The "i <3 Gp2x" Thread

[Iorgy77]

A positive thread to combat all the negativity around here, tell us what you love about your gp2x. What you do use it for and what cool stuff you do with it.

Well it's been just over a year for me with the gp2x and these are my thoughts on it.

I personally love the joystick, I grew up with Atari 2600, Vic20, Amiga and arcade machines so joysticks are where its at for me. I find the joystick to be an improvement over the gp32 which I had problems hitting diagonals with until I did the paper mod.

I use it for mame, amiga, c64, atari 2600, megadrive, atari ST, gameboy and neogeo emulation most regularly. I also like to keep an eye on the experimental up and coming emulators such as PSX, GBA etc.. I also devote some space on the 2gig SD card to interpreters for Doom, Hexen, Another World, Flashback and the recent descent.

I love to follow the scene and try out the new homebrew that comes out, ports or original games its all good. I enjoy seeing devs push the hardware to its limit and am amazed by things like the recent OpenGL.

The devs we have are amazing, the way they help each other out and work with a spirit of co-operation rather than the one-upmanship many other scenes seem to have. If one dev figures out a cool hack it doesnt take long before any other dev can implement it into their project if they choose to do so.

I must admit I dont use the video or mp3 players much but when I have they have performed up to my expectations, maybe I have low standards but I have never re-encoded anything specifically for the gp2x the way I used to fot the gp32.

The awesome gmenux is a definate must have as it makes the whole experience so much better.

I like idling in the dev chan on efnet and reading about the interesting projects or technobable that goes on in there reminding me the scene is still thriving with active developement.

I am a bit of a hardcore handheld gamer so yes I do have other systems, and while I may go through periods of using other handhelds a bit more than the gp2x, I always have the gp2x to come back to and check out my favourites on. It has by far the most suitable combination for me. Controls + Screen size/Quality + Power for emulation and homebrew gaming. While other consoles may have better one or the other its my opinion the gp2x has the best combination.

Please keep this thread civil and try to only contribute positive things you like about it. There are plenty of other threads where you can point out what you don't like.

 

[J201605]

I love being able to play fullspeed neogeo and genesis, play all my videos without reencoding and play pictures and audio fairly well. I also like playing certain homebrew games and watching the progress of emulators. Most of all i just like being able to do what i want on a system and have thousands of games available to me on a 2gb sd card. I get bored of games quick so i can just play a new game every 15 minutes then watch a movie then listen to a few songs or read an ebook. Having a bunch of variety and not paying any money for it is great.

 

[Blah]

I too like the joystick. The machine has a lot of potential and appeals to the hacker in me. Also theres some very intelligent coders behind the scenes.

 

[zodttd]

I like the community. Kindness goes a long way!

 

[krosfyah]

I like the community. Kindness goes a long way!

Ditto. The community is by far the greatest thing about the GP2x experience.

 

[greenmikey]

I love life..and my gp2x (gp32 too!)

 

[torpor]

I enjoy a bit of MAME every now and then, NeoGeo and Genesis too, but to be honest mostly I like the variety in the release scene .. Playing Descent was a real eye-opener, the surprise-release egoboo2x also rocked my socks, and generally there just seems to be a lot of different things you can do with the GP2X coming from different quarters.. not just emu's (though that is certainly provided in style), not just homebrew (some great surprises there), and not just plain ol' ports - but a lot of variety from all of these different areas.

I also really enjoy the dev scene .. some of the coolest guys I've met in the last year have been through #gp2xdev, no question about that. I wish we'd have a few "#gp2xdev"-cons/meetups in the near future, so we could have a bit of a code-a-thon weekend in real life or something, that seems to me to be the next logical step for such a vibrant scene.

Another big GP2X love is, plain and simple, "the potential" .. with such an open development environment, there is really no limit to what could happen with the GP2X next .. we've all been surprised by how much the 2nd CPU is getting use by some of the more keen developers, and there is nothing stopping us from getting more and more interesting things happening with it in the future. I have a lot of faith that there will be some nice surprises soon in this regard too, and I don't think that I could say that about any other handheld console - PSP releases aren't a big 'surprise', theres' really no big edgy technology push on its releases, same with NDS - but with the GP2X you really get a sense that every week could offer a new, big surprise, from some friendly coder or two .. that really rocks.

 

[BenScar]

Gotta be the people/community.
Had dealings with GP2x.co.uk (Craig et "all"), several of the developers, other users and people just starting out with the unit.
They always have something good to say (OK, there are always gripes but nothing insurmountable )

Other than that, being able to program for it, make hardware and generally getting back into the whole homebrew thing has been a lot of fun
(New stand to show off soon!)

