TJFBryant
Island Man with Pandora in my pocket
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2003
- Messages
- 535
- Age
- 45
When I reviewed the gp32 way back in 2001, I gave it a 8 out of 10. It was an innovative system but it had bugs. First off I had the non flu first edition with that "beautiful" fushia tint glare reducer on the screen, a flickery screen, loose joystick, tight left shoulder button and very unappealing and frustrating firmware. Yet the movies playing 10 fps and ok sound was something I'd never seen before. The games were no better that a game boy color or advanced at sometimes (graphically). BUT the enjoyment of playing DOOM, and SCuMMvm games AND all the homebrew stuff was awesome.
So why an 8 out of 10 for the Gp32 with all the problems.... because I know things could only get better from there. Whatta machine, that gp32...it was nearly my gaming life for 5 whole years and still is.
Now here comes the GP2x. With Bugs. And many concerns along with it. I still remain unchanged in my opinion that this system will in fact be THEE homebrew portable system of the next 5 years. I received the gp2x the day before thanksgiving. I added the sdl-libs for my homebrew gaming goodness, put War of the Worlds (800mb) on my 1 gig sd card and I was up and running.
Now lets get somethings straight. The firmware is not finished. Its not even the true official firmware release. Think of it as a beta version. Here is what works and what doesn't. First ...USE high capacity Nimh rechargables, otherwise you will have many more problems with flickering, screen dimming..etc. I get almost a full 5 hours with 2300mah nimh.
All Divx movies play fine ( I used pocket divx encoder) The screen is bright enough, good color contrast, no flickering during playback. The movie may freeze from time to time when forwarding thru the movie...but it appears just to be tempramental. This will be fixed in firmware upgrade when the Official launch comes in Jan 2006. Otherwise it plays through it its entirety. The games run perfectly on the screen, I have tried all games, ports etc, with the exception of all quake releases.
The only problems I found was just the firmware. Again like what I experienced with the first edition gp32. User friendlyness is lacking, firmware is buggy, and its just not an optimized smooth firmware release. BUT thats NOT to say the day of release you won't get a near perfect transition in firmware from this release 1.0 or 1.1 to say 2.0.
From what I feel in my hand, the Gp2x is very comfortable to hold for long periods of time. For some reason (when I compare it to my PSP) to just really enjoy holding the gp2x more. It feels lighter, and more erogonomic :blink: (yeah I know its a rectangular square) but it fits my large hands better. The joystick intially feels tight, real tight. But once you roll it around a few times it feels better on your thumbs.
Now some find a deadzone in the joystick, I do see and feel that deadzone when running the homebrew games and movies and navagating the firmware, BUT I don't get that same deadzone when playing Donky Kong County 2 on my SNES emu (which runs better 6- 15 fps depending on the game) The joystick feels and works just fine. Perhaps its an coding thing. The four buttons (ABXY) feel great to press. Some believe the buttons are too close together, I think its a very good placement. I have very large hands, and although my fingers fully cover all four buttons, they are very recognizable and tactile to my finger tips. I like the placement, quick responses for gaming. The shoulder buttons feel alot better than the ones on my gp32 and my psp. It just feels right when playing.
Overall it comes down to this folks. What an initial improvment from the first edition gp32 5 years ago. The build, and quality feels better, and its alot less frustrating that the first gp32 ever was. I am going to mention what I said 5 years ago. IF you want to notch portable gaming with major brand names, and mass produced (run of the mill) graphical eye candy games. GET A PSP. But if you truely enjoy retro gaming, homebrew goodness, movies, music, GET the Gp2x. You really won't regret it. If your the type you want things easy for you, you wanna pop the batteries in and go. Then might I suggest to wait until the official Gp2x release comes in Jan. Then perhaps the firmware wil be more optimized, and the known bugs will be fixed.
Otherwise with everything taken into account I give the gp2x a 7.5 -10 for the first edition. Once the newer firmware is released I will give this great little machine an 8.5.
Great quality build compared to the gp32, a little buggy (that was expected).
Notes:
** I used a card reader to upload all software to the Sd card. The USB port was buggy as previously reported.
** I use a 150x My Adata 1 gig card. (The firmware only allows upto 1 gig so far).
** Lik sangs article on its orders of Gp2x because of GPH. Is for lack of a better word, complete fluff. They want to take no responsiblity for the problems that could arise when shipping the gp2x. They don't want another gp32 first edition disaster like 5 years ago (for those who remember).
