCD and Taiwanese LCD in
' Test Mode'.
Let me tell you how to enter into 'Test Mode' by pressing L/R button as follows,
of course with GP32 BLU in the power-on state :

(L->R->R->L->R->R->L->L) L:LEFT KEY R:RIGHT KEY

And then the 1st screen will say :

If Samsung LCD => FW Version :1.6.6 (2003.5.21)
If Taiwanese LCD => FW Version :1.6.6 (2004.10.10)

- 2003.5.21 = May 21, 2004
- 2004.10.10.= October 10, 2004



Best Regards

------------------------------------------------------

-Craig

www.gbax.com

 

[bast525]

It seems the programs with problems are ones which didn't use gameparks SDK, so GP really are not to blame. They will have kept to their own rules for how the system should work.

​

That's what I've been saying since I got here. There's no point getting mad at them. Well I hope this will settle things once and for all as far as everyone up and sending their units back. Now we really just need whoever is capable, to dig whatever programs that they can that have the line problem and start fixin'.

 

[Antiriad]

this is sad news... especially in regards to programs that arent updated much anymore