The General State Of Gp2x Emulation

[DaveC]

And there are alot of good PC-engine games that are not on Mega drive or SNES. It would be nice to have that completed someday.

Ya, I have a peculiar and not-entirely-rational attachment to this little underdog system that I just don't feel for the Genesis or SNES... A lot of it's games would make my Top 50 list... B)

It is too bad. Alot of time has been spent trying to get stuff that will never run well like PSX or 3DO on the GP2X but PC-Engine seems to be ignored. I wonder why? I would love to be able to play all of those great shooters and Bonk, Devil's crush not to mention Gate of thunder and the Ys games with good stereo sound. If MegaCd can be done certainly PC-Engine should run full speed with decent sound. I wonder if it would help to set up one of those bounty systems to encourage a good version?

 

[Squidge]

I remember abandoning my version when I noticed someone doing the job much faster, but he seems to have disappeared now

Maybe I should try and dig out the sources and continue it?

 

[moxie]

You know, when I hear you say things like that, I go all tingly

(This translates as: Yes, of course, please!)

...which means that tomorrow, around noon-ish, we'll have a newspost from squidge along the lines of "Well, I had myself a nice cup of tea and started playing around a bit with the source, and now I have a fullspeed perfect emulation when underclocked to 150, I think. Of course, it is just a rough draft - When finished, it'll actually recharge the batteries when you're playing".

...or maybe not

Then again, the TurboGrafix machine never really made it to around here. I've never seen one, really, and have no idea which games existed for it or what were its strong genres. Anybody care to give me a shortlist of, say, the 5 essential games? Preferably, with a small description of the game, too.

 

[slaanesh]

Maybe I should try and dig out the sources and continue it?

Yeah, I'll vote for continued work on SquidgEngine

Although I'm loving the updates to SquidgeSNES

 

[jimid2]

I remember abandoning my version when I noticed someone doing the job much faster, but he seems to have disappeared now

Maybe I should try and dig out the sources and continue it?

Oh bloody hell yesss pleezzzze!!! :lol:

I'd be willing to back up my begging with buckaroos if someone picks up the torch...

Then again, the TurboGrafix machine never really made it to around here. I've never seen one, really, and have no idea which games existed for it or what were its strong genres. Anybody care to give me a shortlist of, say, the 5 essential games? Preferably, with a small description of the game, too.

I'll give you a short list of games I consider particularly strong - all personal faves, of course:

On the shooter side, I think that Blazing Lazers, R-Type I & II, Air Zonk and Aeroblasters are pretty much my faves off the carts, with Gate of Thunder, Lords of Thunder and Super Darius II being my faves off the CD.

For platformers (meaning action-style, side-scrolling platformers) I'd pick Bonk, Ninja Spirit and Splatterhouse on HuCard, and Valis III and DraculaX Rondo of Blood on the TurboCD.

And there are many others: Y's Books I & II is a fantastic RPG (TurboCD), and Military Madness (HuCard) is a great turn-based strategy game a la Advance Wars. Chew Man Fu (HuCard) is a highly addictive action-puzzler with some really manic action in later stages (and lots and lots of stages - I think I finished the game at stage 100!). Other greats: Bloody Wolf (think Ikari Warriors), Legendary Axe (hack'n'slash), Cadash (near arcade perfect!), Parasol Stars (action-puzzle), Devil's Crush (fantasy pinball), Neutopia (shooter), Cotton (import shooter) etc. etc.

Pairing it down to 5 essentials from the preceding lists, I'd go with:

Air Zonk
Gate of Thunder
Dracula X
Military Madness
and Devil's Crush
but I'd really want to add Chew Man Fu and Ninja Spirit

Really, there's a wealth of great gaming on this system. I'm jealous - you get to discover them all for the first time! :lol:

 

[Dizzyegg05]

Im definetly For that idea...if of course you can make iso/cd games work??? I wanna play Dragonball Z again!

 

[joele]

My quick rundown so far, form a new GP2x user...

CPS2 ARCADE - AWESOME

NEOGEO ARCADE - AWESOME

MEGADRIVE - AWESOME

SNES - VERY GOOD (Some games work great, others not so but very good all in all)

MAME - Actually in my opinion pretty poor. Correct me if I am wrong, I think it was just ported over from the GP32. So a mame version was chosen for what would run best on the GP32 and no-one has rebuilt it with a slightly newer version for the GP2x. (I would be happy to donate/pledge towards a slightly newer MAME version to be ported over)..

Thats just what I have tried thus far..