Finally A BIG THANKS to Craigix for shipping my gp2x. He is truely a standup person, a great company that I have been satisified with for years. I paid 228 USD for my Gp2x (shipping from the UK to NY USA). It was worth every penny. Keep up the good work Cragix. Thanks
So why an 8 out of 10 for the Gp32 with all the problems.... because I know things could only get better from there. Whatta machine, that gp32...it was nearly my gaming life for 5 whole years and still is.
Now here comes the GP2x. With Bugs. And many concerns along with it. I still remain unchanged in my opinion that this system will in fact be THEE homebrew portable system of the next 5 years. I received the gp2x the day before thanksgiving. I added the sdl-libs for my homebrew gaming goodness, put War of the Worlds (800mb) on my 1 gig sd card and I was up and running.
Now lets get somethings straight. The firmware is not finished. Its not even the true official firmware release. Think of it as a beta version. Here is what works and what doesn't. First ...USE high capacity Nimh rechargables, otherwise you will have many more problems with flickering, screen dimming..etc. I get almost a full 5 hours with 2300mah nimh.
All Divx movies play fine ( I used pocket divx encoder) The screen is bright enough, good color contrast, no flickering during playback. The movie may freeze from time to time when forwarding thru the movie...but it appears just to be tempramental. This will be fixed in firmware upgrade when the Official launch comes in Jan 2006. Otherwise it plays through it its entirety. The games run perfectly on the screen, I have tried all games, ports etc, with the exception of all quake releases.
The only problems I found was just the firmware. Again like what I experienced with the first edition gp32. User friendlyness is lacking, firmware is buggy, and its just not an optimized smooth firmware release. BUT thats NOT to say the day of release you won't get a near perfect transition in firmware from this release 1.0 or 1.1 to say 2.0.
From what I feel in my hand, the Gp2x is very comfortable to hold for long periods of time. For some reason (when I compare it to my PSP) to just really enjoy holding the gp2x more. It feels lighter, and more erogonomic :blink: (yeah I know its a rectangular square) but it fits my large hands better. The joystick intially feels tight, real tight. But once you roll it around a few times it feels better on your thumbs.
Now some find a deadzone in the joystick, I do see and feel that deadzone when running the homebrew games and movies and navagating the firmware, BUT I don't get that same deadzone when playing Donky Kong County 2 on my SNES emu (which runs better 6- 15 fps depending on the game) The joystick feels and works just fine. Perhaps its an coding thing. The four buttons (ABXY) feel great to press. Some believe the buttons are too close together, I think its a very good placement. I have very large hands, and although my fingers fully cover all four buttons, they are very recognizable and tactile to my finger tips. I like the placement, quick responses for gaming. The shoulder buttons feel alot better than the ones on my gp32 and my psp. It just feels right when playing.
Overall it comes down to this folks. What an initial improvment from the first edition gp32 5 years ago. The build, and quality feels better, and its alot less frustrating that the first gp32 ever was. I am going to mention what I said 5 years ago. IF you want to notch portable gaming with major brand names, and mass produced (run of the mill) graphical eye candy games. GET A PSP. But if you truely enjoy retro gaming, homebrew goodness, movies, music, GET the Gp2x. You really won't regret it. If your the type you want things easy for you, you wanna pop the batteries in and go. Then might I suggest to wait until the official Gp2x release comes in Jan. Then perhaps the firmware wil be more optimized, and the known bugs will be fixed.
Otherwise with everything taken into account I give the gp2x a 7.5 -10 for the first edition. Once the newer firmware is released I will give this great little machine an 8.5.
Great quality build compared to the gp32, a little buggy (that was expected).
Notes:
** I used a card reader to upload all software to the Sd card. The USB port was buggy as previously reported.
** I use a 150x My Adata 1 gig card. (The firmware only allows upto 1 gig so far).
** Lik sangs article on its orders of Gp2x because of GPH. Is for lack of a better word, complete fluff. They want to take no responsiblity for the problems that could arise when shipping the gp2x. They don't want another gp32 first edition disaster like 5 years ago (for those who remember).
Finally A BIG THANKS to Craigix for shipping my gp2x. He is truely a standup person, a great company that I have been satisified with for years. I paid 228 USD for my Gp2x (shipping from the UK to NY USA). It was worth every penny. Keep up the good work Cragix. Thanks
