What To Do...?

[pornaga]

I recently bought a GP32 from Lik-Snag. Got a FLU, a 128 SMC, and I paid for express delivery, so as you can see, I have invested a pretty penny here.

So far, I've lost out on this gamble. I got everything set up nicely, the PC Link works, the system itself sems to be fine. My problem though, is that all I've been able to do with it is use it as a portable NES emulator, which is really cool, but not $300 cool...

Couldn't get Doom to work. It knows there's a .wad file there, but almost all of the ones I used, it crashes before it does anything. I used the shareware .wad, and it opened the demo, but as soon as I tried to open the in-game menu to start, it crashes. The boot messages say it's unable to read the .wad (something about a lump value, or some such. I'm pulling this out of memory, I gave up on it 3 days ago).

I tried to use the MP3 player. The song plays about halfway through, then messes up and restarts.

And this is the kicker, I bought a game, Dungeon and Guarder, from JoyGP. I install it on my SMC, but it won't work. I've tried formatting the SMC, I've re-installed it several times, and it either stops halfway through and says 'unknown error' or it goes all the way through and doesn't work for one reason or another. I tried installing it with PC LInk versions 1.3, 1.3.1, AND 1.3.2. The best I can get is I can run the game, but it freezes either during the intro, while loading, or on the map screen.

This is all very frustrating. I'm wondering if I've got a bogus SMC, myself. I'd appreciate any advice, PLEASE.

 

[Aaaaaaaa]

Sounds as though u got a faulty one..


Are you overclocking?

 

[sammster001]

pornaga here's a few suggestions.

For the MP3 player try and install a replacement one. I use Omega 5's WMA/MP3 Player. It is a very high quality mp3 player.

Put the doom wad's in the game folder of your gp32 if your not doing it already.Hopefully this should make the doom fxe thats in your gpmm folder work and succesfully run doom games. I recommend downloading a modded version like goldeneye or star wars to keep the games fresh.

I have a few suggestions to improve the satisfaction of your gp32. Buy (or wait for the free euro launch whenever it happens) GPCINEMA! It is the best investment of a £5 you'll ever make. I run simpsons episode on them and impress my friends and enjoy watching them on the go. If your begin encoding to a high quality standards than you'll begin running excellent looking films on your gp32.

Try using some other emulators like opensnes or fgen.

I suggest from a hardware point of view that you buy a GLASS SCREEN from mashmods. As you'll find out the screen scratches very easily. You can send your gp32 into mashmods for the creen fitting (they are located in canada) which is what i am intending to do or you can just buy the glass screen and fit it yourself. Be careful when installing the new screen. You dhould take a lot of time and care and DON'T scratch the lcd screen.

I also suggest you download Gpdrive from the god that is Squidge. GpDrive is not only 10x faster at transferring files from pc to gp32 but is also turns your gp32 into a mass storage device meaning transfers can happen on any computer with gplink needing to be installed. Very handy for boring work/school days.

I finally suggest you download pacrom if you havent for your firmware. It is the best file manager for the gp32 (you'll prefer wind-ups for windows style set up). It lets you run those fxe's in a very easy way. I also recommend buying lucasarts classic cd and downloading scummvm. It is very versatile program and plays many games such as monkey island and indiana jones.

Hope i have helped you in any way. If you have any other problems feel free to give me a personnal message and ill see if i can help.

 

[crazeeplaya]

The default MP3 player only supports constant bitrate files upto 128kbs (I think)

Go over to gp32news.com and look at the WAD factory and try some of those WADs with GP Doom (not all PC WADs work)

As for installing the commercial game, it could be a problem with the GP32's USB driver

 

[BaDToaD]

It could be a duff SMC. Can you borrow one to try? A friend with an SMC camera for example?

 

[Mosch]

Doom, as far as I know, is Abandonware, so you should be able to get the full game somewhere on the net. Just did a quick google search:
[LINKS REMOVED BECAUSE I AM STUPID AND DID NOT THINK AT ALL]
I am quite sure it is abandonware, but you never know<_< If it's illegal, please tell me and I'll delete the links.
Just try this.

For MP3, I had a similar problem when my MP3s had a bitrate that was too high. Maybe you would like to check that out. Also there are many different alternatives for MP3 playback.

As for JoyGP, try contacting them and explain your problem to them. They sold the game to you, they should solve your problems

 

[craigix]

How on earth is doom abandonware? Its just been released for the GBA, coming to the Zodiac and is for sale on ID softwares website and in one incarnation or another in just about every single games shop in the world.

I'd say of all the games from the early 1990's its the absolute least abandoned game out there.

