Size of GP32 games?

[Rambozo]

Isn't solid state memory expensive? How can they afford to sell GP32 games at 5 bucks a pop when even the cheapest SMC cards are more expensive than that?

The only way I can figure is if the cards are like 8 megs each or something. Do they make them that small? Are the games only 8 megs, like GBA games?

 

[mafen]

The games are like 5 dollars a pop if you buy the game for download (meaning no smc with the game). The games cost more if you buy the game pre-installed onto a smc. So it's cheaper just to buy for download.

 

[Arutha]

Bingo to the above post (internet is slow atm darnit)

In more detail, the internet download has NO distribution costs at all, no shipping, no SMC, no packaging (okay, a small bandwidth charge, neglible). If you've found GP32 games available to buy for $5 on SMC (somewhere other than JoyGP or MegaGP) let us all know!

As to the other part of your question, I believe some games are less than 8 meg, and most seem to be less than 16, 32 meg at the top. (Does anyone who has ASR want to confirm its size, I think that would be one of the largest). Beyond keeping the size of the game as small as possible to reduce media costs, companies that produce the game will get a better price per SMC than you or I (even through outlet centers on the internet) as they buy massive quantities in bulk.

If you're worried that means the games have lousy visuals (graphics), just remember that as you stated, GBA games are 4 meg or 8 meg, no more. And when comparing to PC games of the huge size, graphics there have to look good at high resolutions... the GP32 is fixed at 320x240, so even a full screen of great images isn't too large.

 

[Flack]

ASR is just under 32 meg, IIRC.

 

[Swiss_Cheeseman]

The cards are cheap if you mail order them, theyre extremely expensive in shops.

 

[Mark1970]

Well not all releases are available for payed-download sadly enough. I was hoping to be able to download Tomak (supposedly a very nice shooter). It is possible to download updates for the game, but the game itself is nowhere to be found in JoyGP.

Anyways this hasn´t prevented me from buying 2 games & the gpmedia player.
I am rooting for more original releases to be available for download!

Cheers, Mark

 

[Arutha]

Looks like Tomak is now available on JoyGP, sorry if you already spent the money and prefer the download version

No one posting here suggested that EVERY release was available from JoyGP... we're merely responding to the comment that $5 games are available, since that comment implied that the $5 games were on SMCs we were correcting him, and putting more info out as to how even the SMC games are at $20-30 apiece. Heck, some JoyGP games are around $14 bucks anyway!