 

[gaterooze]

I could list a hundred things, but here's my top 3:

1. Listening to Commodore 64 SID files via Sidplay2x and Oldplay.
2. The scene/community. Reminds me of the old Amiga days. I love seeing homebrew games progress from an idea to beta version to finished product, seeing devs collaborate or add little fixes here and there with a great spirit of mutual achievement, being amazed when someone does the impossible, which seems to happen on a monthly basis.
3. Picking out a random game on a random system and just having pure, unadulterated fun for half an hour.

 

[hitbyambulance]

the homebrew, and seeing what people can do with the hardware. i end up playing hand-crafted efforts more than the emus (and i'm a huge emulator freak!) - so much good stuff. currently hooked on Hex-A-Hop and Max Ghostpix... and the Wind Water Puzzle Battles demo...

if i could only get started on learning Fenix myself...

 

[SiDCrAzY]

There's many reasons, but here are some of the main ones:

1. The community is great, for the most part all the members here are awfully nice people.

2. The devs. which I suppose could be included with my number 1 reason, but anyways they are the biggest reason this community is still alive and will continue to be for a long time. A very special thanks to them all for all the hardwork and love they put into every project.

3. Homebrew and Emus, it's great having original fun content at the palm of my hands along with hundreds if not thousands of games I enjoyed during younger, simpler times.

Oh and I've had no problems with the "dreaded" stick.

I've been able to beat SMB 1,2,3 and Super Mario World without the stick hindering gameplay in any way.

Not to mention games like Sonic 1,2,3, Mutant League Hockey and others have also been just like I remember them on my Genesis/MD.

 

[gavie]

1- Running 8 and 16 bit console emulators anywhere, I will never get used/really like the nextgen consoles with their fancy 3d graphics, but a lack of good gameplay.. I also play a lot of old dos games, I love the dosbox port to the gp2x, I know newer dos games won't run, but playing duke nukem 1 or alley cat in the palm of my hands is like a dream
- Watching family guy in the bus.. (or a movie when I have to travel for a longer time)

2- The community, I don't post a lot, but I read. And the great devs of course, without them, the gp2x is pretty much useless.. I think it's unbelievable what people here can make for a limited machine like the GP2X.

3- trying new things and fiddling with this great piece of hardware

4- Recharging my batteries

 

[craigix]

There is no other scene like this one, you only have to venture into the PSP/Giz scenes to see how good we have it here.

When we went to the meet up in peterborough of Amiga/GP2x people it was excellent, everyone was really chilled, intelligent and cool.

And we all know there is a lot more to come

 

[chaos engineer]

mame, neogeo, genesis, tilematch

changing & recharging AAs

 

[Tonka]

1) I love Picodrive.
2) I love being able to play my favourite games of the past 20 years in bed/at work/in the car/on the bog!
3) I love the fact that I can play whilst 'watching' TV with my wife, without her getting pissed off like she used to when I sat @ my PC :lol:
4) I love people coming up to me and saying "What's that"? And then me boring them for 10 minutes...
5) I love the fact that my daughter's friend told his parents that he wants to sell the PSP they gave him for Xmas so he can buy one!
6) I love looking at it. No seriously, I do... Is that normal? :unsure:
7) I love the fact that I have emulators on it that I haven't even tried yet because I'm so in love with the ones that I am already using!

 

[sciboy]

Video playback, GMU and homebrew games. =D

Insert a little imagination, some code and you're set. =P

 

[fluffmarten]

4) I love people coming up to me and saying "What's that"? And then me boring them for 10 minutes...

Do you know, deep down, so do I, it's great giving them the 'tour', although first time i did, the batteries died. The laughter, oh the laughter

 

[Alex.]

The community along with the devs and the massive amount of software they pump out, and making my own games for it.

There's no beating that, period.

- Alex

 

[markiej]

I keep mine plugged in, and stored in my side-table drawer next to my bed. Every single night, unless I'm too drunk ( :unsure: ), I break it out. If I'm not too sleepy I play a few quick games. After that I watch 15-40 minutes of video before bed (MST3K, buck Rogers, STTNG, One Piece). I really enjoy re-encoding the video for this, because it eliminates all choppiness and sync issues, and shrinks it right down to size, so I have a nice variety of programming on a single 1GB SD.

I bought this thing so I could do all this stuff in bed without bothering my wife. The laptop was bright and made a racket. The portable dvd also made a racket. This thing, being without fans or motors, is silent. The only thing she didn't like was the feverish button mashing when I played Tile Match.

I haven't even started on how awesome it is to have thousands of games (and hundreds of them pretty damn good) on the thing. And - excellent home brew - tile match, powermanga, sudoku etc

 

[kevcal]

Mame, neogeo, linux, homebrew, community (on this board).
Not in any special order (apart from handheld mame).

EDIT: and potential!!

EDIT2:

I bought this thing so I could do all this stuff in bed without bothering my wife.

Errr... dunno, I just thought I ought to comment on that and then thought I'd best not

EDIT3:

The only thing she didn't like was the feverish button mashing ..

Sorry, been down the pub lunchtime and found that amusing as well...!