There are however plenty of free demos and homebrew wads for it.

-Craig

www.gbax.com

 

[Mosch]

craigix, that is a really valid remark that... did not occur to me at all, to be honest :rolleyes: I bought mine so many years ago... oh, the memories

 

[pornaga]

Thanks everyone for the quick replies and suggestions. Just a few responses to some of the high-points here:

Nah, I'm not overclocking. I've got a standard 133mHz GP32 here. I considered overclocking, but the consensus as to it's safety seems a little foggy, at best.

I had considered that the bitrate on the mp3's might be the problem, but I'm not sure if I have anything to change that. Mayhaps I do.

I also had considered that the .wad files I was using for Doom might be the problem themselves, but when I got the shareware version that everyone seemed to have no problems with, and it failed for me, I didn't know what to do. I even tried an older version of GP Doom, and it actually did a worse job of handling the files. I couldn't even see the game demo with it.

And the game I downloaded from JoyGP not working was the breaking point. How can so many get this stuff to work, but I can't? And I'm a little iffy about asking that Bada guy at JoyGP for help, because he seems to always give such basic advice. I'm afraid he'd say something like "Make sure the USB cable is connected to the PC". There weren't updated USB drivers for the new PC Link programs, were there? I'm thinking about going into town, and buying a new SMC, but that's another $40...

As soon as I can get this thing to work properly, I'm certainly going to try some of these applications I've heard about. I was using Wind-Ups, because I liked the idea of customizing the graphics, but I don't know what the GP32's system pallette is, and apparently, 256 color .gifs aren't enough.

I'm still open to suggestions, here.

 

[geo12]

yeah, make sure that the doom game (FXE) is in the GPMM folder and the WADs are in the GAME directory in a folder named DOOM

 

[crazeeplaya]

It could also be that the files that you are downloading are getting corrupted enroute, so try redownloading the stuff from joygp and see what happens

 

[hando]

it can be a smc fault. check it for errors. just switch on your gp32 and choose PC Link (it has to bee unplugged from PC). Then press select to recover SMC and finally press A. It will check if there are any errors on smc. Although it would be the best if you could check other smc.

 

[c0ncept]

I must say, it does sound awfully like a f**cked SMC...

 

[Axeman]

You are an exception to the rule... gotta add that one in.

 

[Mosch]

Nah, I'm not overclocking. I've got a standard 133mHz GP32 here. I considered overclocking, but the consensus as to it's safety seems a little foggy, at best.

The consensus is that it is completely save and just drains your batteries faster. I can overclock to about 150 MHZ and tried 166 several times (hope dies last ), so far no lasting damage. OC to your heart's content I say.

 

[pornaga]

I just downloaded the game again. When I tried to install it (mind you, no other programs were open. I even disconnected from the internet) it terminated, again with the 'unknown error'. When it does this, I can't just delete the game folder, I have to format the SMC again.

I guess I could try to reinstall the USB drivers, but I have been able to transfer other things just fine, the NES emulator works fine, and I've installed a freeware game (Elf Logic) and it didn't encounter any errors. I also just checked the SMC for errors on the GP32 the way you told me, and it can't find any problems.

 

[pornaga]

I went out and bought a new SMC. Same crap is happening. So, it seems that something is wrong with the game installation file. So now, I guess I'm just out of luck.

 

[Lethe]

As soon as I can get this thing to work properly, I'm certainly going to try some of these applications I've heard about. I was using Wind-Ups, because I liked the idea of customizing the graphics, but I don't know what the GP32's system pallette is, and apparently, 256 color .gifs aren't enough.

Yeah what is this gp32 pallette? I wanna make a bg for my windups. tried normal gifs and it don't work. <_<

Anyways pornaga i think yur gp32's the problem. E-mail lik-sang and ask them to replace it for you. I'm pretty sure they will do it if you explain carefully. Good luck.

p.s. nice username... :lol:

 

[pornaga]

Hmmm. I've noticed that on things that don't work, the PC Link program pauses when copying over files. I just tried to upload 2 MP3's, and one hung up halfway through transferring. Incidentally, it resets the MP3 player halfway through the song... The other MP3 lagged near the end of the transfer, and it resets near the end of the song. Also, the game I downloaded lags while copying over one of the bigger data files. I wonder if I can figure out another way to upload files...

 

[Akuma no Houkon]

There is GPDrive which you can use, or you can try using a SMC reader/writer to put the files on your SMC rather than using the PC <-> GP32 link. (which is what I do) a SMC card reader will run you $5 to $10, $20 for the good ones.