 

[DaveC]

MAME - Actually in my opinion pretty poor. Correct me if I am wrong, I think it was just ported over from the GP32. So a mame version was chosen for what would run best on the GP32 and no-one has rebuilt it with a slightly newer version for the GP2x. (I would be happy to donate/pledge towards a slightly newer MAME version to be ported over)..

Thats just what I have tried thus far..

No the older version was ported because new MAME versions need an 8 GHz CPU to get Pacman running full speed with it's bloated slop code.

The GP2X MAME is actually like the best ever on a handheld. The GP2X is just not powerful enough to play all of the new stuff that you are probably wanting. No Ridge Racer arcade will ever run on the GP2X

 

[joele]

The GP2X MAME is actually like the best ever on a handheld. The GP2X is just not powerful enough to play all of the new stuff that you are probably wanting. No Ridge Racer arcade will ever run on the GP2X

No no, I don't expect ridge racer.. thats crazy ;-)

But I can't get a lot of my older favourite games working like R-Type, TMNT, Raiden etc they are far from new titles, hence my poor rating for MAME compared to some of the other fantastic emulators... Don't get me wrong I appreciate MAME as it is on the GP2x, its just in comparison to what else is out there I can't rate it that well..

P.S. Raiden and R-Type do work on PalmMame.

 

[Yono]

The GP2X MAME is actually like the best ever on a handheld. The GP2X is just not powerful enough to play all of the new stuff that you are probably wanting. No Ridge Racer arcade will ever run on the GP2X

P.S. Raiden and R-Type do work on PalmMame.

I believe PalmMame is based off of MAME 0.36 (can anyone confirm?) and if this is the case, GP2X MAME isn't really very far away from reaching this level of compatibility (currently at MAME 0.35rc1).

 

[slaanesh]

Im definetly For that idea...if of course you can make iso/cd games work??? I wanna play Dragonball Z again!

Maybe you can explain to me how the hell you play the game. I've got a copy of it and would love to play it! Any playguides on the net somewhere? I looked a while ago but couldn't really find anything.

I love my PC Engine too - it's my only retro console that I actually play for real.

 

[Super Jamie]

i'm convinced! 4gb sdcard on its way, i'll get the console either next week or a couple of weeks, depending on funds after pay and bills

 

[Super Jamie]

ordered i'm excited!

 

[Super Jamie]

my GP2x arrived today, express post via gp2x.net.au

the overall quality of the item is amazing, it looks just like, well, a professional handheld! the sound is great, the screen is crisp and clear, the buttons are responsive, the layout is very easy to use, and it's alot lighter than i expected

the joystick is a bit fiddly, but most are. my only other grumble is that the power seems to reset if i'm on batteries and plug in the AC adapter, or vice versa. but no big deal

i've been playing around with emulators, i've only spent a very short time with it, but already i have picodrive emulating genesis seemingly perfectly. i can't get any nes emulators running, except nkNES2x which is slow, but i'll have a look around the websites and forums and i'll probably find my answer

i'm already pretty damn happy with this little console, i'm glad you guys talked me into getting one i'll post a little more as time goes on

 

[Kensupen]

my only other grumble is that the power seems to reset if i'm on batteries and plug in the AC adapter, or vice versa. but no big deal

Before you go and fry your unit, I've heard that having batteries in the unit and using an AC adapter causes issues, so you may not want batteries in if using an AC adapter.

-Kensupen

 

[Super Jamie]

thankyou very much for the tip, i'll make sure i do that


got SNES working in DrPocketSnes and SquidgeSNES. Mario Kart playable in squidge, both support Castlevania's transparency. you seem to have to try both emus for a given game, but one or both will do the job. pocketsnes seems better at sprite-based games, squidge at harder stuff like mariokart's mode 7

got GameBoy working in Gnuboy2x, emulation is perfect

got MegaDrive/Genesis working perfectly in PicoDrive 0964 and DrMD

got NES working in fceu-gp2x (okay), fishyNES (best), Gpfce (okay), and nkNES2x (slow)

this console is totally awesome, best 300 bucks i ever spent!


next things to try will be SegaCD with PicoDrive 120, and Super Puzzle Fighter on CPS2

i love my gp2x!

 

[DaveC]

my only other grumble is that the power seems to reset if i'm on batteries and plug in the AC adapter, or vice versa. but no big deal

Before you go and fry your unit, I've heard that having batteries in the unit and using an AC adapter causes issues, so you may not want batteries in if using an AC adapter.

-Kensupen

Well you have heard wrong. When you plug in the adapter it cuts the circuit to the batteries there is a switch in the AC socket. That is why it resets when you plug in the adapter with the unit on, it turns off batteries first (therefore having no power momentarily causing reset), then turns on AC power